the Selma Times–Journal

MARION &045; To say that this season had been one of ups and downs for the Marion Military Junior College Tigers would be an understatement. For the most part, it had been about downs.

But over the course of the past two months, things were beginning to turn around for the Tigers as they were able to string together a handful of wins and then most recently, put together their first winning streak. MMI posted five straight &8220;W’s&8221; in a row. That was, before they faced 14-14 Wallace State JuCo-Hanceville.

The Lions roared out to a 67-56 win over a team that coach Allen Sharpe was really concerned about.

On the other hand, Tiger coach Al Blanton sees the loss as a humbling experience for his squad.

MMI will leave Wednesday for the USACC National Championship Tournament in New Hampshire. They will play on Thursday against St. Mary’s-Boston in the first round.

With about 10:00 to go in the first half, the Tigers were looking for their sixth straight win. Wallace State, however, strung together a run that took them from a seven-point deficit to a six-point lead before Johnathon Overstreet drained a three from the far corner at the buzzer.

With one half in the books, the Tigers trailed 32-29. MMI quickly evened the score with a triple to open the second half. But once again found themselves trailing 39-34 with roughly 15:00 to go in the game.

From that point, the Tigers spent most of the second half playing a game of catch-up with the Lions.

When all was said and done, Tramell Wooten

posted 11 points, and Shawn Gutierez finished with 14 points including four triples.

For Wallace, Bobby Brown proved to be the leading scorer with 21 points, a majority coming from multiple trips to the charity stripe.