Panthers move on to CPC final; Seahawks also headed to postseason

Published 6:33 pm Friday, February 21, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

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Beaufort County will have two girls’ basketball teams in the NC High School Athletic Association state playoffs when they start next week. Ironically, they met on Tuesday in the Coastal Plains Conference Tournament semifinals.

Northside’s girls beat Southside, 76-52, to advance to the title game against Pamlico County, which is slated for 3 p.m. Saturday at Lejeune High School on the campus of Camp Lejeune. Northside (23-1), the top seed, will look for its third victory over the Hurricanes (21-4) this season. 

Tuesday marked a weird day that started with Northside preparing to play on Wednesday, then scrambling to get the game with Southside in before the winter weather arrived. Southside (14-9) was slated to host Lejeune in its first-round game on Tuesday, but the league canceled those games and moved on to the semifinals.

Northside coach Michelle Leathers got the early-morning news and then had to put a plan together for her team to play. That included getting up with her players and developing a plan against their Beaufort County rivals one day ahead of schedule.

Fortunately, Leathers said they had a good practice on Monday. That was needed as Southside, which had to make some adjustments of their own, jumped out to a 20-7 lead early in the second quarter.

“I went from being in the congregation, I had to go to the pulpit,” Leathers said. “… It was 20 to 7, and normally, if you see me coaching in the past, I get all uptight, so I knew I had to stay calm because we worked too hard. (Monday), we had awesome practice.

“So I knew, I said, ‘It’s gonna come, it’s gonna come. We just gotta have the patience and wait, and our time will come.”

The Seahawks benefitted from Northside getting into some early foul trouble. Southside had 11 of its 15 first-quarter points from the free-throw line. A 3-pointer and layup by Tamya Smith gave Southside the 20-7 lead with 5:51 left in the half.

Also, neither team was shooting very well in the first half. Southside was just 2-for-11 from the floor in the opening quarter, including 0-for-8 at the start. Northside was just 2-for-18 with three turnovers in the first quarter and 9-for-38 for the half. However, the Panthers got some life in the final minute of the half to take a 27-24 halftime lead. O.J. Cahoon, who finished with a game-high 34 points, hit two free throws and then converted two layups off turnovers by Southside. Sophie Berry, who added 13 points, scored off an assist from Cahoon with three seconds left in the half.

“Well, I think no matter how we come out, whether we’re making shots or not, you keep shooting,” Cahoon said. “I mean, the shots are there, you take them, they’re gonna start falling eventually.”

“I think we were really tense at the beginning of the game,” Berry said. “And as the game just kept going, we started making more shots, and they started falling more.”

Northside found its rhythm on both sides of the ball after that and scored the last nine points of the third quarter for a 56-35 lead. Cahoon had 16 of those points, connecting on two straight 3-point baskets along the way. The Seahawks made 33 turnovers overall, 14 in the decisive third quarter as Northside’s press defense went to work.

Southside coach Milton Ruffin had a similar situation happen on Jan. 14 as the Seahawks lost 50-49 at Northside. While the Seahawks can now turn the focus to the state playoffs, losing this one the way they did was a hard pill to swallow.

“Yeah, the last two minutes, right before halftime, we just turned the ball over,” Ruffin said. “I mean, I don’t contest it, just turned the ball over.

“Yeah, I think the turnovers really hurt us. I think we played with them from both ends of the court pretty good, but the turnovers were the difference in the ballgame.”

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