Men's Basketball | 2/17/2015 6:22:00 AM

The Southwest Bears stayed close to 15^th ranked Jones County most of the first half Monday night in Ellisville, but the tide quickly turned in the second half and the Bears went on to fall 83-61 in their final road contest of the season.
 
The Bears trailed 5-0 before a pair of Chris McIntosh (Jackson, MS, Murrah) free throws made it 5-2 with 18:37 left in the opening half. The Bears tied the score at 8-8 before taking an 11-10 lead, on a Lafayette Rutledge (Gautier, MS, Gautier) three pointer, with 14:12 before the break.
 
The teams game was then tied 13-13 and 15-15 before Jones County took the lead for good, 17-15, with 11:35 to go in the half.
 
Trailing by nine, 28-19, the Bears (8-13, 5-8) cut their deficit down to six points, 31-25, on a Jaylen Moore (Harrison Central) jumper with 5:01 showing. But, a 10-3 run by Jones County to end the half gave them a 41-28 lead at the end of the first 20:00 of play.
 
The second half belonged to the home team. Trailing by as many as 24 points, the Bears could come no closer than 65-49 on Xavion Dillon's (Tylertown) layup with 6:34 left in the game. Jones County (17-3, 10-3)went on to win by 22 points.
 
Moore had 19 points to pace the Bears. Dillon had 13 points while Trent Jeffries (Harrison Central) was also in double figures with 10 points. The Bears were nearly perfect from the free throw line, hitting 24 of 27.
 
Jones County's Bryce Jones led all scorers with 19 points. The hosts hit 17 of 24 free throws.

The Bears close out the regular season at home Thursday night with a 7:15 contest against East Central.