CHOCOWINITY — Southside and Pamlico County endured what Lady Canes coach April Rose described as a case of the “Monday blues.” The two sides battled through a scoreless tie until Zyaja Mattocks broke through for the visitors over three minutes into the game.

Pamlico County went on to score the first nine points of the game and never looked back in a 74-22 win. Southside didn’t get onto the scoreboard until Symone Ruffin got a basket with just over a minute left in the opening period.

“I knew it was going to take a while for us to get started. We shot around at our school before we came,” Rose said. “Two days off of rest, we didn’t practice on Saturday, and sometimes you’ve just got to light a fire. I feel like we found a combination that sparked us a little bit.”

Southside coach Milton Ruffin added, “I thought that we really didn’t compete. That’s a good team there, but we took a backseat and didn’t compete.”

Three more buckets to open the second extended the Lady Canes’ lead to 15-2. Danielle Ruffin stole the ball and laid it with 5:45 left in the half, giving Southside only its second make of the game. She helped the Lady Seahawks string together points for the first time in the game, but a 3-pointer from Jainaya Jones pushed them right back.

Pamlico County would get to the free-throw line plenty in the second, and Jones knocked one down from mid range at the end of the half to give the visitors a 40-15 lead going into the intermission.

“(Pamlico County) got inside their head,” Ruffin said. “They didn’t ever give themselves a chance to play the game like they’re supposed to. I think we really took ourselves out of the game.”

The Lady Canes opened the second half on a 10-2 run. Alexis Hawkins-Pool’s trey, followed by Hydia Davis’ layup at the buzzer yielded a 62-21 lead and a running clock heading into the final eight minutes.

Eleven different Pamlico County players made it onto the score sheet in the lopsided win. No matter the five-player combination, the Lady Canes did well to force Southside to turn over the ball. The aggression both fueled their offense and stifled Southside’s.

“We preach defense. Our game is transition basketball,” Rose said. “We try to rely on our offense off of our defense. Any time we can do that, get layups and make good passes, and get decent shots, we’re going to be O.K.”

Jones Senior, which only has one win in the 1-A Coastal Plains Conference, hosts Southside on Wednesday. The Lady Seahawks have three more games this week, so they’re going to need to bounce back so as not to get hurdled by the Lady Trojans.