Carthage swept by Southeast
By By Robby Atkinson / staff writer
Dec. 10, 2003
The Southeast Lauderdale Lady Tigers have been one of the premiere teams to watch in high school basketball across the state of Mississippi so far this season. The Lady Tigers showed why that statement is true by taking an 81-48 win over Carthage at home on Tuesday night.
Southeast now stands at 12-0 for the season and opened divisional play with a win as well. Southeast Lauderdale head coach Joe Miller is very excited about the wonderful start for his group of Lady Tigers.
The Lady Tigers got things started on the right foot with the opening quarter of action to take a quick 4-0 lead. Sam Smith hit a pair of jump shots that became a common norm all night for Southeast Lauderdale in taking the home court win.
Carthage came right back to tie the game at 4-4 with a pair of baskets from Alisa Matlock with 4:04 left in the first. Southeast started to pull away moments later with a 10-0 scoring led by Ebony Moore. Moore had six points in the run and Stacey Tate added four to give the Lady Tigers a 18-6 at the end of the first quarter.
Southeast opened the second quarter with another quick 7-0 run to take a 25-6 lead with 5:57 left in the second. Carthage would not go away, as the Lady Tigers cut the Southeast lead to 27-15 with 2:23 left in the first half. Matlcock notched another couple of big baskets to lead the charge for Carthage. Southeast was able to cause a few turnovers on defense to lead to several fast break points to take the game into the half with Southeast on top by a score of 36-21.
Southeast ran away with the game in the second half thanks to a terrific third quarter. The Lady Tigers notched an early 12-0 run that made the difference in the second half and the final outcome leading to the win.
Mitchell led Southeast Lauderdale with 22 points and Moore followed with 13 points. Smith and Tate each chipped in with 10 points apiece to round out the scoring for the Lady Tigers.
Carthage was led in scoring by Matlock with 14 points and Itanjula Townsend added nine in the loss. Southeast returns to action this Thursday on the road at Newton County.
SE Laud. (boys) 73
Carthage 45
Southeast was able to collect the sweep by achieving several early scoring runs to also take its first division win of the season. The Tigers used the inside game early in the first quarter to take a 15-3 lead with 3:15 showing on the clock. Southeast took a large 21-7 lead at the end of the first quarter and rolled to the win.
Lamar Crowell and Chris Gordon led the way in scoring for Southeast with 17 points. Alex West and Windham Campbell each added 10 in the home victory. Dexter Leflore led Carthage with 16 points and Timmy Thompson followed with nine.