Despite a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Mississippi Delta to force overtime in Thursday's home conference game, the Bears recovered in the extra period before pulling out an 89-86 win.
After the game, Southwest head coach Corey Schmidt said that he was proud of his guys for pulling out the win but there is still room for improvement.
"That last play of regulation, there was a defensive mistake. We had a lot of mistakes in this game," Schmidt said. "I was proud of the guys of responding and getting together in overtime to get that win. There's just a lot of stuff that we have to clean up."
The Bears (12-9, 3-3) got off to a strong start as Mark Drone and Deon Brown were key contributors but Tylik Weeks stole the show with 10 of the Bears' first 19 points. Meanwhile on the other end of the floor, the defense followed suit limiting the Trojans to single digits in scoring through the first 10:00 of play.
However, not long afterward, Delta began to find its groove and inched closer. The Bears watched their lead shrink down to as little as seven with about 6:00 to go in the first half. But Southwest regrouped and got additional scoring from Weeks near the end of the period to take a 35-25 lead at the half.
In the early stages of the second half, the Bears maintained their lead despite a more consistent brand of basketball from the Trojans.
As the second half wore on, Southwest began to lose momentum and Delta moved closer. The Bears got big 3-pointers from Brown and LeVionne Lindsey with the latter's coming at the 2:40 mark giving the hosts a 10-point advantage at 73-63.
But the Trojans rallied once again before getting a 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game at 77 and force overtime.
In the extra frame, Blake Hart was key for the Bears. With all of Southwest's points coming via the free throw line in the early portion of the period, the Bears held on to an 83-82 lead. Hart then drifted to the outside and got a pass from Drone from the top of the key before nailing a 3-pointer with :54 to go putting Southwest up 86-82. After Delta threatened once again with a make on its end, Hart stepped up once again for the Bears. The sophomore from Biloxi attempted another 3-pointer and missed, but was fouled in the process and connected on all three free throw attempts helping to give the Bears a lead they held on to in the closing seconds.
"A big shoutout to my point guard Mark (Drone) for trusting me on both of those plays," Hart said. "Mark just trusted in me and he told me that he was going to trust me every time in that situation. I had to come through for the team."
Weeks led the Bears with a game-high 24 points. Drone posted 18 points while Brown had 12, Lindsey 10 and Hart 9.
The Bears will be back in action on Monday at Northeast Mississippi at 7:30 p.m.
