by Michael D. Gunnell

Southwest Sports Information

The Lady Bears got the 2017-18 season off to a roaring start Monday night with a dominating 90-64 home win over the Lady Tigers of Coahoma Community College.

Keturah Bingham scored the first points of the season for the Lady Bears and helped them take a 6-0 lead with 7:42 left in the initial quarter. After Coahoma narrowed the gap to 10-7, the Lady Bears scored 11 of the final 16 points of the quarter to hold a 21-12 advantage after the first 10:00 of play.

A Danyelle Lewis bucket with 8:22 to play in the first half increased the Lady Bears' lead to 27-14. Jamaya Galloway's layup with 6:02 on the clock gave the Lady Bears their biggest lead of the half, 31-17. A pair of Galloway buckets in the last 0:42 of the half left the Lady Bears with a 42-28 lead at intermission.

Galloway's three-pointer and back-to-back layups from Amari Pittman pushed the Lady Bears out to a 49-31 lead with 7:22 left in the third quarter. Pittman's trey with 0:01 on the clock left the Lady Bears on top 71-41 advantage at the end of the quarter.

The Lady Bears took their biggest lead of the night, 75-41, on a Rachel Thompson basket with 9:03 left to play and they went on to claim the 26-point victory.

"We had some good moments," said Lady Bears head coach Brent Harris, "but, we have to improve defensively. We had a good first night, but we have many areas to address when we watch the (game) film."

Lewis and Pittman both scored 15 points to top the Lady Bears' offense. Bingham had a double-double, scoring 14 points and pulling down 10 rebounds, while Galloway scored 12 points and chipped in five assists and three steals.

Walneika Holmes scored 33 points for the Lady Tigers (0-2) to lead all scorers. She and her teammates hit 15 of 23 free throws.

The Lady Bears return to the hardwood Thursday night at 5:30 when they host the Lady Dolphins of Delgado Community College.