A departure from the division schedule earned Southwest two wins on Thursday night.
Ta’Keya Felder scored all eight of her points in overtime, including the game winner with half a second left to give the Lady Bears a 71-70 victory.
The men held on for an 85-82 win in regulation.
Felder took what could have been the final shot twice, once in regulation, the other in overtime.
After a traveling call gave the ball back to Southwest with 4.9 seconds left, Felder took the ball up the court, cut to the left side of the floor and drove down the left side of the lane.
She launched a floater from about six feet, but it was long and the game went to overtime.
The Dolphins took their first lead of the game with three minutes left in overtime and extended it to four with 30 seconds left.
With 16 seconds on the clock, Jamey Ellis made two free throws. Eight seconds later, Hope Swindle hit her onyl shot of the game — a 3-pointer from the corner — to cut the lead to one at 71-70.
On the inbound, Ellis was fouled and went to the line. She led Delgado with 18 points, including four 3s, but missed both her free throws with 6.6 seconds on the clock.
Felder took the inbound and drove up the right side, cut to the middle then back right for an open lane. She laid the game-winner in,, and the Bears celebrated while the Dolphins’ desperation heave fell short.
“For Ellis, who had been draining 3s, to miss two free throws was a miracle,” Southwest head coach Mark Swindle said. “Felder redeemed herself. She came back and made a hard one.”
Octavia Bearden led Southwest with 18 points and 15 rebounds, but she fouled out with 3:46 left in overtime. Toni Anthony scored 12 points and pulled down eight boards.
The tight finish certainly wasn’t expected at halftime, when the Bears led by 15. Southwest went cold, and the Dolphins started hitting their shots, knocking down 10 3-pointers on the night.
“We just have to play 40 minutes,” Swindle said. “Those last 20 minutes were bad. We hung in there.We didn’t play good and we didn’t guard anybody.”
Other than Bearden, it was the bench that helped get the Bears to overtime. Carishian Patterson hit a 3 that briefly stalled the Dolphin rally. Valerie Smith scored four straight points for Southwest to keep a double-digit advantage halfway through the second half.
Smith and Monique Bryant have seen their time increase with Tessa Trippi’s ankle injury this past week.
Southwest 85, Delgado 82
The Bears made their free throws down the stretch but kept Delgado in the game.
Paul Hilliard hit two free throws with 23 seconds left, but he was whistled for a foul on Jarred LaFont’s 3 with 16 seconds left. LaFont hit the first two, but missed the last one.
The Bears faced a situation in which a rebound would have put the game away quickly, but the Southwest rebounders fumbled it out of bounds.
Delgado missed its shot with 13 seconds left, and Hilliard made two more free throws. A final 3-pointer from the corner didn’t fall at the buzzer, and Southwest emerged with the win.
“It’s just good to win,” Southwest head coach Bill Wallace said. “We’ve played so many close ones — finally we win one.”
Chad Jones and Hilliard both scored 19 points. Jones added eight rebounds and was a key presence down low. He drew enough of a focus to open shots up for the rest of the Bears, who weren’t knocking their shots from behind the arc down with regularity.
Otis Smith scored 16 points, while Tyson Roach and Austin Holloway each struck for nine.
Jones and Holloway were a shot-blocking force down low, sending a handful of shots into the first row.
Fight disrupts first half
A year removed from a fight that spilled onto the court during Southwest’s last meeting with against Delgado, another melee in the stands didn’t spread as far on Thursday night.
Two girls interrupted the first half with 9:07 left as they started to go after one another. The three to four girls fighting at any given time tumbled from the 15th row to the aisle and fought their way up three more rows and back down again before security to subdued them and escorted them out.
The north side of the stands cleared out thanks to the an officer’s pepper spray. Play resumed after a five-minute timeout.
