PINETOWN — The undersized Northside boys basketball team battled tooth and nail with the long and rangy Washington County Panthers on Thursday night, but ultimately the Northside Panthers’ poor shooting cost them, as they lost, 99-80, in the final of the Northside Christmas Tournament.

“They’re (Washington County) a really good team, they’re probably one of the best teams we’ve played all year. I’d put them right up there — shooting the ball, rebounding and size — with Farmville,” Northside head coach Jared Adams said. “And we’re not very big inside, so we’ve got to shoot the ball well. And tonight, we didn’t shoot the ball well. But, like I told the guys, for us to not shoot the ball well and still score a little bit over 80 points, that’s pretty impressive.”

The game began as a low-scoring affair, with Washington County (3-0 1A Albemarle Athletic Conference) leading Northside (5-3, 1-0 1A Coastal Plains Conference) 15-14 after a quarter of play. Washington County established its dominance in the paint early, blocking several shots in the early minutes, finishing with seven blocks as a team.

Despite Washington County’s rim protectors, Northside’s 5-foot-8 Rashod Smith relentlessly attacked the basket, contorting his body in midair to score acrobatic layups on the way to finishing with 31 points. Smith also scored from inside his end of the court as the buzzer went off to end the first period to make sure his team trailed by only one point.

Washington County built a seven-point lead in the second quarter and looked like it was about to take control of the game. But Northside rallied back, thanks to Zach Green, Johnathan Clark and Smith to go into halftime tied at 34. Green and Clark finished the game with 23 and 17 points, respectively.

While Northside fought with everything it had to stay even with Washington County in the first half, it couldn’t keep it up in the second. Northside’s Tyler Turner and Clark O’Neal battled to bring down their fair share of rebounds through the first two quarters, but Washington County dominated the boards in the second half, gathering 25 offensive rebounds in the game.

Making matters even worse, Northside went cold from the field as Washington County heated up from behind the arc, hitting four 3-pointers in the early minutes of the third period. Washington County grew its lead to 16 points with a minute left in the third.

A Clark dunk on Washington County big man De’Andre Downing off of an inbounds-play as time expired in the third quarter caused the Northside crowd to erupt and looked to give Northside life, as Kenneth Winfield then opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer to cut Washington County’s lead to 10 points. But that was the closest Northside would get the rest of the game, as Washington County outscored the tournament host 65-46 in the second half.

After the loss, Adams was immediately looking at how to improve and highlighted the positive aspects of his team’s performance.

“Tonight was one of those nights we didn’t shoot the ball well, but we’re going to work on that over Christmas break, we’re going to get better,” Adams said. “We’re looking at the positives in this game, as far as not quitting, not giving up, in on every play, listening and being coachable. And they didn’t quit and that’s the main thing.”

Northside will hold several practices after Christmas, before returning to action on Jan. 4 with a game at South Creek.