COURTLAND
The Southampton High School Indians were the number one seed going into the conference 25 semi-finals 3-A basketball tournament on Thursday. The Indians playing at the Southampton High School gym were facing the number five seed, the Warhill Lions from Williamsburg.

To the surprise of all, the Lions led the entire game until the five-minute mark in the fourth quarter. Then Indians’ Shamon Reid-Wilkerson connected on one of two free throws to tie the score at 52 all. Darius Bell stepped up next and put the home team ahead with a score of 54-52 at 4:11. Teammate Kee-Sean Carr added two baskets to push the lead to 58-52 with 3:10 remaining on the clock.

“It’s the third quarter and I had to light into our guys at half time,” Indians head coach Sharone Bailey said after the game. “We were playing with nervous energy and we had never been in this position. It’s our first time being the number one seed and people are coming to hunt us, so it’s a different perceptive for us. So, my guys locked down and did what I told them to do in the third quarter and we ended up taking the lead in the fourth quarter. And once we took the lead I knew that we would hold the lead.”

From that point the Indians did as instructed by their coach to hold the lead and take a 65-60 win to advance to the finals for the region.

The Indians had three players in double figures. They were led by Kee-Sean Carr with 20 points; followed by Darius Bell with 18 points; Shamon Reid-Wilkerson with 13 points.

The Lions had two players in double figures. Leading was D. Brooks with 16 points and J. Davis with 20 points.