The Southside Seahawks men’s basketball team took flight against conference opponent Bear Grass on Friday, defeating the Bears 70-25 in Williamston.

From the start, the Bears were targeted by the Seahawk’s relentless 2-2-1 press defense that had their guards struggling to maintain possession. Led by a tandem of speedy guards, senior Aaron Jones and Donshae Miller, the Seahawks forced their opponent into the corners, keeping the ball out of the middle and the Bears on their toes.

The result was an influx of turnovers. In the first half, Sean White’s team recorded double digit steals, most of which were intercepted passes in transition. The ball seemed to constantly be in the hands of Jones, even though the average possession lasted just seconds.

“That’s one thing we practice day in and day out is our transition game,” said White. “We’re a run team. We don’t hold the ball back. If we’ve got an opportunity to score in transition we’re going to do that. If not, we pull it out and we got our secondary break that we run and that runs right into our offense.”

The pace of the Seahawks quickly quieted the packed arena and eventually the Bears’ offense. Southside entered the locker room at half time with a decisive 46-9 lead.

“I applauded them for their effort [at halftime], especially with the turnovers,” said White. “I think we had 16 steals in the first half.”

White chose to turn down the volume in the second half by pulling some of his starters and switching to a straight zone defense, but the high-octane tempo remained. The Bears were able to match the Seahawks in the third quarter with 14 points, but scored just two in the fourth.

Junior Rashaun Moore led the charge with 19 points on the night. Jones, the distributer on the offensive side of the ball, finished with 10.

“[Jones] is one of our senior leaders. I look to him for that,” said White. “He’s one of the ones I look to lead the team while he’s out there.”

With the win, the Seahawks pick up their first conference victory of the season, improving their overall record to 5-7. White’s team will try to go 2-0 in the 1A Conference 11 standings when they face Jones Senior on the road Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

 

David Cucchiara is the sports editor for The Washington Daily News and can be contacted by email at david.cucchiara@thewashingtondailynews.com.