SOUTHERN PINES — The Scotland Fighting Scots basketball team was outscored 27-3 in the fourth quarter and lost 74-46 to the Pinecrest Patriots in the first round of the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament Tuesday night.
Scotland (9-16), the No. 5 seed, trailed 47-43 after three quarters but could only muster three points from Jaiquez Caldwell, who led the Scots with 19 points, in the fourth; No. 4 Pinecrest (13-9) was ahead 17-12 at the end of the first and 29-26 at halftime.
Javion Saunders scored 24 points and Azir Gillespie scored 20 for Pinecrest.
Johnathon Graham was the only other double-digit scorer for Scotland with 17 points.
Pinecrest heads to Rockingham to face No. 1 Richmond in the tournament semifinals on Thursday.
With the loss, the Scots will now wait to see if they’re in the 32-team field of the 3A East Region when playoff brackets are released on Saturday; early indications show Scotland getting in.
As of Sunday, HighSchoolOT had Scotland as one of the last five teams in as a No. 28 seed and heading to Sanford in the first round to face conference foe Southern Lee — a projected No. 5 seed. And in the 3A East RPI rankings, Scotland sits at 29th following its loss Tuesday.