CLINTON – The Co-Lin Lady Wolves put away the Southwest LadyBears 74-66 Monday night in the first round of the NJCAA Region 23Tournament in A.E. Wood Coliseum at Mississipp College.

In Monday’s other first-round women’s games, East Mississippistopped state champion Jones County 71-56, Baton Rouge (La.) dumpedNorthwest 73-63 and Itawamba whipped Meridian 88-60.

Wednesday’s women’s semifinals feature East Mississippi meetingBaton Rouge at noon and Co-Lin battling Itawamba at 2.

In today’s men’s first-round games, Jones County meets Itawamba atnoon, Pearl River squares off against Southern Shreveport at 2p.m., Delgado tangles with Hinds at 6 and East Mississippi battlesNortheast at 8.

Co-Lin 75, Southwest 66

Powering the Co-Lin women (26-1) with 23 points, 7 rebounds, 2steals and 2 assists was sophomore forward Rachel Vigers as theyrebounded from their first loss of the season. They lost to JonesCounty in the MACJC State Tournament finals at Scooba lastThursday.

“Rachel had a good game,” said Co-Lin women’s coach Gwyn Youngfollowing the win. “We had decent scoring down the stretch.

“Southwest’s post (Octavia Bearden) killed us in the inside. But wemade some good plays on both offense and defense toward theend.”

The Lady Wolves led the Lady Bears 37-35 at halftime.

“Simmons got in early foul trouble but our subs did a good job forus, keeping us in the game,” continued Young.

Contributing to the Co-Lin win with 12 points apiece were LatoriaHolder, Shareka Hunt and Nadia Collins. Hunt was tops off thebackboardsd with 10 rebounds.

“We had a chance to win,” said Southwest head coach Mark Swindlewhose team lost to Co-Lin for the third time this season. “We hadthe opportunities and shots but we just couldn’t execute down thestretch to keep us close.

“We were very prepared for Co-Lin,” added Swindle. “We wanted toslow down Co-Lin’s tempo and be aggressive on defense and we were.Co-Lin made the plays and executed down the stretch.”

Bearden, a 5-11 sophomore from Tylertown, sparked the Lady Bearswith 24 points 10 rebounds and 3 assists. LaTonia Anthony fired in13 points and pulled down 6 rebounds. Guard Ta’keya Felder netted11 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.

East Miss. 71, Jones Co. 56

Eryn Gray paced East Mississippi with 15 points. Collecting 13points each were Natalie Tate and Martika Hull.

Joncs got 19 points from Taneka Carey followed by Ashley Lee with12.

Baton Rouge 73, Northwest 69

Pumping in a game-high 25 points was 5-8 freshman Kaira Etienne ofBaton Rouge. Teagra Clifton netted 16 points.

Tamara Wadlington’s 21 points paced Northwest. Hope Adams had 11points.

Itawamba 88, Meridian 60

Birdie Bowens led Itawamba with 23 points. Leading Meridian with 14points was Amber Fields.