CHOCOWINITY — Pamlico County scored the first 20 points of Monday’s game at Southside, and rolled to an 85-32 win. The visiting Hurricanes opened the game with a trio of 3-point plays in a row when Malik Barber got an and-1 sandwiched between two Cedric Coffey treys.

Almost every Hurricane starter got onto the score sheet before Demetrius Ebron’s free throw put the Seahawks on the board with 2:45 left in the first quarter. They poured in 20 points in the second, but never recovered from the early deficit.

“They’re going to be sharper and they’re going to be more prepared for us, so we’re going to have to be more prepared than the first time we saw them,” Hurricanes coach Earl Sadler Jr. said. “It’s just about little things like boxing out. … I thought, in the first quarter, we made a lot of easy baskets. I think we only had one turnover.”

Brandon Sullivan sank a jumper from the baseline with 37 ticks left in the first, giving Southside its first basket of the contest. Coffey’s late 3 — his third of the quarter — gave Pamlico County a 31-3 lead after eight minutes.

The Seahawks were lights out in the second quarter. Ebron, John Bryant and Josh Toler combined for four 3-pointers. The barrage barely put a dent in Pamlico County’s lead as the visitors went into halftime up 49-23.

“I went into half and I really didn’t know what to tell them,” Southside coach Sean White said. “Pamlico is good. We practiced our press break. We ran it well in practice, but it’s against our guys. … How can you simulate that in practice? … There’s no way to simulate that kind of athleticism.”

The Hurricanes weren’t completely comfortable, even with the sizeable lead.

“Southside is a tough, scrappy team,” Sadler said. “They’re going to keep coming at you, and we knew that, so we wanted to control things. We never felt safe. They shot the ball really well. Against teams in this conference, you’ve got to play solid. If you don’t you’re going to get hurt.”

The Hurricanes used more of the same to eventually force a running clock. They used their press to force turnovers and remained potent from long range.

The loss dealt a big blow to the morale of a team that just earned its first win of the season on Friday. Southside doesn’t have any time to hang its head, though. Three more games lie ahead this week. The Seahawks will do their best to replicate their second-quarter performance.

“We need to play a little bit better to start the game against Jones (Senior on Wednesday) because they’re going to press,” White said. “It’s basically the same stuff. We’re going to see press and a little bit of everything, defensively.”