SOUTHERN PINES- For the Scotland boy’s basketball team to win the Southeastern Conference tournament championship, they needed to play a near flawless game against Pinecrest.

Unfortunately for the second-seeded Scots, it just wasn’t their night.

Fueled by 17 Scotland turnovers in the first half, the top-seeded Patriots built up a 15-point halftime lead and never looked back, taking the SEC tournament final, 59-43, at James H. Moore Gym Friday night.

Despite the loss, Scots coach Mike Ritchie is still proud with what his boys have accomplished so far this season and it’s not over yet.

“They’ve come so far with what we’ve had to work with,”said Ritchie. “Bottom line, our talent level isn’t where it needs to be yet, but we’ve overcome alot this year. The sign of a good basketball team is can they over achieve and this bunch has way overachieved.”

After Pinecrest’s (24-2) Cedrick Threadgill put his team up 13-8 at the end of the first, the Patriots outscored Scotland (14-11), 16-6 in the second period to gain a 29-14 advantage at the half.

“Despite the score, it was not an easy game for us,” Pinecrest coach Mike Apple said. “Ritchie’s kids played extremely hard. You can tell how good a coach is by how hard his players play for him. I thought we were very good defensively tonight. We did a good job of denying Scotland entry passes into their offense.”

Normally a reliable scoring threat, Pinecrest’s defense held Scotland’s Mo Covington to just one basket, which didn’t come until the third quarter.

“Cedrick (Threadgill) did a real good job on (Mo) Covington and not allowing him to get good looks at the basket,” said Apple of Thredgill, who finished with 11 points.

Depite cutting the lead to single digits (40-31) at the end of the third quarter on a tough lay-up by Brad McMillan, Scotland had the play the last 4:42 of the fourth quarter without starter Dominique Clark, who picked up two quick fouls, the latter being his fifth foul.



With Clark, who led the Scots with 14 points, on the bench, the Patriots went right at the basket and kept the lead above 15 points the rest of the way.

“It just wasn’t our night, but you’ve got to give them (Pinecrest) credit, Ritchie said. “They got after us on defense. They got the loose balls and the rebounds. They’re No.5 in the state for a reason,”

James Baldwin paced a trio of Pinecrest players in double figures with 13 points with Julian Brewer adding 10.

Isaiah Robinson deposited eight points in a losing effort and Lamar McIntyre finished with six.