COURTLAND — Brunswick ramped up its defense and held Southampton scoreless for six minutes in the third quarter as the Bulldogs went on to drop the Indians 53-40 in a Southside District boys’ basketball game Wednesday night.

The Indians (4-1, 0-1) played well in the first quarter, and led by as many as seven points when Thaddeus Stephenson scored on a reverse layup to put Southampton up 11-4 at the 2:03 mark. Brunswick (3-1) mounted a comeback and took a 15-14 lead with 4:50 left in the first half on two free throws by Michael Harris.

“We were playing well. We were doing the things we talked about doing. We attacked in the paint. We knocked down our open shots and played good defense. Then we realized we were playing Brunswick and we let that get to us a little bit,” said Will Melbye, Southampton head coach.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 24-18 lead on a jumper by Casey Walker and a 3-pointer by Harris. Southampton’s Ronald Tyler sunk a 3-ball at the end of the second quarter to cut the Brunswick lead to 24-21. Tyler scored 13 points in the first half to keep the Indians in the game.

Southampton scored just eight points in the second period.

“We struggled again in the second quarter and we have been doing that all year,” Melbye said.

Nick Doyle scored on a layup at the 6:03 point of the third quarter to drop the Brunswick lead to 29-25. Southampton did not score again until 15 seconds left in the third quarter. By the time Doyle sunk two free throws, Brunswick had been on an 8-0 run to lead 37-25.

Southampton played hard in the fourth quarter, but could not overcome the deficit.

“They turned up the physicalness in the third quarter and we weren’t ready for it. It took a little bit of getting adjusted to that and that’s what really shut is down. We let them shut us down with their physicalness,” Melbye said.

Brunswick was led by Walker with 18 points and Harris with nine points. Tyler led Southampton with 18 points and Doyle chipped in 10 points.

Southampton plays at Prince Edward tonight, and then hosts Franklin on Dec. 29.