Northeast sweeps through

By By Steve Swogetinsky / special to The Star
Feb. 18, 2004
QUITMAN Northeast Lauderdale swept West Jones, and the Quitman High boys eliminated Northeast Jones Tuesday night in the first round of the Division 5-4A Basketball Tournament.
The Trojans claimed a 69-67 win over West Jones, and the Northeast Lauderdale girls stopped the Lady Mustangs 43-38. In the final game of the night, the host Quitman Panthers had little trouble defeating Northeast Jones 73-51.
The winners advance to the South State Tournament next week. Meanwhile, play continues in the Division 5-4A tournament at Quitman High with four games Thursday.
The Wayne County girls' team takes on Mendenhall at 4 p.m.; the Mendenhall boys meet Northeast Lauderdale at 5:30 p.m.; the Northeast Jones girls take on Northeast Lauderdale at 7 p.m.; and the Quitman boys will finish the night taking on Wayne County at 8:30 p.m.
NE Lauderdale (boys) 69
West Jones 67
Both coaches said the fans probably enjoyed this see-saw battle more than they did. Both teams enjoyed leads of nine points or more at some point in the contest, only to see the other team come back.
West Jones led 19-15 at the end of the first quarter. In the first minutes of the second quarter, the Mustangs' James Bender put in a pair of three-point shots to put West up 25-16, with 6:01 left in the half.
The Trojans refused to quit. Trailing 35-26, with 2:45 left in the half, Northeast Lauderdale put in nine points while limiting West Jones to one bucket.
Northeast tied the game at 35 with 20 seconds left on Maurice Langston's basket. Then West Jones' Ira Lee Keys sank a basket with nine seconds remaining to put his team up by two at the intermission.
The Mustangs took the early advantage in the third quarter, as Bender sank two field goals and a three-pointer to put his team up 46-41 at the 5:14 mark.
Northeast Lauderdale came back to tie the score at 46, with 3:37 remaining in the quarter on two free throws by Ramero Osby. The Trojans went on a 12-4 run to close out the third to take a 58-50 lead.
West Jones did not go down without a fight. The Mustangs tied the game at 61 with 3:35 left, as Bender pulled down an offensive rebound and put it back up for two. A minute later, Ray Pickering scored to give his team a brief lead at 63-61.
But that would be the final lead of the season for West as Northeast Lauderdale's Antonio Clayton tied the game with a field goal, and Ramero Osby sank two free throws to put his team in front for good. West kept battling but time ran out as the Mustangs finished their season with a 13-16 record.
Bender led West Jones with 24 points, and Keys added 13. Mike Thigpen scored 11 for the Mustangs.
Northeast Lauderdale improved its record to 14-13. Harold Grace led the Trojans with 23 points, and Maurice Langston added 14.
NE Lauderdale (girls) 43
West Jones 38
The Lady Trojans led throughout the first half but went cold in the third quarter and had to rally in the final quarter to keep their season alive.
Northeast Lauderdale had a seemingly comfortable 22-17 lead at the intermission. But West Jones quickly tied the game at 22, with 5:41 left in the third quarter, on Candi Farris' three-point shot.
West Jones took a 25-24 lead when Kelsey Hopkins scored a field goal and then sank a free throw, with 5:13 remaining. From that point, West outscored Northeast Lauderdale 6-2 and led 31-26 at the break.
Northeast Lauderdale came back to tie the game at 36 when Trishonna Kennedy scored a field goal, with 2:25 left in the game. In the next 25 seconds, Shaquita Bell put in a lay up, followed by Sholonda Jackson's field goal to put the Lady Trojans up 40-36. Reyna DeHenre scored what would be West Jones' final points of the season with 1:36 remaining and Northeast Lauderdale held on for the victory.
Bell led Northeast Lauderdale with 19 points, and Kelsey Hopkins and DeHenre each tallied 11 points for West Jones.
Quitman (boys) 73
NE Jones 51
With this victory, the Quitman Panthers notched their 20th win of the season and qualified for the South State Tournament on the same night.
The Panthers scored the first 14 points of the game and never looked back. Trailing 18-4 at the break, Northeast Jones fought back in the latter stages of the second quarter. The Tigers outscored the Panthers 19-15 during the quarter but still trailed 33-23 at the break.
Again, Quitman started fast in the third quarter as they scored the first 10 points to go up 43-23. Quitman outpointed the Tigers 14-13 in the time remaining and held a 57-36 lead going into the final quarter. The Panthers put in 16 points during the final eight minutes of play while limiting the Tigers to 15.
Antoinne McKenzie led Quitman with 20 points and Daniel Boyd scored 11. Antonio Reed led Northeast Jones with 29 points, and Bradley Blakeney added 14. The Panthers improved their record to 20-11, and Northeast Jones concluded its season at 5-21.