The Bears entered Thursday on a roll, having won four of their last six games, and they kept the arrow pointing in the right direction with an 81-78 road win at East Central.
After the game, Southwest head coach Corey Schmidt was pleased with his team getting the win, adding that his players had to overcome some early struggles.
"In the first half, our defense wasn't good enough, it wasn't where it needed to be," he said. "We were locked in on their point guard and we held him to four points, but we let some other guys get some stuff that we didn't really want. In the second half, I thought that our defense was a lot better. It was faster-paced."
Six different players registered points in the first half for the Bears (15-9, 6-3 MACCC), including 10 each from Fazl Oshodi and LeVionne Lindsey.
While Lindsey shined from inside the arc, Oshodi connected on a pair of deep shots, knocking down the lone 3-pointers of the first half for the Bears who found themselves tied at 38 at the intermission.
Things began to pick up in the second half for Southwest.
And one big factor that led to that was free throw shooting. In the final 20:00 of play, the Bears connected on 8-of-10 shots from the charity stripe, part of a 14-of-20 performance in the game.
The bulk of the free throw shooting came from Tylik Weeks and Lindsey, who combined to shoot 7-of-9 in the second half alone.
While they contributed with key makes from the free throw line, Oshodi splashed-in another 3-pointer, and he was joined from long-range by Robert Flantroy and Daylen Thomas who made one each in the second half.
Lindsey led the charge for Southwest with 21 points while Weeks poured in 16, Oshodi 15 and Flantroy 14.
Southwest returns home Monday to face Hinds at 7:30 p.m.
