Southeast Lauderdale’s Jaytarn Williams gets fouled as he goes in for a layup Tuesday night against Wilkinson County.

The Southeast Lauderdale boys basketball team needed the second half to clean things up.

After a sloppy, low-scoring first 16 minutes that had the Tigers up by 19 points on the two-win Wilkinson County, Southeast found a groove on offense while playing lockdown defense to race past the Wildcats in the final two quarters and come away with a 57-26 win in the MHSAA Class 3A opening round Tuesday evening.

“They started talking,” Southeast head coach Centel Truman said of the second half. “I think the kids had a lot of nerves and energy. They were coming off the emotional high of doing something they hadn’t done in a while, which was winning the district. I do have a great group of seniors; they talked about it, and they came out a little better in the second half.”   

Eli Walker led Southeast (19-9) with 11 points, including a trio of 3-pointers, while Joshua Randle and Demondre Graham each tallied nine. Travis Moore also chipped in eight points with nine rebounds, four assists and four steals. Maliq Nehilia had a team-high 11 points for Wilkinson County (2-15).

Turnovers and missed shots plagued the Tigers early on, but their defense remained resilient all night. Leading 12-5 through the first quarter, Southeast’s perimeter shooting got going in the second thanks to a 3-pointer by Graham and two shots from beyond the arc by Walker, the second of which gave his squad a 26-5 advantage as the Wildcats were held scoreless until the last second of first half when they made two free throws.

A steal and fast-break slam by Graham just over a minute into the third period put Southeast up by more than 20, and back-to-back 3s from Roman Hudnall five minutes later put the Tigers ahead by 26. A 3-point play by Randle at the end of the quarter made it 46-19 heading into the final frame.

A 3-pointer by Walker and a basket by Hudnall on consecutive possessions capped off a 10-0 run and earned Southeast its largest lead of the contest at 53-19 with 4:50 to play, prompting Truman to put in his subs. 

“We discussed everything we did wrong and got better from it,” Walker said. “With offense, some days it’s going to be there and some days it’s not, so we’re always going to rely on defense.”

Wilkinson County was held to single-digit scoring in three of four quarters, scoring 12 in the third.  

“I try to get my guys to understand that offense is going to come and go, but the one thing you can do is play defense,” Truman said. “Defense wins championships, so one thing they have to understand is not letting their offense dictate how they play defense. If you did that, then you have a chance to win every game.” 

Southeast will travel to St. Andrew’s Episcopal (25-6) for its 3A second-round matchup on Saturday.