Bulldogs and Warriors to battle in Region 23 Tournament first round

GOODMAN --- The Holmes Community College Bulldogs will go into the Region 23 Tournament as the No. 5 seed and will face the No. 12 seed East Central Community College on Saturday in Goodman.

Holmes finished the regular season at 21-8 overall and 9-5 in the MACCC while East Central 13-17 overall and 4-10 in the MACCC. The winner of the game will face No. 4 East Mississippi on Monday in Scooba.

Other teams participating (with seeding) include: No. 1 Jones, No. 2 Northeast, No. 3 Mississippi Gulf Coast, No. 6 Southwest, No. 7 Itawamba, No. 9 Baton Rouge, No. 8 Co-Lin, No. 10 Pearl River and No. 11 Meridian. Co-Lin will play Baton Rouge, Itawamba will play Pearl River and Southwest will play Meridian. Jones, East Mississippi, Northeast and Gulf Coast await the winners from the first round. Jones has the Co-Lin/Baton Rouge winner while Northeast has the Itawamba/Pearl River winner and Gulf Coast has the Southwest/Meridian winner.

Holmes is led in scoring by Cameron Wallace, who is averaging 18.6 points per game. Hobert Grayson averages 14.8 points per game, Jalen Tatum averages 9.4 points per game, and Dacory Porter averages 9.2 points per game. Wallace brings in 7.7 rebounds per game while Grayson brings in 7.6 rebounds per game and Tatum brings in 6.1 rebounds per game.

As a team, the Bulldogs are averaging 77 points per game and are shooting 48.7 percent from the floor, 30 percent from three-point range and 69.1 percent from the free-throw line.

Holmes is giving up 68 points per game.

East Central is led in scoring by Connor Rogers, who is averaging 14.9 points per game. Demarcus Powe is averaging 12 points per game while Fateh Bensalah is averaging 10.3 points per game. Bensalah brings in 8.7 rebounds per game.

As a team, the Warriors are averaging 73.7 points per game and is shooting 41.5 percent from the floor, 31.3 percent from the three-point line and 65.6 percent from the free-throw line.

East Central is giving up 73.6 points per game.