By Robert Hudson

The Selma Times-Journal

 

The Southside Lady Panthers took an early lead and withstood a comeback attempt, as they defeated the Dallas County Lady Hornets 64-49 Friday in an area contest.

Southside head coach Jason Bothwell said the Lady Panthers (7-3, 2-0) showed improvement in the win over their cross-county rival.

“We’ve been doing some soul searching for the last three games, so to come out and play that well tonight defensively, that just shows that we’ve grown as a team,” Bothwell said. “We’ve still got a lot of jelling to do, but I like where we sit right now within the area. Over the Christmas holidays we’ve got a couple of tournaments we’re going to play in and we’ll take it from there.”

The Lady Panthers trailed early in the first quarter when an Ashley Cunningham layup put them ahead for good and sparked a 9-0 run that helped Southside take an 18-7 lead into the second quarter.

Southside would be ahead 24-11 midway through the second, but the Lady Hornets (5-3, 1-1) would start to chip away at the lead, outscoring the Lady Panthers 19-13 in the second quarter to cut the deficit to 31-26 at the half.

But Southside would ride a big third quarter and strong pay off the bench from Kalundria Dillard to a 50-33 lead going into the fourth quarter, squashing the Lady Hornets’ chances of a comeback.

Dillard led the Lady Panthers with 15 points, while LuShunda Geeter and Cunningham added 8 points for Southside.

The Lady Hornets were led by Takeela Mixon, who had 19 points, and De’Undria Boggs, who had 13 points.