CHOCOWINITY — A strong second-quarter surge was not enough to lift the Southside boys’ basketball team past Pamlico on Wednesday the Hurricanes were able to squeeze past the Seahawks 69-65.
With 2:23 left to go in the fourth quarter Southside was able to tie the game up at 63 on a Rokeem Miller put-back, but was outscored 6-2 down the stretch to suffer its first loss of the young season.
Pamlico hit the boards hard throughout the game and Seahawks coach Sean White said that was a key factor.
“They have some tall guys. They had two big guys that were down low rebounding that were giving our guys fits,” White said.
The Hurricanes were led by forward Jermicus Brown and guard Brad Bennett, who scored 13 points each.
Pamlico started the game on fire and stormed out to an 18-11 first quarter lead.
The Seahawks (1-1), who trailed by as much as 11 points midway through second quarter, recovered thanks to the efforts of Miller and Kyle White, who sparked a key scoring sequence to get them back in the game.
White nailed a three-pointer to get the ball rolling and Miller followed up with two fastbreak buckets and drew a foul on the last one, which gave Southside eight points in roughly a minute to cut Pamlico’s lead to 28-26.
“That’s the reason why their captains,” White said of the duo. “They’re good leaders on the floor and they do a good job of letting the new guys know where they are supposed to be.”
Miller would go on to score a game-high 20 points, while White added 17 and Andrew Jones tallied 11.
In the third quarter the two teams traded leads before Pamlico would jump ahead 53-50.
A White bucket at the 6:50 mark in the fourth gave Southside a 57-55 advantage but it was short lived. Pamlico would regain the lead and would not trail from that point on.
The Seahawks will be back in action on Friday when it hosts Washington.

Pamlico 53, Southside 37
The Seahawks struggled early and never made up the ground against Pamlico on Wednesday as they fell 53-37.
The loss was the first of the year for Southside (1-1 Four Rivers) and after the game coach Bill Lake said his team lacked the right focus and intensity.
“Our girls just didn’t come to play. We got beat in every aspect of the game,” Lake said. “Our defense wasn’t there, we gave up 53 points. It was just a sorry night for our basketball team.”
Pamlico (1-2 Coastal Plains) got strong play from guards Bri Jones and Alazia Whitfield and took a 7-0 lead midway through the first and entered the second up 11-6.
It was there that the Hurricanes blew past the Seahawks outscoring them 21-10 to go into halftime up 32-16.
Jones scored nine of her game-high 18 points in that quarter, while Whitfield, who tallied 16, score six second-quarter points.
The Seahawks looked to get post players DeAndria Purdue and Kyajia Mourning involved early but Pamlico did a good job of denying entry passes and then swarmed down low once the ball got inside.
Southside struggled to find consistent scoring and was led by center Tia Hardy who scored eight points and wing Breana Blango who added seven.

Girls’ game
Pamlico    11    21    14    7    —    53
Southside    6    10    13    8    —    37

Hurricanes (53)
Bri Jones 18, Tutt 1, Sparrow 6, Kenzie Davis 12, Alazia Whitfield 16.
Seahawks (37)
Clark 7, Tisdale 4, Dudley 5, Purdue 3, Hardy 8, Mourning 2, Blango 7, Brown 2.

Boys’ game
Pamlico    18    17    18    16    —    69
Southside    11    23    16    15    —    65
Hurricanes (69)
Heath 6, Simmons 5, Gibbs 5, Brad Bennett 13, Jermicus Brown 13, Moore 5, Randell 5, Resto 9, Wood 3, Lewis 2.
Seahawks (65)
Kyle White 17, Miller 5, Whitley 1, Rokeem Miller 20, Moore 4, Andrew Jones 11, Hardy 2, Collins 4.