
Dajuan Gibson (4) looks to move the ball on offense during Scotland’s win over Union Pines on Friday night at Scotland High School. Gibson led the Scots in scoring with 27 points.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
LAURINBURG —The Scotland boys basketball team defeated visiting Union Pines by a score of 65-59 on Friday night at Scotland High School. The Scots improve to 4-12 (2-7 against conference opponents) on the season with the victory while Union Pines falls to 12-7 (3-4 in SAC games) with the loss. The Scots split the regular season series with Union Pines as the Vikings previously picked up a 72-56 win over Scotland back in mid December.
Head Coach Michael Malpass was thrilled with the energy and intensity his team played with. He believes the Scots found a formula that suited their style of play and has evolved from their earlier season meeting with the Vikings as they have gotten healthier.
“They played so hard, I told them win, lose or draw I’m proud of the effort,” Malpass said. “You got to play fast no matter what happens and that’ll get more guys involved, which suits us the best. I think we’ve found methods to teach it better, we want to make teams uncomfortable so they can’t just run their offense.”
Scotland came out of the gates on fire as they scored the first seven points of the contest and didn’t allow the Vikings to get their first points of the contest until 3.5 minutes had already passed. That lead didn’t last forever as Union Pines quickly narrowed the margin down to 11-10 and then took an abbreviated 13-12 advantage before the Scots answered back with five unanswered points to retake the lead with 55 seconds left in the quarter. The Vikings would score four quick points within the period’s final 13 seconds to even the score at 17 after eight minutes.
Treshaun Core would give Union Pines the lead again with a putback 1:08 into the period, though the Scots answered right back with a Shylan Harrell basket and another from Dajuan Gibson within the next 33 seconds to go up 21-19. Zion Morrison would really put his mark on the second frame with five unanswered points that put Scotland up 26-21 with four minutes left until halftime. The Vikings would battle back to even the game at 28 near the end of the first half, though a buzzer beating three-pointer from Marquis McNeill gave Scotland a 31-28 advantage at the break.
The third period was a bit rough for Scotland as they saw a 36-32 lead turn into a 41-36 deficit within a 2.5 minute span. To Scotland’s credit, they managed to get the contest back under control before the end of the quarter with six unanswered points to momentarily give them the lead back at 42-41, though they still trailed 43-42 entering the final period.
The Scots would carry that momentum over into the start of the fourth as they scored the first seven points of the quarter thanks to baskets from Gibson and Jesse Clifton as well as a three-pointer from Gibson that put Scotland up 49-43. The Vikings weren’t rattled as a successful and-one conversion from Jaylen Kyle helped Union Pines trim the margin down to 51-50 with over four minutes still left on the clock. However, the Scots responded to that surge with a huge 8-0 run of their own that stretched the lead up to nine (59-50) with two minutes left in regulation. Though the Vikings managed to get within three down the stretch, Gibson would knock down three clutch free throws within the final 11 seconds to ice the game and eliminate any chance of a Union Pines comeback.
Gibson led Scotland, who played without Jerrison Dixon due to an illness, in scoring with 27 points, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter. Morrison added nine points for the Scots. Gibson credited his incredible scoring night to the preparation put in by the Scotland coaching staff and everyone executing it the right way.
“Coach had a gameplan for us and we followed the gameplan,” Gibson said. “We played good and we played as a team, this can give us a lot of momentum going forward.”
With this win now on Scotland’s resume, Malpass sees a path to the Scots being able to stack wins together. He is aware of the team’s place in the standings but also feels as though their record doesn’t fully indicate how good his team is capable of being.
“If we can get a couple of wins under our belt, we’re a winning team in the middle of our conference,” Malpass said. “We’re just going to try and give them the best chance, if they play hard we’ll be proud of what the outcome is.”
The Scots will be back in action on Monday night with a short trip down the road to face the Purnell Swett Rams. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Lady Scots lose to Union Pines for second time this season
The Lady Scots dropped a 43-35 decision to the Vikings on Friday night at Scotland High School. Scotland falls to 9-6 (5-4 against SAC teams) on the season with the loss while the Vikings remain undefeated and improve to 18-0 (7-0 in conference games) with the victory. Union Pines has now won both regular season matchups with Scotland as they previously beat the Scots 53-31 back in the middle of December.
The first quarter would be a real struggle for Scotland. Union Pines would score the first four points of the game before Morgan Thompson got the Scots on the board after two minutes had passed. Scotland wouldn’t score again during the period as the Vikings scored 10 unanswered the rest of the way and took a 14-2 advantage into the second frame. Head Coach Roshien McClain wasn’t happy with the start his team had and recognized how much it mattered at the end of a close game.
“The first quarter was the difference,” McClain said. “When you get down 14-2 and they can stay zone as much as they can it’s tough to overcome.”
Scotland would get the first point of the second period with Kayla Simmons drawing a foul 30 seconds in while Morgan Thompson also made a layup to help trim the margin down to nine (16-7) with five minutes left until halftime. That momentum would be short lived, however, as after Alicia McClain knocked down a three-pointer with 4:07 left, the Vikings scored six unanswered until Simmons had a successful putback with 1:05 until the break. Union Pines would be up on the Scots 26-12 after 16 minutes.
The third period would be a good one for Scotland. Thompson would single handedly score five unanswered points for the Scots within the first 1:20 of the quarter to immediately narrow the gap to nine (26-17). Even though the Vikings would respond with six unanswered in the middle of the frame to bring the lead up to 15 (34-19) with 2:23 remaining, the Scots would close out the quarter with eight straight points between Simmons, Thompson and McClain to be within seven (34-27) heading into the final eight minutes.
Taryn Pekala would draw a foul 30 seconds into the fourth to stop Scotland’s run, though they then started a new one with Thompson drawing a foul and McClain knocking down a three-pointer to make the margin four (35-31) with 4.5 minutes left in regulation. Unfortunately for the Scots, that would be as close as they would get to even as the Vikings then stretched the lead back up to eight (41-33) with one minute left and hit some free throws down the stretch to secure the win.
Thompson led Scotland in scoring with 23 points, including 12 in the third quarter. McClain had seven while Simmons added five.
McClain was excited to see Thompson in attack mode and get buckets nearly at will during the second half. He also credited Thompson and the defense for playing fundamentally sound against Ashanti Fox, who was averaging 28.2 points per game entering the contest.
“That’s what she does, when she’s going downhill she’s tough to stop,” McClain said. “She also played good defense and we played good team defense on her too.”
Despite losing, McClain feels good about how his team was able to hold the Vikings to their lowest point total of the season. This was just the third game for Union Pines this season that was decided by less than 10 points.
“That gives us a lot of confidence going forward,” McClain said. “We got three games next week and a big one against Pinecrest, we just got to keep working, really proud of the way they worked and played tonight.”
The Scots will be back in action on Monday night with a short trip down the road to face the Purnell Swett Rams. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.