The No 6 seed Bears entered Monday's NJCAA Region 23 First Round game at home against No. 11 Coahoma with a great deal of momentum built from a strong finish to the regular season. However, after losing a late lead, efforts to go for a tie in the closing moments came up short as Southwest fell 71-69 thus ending the season for the Bears.
 
"I feel like heartbroken is a little overdramatic but it is probably the best word choice that I have. And it is not even for myself, it is for these guys, just everything that they gave this year," Southwest head coach Corey Schmidt said. "We had three amazing days of practice leading up to this game. When you come up short in a game like this you look back and question everything."
 
Both the Bears (16-11) and the Tigers battled hard early on. Coahoma held a slight lead before Southwest jumped ahead 16-15 on a 3-pointer from Deon Brown. The score came at the 12:45 mark and was the first lead for the Bears since the game's opening basket.
 
Not long afterwards the Bears got out of rhythm as the Tigers found new life. Southwest fell behind by as much as 10 but narrowed the gap to 3 on multiple occasions before closing it and taking a 43-41 lead at the half on a Blake Hart make at the buzzer.
 
With the momentum on its side, Southwest looked to build some distance between itself and Coahoma. A fast start from Isaac Brice providing the first four points of the second half coupled with a 3-pointer from Jahshawne Joseph pushed the Bear lead to nine at 50-41.
 
Other than a brief moment at the 12:15 mark when the score was tied at 51, the Bears maintained the lead for several minutes, even pushing it to double-digits at 10 points following a pair of free throws from Joe Holloway.
 
However, the Tigers went on a 13-0 run to take a 70-67 lead with about a minute to play. Even though Southwest had a chance to win it at the end, trailing by only two, the Bears could not get the ball in the basket before time ran out.
 
After the game, Schmidt reflected on his first year as head coach and how excited he is about returning the majority of his team for next season.
 
"You build off of the momentum and you build off the positives and learn from the negatives and we've done that all year," he said. "It's when you have a whole offseason to do that and get in the gym and work. We are going to put in the work and when you have that much time to improve and work with the same group and if you can keep that camaraderie, we are going to be looking to make some noise next year."