CHOCOWINITY — A stingy press and an 18-point effort by Tyshina Griffin proved to be the difference in South Creek’s 41-27 win over Southside on Tuesday.
On a night where offense was hard to come by for both teams, Griffin steadily picked up points to lead the Cougars (1-6) to their first victory of the season.
“Tyshina is a good ball player,” South Creek coach Greg Exum said. “She can get a little out of control once and a while, but once she gets her confidence she can do some things.”
The Cougars, who have played some tough opponents in the early portion of their nonconference schedule, faced off against a fellow 1-A team for the first time on Tuesday and showed flashes of potential.
“We’ve played a lot of 3-A schools so far, but tonight we played someone our own size and I think the girls were a little more comfortable.”
South Creek pulled away early, accumulating a 10-4 lead at the end of the first quarter, and went into halftime ahead 16-7.
The Cougars scored in flurries, as every made basketball allowed them to set up their press and pick up points in bunches.
“We’ve been working on our trap and the kids played much more aggressive on defense tonight,” Exum said. “They seemed to go after it really hard tonight.”
Southside (1-4) never got into a rhythm as it trailed 16-4 early in the second quarter and 23-7 midway through the third.
“We came out flat,” Southside coach Bill Lake said. “We played the whole first half flat-footed. We didn’t want to go to the bucket, we wanted to stand outside and throw it up.”
Southside showed signs of life in the second half as it scored eight third-quarter points, which was more than they tallied in the first two quarters combined.
The Seahawks were led by Breana Blango’s nine points, while Kyajia Mourning and Tia Hardy each added five.
Southside managed to cut the Cougars lead to 32-22 after a Hardy three-point play midway through the fourth, but would not get any closer.
“In the second half the girls really picked up their level of play and were very competitive,” Lake said. “But, we just had a poor shooting night and we could never really get the ball in the basket.”

South Creek    10    6    16    9    —    41

Southside    4    3    8    12    —    27

Cougars (41)
Baker 6, Tyshina Griffin 18, Purvis 7, Slade 4, Best 3, Outlaw 2.
Seahawks (27)
Mourning 5, Gaynor 7, Blango 9, Olds 1, Hardy 5.