By LAIEKE ABEBE

For the Daily News

FARMVILLE — The Northside girls basketball team’s slide after a 2-0 start to the season continued Friday night, as Farmville Central used a huge second-quarter surge to beat Northside, 76-18.

The Panthers (2-3 1A Coastal Plains Conference) trailed 17-8 after a quarter of play, but Farmville Central (7-0 2A Eastern Plains Conference) really broke the game wide open in the second. The Jaguars outscored the Panthers, 35-6, in the quarter and never looked back.

Alexia Somers and Katie Godley scored eight points each for the Panthers, and Ve’Era Holloway chipped in with two points as Northside’s only other scorer. Ja’Shyran Carmen led the way for the Jaguars with 16 points.

Even though it was a blowout loss for the Panthers, head coach Michelle Leathers came away encouraged by her team’s effort.

“It was a good experience for us,” Leathers said. “We played well in the first quarter despite the result. If you turn the ball over 29 times, you probably won’t win many games. I’m still proud of my team’s effort and hopefully we can continue to improve.”

Northside hung around for the first quarter, until Farmville Central ratcheted up its defensive intensity, leading to many turnovers from Northside. Pleased with his team’s effort, Jaguars head coach Hollis Harper said he wants his players to maintain that same effort in all their games.

“Our free throw shooting was a little bit better,” Harper said. “The team had been struggling with that in the last few games. We started to share the basketball a lot more as well. When we do that, good things happen. We also have to find ways to continue to do what we did tonight. I’m happy with the team’s effort and with the great start to the season. If we keep doing sticking to team principles, we’ll be able to go far.”

Northside will not participate in a holiday tournament over the winter break, but that doesn’t mean the Panthers will be relaxing. Instead, they will use the downtime to work on polishing some rough spots.

“We want to improve a few things over winter break,” Leathers said. “Our defense has to be better, and we’ll work on making our free throws and having a better shot-selection. There is a lot of potential on this team and we want to be really good.”

Northside returns to action on Jan. 4 with an away game at South Creek.