The Copiah-Lincoln Community College Wolves battled through several injuries Thursday night as the seven-man rotation fell to East Central Community College, 77-72.

The loss drops the Wolves to 10-9, 3-7 on the year and improves the Warriors to 9-10, 2-8. The Wolves played incredibly tough defense throughout the contest as the posted 11 steals in the game, but unfortunately, it was not enough to secure the win. Co-Lin is on the road Monday as they travel to Summit to take MACJC South Division rival Southwest. Tipoff is set for 7:15 and Co-Lin fans can hear the game live at WMJU 104.3 FM in Brookhaven or on colinathletics.com.

“We did enough defensively to win the basketball game tonight, just missed some shots I know we can make,” said head coach Kenny Bizot. “I’m really proud of our guys, I think we played hard, competed, and were alert. We have to move the ball quicker, but with a seven-man rotation, I think we did a good job. I’m happy that we saw a lot of fight out of our guys.”

Co-Lin started the game hot as the team opened play with a 9-2 run. The lead lasted until midway through the first half when back-to-back layups from ECCC’s JaQuarius Smith and a three-pointer from Haden Boyd put the Warriors up by one, 15-14. The game went back and forth over the next seven minutes as it was tied three times. Co-Lin battled hard in transition and capitalized on nine steals in the first half alone to take a two-point, 36-34, lead into the locker room.

The second saw seven ties and five lead changes as the teams left everything they had on the court. Co-Lin grew the lead to seven, 41-34, early in the half, but the Warriors rallied back to take the lead, 48-46, just six minutes later. A Cameron Woodall dunk and a three-pointer from Lazorian McNulty put Co-Lin back on top, and once again the lead was stretched to seven, 55-48. Three free throws from East Central’s Haden Boyd, followed by a three from Nick Preyer, and a layup off a steal from Marucs Bates gave ECCC the lead, 56-55, with just 7:24 to play.

The game continued this back and forth trend as it was knotted at 64-all followed by a 68-68 tie. ECCC took a three-point lead with a Bates’ layup with 31 seconds remaining, and Co-Lin could not recover. A layup from Miles Daniels cut the Warriors lead to one, but with less than 10 seconds to play the Wolves had to resort to fouling, and ECCC made four down the stretch.

Woodall led the Wolves in scoring and in rebounds after showing tremendous energy on the floor. Woodall finished with 21 points and six boards. Daniels scored 17 on the night, while Darius Kent came off the bench to score 10. Lance Madison led Co-Lin with three steals.

Bates led East Central as he scored 30 and brought down 14 rebounds. Preyer finished with 16, while Smith posted 10.

Co-Lin shot 44 percent (25-of-57) from the floor, 28 percent (7-of-25) from three-point range, and 75 percent (15-of-20) from the free throw line. The Warriors shot 50 percent (28-of-56) from the floor, 39 percent (5-of-13) from downtown, and 80 percent (16-of-20) from the stripe. The Warriors outrebounded Co-Lin 37-27.