MGCCC women fall to Hinds

PERKINSTON — Mississippi Gulf Coast stood toe to toe with a tough Hinds squad before falling 63-50 in the Weathers/Wentzell Center on Monday night.

The opening MACJC South Division game for both squads went to the fourth quarter tied at 40.

"We played well," Gulf Coast guard Shaniqua Tobias said. "We started out a little slow, but we picked it up after halftime. We cut that lead. We clicked and started to play hard."

Tobias led her squad with 23 points. The Lady Bulldogs fell to 4-3 on the season.

"They're really talented," coach Jason Conner said. "I thought at moments in time we're exactly where we needed to be."

Gulf Coast fell behind 14-5 early before rallying with a 7-0 run and ending the first quarter down 16-12. The Lady Bulldogs managed only five second-quarter points and trailed by 14 at half.

Their defense turned things around after half. J'nitra Ratliff (5-8, Fr, Port Gibson/Port Gibson) had the first five points after the break, with Keiara Williams (6-1, Fr, New Orleans/Warren Easton) adding a bucket in a 7-0 spurt.

Williams hadn't played because of an injury sustained Nov. 19.

"Keiara hadn't played in three weeks, and we kinda need her with their size," Conner said. "That was hard."

Tobias scored the last nine points of the quarter to give Gulf Coast its only lead of the night, 40-39 with 43 seconds left in the third.

"We were trying to move the ball," she said. "It led us to easy baskets. We just executed our plays."

Hinds, however, got the first 12 points of the final period to pull away and improve to 7-0.

Gulf Coast plays its last game before the Christmas break on Wednesday, traveling to New Orleans to play Delgado. Tipoff is at 4 p.m.

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