By By Aaron Carpenter, Staff Correspondent
Williamston — The Williamston Tigers boys’ team took care of Southside rather handily Tuesday night, beating the Seahawks 66-49.
Both teams came out of the gate looking a little sluggish and only combined for 14 points in the first quarter.
Gilmore got his boys settled down in the second quarter, and the Tigers opened up with a 9-2 run to make the score 19-6.
After Byron Jordan completed an old-fashioned 3-point play for Southside, Cedric Moody of Williamston responded by sinking a basket from beyond the arc to keep the lead at 13.
The play was pretty even over the last half of the second quarter with both teams fouling a lot, resulting in many attempts from the charity stripe.
Williamston was able to hold Southside off and took a 14 point lead into the locker room, 31-17.
The Seahawks came out looking a little more organized in the third quarter, but just couldn’t seem to cut into the lead the Tigers had built.
Spruell didn’t look too bad in the third, as he scored eight of team-leading 17 points, there just wasn’t a lot of help from the rest of the team through three quarters. Only three other players for Southside managed to score before the fourth.
Williamston took advantage of turnovers and fast-break points to keep the Seahawks at bay throughout the game.
The Tigers were able to extend their half-time lead to 17 in the third, but Southside wasn’t going to give in.
The Seahawks opened the fourth quarter by going on a 12-5 run over the first four minutes, capped off by Moody sinking a pair of free throws. The lead was cut to 10, but that was as close as Southside would get for the rest of the game as the Tigers shot 7-7 from the line in the waning moments.
The Lady Tigers remained unbeaten, trouncing the Lady Seahawks 66-31, although not without some difficulty at first.
Southside kept the game close in the opening quarter, which is more than most teams can say about playing Williamston.
Turnovers by Southside and an incredible shooting night from the Lady Tiger’s Katie Paschal, 26 points, all but two of which came in the first half, put the game out of reach in the second quarter.
The teams went into half-time with Williamston dominating, 45-19.
Southside was unable to overcome Williamston’s size and physical defense to maintain any sort of attack that could get the Lady Seahawks back in the game. For much of the second half, both teams rested starters: Williamston because of the lead, and Southside because it has a game tonight against Roanoke.
The third and fourth quarters went pretty much the same way as the second, albeit a bit more sloppily due to the inexperience of the bench players.
Southside showed a lot of heart by continuing to play hard, but Williamston proved to be just a little too talented on Tuesday.
The jayvee team of Williamston completed the sweep by handing Southside a 46-28 loss.
Roanoke comes to Southside Wednesday night.
Williamston’s next game is Friday at home against Roanoke, but with an early start time of 3:30.
Southside 4 13 12 20 – 49
Williamston 10 21 15 20 – 66
SOUTHSIDE (49)
Dash Spruell 17, Byron Jordan 11, Stokes 9, B. Moore 4, Godley 4, Windley 2, N. Moore 2
WILLIAMSTON (66)
Javien Andrews 17, Cedric Moody 10, J. Coffield 8, Smith 6, Everett 6, Peel 5, Harrell 4, Castro 3, Williams 3, Bell 3, Carranza 1
Girls
Southside 12 7 8 4 – 31
Williamston 23 22 15 6 – 66
SOUTHSIDE (31)
Tamisha Creadle 10, Harding 7, Bragg 5, Penn 4, Lomax 2, Avery 2, Haywood 1
WILLIAMSTON (66)
Katie Paschal 26, Monee Jones 17, Equalia Vines 10, Everett 6, Roberson 6, Norfleet 1