Giving one of its best performances of the season, Southwest Mississippi Community College dominated visiting Holmes on Thursday for a 75-50 victory.
Avenging an 84-73 loss at Holmes in November, Southwest evened its record to 6-6 with the win. The Bulldogs fell to 8-4.
“I was really impressed with our defensive effort tonight, and our ability to keep them from second chance points,” said Southwest coach Casey Carter, whose team held Holmes to 17 percent from the field in the first half and 29 percent for the game. “Michael Hall was really important in the first half for making shots against that zone, and (Christopher) Lawrence gave us a ton of energy and point production.”
The game was close early on with two ties in the first five minutes. But after seeing a 14-7 lead dwindle to 14-12, the Bears went on a 15-3 run to close out the first half.
Southwest quickly built its lead to 22 points on a Cory Lacy layup with 17:47 left in the game and the Bulldogs were unable to get any closer than 17 points the remainder of the game. A pair of Lawrence free throws with 3:39 on the clock put the Bears up 67-37 and they came away with the easy 25-point win.
Lawrence and Mark Bridgewater led the Bears with 15 points on the night. Hall also was in double figures with 12 points, while Lacy added 10.
Torrance Rowe scored 17 points to lead Holmes. The Bulldogs were 12 of 20 from the charity stripe.
Meanwhile, the Lady Bears dropped a 77-55 decision to Holmes
The Lady Bears (3-9) played the Lady Bulldogs (9-2) close for the first few minutes. Holmes then went on an 18-6 run to take a 22-11 lead with 9:10 to go before the break and then went into the locker room on top 40-22 at the half.
The second half was all Holmes as it built a lead to as many as 30 points midway through the period and went home with the 22-point victory.
The Lady Bears’ Shaniece Sheffield led all scorers with 22 points on the night. Shanekqua Bibbs was also in double figures with 12 points.
Lacy Orr totaled nine points while Taylor Williams netted six.
Kierra Gilmore scored 18 points to lead Holmes.
Southwest returns to South Division play Tuesday when it travels to Poplarville to face Pearl River. Game time is 5 p.m. for the women with the men to follow.
