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

COURTLAND—Southampton High School boys defeated Powhatan 48-30 Monday night in the first round of the Southside District tournament.

Southampton will host Parkview at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16, for the semifinal round of the tournament to advance to the regional playoffs.

Southampton came into the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the district with a 15-4 overall record and a 10-4 record for district play. While Powhatan came in as the No. 7 seed.

Leading the way for Southampton was Nick Doyle with 14 points. Josh Johnson also assisted the Indians with 9 points while Jalen Ford added 8 points. Doyle and Johnson both went 100 percent from the free-throw line.

“At this time of the year, you are more worried about what you do and being efficient in what you do, rather than too much of the X & Os from the other guy because you are playing so close of games,” said Southampton Coach Will Melbye. “You just have to take care of yourself. When you do that and play good defense, good things are going to happen.”

Southampton was the first on the board, after winning the jump ball, with a tip-in by Ford off an offensive rebound. The quarter remained close with neither team pulling more than 2 points ahead of the other. The quarter ended with Southampton leading 8-6.

“Started off pretty sluggish,” said Melbye. “Kind of been our forte on Mondays – we have been pretty slow coming out of the gate a couple of times, then we fought through it again.”

With 6:28 remaining in the second quarter, Johnson made a field goal to help give Southampton a little breathing room with a 13-6 lead. Powhatan’s coach called a timeout after Doyle hit a lay-up off a fast break to extend the lead to 15-6.

Powhatan then went on a 7-point run that ended when Doyle passed the ball inside to Ford, who hit a 2-point shot, making the score 17-13.

It was a back-and-forth quarter offensively as Powhatan was forced to call a timeout with 1:39 remaining in the half as Southampton was on a 6-point run, making the score 21-13. The half ended with Southampton leading 21-16.

“Shots didn’t go down in the first half,” said Melbye. “But we fought through it and got some runs in the second half. We rebounded in the second half and played good team defense.”

Southampton was first on the board in the second half as Ford hit a 2-pointer from right under the basket with 6:36 remaining in the third quarter. Southampton held Powhatan to 4 points in the third quarter. The quarter ended with Southampton leading 37-20.

“That’s two games in a row that we have held a team to single digit scoring in a quarter,” said Melbye.

Melbye said holding Powhatan to 30 points is his team’s lowest total points allowed in a game all year, and he said it was just a good team effort on the defensive end.

“It’s nice to be at home,” said Melbye. “It’s another ‘have-to game.’ It’s a have-to because we have to move forward in district playoffs; we have to have it for the points in the regional seedings if we want to play at home next week.”