By By BRIAN HAINES, Brian@wdnweb.com, Sports Writer
CHOCOWINITY — For the last few years the Katie Paschal-led Riverside Knights/Williamston Tigers have been standing in the way of teams looking to get a piece of the Four Rivers Conference crown.
With the all-state Paschal moving on to play at East Carolina University, Riverside amazingly headed into Tuesday’s matchup needing only to beat Southside to get into the driver’s seat for another conference title. However, the Seahawks would not stand for it, and behind the effort of their own star Katisha Hyman, who scored a game-high 16 points, Southside was able to finally knockoff the Knights 54-45 to get a Senior Night win it will not soon forget.
Consider the roadblock removed as the Seahawks (15-3 (11-2) clinched a share of the Four Rivers Conference championship, and if they can beat rival Northside in the final game of the season Thursday, they will be the outright champions.
“It was a big (game) for us,” Southside coach Bill Lake said. “When we played them earlier in the year (and lost) we felt we played poorly. We wanted to show them that we are a much better team than what they had seen earlier in the year. … We cleared a big mental hump tonight.”
Southside came out charged up as it exploded for a 20-8 first-quarter lead thanks to the play of Hyman, who scored the teams first eight points and tallied a total of 12 in the first period. Teammate Quaneika Thomas also had a big first quarter scoring six of her 15 points in the opening period.
“(Hyman) really set the tone tonight,” Lake said. “She came out firing and hitting and playing good defense. She got us out of the box with a big lead.”
While the Seahawks seemingly hit every shot early, the Knights went cold. Riverside shot three after three but with limited success and fell behind 29-13 going into halftime.
Riverside guard Courtney Wynn scored all eight of the team’s first-quarter points and finished the game with a team-high 13.
The scrappy Knights would not stay down for long. The team came out fired up in the second half with a more balanced attack on offense and took a big chunk out of Southside’s lead by out-scoring the Seahawks 20-9 in the third quarter to head into the final stanza trailing only 38-33.
After a Wynn three-pointer from the left baseline, the Knights trailed 44-42 with 2:04 left to play, but the Seahawks responded with a 10-2 run to close out the game.
“I thought the biggest difference was in the first half, Southside came ready to play and we didn’t,” Riverside coach Hughes Barber said. “We came out and didn’t play with our usual intensity on defense and we weren’t finishing anything. We missed wide open layups and you can’t do that against a good team and expect to win.”
Southside 78, Riverside 73 OT
It’s been an up and down season for the Seahawks boys team but Tuesday’s 78-73 overtime win over Riverside was definitely the top of the mountain up to date for Southside.
The Seahawks lost seven straight games before getting its first Four Rivers Conference win last week against South Creek, and with the victory over the Knights, the team has now won back-to-back games for the first time all season.
On Senior Night, it was senior Reggie Selby who led the way as he scored a game-high 22 points, all after halftime, to lead his team over a good Riverside squad.
The Seahawks trailed for a majority of the game but managed to build up a 62-54 lead with under a minute to go in the game. However, the Knights stormed back to force the extra session.
In overtime, Brandon Jordan scored seven points to lead his team to victory in what became a very physical and emotional game.
“The guys played their hearts out,” Southside coach Sean White said. “We talked in practice about finishing the last few games of conference play strong and the guys played great.”
Riverside played well too and was led by center Marcus Freeman who scored 19 points despite fouling out late in the fourth quarter.
Southside will look to build on its momentum Thursday when it closes out the regular season at Northside, while the Knights will look to rebound on the road against South Creek.
Boys game
Riverside 14 10 15 24 10 — 73
Southside 8 8 17 27 16 — 78
Knights (73)
Marcus Freeman 19, Norfleet 7, Freeman 11, Demonte James 13, Ramelle Lanier 11, Hardison 2, Rodgers 7.
Seahawks (78)
Myers 6, Jordan Benston 13, Tony Grice 10, Reggie Selby 22, No. 24 5, Treyshon Blount 10, Jordan 7.
Girls game
Riverside 8 5 20 12 — 45
Southside 20 9 9 16 — 54
Knights (45)
Courtney Wynn 13, Little 8, Brown 8, Jones 4, Brown 5, Burnett 4, Moore 3.
Seahawks (54)
Katisha Hyman 15, Quaneika Thomas 15, Painter 8, Purdue 4, Hodges 6, Dudley 2, Starkie 1, Clark 2.