Late run lifts Newton County over Northeast Lauderdale

Published 7:55 am Wednesday, February 4, 2026

DECATUR — Newton County gets a get district win at home.

For Northeast Lauderdale in the end it’s another close loss.

Behind the play of Lorenzoe Gardner the Cougars used a late fourth quarter run to rally past the Trojans 40-35 in a key Region 5-4A matchup on Tuesday.

Newton County (9-11, 3-5 Region 4-5A) is finished with district games, while Northeast Lauderdale (9-13, 0-7) will face West Lauderdale in the regular season finale Thursday night. Northeast Lauderdale is hosting the Region 5-4A district tournament next week.

“It was senior night, so things were a little emotional early. We defended really well in the first half, but they went on a run in the fourth quarter,” said Newton County coach Chance Young. “Northeast is a good team despite what their record is and when they went up our guys just kept fighting and finally one of those type games went our way.”

It was a close game throughout.

Newton County held a 13-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. Northeast Lauderdale went on a 10-2 run to begin the second quarter to take a 17-15 lead, but the Cougars scored the final four points of the first half to take a 19-17 halftime lead.

The third quarter was a defensive quarter that saw a combined 12 points scored. Newton County was up 26-22 heading to the fourth quarter.

Gardner scored the Cougars next five points to begin the fourth quarter to extend the Newton County lead to 31-22, but Northeast Lauderdale responded with a 11-0 run highlighted by a Greg Henderson three-pointer with 3:34 left to give the Trojans a 33-31 lead.

Newton County followed with a 9-2 run to end the game highlighted by a Davion Roberts three-pointer with 1:42 left to take a 37-35 lead.

“Davion is just a sophomore and is started to come onto is own and making a shot like that is big for me and us for confidence and stepped up big time,” Young said. “Lorenzoe stepped up big as well defensively and made shots. He’s our engine that goes. So we’re off the rest of the week and the four teams play, so we will see how the standings shake out.”

Steven Lightsey, B.J. Portis, and Henderson all had eight points each to lead Northeast Lauderdale.

“Too many turnovers tonight and giving up too many second and third chance points,” said Northeast Lauderdale coach Lewis Lightsey. “You hurt yourself when you do those things and tonight we didn’t have enough patience on offense. Credit Newton County they did what we had to do.”