FAYETTEVILLE — The Scotland girls basketball team won just four games last season. Three games into the 2018-19 campaign, they are one victory away from matching that total.
The Lady Scots defeated Westover 43-38 on Wednesday night to improve to 3-0 on the young season.
“I’m very proud of them,” Scotland head coach Mallarie Snow said. “It was a very impressive and tough win, but we had to pull it out at the end.”
Niaria Leach and Kadence Shepard both scored 13 points for Scotland. Salome Campbell scored a team-high 20 points for Westover.
Two of Campbell’s points came on a buzzer-beating jumper at the end of the third quarter that cut Scotland’s lead to 36-34.
Campbell made another shot to tie the game at 36-all early in the fourth quarter, but a layup by Scotland’s Miste Clark helped start a 7-2 run by the visitors.
Westover’s last basket was a layup by Campbell with around one minute left in the game.
“We brought up our intensity on defense,” Snow said. “When we started out in the first, second and third quarters, we were slow defensively. I think in the fourth quarter we did a little better in transition.”
The Lady Scots finished 10-of-15 from the free throw line.
Boys basketball team falls to Wolverines
The Scotland boys basketball team lost to Westover 64-60 on Wednesday night after the Wolverines used a strong third quarter to pull away from the Scots.
Garrett McRae led Scotland with 12 points. C.J. Settles added 11 points.
Westover held a 15-10 lead at the end of the first quarter, and the Wolverines jumped out to a 22-12 lead in the second period. A 3-pointer by Settles cut Westover’s lead to 29-28 shortly before halftime.
Westover’s Isayia Douglas connected on a 3-pointer to give the Wolverines a 32-28 lead at intermission.
Westover outscored Scotland 17-10 in the third quarter to extend its lead to 49-38.
Scotland’s Khalib Simmons made a 3-pointer with three minutes left in the game to make the score 57-53 in favor of the Wolverines.
A layup and a pair of free throws gave Westover a 61-53 lead with just under two minutes left in the game. After a short basket for the Scots and another 3-pointer from Simmons, Scotland cut Westover’s lead to three points with 52 seconds left on the clock.
Scotland’s Kristopher McLean responded to a dunk by the Wolverines with a putback layup to close Scotland’s deficit to three points again with 22 seconds on the clock.
After a pair of missed free throws on Westover’s end of the floor, Simmons missed a 3-pointer.
A free throw by the Wolverines with less than five seconds left in the game helped the hosts secure the victory.
The loss dropped the Scots’ record to 0-3, but head coach Matt Justin said he saw some improvements after the first two games of the season.
“We took better care of the ball in spurts,” Justin said. “There were times when we had some turnovers that we’ll just have to continue to work on. But overall, I think it was a better effort.”
Up next
All of Scotland’s jayvee and varsity teams will play at Marlboro County on Saturday. The first of the two jayvee games is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.
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