CHOCOWINITY — A series of telegraphed passes, picked pockets and sloppy dribbling by Southside gave visiting East Carteret all it needed in a 56-32 victory Wednesday night.

Offensive inefficiencies like these have plagued the Seahawks since they won their first two Coastal Plains Conference games at the beginning of the New Year. Now, after the hot start, Southside finds itself looking at an uphill climb for the remaining two weeks of the regular season.

“We just have young kids. I’m frustrated with them because we’re much better than we played tonight,” said head coach Bill Lake. “I don’t know why we can’t bring our game out on the floor. We showed maybe two minutes worth of real basketball and then we go hiding.”

Wednesday’s loss was analogous to the season as a whole — inconsistent, but with spurts of success. At times, Southside’s athletic backcourt looked significantly faster, more athletic than their opponent, but the intermittent rushes of adrenaline were soon replaced by periods of disorganization and ineffectiveness.

Unlike the boys’ game to follow, the East Carteret girls’ poor perimeter shooting gave the home team an early opportunity at a head start. Although the team was outrebounded, senior guard Angelica Tisdale shot confidently and capitalized from mid-range. In the paint, buckets from Jada Jones and April Olds gave Southside an early lead, but once the Mariners stopped shooting and worked their way to the line, the advantage was soon erased.

While East Carteret led by just two after one quarter, guards Meghan Nyberg and Madison Donald began to catch fire, scoring off turnovers and burning Southside in transition. A jumper by Tisdale was all her team could muster before that half, as the Mariners led 28-12 at the break.

“I told them to quit thinking they weren’t as good as the other team. I told them we are better, we just need to go out and execute,” Lake said. “We executed on one end at the start, but every time we scored we got lost on the other end. We weren’t making any headway.”

Clearly frustrated with his team’s performance down the stretch, a rousing halftime speech injected some energy into the starting five. After a quiet first half, freshman point guard Symone Ruffin began to press on the perimeter, coming through with a handful of steals, which resulted in easy baskets. Defensively, however, she provided the only breath of fresh air, as Donald continued her hot shooting and forward Kasey Waller soon became a factor for East Carteret, coming through with five points and five rebounds in the third quarter.

The Seahawks outscored the Mariners, 16-15, in the third, but would collapse through the final eight minutes.

“Turnovers and I think we shot less than 20 percent again,” Lake said. “We can’t continue to miss 15 layups a game and expect to be anywhere close to beating a team.”

For the second-consecutive game, Southside failed to have a player score double-digit points. Both Tisdale and Olds ended with eight, while Ruffin notched seven points and eight steals.

For East Carteret, Nyberg and Donald finished with 18 points apiece. Waller notched eight points and 14 rebounds.

With the loss, Southside drops to 3-11 (2-4) and will look to bounce back on Friday when it travels to Williamston to take on Bear Grass.