On a night of lopsided scores and uneven matchups, the finale of Southside-Keith more than made up for it.

Neither team led by more than four points throughout the entire first half. In the second half, Keith seized control.

In a final score that doesn’t show how close the game really was, Keith defeated Southside 67-48 Monday at Wallace Community College-Selma. Despite a two-point Southside lead at halftime, the Panthers were unable to slow down John Pettway, who led the game with 26 points.

“I knew Southside would give us everything they had, and I thought we did a good job of weathering that in the first half,” said Keith head coach Tommy Tisdale.

Pettway put Keith up early with a dribble behind the back and dunk to put Keith in front with 4:10 left in the first quarter. Southside’s Kentavius Page, who led his team with 14 points, responded with a two-point shot to cut the Keith lead to 8-7.

The Panthers’ Lee Underwood followed it up with a 3-pointer to put Southside ahead 10-8. Pettway helped his team tie the game at 14-14 at the end of the first quarter.

“I’m very happy with my kids. They played excellent today,” said Southside head coach Cedric Brown.

The second quarter played out much like the first, with plenty of lead changes and highlight plays. A DeQuan Johnson tip-in with 2:28 left in the second quarter gave Southside its biggest lead of the game at 26-22.

Keith fought back with back-to-back buckets by Justyn and John Pettway.

Khamari Gibbs connected on a three-point play with time running out in the first half to lift Southside to a 31-29 lea at the half.

Inside the Keith locker room at halftime, Tisdale told his players to clap their hands. At first they were confused, but Tisdale explained to them that they should be proud of the way they held off the Southside first-half burst.

He told his players that the second half was theirs for the taking, and they listened.

The Panthers’ Charles Price began the half with two consecutive blocks off shots from John Pettway and Morris Collins.

Once John got going, he didn’t stop.

When it was time for us to step up, he stepped up,” Tisdale said of John. “When it was time for us to make a basket, he didn’t necessarily make the shot, but he made a play.”

With 6:48 remaining in the third quarter, John drained a 3-pointer to push Keith in front 32-31. He followed it up with a layup at the five-minute mark to give the Bears a 36-31 advantage, which was the largest lead for either team at that point in the game.

The Bears ran away with the game in the fourth quarter, completing their second win over the Panthers this season.

Southside faces Dallas County in the third place game Tuesday, and Keith plays Selma in the championship game. Tisdale said he’s not going to overlook Selma despite beating the Saints twice this season.

“When we get this tournament started, every game is 0-0,” Tisdale said.

Selma 47, Dallas County 29

When Dallas County’s Jaydon Buford drained a halfcourt shot at the halftime buzzer to cut the Selma lead to 20-16, it gave Hornets fans hope that their team could beat the Saints.

That hope, however, was short-lived as Selma took back control over Dallas County in the second half to win 47-29 at the Dallas County Classic Monday at Wallace. Quentavious Davis led all scorers with 17 points, while Timothy Baker led the way for Dallas County with nine points.

“We couldn’t ever get any flow. This is is the first time in my coaching career that I’ve really had a team that just can’t score,” said Dallas County head coach Willie Moore.

Selma raced out to a 14-3 lead, but Dallas County fought back. A 3-pointer by Baker and the halfcourt shot by Buford in the second quarter quickly cut a 10-point deficit to four points at halftime.

“That’s probably the best thing that happened for us all night,” Moore said.

The Saints took back control in the second half, paced by Davis, Kiwansis Jones and Kevin Jones. A 3-pointer by Ivan Williams in the fourth quarter put Selma in front 40-25, which all but sealed a victory that was rarely in doubt.