PINETOWN — There were five lead changes in the first quarter of Northside and Southside’s clash for third place in the holiday tournament. The Panthers came out strong in the second quarter, though, and defeated their conference rival, 62-50.

Atia Shamseldin, James Barrow and Bryson Radcliffe each took trips to the free-throw line early in the second. The three Panthers went a perfect 6-of-6. Shamseldin and Braeden Cooper each added baskets to give their team a 24-13 edge over the Seahawks.

“Any way you can get momentum going, you’ve got to use it,” Northside coach Mike Proctor said of the multiple trips to the charity stripe. “We pounded the ball inside pretty good to Bryson and Atia. We had a lot of backdoor cuts. That’s part of our offense. … We sent a lot of people to the foul line, and it seemed to be working pretty well.”

Brandon Sullivan finally got Southside on the board with 4:45 left in the half. His bucket helped give the Seahawks the offensive push they needed to pull within five points.

Northside took a 31-26 lead into the halftime break.

“I told them the intensity had to be picked up,” Southside coach Sean White said. “We talked about before the game that we’re going to leave it all on the floor. … We don’t need to conserve any energy. We don’t have another game the next night, so just lay it all out.”

A Demetrius Ebron layup sandwiched between five points from Dajour Cratch gave the Seahawks a 7-1 lead to start the game, but Northside quickly erased the deficit.

Cooper knocked down a 3-pointer for the Panthers’ first field goal of the contest. It sparked a quick 7-0 run by the hosts. Josh Toler set up Marshall Medlock for a baseline jumper that gave Southside the lead again, but they went into the second period down by one.

After trailing by five at halftime, the Seahawks got plenty of shots under the basket to get as close as three on multiple occasions. The longer Panthers used their size to finish up the third on a 7-0 spurt. It put them back on top by 10, and they never looked back.

“We feel like we’ve got an advantage over some teams because of our size,” Proctor said. “We feel like Atia and Bryson are good players. We try to get them the ball. They can both hit foul shots. We’re not afraid to get it inside to them. That’s where our offense starts.”

Johnathan Clark shut the door on Southside by scoring nine in a row on his own in the fourth. He got a pair of layups in transition, slashed to the hoop for another and nailed a trey. It extended Northside’s lead to 59-45 in the fourth.

“Johnathan has a lot of athletic ability,” Proctor said. “He can get to the rim at times. (Monday) he didn’t play extremely well. He came to me before the game and said, ‘I’m ready to go tonight. Sorry about last night. I wasn’t playing up to par.’”

He nearly made it 11 unanswered points, but a put-back dunk was waived off when he went over the back of the Southside defender.

The Seahawks closed the gap to 10, but it was too late.

Northside and Southside will both have some time to relax now. Both teams resume the season with conference games in the New Year.