Northeast Lauderdale cruises past Quitman
By By Austin Bishop / EMG regional sports director
November 3, 2004
QUITMAN It didn't take long to decide the prep basketball openers between Northeast Lauderdale and Quitman High School on Tuesday night.
Visiting Northeast jumped out to a commanding 42-8 halftime lead in the girls game on the way to a 60-28 win, while the Trojans led QHS 33-8 at intermission in the boys contest. NEL won that game 54-20.
The boys game saw heavy defensive pressure by the Trojans turn into a string of layups of steals as Northeast (1-0) took control of the game early.
"We have been working real hard on our defensive drills and getting the football guys back gives us some quickness and some defensive ability," said NEL head coach Lewis Lightsey. "We just turned those steals into easy baskets and anytime you can do that it makes the game a lot easier."
NEL jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead, then stretched that out to 25-6 on consecutive baskets from Maurice Langston, who led the Trojans with 16 points.
Freshman big man Romero Osby tossed in 14 points for the winners, while Alex Ford hit for 10. Radarius Owens led the 0-1 Panthers with six points.
Lightsey said there were a couple aspects of his team's play, that particularly pleased him.
"Defensive effort, diving on the floor for loose balls, making the extra pass, and just playing hard," Lightsey said when listing his team's accomplishments.
NEL girls 60
Quitman 28
Shaquita Bell and her Northeast Lauderdale teammates totally dominated the first half against the Lady Panthers.
The Lady Trojans led 20-4 after one quarter and build that to 42-8 at the half.
Bell led Northeast with 21 points, with all of those coming in the first half. Trishonna Kennedy and Toderia Clayton scored 13 points each for NEL.
Aswanda Cooks had eight for Quitman.
"I think we played pretty good," said NEL first-year head coach Frederick Liddell. "We have still got some little things here and little things there we need to fix, but overall I think they did a pretty good job."
But, there is still room for improvement."
