The Patriots 51-44 loss at Westover Friday night was the third straight in the conference in which they held a fourth-quarter lead. And in the conference game before those three, the Patriots lost in overtime at Scotland County.
The odds favoring a change of fortune grow lower the next two nights when they play at fifth-ranked in the state Hoke County (tonight at 7:30 p.m.)) and at number-one ranked Seventy-First (Tuesday).
“We just have to get over the hump,” said Pinecrest coach Terry Davis, whose squad played well for 27 minutes in the losses to Westover and Jack Britt (Tuesday) and for four quarters in a 52-36 non-conference victory over Red Springs on Wednesday. “I thought the biggest difference was Westover hustled for balls harder and got some balls we should have gotten.”
The Patriots trailed 21-20 at the half finding some success working the ball inside to Anthony Pratt and Kent Murphy. In the second half, Justin Dixon and Adrian Purcell got hot from the outside scoring 16 of the Patriot’s next 17 points as they took a 37-32 lead with just over six minutes left in the game.
Two treys in a row by Westover’s Phillippe Harris and a layup by the Pat’s Chris McDougald produced the last tie at 41-41.
From that point to the end, Westover was able to turn it up a notch and Pinecrest could not. The Wolverines scored their last seven points at the foul line, while the Patriots went 0-4, including two misses in one-and-one situations — and turned the ball over twice.
With the Wolverines attacking the basket and the Patriots relying almost exclusively on jump shots in the second half, the home team went to the foul line 23 times to just five for Pinecrest. Westover, now 4-9 overall and 1-3 in the conference, made 19 of 33 free throws in all to just one of five for Pinecrest.
“We weren’t aggressive enough on forcing the ball inside,” Davis said. “We talked about it at halftime, but didn’t get it done.”
Dixon finished with 12 points and Purcell nine. Pratt contributed eight to go with 10 rebounds and five blocked shots. Harris with 18 points and Brandon Walker with 13 led Westover. Pinecrest connected on 38 percent of its shots from the field to 33 percent for Westover.
Pinecrest (2-11, 0-4) is making up a game with Hoke (10-0, 3-0) that was postponed by the snowstorm. Seventy-First (11-1, 4-0) was undefeated the day the rankings came out this week, but lost that night to Pine Forest 65-61 in overtime.
Pinecrest 12 8 12 12 — 44
Westover 11 10 10 20 — 51
Pinecrest — Dixon 5-11 0-0 12, Capasso 0-2 0-0 0, McCrimmon 2-11 0-0 4, McKenzie 0-1 0-0 0, Dickerson 0-0 0-0 0, Murphy 3-4 1-2 7, Pratt 4-10 0-2 8, McKnight 0-1 0-1 0, McDougald 1-1 0-0 2, Rhone 0-1 0-0 0, Purcell 4-8 0-0 9, Horton 1-2 0-0 2. Totals – 20-52 1-5 44.
Westover — Shuler 0-8 1-2 1, Oliver 1-1 0-0 3, Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Walker 2-9 9-10 13, Harris 6-13 3-6 18, Cook 1-3 1-4 3, Gilbert 2-4 0-2 4, Owens 2-3 1-2 5, Halligan 0-0 4-7 4. Totals – 14-42 19-33 51.
Three-point goals: Pinecrest 3 (Dixon 2, Purcell); Westover 4 (Harris 3, Oliver).
