Southeast Lauderdale's Jamia Harris tries to steal the ball from Northeast Lauderdale's Molly Moore as she makes a run up the court Saturday night during the finals of the Sam Dale tournament at Quitman High School.

QUITMAN — Northeast Lauderdale used a first-quarter surge to dictate the flow of Saturday’s Sam Dale Tournament girls’ championship as the Lady Trojans cruised to a 52-31 win over Southeast Lauderdale at Quitman High School. 

The win was Northeast Lauderdale’s 10th of the season, and perhaps more importantly, it sends the Lady Trojans into their Region 5-4A opener against West Lauderdale next week with momentum.

“It gives us a lot of confidence, and hopefully it pushes us into the second half of the season,” Northeast Lauderdale coach Lewis Lightsey said. “It gives us that confidence going into district play that we can get a hot start coming into January.”

Northeast Lauderdale (10-2) point guard Molly Moore scored a game-high 17 points, nine on which she tallied in the first quarter. Moore exited the game in the second quarter after taking a hard tumble to the floor, but she returned later in the period.

While Moore’s offensive prowess is no secret, her impact on defense was shown during her brief absence. Southeast Lauderdale scored nine points during the few minutes Moore was off the court. 

“She’s tenacious,” Lightsey said of Moore. “She leads our team on offense and sets the defense by guarding the other team’s best player. We gave up several baskets while she was out. Just that kind of leadership — quiet leadership, and just goes and gets it done.”

Nesha Moss tallied 12 points, and Charity Hinton contributed 10 points to round out Northeast Lauderdale’s double-digit scorers. Eight Lady Trojan players posted points in the win.

Leading 6-4 with 4:27 left in the first quarter, Northeast Lauderdale went on a 10-0 run to stretch its lead to 16-4 with 58 seconds remaining in the period. The Lady Trojans led 16-7 to enter the second quarter.

 In the second quarter, Northeast Lauderdale inundated Southeast Lauderdale (7-4) with a flurry of 3-pointers, as Moore, Daysha Robinson and Hinton each made one to send the Lady Trojans on a 9-0 run with a 25-7 lead just two-and-a-half minutes into the frame.

Savannah Davis hit a 3-pointer with 5:04 left in the second to halt Northeast Lauderdale’s run.

The Lady Trojans led 30-18 at halftime.

Davis and Brendaysia Wallace each ended with nine points to led Southeast Lauderdale shooters. Kenyata Walker and Kayla Carter scored four points apiece. 

QUITMAN BOYS 48, NORTHEAST LAUDERDALE 32

A trio of Quitman players posted double-digit scoring efforts Saturday afternoon to lift host Quitman to a Sam Dale boys championship victory.

Chris Keys Jr. had a game-high 18 points, JonQuavious Lacy finished with 15 points and Jakobe Arrington ended with 13 points. 

After losing to Northeast Lauderdale in the tournament last year, six-year Quitman (9-6) coach Chris Coleman said his players entered Saturday’s matchup with a bit of a chip on their shoulders.

“I’ve been here six years, and we’ve played for it five times,” Quitman coach Chris Coleman said. “Northeast beat us in it last year, and they wore us out. The guys came back a little hungry for it.”

Northeast Lauderdale’s Ricky Hinton and Tre Welch scored seven points apiece.

Keys, Lacy and Arrington supplied Quitman with all 10 of its first-quarter points, while the Panther defense stifled Northeast Lauderdale (9-3) shooters. The Trojans managed just four points in the opening period.

Quitman led 21-4 before a basket by Northeast Lauderdale’s Keilon Robinson with 3:25 remaining in the second quarter made the score 21-6 in Quitman’s favor. The Panthers outscored the Trojans 17-10 in the period. 

The Panthers led by as many as 14 points in the third quarter before Northeast Lauderdale trimmed its deficit to 10 points after a 3-pointer by Akiva Burton with 1:14 left in the frame.

Quitman added 16 points in the fourth to claim the championship.

“I was pleased with our defensive effort,” Coleman said. “We got after it and kept it going even when they made a good run there at the end of the third quarter. We answered that run with a run at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and I was pleased with our team’s effort.”

In other tournament action Saturday, the Kemper County Lady Wildcats defeated Quitman 55-46, while the Kemper County boys defeated Southeast Lauderdale 56-39.  

LAMAR CHRISTMAS BASH

The Lamar Lady Raiders went 4-0 in the Lamar Christmas Bash to clinch the tournament championship, as Lamar defeated Puckett 62-60 Saturday night to claim the crown.

Ambreah Waters scored a team-high 21 points, and Debreasha Powe tallied 16 points. 

In addition to Puckett, Lamar (16-5) defeated Russell Christian Academy, Clarkdale and Winston Academy during the three-day tournament. 

“It was super physical, back-and-forth,” Lamar coach Josh Sherer said of Saturday’s championship contest. “Both teams just clawing each other’s eyeballs out, playing hard. Puckett’s got a good team. They have a set of girls that are as good as anybody we’ve played. They’re good, and they do a good job with what they do. We normally don’t function well in high-scoring games, but we did tonight. Our scoring has been spaced out all tournament long.”

The St. Patrick Boys defeated the Raiders 59-34 in the boys’ tournament championship.