Selma, Southside take Friday wins
Published 10:37 pm Friday, December 23, 2011

Selma High School’s Tavarius Murry breaks away from Keith’s Carstella Hayes during the Saints’ 42-37 win over the Bears. Keith and Selma participated in the Southside Christmas tournament Friday night. -- Robert Hudson
By Robert Hudson
The Selma Times-Journal
The Selma High School Saints led the entire second half and were able to hold off a late comeback attempt, as they defeated the Keith High School Bears 42-37 on Friday in the second game of the Southside Christmas Tournament.
Selma head basketball coach Woodie Jackson said the Saints (7-6, 1-1) played sloppy, but a win is a win.
“We did okay, we won,” Jackson said. “We had a lot of mental mistakes. I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any time.”
The Saints led by as much as 11 points, but the Bears (5-8, 2-0) would cut the lead to 33-31 midway through the fourth quarter.
Martavius Harris would hit a runner in the lane for Keith to tie the game at 33-33 with 3:22 left to play, but Kamal Jones would score down low the very next possession to put the Saints back ahead at 35-33.
The Saints would get a defensive stop on the Bears and Henry Blevins would lay it in for Selma to make the score 37-33 with 2:38 left.
Both teams would exchange successful trips at the line to put the score at 39-35 and then Bobby Barnes would score in the paint for Keith to make it a 39-37 game with 1:33 left.
The Bears would force a stop and have a chance to tie or take the lead, but their shots wouldn’t fall.
The Saints would run down the clock, forcing the Bears to foul and send Quinterrius Rogers to the line with 0:11 remaining.
Rogers would only hit one of his free throws, but the Bears could not snag the rebound and were forced to foul again, this time sending Blevins to the line.
Blevins would sink both free throws and seal the victory for the Saints.
Bears’ head basketball coach Tommy Tisdale said his team fought hard, but the shots just wouldn’t fall.
“Down the stretch I think we showed a lot of heart, a lot of resiliency,” Tisdale said. “The ball didn’t bounce our way a lot of times. We had the exact same game plan from the last two games yielded the same results, but I think we got the shots we wanted, we got the ball where we needed it to be. They hit some key shots at some key moments, but I think we did a good job of getting back in the game. We never could really get over the hump. Hats off to my guys because they played and they did everything I asked them to do.”
Tavarius Murry led the Saints with 11 points and Darion Alexander added 10 points for Selma.
Anfernee Simmons and Rodney Ellis led the Bears with 7 points each.
Southside defeats
Montgomery Academy
The Southside Panthers held a single-digit lead at halftime, but would soon pull away, as they defeated Montgomery Academy 57-44 to open the Southside Christmas Tournament on Friday.
Panthers’ (9-5, 2-0) head basketball coach Cedric Brown said his team relied on its talent to get the victory.
“Tonight our athleticism really carried us,” Brown said. “They’re a very fundamentally sound team and very well disciplined. That’s how we want to be. If we can get our athleticism as well as our discipline and fundamentals down, we can be a great team.”
The Panthers had a 32-25 lead coming out of the half and would start to take control in the third, as Courtney Woods would score in the paint and spark a 7-0 Southside run midway through the quarter.
Southside would take a 43-31 lead into the fourth, but Montgomery Academy would cut the lead down to ten points at 50-40 with 2:37 left to play.
However, the Panthers were soon in the bonus as Montgomery Academy was forced to foul with time running out.
Southside would go five of six from the free throw line the rest of the way.
Jeffery Mack and Mario Oliver led the Panthers with 12 points each, while Josh Thomas led Montgomery Academy with 13 points.
The Southside Christmas Tournament will resume Saturday starting with Keith versus Montgomery Academy at 2 p.m. and concluding with Southside versus Selma at 3:15 p.m.