The Southwest Lady Bears survived a second-half meltdown Tuesday night to defeat the Northeast Lady Tigers 51-49 in the final round of the Southwest/Coca-Cola Classic.
The win, the Lady Bears’ fourth in a row, moved them to 4-1 on the season.
The game appeared to be an easy one for Southwest in the early going as April Levy and Tee Myers combined to give the home team an 8-0 lead with 14:50 to play in the first half.
The Lady Tigers (2-3) had other ideas, however, scoring 11 of the next 13 points to go up 11-10 on Angela Allen’s layup with 9:07 on the clock.
Down 15-12 with 7:11 before the break, the Lady Bears used baskets from Levy and Myers as the bookends to a 13-1 run to close out the half and give them a 28-17 lead.
With 13 minutes left on the clock, the game seemed in the bag for the Lady Bears as their lead had grown to 17 points at 38-21. But, again, Northeast had other ideas. With 7:35 left in the game, the Lady Tigers had outscored the Lady Bears 16-0 and cut the lead to 38-37.
A Fredrikah Wilson layup put an end to the scoring streak and started a 7-1 run that gave Southwest a 45-38 cushion with 3:30 left to play. Nearly seeing that advantage slip away, the Lady Bears managed to hold on to a two-point win.
“We started really well,” said Southwest head coach Brent Harris. “We talked about bringing lots of energy tonight. We did that early. In the second half, we missed on some good opportunities to stretch the lead. But, to their (Northeast’s) credit, they would not allow it. We need to finish games with a sense of urgency.”
Katrina Littlepage led the Lady Bears with 17 points in the game. Myers had a double-double with 12 points and 19 rebounds.
Mays led three Northeast players in double figures with 12 points. The Lady Tigers made good on 15 of 23 free throws.
The Lady Bears retrn to action Monday against face Bishop State in Mobile, Ala.
