Holmes to face Jones in Region 23 Tournament opener Thursday

GOODMAN --- The Holmes Community College Lady Bulldogs will go into the Region 23 Tournament as the No. 11 seed and will face the No. 6 seed Jones College Bobcats on Thursday in Ellisville at 6 p.m.

Holmes finished the regular season at 13-12 and 5-9 in the MACCC while Jones finished 19-8 overall and 8-6 in the MACCC. The winner of the game will face No.  3 Northwest on Saturday in Senatobia.

Other teams participating (with seeding) include: No. 1 Pearl River, No. 2 Itawamba, No. 3 Northwest, No. 4 Gulf Coast, No. 5 Meridian, No. 7 LSU-Eunice, No. 8 Coahoma, No. 9 East Central, No. 10 Co-Lin and No. 12 Northeast. Coahoma plays East Central, Meridian plays Northeast and LSU-E plays Co-Lin. The Coahoma/East Central winner plays Pearl River, Meridian/Northeast winner plays Gulf Coast and the LSU-E/Co-Lin winner plays Itawamba.

Holmes is led in scoring by Zion Harvey, who is averaging 13.2 points per game. Kiara Shelly is averaging 10.7 points per game. Shelly brings in 6.4 rebounds per game, DaRiyah Mayers brings in 5.2 rebounds per game and Harvey brings in 5.1 rebounds per game.

As a team, the Lady Bulldogs are averaging 62 points per game and are shooting 38.2 percent from the floor, 24 percent from three-point range and 60.1 percent from the free-throw line.

Holmes is giving up 63.5 points per game.

Jones is led by Jakera Ducksworth, who is averaging 12.8 points per game. Lamarah Cleaves is averaging 11.8, Larrisa Hubbard is averaging 10.8, and Zharia Leflore is averaging 9.4 points per game. Hubbard brings in 8.8 rebounds per game while Cleaves brings in 7.9 and Ducksworth brings in 4.8 per game.

As a team, the Bobcats are averaging 68.7 points per game and are shooting 39.1 percent from the floor, 22.5 percent from the three-point line and 65.4 percent from the free-throw line.

Jones is giving up 58 points per game.