The Selma Times-Journal

The Southside Panthers held court on Friday night by beating the visiting Trinity Presbyterian Wildcats 59-51.

The win gives Southside a 2-0 area record.

A 13-0 spurt to start the second quarter, which was capped by a Willie Cooper triple, gave the Panthers a 15-point cushion that proved to be too much for the Wildcats to overcome.

Trinity also couldn’t keep Marcus Cleveland off of the offensive glass. Cleveland grabbed six offensive boards and pulled down a total of 13 rebounds. He finished with a game high 22 points.

“Our guys are focused on winning the rest of our games,” said Southside coach Frankie Peoples. “The guys executed well tonight, but we didn’t play the type of defense we wanted to play.”

In the third, the Panthers managed to get as close as seven, but Southside pulled away to a 10-point advantage with just 1:47 left to play to all but seal the win.

After trailing by one at halftime, the Southside Lady Panthers’ defense played big in the third and fourth quarters to hold the Trinity Presbyterian Lady Wildcats to just 15 second-half points. That led to a 44-36 win on their home court.

“Our girls had a little more hustle than they (Trinity) did at the end, and that’s what won the game for us,” said Southside coach Jasmine Pritchett. “It was a concerted effort by everyone that played tonight.”

Three straight steals by Shaniqua Williams and a total of four straight by the Lady Panther defense in the third quarter led to eight fast break points on its way to a 9-0 run to start the quarter.

Williams and Regina Bartholomew led the Lady Panthers (2-10, 1-1) with 14 and 12 points, respectively.