By Robby Atkinson / Special to The Star
The Meridian Star
MERIDIAN —
Northeast Lauderdale and Southeast Lauderdale renewed its rivalry in basketball on Thursday night and just like any rivalry the overall records of both teams just didn't matter. The Northeast Lauderdale Lady Trojans got past a poor shooting performance in the first half to take a narrow 46-40 win on the road against cross county rival Southeast Lauderdale in local high school basketball Thursday night.
The Lady Trojans improved to 18-6 overall with the victory and trailed most of the first half until things turned positive on the scoreboard for Northeast in the second half.
"We did struggle shooting the ball in the first half, but we did make a lot of mistakes on both ends of the floor," said Northeast Lauderdale head coach Frederick Liddell. "I was impressed with the way we played down the stretch and we made some big shots in the fourth quarter that made the difference."
Both teams shot the ball poorly in the first quarter of action as Southeast Lauderdale held a 7-4 lead. The Lady Tigers used the solid inside of play of Jordan Gentry who scored four of the seven points for Southeast Lauderdale in the first quarter.
"She (Gentry) is has gotten much better as the season has progressed," said Southeast Lauderdale head coach Joe Miller. "I thought that we did a solid job inside early and plus we did a good job of stopping their inside game in the first half. We just made too many mistakes that led to turnovers and you just can't do that against a great team like Northeast Lauderdale."
Southeast Lauderdale (6-15) continued to led the game at the end of the first half with a 20-14 lead over Northeast Lauderdale. Junior Rachel Adams scored 10 of her game high 22 points in the first half to propel the Lady Tigers to the six point edge at half time.
"I thought that she (Adams) played the best game on the floor for us tonight," added Miller. "She hurt her knee a few weeks ago and we thought we had lost her for the year, but she has come on strong as of late. She handles the ball well and had a solid game for us tonight."
Northeast Lauderdale came out of the locker room strong to grab its first lead of the night at 23-22 with 5:34 left in the third. Kamile Horne drained a pair of three-point baskets for Northeast in the scoring run to give the Lady Trojans the narrow led. Southeast Lauderdale responded with a quick 8-0 run to take the led back from Northeast Lauderdale at 30-23 with 3:23 left in the third. Adams continued to shoot the basketball well for the Lady Tigers as she led the scoring run with six points.
Northeast Lauderdale kept the game close at the end of the third quarter from the free throw line as Southeast Lauderdale held a slim 34-32 led heading into a bizarre fourth quarter. Northeast Lauderdale opened the fourth quarter by scoring six points and Horne collected another three point shot to make the score 38-34. The next five minutes of the fourth quarter took a very interesting turn as Southeast Lauderdale held the basketball at half court and took the game clock under two minutes to play in the game.
Southeast Lauderdale held the ball most of the quarter and eventually drained a pair of free throws to cut the Northeast Lauderdale lead to 38-36 with 1:48 left in the game.
"I thought that we looked tired and we just don't have a whole lot of depth," said Miller. We wanted to hold the ball until the two minutes left in the game and we scored on the play. We just made a couple of mistakes on defense in the last minute and we just can't do that against good teams."
Northeast Lauderdale capitalized on three key Southeast Lauderdale turnovers in the final minute of play that led to a couple of baskets as the Lady Trojans held on for a six point win.
"This is a good road win for our basketball team," added Liddell. "It is always good to beat a team like this heading into the most important part of our season coming up in the next couple of weeks.
Horne led Northeast Lauderdale with 15 points in the victory and Jacqueline Williams chipped in with 11 points for the Lady Trojans.
Northeast Lauderdale will return to action tonight on the road at Kemper County and will host the Division 5-4A Tournament next week. Southeast Lauderdale will host Choctaw Central tonight and the Lady Tigers will travel to the Division 5-3A Tournament next week at Heidelberg.
Northeast 75
Southeast 64
Southeast Lauderdale held a 13-12 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Trojans would head several three point shots that led to the 11 point road win over the Tigers. Northeast Lauderdale hit five three point baskets in the second quarter to take a 44-26 lead at half time. The lead ballooned for the Trojans in the opening minutes of the second quarter as Northeast went on a 10-0 run to take a 21-13 lead over Southeast with 5:41 left in the second.
Jamond Hill led the charge with three baskets from long range for Northeast Lauderdale. The Trojans continued to shoot the ball well from long range to take a 63-36 lead at the end of the third quarter. Northeast connected on four more three point baskets in the third as A.J. Wade hit two of the long range jumpers. Gary Cummings was hot from beyond the three point line with two long jumpers in the third.
Northeast Lauderdale ended the game with 11 total baskets from three point range. Hill led the Trojans with 20 points and Cummings added 12 points in the victory for Northeast. Eric Ferguson led the way in scoring for Southeast Lauderdale with 25 points.
