Balanced scoring, tough defense and a raucous home crowd led Selma past rival Southside 64-39 Friday night.

Transition scores keyed a run before the half that gave the Saints an eleven point halftime lead and all of the momentum needed to turn Friday’s matchup into a blowout.

“The ballgame starts with defense and ends with defense,” said Selma head coach Woodie Jackson. “We play hard and when you play hard, defense makes everything happen.”

That’s been the formula for the Saints’ all season and it didn’t change against the Panthers.

Selma (10-2) broke free of Southside (3-8) with a 49-16 scoring frenzy that started with a flurry at the end of the first half.

Southside couldn’t keep up and had trouble battling Selma for rebounds.

“The transition baskets [hurt] and their big guys kept the ball alive a lot on tips. Just those tips alone kept the ball alive and gave them second and third chances,” said Southside coach Cedric Brown. “Any time you giving up second and third chances and you are not getting back down the floor, that’s a recipe for defeat.”

Dexter Hatcher and Michael Griffin did most of the damage on the boards. Hatcher scored a game high 22 points, but also brought down 12 rebounds. Griffin scored 18 and added 11 rebounds.

“We don’t have a super player by no means,” Jackson said. “We have guys that I call blue collar workers that work hard. They are boys and they act like boys, but they are buying into what we are trying to do and that’s hard work.”

At least early on, Southside looked like it was going to give Selma a game.

The Panthers rallied from an early 11-5 deficit to knot the game at 15 points apiece. Griffin answered with a three-point play, sparking a Saints’ 13-2 run.

Transition scores kept the momentum on Selma’s side in the third quarter.

Hatcher got a layup off of a steal to make it 35-18 and seconds later Griffin fired up the crowd with a one-handed dunk with 4:51 left in the quarter.

Aderick Moore added a dunk of his own in the fourth quarter as Selma stretched the lead to as many as 23.

Kentavius Page led Southside with nine points in the game.

Selma will play at Leflore High School in a tournament Monday and Tuesday. Southside will play R.C. Hatch in the first round of the county basketball tournament Monday at Wallace Community College Selma.

Selma 46, Southside 27 (Girls)

Areyana Williams scored 14 points to lead the Selma Lady Saints to a 46-27 victory Friday over rival Southside.

Selma (10-4) cut down on turnovers, committing only nine, and took advantage of Southside mistakes to pull away for their tenth win of the season.

“We executed well,” Selma head coach Anthony Harris said. “We told them it’s team play and it doesn’t matter who scores the baskets.”

Calvondrea Blackmon’s offense kept the Panthers in it with 18 points. Southside trailed only 17-11 midway through the second quarter, but a Jamya Smith three-pointer started a 11-4 Selma run to end the half.

“Their guard play was very very good and very consistent,” said Southside coach Jason Bothwell. “Guard play is something we are struggling and is something we have been working on as the season progresses. I think they had the better guard play tonight. I think we had the better post play.”

Southside scored the first four points of the second half to cut the Selma lead to 28-19, but that was as close as the game would get the entire second half.

As part of her 13 point night, Smith hit another three-pointer with 1:23 left in the third quarter to extend Selma’s lead to 35-23.

Selma had no problems hanging on from there.