Southeast Lauderdale High School fell behind 11-5 after one quarter of play Tuesday night against Quitman High School.

From that point forward, the Tigers’ basketball team outscored the Panthers 39-25 for the remaining three periods to earn a 46-37 win in the Sam Dale Tournament at Northeast Lauderdale High School.

“I was very proud of my guys for finding a way to win,” Southeast Lauderdale basketball coach Centel Truman said. “Playing against a great program like Quitman, for us to fight this way and battle out of a bad first quarter, I’m so very proud of my kids (for doing so). I have great senior leadership with Lizarius Clayton, Thomas Grayson and Tareze Grant — they do a great job of leading in the locker room and on the bench, and they make my job a lot easier.”

After trailing for most of the first half, Southeast Lauderdale was able to take a 19-18 lead late in the second quarter and maintain the one-point advantage going into halftime. At the start of the third quarter, Quitman’s Saveon Bumpers scored off a rebound to give his team the lead back 20-19 — but Southeast Lauderdale would regain the lead for good by outscoring Quitman 12-6 in the third quarter to make it 31-26 going into the fourth.

From there, Southeast Lauderdale was able to build up a 40-29 lead with 3:18 left to play before the Panthers made one final push on a 6-0 run over the next minute of play to make it 40-35. Back-to-back field goals by Malik Wright and another basket by Grayson in the final two minutes of play sealed the win for the Tigers, as Quitman was only able to score two more points courtesy of a couple of free throws by Bumpers.

What proved an encouraging win for Truman’s team was a frustrating loss for Chris Coleman’s Quitman squad, and the frustration was evident following the Tigers’ win. He was especially displeased with his team’s free throw shooting of late, including Tuesday’s game, in which the Panthers were 11 of 19 from the line.

“The Quitman Panthers boys aren’t tough enough,” Coleman said. “Right now, we’re not mentally tough enough to finish basketball games. Between missed free throws and missed opportunities down the stretch, we’re digging holes for ourselves, and that’s been a habit for the last four games, and including this one, we’re 2-2 (in that stretch).

“We’ve been in a situation where free throws have been the difference in the game, so we’re going to have to be mentally tougher and step up to the line and make free throws collectively as a team.”

Bumpers led the Panthers in scoring with 15 points, and Jehn Lacy scored eight points for Quitman. Joe Watson hit four 3-pointers and tallied 13 points for Southeast Lauderdale, and Wright added seven points to the Tigers’ efforts.

The game was called with 18.7 seconds remaining due to a fight in the stands.

Southeast Lauderdale rose to 6-7 and will play in the tournament’s championship round at 6:30 p.m. today. Quitman fell to 6-5.