Early in the first half of Friday night’s varsity girls’ basketball game, it looked like Hoke was poised for a big upset over Scotland.

However, the Lady Scots had other plans.



Scotland outscored the Lady Bucks, 27-13 in the second half on their way to a 41-32 win. With the win, the Lady Scots improve to 3-0 in the Southeastern Conference and into a tie of first place with the winner of the Lumberton-Richmond game.

After an early basket from Ariel Ratcliff, Hoke went on an 11-0 run in the first and forced the Lady Scots into numerous turnovers and took a nine-point lead (13-4) on a basket from Danielle Farrel with under a second to play in the first.

“At the beginning, we looked a little slow out there,” Lady Scots coach David Johnson said. “Gotta give credit to them (Hoke), they came out real aggressive.”

The Lady Bucks made it a double-digit lead (16-6) on a 3-point play from Antanesha McNeil.

Scotland (11-4) would come to life with a 5-0 run, highlighted with a putback from Brittany Dockery. The senior forward would score the Lady Scots final five points of the first half, but they still found themselves down five (19-14) at half time. Despite being down just five, Scotland committed 18 first half turnovers.

“I told them at the half that we had 18 turnovers and only 14 points, and that we have to find a way to change that,” Johnson said during his half time speech. “I had them come out in a full court press and it trapped them, which led to points in transition for us.”

Lady Scots would come roaring back in the second half and take the lead, 24-23, on a lay-up from Royalanda Odom.

Scotland would increase the lead to four before a field goal from Briana Darden, made it a one possession game but a put back from Shae Barnes with five seconds left to play in the third, made it 29-25 at the end of the third.

A 7-3 run by the Lady Scots to start the fourth quarter put them up eight (36-28) with 3:30 to play in the game.

Following a Scotland time-out with 2:30 to play, the Lady Scots came out with a long 40-second possession which led to a back-door lay-up from Tierra Pate for two of her six points in the final quarter.

Despite re-aggravating her thigh injury, Dockery paced Scotland with 16 points. She would also add six rebounds.

Jonissa Monley came off the bench to score seven points and pulled down seven boards.

Dockery’s twin sister, Bridgette, had a team-high nine rebounds. She also added five steals and a pair of blocks.

Darden led Hoke with 10 points.