WESSON – Thursday night’s South Divisionshowdown seemed to bring out the best in both teams, especially onoffense. Co-Lin outscored the Southwest Mississippi CommunityCollege Bears 93-88 in jam-packed Mullen Gymnasium and the Wolfpackremained in the hunt for a state playoff berth.

    LeDarius Davis and Mike Buffalo came off the bench to score 19 and17 points respectively , leading 5 Co-Lin players in double digits.Jay Case chipped in 15 points, Anthony Davis 14 and Jake Reed13.

    Co-Lin (8-9, 3-4) gained a tie with Southwest (8-10, 3-4) forfourth place in the South. The Wolves also avenged a 78-72 roadloss, suffered Dec. 1 at Summit.

    “It was a big rivalry game and we played real hard,” said Case, afreshman guard from Brookhaven (West Lincoln). “We came out flatbut we bounced back.”

    Co-Lin men’s coach Dennis Sims praised his team’s determinationagainst the Bears. “Southwest got three nice leads on us but ourkids came back. We had a great crowd here tonight and they helpedus win.

    “I don’t like giving up that many points but we shot the ballextremely well,” making 57 percent from the field and 38 percentfrom 3-point range. Co-Lin also made 26 of 34 free throwattempts.

    “Our bench outscored them 43-13 and that’s amazing,” Sims noted.”LeDarrius and Buffalo came in and played well.”

    Southwest led 45-40 at halftime and increased the margin to 7points, 49-42 on Wesley Blackmon’s jumper from the wing. Blackmon,a 6-foot-6, 215-pound leaper from Houston, Texas, finished with 20points and 5 rebounds. He fouled out with 5:32 left in the game andthe Bears down 80-73.

    Encouraged by energetic first-year coach Casey Carter, the Bearspulled within 4 points, 87-83, on Josh Brannon’s thunder dunk off asteal with 2:21 left in the game.

    Co-Lin got a driving layup from point guard Anthony Davis andforward Maurice Williams made 3 of 4 free throws in the last 39seconds to secure the win.

    “Give Coach Sims and his guys credit for a well-played game,” saidCarter as he held his young, curly-headed  son, Wilks. “Our guys played hard butwe came up short.”

    Carter said Blackmon’s departure hurt his team. He also had twoguards, Michael Henry  andMichael Hall, sustain sprained ankles during the hard-foughtcontest.

     The Bears got a game-high24 points from guard Mark Bridgewater, including 4 treys. Cory Lacychipped in 19 points and Curtis Haynes 11.