CHOCOWINITY — Southside returned to action Wednesday after an eight-day layoff stemming from winter weather. The Lady Seahawks, after jumping out to a 15-2 lead over Tarboro, were poised to run away with their first win since Dec. 27.

The visiting Lady Vikings rallied back, though. Southside leaned on its defense late to secure a 51-44 win.

“We just wanted to survive,” Southside coach Milton Ruffin said. “I saw everybody there sucking on air and trying to get their legs. I used my timeouts to try and get them a little breather. I did a lot of substituting that I don’t usually do … and I think that paid off.

“It was good, aggressive defense. I told them you don’t have to steal the ball. Just play good defense, and it will lead into transition basketball.”

Tarboro took a 34-32 lead into the fourth, but was held without a field goal for the first five minutes of the final period. The Lady Seahawks found their offensive stride as they went on a 9-0 run — which was fuelled by baskets from four different players — to take the lead.

Tarboro trailed by as many as eight points in the fourth. It managed to close the gap to as few as four, but Southside was able to preserve the win.

Typical contributors Symone Ruffin, Michaela Dixon and Shantel Cannon were in sync from the get go. Ruffin sank a 3-pointer, and the others moved the ball seamlessly to help Southside to a 15-2 lead in the first.

Tarboro, however, knocked down a 3 of its own to cap off a surge that whittled its deficit to 17-12 by the end of the quarter. With neither team having played in over a week, it seemed the Lady Seahawks were able to use their home atmosphere to get a jump on the Lady Vikings.

“You can’t get relaxed,” Ruffin said. “That’s been one of our things; trying to finish. We’ll be in the game in the first half, but then we just don’t finish. We played, I think, all four quarters.”

The two sides matched each other tit for tat after Tarboro’s sloppy start. The visitors punctuated the first half with a base-line jumper by Jenna Leigh Clark to whittle Southside’s lead to 24-23 at halftime.

Ruffin and Dixon scored the first two buckets of the second half. Tarboro responded when senior Iyana Barnes capped off a 7-0 spurt that gave her side its first lead of the game, 30-28. Southside tied the game twice down the stretch in the third before going ahead in the fourth.

Southside went on to play Mattamuskeet on Thursday. The Lady Seahawks’ next 1-A Coastal Plains Conference challenge comes when they travel to Tarboro this coming Thursday.