Greyhounds Win Season Opener, Split in Tournament

By Chuck Livingston
The Evening Times Sports Editor
MSCC Sports Information

The MSCC Greyhounds opened their second season in The Dog House by winning their season opener for the second consecutive year and going 1-1 against Division 1 opponents from Kaskaskia College and Jackson State.

On Friday, October 31, MSCC dominated the second half of action against Kaskaskia, outscoring their visitors by nine points in the final 20 minutes to take a 90-82 win.

"I thought that was a huge win to start our season," MSCC head basketball coach Chris Parker said. "Beating a D 1 school with the size and athleticism that they boast was crucial."

The Greyhounds did an especially good job on Kaskaskia seven-foot post player, Andrew Zellis.

Zellis was a highly-regarded recruit coming out of high school with a few Division 1 offers, but MSCC limited him to three points, two assists and two steals.

"He's a good player, but we were able to double the block when he was in the ballgame on every trip down and did our best to deny him the ball, and we found some success that way," Parker explained.

While Zellis never got going against MSCC, two of the Greyhounds' top recruits from their latest recruiting class stole the show.

Little Rock Hall product Kaylon Tappin led the Greyhounds with 24 points, while Wynne native Tasmania Jones checked in with 17 of his own, to aid the MSCC cause.

"We are very excited to have those two kids here with us and they showed why in the opener," Parker said of his two stellar freshmen. "Tapp got to the foul line a lot (16 shots in the opener, 8 against Jackson State) and Taz was outstanding in giving us some size that we needed and some work on the boards. He ended up with 17 points and seven rebounds against Kaskaskia and 16 points and six rebounds against Jackson State."

Against Kaskaskia, MSCC hit five of their 11 three-point shots while also assisting on 19 of their 29 field goals made.

While the first night of the Greyhound Tip-off Classic presented by R.J. Young was a smashing success for MSCC, Jackson State proved to be up to the challenge on the second night, topping the home team 87-70 and beating North Arkansas College by 43 points the night before.

"Jackson State had an awesome year last year. We saw them at our tip-off classic last fall and they were mostly freshmen with one sophomore at that time," said Parker. "All five starters are sophomores this year and they played very well the other night. Coach Hines has been there a long time and has an established program and they played very well and we didn't shoot very well."

The Greyhounds shot just 39% from the field against Jackson State and 3 of 13 from three-point range while posting 13 turnovers in the contest.

MSCC got big nights from Jones and Tappin, who scored 16 points apiece, on a combined 12 of 20 shooting.

On the other side, four of Jackson State's five starters scored in double digits, led by Braxton Gillespie, who hit for a game-high 20 points.

"We had an emotional win against Kaskaskia the first night and it was tough to sort of bounce back the very next day and get up for another challenge from a D1 school," Parker added.

As a whole, the Greyhound Tipoff Classic presented by RJ Young was a success.

"It was a smooth tournament," Parker said, who is also MSCC's athletic director. "Last year, we had four consecutive games each day and that made it really hard on our game crew. Luckily, this year we had everyone return and we can't thank them enough for that. It makes a huge difference to have experienced help who shares a passion for our kids."

Last season, The Classic featured four teams of women and men's teams, but the decision was made to allow the MSCC Lady Greyhounds to host their own, separate tipoff classic on Friday, November 21 and Saturday, November 22.

MSCC travels to Senatobia, Mississippi Thursday to play Northwest Mississippi. The Greyhounds and Lady Greyhounds will each be in action down there.

The women's game will tip at 5:00 p.m.