Baker’s double-double not enough as East Central upsets Lady Indians

Baker's double-double not enough as East Central upsets Lady Indians
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com

DECATUR, MS – Sophomore guard Ty-Nita Baker (Houston) scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season, but it wasn't enough as East Central Community College snapped the Lady Indians' four-game win streak with a 67-65 victory on Saturday.

"We didn't play with a lot of intensity," said ICC women's head basketball coach Nanci Gray. "We only got to the line seven times because we didn't attack the basket and we got rattled when our shots weren't falling, but hopefully this was a learning experience and we are able to grow from the loss."

Coming off a season-high 60% from behind the arch, the Lady Indians only managed to hit 9-of-26 three-point attempts (34.6%) on the night.

"When the shots aren't falling we have to be able to adjust and find other ways to score, but we weren't able to do that," Gray commented on the Lady Indians' poor shooting performance. "We seemed to get more-and-more frustrated after each missed shot and that caused us to force things and get out of our style of play… give East Central a lot of credit for that too."

East Central held the rebounding edge 44-40 with 21 rebounds coming on the offensive end of the floor.

"That was a big difference in the game," Gray said. "When they missed shots they were able to get second and third scoring opportunities while we were mostly one-and-done on the offensive side of the floor. When shots aren't falling you have to work harder at getting rebounds to create more scoring chances and East Central did a great job of working harder than us to get those chances."

The Lady Indians managed 16 offensive rebounds in the loss.

Freshman LyTia Coleman (Memphis, TN) continued being a spark off the bench for the Lady Indians scoring 9 points and grabbing 7 rebounds.

"Tia did a great job for us by providing a spark off the bench tonight, but we are going to have to find a second and third consistent spark to come off the bench that we can rely on when things aren't going our way."

Ayanna Lynn (Indianola) added 8 while fellow sophomore Ashley Wiley (Jackson) along with freshmen Leslie Robinson (Belmont) and Latoya Collins (Jackson) each scored 7 points in the loss.

Jekela Johnson paced East Central with 21 points and 12 rebounds while Renisha Evans added 14 and Xzandra Dowd chipped in 12 points in the win.