By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
By BRIAN HAINES
Sports Writer
CHOCOWINITY — The shots began to fall in the second half for the Seahawks, but the late hot hand was not enough to overcome a slow start as Southside fell 59-48 on Senior Night to rival Northside on Thursday.
While the Seahawks were honoring their seniors, it was a Northside junior who stole the show as Taekuan Mackey buried big shot after big shot to pace the Panthers with 17 points.
Mackey was on fire from downtown and helped expand the Southside defense enough to help big man Tony Peele score 10 points, as the team concluded the regular season with an 11-11 (7-7, Four Rivers) record.
“We were just unselfish tonight, and I think the play of (Mackey and Peele) really helped us a lot,” Northside coach Mike Procter said. “With them playing well, the offense can flow a lot better.”
Southside’s offense had trouble flowing in the first quarter where the Seahawks fell behind 14-5 and went into halftime down 31-20.
Point guard Jordan Benston did his best to keep his team in the game scoring nine of his game-high 18 points in the second quarter.
Southside rallied in the second half and when senior Willie Ruffin buried his second deep three of the fourth quarter to cut the Panthers’ lead to 50-44.
Mackey would make sure that Southside did not get any closer as he netted nine fourth-quarter points to keep the Seahawks at bay.
“We never quite got going, and by the time we figured something out that was working time was running out,” Southside coach Dwayne White said. “Northside played a good game.”
The Seahawks, who wrapped up the regular season with an 8-18 (4-8, Four Rivers) record were also playing without arguably their best player in power forward Curtis Myers, who recently transferred. Myers was a fiery leader who was the team’s top rebounder.
Thursday’s game was the last at home for Seahawks’ seniors Kendrick Reddick, Teon Aaron, Bill Murray, Jabrell Green and Ruffin.
Seahawks slide past Panthers
Southside center/forward Tamisha Cradle turned in a memorable Senior Night performance as she tallied 16 points and provided pivotal play in the paint to help the Seahawks top Northside 64-47 on Thursday.
Sophomore point guard Katisha Hyman scored a game-high 19 points to lead Southside, who also got 10 points from Chante Painter and six from senior Kayla Jones.
Aside from Cradle and Jones, the other Seahawks’ seniors honored Thursday where Courtney Avery and Caitlin Bogart.
Southside coach Bill Lake was happy to get the win, but expected crisper play from his Seahawks (17-4, 9-4), who are ranked No. 8 in the state.
“It was Senior Night, and we had senioritus,” Lake said. “We missed a ton of layups … It was not a very fundamentally sound game.”
While Lake was not pleased with some aspects of his team’s play, he was happy that they walked away with a victory saying, “Like we have all year, we found a way to win the game.”
The Panthers had their own share of struggles, mainly in the backcourt where taking care of the basketball was an issue.
“That has been hurting us for a while,” Panthers coach Michelle Leathers said. “It really hurts when you don’t have a guard that is consistent.”
Forward Rochelle Davis led the Panthers in scoring with 15 points, while Rebekah Bonney added 11.
Girls’ game
Northside 5 13 8 18 — 47
Southside 11 17 14 22 — 64
Panthers (47)
Alligood 4, Rochelle Davis 15, Elizabeth Harris 10, Paniagua 9, Rebekah Bonney 11, Cooke 2, Paul 4.
Seahawks (64)
Avery 1, Tamisha Cradle 16, Jones 8, Katisha Hyman 19, Ruffin 6, Chante Painter 10, Edwards 2.
Boys’ game
Northside 14 17 8 20 — 59
Southside 5 15 10 18 — 48
Panthers (59)
Cahoon 8, McCullor 6, Taekuan Mackey 17, Cox 4, Tony Peele 10, Woolard 6.
Seahawks (48)
Willie Ruffin 10, Murray 7, Jordan 4, Jordan Benston 18, Reddick 2, Selby 4, Aaron 5.