For the second game in a row, the Scotland ninth-grade girl’s basketball had the lead at the half.

Unfortunately for the second straight game, the Lady Scots could not hang on the lead.

Purnell Swett (3-3) outscored Scotland, 24-14, over the final 14 minutes as the Lady Rams escaped with a 36-33 victory Thursday evening.

After the two teams were tied at seven after the first quarter of play, the Lady Scots went on a 10-0 run over the next 3:33, taking a 17-7 lead with 3:27 to play in the first half.

Scotland (1-5) led by seven (19-12) at halftime.

The Lady Rams started out the third quarter on a 6-0, cutting the lead to 19-18 with 5:15 left. Purnell Swett took the lead, 20-19, 40 seconds later.

The Lady Scots re-took the lead (21-20) on a lay-up from Alexsa Consar and the girls took a four-point lead (25-21) going into the fourth quarter.

The Lady Rams started out the final quarter on a 6-2 run and tied the game at 27 with 5:34 to play. Purnell Swett built up a four-point lead (33-29) before a Consar lay-up cut the deficit to two (33-31) with 1:13 to play.

She would lead the Lady Scots with 20 points in the game. Clutch free throws from the Lady Rams up by five (36-31) with 54 seconds to play and Purnell Swett’s defense on the Scotland inbound resulted in a five-second inbound violation for the Lady Scots.

Scotland cut the lead to three (36-33) on a basket from Carisma Graham with 13 seconds to play but the Lady Rams were able to get the inbounds pass in and ran out the remaining time of the clock for the win.

Besides Consar, Scotland got four points from Graham and four from Kadejah Murne.

The Scots will be off the next two weeks for Christmas Break before traveling to Rockingham to play Richmond Green Jan.7. Scotland lost the first meeting between the two squads, 34-27, back on Nov. 23.