FAYETTEVILLE — The Scotland High School girls' basketball team built up a sizable lead in the second and third quarters and cruised in for a 72-63 Mid-Southeastern 4-A Conference victory over the Douglas Byrd Eagles on Friday night in Fayetteville.

The Lady Scots improved to 14-4 overall and 7-3 in the M-SEC with their second straight win. Scotland has won five of seven games during the 2009 portion of their schedule.

Senior guard Megan Brigman continued her high-scoring ways with a game-high 28 points. Brigman also had eight rebounds, five assists and five steals for the Lady Scots.

Shayla McEachern had 17 points, a team-high eight assists and a team-best seven steals for SHS, giving the Scots 45 points from its starting backcourt.

Bridgette Dockery had seven points, eight rebounds and three steals for Scotland. Bridgette Dockery scored nine points and pulled down four rebounds, and guard Alexis McNeil had eight points and five boards.

The Scots led 10-9 at the end of the first quarter, but outscored Byrd 23-9 in the second quarter to take a 33-18 halftime lead. Scotland scored 25 more in the third and led 58-38 at the end of three.

SHS head coach David Johnson pulled his starters in the fourth quarter, but went back with them when the Eagles nearly cut the lead in half.

"They got it to 12 and I put the starters back in to try to keep it where it was at," said Johnson. "(Douglas Byrd) kept playing hard, and we did a good job of holding them off.

"We got up 22, 24 points, and we put the young girls in to get them some experience. Douglas Byrd took advantage of that a little bit."

Scotland hosts Seventy-First on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The Scots lost to Byrd, 67-60, in Fayetteville on Jan. 6.