Nov. 17, 2009

Southwest Mississippi Community College dropped a basketball double header at Baton Rouge Monday night with the Lady Bears falling 69-61 and the Bears going down 94-82 in double overtime.

The Southwest ladies (2-1) trailed 35-23 at the half and battled back to within five points in the second half. But, an inability to make free throws proved to be their downfall (the Lady Bears sank only nine of 24 shots from the charity stripe).

For Baton Rouge (2-2), the win avenges an earlier loss to Southwest in the Coca-Cola Classic. BRCC’s Teagra Clifton led all scorers on the night with 16 points.

Ta’keya Felder netted 12 points to lead Southwest. Adding eight points each were Octavia Bearden, Alisha Rayborn and Tessa Trippi.

“We’ll bounce back,” said Southwest coach Mark Swindle. “We (just) have to learn from our mistakes and get ready for our next game.”

In the men’s game, BRCC (5-1) held a 34-28 halftime lead. Southwest (0-3) stayed close in the second half and forced the game into two overtimes before running out of steam.

“Our guys left it all on the court,” said Bears coach Bill Wallace. “They played their guts out. We’ll continue to get better and we’re going to win some games.”

Freshman Mitch Thompson led four Bears in double figures with 18 points in the game. Dane Hogan pumped in 14 points with Derrick Harris and D. J. Lewis both adding 11. The Bears hit 17 of 34 free throws.

BRCC’s Rarlensee Nelson had 31 points to top all scorers. He and his teammates combined to hit 34 or 49 free throws.

Southwest will take a few days off before returning to the court on November 23 when they travel to New Orleans to face Delgado.