The Southside Panthers won five basketball games all of last season. On Thursday night against Greenville, the Panthers will have a chance to match that total and improve on an undefeated start.

It’s been an incredible turnaround for a program that was in the state championship three seasons ago, but has suffered through two down years since.

“After every game and before every practice I always remind them to remain humble throughout the whole situation, because just last year we weren’t in this situation,” said Southside head coach Cedric Brown. “We were searching for wins.”

The Panthers don’t look like they’ll be struggling to find wins this year. Southside already has two victories over Calhoun and wins over Wilcox Central and Dallas County.

Players point to the team’s closeness for Southside’s turnaround this year. Led by five seniors in the starting lineup, the Panthers have their eyes set on a state championship. Nothing else will do.

“We are thinking toward the future,” said forward Christopher Davis. “Everyone in here is thinking about one thing and that’s the road to state.”

The Panthers have had a lot of success scoring in transition this year. Southside begins practices by running drills up and down the floor. Whether it’s drills or a scrimmage, Brown puts an emphasis on his players sprinting full speed.

This season it’s paid off in games, as Southside’s brisk pace has made it difficult for the Panthers’ opponents to keep up.

“Everything we do, we do it 100 [percent],” Davis said. “Even when we mess up.”

In getting off to a hot start, the Panthers won four games in 10 days.

Now they are dealing with what figures to be their second longest break of the season.

Since defeating Dallas County on Nov. 20, Southside hasn’t taken the court for a game. The Panthers won’t play again until Thursday against a Greenville team that made the Selma Thanksgiving Tournament finals last week.

Even with the break, players aren’t too concerned about being rusty when they play the Tigers.

“We will probably start off a little rusty,” said senior forward Charles Price. “But coach is probably going to make sure we are in shape for Thursday, so if we do start off rusty we won’t be in that rusty spot long.”

Brown said they treated the holiday week just like they would any other week during the season. He wanted to keep things as normal as possible.

It makes sense for a team that has come out on fire to begin the year.

However, players understand the hot start won’t mean much if the Panthers can’t keep it up throughout the year.  The calendar is just now turning to December, meaning there are a lot of important games ahead.

“Stay humble and stay hungry — that’s our motto, “ Price said. 4-0? That’s just the beginning.”