Giving one of their best performances of the season, the Southwest Bears dominated visiting Holmes Thursday and came away with a 75-50 victory. The Lady Bears were not as fortunate as they dropped a 77-55 decision to the Holmes ladies.
Avenging an 84-73 loss at Holmes in November, Southwest evens its record to 6-6 with the win. The Bulldogs fell to 8-4.
The game was close early on with two ties in the first five minutes. But, after seeing a 14-7 lead dwindle to 14-12, the Bears went on a 15-3 run to close out the first half. A Wesley Blackmon bucket with 0:50 remaining gave the hosts a 29-15 advantage at the half.
Southwest quickly built its lead to 22 points on a Cory Lacy layup with 17:47 left in the game and the Bulldogs were unable to get any closer than 17 points the remainder of the game. A pair of Christopher Lawrence free throws with 3:39 on the clock put the Bears up 67-37 and they came away with the easy 25-point win.
Southwest head coach Casey Carter was full of praise for his squad after the game. “I’m really proud of our guys for finishing a game,” he said, “the way we talk about every day, with constant effort and attention to detail.”
“I was really impressed with our defensive effort tonight,” Carter went on (the Bears held Holmes to 17% from the field in the first half and 29% for the game), “and our ability to keep them (the Bulldogs) from second chance point. Michael Hall was really important in the first half for making shots against that zone (defense) and (Christopher) Lawrence gave us a ton of energy and point production.
"But, overall it was a team effort,” he continued. “But, we have plenty of areas to get better in and we’ll continue to work on those.”
Lawrence and Mark Bridgewater led the Bears with 15 points on the night. Hall was also in double figures with 12 points while Lacy added 10.
Wesley Blackmon chipped in eight points while Mikel Henry had five and Parker Moore four. Josh Brannon, Devin Flowers and LeMichael Quin each had two points. The Bears made 14 of 17 free throws on the night (82%).
Torrance Rowe scored 17 points to lead Holmes. The Bulldogs were 12 of 20 from the charity stripe.
Southwest returns to South Division play Tuesday when they face the Pearl River Wildcats in Poplarville. The ladies’ game tips off the night starting at 5:00 with the men set to follow at 7:00.
