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

COURTLAND—Southampton High School boys defeated Parkview 67-57 Wednesday night in the semifinal round of the Southside District tournament.

“It was a battle,” said Indians Head Coach Will Melbye. “We battled through again and got another one.”

Southampton will travel to Greensville High School to take on top-ranked Brunswick at 7:30 p.m. today, Feb. 18, for the tournament championship.

Southampton came into the tournament as the No. 2 seed with a 15-4 overall record and a 10-4 record for district play; the Indians have won 15 games in a row. While the Dragons came in as the No. 3 seed.

Leading the way for Southampton was Nick Doyle with 19 points; Doyle also went 13 of 16 from the free-throw line. Also assisting the Indians were Josh Johnson and Tonee Hill with 13 points each and Jalen Ford with 11 points. Johnson went 8 of 10 from the free-throw line.

On the evening, the Indians had 31 points from the free-throw line for 74 percent.

Parkview was on the board first, and the initial quarter remained close with neither team pulling farther than 2 to 3 points ahead of the other. The quarter ended with Southampton leading 14-11.

With 2:11 left in the first half, Hill hit a 3-pointer to help regain the lead 20-18. Doyle hit a buzzer beating lay-up to give the Indians a 24-21 lead going into the locker room at halftime.

“Like I said, it was a battle. We had to play through some rough spots,” said Melbye. “It was a fast-paced game; it was two good basketball teams.”

With 4 seconds off the clock to open up the third quarter, Hill hit a 3-pointer to extend the Indians’ lead to 27-21.With 5:50 left in the quarter, he hit another 3-pointer, making the score 32-23.

With 3:57 left in the quarter, Johnson made a 3-pointer, improving the score to 35-23. The quarter ended with Southampton leading 38-28.

The fourth quarter opened up with both teams showing signs of the fast-paced Southside District characteristic. With 6:22 left in the game, the Parkview coach received a technical foul after being belligerent and charging the court while Doyle was in the middle of shooting a lay-up.

Doyle went 2-for-2 for the technical foul and 2-for-2 as the Parkview coach allowed him to shoot for the interrupted shot; the four shots gave the Indians a 46-33 lead.

Parkview called a timeout with 5:07 left in the game after Hill hit a fast-break lay-up, extending the Indians’ lead to 50-33.

The Dragons began intentionally fouling in an attempt to close the gap with the Indians with a little over 3 minutes left in the game.

“I think the officials definitely let them play,” said Melbye. “And you saw what the result was down the line.”

Melbye is pleased to have another opportunity play Brunswick; Southampton played Brunswick the second and fourth games of the season, where at that point, Brunswick had already played 11 or so games. The last time the two teams faced each other was Jan. 5 when Brunswick defeated Southampton 54-40.

“It’s been a long time since they have seen us and I know that they are on a mission,” said Melbye. “We are just not going to compete. We are going to have a good ball game. We are going to go there and have fun and play our style, and we’re going to dig in and we’re going to have a great ball game Friday night.”