SUMMITT – The Southwest Lady Bears basketball turned in arguably one of the best seasons in school history in 2013-14. Ending the year 21-9 overall, the team finished as runners-up in the MACJC state tournament and NJCAA Region 23 tournament. They also made an appearance in the NCJAA National Championship Tournament.

Due to that success, third-year head coach Brent Harris agrees that this year’s squad could have a target on its back. “I guess one could look at it that way,” Harris said. “Some (teams) may use that as motivation against us, but I think that’s a good thing.”

After the accomplishments of last year, what can the new edition of the Lady Bears do for an encore? “We want to be in (both the State and Regional tournaments),” Harris said, “whatever way we can do that. This year, the winner of the women’s South Division hosts the state tournament. That would be a really nice accomplishment for us and the school (to be able to host).”

“We’re going to talk early on about just playing our best every night,” Harris continued “and getting better toward the end of the season like we did last year and hopefully during tournament play we’re playing at our top level.”

Harris and his second-year year assistant, Britta Stephens, lost six players vital to last year’s success, including their top two scorers. Katrina Littlepage (16.2 points per game) signed with the University of West Georgia and April Levy (12.1 points per game) signed with Lamar University. How will Harris and Stephens deal with those losses?

“We want to honor the past (and we) want to build off tradition,” Harris said, “and those six were very important to us, but we have to move on. I do like our guard play so far, in pre-season. I think we’ve brought in some nice freshmen who can help recover some of those points we lost. But, we might be different (this year). We might be a little more post-oriented, I don’t know.”

“We have some young ladies who are very skilled, offensively, at the four and five for us,” Harris went on. “We might have to change who does the bulk of the scoring. It’s going to be a challenge, but I do think we have a little more talent there.”

Offensively, Harris thinks the Lady Bears may be slightly better than last season, but he thinks it will take some time to gel defensively. “I think we’ve got some skill and some fire power (on offense),” he said. But, “defensively, we’re going to have to learn. We’re a little young in that area (in terms of experience). So, I think we’ll play very similar (to last year) as far as style of play, but we are going to have to grow defensively and fight to rebound because we are going to be a little undersized every night.”

Taking a look at his team, Harris said he has sophomore Talisha Sherman (5′ 9″-Richland H. S.) returning at the point guard position. He also said that freshmen Teshia Jones (5′ 5″-Stringer H. S.) and Tatyana Turner (5′ 5″-North Pike H. S.) “are going to earn some time there. (They) have been very coachable at that position. They’ll play the one and the two.”

“Sliding over to strictly the two,” Harris went on, “Eyonna Wolfe (5′ 4″-Provine H. S.) will be a sophomore returning there. (She) has shot the ball very well during the pre-season.”

At the three guard, Harris expects to see Southeastern Louisiana University transfer Courtney Epting (5′ 9″-Lanier H. S.). Harris said Epting “is a really good defender (and) we’re probably going to need her to score a little more for us this year. (Freshman) Gabriella Cortez (5′ 11″-Natchitoches, LA, Central H. S.) is going to play some three, maybe some four. She’s very skilled, offensively, from a good program and is going to do a lot for us this year.”

Harris looks to have sophomore Madison Mault (6′-Lamar Christian H. S.) and freshman Lillie Snowden (5′ 10″-Zachary, LA, H. S.) “at the four, or the power forward, position. Madison is very skilled inside and has a very high basketball IQ (and) has a great work ethic. Lillie’s very skilled at that position, as well. A lot of teams play zone defense so we went out and tried to find some players who could play against the zone. Lillie’s one of those. She’s (also) very skilled, offensively.”

“At the five position,” Harris said, “(Freshman) Erica Newsome’s the biggest player on our roster (6′ 1″). She’s a very skilled post player from Gulfport (H. S.). She finishes with either hand around the basket very well. Aaliyah Williams (5′ 9″-Bassfield H. S.-Sophomore) is somebody who’s going to play some minutes in the post. She can stretch the defense out to the three-point line.”

Overall, Harris said he “likes our balance. We’re not just all freshmen; we have sophomores at each spot. I think that’ll help us early on in the season. I think, offensively, we’ve got some skill. We’re just going to have to rebound and defend.”

When asked how he sees the South Division shaping up this year, Harris responded, “Good question.” He said Co-Lin and East Central both had good recruiting classes and that (defending state champion) Jones County and Pearl River both return a lot of talent and that Meridian “returns probably the best post player in either the South or North Divisions.”

“Hopefully we’re in that mix,” he said. “So, I really don’t know (how the South will shape up). It’s going to be very, very tough to get in that top four, I know that (the top four teams from each division advance to the state tournament). Even though we had a lot of success last year, that won’t get us anything this year. So, it’s going to be very competitive.”

The Lady Bears open the season in Booneville, on November 3-4, by participating in the Northeast Mississippi Community College Tournament. They then travel to Moorhead to face Mississippi Delta before opening the home portion of their season on November 13 against LSU-Eunice. On November 17-18, along with the Bears, they will host the annual Coca-Cola Classic (facing Baton Rouge Community College and Southern-Shreveport).

The full schedule can be found on the women’s basketball page at southwestbearathletics.com.