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For the thirty minutes of Monday’s road game at Meridian, the Bears were in contention against the host Eagles in a back-and-forth contest. Then came the final 10 when SMCC could not keep up with a red hot Meridian bunch, falling 75-60.

The loss ended a four-game win streak for the Bears.

“Meridian is a tough place to play,” SMCC head coach Bryan Bender said. “They are well-coached and they play extremely hard. They executed extremely well in the last six minutes, closing the game.

The Bears (14-7, 7-5) went toe-to-toe with the Eagles for much of contest, with neither team able to pull away from the other until the end.

In the second half Southwest found itself down by as many as 10 only to battle back. Despite this, however, the Bears could not keep it going as the Eagles got into a groove late in the contest before pulling away and securing the win.

Zach Shugars led the Bears with 13 points while Demarcus Ellzey had 12. Zae Blake had another strong performance passing the ball finishing with 11 assists.

“We did not execute well with our game plan and they did,” Bender said. “The game was a lot closer than the score indicated. It was a tough loss for us but we have to regroup.”

The Bears return home Thursday to host Mississippi Gulf Coast in the regular season home finale.