Southside honored all of its seniors before the school’s final home game Friday night against Central Hayneville. Once the game tipped, the Panthers’ six seniors helped lead one of the team’s best efforts of the year.

Southside overcame a six-point first quarter and a 25-20 halftime deficit to defeat the Lions 70-56. Lee Underwood threw an alley-oop pass to Charles Price in the last five seconds, who threw the ball through the hoop to put the final touches on a dominant second half.

“We’re peaking at the right time,” said Southside coach Cedric Brown. “We went through our bumps and bruises early and to be at this level playing basketball where we are at right now — we’re closing out close ballgames —that’s where we have to be at right now at this point of the year.”

Central Hayneville made sure it wasn’t a walk in the park.

Brown started five of his six seniors, but that lineup didn’t produce the way he hoped.

“I didn’t realize they were that big,” Brown said. “We started pretty much big across the front line and big across the back line. We started out kind of rough, kind of shaky.”

The teams were tied 6-6 after the first quarter, but that wasn’t a sign of things to come. In the second quarter, both squads had more luck getting shots to fall. Hayneville led by as much as 23-16 after two 3-pointers by Keno Davis, but Southside clawed back to close the gap to 25-20 at the break.

“We picked it up man [defense] in the second half, but they were hitting some shots we didn’t think they should be making,” Brown said. “… That second half we picked it up on the defensive end and that sparked us.”

Brown said he told his team to stop taking jump shots in the third quarter and to instead attack the basket.  Central Hayneville’s Jatavius Robinson — a 6-foot-8 center — was in foul trouble and that opened up the lane. Robinson fouled out in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter.

The aggressive approach paid off.  Southside shot 14 free throws in the second half compared to only three in the first half.

The Panthers went on a 13-4 run to end the third quarter, with Lee Underwood leading the way. Underwood scored eight of his 17 points in the third quarter, including a basket in transition and a 3-pointer from the corner.

Charles Price made a spinning layup to the end the quarter to make it 44-35 Panthers.

In the fourth quarter, Southside knocked down 10-of-14 free throws. Price, Underwood, Khamari Gibbs and Kentavius Page made free throws to help finish the game.

Page led the Panthers with 22 points and Price scored 14. DeQuan Johnson was also in double figures with 10 points.

The Panthers will play at Dallas County Tuesday in their final regular season game. Southside will play Thomasville in the class 4A, area 3 area tournament, which will be played at Monroe County starting Feb. 9.

 

Central Hayneville 59, Southside 49 (Girls)

Turnovers were costly for Southside down the stretch in a 59-49 loss to Central Hayneville.

Down 11 in the final five minutes, the Panthers’ defense rose to the occasion, forcing five straight Hayneville possessions to end without a score. However, with a chance to make up ground, Southside didn’t take advantage.

The next five Southside possessions ended in turnovers and any chance the Panthers had to rally went out the window.

“We did have a chance to get back in the game, but they weren’t communicating well with each other and [we had] turnovers back to back,” said Southside head coach Kayla Mason.

Sha’Rita Benjamin scored 16 points to lead the way for the Panthers, who fell to 6-14 on the season. Christina Watts scored 12 points to lead the way for the Panthers.