LAURINBURG — Both of Scotland’s basketball teams lost to Westover on Saturday night.

Lady Scots neutralized by Wolverines

After the two sides finished the first quarter tied at 6-all, Westover’s girls basketball team defeated Scotland 45-39 with the help of an effective full-court press.

“Sometimes my girls can get a little too excited,” Scotland head coach Mallarie Snow said. “We don’t take care of the ball. We try to break presses by dribbling too much. We got a little flustered by that, and they took advantage of it and got some good touches and looks inside.”

Scotland’s Nautika Moore scored all of her team-high 12 points in the fourth quarter.

A layup by Moore trimmed Westover’s lead to 42-39 with just over a minute left in the game, but Westover’s Maria Wiley made a free throw to extend her team’s lead to four points with just over 20 seconds left on the clock. Salome Campbell, who led Westover with 13 points, made a pair of free throws with nine seconds left to seal the victory.

“We’ll probably do a whole lot more in practice with working on our passes and being patient,” Snow said. “You’ve got 10 seconds in the backcourt, so they need to relax a little bit. I feel like they feel like they had five seconds, and we were playing hot potato with that thing.”

Scotland (4-2) previously defeated Westover (3-5) 43-38 on Nov. 28 in Fayetteville.

Scotland’s winless start continues

The early season woes continued for Scotland’s boys basketball team on Saturday, as the Fighting Scots fell to 0-6 with a 54-40 loss against Westover.

Garrett McRae scored a team-high 15 points for Scotland. Seven of those points came in the fourth quarter.

“We’re definitely playing better defense,” Scotland head coach Matt Justin said. “We struggled in the second quarter. We had a lot of turnovers that led to layups, and then a lot of easy putbacks where we defended well on the possession, but we didn’t secure the rebound.”

Scotland scored just four points in the second quarter. Those points came from a 3-pointer by Shyheim Lloyd and a free throw by David Campbell.

Te’andre Walton led Westover with 14 points.

“When we aren’t turning the ball over, we’ve been getting open looks,” Justin said. “We just haven’t made them. Sooner or later, they’re going to fall.”

Up next

Scotland’s varsity basketball teams will open Sandhills Athletic Conference play by hosting Jack Britt at Sycamore Lane Elementary School on Tuesday. The girls will play at 6 p.m. and the boys will play at 7:30 p.m.

Scotland’s Nautika Moore attempts to drive to the basket during a game against Westover on Saturday.
https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_LadyScotsWestover.jpgScotland’s Nautika Moore attempts to drive to the basket during a game against Westover on Saturday.

Scotland’s Garrett McRae goes up for a contested shot against Westover on Saturday.
https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_ScotsHoopsWestover.jpgScotland’s Garrett McRae goes up for a contested shot against Westover on Saturday.

By Brandon Tester

Sports editor

Brandon Tester can be reached at [email protected] or 910-506-3170. Follow him on Twitter @BrandonTester.