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Southwest Mississippi Community College

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Bears battle hard before falling to 3rd-ranked Pearl River

By: Michael D. Gunnell, Southwest Sports Information
Goodnews Kpegeol

Men's Basketball | 1/24/2020 7:58:00 AM

A full house saw the Bears give the visiting 3rd-ranked Pearl River Wildcats fits for most of their MACJC South Division game Thursday night before succumbing in the end 78-59.
 
Things did not look good for the Bears in the early going as Pearl River stormed out to a 12-0 lead with 16:57 still left in the first half.
 
The Bears then began finding the mark as a Spencer Rodgers trey and Goodnews Kpegeol layup served as bookends to a 14-4 run that saw the Bears pull to within 16-14 with 9:10 on the clock.
 
The teams would then trade baskets for most of the remainder of the half before the visitors outscored the Bears 7-3 in the last few minutes to take a 35-28 lead at intermission.
 
The Bears (9-6, 3-3) trailed 45-32 with 16:18 left in the second half before an 8-0 run, capped by a Rodgers free throw, pulled them to within 45-40 at the 12:57 mark.
 
Pearl River (14-0, 6-0) would then begin to pull away, outscoring the Bears 18-7, to take a 63-47 lead with 7:07 to go.
 
The Bears would be unable to get any closer than 12 points the rest of the way as Pearl River went on to record the win.
 
Bears head coach Bryan Bender said he felt his squad "played a good first half (and) was pretty composed. They (Pearl River) had a couple of big plays at the end of the half to get up by seven."
 
"We played from start to finish," Bender continued, but said Pearl River "really took us out of our stuff. They iced the ball screens, they kept us on one side of the floor and they completely denied Damian Dear (after) he put up 31 points (in the Bears' win at Jones on Tuesday); they didn't allow him to get any touches and it kind of made our offense a little stagnant. At the end of the day, you've got to find ways to not beat yourself and we beat ourselves a lot, especially in the second half."
 
Rodgers led the Bears in scoring with 12 points while Kpegeol finished with 11 points. The Bears hit 10 of 19 free throws.
 
Isaih Moore and Jariyon Wilkens both scored 16 points to top Pearl River's offense. Pearl River went 16-26 at the free throw line.

The Bears stay at home for their next contest, hosting East Central on January 27 in a scheduled 7:15 South Division matchup.
 
 
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Players Mentioned

Damian Dear

#5 Damian Dear

G
6' 0"
Sophomore
Goodnews Kpegeol

#12 Goodnews Kpegeol

G/F
6' 6"
Redshirt Freshman
Spencer Rodgers

#22 Spencer Rodgers

G
6' 4"
Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Damian Dear

#5 Damian Dear

6' 0"
Sophomore
G
Goodnews Kpegeol

#12 Goodnews Kpegeol

6' 6"
Redshirt Freshman
G/F
Spencer Rodgers

#22 Spencer Rodgers

6' 4"
Sophomore
G