ROBERSONVILLE — Perhaps suffering from a post-Christmas malaise, the Southside girls basketball team opened game one of the South Creek Christmas Tournament against Camden County devoid of energy and emotion, leading to an 11-point deficit at the end of the first quarter. It was a hole the Seahawks could never dig themselves out of in a 50-32 loss at the hands of the Bruins on Thursday.

“First of all, we didn’t come play good basketball,” Southside head coach Milton Ruffin said. “We were sloppy with the basketball, and weren’t hustling on defense, didn’t help out on defense, so that’s how we got ourselves in a hole.”

Not able to come up with the steals it uses to generate offense by scoring in transition, Southside (2-3, 0-1 Coastal Plains Conference) struggled on offense early, scoring just two baskets in the first quarter. Camden County (3-4 1A Albemarle Athletic Conference) on the other hand, was dialed in shooting-wise, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and several jump shots to build a 15-4 lead at the end of the first.

The Bruins displayed a balanced offense all game, with nine different players getting on the scoreboard. Haley Loyd was the only Camden County player in double-figures with 13 points, but all but four Bruins who saw playing time chipped in with points.

The Seahawks showed improvement in the second quarter, being more aggressive and drawing fouls by driving to the basket. Shantel Cannon, who scored a game-high 14 points, scored seven in the second period, including five points from free throws. While Southside improved some on the defensive end by limiting the Bruins to 11 points, the Seahawks couldn’t cut away at Camden County’s lead and trailed, 26-14, at halftime.

Led by Cannon and Jasmine Blango, who had four points and four assists off the bench, Southside started hitting some shots in the third quarter to keep the Bruins from getting to far ahead. The Seahawks looked to be heading into the final period down 11 points, but Camden County’s Kennedy Lighty hit a shot as the third quarter expired, making the score 38-25. Lighty was a nuisance all game, scoring nine points and dominating the boards, especially on the offensive end.

Having trailed by double-digits practically all game, Southside made a run of it early on in the fourth, thanks to an improvement on defense. The Seahawks opened the quarter coming up with several stops on the defensive end. Then Tyaunna Trye buried a shot from behind the arc for three of her five points, which was followed by a Blango layup in transition to bring Southside within eight points with 6:45 remaining.

The gym began to simmer with energy in anticipation of the Seahawks rallying back to make it a tense and competitive final quarter, but that was not to be the case. On Southside’s next possession Blango was called for a questionable charging call, which seemed to take the Seahawks’ momentum away and bring their comeback to a screeching halt. Southside reverted back to the porous defense and limited offense it displayed in the first period, as the Bruins outscored the Seahawks, 12-2, in the final six minutes of the game.

“We did climb our way back in there by putting that defensive pressure on them, but we just couldn’t maintain. We were just sloppy all day today,” Ruffin said.

Southside next faces the Aces of John A. Holmes (3-1 1A AAC) in the tournament. Ruffin said the Seahawks will need to put together a complete game from the opening whistle to the final buzzer if they hope to come away with a win against the Aces, who are coming off a 58-15 victory over tournament host South Creek.

“We’re going to have to go ahead and start being consistent,” Ruffin said. “If we went out there and played some hard defense, the game probably would’ve been different. Just being consistent, that’s what we have to work on.