Winners of six of their last eight games, the Bears entered Monday's home conference contest against Northeast Mississippi hoping to keep the rally going. And despite several turnovers along the way and not leading for nearly all of the second half, the Bears rallied late and claimed a 69-66 win over the Tigers.
"For us to have 26 turnovers and find a way to win, it is incredible," Southwest head coach Corey Schmidt said. "It was just incredible toughness. I'm proud of our guys for not getting too deflated, not getting too down on themselves and just finding a way to win."
For much of the game, the Bears (13-8, 4-2 MACCC) had to endure a full-court pressure put on by the Tigers which played a big role in the turnovers.
Despite this, the Bears found some success in moving the ball and scoring, taking a 9-5 lead a little more than 5:30 in to the contest on a Robert Flantroy layup. Southwest continued to battle and extended its lead to as much as six but the momentum didn't last long.
Northeast began to get into rhythm and pull closer. The Tigers rallied to take the lead but they were overtaken once again by the Bears.
The back-and-forth battled ensued towards the latter half of the first half with neither team taking more than a six point lead.
Southwest trailed 34-28 at the half.
Even though Northeast maintained the lead, the Bears wouldn't go away. Trailing 40-30, Southwest began to chip away at the Tiger lead. Makes from LeVionne Lindsey, Jaylen Haliburton and Daylen Thomas inched the Bears closer.
But Northeast quickly righted their wrongs and began to pull away from Southwest.
The Bears trailed by as much as 11 with 6:35 to go. However, Lindsey, Haliburton and Thomas makes helped Southwest recover. Southwest pulled within two at 60-58 with just over 3:00 to go.
Things began looking bleak for the Bears with just under 2:00 to go, trailing 65-58. But a Lindsey 3-pointer followed by a basket and free throw from Flantroy started a rally that helped bring the Bears within one at 65-64.
With the game tied at 66 with under a minute to go, Southwest got a huge block on the defensive end by Flantroy before Jaylen Haliburton got possession of the ball, raced up the floor and found Thomas on an alley-oop giving the Bears a 68-66 lead.
"It was a great pass from Jaylen (Haliburton)," Thomas said. "We do that in practice so I knew when he was driving, I knew he was fixing to throw it so my job was just catch it and finish."
The dunk brought the huge crowd inside the Bear Basketball Center on their feet and gave the Bears the momentum they needed.
The Tigers were unable to answer on the other end and after Haliburton added one more free throw, one last defensive stop helped Southwest seal the win.
Fazl Oshodi led the Bears with 18 points while Lindsey posted 17. Haliburton and Thomas each had eight points with the latter also adding 11 rebounds.
Southwest will be on the road Thursday visiting Pearl River for a 7:30 p.m. contest.
