COURTLAND—Jay’R McCain led five Indians in double figures with 19 points as Southampton boosted its record to 8-3 by cruising past Northampton 92-52 Friday.

Southampton sprinted to an 11-2 lead, but some errant passes and missed lay-ups led to some easy buckets for Northampton. The Yellow Jackets closed the final three minutes of the quarter on a 12-8 run, to pull within five at 19-14.

This was as close as they would get for the rest of the night.

“I was not pleased with the lack of intensity and let them know it at the end of the first quarter,” said Southampton Coach Will Melbye. “Not being out of control or anything, but I very firmly told them ‘this game ends now.’ I was worried they were stuck on last game (win at Windsor) and expected Northampton to just lay down.”

The trapping defense of the Indians racked up 23 second quarter points. McCain put up seven as the Indians stretched their lead to 16 heading into half time.

The Indians came out in the third quarter with some vigor and within two minutes had expanded their lead to 30 points. It started with a flurry of baskets from junior Jamal Johnson, who scooped up three deflections in a row and got the lay-ups, and ended with junior Travon Ellis finishing with some nifty moves under the basket for six of his 15 points.

Indian reserves saw extensive time again, as the starters played roughly those first three minutes of the second quarter and were all pulled a minute and a half into the fourth quarter.

“It was tough in the fourth there; we have kids that don’t get a lot of touches during the year, so it’s tough to tell them to pull back — which we did down the stretch, however you always want to win with class and remain respected by other coaches and schools,” Melbye said. “I had to burn a timeout late just to remind the kids of that, which is tough for a teenager to see sometimes. But our kids are great, they want the respect of being a good and classy ball club, and will do what it takes to have that positive image in the community and among our competing schools. “

The Indians will travel to 11-1 Brunswick Friday, Jan. 13, for a Southside District match-up.

“We still have that empty feeling left over from last year’s district championship game,” Melbye said. “We were in control at the half and just needed to maintain in the second half, but they turned it on and beat the brakes off of us. I know they have some experience coming back, they are a veteran bunch and I know our kids will give them everything. We have no questions and no doubts about what we have to do to be successful, and these kids are willing to give whatever it takes.”

The junior varsity boys will tip at 4:30 p.m. with the varsity girls and varsity boys to follow.

“It should be a fun night in Lawrenceville,” Melbye said. “Not too many times in this area are you going to see this level of talented basketball players on the floor at one time. It should be a great night of basketball.”