If you love basketball, then Mullen Gymnasium on the campus of Copiah-Lincoln Community College was the place to be on Thursday. The building was packed with fans from both visiting Southwest Mississippi CC and the home-standing Wolves as the rivals separated by just 37 miles played a pair of action packed, close games. 

Brookhaven High alum Angel “Cookie” Wilkinson, a sophomore guard for Co-Lin, made sure the Bears would get no chance at tying or winning the game in the opener played between the wom-en’s teams from each school.

Wilkinson shot out towards a pass by Southwest and stole the ball to get an uncontested layup with four seconds left that proved to be the final score in a 57-53 win for the Wolves.

The men’s contest went on until nearly 10 p.m. and ended with a double overtime victory by Southwest Mississippi by a 95-89 final score.

Wilkinson finished with 23 points in the win, about her season average, which ranks as second highest in the nation.

Co-Lin trailed 43-39 entering the fourth quarter, but came alive by creating turnovers and getting some transition buckets in a 7-2 surge that put the home team up.

Wilkinson finished with five rebounds, four assists, and three steals.

The Wolves would not have won if not for the stellar play of freshman point guard Kylinn Bell. A Choctaw Central product, Bell was masterful on both ends of the court while scoring 17 points, snatching five steals, handing out two assists and grabbing two rebounds.

Southwest had a clear size advantage as 6-foot-1 forward Moosie Walls (Harrison Central) and 5-foot-11 forward Bethany Graves (Pascagoula High) helped the Bears outrebounded Co-Lin 45-26.

CLCC and women’s head coach Dr. Britta Stephens moved to 11-6 overall with the win. It was the first victory for Stephens against a Southwest program where she previously served as an assistant coach for a decade. SMCC head coach Brent Harris and his team lost for a fourth straight time, falling to 10-4 on the year.

Graves scored 17 points and had 12 rebounds to lead Southwest. West Lincoln alum Kara Beth Addison had eight points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals for the Bears. A sophomore, Addison holds a handful of offers including Appalachian State University and Northwestern State University (La.) among others.

Southwest won by 40 when the two teams met last season in Summit. On that night the men’s game also went to overtime and ended with a win for the Bears, but this 2025 meeting may have been even better as the teams traded big shots late before Southwest went ahead late and saw the Wolves go cold to end the second overtime.

SMCC sophomore forward Tylik Weeks has been called one of, if not the best player in the MACCC and he lived up to that billing on Thursday. The native of Brooklyn, New York already holds close to 20 Division I offers.

Weeks is strong with the ball in his hands and he closed the game out by hammering home dunks on back-to-back possessions for the Bears to close things out.

Weeks finished with 30 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.

Both teams shot over 40 percent from the field with Southwest hitting 13-of-31 from the 3-point line, outpacing CLCC and its 8-of-29 effort. The Wolves also did themselves no favors with a 11-of-20 effort at the free throw stripe.

It was a second straight loss in overtime for Co-Lin and head coach David Sanders, as they lost at the buzzer on Monday at Northwest Mississippi CC.

Co-Lin had three players top the 20-point mark, led by freshman guard Deven Bates (Hillcrest Christian). Freshman point guard Javian Watkins (Provine High) scored 23 points and sophomore center Dakotah Hillard (Hazlehurst High) added 22 points.

Hillard, the second tallest player on the CLCC roster at 6-foot-7, made several long jumpers early as CLCC fought back from an 8-0 hole to start the game. Hillard went out with cramps to start the second overtime and was limited during that five minute period.

Watkins, the smallest player on the CLCC roster at 5-foot-5, had the best game of his young career by finishing with seven rebounds, seven assists, and two steals in 36 minutes of action. Watkins took a hard fall while driving to the basket during the first overtime and sat out the rest of the game after limping off the court with assistance from his teammates.

Co-Lin (8-6) got a collective six points from its bench while Southwest (10-6) had 21 points come from the three reserves used by head coach Corey Schmidt.

Leading the way off the bench for SMCC was Brookhaven High alum Jaylen Haliburton. A freshman guard, Haliburton scored 12 points in 16 minutes to go along with four rebounds, one assist, one block, and just one turnover while serving as one of his team’s primary ball handlers.

Co-Lin will play once next week, at East Mississippi CC on Thursday, Jan. 23. The Wolves are scheduled to be back inside Mullen Gymnasium on Jan. 27, hosting Holmes CC. Southwest will host East Mississippi on Tuesday and then travel to play at Holmes in Goodman on Thursday, Jan. 23.