CHOCOWINITY — Just days after topping Camden to get the inside track on second place in the Four Rivers Conference, South Creek’s secured the two spot as it edged past Southside 43-42 on Friday.
Trailing 42-41 with 21.5 seconds left in the game, the Cougars (18-4, 9-3) came out of a timeout and looked to get the ball to sharpshooters Laquan Boston or Sha’he Morning. However, both of them were covered, forcing South Creek to dump the ball down low to 6’6” center Justin Williams, who caught the ball and immediately went up with it to put his team up 43-42.
“After the timeout we thought (Southside) would be focused on Boston or Morning on the outside, normally when we run an out of bounds play we like to shoot the three. (Southside) ran out (to the perimeter) and it left Justin isolated one-on-one.”
Williams would finish the game with 11 points, while Boston led the Cougars with 14.
After taking a timeout, the Seahawks (12-10, 7-5) had 14.5 seconds left to reclaim the lead. When play resumed, Southside got the ball into the hands of leading scorer Rokeem Miller, who fired up a three but the ball bounced off the rim and over the backboard giving the Cougars possession and eventually the win.
“We were trying to set something up inside where we could get an easy shot at the end but it just wasn’t there for us,” Southside coach Sean White said. “So we had to take the outside shot and it just didn’t fall.”
Miller led the Seahawks with 16 points, while Donshae Miller tallied 10.
South Creek held the size advantage in the frontcourt, but Southside received strong efforts from forwards Byron Murray, Isaiah Moore and Manuel Collins, who had to contend with the Cougars tandem of Williams and 6-4 forward Jaquan Durham (seven points).
In the two teams’ previous meeting, South Creek won a double-OT thriller 63-59 and on Friday it looked as if they were destined for another close one.
South Creek held a slim 12-10 lead after the first quarter, but went into halftime trailing 22-21 despite a buzzer-beating layup by Donshae Miller.
The Seahawks reclaimed the lead in the third, outscoring the Cougars 13-8 to take a 33-30 lead into the fourth where they traded leads before Williams hit the game-winner.

South Creek    10    12    8    13    —    43
Southside    12    9    13    9    —    42
Cougars (43)
Farmer 7, Laquan Boston 14, Justin Williams 11, Morning 2, Outlaw 3, Durham 7.
Seahawks (42)
Donshae Miller 10, Rokeem Miller 16, Moore 6, Collins 5, Jones 3, Murray 2.