Proving that he learned well during his three years at Jones County, Southwest head coach Casey Carter led his Bears to an exciting 98-90 win over the visiting Bobcats Thursday night. The Southwest ladies were not as fortunate as they went down 71-62.
The win was bittersweet for Carter. Prior to coming to Southwest in 2010, Carter spent three years as assistant to Jones County men’s head coach Don “Bubba” Skelton.
With the win, the Bears moved their overall record to 8-8 (7-2 at home) and 3-2 in the MACJC South Division. Jones County dropped to 7-9, 1-4.
The game had all the makings of a thriller early on with three ties and two lead changes in the first 5:09. After taking an early 4-2 lead, Southwest found itself down 8-4 with 17:23 to go in the first half. The Bears then came back to take the lead at 10-8 on a Michael Hall basket with 15:51 on the clock.
From then on, the thrill was gone as the Bears slowly extended their lead to 17 points, 47-30, on a Mikel Henry three-pointer with 4:06 left before intermission. Southwest took a 57-44 lead into the break.\
The second half was virtually all Southwest. A pair of Cory Lacy free throws put the Bears on top 81-61 with 8:05 left in the game. Southwest held an 18-point lead, 98-80, with 1:40 on the clock. With the outcome already decided, the Bobcats then scored the final 10 points of the game to make their margin of defeat not quite so bad.
“I’m so happy for my guys to have a game like this where they looked like they were having fun for 40 minutes,” said Carter. “It’s a tribute to all the hard work they’ve put in since August (when they first arrived on campus).”
“I knew this game had a chance to be wild because both teams try to play up-tempo,” Carter continued. “We were able to get easy buckets in transition and made shots out of out half-court sets which proved to be the difference. However, give “Bubba” Skelton and his Jones County team a ton of credit for continuing to fight. We beat a really good team.”
The Bears’ Mark Bridgewater led all scorers with a season-high 27 points on the night and was one of five Southwest players in double figures. Lacy added 17 points while Josh Brannon had 14. Wesley Blackmon and Michael Hall both scored 13.
Henry had six points in the game while Parker Moore had five and Devin Flowers had three. The Bears made 25 of their 32 three throws.
Kelvin Nixon led the Bobcats with 23 points. He and his teammates were good on 15 of 28 free throws.
Southwest hits the road for its next contest as the Lady Bears and Bears travel to Utica Monday night to face Hinds Community College. The ladies game is set for 6:00 with the men to follow at 8:00.
documents/2012/1/27/BearsvsJones_Boxscore.PDF
