Southeast girls off to strong start

Published 12:10 am Friday, June 23, 2006

The Southeast Lauderdale girls picked up right where they left off in the State Games of Mississippi.

The Northeast Lauderdale boys, however, saw their chances of winning a gold medal in this year’s high school basketball competition take a serious hit on the first day.

Southeast’s girls began defense of their gold medal with a convincing win over Quitman — but it was an injury suffered to Northeast standout Romero Osby which may have been the biggest story in first-day State Games hoops action at Meridian Community College.

Osby, Northeast’s 6-foot-8 junior who is considered one of the state’s top underclassmen, left with an apparent broken wrist after falling following an intentional foul while he finished a 2-on-1 fast break with a slam dunk. Northeast was up by 11 points at the time and finished with a 79-76 win over the Meridian High School junior-varsity team; with Osby finishing with 18 points in 16 minutes of action.

Meanwhile, the Southeast girls put together 12-0 and 15-0 runs in the first half of a 56-21 win over Quitman.

“Not bad. Especially for our first game here,” Southeast coach Joe Miller said. “We’ve got to shoot the ball better and we’ve got to cut down on our turnovers, but I’m pretty pleased.”

Southeast, which won the Class 3A state championship last March, lost Louisiana Tech signee Tiawana Pringle, Marqueta Reed and Chasiti Nichols from last year’s team.

The two holdovers, Martika Ivy and Lucy Ruffin, and Tushundra Owens — who finished last season as a starter — more than picked up the slack on Thursday, however.

Owens had nine rebounds, five steals and three blocks to go with five points; Ivy had 15 points and five boards in just 13 minutes of action; and Ruffin had seven points, six assists and six steals.

Southeast committed 21 turnovers; but forced Quitman into an amazing 41 turnovers and out-rebounded the Lady Panthers 43-28.

“We’re going to rely a lot on our press and it worked well today,” Miller said of Southeast, which had won 11 of 12 summer-league contests entering the State Games.

Samantha Ruffin and Myeshia Pringle scored eight points apiece for the Lady Tigers, Lenell Mitchell had four assists and Keyosha Robinson and Ruffin both had eight rebounds.

Sarah Whaley led Quitman with seven points.



Other games …

In Thursday’s other action from MCC’s Ivy Sports Center:

• Northeast won the late game 79-76 over the MHS junior-varsity squad, with Kevin Bramlett’s 20 points leading the way in a contest which featured two significant delays — the second following a couple of heated confrontations after Osby left with his injury.

Osby scored 18, Tommy Tillman added 12 and T.J. Ballou nine.

Richard Carlisle and Derrick Smith had 16 points apiece and Ray Brown scored 15 for Meridian.

• Warren Central’s girls outscored Northeast Lauderdale by 14 points in the second half on their way to a 45-24 win over the Lady Trojans.

Sha’Kayla Cates led the Lady Vikings with 17 points, while Northeast got seven from Jalonda Coats.

• Columbia’s boys got 19 points apiece from Hayi Cain and Derwin Foxworth and 15 points from T.J. Weems in a 74-63 victory over Heidelberg.

The Oilers were led by Kendrick McDonald’s 13 points. Justin Buxton added 12 and Kevin Nixon had nine.

• Columbia’s girls knocked off Heidelberg 46-14 behind a game-high 20 points from Olivia Magee.