By ANDREW FAISON/CORRESPONDENT
andrew.faison@yahoo.com

COURTLAND—Southampton High School boys defeated the Powhatan Indians 62-33 in a Southside District competition Wednesday night.

“It was a great team effort,” said Southampton Coach Will Melbye. “We shot the ball very well tonight, and that was great to see.”

Southampton improved to 5-4 on the season as well as 3-4 in the district. Powhatan fell to 1-10.

Leading the way for Southampton was Jalen Ford and Josh Johnson with 12 points each followed by Nick Doyle with 11 points. Doyle went 100 percent from the free-throw line.

“We showed some flashes of what we can do and what we could be, which was great,” Melbye said.

Powhatan was first to score with a 2-point shot by Nathan Adam, who also led the way for Powhatan with 11 points.

Southampton took the lead for the first time on the night with 4:12 left in the first quarter when Doyle was fouled after making a 2-point lay-up; his and-one attempt was good, making the score 7-5.

With 34 seconds on the clock, Adam tied the game up at 10-all with a 3-point shot. With 12 seconds on the clock, Johnson hit a 2-point shot to give Southampton the lead again, and from there, the Indians never looked back.

“We figured out a couple of things, and pulled them out in the second half, especially the first part of the third quarter,” Melbye said

Southampton went into the locker room with a 29-17 lead and kept the momentum up going into the second half as Tyshawn Jackson hit a 3-pointer to begin the third quarter.

Southampton called a timeout with 4:12 left in the quarter when Powhatan went on a 7-point run after Southampton had been up by 19 points. After the timeout Southampton came back out and went on a 15-0 run to end the quarter 52-27.

“We held them without a basket the first 2½ minutes of the fourth quarter, and they got their last with just a little over a minute to go,” said Melbye.

Southampton will host Parkview on Friday, Jan. 21, for another district competition; game time is 7:30 p.m. The Indians will travel to Franklin on Saturday, Jan. 22, for a 7 p.m. game.

“They (Franklin) have been up and down,” said Melbye. “Trey (Kigler) was hurt and he’s back, and that helps them out a lot, with the senior leadership. Trey and Justin (Grant) are great ball players and we have to respect and see where they are.”

Melbye said his team has to worry about what they do and take care of themselves.

“We just have to do the little things that we do right in order to be successful,” he said. “I told these guys it does not matter what the other team does as long as we execute, control the things that we control, and we will be in good shape.”