The Southwest Mississippi C.C. basketball teams opened their home MACCC slate by splitting a pair of matchups with Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Late Comeback Keeps Ball Rolling For Bears
Southwest's men's team showed out as it beat Mississippi Gulf Coast 73-72 in a comeback win for their first home game of 2026.
The Bears got off to a slow start, going scoreless in the opening five minutes to take on a 8-0 deficit before Chidi Nwosu ended the drought with a 3-pointer.
With 9:21 left in the first half, an old fashioned three-point play from Cy Merrett would tie the game and was followed by a Merrett lob to Leano Rolle to take the lead.
The Bulldogs would keep things close before eventually taking a 32-29 advantage into the half.
Similar to the first, the Bears started the second half in a scoring drought as the Bulldogs would go on a quick 7-0 run to begin the half.
The Bears soon found themselves facing a 10-point deficit with 14:53 remaining in the game.
Five combined threes from Cy Merrett and Courterius Scott erased that deficit to give Southwest the lead with less than ten minutes on the clock.
There were ten lead changes in the final minutes before the Bulldogs began to pull away, holding a five-point lead with two minutes remaining.
The Bears clawed back to within one with 23 seconds remaining, and an errant shot by the Bulldogs led to a rebound and a Courterius Scott fast break where he would score the game-winning layup with nine seconds left.
A few defensive plays later, and the Bears came away with a 73-72 home victory.
Courterius Scott and Cy Merrett combined for half of the team’s points with 21 and 16 points, while Chidi Nwosu was close behind with 15 points of his own.
“Just really proud of the guys’ fight and effort to stay focused and get to the next thing. There was a lot of momentum swings. A lot of momentum swings,” said head coach Corey Schmidt. “Our guys just stayed focused and locked in. Just proud of their mindset and some big plays on both sides of the ball.”
The Bears (8-10, 2-0) now look forward to Thursday, as they face East Central Community College on the road.
Lady Bears fall to visiting Lady Bulldogs
Southwest's women's basketball team hosted Mississippi Gulf Coast Bulldogs as well Thursday, but another sluggish first quarter start led to a 70-58 defeat.
The Lady Bears started slow in the first quarter as they found themselves down 22-9 going into the second.
With a similar second quarter for Southwest, the Bulldogs went into the half with a 37-20 lead over the home team.
The Lady Bears began to pick up the pace as they outscored the Bulldogs 16-14 in the third but still trailed 51-36.
Southwest put up a big fourth quarter on the back of nine straight points from Mercedes Dorsey, but the early deficit proved to be too large as the Lady Bears would go on to lose and move to 1-1 in conference play.
Mercedes Dorsey led the team with 15 points and Gracie Miller followed with 12 points.
SMCC shot 15/24 from the free throw line.
The Lady Bears (5-10, 1-1) look to bounce back when they travel to Decatur on Thursday to face East Central.
