CHOCOWINITY — Northside welcomed freshman point guard Rashod Smith back with open arms. Smith and the Panthers traveled to Southside Friday, where they cruised past the Seahawks, 68-49, to gain some traction in the 1-A Coastal Plains Conference.

The Panthers didn’t coast the entire way, though. Southside kept up early on. Smith stopped short for a mid-range bucket in transition. Isam Shamseldin and Bryson Radcliffe worked in the post, and a long 2-pointer by Atia Shamseldin capped off a 14-2 surge by Northside.

Southside climbed back in with less than two minutes until the two sides retreated to the locker rooms for halftime. Demetrius Ebron knocked a pair of buckets and John Bryant got a 3-point play to cut the Seahawks’ deficit to single digits.

“When they came back, and took the lead (in the first), it wasn’t in our control,” Northside coach Mike Proctor said. “The reason it wasn’t in our control, I felt like, was us because we started taking bad shots. Well, maybe not bad shots, but we said we wanted better shots. … I think at halftime, we talked about that, and it picked us up a little bit.”

Southside coach Sean White added, “Right at the end of the first half, we started running our offense better. I told our guards, ‘You’ve got mismatches galore.’ When Rashod wasn’t in there, they had a mismatch because they had two big guys on two of our guards.”

Northside led 33-25 after 16 minutes. The Seahawks got a pair of 3-pointers to drop in the third. Radcliffe and Jacob Boyd dominated the paint, and a Parker Boyd trey kept Southside at arm’s length. A 3-point play from Jacob Boyd highlighted a 5-0 spurt to end the quarter, putting the Panthers ahead by 10 going into the final eight minutes.

“All those guys are unselfish,” Proctor said. “We have Atia, Isam, Bryson, and Jacob Boyd had a great game tonight. We’ve got some post players. We just need somebody to step up and help the guards a little bit.”

The visitors closed the door early in the fourth. They got a quick layup, which prompted a Southside timeout just 30 seconds into the period. White tried to rally his troops, but Northside continued on a 9-0 run that produced a 59-40 lead. A highlight reel and-1 layup from Dawson Jackson highlighted the burst.

The Seahawks only got a pair of layups and a triple while Northside had over a half dozen players get on the scoresheet in the fourth.

“(Thursday) was still only our 10th practice,” White said. Southside is still after its first win of the season. “That was the first practice we’ve had since last week. So, they came around and we were able to shoot around some with (Northside), but other than that, we’ve got to get better. We’re not running our offense good.”

Southside has a trip to Lejeune to figure some things out before a back-to-back set with two of the league’s best in Pamlico County and Jones Senior.

Northside has non-conference contests with Edenton and Columbia breaking up meetings with Lejeune and Bear Grass. Those games against the Devil Pups and Bears will be important to the Panthers as they hope to continue climbing the standings.