It was a tale of two halves Tuesday as a slow start by the Lady Bears was eclipsed by a strong performance in the second half as Southwest picked up a win over visiting Coastal Alabama – South on Day 2 of the 2023 Southwest Papa John's Classic.
 
"I have a lot of respect for that program, that was a good game for us, they are extremely physical," Southwest head coach Brent Harris said. "It bothered us early and we had some games where it came easy to us early and it didn't tonight."
 
A slow start hurt the Lady Bears (6-3) as the Lady Coyotes established their offense early on while Southwest struggled.
 
Eventually, the Lady Bears got their groove back and closed out the first quarter on a 6-2 run to pull within three at 15-12.
 
After Coastal opened the second quarter with a couple of makes to put Southwest down by seven, the Lady Bears rallied once again. Veronica Williams nailed a 3-pointer before a pair of makes from Kennedee Shelton — the second of which being a 3-pointer — gave Southwest its first lead of the game in at 20-19 at the 4:52 mark.
 
Both teams went back and forth for the remainder of the quarter, taking a 25-25 tie into the locker room at the half.
 
In the third quarter, however, things began to turn around for Southwest. A much more consistent offense was put on display led by Shelton who finished with a game-high 19 points.
 
After the game, she said that her team had to and did make the right adjustments at the half.
 
"We had to fight through adversity and stay together as a team," she said. "We weren't used to fighting adversity and we started off slow. We are getting better and learning how to get stronger and pushing through when things don't go right."
 
The Lady Bears out-scored the Lady Coyotes 17-9 in the third quarter to take a 42-34 lead heading into the final quarter of play.
 
In the fourth, Southwest maintained its lead thanks in large part to a strong defense coupled with pristine free throw shooting making 12-of-15 from the charity stripe. The final seven Southwest points came from the free throw line as the Lady Bears then ran out the clock for the victory, their sixth in the last seven games.
 
Southwest will be on the road for its next contest. The Lady Bears will travel to Eunice, LA on Saturday at 2 p.m. to face LSU-Eunice.