Wolves Fall to Bears in Double Overtime

WESSON – The Co-Lin Men's Basketball team resumed conference play by hosting Southwest Mississippi on Thursday, January 16. It took two overtime periods to decide a winner in the rivalry game with the Bears picking up the win over the Wolves, 95-89.

The Bears came out and scored the first eight unanswered points of the game to hold an 8-0 lead over the Wolves at the 18:29 mark. The Wolves then responded with 14 unanswered points of their own to hold a 14-8 lead over the Bears with 14:38 left on the clock. The Wolves and Bears then added 13 points each to their totals as the Wolves held their lead at 27-21 with 9:44 left to play. The Bears then responded with a 12-6 scoring run to tie the game at 33-33 with 3:59 remaining in the first half. The Bears then used a 6-4 scoring run including a layup with less than one second left to take a 39-37 lead as the teams entered the locker rooms for halftime.

The Wolves opened the second half with a 9-4 scoring run to take a 46-43 lead with 16:32 left on the clock. The Wolves then used a 14-11 scoring run to push their lead to 60-54 with 11:14 left to play. The Bears then used an 18-12 scoring run to tie the game at 72-72 with 4:37 remaining in the second half. The teams traded baskets, leads and ties throughout the remainder of play as Deven Bates (Jackson) tied the game with a three-point field goal at 79-79 with 30 seconds left. The Bears then called timeout to set up the potential game-winning basket, but the shot was missed sending the game into overtime.

Neither team could get on the scoreboard for almost the first two minutes of the overtime until the Bears used a three-point field goal to take an 82-79 with 3:14 left to play. The Wolves then battled back and ultimately tied the game after a three-pointer by Fred Gray, Jr., (Belzoni) at 84-84 with 49 seconds remaining. The Wolves then tied the game after a pair of free throws due to a technical foul and had a chance at the game winning shot with less than ten seconds left, but came up just short sending the game into a second overtime tied at 86-86. The second overtime saw the Bears outscore the Wolves, 9-3, to seal the 95-89 win.

The Wolves had three players score 20+ points as Deven Bates led the way with 26 points paired with eight rebounds, five steals, and four assists while Javian Watkins (Jackson) flirted with a triple-double with 23 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists with Dakotah Hillard (Hazlehurst) had 22 points with four rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block.

Chris Stephens, Jr., (Byram) had seven points, Prince Ojukwu (Etobicoke, Ontario) had five points, Fred Gray, Jr., had three points, Keisean Shields (Atoka, OK) had two points, and Jayden Jackson (Camden) had one point to round out the scoring for the Wolves.

Co-Lin is now 8-6 overall, 0-2 in MACCC play, and is scheduled to return to conference play with a road contest against East Mississippi on Thursday, January 23. Tip-off between the Wolves and the Lions is set for 7:30 p.m., at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum in Scooba.