by Travis Connelley
It may not have been the start that Lady Bears head coach Brent Harris wanted at home Thursday night in the conference opener against Co-Lin, but he will take the finish as a big rally in the second quarter fired up Southwest en route to an 84-44 win over the Wolves.
“I thought that we shared the ball well and we guarded well,” Harris said. “We got the ball inside and we had an advantage. Bethany Graves got going and it wasn’t really by call but by scramble. The ball ended up in the right place.”
The Lady Bears (10-4, 1-0) had five players finish in double-figures in scoring including Veronica Williams, who led the team with 19 points. Graves added 14 points while Kara Beth Addison, Kennedee Shelton and Morgan Sullivan each had 10.
Early on, Southwest struggled to get into rhythm. The got out of that funk in the closing stages of the first quarter when a Navaeh Craft 3-pointer was followed by a Graves basket giving the Lady Bears their first lead of the contest at 9-7.
The hits kept coming in the second quarter as the rally spilled over. Williams nailed the first of three 3-pointers in the period to kick-start the scoring in the quarter. Her basket began a 27-9 run in the pushing the Southwest lead to 36-18 at the half.
“We had to switch our focus, we had to lock in,” Williams said referring to the changes the Lady Bears made to get into a groove.
Sullivan closed out the first half with a score before picking right back up where she left off in the third with two more baskets pushing the Lady Bear lead to 40-16. The Southwest defense continued its stellar play while the offense followed suit. The Lady Bears took a 59-31 lead into the final quarter.
In the fourth, Southwest continued its high level of play as Bri Doucet scored big baskets before Addison nailed a 3-pointer and followed it up shortly afterward with an and-1, garnering many cheers from the packed house inside the Southwest gym.
