Lady Bears Top Northwest in Regular Season Finale, Build Momentum for Postseason

The Lady Bears entered Monday’s regular season finale against Northwest knowing what was at stake. A win coupled with other factors in MACCC play meant a chance to host a firstround game in the Region 23 Postseason Tournament. And while the other factors worked in favor of Southwest, the Lady Bears did their part as well, delivering a 73-46 win over the Lady Rangers on Sophomore Night.

Southwest head coach Brent Harris said that he was proud of how his team, especially his sophomores, focused on the game and not let the night’s festivities be a distraction for them. “I’m proud of our sophomores especially because I watched a lot of basketball over the weekend and I saw some teams that had ‘Senior Day’ and I saw them falter against teams that they probably should have beat,” he said. “We pointed that out the other day and we didn’t get distracted and we took care of business.”

The Lady Bears (17-10, 7-7 MACCC) fell behind 2-0 in the first :30 of play but quickly regrouped and went on an 8-0 run with Kara Beth Addison, Mookie Lampley, Bethany Graves and Kalea Williams all registering points for Southwest.

And despite Northwest battling back to tie the game at 10, Southwest never trailed for the remainder of the game.

Leading 15-10 at the end of the first quarter, the Lady Bears kept their foot on the gas. Around the 7:02 mark of the quarter, Addison got into rhythm and rattledoff seven-consecutive points, alone.

After the game, Addison said that the team was motivated and wanted to build momentum going into the postseason. “This was the last regular season game, so we knew that we wanted to win big to give ourselves momentum. We had some lulls during the year and we needed a big one (win) and we got that,” she said.

The Lady Bears led 37-19 at the half.

Southwest got off to a strong start in the second half, piecing together an 11-0 run which pushed the lead to 48-19, halfway through the third quarter.

In the period, the Lady Bears got makes in all three facets whether it was inside, from 3point range or at the free throw line.

After continuing to pour it on in the early stages of the fourth quarter, Coach Harris gave reserves key minutes and the Lady Bears continued to shine finishing strong with makes from Kayla Arterberry, Gracie Miller and Akeelah Hobson before running out the clock and claiming the win.

Southwest was led by Addison who had 21 points while Graves posted 10.

The Lady Bears enter the Region 23 Tournament as the No. 6 seed and will host the No. 11 Lady Rangers once again on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. LADY BEARS TOP NORTHWEST IN REGULAR SEASON FINALE, BUILD MOMENTUM FOR POSTSEASON EXTRA!EXTRA!