The Southwest Lady Bears built a 15-point first-half lead and survived a second-half challenge by the visiting Jones County Lady Bobcats to pick up a 62-53 win Saturday afternoon.
With the win, their fourth in a row, the Lady Bears moved to 15-2 overall and remained in sole possession of first place in the MACJC South Division with a 7-1 mark.
Jones County fell to 11-6 and, at 5-3 in division play, into third place in the South.
The Lady Bobcats took an early 4-0 lead before Southwest was able to get on track. The Lady Bears went up 5-4 on Courtney Epting’s bucket with 15:24 left in the half and 12-11 on Madison Mault’s 3-pointer with 10:52 to go.
A Kadie Parker layup with 7:01 left in the half put the visitors on top 15-14. But the rest of the half belonged to the Lady Bears, who finished the half on an 18-2 run. Southwest closed the half on a Raven Reyes layup with eight seconds left on the clock. The homestanding Lady Bears took a 32-17 lead into the locker room at the break.
An April Levy 3-pointer early in the second half gave the Lady Bears a seemingly comfortable 35-17 lead. But Jones County fought back, dropping Southwest’s lead to 43-34 with 10:25 left in the game.
The Lady Bears quickly answered and went back up by 13, 47-34, on Elayne Robinson’s jumper with 9:36 remaining.
Once again, however, Jones County fought back. Scoring 15 of the next 23 points, the Lady Bobcats pulled back to within six points, 55-49, on Kaylan Hughes’ basket with 4:15 to go. That proved to be as close as Jones County would come the rest of the way. The Lady Bears scored seven of the final 11 points in the game to pick up the nine-point win.
“I’m very proud of our bench for bringing us back in the first half,” said second-year Lady Bears’ head coach Brent Harris. “Katrina (Littlepage) was very tough today, and our post rebounded very well. It was a great win over a very good team.”
Littlepage led the Lady Bears, and all scorers, with 23 points in the game. She was knocked down 10 of 13 free throws on the afternoon.
Levy also scored in double figures with 12 points.
Fredrikah Wilson added seven points for Southwest, while Reyes picked up six and Tee Myers added five. The Lady Bears hit 16 of 26 free throws for the game.
Hughes scored 17 points to pace the Jones County offense. The Lady Bobcats made good on 15 of 26 charity shots.
The Lady Bears will hit the road for their next contest when they visit Mississippi Gulf Coast Monday. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.
