Things did not go the Bears' way in the first half of Thursday's home game against East Central as they fell behind by double-digits. But they did not panic one bit and used a rally in the second half to mount a comeback before pulling out a 74-66 win over the Warriors.
"The one thing that we talked about at halftime was that when you are on the defensive end of the floor, you are not going to be able to take away everything," Southwest head coach Corey Schmidt said. "I thought that we were getting scored on in ways that we shouldn't have been in the majority of the first half."
The Bears (14-11, 5-5 MACCC) had trouble slowing down a quick start by the visiting Warriors. The Bears trailed by as many as seven through the first few minutes of play. And even though Southwest reduced the East Central lead to as little as two, thanks to Deon Brown who scored Southwest's first nine points, it could not get over the hump as the Warriors pulled away again.
Despite the Warrior lead, the Bears kept pace. Tylik Weeks, who had to step up in place of leading scorer Mark Drone who sat out the game, began to get into rhythm. He found his touch from the free throw line with about 6:00 to go in the first half. In three-consecutive trips to the charity stripe, the Bronx, NY-native connected on 5-of-6 attempts.
But as time wore down in the first half, the Warriors unfortunately stayed one step ahead of the Bears. Southwest trailed 39-31 at the intermission.
Right out of the gate in the second half, the Bears got into a groove to quickly reduce the deficit to just one as baskets by Jahshawne Joseph and LeVionne Lindsey were bookends to a three-point play by Weeks.
The Bears continued to keep pace before taking their first lead of the contest 6:00 into the second half following a basket by Weeks.
"I told my team to stay together and be strong, we needed this win," Weeks said. "At halftime, I told my teammates to stay focused, be aggressive and hit shots, that is what we needed to do."
Even though the Bears lost the lead on the next possession they got it back shortly afterward and never looked back.
An improved defense was key for the Bears as the Warriors had difficulty adjusting.
At the 9:29 mark, TJ Wiley put a complete effort on display not only getting a steal on one end of the floor, but driving the ball down the court and into the lane, making the shot while getting fouled. He then completed the three-point play giving Southwest a 55-48 advantage.
The Warriors reduced the Bear lead to four in the ensuing moments, but that was the closest the visitors got for the remainder of the evening as Weeks and Joseph continued to find success inside with the prior even connecting on a 3-pointer with 3:18 to go pushing the Bear lead to 66-55.
With under 2:00 to go, Deon Brown made a 3-pointer of his own helping the Bears close out the contest and pick up the win.
Weeks had another big game leading all scorers with 26 points. Lindsey poured in 13 points while Brown posted 12.
Southwest will be back in action on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Hinds.
