Lady Scots basketball routs Whiteville, boys fall short

LAURINBURG —The Lady Scots basketball team defeated visiting Whiteville in a 71-41 final from Scotland High School on Wednesday night. Scotland improves to 6-3 (2-1 against conference opponents) on the season with the victory while the Wolfpack fall to 1-10 (1-2 in conference games) with the loss.

The first quarter can best be described as a stalemate as both teams held the lead at various points but never were up by more than three points at anytime. Whiteville got on the board first thanks to a made three-pointer by Elayzia Dawson, though that was quickly answered by a three from Lanika Walters as the Scots went on a 6-0 run over the next 2.5 minutes. After a handful of lead changes, Scotland found themselves up 13-11 near the end of the quarter before Ceonna Dennis made a layup at the buzzer to knot the game at 13 after eight minutes.

The Scots then took charge out of the gate in the second period as Morgan Thompson got a layup one minute into the quarter and also made a pair of free throws shortly after as part of a 6-0 Scotland surge within the first 2:17. Scotland would also end the frame on a 7-0 run over the last 3:39 to head into the break up comfortably 32-17.

Head Coach Roshien McClain didn’t like the slow start his team had but was glad to see the turnaround happen earlier in the game. He simply just told his team to pick up the intensity on defense, which they certainly did as evidenced by the four points allowed in the second quarter.

“I wasn’t pleased with the first quarter at all,” McClain said. “Once we got to halftime I knew the third quarter would be important and we eventually just pulled away. The adjustment was just to pick it up and get up on them more.”

The third quarter saw both teams go on 5-0 runs in a frame (Scotland from 32-19 to 37-19 and Whiteville from 39-21 to 39-26) that ultimately saw the Scots maintain their advantage they built in the second period. Thompson would convert an and-one layup with 2:12 left to put Scotland up by 15 at 45-30 before the quarter ended at 49-33.

The Scots then got hot from the floor over the last eight minutes, outscoring Whiteville 22-8 to turn what was a sizable advantage into a monstrous one. Shakera Wilson had three made three-pointers in the quarter alone while Thompson and Alicia McClain had four points in the period each. Scotland scored 11 straight points to start the quarter and didn’t allow Whiteville to get any points until nearly four minutes had passed.

McClain was pleased to see Wilson and the offense pull away in the fourth quarter. He was glad to see scoring come from multiple sources in key moments, noting how it will be necessary to have several capable scorers at any given time.

“It’s very important to get different girls involved,” McClain said. “Shooting is very important, you never know when it can be your night, having another reliable player to plug in at any point to knock down a shot is key.”

Thompson paced Scotland in scoring with 17 points. McClain and Jakiya Brown added 12 apiece.

The Scots will have a quick turnaround with a trip to face conference rival Pinecrest on the schedule for Thursday night. Tipoff will be at 6 p.m. McClain is aware of the challenges the Patriots present on a shortened schedule as far as recovery time goes.

“We need to have intensity and maintain our defensive heart,” McClain said. “They have a lot of different girls that do a lot of different things.”

Boys basketball drops contest to Whiteville

The Scotland boys basketball team fell to the Whiteville Wolfpack on Wednesday night at Scotland High School by a score of 63-50. The Scots fall to 2-8 (0-3 in conference games) on the season with the loss while Whiteville improves to 7-5 (3-0 in conference action) with the victory.

Scotland started the game off on the right foot, responding to Whiteville’s first basket with six unanswered points over one minute of action. Whiteville did respond with six unanswered points of their own, a run that included a successful and-one conversion by Caleb Mclean but the Scots quickly came back with a 7-0 run that put them up 13-8 with 1:45 left in the period. A made jumper by Jerrison Dixon with 30 seconds remaining helped Scotland reach the end of the first eight minutes up 15-11.

Dixon made a three-pointer 15 seconds into the second quarter to help the Scots score five unanswered points within the first minute to extend the advantage up to nine at 20-11. Though Whiteville eventually trimmed the margin down to three (25-22) with 3:15 left in the half, Scotland scored the last four points of the quarter. This included a layup by Shylan Harrell on a pass from Dajuan Gibson that traveled the entire length of the court with 46 seconds left as the Scots entered halftime up 29-22.

All of the momentum Scotland had quickly evaporated in the third quarter. Whiteville quickly erased the deficit within 2:20 on the strength of a 8-0 run and continued the run throughout the entire period as the Scots couldn’t score a single point during the quarter. They would trail 40-29 when it was over.

The root of the problem in the third quarter according to Head Coach Michael Malpass was not sticking to the gameplan. Malpass believed that the issues started popping up when Whiteville was able to go on a run that forced the Scots to play a brand of basketball that they don’t want to play.

“We played a perimeter man defense and totally had them stifled,” Malpass said. “We just got lazy, got on our heels and made some mental mistakes as far as how we were defending which forced us to play faster and there was a lid on the basket in that quarter.”

Gibson broke the scoreless drought with a layup 45 seconds into the fourth period and had seven of Scotland’s 21 points in the quarter but the Scots were simply in too big of a hole to climb out of. The closest they would get to even was when they trailed 53-44 with just under three minutes remaining in regulation.

Malpass believes that his team simply lost focus of what the goal was when they were doing things well early in the game. He wants to see them maintain the discipline over an entire game and keep their focus for a full four quarters.

“They haven’t learned to win yet so success makes them complacent instead of hungry for more success,” Malpass said. “We haven’t gotten to a point where teams are uncomfortable playing us, Whiteville did a great job of staying in their press and forcing us to shoot fast and when you struggle to shoot, shooting fast and missing fast is about as good as turning the ball over.”

Dixon led the team in scoring with 14 points. Jesse Clifton and LaSean Pittman added eight apiece.

The Scots will have a quick turnaround with a trip to face conference rival Pinecrest on the schedule for Thursday night. Tipoff will be at 7:30 p.m.