The Scotland High School boys' ninth-grade basketball team kept its unbeaten record intact with a 76-61 victory over the Richmond Gold team on Monday in Laurinburg.

Scotland is now 9-0. Richmond Gold falls to 4-6 on the year with Monday's loss.

Richmond played well early, leading 5-2 and tying the game at 9-9 in the first quarter. Scotland opened the game in a half-court zone, but quickly switched to an attacking full-court press that took its toll on the Raiders. The Scots forced turnover after turnover — many on forced passes that were zipped out of bounds — and would lead 23-11 at the end of one quarter of play.

"In the first quarter, I told our guys that our press was going to be effective, if we ran it the right way," said SHS first-year head coach Steve Hamilton. "Once we started running it, it just had those guys rattled and they started turning the ball over."

Scotland had five 3-pointers in the first half (including three during a 24-point second quarter) and led 47-26 at intermission. The team's inside game was working too, with center Seyyan Moody coming up with 10 of his 12 points in the first half.

"Seyyan did an excellent job inside," said Hamilton. "I've been trying to get him, all season long, to get tough inside.

"He got fouled on a few of the shots that he made tonight. He didn't get the calls, but the shots still went in."

Isaiah Robinson finished with a team-high 13 points for Scotland. Jauan Petty matched Moody with a dozen points, and Casion Murphy scored eight of his 10 points in the first half to give the Scots four double-digit scorers.

Point guard Tony McRae had nine points, Cody Bryant had eight and Dominique Green scored seven in what was a very balanced scoring attack for SHS.

Richmond Gold's Jamal Kegler led all players with 15 points.

Girls

The SHS ninth-grade girls had a four-game winning streak snapped by the undefeated Richmond Gold team on Monday.

Turnovers were a key issue in the Scots' 57-43 loss. Scotland fell to 4-3 on the year, while the Lady Raiders' Gold team improved to 7-0.

"We had a gameplan to beat them, but we didn't stick to the gameplan," said SHS head coach David Brooks. "When we face full-court pressure, we make a lot of quick moves before thinking, and that causes us to make a lot of mistakes with the basketball."

Zannie McNeill led the Lady Scots with 10 points. Shae Barnes and Samriel Ratliff had nine apiece, and Quashira Diggs scored eight points.

Richmond was led by Deshantia Bell's 19 points. Taylor Diggs had 14 and Brittany Hudson added 13 points for the Gold team.

The Scots were down just 14-9 after one quarter, but were outscored 23-7 in the second period. Scotland cut into the deficit with a 16-6 scoring advantage in the final period of play.

Scotland's ninth-grade teams visit Richmond Green on Thursday, beginning at 5 p.m. with the girls' game.