Southeast Lauderdale High School's Laruffus Ruffin works away from a Raleigh High School defender Tuesday night.

Southeast Lauderdale High School coach Centel Truman rushed onto the floor in the waning moments of the third quarter, greeting LaRuffus Ruffin with an emphatic chest bump as the horn blew.

Ruffin and the Tigers held a commanding 45-26 advantage at the end of the third, and went on to win 54-40 over Raleigh High School Tuesday night.

“(Ruffin) had been struggling lately offensively,” Truman said. “He does such a great job of coming off the bench and providing energy for our squad, and I saw him smile for the first time in a long time. And I was very proud of him that he was starting to enjoy basketball for the first time. He’s a great player and a great kid, and to see him smile, that made me smile.”

Ruffin finished the game with a team-high 13 points.

“We had a lot of fun,” Ruffin said. “We practiced hard, and it paid off. We worked on our fundamentals and running. These district games are the most important games,  but we’re gong to put this behind us and focus on our upcoming games.”  

Southeast (7-9, 3-3) jumped out to a 7-1 advantage to start the game and let at the half 28-12.

“I’m proud of how we played defensively,” Truman said. “We’ve been giving up so many points lately, and we finally bought into the defensive end. Now we just have to keep building.”

The Tigers were without two key contributors as Takari Brooks and Damion WIllis were out with injuries, and Clayton Watson was nursing a thumb injury.

“I take my hats off to the kids,” Truman said. “We wear ‘Family’ on the back of our jerseys, and the reason we wear that is because we believe in each other. It’s amazing how each one of them pick each other up.”

Southeast will be back in action Friday at Philadelphia High School.

“We’re focused on a championship,” Ruffin said. “We’re going to go out there and play hard and do whatever it takes to get a win.”

SOUTHEAST GIRLS ROLL

After leading at halftime by double-digits, a 17-1 Southeast Lauderdale High School spurt to start the second half removed all doubt of the outcome, and the Lady Tigers rolled past Raleigh High School 54-11.

“We’ve been playing well in the first half of a lot of games, and we’ve come out flat in the third quarter,” Southeast Lauderdale coach Centel Truman said. “So I challenged these girls to come out with some more intensity.”

The Lady Tigers certainly demonstrated more intensity as they tallied 36 second half points.

“We really needed this game to get us back into the thick of things in the division,” Truman said. “And help us get us ready for the district tournament (Feb. 16 at Raleigh).”

Sophomore Kimesha Hopson led the charge with 18 points, while Tia Larkin registered 10 points.

“I think we did a good job,” Hopson said. “We did a good job sprinting, getting back on defense and boxing out. We talked on defense, but we still have to continue to work on our defense and make sure that we box out on rebounds and continue to sprint up and down the floor.”

Additionally, nine separate Lady Tigers (7-11, 3-4) scored in the resounding win.

“Anytime you play hard on the defensive end, and you share the ball and everyone is having fun, you get things like that,” Truman said. “We always talk about it’s tough to average 60 and 70 points, but you can always play defense. I’m proud of our young ladies for buying in and playing defense.”

Southeast travels to Philadelphia High on Friday.

“We’re going to get right back into it,” Truman said. “We’re going to work hard and we’re going to push each other. The bottom line, we want to do well in the district tournament, and these games are preparing us for the district tournament.”