West, Southeast split two
By By Austin Bishop/EMG regional sports director
January 31, 2004
COLLINSVILLE It took the Lady Knights of West Lauderdale four and a half minutes to build a nine-point first-quarter lead on Friday night, but it only took Southeast Lauderdale 72 seconds to erase it.
After falling behind 13-4 with 3:36 to play in the first quarter, the Lady Tigers went on a 13-0 run to snatch the tempo of the game away from the home team on the way to a convincing 65-48 win.
Miller said going into the game he wanted to make sure his No. 5-ranked Lady Tigers played the style of game they wanted to and didn't fall into West Lauderdale's plans for a slower pace.
But the tempo belonged to the 18-6 Lady Knights in the early stages of the key Division 5-3A game.
That they certainly did.
After trailing 13-4, the Lady Tigers led 21-15 after one quarter of play and were up 37-18 with 3:47 left in the first half before the shell-shocked Lady Knights could recover.
Senior point guard Sam Smith motored up and down the court at will for SEL, scoring 14 of her 20 points during the Lady Tigers' early run.
Southeast was up 42-22 at the half and 54-32 after three quarters of play.
LaShonda Hall led SEL with 21 points, followed by Smith's 20 and 11 from Stacy Tate. Shannon Lloyd and Vankeila Wilson scored 12 points each to lead West Lauderdale.
Next up for the Lady Knights is a road trip to Morton on Tuesday night, while on the same night the Lady Tigers play host to Choctaw Central in a Division 5-3A showdown.
Choctaw Central comes into the game ranked No. 4 in the state and beat SEL 108-90 earlier this season. It was the only loss of the year for the Lady Tigers.
West boys 64
SE Lauderdale 41
Homestanding West Lauderdale outscored Southeast 20-5 in the fourth quarter to take the 23-point win.
The Knights, now 18-7 on the season, led by double digits most of the second and third quarters before Southeast Lauderdale finally cut it down to eight at the end of the third quarter on a three-pointer by Alex West.
The Tigers had chances to get it down to six points but couldn't convert. West Lauderdale then began to pull away before putting the game away down the stretch.
West was up 16-9 at the end of the first quarter and 36-23 at the half.
Daniel Huggins scored 17 points to lead the Knights, while Chris Seaphus scored 10, Mark Ford nine and Scott Grady eight.
