– Jones College men’s basketball has made history again.
The Bobcats defeated No. 25 Itawamba 102-96 in overtime to win its third straight Region 23 championship here Thursday night at the Davis Event Center.
Jones becomes the first team to win three straight Region 23 titles since East Mississippi in 2013.
The Bobcats will head to Hutchinson, Kan., for the NJCAA Division I Tournament for the third year in a row and only the fifth time in school history. The tournament will be held March 21-28 at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
The tournament seedings will be announced at 5 p.m. on Monday on the NJCAA Network.
The victory completed a “Revenge Tour” for the Bobcats. Jones had lost to Pearl River, Southwest and Itawamba in the regular season, but disposed of the Wildcats (89-74) in the tournament quarterfinals, the Bears (93-77) in the semifinals and the Indians in the championship.
The Bobcats led ICC 30-26 with 8:14 left in the first half and 42-31 with less than three minutes to play in the first 20 minutes.
Jones, who led by as many as 15 points on the night, led 48-35 at halftime.
But the Indians stormed back quickly in the second half and cut the lead to 62-60 with 12:22 to play. ICC continued its surge and went up 77-72 with just 3:55 remaining.
However, the Bobcats fought back and tied the game at 81-81 at the end of regulation.
The game was tied 88-88 with 3:35 left in overtime, but Jones went up 97-94 with 54 seconds to play and managed to pull out the victory.
The heroes were numerous for Jones.
Dylan Rowe had a triple-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists and Jay Tyler had 24 points, six rebounds and six assists. Wesley Lindsey, who scored 17 points in the semifinal win over Southwest, had a season-high 19 points. Keron Jackson came off the bench to score 19 points and Braylon Barnes had 17 points and six rebounds. Bob Dickson had eight points and seven rebounds.
Demarion Winston had a game-high 36 points for Itawamba. Jaden Harper had 18 points, Tim Holliday had 15 points and DJ Davis added 13.
Jones made 31-of-63 shots from the floor for 49 percent, 6-of-25 from 3-point range for 24 percent and 34-of-43 free throws for 79 percent. ICC was 32-of-71 from the field for 45 percent, 8-of-26 from beyond the arc for 31 percent and 24-of-29 from the foul line for 83 percent.
The Bobcats outrebounded Itawamba, 42-38. Jones had 21 assists and 16 turnovers, while ICC had 14 assists and 13 turnovers.
