Seven signees join MGCCC women’s basketball

Coming off of back-to-back winning seasons, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Lady Bulldogs are hoping to continue it’s success on the hardwood with the addition of seven incoming freshman. The recent signees join six returning sophomores that helped Gulf Coast go 13-10 last season and narrowly miss the post-season.

Symone Tillman and Amanda Evans come to Gulf Coast from nearby Stone High School. Tillman is a 5-10 inside player that averaged 19 points per game while her lady Tomcat teammate Evans is a 5-7 guard that averaged 9 points per contest for the Lady Tomcats.

Former Poplarville High standout Kendra Hall is a 5-9 guardthat averaged 10 points per game and was an All-District 8-4A honoree last season.

Hellanisa Young is a 5-10 inside player from Forest High School while Tynika Bender is a 4-6 guard from Newton Highthat averaged 18 points per game. Malaney Nickey, a 5-7 guard from Choctaw High, is listed as one of the state’s top 15 guards coming out of high school while Samara Dingiswayo helped lead Salmen High School in Slidell, LA to the Class 4A state title game.

“I’m very excited about our incoming freshmen,” said Gulf Coast head women’s basketball coach Melanie Stone. “Each player brings something different to the table.”

These incoming freshmen join a group of seven returning sophomores including Shameika Hart, Presley Owens, LaPrecious Thompson, Yasmine Nelson, Brittany Jones, and Seandrea Stevens, and Markia Nix.

“We lost several games last season by either one or two points,” Stone added. “That’s going to motivate our sophomore leaders even more this season.”

Stone will again be assisted by Pete Georgian and Brooke Eccles.

The Lady Bulldogs begin the 2012-13 campaign Nov. 1 at Faulkner State.