The Southwest Lady Bears continued their torrid pace Monday with a convincing 77-47 win over Mississippi Gulf Coast. The win was Southwest’s eighth in a row, pushing the Lady Bears’ record to 8-1 on the season and a perfect 2-0 in MACJC South Division play.
The Lady Bears came out hot to open the action, knocking down shot after shot to jump out to a 15-7 lead just five minutes into the game. Just as the Gulf Coast began to cut the deficit, Southwest went on a 23-10 run to extend its lead to a whopping 38-17 margin.
Gulf Coast closed the half on a 9-2 run to pull within 14, but that was the closest the Lady Bulldogs would get to Southwest all night.
The Lady Bears opened the second half on a 7-0 run to jump ahead 47-26 and never looked back.
“I thought we were pretty prepared,” Lady Bears’ head coach Brent Harris said following the game. “We hit a lot of shots early and that stretched the lead. We were able to play pretty comfortably.”
Guard April Levy led three Lady Bears in double figures with 14 points. Madison Mault contributed 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting (including 2-for-4 shooting beyond the 3-point arc), and Katrina Littlepage tallied 10 points, three rebounds and three assists.
Littlepage was named MACJC Player of the Week last week after averaging more than 19 points per game on 50 percent shooting.
Harris has expanded his rotation in recent weeks, and has begun to rely on girls deep on his bench to contribute. Guard Damiya McCollough returned to the Southwest lineup after missing the opening month of the season with a knee injury. She scored six points on 3-of-6 shooting, but gave Harris and the Lady Bears’ backcourt valuable minutes off the bench.
All 14 Lady Bears saw action Monday night, 11 of whom registered points in a winning effort.
“We have a lot of bumps and bruises and a lot of people have been out, back in, back out again,” Harris said. “When you’ve got a lot of good sophomores it’s hard to get everybody in, so I’m glad we were able to do that.”
Like the men’s team, the Lady Bears will be off until Jan. 9 due to the school’s winter break. But unlike the struggling men’s team, Southwest’s women’s team is one of the hottest teams in the state.
Nevertheless, Harris has no problems taking a break from his team’s eight-game winning streak to give his ladies a rest.
“Nobody gets any ground on you, we all have the same deal and almost no one plays over Christmas,” Harris said. “Yeah, we’re playing pretty well but we also need a little time to get healed up.
“We’re just looking forward to taking a little time off now.”
