The Southside Lady Panthers began sluggishly, but overcame their mistakes en route to a dominating 60-39 win over the Brewbaker Technical School Rams on Tuesday.

“It was our first game so the kids were nervous, about as nervous as me,” said first-year Southside coach Wanda Tyler.

The Rams opened with a 5-0 run, but Southside responded with an 8-0 run of its own.

A Candice Thomas shot broke an 18-18 tie and sparked a 10-2 Brewbaker run and made it a 28-20 lead.

But it was all downhill for the Rams from there as Southside answered with an 8-2 run capped by a Jeanne Thomas 3-pointer to tie the game at 30. The run was part of a 23-5 Southside run that put the Panthers up 44-33, and the Rams never recovered.

Southside used its pressure defense to create turnovers and outscored Brewbaker 26-6 the rest of the way.

“Our goal was to score 65, and we scored 60. So we came up short,” said Tyler. “That’s why I kept the pressure on — we had a goal to achieve.”

Nikki Williams led the Panthers with 18 points, and Jeanne Thomas contributed 16.