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Southwest Mississippi Community College

Scoreboard

Bears vs. Pearl River
Chuck Barnes

Men's Basketball Michael D. Gunnell, Southwest Sports Information

Bears fall to Pearl River

The Southwest Bears’ hunt for a spot in the MACJC State playoffs took a tough, though not fatal, hit Thursday night as they dropped a nail-biter to visiting Pearl River, 72-69. The Southwest ladies went down 58-47.
 
With their loss, the Bears fell to 8-11 on the season and 3-5 in the South Division. They remain in fourth place, just slightly ahead of Jones County and arch-rival Co-Lin, in the South with four games remaining on the schedule.
 
The game was touch and go the entire night. The Bears took their biggest lead of the first half, 16-8, on a Parker Moore basket with 11:50 to play. Pearl River then fought back to tie the game at 17-17 with 8:19 on the clock. The rest of the half featured three more ties and the Wildcats’ biggest lead, 28-23, which came with 2:34 left in the half. A three-pointer Southwest’s Mark Bridgewater sent the teams in the locker room with the score knotted at 30-30.
 
The second half was as tight as the first with six ties and nine lead changes. The Bears held a five-point advantage on two occasions while the largest Pearl River lead was four, 40-36, with 17:10 left in the game.
 
After Southwest took a 69-68 lead with 0:42 to play, two Josh Carpenter free throws put the Wildcats on top 70-69 with 0:18 on the clock. Then, with 0:03 to play, a Bridgewater three-point attempt hit the rim on bounced into the hands of Pearl River’s Quentin Watkins, who was fouled. Watkins then nailed two free throws to give the Wildcats their final margin of victory.
 
“You’ve got to give Pearl River complete credit,” said Southwest head coach Casey Carter, “for being able to come in here and beat us where we’ve been pretty tough this year.” This was only the Bears’ third loss in 10 home games. “This one will hurt all of us,” Carter went on, “until we’re able to get back on the floor. I’ve got to do a better job of getting our guys prepared in practice.”
 
Bridgewater led the Bears with 19 points on the night. Wesley Blackmon scored 17 points while Cory Lacy and Josh Brannon both netted 10. Mikel Henry scored five points with Devin Flowers and Michael Hall both picking up three. Parker Moore chipped in two points. Southwest hit 12 of 21 free throws.
 
Daron Bell led the visiting Wildcats with 20 points. Pearl River made good on 19 of 28 free throws.

Southwest hits the road for its next contests as the Lady Bears and Bears face East Central Monday night in Decatur. The ladies’ game is set for a 6:00 tip with the men to follow at 8:00.
           

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