ELLISVILLE – Taking their brooms with them to Ellisville, the Southwest basketball teams picked up two huge MACJC South Division wins Thursday night as they swept host Jones County Junior College. The Lady Bears defeated the Lady Bobcats 69-56 and the Bears won their fourth straight, winning 83-81 over the JCJC men.

With the wins, both Southwest teams moved to 11-7 overall and 4-3 in the South Division. The Bears are currently tied with Mississippi Gulf Coast for third place on the men’s side while the Lady Bears hold the third spot on the women’s side Gulf Coast visits Southwest Monday with a 5:30 p.m. start for the women, followed by the men at 7:15.

Southwest 69, Jones 56 Jones County (8-7, 3-4) controlled most of the first half of the women’s game, leading by as many as eight points, 30-22. But, a 7-0 run, capped by a pair of Katrina Littlepage free throws, in the last 2:31, brought the Lady Bears back to within one point, 30-29, at the half.

A Littlepage basket with 19:09 left in the game gave Southwest its first lead of the night, 31-30. They stretched the lead to nine points, 59-50, on April Levy’s layup with 6:27 to play.

Shots by Levy, Littlepage and Cassie Berry helped the Lady Bears extend their lead to 14 points, 68-54, with 1:10 to play and they went on for the 13-point victory, avenging an 18-point November home loss (71-53) to Jones County.

“Obviously, it’s a big win,” said Southwest head man Brent Harris. “I thought we played with great intensity and great discipline on defense. We rebounded the ball very well.”

“Katrina was again very tough, especially from the free throw line,” Harris continued. “All our post (players) did a good job, but Fredrikah (Wilson) and Cassie did a tremendous job blocking out. April had another stellar game. This (win) gives us a chance to really accomplish a lot of goals.”

Littlepage went 7-14 from the field, and 6-8 from the free throw line, to lead all scorers with 21 points. Levy had 16 points while Wilson was also in double figures, with 14 points.

Southwest went 16 of 20 from the free throw line.

LaTisha McCullum led three Lady Bobcats in double figures with 15 points. Jones County hit seven of 13 free throws.

 Southwest 83, Jones 81 Overcoming an early 6-0 deficit, the Bears quickly rebounded to score 12 of the next 15 points to take a 12-9 lead on Mark Bridgewater’s three-pointer with 12:31 left in the first half. The rest of the half saw five ties and six lead changes, including the final lead of the night for the Bobcats (13-4, 5-2), 28-25, which came with 3:21 left in the half.

Southwest closed out the half on a 14-0, capped by a Donovan Ross bucket, to go up 37-28 at the break.

Outscoring their hosts 14-7 to open the second half, the Bears extended their lead to 51-35 and seemed to have matters well in hand. But, Jones County had other ideas and, going on a 22-9 run, stormed back to within three points, 60-57, with 9:26 on the clock.

Refusing to go quietly into the night, the Bobcats answered with another scoring run, 20-6, and pulled to within 83-81 on a Raymond Pittman 3-pointer with 0:05 to go.

“We really needed to come get this one on the road,” said Southwest head coach Casey Carter, “and make up for losing at home (to Jones County).” The Bobcats took a 102-91 win at Southwest in November.

“We knew,” Carter went on, “that it was not going to be easy and that proved to be the case. But, our guys found a way to get a huge win. Corey (Williams) was phenomenal in a lot of areas. He provided the spark off the bench that helped us get this one. Mark (Bridgewater) and Quintarius Porter made huge shots in the second half.”

Williams was nearly perfect on the night, hitting all eight of his field goals (including all three from 3-point range) and going six of seven from the free throw line, to lead all scorers with 25 points.

Bridgewater hit four of eight 3-pointers en route to an 18-point night. Ross and Weeks were also in double figures with 14 and 10 points, respectively.

Deville Smith added eight points while Porter scored six.

The Bears went 10-20 from the free throw line.

JJ Bolton led Jones County with 23 points. The Bobcats hit 17 of 27 charity shots.