UTICA — After coming up short in the two previous meetings against Hinds this year, the Southwest Mississippi Community College men’s basketball team was looking to end that trend and continue its run in the Region 23 tournament.
But the Bulldogs had other ideas, cutting down a Bear lead before handing them a heart-breaking 81-78 road loss Tuesday night.
“It is a tough pill to swallow,” SMCC head coach Bryan Bender said. “Outcomes aside, of course we’d like to win and continue our season. And I thought that we had a very talented roster throughout the year and had some ups and downs.”
Both the Bears (8-10) and the Bulldogs (14-2) started off trading baskets with Querrion Gadson doing most of the scoring for SMCC, contributing the first 6 points, all on layups. The third kick-started a 6-0 run, putting the Bears up 10-6.
But Hinds fired right back with a small run of its own. It was halted by a basket from Nate Hudson around the 13:40 mark of the first half, pulling SMCC within 2 at 14-12.
Later in the half, with the Bears clinging to a slim 23-22 advantage, back-to-back Xyshawn Jenkins baskets started a 13-2 SMCC run that also consisted of a pair of 3-pointers from Tada Stricklen.
Two more 3-pointers from Stricklen — with the latter coming at about the 3:00 mark — gave the Bears their largest lead of the night at 18.
Hinds was able to narrow the gap a bit, but SMCC enjoyed a 48-35 advantage at the intermission.
Early in the second half, SMCC’s defense began to lose steam.
After Jenkins kicked off the half with a basket, the Bears gave up 9 unanswered points, allowing the Bulldogs to pull within 6.
Mykayle Carter stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer at the 15:48 mark, but it was answered with 5 more points from Hinds, which cut the SMCC lead down to just 4. A little more than two minutes later, a basket by Michael Barber put the Bears up 59-51.
The momentum was short-lived, however, as the Bulldogs went on a 6-0 run, with four of those points coming from leading scorer Jordan Johnson.
Shortly afterward, Hinds grabbed its first lead since early in the contest, but SMCC hung around. The Bears then went on an 11-2 run to jump back ahead 72-65.
Despite the advantage, the Bears could not maintain it.
The Bulldogs slowly chipped away to take the lead once again.
SMCC hung around late but could not close the deal as Hinds rode away with the 3-point win.
Stricklen led the Bears with 22 points. The Bulldogs got a game-high 24 points from Johnson and 22 from Damerius Wash.
Looking ahead, Bender said that there is still a lot of uncertainty about next year, but he is excited for what’s to come.
“We signed a really good group of kids coming in next year that is going to represent our school the right way,” he said. “We are going to return two of the top players in the state in Mazae Blake and Javius Moore. Nate Hudson will also be back, he is tough.”
