The gym always feels like it has a little extra excitement when the old rivals from Copiah-Lincoln CC and Southwest Mississippi CC tangle in basketball. The MACCC member schools will meet for the first and only time in the 2024-2025 regular season on Thursday in Mullen Gymnasium on the campus of Co-Lin in Wesson.

The women’s matchup will begin at 5:30 p.m. and the men’s contest is scheduled to follow at 7:30 p.m.

Co-Lin women’s coach Dr. Britta Stephens and her squad are 11-6 overall after losing 79-72 at Northwest Mississippi CC in Senatobia to open league play. Northwest (5-6) led for the entire game after a 2-0 start by Co-Lin just after tipping off.

CLCC now has a three-game losing streak, as the Wolves lost at LSU-Eunice before Christmas and then at home to Baton Rouge CC at home on Jan. 9 in their first game post-break.

Stephens was a longtime assistant coach at Southwest and she’s looking for her first win against the Bears after SMCC topped Co-Lin by 40 last season in Summit.

Southwest coach Brent Harris is in year number 13 leading the Bears. Harris and the Bears have a 10-3 record, with all three losses coming in the last three games for SMCC.

Southwest lost 55-48 at home to one of the top teams in the country, no. 2 ranked Northwest Florida. They then lost close games at Panola College (70-64) in Texas and at Hinds CC (75-72 OT) last week in Utica.

A win over Delgado earlier this season gave Harris career win number 200 at Southwest.

The matchup will be between two teams led by former Daily Leader All-Area Most Valuable Players.

At Southwest, the straw that stirs the drink is former West Lincoln Bears Kara Beth Addison. Former West Lincoln head coach Alissa Adams, herself once leader on the court at Southwest as a point guard for Harris, is a second-year assistant in Summit.

Addison is averaging a team best 14.7 points per game while shooting 56.1 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from the 3-point line. At the free throw line, Addison is shooting 77.4 percent and as she’s always done, the 6-footer is stuffing the stat line with 7.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.

Continuity is a hallmark of a Harris coached team and that’s the case this season as Southwest has used the same starting lineup in all 13 games with Addison going alongside sophomore guard Mookie Lampley (Wayne County), sophomore guard Kalea Williams (D’Iberville High), sophomore forward Moosie Walls (Harrison Central), and sophomore forwards Bethany Graves (Pascagoula High).

Graves is averaging 14.4 points per game as the second leading scorer for the Bears.

Stephens and Co-Lin will counter with an offensive attack that is led by sophomore guard Angel “Cookie” Wilkinson.

A standout during her prep career at Brookhaven High, Wilkinson initially signed with Tallahassee Community College coming out of high school.

Wilkinson transferred back to CLCC and missed the first semester last season before making her on-court debut after Christmas.

Wilkinson has been on a tear during the non-conference portion of the schedule for CLCC in 2024-2025.

She’s second in the nation with a 22.9 points per game average and has won MACCC Player of the Week on multiple occasions. Wilkinson reached her average on Monday with 22 points in the loss at Northwest Mississippi.

Wilkinson broke the single-game scoring record in Co-Lin’s long, proud tradition of women’s basketball by scoring 44 points earlier this season in a home win over Southern University-Shreveport.

Wilkinson and freshman forward Jamyria Robinson (St. Martin High) are the only two players to draw a start in every game this season as Stephens had worked through injuries and inconsistencies to find the best lineup for her young team that only has three sophomores on its roster.

Freshman forward Kamaiyah Pruitt has been a bright spot for CLCC as she’s averaging 12.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. The 5-foot-9 Pruitt has a soft touch as she’s shooting 57.7 percent from the floor and 88.6 percent from the free throw line.

Pearl River CC is the only MACCC women’s team ranked in the NJCAA national poll, as the 12-1 Wildcats were no. 17 in the latest rankings.

Mississippi Delta (11-0), Coahoma CC (10-1) and Itawamba (11-3) are all programs that had strong showings in the non-conference portion of their schedules ahead of MACCC play starting on Monday.

Like the women’s team, the Co-Lin men have a top five scorer in the country on its roster in freshman guard Deven Bates.

Bates averaged 24.3 points per game through the first 12 games of the season, good enough for fifth in the nation.

On Monday at Northwest Mississippi, Bates scored 30 points in an 89-87 overtime loss for the Wolves as NWCC sophomore center Dorian Booker, a 7-foot transfer from the University of New Orleans, got an offensive rebound and put back just before the buzzer to give the Rangers the win in Senatobia.

The defeat moved CLCC and coach David Sanders to 8-5 on the season.

Bates too has been honored multiple times this season as MACCC Player of the Week.

Sophomore center Dakotah Hillard and freshman wing Prince Ojukwu are the two players who’ve started every game this season for Sanders along with Bates. Hillard is a product of Hazlehurst High and is a 6-foot-7 player with range. He averaged 12.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in the non-conference portion of the schedule.

Ojukwu hails from Toronto, Canada and is averaging 8.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game this season.

There are currently two men’s teams from the MACCC ranked nationally in no. 7 Jones College (14-3) and no. 25 Northeast Mississippi (17-0).

Holmes CC (12-1) and Itawamba CC (14-2) are both coming off strong non-division slates too. ICC is coached by Brookhaven High and Co-Lin alum Darrian Wilson. Wilson and his Indians began league play on Monday with a 92-79 win at home over Jones.

Southwest Mississippi and third year head coach Corey Schmidt are 9-6 overall and have won three straight with a win over Delgado and a victory at Hinds under their belts since the return from Christmas vacation.

Schmidt saw his team beat CLCC 96-84 last season in Summit in an overtime thriller.

 Co-Lin won the matchup of the teams in 2023, the same year the Wolves took the MACCC league championship.

Southwest is 10-2 in their last 12 home games against Co-Lin and 2-9 in their last 11 road games in Wesson.

The Bears come into the game averaging 82.5 points per game and are led by 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Tylik Weeks.

One of the best players in the MACCC and a native of Brooklyn, New York, Weeks is averaging 21.5 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game.

Weeks holds offers from Toledo, South Alabama, New Mexico State, Southern Miss, Texas State, and 11 other schools at press time.

Brookhaven High alum Jaylen Haliburton is averaging 9.5 points per game as a freshman guard for the Bears. Also on the roster at Southwest are Bogue Chitto alum Shomari Jenkins, Franklin County product Daylen Thomas and Jay Kennedy, the son of former Enterprise standout Lacey Palomarez Kennedy.

Fazl Oshodi, a 6-foot-3 freshman wing from New Jersey, is another standout for the Bears who’s averaging 14.1 points per game. Josh Schonback, a 6-foot-6 freshman forward from Austria has started in every game this season for the Bears and is averaging 7.7 points and 6.5 boards per game.

Co-Lin will have a week off after the Southwest game, resuming play on Jan. 23 with a trip to play at East Mississippi CC in Scooba. Southwest will also play East Mississippi next week, hosting the Lions in Summit on Tuesday, Jan. 21.