CHOCOWINITY — It almost feels traditional for weather to disrupt the late-season and post-season basketball schedules. This time around it forced Southside to bump up its senior-night and regular-season finale showdown with Northside.

It didn’t look like the Seahawks’ third game in four days, though. They took it to the Panthers with the fourth seed in the conference tournament on the line. The home side stormed out and never looked back in an 81-65 rivalry win to close out the season and build momentum ahead of next week’s 1-A Coastal Plains tournament.

Southside started hot to build a 21-6 lead in the first quarter. Shots were falling left and right from just about anyone that would hoist them up. Johnny Sullivan, Pat Coffey and Shondrea Roland all knocked down 3-pointers to twist the proverbial knife early in the game.

“I told them in practice yesterday and before the game, ‘We cannot come out flat like we have been doing. We’ve got to come out loaded every quarter,’” Southside coach Sean White said. “That’s what I’ve been preaching to them all week since Monday’s week. We weren’t looking past Bear Grass, but obviously this is a big game for us.”

The Seahawks were playing with some swagger, but the Panthers weren’t out of it yet. Atia Shamseldin beat the buzzer with a trey of his own to cut Southside’s lead to 23-15 as the first quarter ended.

It helped spark the Panthers clawing their way back into the game. Ikeem Greene hit a long-range shot early in the second quarter and, later on, James Barrow got a layup in transition to make it a one-possession game.

“I told them to play each possession,” Northside coach Mike Proctor said. “We had to play each possession to get back in it and I think we did.”

Tamazja Dixon’s layup just before halftime gave the Seahawks a 37-32 lead going into the break. It wasn’t the 15-point lead they started off, but it didn’t feel like they ever lost their grip on the game.

Southside picked up where it left off in the second half when Coffey hit a shot from behind the arc. Roland dunked in transition shortly after, causing the Seahawk faithful to erupt. Northside would pull within eight points a few times, but never came closer than three possessions.

The Seahawks’ dominance stemmed, in part, from owning the glass. The Panthers struggled against the frontcourt made up of Donshae Tatum and Roland.

“The big thing we wanted to do was keep them off the glass. They were killing us on the glass,” Proctor said. “We tried to concentrate on that. I think we did a little better with it when we cut that lead down, but they just murdered us on the glass. Offensively, defensively, they just killed us on the glass.”

White added, “Having that extra big man down there in Shondre … It was really big. It helped out a lot. He’s been a big factor in the games that he’s played in.”

Southside carried a 56-45 lead into the final period. A layup from Bryson Radcliffe was followed by a series of four makes a the charity stripe by Shamseldin. It cut Northside’s deficit to 69-61, but basket after basket in transition by the Seahawks put the game out of reach.

It’s looking like Southside and Northside will meet again in Chocowinity on Monday to begin the conference tournament. The Seahawks were already pegged to host the tournament’s semifinals and finals. Thursday’s win earned them the privilege to host their first-round matchup, too.