Entering Thursday, the Lady Bears had been on an incredible run in the MACCC this season and was the lone undefeated team left in conference play. But the rally came to an unfortunate end at the hands of the visiting Pearl River Lady Wildcats as the Lady Bears fell, 78-59.
 
"They are very good and they are No. 10 in the country," Southwest head coach Brent Harris said. "We played hard and we were having trouble finding shots. They don't give many second opportunities and they block you out really well."
 
Early on, the Lady Bears (16-5, 7-1) struggled for the first few minutes with finding offensive consistency. Once they got the ball rolling, they clawed their way back into the game thanks in large part to the play of freshman guard Navaeh Craft who dropped a couple of 3-pointers in, the second of which put Southwest ahead for the first time at 14-13 with 1:45 to go in the opening quarter.
 
But the momentum was short-lived as Pearl River closed out the quarter on a 7-0 run to put Southwest down 20-14 at the intermission.
 
In the beginning stages of the second quarter, the Lady Bears turned toward another freshman in Kara Beth Addison who, like Craft, stepped her game up as well scoring the first six point of the quarter for Southwest. But Pearl River also got its offense going and maintained its lead.
 
For the remainder of the quarter, the Lady Bears kept pace and pulled within four at 32-28.
 
Struggles on both ends of the floor haunted the Lady Bears early in the third quarter as Pearl River began to pull away. Southwest trailed 53-42 entering the final quarter of play.
 
In the fourth, the Lady Bears were unable to keep up with the Lady Wildcats' pace despite a valiant effort.
 
The Lady Bears had four players finish in double figures in scoring, led by Kennedee Shelton who had 13. Michaela Payton posted 12 points while Craft and Addition each had 10.
 
Southwest will be back on the road for its next game as it will travel north to Clarksdale on Tuesday to face Coahoma at 5:30 p.m.