Heading into Saturday's NJCAA Region 23 Postseason Tournament First Round game against Meridian, the sixth-seeded Bears were hoping for a role reversal after falling to the 11^th-seeded Eagles the previous Monday. And even though Southwest erased a 12-point deficit late in the second half, they could not close the deal in overtime, falling 100-96 thus ending their season.

"(I'm) proud of the guys' fight. When you are down 12 that late in the game, for them to keep battling, we left it all out there," Southwest head coach Corey Schmidt said. "I'm proud of the guys, they just continued to fight. You can't say we didn't leave it out there on the floor."

Early on, the Bears (17-13) got off to a quick start with a Tylik Weeks three-point play followed up with a Deon Brown 3-pointer giving Southwest a 6-0 advantage.

But the Eagles battled back and took a slight lead over the Bears at the 13:10 mark. Meridian maintained the lead but the Bears continuously shadowed their opponents and stayed within striking distance.

A LeVionne Lindsey 3-pointer at the 9:02 mark tied the game at 21 but the Eagles quickly regained the lead. Mark Drone splashed in a make with 4:38 until halftime putting the Bears ahead once again at 30-29. The make kick-started a 6-0 run which increased the Bears' advantage.

Both teams went back-and-forth for the remainder of the period until the Eagles got a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from about half court to drop putting Southwest down 45-44 at the half.

The Bears and the Eagles continued to battle in the early stages of the second half as four lead changes took place in the first 5:00 of play.

Southwest found itself down by six but a three-point play by Jahshawne Joseph at the 13:15 mark, cut the deficit in half.

Not long afterward, the Eagles rallied. A 12-2 run, which wrapped around the 6:30 mark, put the Bears down by 12, their biggest deficit of the contest.

Despite being down, the Bears put up a tremendous fight. They slowly chipped away at the Meridian lead as makes from Joseph and Weeks led the charge.

Trailing by eight with 3:15 to go, Weeks made the first of two free throws. The second was missed but rebounded by Joseph who got the put-back and pulled Southwest closer at 81-76.

With under a minute to go and the Bears trailing 87-82, a basket by Weeks at the :39 mark made it an 87-84 game.

The Bears regained possession on a loose ball and got it over to Brown, who nailed a 3-pointer with :29 to go tying the game and eventually forcing overtime.

In the extra period, the Bears grabbed the early lead but the Eagles jumped back not long afterward. Drone connected on a basket tying the game at 90 but unfortunately it was the closest the Bears got for the remainder of the contest as the Eagles had one last push to pull away and seal the win.

Weeks led the Bears with a new career-high of 39 points. Drone finished with 21.