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Southwest Mississippi Community College

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Bears rally in 2nd half, but come up short

By: Michael D. Gunnell, Southwest Sports Information
Damian Dear

Men's Basketball | 11/18/2019 10:37:00 PM

The Bears suffered a tough loss in their home debut Monday night as they fell to the Southern-Shreveport Jaguars, 75-71, on the opening night of the Southwest/Coca-Cola Classic.
 
The Bears held an 8-4 lead on a Spencer Rodgers dunk with 16:43 left in the opening half.
 
The Jaguars (2-2) then began finding the range, outscoring the Bears 24-7 to move out to a 28-15 lead with 6:44 on the clock.
 
Rodgers nailed a three-pointer with just under 5:00 to play to trim their deficit to 29-24. But, the Jaguars would go on to take a 37-28 lead at the end of the half.
 
With under 1:00 gone in the second half, the Jaguars were on top 39-28. The Bears then regained their early-game form.With a Robert Kendrick trey and Damian Dear layup serving as bookends, and a pair of Jalon Andrews buckets in between, the Bears went on a 16-5 run to tie the game at 44-44 with 14:43 still to be played.
 
The Jaguars would regain the lead for good, 48-46, with 12:54 on the clock.  The Bears (3-3) would cut the Jaguars' lead to one on four occasions down the stretch, the last being on a pair of Rodgers free throws with 5:53 still to play, but the visitors would hold on to win by four.
 
"The takeaway from this game," said Bears head coach Bryan Bender, "is I think we were so excited to play in front of the home crowd that we showed up and made it a little bit more about ourselves rather than about Southwest."
 
Bender said there were some bright spots in the game for the Bears including Andrews who "came to (play) from the beginning. We just got to find a way to win games like this."
 
Dear topped all scorers with 18 points. Rodgers added 17 points while Andrews scored 14 and Kendrick scored 11. The Bears hit 18 of 27 free throws.
 
Quillin Dixon paced the Jaguars with 15 points. He and his teammates combined to make 15 of 27 free throws.
 
The Bears bring the Coca-Cola Classic to an end Tuesday night with a 7:15 contest against Louisiana Christian Prep.
 
 
 
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Players Mentioned

Jalon Andrews

#2 Jalon Andrews

F/C
6' 8"
Sophomore
Damian Dear

#5 Damian Dear

G
6' 0"
Sophomore
Robert Kendrick

#3 Robert Kendrick

G
6' 2"
Sophomore
Spencer Rodgers

#22 Spencer Rodgers

G
6' 4"
Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Jalon Andrews

#2 Jalon Andrews

6' 8"
Sophomore
F/C
Damian Dear

#5 Damian Dear

6' 0"
Sophomore
G
Robert Kendrick

#3 Robert Kendrick

6' 2"
Sophomore
G
Spencer Rodgers

#22 Spencer Rodgers

6' 4"
Sophomore
G