Playing her first season at Meridian Community College was not much of a change for former Warren Central standout Carla Latham.

Lady Eagles’ coach Hilary Allen is a lot like Latham’s high school coach at WC in Donny Fuller.

&#8220Coach Allen is just like Coach Fuller. He yells and screams when we don’t do something right,” Latham said. The former All-Warren County selection wrapped up her first season at Meridian by helping the team to a 17-11 record and a fourth place finish in the Mississippi Junior College State Tournament and a first round appearance at the Region 23 Tournament.

The 5-foot-10 forward was one of the best athletes on the MCC team. She ended the season as the second leading scorer at 10.8 points per game and averaged nearly eight rebounds.

&#8220She did a good job for us this year,” Allen said. &#8220She had about 10 or 12 games where she was just super. She did what we thought she would do and that’s get down the floor, score and rebound.

&#8220We had a team with a lot incoming freshmen but over the course of 27 games, they, like Carla, made improvements.”

Latham says the Lady Eagles became a tight-knit team despite its diversity. One of the Lady Eagle freshmen is from Turkey while another is from Serbia.

&#8220They’re pretty cool. Who would’ve thought I’d get to play with someone from Turkey and one from Serbia?” Latham asked.

”But I love Meridian. It’s become home to me. It’s like family.”

At Warren Central, Latham helped the Lady Vikes to consecutive appearances at the Class 5A State Tournament. In her senior season, Latham averaged 13.3 points and 5.3 rebounds.

Two of the five Lady Vike seniors, Cookie Johnson and Shondalyn Rogers, wrapped up their freshmen seasons at the University of New Orleans. Latham took the juco route, landing at Meridian.

&#8220It was a pretty good season,” Latham said. &#8220I averaged between 10 to 12 points per game, which is pretty good for a freshman. There really wasn’t that much pressure. But next year, I’m going to have to step up and do my job.”