It was an interesting week for Robeson County’s high school basketball teams, with the Fairmont boys continuing to carry the torch as the only unbeaten team in the county and the St. Pauls girls capping the week with the biggest upset of the season — so far.
These are the eye-opening performances of the week:
TEAM OF THE WEEK
It was a statement week for the Lumberton girls basketball team, with the Lady Pirates claiming three Southeastern Conference wins to take hold of first place. It started with a 68-7 rout of rival Purnell Swett, followed with a 59-52 win over Scotland in a meeting of SEC heavyweights, and ended with a 60-38 victory over Pinecrest.
The Lady Pirates are off to their best start since the 2001-02 season — one that ended with a 29-1 record en route to a state title. At 16-1 and 6-0 in the SEC, Lumberton’s only loss came to Dillon in the Robeson County Shootout — a game in which they led most of the way. With London Thompson leading the way, the Lady Pirates look poised to continue their dominance as the state playoffs approach.
CAN’T MISS GAME
After losing 60-38 earlier in the week to South Robeson, things didn’t look promising for the St. Pauls girls basketball team with East Columbus next on the schedule.
The Lady Gators entered Friday’s contest against the Lady Bulldogs unbeaten in Three Rivers Conference play. They left with their first loss conference loss of season.
Claiming the upset of the season, so far, St. Pauls handed East Columbus a 49-48 loss, snapping a five-game losing streak to the Lady Gators.. Alyssa Emanuel scored 11 points, including the game-winning free throw to give the Lady Bulldogs their third conference win of the season. Destiny Hardin scored a team-best 15 points to lead St. Pauls and pulled down eight rebounds. Grace Hall added eight points and a team-high 11 rebounds for the Lady Bulldogs.
St. Pauls coach Mallarie Snow said it was the “best game I’ve seen them play.”
BIG-TIME BALLERS
Lumberton’s London Thompson paced the top performers this week, flirting with a triple-double in each of her team’s three games. Against Purnell Swett, the guard recorded a double-double, finishing with 17 points and 10 rebounds. She also had six assists and seven steals.
Her best game of the week came in the most important contest, a battle for first place in the SEC with Scotland. In that game, Thompson scored 20 points, nabbed eight steals, dished out seven assists and grabbed seven rebounds. She capped her week with 19 points, seven steals, six assists and six rebounds in a win over Pinecrest.
Tyleik Brown and Stephon Lloyd helped the Lumberton boys claim their first SEC win of the season, an 85-66 rout of rival Purnell Swett. Brown scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds with Lloyd scoring 12 points and dishing out 11 assists. The Pirates followed with an upset win over Pinecrest on Friday.
South Robeson continues to feature the top scorers in the county, with A’Terria Quick and Davonte Banks putting in another week of bucket-getting.
Quick scored 28, 36 and 22 points for the girls this week, with Banks dropping 21, 40 and 27 for the boys.
Eric Graham paced the Red Devils this week with a pair of double-double performances, scoring 23 points and grabbing 17 rebounds in a win over East Columbus and dropping 15 points with 11 boards against Whiteville.
Fairmont’s Julius Caulder paced the unbeaten Golden Tornadoes in the scoring column this week, scoring 17 and 22 points in a pair of wins.
