Northside didn’t have the same fire Saturday evening as they did against the previous night against Hall.

But Isaiah Joe woke them up. And the crowd in the process, too.

Joe’s one-handed dunk over Charleston’s Chase Ewing sparked a second quarter scoring blitz as the Tigers rolled to a 70-41 win over the 3A Tigers at the Stubblefield Center.

Northside (9-5) opens 7A-Central play Friday against Bryant.

“We knew our legs were going to be dead today,” Northside coach Greg Scott said. “We wanted to come out and give Charleston a little early pressure and get ourselves going. Eventually we did, and kind of turned the heat us a little bit.”

Northside jumped ahead quickly, 9-2, in the first few moments before the Tigers began to rally. Charleston, which nearly erased a 19-point deficit against Bryant Friday night, took a 15-14 lead on Brayden Ross’ bucket.

But Northside went ahead for good, 17-15, after one quarter of play, and Joe’s dunk seemed to ignite a second quarter run. In all, the Grizzlies outscored Charleston, 27-8, in the final 8:29 of the first half.

Ross and Ewing combined for 32 of the Tigers’ 41 points. Jacob Green was held to eight, and Brayden Caudle hit a free throws.

Joe, who broke the 39-year-old tournament’s single game scoring record with 45 points in Friday’s loss to Hall, led all scorers with 23 points, though he was just 2-of-7 from the 3-point line. Joe was 5-for-5 at the line.

Noah Gordan and Anthony Travis Jr. finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Northside’s Javion Releford and Jaylin Williams had eight and seven points, respectively.
