Laws and Hersey Power Wolves to Third Straight Win

BOONEVILLE – The Co-Lin Men's Basketball team continued MACCC play with a road game against Northeast Mississippi on Thursday, January 26. For just the second time in regular season play, first since the 2006-2007 season, and just third time overall, the Wolves beat the Tigers in Booneville, 84-79.

The Wolves never allowed the Tigers to hold the lead throughout the game and the game was only tied just once after both teams scored on their opening possession. The Wolves then took the lead on their next possession and never looked back. The Wolves went on a 14-5 scoring run to increase their lead to 18-7 at the 14:29 mark in the first half. A 15-7 scoring run by the Wolves ballooned the lead to 33-14 at the 7:41 mark in the half. The Wolves continued to flex their muscles and closed out the first half with a 42-25 lead despite being outscored by the Tigers, 11-9, over the final minutes.

The opening minutes of the second half saw the Wolves use a 9-6 scoring run to grow the lead to the biggest margin of the game at 51-31 with 16:27 left on the clock. The Tigers responded with an 18-15 scoring run to cut the Wolves lead down to 66-49 with 10:25 remaining in the game. The Tigers then went on a 15-8 scoring run to cut the Wolves lead down to 74-64 with 3:32 left to play, but the Tigers could not overcome the Wolves lead despite outscoring them 15-10 down the stretch, as the Wolves secured the hard fought 84-79 win for their third straight victory.

The Wolves had three players hit double digit scoring figures as Kaeden Laws (Southaven) led all scorers with 27 points along with seven rebounds, three assists, two steals, and one block. Sophomore guard Jemario Hersey (Brookhaven) added 20 point paired with three rebounds. Hersey has averaged 21 points per game over the last four games for the Wolves as they have gone 3-1 over that stretch. Sophomore guard Cowandric Samuel (Jackson) flirted with a triple-double performance with 15 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds.

Freshman forward Dylan Canoville (Plantation, Fla.) narrowly missed a double-double performance as he had nine points, and a team-leading 14 rebounds while sophomore forward AJ Warsnley (Byram) had eight points with six rebounds while freshman guard Mike Smith (New Albany) had three points and sophomore guard Andrew Anderson (Hattiesburg) had two points to round out the scoring for the Wolves.

Co-Lin improves to 10-5 overall and 4-2 in conference play and will return to action hosting Pearl River on Monday, January 30. Tip-off between the Wildcats and the Wolves is set for 6 p.m., at Mullen Gym in Wesson.