Even in the age of logo 3-pointers, size is still king in basketball. Southeast Lauderdale (22-4) proved that at Clinton High on Saturday when the Tigers beat Magee (17-7) 61-24 in the third round of the playoffs.

The Tigers’ boys team is a tall bunch that has size all over the court. 3A Mr. Basketball Demondre Graham is a 6-foot-4 guard who can use his length to shoot over opponents or dive through them at the basket.

Center Kaden Butler is a 6-foot-5 mobile tree in the middle of the lane. Even Southeast’s bench is tall, as 6-foot-6 reserve center Derrius Ramsey towers over the vast majority of 3A basketball players.

Magee was forced to shoot over the Tigers most of the night, and the Trojans were unsuccessful for most of the night. The Trojans struggled to get their shots to fall early, which allowed Southeast Lauderdale to jump out to a 23-5 lead before the Tigers coasted to a 61-24 victory.

“We contested very well on the 3-point line,” Southeast Lauderdale coach Centel Truman said. “We know they like to shoot a lot of 3’s and they like to drive into the paint, so we have some great shot blockers down there, and that helped out a lot.”

Either Butler or Ramsey manned the post for most of the game, and they did not give up many easy shots inside. Offensively, Butler and Ramsey both finished with six points.

“What makes us better is that (Butler and Ramsey) push each other so hard. Because they push each other so hard, it pushes us on the defensive end to get better,” Truman said.

Truman also gave credit for Southeast’s defensive performance on Saturday to Jordan Payne and his other assistant coaches for being able to find exploitable tendencies in Magee’s offense from their film study.

“We applied those tendencies to our scouting report, and we took some things away from them. I know I’m the head coach, so I get a lot of the credit, but I give credit where credit is due, and I’ve got a great coaching staff,” Truman said.

Graham was averaging over 22 points per game coming into the matchup against Magee, but the Tigers spread the ball around on offense in the victory. Graham earned 12 points, and nine other Tigers got on the board.

“We know we’ve got a great player in Demondre Graham, and we know a lot of people are going to try to take things away from him. The one thing we take pride in is being a team first, and that starts when you have a great player who is very unselfish,” Truman said.

Southeast Lauderdale was dominant defensively for four quarters on Saturday, but Truman said the Tigers still have some things to fix offensively.

“I think we got a little sluggish when we got up on them, and we got a little careless with the basketball. When you get to that point in Jackson, those things catch up with you. So we’ve got to make sure that when we’re up we finish ballgames correctly.”

The Tigers will face Byhalia (18-11) on Wednesday at the Mississippi Coliseum in the semifinal round of the playoffs. If the Tigers win in Jackson, they will take on the winner of Morton (22-5) versus Booneville (28-2) in the championship game on Saturday.

“Hats off to my young men,” Truman said. “All season they’ve been playing with a chip on their shoulder, and also with a target on their backs. To get to where we were last year, and the expectations that everybody has for them this year, I’m just so proud of them.”