CLINTON — When his starters struggled, Co-Lin Community Collegemen’s coach Dennis Sims went right to his bench. Sophomore forwardZach Thomas came into the game to lead the Wolves with 12 ;pointson their way to a 57-54 win over the Mississippi Delta TrojansMonday night in the opening round of the NJCAA Region 23 BasketballTournament at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the campus of MississippiCollege.

Thomas, a 6-5 native of Franklin County, also collected 6rebounds and made 2 steals for the Wolves.

“We were fortunate to win,” said Sims following the victory.”Off the bench, we had people to step it up. We got out with thewin.”

Co-Lin improved to 20-8 with the win. Delta finished the season16-11.

In the other men’s games, Gulf Coast (South No. 1) eliminatedNorthwest (North No. 4) 84-69, Itawamba (North No. 1) dumped PearlRiver (South No. 3) 72-64 and Holmes (North No. 2) beatSouthern/Shreveport University (Miss/La. No. 1) 91-66.

Co-Lin meets Itawamba Wednesday at noon and Gulf Coast tacklesstate tournament champion Holmes at 2 p.m. in the semifinals.

First-round women’s games today send Southern-Shreveport againstItawamba at noon, Co-Lin against East Central 2 p.m., Northeastagainst Meridian at 6 and Jones County against Miss. Delta at8.

Co-Lin 57, Delta 54

With 4:51 left to play, Delta enjoyed a 50-46 lead over Co-Lin.The Wolves came back with an 11-4 scoring run to snatch the winfrom the Trojans.

Delta cut the deficit to 2 points, 54-52, with 2:26 remaining inthe game. Thomas got loose and scored a 2-handed dunk to put Co-Linup 56-52. The Trojans scored with 5.6 seconds left to play to cutthe Wolves lead to 56-54.

The Trojans missed 4 straight attempts to score. Co-Linsophomore guard Charles Lewis grabbed a defensive rebound and wasfouled. Lewis, who finished with 6 points, went 1-for-2 from thefree-throw line with 1.2 seconds left to play to give the Wolves a3-point cushion.

At halftime, Delta led Co-Lin 27-19. In the final 40 seconds ofthe first half, freshman forward Anthony Wilcher nailed a trey andLewis followed with a late bucket to cut the deficit to 8 points atintermission.

The game was close in the first half. Delta led Co-Lin 14-8 atthe 8:09 mark and pushed its lead to 23-13 with 4:10 remaining.

Freshman guard Corey London and Wilcher finished with 8 pointseach for the Wolves. Wilcher grabbed 6 rebounds.

For the Trojans, Antoine Taylor led the way with 15 points.Scoring 11 points was Dexter Williams. Quinn Askew finished with 10points.

Gulf Coast 84, Northwest 69

Leading Gulf Coast with 21 points was Henry Salter. A.J. Huntfired in 18 points. Netting 15 points was Ronald Douglas followedby Carlos Wright with 11.

Northwest got 21 points from Antonio Longwood. Justin Nabors had19 points.

Itawamba 72, Pearl River 64

Anthony Brock’s 23 points directed Itawamba to the win. LarricusBrown netted 11 points.

Pearl River was paced by Brandon Payne’s 23 points. Wesley Jonesscored 16 points followed by LaBaron Weathers with 11 points.