Gulf Coast Men draw Holmes

PERKINSTON — First-year Mississippi Gulf Coast coach Tim Ryan now knows where his first postseason game will be.

The Bulldogs, who earned the 12-seed in the expanded NJCAA Region 23 Tournament, will travel to fifth-seeded Holmes on Thursday. Tipoff in Goodman is set for 6 p.m.

"I don't know a lot about them," Ryan said. "I know they're a really good team at 11-3. They're a very good defensive team, and they have some guards who can really shoot it."

Gulf Coast finished the regular season 6-10 overall, 4-10 in the MACCC South. Holmes finished second in the North Division.

There won't be a conference tournament, so South Division champion Pearl River and North champ Northeast Mississippi are co-MACCC champions.

All 19 Region 23 teams qualify for the tournament, with three first-round games set for Tuesday. The Bulldogs play in the second round, with the winner advancing to play the Itawamba-LSU Eunice winner on April 6.

The quarterfinals will be played April 6, with the semifinals and finals being at their traditional Mississippi College site on April 8-9.

Ryan's team has been focused on themselves during the open week before the postseason. 

"We haven't been preparing for (Holmes) specifically this week," he said. "We wanted to make sure who we were playing. We'll treat this like a regular-season game, so we'll prepare like we do for any other game. We'll take an extra day for them Monday after we have Sunday off. We've been running out stuff and concentrating on getting better as a team."

NJCAA Region 23 Playoffs

First Round

Tuesday, March 30

(Higher seed hosts)

No. 17 Mississippi Delta at No. 16 Coahoma, 6 p.m.

No. 18 Baton Rouge at No. 15 Copiah-Lincoln, 6 p.m.

No. 19 Southern-Shreveport at No. 14 East Central, 6 p.m.

Second Round

Thursday, April 1

(Higher seed hosts)

Delta-Coahoma winner at No. 1 Pearl River, 6 p.m.

Baton Rouge-Co-Lin winner at No. 2 Northeast, 6 p.m.

Southern-Shreveport-East Central winner at No. 3 Hinds, 6 p.m.

No. 13 Itawamba at No. 4 LSU Eunice, 6 p.m.

No. 12 Gulf Coast at No. 5 Holmes, 6 p.m.

No. 11 Southwest Mississippi at No. 6 East Mississippi, 6 p.m.

No. 10 Delgado at No. 7 Meridian, 6 p.m.

No. 9 Northwest at No. 8 Jones, 6 p.m.

For more information on MGCCC's 10 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.