West, SEL pick up victories

By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
Nov. 15, 2002
The West Lauderdale and Southeast boys both found themselves in close ballgames in the fourth quarter on Thursday night, but both fought to come away with solid victories on the first night of the Lauderdale County Basketball Tournament.
The Knights came away with a 65-59 win over Northeast Lauderdale while Southeast swept past Clarkdale 50-28 in the nightcap.
The West Lauderdale boys will face Clarkdale at 5:30 tonight while Southeast will play Northeast in the nightcap.
West Lauderdale 65
NEL 59
The Knights recently took a big win over Northeast, but the Trojans put up a strong fight on Thursday night.
West Lauderdale led for almost the entire game, but Northeast battled back to within a point in the fourth quarter before falling to the Knights in a much closer game than the contest between the two teams last week.
The teams traded baskets in the first quarter and no one was able to take control of the game. The Knights got two free throws from Boo Ramsey with four seconds left in the quarter to take an early 17-14 lead.
The Knights came out and stretched the lead in the second quarter. West opened the quarter 8-3 run. The Knights led by as many as 11 points in the second quarter and held a 33-24 lead at the half.
West Lauderdale continued to stretch the lead in the third quarter and went up b 14 points on a basket by Karlos Lewis with 3:29 left in the quarter. Northeast closed out the quarter with four points to cut the lead to 48-38.
Northeast made a strong run led by Marcus Betts in the fourth. Betts scored nine straight points for the Trojans to cut the Northeast lead to four. Harold Grace hit a three to cut the lead to one point, but the Knights hit free throws down the stretch and secured the 65-59 win.
Calvin Moore led the Knights with a big 34 point night. Lewis added 11 in the victory. Betts led Northeast with 26 points while Greg Powell had 19.
Southeast 50
Clarkdale 28
Southeast exploded on a 17-0 run to finish the game and take a 50-28 win in the final game of the night.
Southeast led 8-5 after the first quarter and stretched the lead to 26-13 at half.
Clarkdale fought back hard in the third and went on a 9-3 run in the final four minutes of the quarter to cut the lead to 33-24 after three quarters.
The Bulldogs continued to fight back and cut the lead to five after two free throws by Brandon Mabry with 6:21 left. It was all Southeast from there as the Tigers pressure the Bulldogs and finished the game with a 17-0 run.
Windham Campbell finished the game with 18 points in the victory while Chris Gordon added 15. Mabry led Clarkdale in the loss with 16 points.