LAURINBURG —The No. 2 Scotland men’s basketball team (19-7, 8-4 Sandhills Athletic Conference) knocked down only one 3-pointer and had just 14 points from Lamonte’ Cousar Wednesday night, but it was all that they needed to get a 52-40 win over the No. 3 Pinecrest Patriots (15-10, 8-4 SAC) and advance to the SAC tournament final against the No. 1 Richmond Raiders, after the Raiders knocked off the No. 4 Hoke County Bucks 79-50.
With this being the third time in the last 16 days the Scots have played the Patriots, Scotland head coach Michael Malpass knew he’d have to pull out a different strategy this go-around.
“We have three 3-point zones and we’re not gonna show them all to you,” Malpass said. “We hold on to things; we’ve got some other surprises that’ll be good. I give honor to all the coaches who have mentored me over the years cause nothing I do is original. But, I learned this from two good…college coaches that you can do it in spots to guard the 3-point line; it’s called a 6-feet perimeter defense. We knew with them (Pinecrest), if we bodied the big guy (Elijah Melton)…we knew they were gonna pitch out and we felt like, if we guarded the 3-point line a different way, it would take away some of those flare screens and the actions that were hurting us the first two times (we played them).”
A rough start to the first quarter for the Scots saw them score their first bucket with just over four minutes left on a Jaiquez Caldwell layup and miss three free throw attempts in the frame. The Patriots saw offensive struggles of their own, however, scoring just three field goals in the period. After the Patriots scored to go up 4-2, a 3-ball by Cousar and layups by Nick McCall and DaJuan Gibson would end the first quarter with the Scots up 9-7.
Caldwell was able to hit Scotland’s first free throw of the game with just over seven minutes remaining in the second quarter, after the team started 0-for-5 from the free-throw line, to give the Scots a 10-7 advantage. A 9-2 run by the Patriots soon after though would give Pinecrest a 16-12 lead, before a pair of Cousar free throws put the Scots back within two points. After Pinecrest moved their lead back up to 19-14, a Terrel Reed 3-pointer would kick-start a 12-0 run by Scotland to give them a 26-19 lead at the break.
An “and-one” layup by Caldwell and a layup by Cousar put the Scots ahead 31-19 in the early moments of the third quarter, but Pinecrest would answer, scoring 11 of the game’s next 16 points, to cut the Scotland lead to 36-30 heading into the fourth quarter.
The only field goals of the fourth quarter for the Scots were a dunk and a free-throw jumper by Cousar, along with a layup by Jay’Mon Gibson. The Scots connected on 10 of 16 free throw attempts in the period, which included seven by Isaac Ferguson. The Scots scored the first five points of the frame and Pinecrest never threatened the Scotland lead by more than eight points from then on.
Ferguson scored 14 points for the Scots, matching a team high, and Caldwell had 10.
Leading the way for Pinecrest was Colby Wallace, who finished with 11 points, and Melton added 10. Will Stites, who torched the Scots for 27 points and nine 3-pointers in the previous meeting between the two teams, scored only two points.
After a lackluster crowd at Monday’s first round matchup against No. 7 Lee County, Malpass said that the big turnout from the fans against Pinecrest was extremely beneficial for the team.
“Our community, at a six o’clock tip, came out and were loud,” he said. “That energy is helpful, so thank you to the Scots fans that came out tonight.”
Looking ahead to Friday night’s matchup at 6 p.m. in Rockingham against Richmond, who the Scots have lost to by a combined 68 points in two meetings this season, Malpass said “I just want another shot.”
“We know they’re (Richmond) great and we applaud their greatness. Coach (Donald) Pettigrew was coach of the year for a reason; he’s a great coach. He’s got a great team down there. Now, we have more guys that, whatever happens, they’re gonna get invaluable experience and we’re not gonna kill ourselves, because we can play more people now. So, playing in the playoffs now, after playing them Friday night, will be helpful…regardless of what happens.”