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Southwest Mississippi Community College

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Leano Rolle
Chuck Barnes

Bears bounce the Tigers to advance to final four

| By: by Cody Junkin
Leano Rolle
After securing the #2 seed and a first-round bye, Southwest Mississippi Men's Basketball hosted the Northeast Tigers in the second round of the Region 23 playoffs on Saturday, March 7th.

The Bears would go on to win the game 81-74 to move on to the semi-finals.

Chidi Nwosu opened up the scoring with a three pointer, but the Tigers quickly answered with a three of their own.

Both offenses were hot in a first half that saw 12 lead changes.

The Bears were finding buckets in every way possible.

A Courterius Scott no look pass turned Chidi Nwosu three pointer.

A steal and score again by Courterius Scott.

A Leano Rolle slam from a Chidi Nwosu pass.

And finally, a Leano Rolle three pointer to give the Bears the lead going into the half.

Southwest led the Tigers 37-32 at the half and would hold onto it for the rest of the game.

The Bears picked right up where they left off with Courterius Scott starting the second half scoring.

Southwest played smart basketball and dominated both ends of the floor as they continued to grow their lead.

With 15:12 left to play, the Bears found themselves up 50-35 over Northeast, but they knew they could not get comfortable.

The Tigers continued to fight back cutting the lead down to only 3 with 3:23 left on the clock.

Andre Ngomabie scored 4 straight off of a Cy Merrett pass then a Chidi Nwosu block that both turned into easy buckets for the big man.

The Bears were up 74-70 with only 40 seconds left to play so the Tigers were forced to foul to have a chance.

Clutch free throws from Courterius Scott and Leano Rolle iced the game and put it just out of reach to seal the win for the Bears.

Chidi Nwosu finished out the scoring with two final free throws for the cherry on top, giving the Bears an 81-74 playoff win.

Southwest had five players with double digit points in the game.

Courterius Scott had 20 points.

Chidi Nwosu had a double double with 18 points and 12 rebounds.

Leano Rolle added 15 points. Andre Ngomabie and Cy Merrett put up 11 and 10 points towards the total.

"I told our guys, you have to have extreme confidence and understand you can get the job done, but you also have to have extreme urgency and understand that if you don't, you're done," said Head Coach Corey Schmidt, "it's a fine line of playing with a level of urgency and understanding that pressure, but also playing an ease and confidence that we can get this done and not be nervous. I thought our guys did a very good job of balancing that."

The Bears will rematch Jones College in the semi finals of the Region 23 playoffs on Tuesday, March 10th at 4:00 in Fulton, MS.  
 
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