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Southwest Mississippi Community College

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David Burrell

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

Mississippi Delta prevails, 75-72, over the Bears in overtime

The road continued to be unkind to the Southwest Bears Monday night as they dropped a tough 75-72 overtime decision to the Mississippi Delta Trojans in Moorhead.
 
The game was tight from the start, with seven ties, a lead change and no lead more than four points in the first 20:00 of play. The Trojans took the first lead, 2-0, on Zamarius Griffin's layup before the Bears tied things on a jumper from Lafayette Rutledge with 17:59 to play in the first half.
 
With the game tied, 8-8, baskets by Rutledge and Xavion Dillon gave the Bears a 12-8 advantage with 11:30 on the clock. With 8:12 showing, Griffin hit a shot to put the Trojans up 18-15.
 
The Bears trailed 24-20 with 4:04 remaining before the break. A Jaylen Moore layup then ignited a 10-0 run, capped by Trent Jeffries three-pointer with 0:42 left, to give the Bears a 30-24 advantage at the half.
 
The Trojans cut their deficit to one point, 30-29, with 18:48 left in the second half before a David Burrell three-pointer made it 33-29 with 18:32 left. The Trojans then scored 17 of the next 23 points to take the biggest lead of the night for either team, 46-39, with 13:01 on the clock. The Bears then tied the game at 46-46 on a pair of Dillon free throws with 10:37 left.
 
After the Trojans(3-0) took a 48-46 lead, the Bears scored 10 of the next12 points to take a 56-50 lead, their biggest of the night, with 7:22 on the clock. The lead would not stand up, however, as the Trojans came back to tie things again, 58-58, with 5:59 left.
 
A jumper from Clifford Fernandez with 2:02 on the clock put the Bears (0-3) up 66-63 with 2:02 still remaining. They led 68-65 with 1:09 on the clock before Griffin nailed a three-pointer from deep in the corner to knot the game at 68-68.
 
Both teams had a chance to win the game in regulation, but neither could capitalize and the teams went into the extra period.
 
Moore and Fernandez gave the Bears hope early in the overtime as they combined to give their squad a 72-68 lead with 3:23 to play. But, the advantage, unfortunately, would not last as the Trojans scored the final seven points of the night to escape with the three-point victory.
 
"It's just tough breaks," said Southwest head coach Thomas Gray. "I thought our guys approached the game well. I thought they stuck to our game plan for the most part."
 
"These guys have got to be sharper in terms of attention to detail, in terms of plays," Gray went on, "and we'll get them there. I think we've got a lot to look forward to moving on." Gray said that "Mississippi Delta and Northeast (last week) are tough places to play "and our guys played hard. A couple of things here and there that we could have done better would have affected the outcome" both places.
 
Moore had 22 points to lead all scorers in the game. He also led the Bears with eight rebounds and seven assists. Also in scoring in double figures were Burrell and Rutledge, both with 11 points, and Dillon (10 points).
 
Trent Jeffries scored nine points while Fernandez netted six and Justin McCray had three. The Bears were good on 13 of 16 free throws.
 
Griffin and Darius Dukes both scored 16 points to lead Mississippi Delta. The Trojans hit nine of 13 free throws.
 
The Bears make their home debut Monday night when they host the Northwest Rangers at 7:15 to close out the first night of the Southwest/Coca-Cola Classic.

Box Score---
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