Gulf Coast ends season at Eunice

EUNICE, La. — Mississippi Gulf Coast had a lot of young players who were excited to play in their first college postseason game.

The Bulldogs might have been a little too revved up and fell 58-46 to LSU Eunice in the NJCAA Region 23 Women's Basketball Tournament Second Round.

 "We had eight turnovers in the first quarter," Gulf Coast coach Hope Adams said. "We were just trying to get them to calm down. I think they were nervous. It was the first playoff game for 11 freshmen, and I understand that. But we shot ourselves in the foot tonight."

Gulf Coast, which was seeded 12th, ends the season 5-10. LSU-E, which won the Louisiana Community College Athletic Conference title, is 17-3.

The turnovers contributed to a 14-5 deficit at the end of the first quarter, and the bulge grew to 14 with 6:13 left in the half.

Enter Nakyah Jones (Fr., Mobile, Ala./LeFlore). She came in off the bench and got fouled on a putback for a three-point play and added another bucket during a 10-0 run. That helped Gulf Coast trim the Bengals' lead to 23-20 at halftime.

Jones would finish with 11 points, as would Beverly Tillman (Fr., Laurel/Laurel), who also came off the bench. Tillman had back-to-back layups that helped Gulf Coast get within 50-44 with 2:04 to play.

"They came off the bench and gave us exactly what we needed," Adams said. "Nakyah came in and gave us some offensive rebounds, and we had wanted to outrebound them. Bev gave us some big minutes. We wanted to push the ball early in transition, and she was struggling to find the right shots. But late in the game, she got them."

LSU-E scored the next eight points, however, to put the game away.

Gulf Coast lost its starting point guard to injury in the preseason and struggled to protect the ball all year. But a large group of players got vital playing time, giving Gulf Coast faithful reason for optimism.

"I'm looking forward to next year," Adams said. "We've got some experience coming back. We played a whole year without a point guard. I'm excited about this group, and we've got some pieces coming in that will help. I'm excited about next year." 

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