The last time that Scotland and Jack Britt squared off, the Bucs Devin Thompson had 26 points.

Tuesday night, the Scots held the Fayetteville State signee to only two points. Unfortunately, Scotland could not find a way past the Bucs in the closing minutes.

Jack Britt outscored the Scots, 6-0, in the final two minutes of the game to escape with a 55-49 win.

A career night from Lamont Browne was almost enough to get the Scots their first win of the year.

“I was on tonight and that comes from all the hard work in practice,” said Browne who finished with a team-high 15 points.

The first quarter saw the game tied on three separate ocassions with the lead changing twice. The final lead change gave the Bucs a two-point lead after the first quarter.

A 9-0 run in the first two minutes of the second quarter put Scotland (0-3) on top by seven (20-13).

The Scots led 25-19 with less than a minute to play before the half, but a 5-0 run by the Bucs cut the lead to a point at halftime courtesy of a three-pointer by Evan Heiman with less than a second to play.

“We played a great first half, got into a rhythm,” Scotland coach Mike Ritchie said. “The main thing was getting some shots and holding them to one shot.”

The third quarter was alot like the first quarter of the game with the teams tying up twice and the lead changing four different times.

After Jack Britt took the lead, 35-33, the Scots went up by a point a three-pointer from Isaiah Robinson. The Bucs retook the lead before Scotland ended the third quarter on a basket from Xavier Bins with less than two seconds left.



Getting his first start of the season, Bins came in and stepped it up. Something that impressed Ritchie.

“He did a good job for us, we needed someone at the point who could handle the ball,” said Ritchie of Bins. “He was able to play and commit no turnovers while staying in control.”

The Scots upped their lead to five (47-42) on field goals from Robinson and Dominique Clark in the span of 18 seconds, midway through the fourth.

Following a Jack Britt time-out with 3:22 left in the game, the Bucs tied the game at 49 on a three-point play from Raheem Jolliffe. The starting guard gave his team the lead for good with 1:30 left on a three-pointer. Jolliffe led all scorers with 19 points.

“We were able to do a good job on 15 (Thompson), holding him to just two points after he scored 26 on us a week ago, that’s credit to our defense: Antonio (Deese), Dominique (Clark), Isaiah (Robinson) and Lamar (McIntyre). We kept putting fresh legs on him,” Ritchie said of Thompson.

“Second half, our shots weren’t falling and that’s hard to do but it was mistakes down the stretch that did us in.

Besides Browne, Robinson, Bins and Sey’yan Moody each had seven points apiece.

Armel Minick and Daniel Camps joined Jolliffe in double figures with 11 and 10, respectively.

The Scots will travel to Pine Forest next Monday.