Gulf Coast, No. 8 Jones meet in R23 semifinals

PERKINSTON — The second half of Mississippi Gulf Coast's women's basketball season has seen a small group of Bulldogs run out onto the court.

Think of them as The Magnificent Seven. They've put together a 13-3 mark since the holiday break, and at high noon on Saturday they take the next step in their journey, playing No. 8 Jones in the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament semifinals in Clinton.

"This is a dynamic seven," Gulf Coast coach Hope Adams said. "This time of year, if you have 13 or 14 players on the roster, but you only have seven or eight in the rotation. We're just down to that rotation. We've got to play smart and be really disciplined because there's nobody there to tag in if we get in foul trouble."

As usual, the tournament is being played at Mississippi College's A.E. Wood Coliseum. Tickets will cost $8 for adults, $5 for students. The game will be streamed at https://mgcccbulldogs.com/watch.

Jones (23-3) won all 14 MACCC games and is riding a 17-game win streak. Gulf Coast (17-5) has a five-game win streak of its own.

The Bulldogs lost 78-63 at Ellisville on Jan. 9. They were within five early in the fourth quarter. It was their fourth game after the break, and the core group of seven were still trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together.

"We didn't know our identity because we were coming back a totally different team," Adams said. "That game revealed who we were going to be in conference."

That loss, and the other two losses, revealed things they needed to get better at. After Jones beat them, they realized they were a defensive team, but they needed to get better on the help-side and blocking out. A loss at Coahoma showed the Bulldogs they needed to share the ball better. Meridian's success on the offensive glass reinforced the importance of controlling the boards.

The Bobcats have beaten Gulf Coast 21 straight times. The last Bulldogs victory was back in 2013, but this season hasn't aimed on beating Jones.

"This year, it was all about becoming better as a team, focusing in on Gulf Coast," Adams said. "It's about our goals, our vision, what is it we want to do and what do we want to accomplish. There's 14 teams in this league that we have to beat. The focus was us and becoming the team we need to be to overcome anybody. That's including Jones. We've been taking it game by game and getting ready for our opponent."

The Magnificent Seven will have a chance Saturday to prove they've learned all those lessons.

NJCAA Region 23 Women's Basketball Tournament

First Round

Monday, Feb. 27

Game 1: No. 8 Mississippi Delta 55, No. 9 Baton Rouge 47

Game 2: No. 5 Coahoma 56, No. 12 East Mississippi 48

Game 3: No. 7 Southwest Mississippi 73, No. 10 Copiah-Lincoln 48

Game 4: No. 6 Holmes 61, No. 11 Itawamba 55

Quarterfinals

Wednesday, March 1

Game 5: Jones 90, Delta 50

Game 6: Gulf Coast 65, Coahoma 51

Game 7: Pearl River 60, Southwest 41

Game 8: Meridian 84, Holmes 52

Semifinals

Saturday, March 4

Mississippi College, Clinton

Game 9: Gulf Coast vs. Jones, noon

Game 10: Meridian vs. Pearl River, 2 p.m.

Sunday, March 5

Mississippi College, Clinton

Championship: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, 3 p.m.

For more information on MGCCC's 11 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.