Still riding high from last week's win over Co-Lin, the Lady Bears jumped on top early Monday at East Mississippi and rode that wave of momentum to a 60-43 win over the Lady Lions.
 
"We were great out of the gate and then we lost a little focus," Southwest head coach Brent Harris said. "One big key was Morgan Sullivan and Bethany Graves' ability to knock down the open jumper. Our energy was good in warmups which attributed to the good start."
 
From the jump, the Lady Bears (11-4, 2-0) set the tone, racing out toa 12-0 advantage consisting of a couple of baskets from Sullivan, as well as, 3-pointers each from Kennedee Shelton and Kalea Storm.
 
The hits kept coming for Southwest as Sullivan connected on another field goal before Navaeh Craft knocked down a 3 and Shelton scored a basket to close out the quarter making it a 24-8 lead for the visitors.
 
The Lady Lions got into a bit of a rhythm in the second quarter to inch closer but the Lady Bears maintained their double-digit lead thanks to a pair of makes by Graves in the closing moments of the quarter, the latter of which was a three-point play. Southwest led 33-20 at the half.
 
In the third, the Lady Bears got back into a groove as Shelton, Graves and Sullivan each scored a pair of field goals, keeping Southwest ahead. Meanwhile the defense continued to give the hosts problems limiting their scoring attack.
 
Leading 46-31 entering the final quarter, the Lady Bears displayed a balanced scoring attack as five different players all registering points, led by Shelton who had six, all of which coming from the free throw line.
 
Shelton led the charge with 15 points while Graves and Sullivan each scored 14.
 
The Lady Bears return home Thursday hosting Holmes at 5:30 p.m.