Southeast Lauderdale’s basketball teams defended home court on Tuesday night with dominant performances over Clarkdale. The girls team cruised to a 74-31 victory to open the night before the boys teams took the court for a similarly lopsided matchup.

With two starters out sick, the Clarkdale Bulldogs were unable to find the basket for nearly the entire first quarter. Both benches got plenty of playing time as the clock ran in the second half, and Mario Leflore threw down back-to-back dunks in the final seconds of the game to cap the Tigers’ 73-27 win.

“I think they came out with a lot of energy, intensity,” Southeast Lauderdale coach Centel Truman said on his team’s performance. “They realized that coach (Drew) Watson for Clarkdale does a good job with his guys.”

Southeast put up 15 points to open the game before Connor McDill hit a shot to get the Bulldogs on the board. By the end of the first quarter, Southeast led 23-2.

The Tigers were up big the entire night, but the Southeast fans packing the small gym matched the energy of their team until the final buzzer. Truman said the Tigers’ 15-0 start happened, at least in part, because of fan support.

“We’ve got some great fans. We had a lot of support tonight, so our guys rode the energy of the fans and the community. It helps when you have people here in the bleachers cheering you on,” Truman said

The Southeast squad was productive on offense, scoring 40 points in the first half, but the Tigers brought even more intensity on defense. They swarmed the Bulldogs for four quarters, picking off passess and forcing Clarkdale to take tough shots.

“I think (we were) a little wide-eyed to start the game. We let them speed us up. Bad turnovers. Bad shots. You start doing that against a really good team, it can get out of hand quick, and that’s what happened,” Watson said.

The Bulldogs made some scrappy baskets, but not enough to prevent Truman from benching most of his starters for much of the second half. The Tigers were already down a starter to open the game, so Southeast’s backups played a lot of minutes in the home victory.

“You never know when foul trouble might come into play, so these games like this help out so much because now we can get guys in the games and get them game experience. Nothing prepares anybody like game experience,” Truman said.

Watson also opted to give his bench players a lot of playing time, and he said he was proud of them for stepping into larger roles against a good team.

“That’s good for them because they’re getting to play against a team that’s very athletic, long, can play well. So, that’s good reps for them because we can’t really simulate it in practice,” Watson said.

On a night that Southeast dropped 73 points, a young backup had perhaps the most impressive performance. Leflore put up 13 points, four of which came from the two dunks he closed the game with.

“I think he did a great job. He’s trying to find his way. He’s a young kid, he’s only a sophomore. We have a lot of seniors, so he’s been trying to figure out how to get playing time,” Truman said. “I’m very excited for him. I’m proud of him. Hopefully there’s a lot of great things to come from him.”