By By BRIAN HAINES, Brian@wdnweb.com, Sports Writer
CHOCOWINITY — The Seahawks girls basketball team was able to shrug off a slow start, and a five-point halftime deficit, to pull out a 62-54 win over East Carteret on Monday.
After falling behind 17-9 in the first quarter, and 30-25 at halftime, Southside (3-1, Four Rivers) out-scored the Mariners (0-3, Coastal Plains) 37-24 in the second half to pick up the victory.
Southside’s play in the paint became the determining factor down the stretch as the combination of center Deandria Purdue and G/F Chante Painter dominated down low late in the game to carry the Seahawks.
Purdue netted 11 of her team-high 14 points in the last eight minutes, while Painter tallied eight points in the final quarter and finished the game with 13.
The Seahawks’ impressive fourth quarter was enough to mask the team’s poor start in which they missed several layups and free throws.
After the game, Southside coach Bill Lake said he was happy to walk away with a win.
“I feel very lucky,” Lake said. “It’s good to win an ugly one, and we were ugly. We couldn’t buy a free throw in the first half. We ended up about 14-for-43 for the game, which is unacceptable.”
While Southside missed a bunch of free throws, the team made them when they counted. With less then four minutes to go in the game, Purdue went 2-for-2 from the line to lift Southside up 51-48, then with under two minutes to go Katisha Hyman hit one of her two attempts to extend the team’s lead to three points.
The finishing touch was put on by Painter, who stole the ball and went coast-to-coast for a layup and then 40 seconds later sank two free throws to put the Seahawks up 61-54 with :43 left to go.
The Mariners Chantey Smith did her best to keep her team in the game as the smooth guard netted a game-high 26 points, but it was not enough to earn the win.
Mariners 60, Seahawks 54
Leading by only two points heading into the fourth quarter, East Carteret’s Matt Collins did all he could to keep the advantage as he poured in 10 fourth-quarter points to lead the Mariners to a 60-54 victory over Southside.
Collins nailed three three-pointers in the final quarter to score a game-high 25 points as his team was able to cling on to the win.
“He’s a very good player,” Southside coach Sean White said. “We knew coming into the game that he was going to be tough. I did a little research on him and saw he was scoring about 25 points per game.”
The Seahawks (1-2) overcame a 20-14 first quarter deficit to take a 29-27 lead at halftime led by the play of Reggie Selby and Curtis Myers, who combined for 11 second-quarter points. However, the duo tallied only 10 points in the second half.
Myers led the team with 13 points, while Selby scored 11.
White said his team just got into a funk late in the game.
“I think towards the end we just seemed to lose focus a bit on what we needed to do,” White said. “The guys hustled and played hard, we just got into one of those lulls where we weren’t shooting good at the end.”
Boys game
East Carteret 20 7 12 21 — 60
Southside 14 15 8 17 — 54
Mariners (60)
Matt Collins 25, Lloyd 4, Donte Cobera 10, Donovan Nelson 11, Goodwin 2, Holland 2, Godette 5, Johnson 2.
Seahawks (54)
Reggie Selby 11, Curtis Myers 13, Stanley 2, No. 20 7, Benston 4, Moore 2, Blount 8, Grice 4.
Girls game
East Carteret 17 13 7 17 — 54
Southside 9 16 15 22 — 62
Mariners (54)
Chantay Smith 26, Currence 3, Rimmer 2, Willis 2, Clark 2, Styron 4, Taylor 5, Lewis 2, Rogers 6, Meeks 2.
Seahawks (62)
Quauneika Thomas 10, Starkie 3, Hodges 4, Deandria Purdue 14, Hyman 9, Mourning 1, Chante Painter 13, Stanbridge 2, Harris 2, Dudley 2.