COURTLAND
Southampton High School girls basketball head coach Littleton Parker would agree that his team has been overmatched in most of their games this season.

“Like I told you at the beginning of the year, we’re a very young team,” he said. “We didn’t know how to handle pressure or play with energy.”

With their latest loss, a 71-38 shellacking at the hands of Surry, it would be easy for the team to throw in the towel. However, Parker said that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

“We continue to get better as a team each game. Sometimes we lack consistency,” he said, noting their scoreless second quarter, “but I see improvement from game to game.”

Southampton held a lead after one quarter of play, but Surry ratcheted up the defensive pressure thereafter, causing several unwarranted turnovers by the Indians. Bryona Knight and Jordan Lee did their best to keep the Lady Indians in the game, with 24 points and 11 rebounds, respectively, but the Cougars ran away from them in the second half.

With the loss, the team falls to 3-7, 3-5 in the TriRivers District, but Parker is optimistic that they will compete in their second go-around through the district schedule.

“I don’t know much about Colonial Heights,” he said of their final non-district opponent of the season, “but we beat Franklin by 10 or 12 the last time we played.”

Southampton will play host to the Colonial Heights Patriots on Tuesday, Jan. 13, before traveling to Franklin the following night. Both contests are scheduled for a 7 p.m. tipoff, with the junior varsity game prior.