Skip To Main Content

Southwest Mississippi Community College

Scoreboard

Bears suffer road loss at East Central

By: Michael D. Gunnell, Southwest Sports Information
Guy Johnson

Men's Basketball | 2/3/2017 6:35:00 AM

Box Score

Victory was just not in the cards for the Bears Thursday night as they dropped a tough 80-74 decision at the hands of host East Central in Decatur.
 
The loss dropped the Bears to 12-5 overall and, at 6-2, into a tie with Gulf Coast for second place in the MACJC South. East Central climbed to 9-8 and 4-4.
 
An old-fashioned three-point play by Rodrick Sikes helped the Bears take an early 6-2 lead in the game. East Central then responded to tie the game at 6-6 before an 11-4 Bears' run, capped by a Bryce Baker trey, left the Bears with a 17-10 lead with 11:46 left in the opening half.
 
East Central then responded with a 17-2 run to take a 27-19 lead with 6:21 on the clock.
 
Trailing 34-29, the Bears got five points from Baker, including a three pointer at the buzzer, to outscore East Central 5-1 in the last 2:26 of the half to find themselves down 35-34 at intermission.
 
With Guy Johnson scoring seven of the first 11 points of the second half, the Bears took a 41-39 lead with 17:31 left in the game.
The lead was short-lived, however, as East Central scored 17 of the next 25 points to take a six-point lead, 58-52, with 6:54 to play.
 
A three-point play from Emanuel Thompson brought the Bears back to within 58-56 with 5:58 on the clock and Sikes made it 62-61 with 4:17 to go.
Unfortunately, that would be it for the East Central outscored them 18-13 the rest of the way and escaped with the six-point win.
 
"Our team came out ready to play, defensively, at the beginning of the game," said Bears' head coach Thomas Gray, "but, we just couldn't capitalize on the offensive end."
 
"As the game went on," Gray continued, "I thought we made them (East Central) take tough shots. It just seemed like when they needed them to go in, they did. A play here or there was the difference in tonight's ball game. We have to understand we are going to have a battle every time we step on the floor in this Division."
 
Sikes scored 18 points to top the Bears' offense. Thompson totaled 17 points while Johnson and Baker were also in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively. The Bears hit 18 of 27 free throws.
 
East Central's Tonzell Handy led all scorers with 33 points. East Central went 21-29 from the free throw line.
 
The Bears return to the home court on February 6 to host Pearl River Community College. The South Division matchup is scheduled to get underway at 7:15.
 
 
 
 
Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

Guy Johnson

#11 Guy Johnson

G
6' 0"
Sophomore
Rodrick Sikes

#14 Rodrick Sikes

G
6' 1"
Sophomore
Emanuel Thompson

#21 Emanuel Thompson

G/F
6' 4"
Sophomore
Bryce Baker

#23 Bryce Baker

G/F
6' 5"
Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Guy Johnson

#11 Guy Johnson

6' 0"
Sophomore
G
Rodrick Sikes

#14 Rodrick Sikes

6' 1"
Sophomore
G
Emanuel Thompson

#21 Emanuel Thompson

6' 4"
Sophomore
G/F
Bryce Baker

#23 Bryce Baker

6' 5"
Sophomore
G/F