PLANTERSVILLE — Monday night’s game here between Dallas County and Southside started with a run and ended with a run.

That is how the Dallas County Hornets were able to defeat the Southside-Selma Panthers 72-52 in to take the AHSAA Class AAAA, Area 4 championship.

“They got off to a great start and we just couldn’t catch up,” said Southside-Selma coach Cedric Brown.

That great start happened at the five-minute mark in the first quarter.

With the score tied 4-4; Dallas County would go on a 24-2 run to close out the quarter.

“We came out and we set the tempo,” said Dallas County coach Chris Harrell. “We got off to he hot start and it gave us a cushion.”

The run was a result of some basic defense from the Hornets, which resulted in nine Panther turnovers.

“We normally press and trap but Southside guards are too quick for that,” said Harrell. “So we sat back and made them take shots,

When the shots were taken, they were contested resulting in four blocks for Dallas County by the end of the quarter.

In the second and third quarters, Southside began to pull back into the game slowly and halfway through the third quarter the Panthers had pulled back to 11 points.

Then the Hornets began to pull away.

“We fought back in this game but we couldn’t recover from that last big run,” said Brown.

Dallas County had good possession and turned up the pressure yet again to get some easy dunks at the offensive end.

Then they iced the game from the free-throw line.

Keymiye Harrell overcame late foul trouble to lead the Hornets in scoring with 17 points and 8 rebounds.

DeAndre McIntyre and Henry Baker also got into double-digits for Dallas County.

McIntyre scored 14 points and Baker chipped in 11 points of his own.

For Southside, Bartavious Hall had 11 points and Laquentin Gunn had 10 points to lead the Panthers.

Dallas County will play at home Friday against Ashford High School in Plantersville and Southside will travel to Montgomery to take on Brewbaker Tech.