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Leano Rolle
Chuck Barnes

Defensive battle comes down to the final possession

| By: by Cody Junkin
Leano Rolle
Southwest Mississippi's Men's Basketball played the Northeast Mississippi Tigers in Booneville on February 12th in a tight contest that resulted in a 74-72 Northeast win.

Courterius Scott opened the scoring with a three pointer in what would be a low scoring first half for both teams.

The first ten minutes of the game was back and forth with multiple lead changes before the Tigers finally built a small lead of 21-12 with 10:35 left in the first half.

14 straight points from Courterius Scott and Cy Merrett led to a Chidi Nwosu three pointer that would bring the Bears within 4 with a halftime score of 29-33 in favor of Northeast.

Scott and Merrett continued to dominate the scoring for the Bears with the pair scoring 12 of the teams first 14 second half points.

Scott had back to back three pointers to close that stretch immediately followed by another Chidi Nwosu three pointer to finally tie the game at 48-48 with 13:23 left to play.

A quick steal turned Nwosu bucket gave the Bears the lead shortly after.

The lead would change hands 7 more times in the final 12:30 of game time before the Tigers would finally score what became the game winner with 6 seconds left on the clock.

The Bears had one final possession with a chance to tie or win that saw a Nwosu put back bounce off the rim as the buzzer sounded, resulting in a 72-74 Bears road loss.

Courterius Scott topped the scoring column with 25 points going 5-5 from beyond the arc. Cy Merrett was just behind him with 20 points of his own including 12 made free throws.

"Thought it was a well-played game by both teams. Came down to one possession and we didn't make the shot at the end, but that's not the only place the game was lost," said Head Coach Corey Schmidt, "there were plenty of other plays that we didn't make throughout the game as well, including making our free throws. 13 missed free throws is going to be hard to overcome in a close game like that."

"I thought we were really locked in on the defensive end of the floor tonight. After coming off a game where we only allowed 9 points in the first half, I feel like that side of the ball is starting to click a little bit. Have to continue to find ways to be more consistent offensively though," said Coach Schmidt.

The Bears (12-13, 6-3*conference) look to Monday, February 16th when they take on Northwest Mississippi at home.
 
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