MONTGOMERY — It just wasn’t to be for the Southside Lady Panthers Wednesday morning at the Class 4A central regional tournament on the campus of Alabama State.

The Lady Panthers fell to the defending state champion Midfield Lady Patriots 50-34.

Southside jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter with buckets from sophomore Ashley Cunningham and Africa Tyler, but struggled in the second with turnovers.

“They started off great,” Southside coach April O’neal said. “They were pushing, playing good defense and turning the ball over less.”

In the second period, Southside began to get a little careless with the basketball and allowed Midfield to come back to tie the game at 22 going into halftime.

“When we got into halftime I told them that we really have to turn it up a notch,” O’neal said. “I said we are going to go with what got us here, but we have to make adjustments and if we don’t make adjustments quickly then we are going to fall short.”

In the third quarter the Lady Panthers just couldn’t make those adjustments.

Midfield used their aggressive defense and guard play from Jasmine Steele, who finished the game with 19 points, to pull away from the Lady Panthers and rode that lead into the fourth period of play.

Cunningham, a sophomore, said this loss will only make her work harder next year.

“It will make me play tougher and keep having the heart I have,” Cunningham said.