MGCCC Women travel to Eunice

PERKINSTON — Mississippi Gulf Coast will have to head west in the first round of the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament.

The women's basketball team will travel to Louisiana to play LSU Eunice on Wednesday. Tipoff in Eunice will be at 6 p.m.

"They're a well-coached team. He's done a really good job since he took over," Gulf Coast coach Hope Adams said. "I know they have good guards, so they're strong around the perimeter. We just got some film on them, so we're trying to study how they play. That's a tough place to go play, but I think we're playing our best basketball right now."

Gulf Coast finished the regular season 5-9 overall, 4-9 in the MACCC South. The Bengals were 15-3 overall and 10-1 in the Louisiana Community Colleges Athletic Conference headed into their regular-season finale against Baton Rouge. They had a 37-game conference win streak snapped earlier in the week by Delgado.

There won't be a conference tournament, so South Division champion Jones and North co-champs Itawamba and Coahoma 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 Meridian-East Central winner on April 5.

The quarterfinals are April 5, with the semifinals and finals being at their traditional Mississippi College site on April 8-9.

Gulf Coast has been concentrating on winning the rebounding battle and taking care of the ball better. They're also trying to vary their defense.

"We don't want to allow teams to be comfortable, so we want to keep them off balance on when we'll be in man or when we'll be in zone," Adams said. "It's tough to game plan for it."

NJCAA Region 23 Playoffs

First Round

Monday, March 29

(Higher seed hosts)

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

No. 18 Southern-Shreveport at No. 15 Baton Rouge, 6 p.m.

No. 19 Northeast Mississippi at No. 14 Northwest Mississippi, 6 p.m.

Second Round

Wednesday, March 31

(Higher seed hosts)

Hinds-Delta winner at No. 1 Jones, 6 p.m.

Southern-Shreveport-Baton Rouge winner at No. 2 Coahoma, 6 p.m.

Northeast-Northwest winner at No. 3 Itawamba, 6 p.m.

No. 13 East Central at No. 4 Meridian, 6 p.m.

No. 12 Gulf Coast at No. 5 LSU Eunice, 6 p.m.

No. 11 Copiah-Lincoln at No. 6 East Mississippi, 6 p.m.

No. 10 Holmes at No. 7 Southwest, 6 p.m.

No. 9 Delgado at No. 8 Pearl River, 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.