LUMBERTON — The Lady Scots fared better in their rematch on Tuesday with the Southeastern conference leading Lumberton Lady Pirates — but better wasn’t enough to get a much needed win.
For the first few minutes of the game, the Lady Scots jumped out to a 3-0 lead behind the shooting of junior Amaya Pegues. The Lady Pirates tied the game at three with three consecutive trips to the free-throw line. Lumberton took their first lead of the game courtesy of a three-pointer from London Thompson, who was honored before the game for scoring 1,000 career points.
The Lady Scots continued to get good looks at the basket on offense, but couldn’t buy a basket — everyone bounced off the backboard, rolled off the rim or was blocked by the Lady Pirates guards. It was a four-point game at the end of the first quarter, with Lumberton leading, 9-5.
The second quarter started with a steal from Pegues to step up a basket by Nautika Moore to pull the Lady Scots within two, 9-7. A Lumberton basket and trip to the line by Moore kept the margin at two before Lumberton went on an 28-8 run. The offensive explosion by Lumberton saw the Lady Pirates take a 37-13 lead into the locker room. It wasn’t just the Lumberton offense that was clicking, their defense found another gear and intercepted almost all of the Lady Scots inbound passes.
Things didn’t improve for the Lady Scots in the second half as Lumberton’s offense put the pedal to the metal to take a 53-19 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The Lady Scots continued to fight for every basket as Lumberton flexed their muscles to show why they are undefeated in the Southeastern conference.
Mid-way through the fourth quarter, the two teams hit the mercy rule, which according to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association when the point differential gets above 40 points the clock will continually run, expect for time outs, free throws and jump balls.
Down 61-21 the Lady Scots quickly saw their opportunity to get cut the 40-point deficit dwindling. At the final buzzer, the Lady Scots found themselves suffering their seventh SEC loss to the Lady Pirates, 68-27.
With the loss, the Lady Scots move to 8-12 overall and 2-7 in SEC play. Lumberton moves to 21-1 and 9-0 in SEC play.
The Lady Scots finish out their SEC schedule on Friday at home against Richmond, this will also be Senior Night for the team as the recognize their two seniors — Khasiya Sellers and Sasha Patterson-McLaurin. Tip off will be 6 p.m. The Southeastern conference tournament kicks off Tuesday, Feb. 13.
Amber Hatten can be reached at 910-506-3170.
