PEMBROKE — The Purnell Swett girls basketball team entered Tuesday’s game against South View after two straight losses last week.

Things didn’t look much better, though, after the Lady Rams struggled through the first half.

But a stellar second half, with Natalie Evington leading the charge offensively and an equally strong defensive performance, allowed the Rams to stop the bleeding, earning a 60-55 win to regain second place in the United-8 Conference standings.

“(The second half) was very important, especially coming off of two losses,” Evington said. “We knew we could get it together and if we started going hard we could get it done. We got it done.”

Purnell Swett (17-4, 9-2 United-8), playing its seventh straight game without standout point guard Kylie Chavis due to injury, fell from the United-8 lead with last week’s losses to Cape Fear and Jack Britt. The Rams swept the season series against South View (13-8, 8-3 United-8) after a 67-50 win on Jan. 6.

“Last week we challenged them a little bit — not that they’re not good basketball players, or that we don’t believe in them, we do believe — but they just haven’t been playing hard,” Purnell Swett coach Kalen Eddings said. “That’s easy to see, and it’s not anything schematically; we just played harder tonight.”

South View led 18-22 at halftime and extended its lead to 40-28 with 3:54 left in the third quarter. Evington hit a 3-pointer 24 seconds later to spark the Rams offensively; with the Rams defense holding South View to two points over the rest of the quarter, Purnell Swett finished the period on a 15-2 run, with two more Evington 3s in the final minute of the quarter, to take a 43-42 lead to the fourth.

After struggling from the floor in the first half, Evington scored 21 of her 26 points in the second half.

“I just know to keep shooting and they’ll eventually start falling, so I just kept shooting,” said Evington, a UNC Pembroke signee.

Evington was 6-for-6 at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter as the Rams continued to build a lead, doing so with its defense; South View did not score a field goal for nearly eight minutes, until a Neveah Colon layup with 3:59 left to cut a seven-point Rams lead to 49-44.

“We just decided we’re going to play man (exclusively) and we’re just going to guard better,” Eddings said. “Tonight we did a better job of making sure that we held them to one shot, and we didn’t give up a lot of transition baskets tonight, we’ve been struggling with that.”

“We know defensively if we keep it up and press them, they’re going to turn the ball over and defense turns into offense,” Evington said. “That’s how we got it rolling.”

Purnell Swett led 53-44 after a Jayda Dial steal and layup with 2:38 to go. A Colon 3 got the Tigers within four at 57-53 with 50 seconds remaining; Evington hit two free throws and Mitchell hit one to make the Rams’ lead 60-53 before a Nahmiah Aekins basket in the final seconds closed the final margin to five.

Behind Evington, Nyla Mitchell scored 16 points with 11 rebounds for Purnell Swett, Dial had seven points and Niyah Locklear grabbed 12 rebounds.

“I’m super proud of (Evington) and Nyla especially, how they kind of battled tonight and led the way tonight,” Eddings said. “Everything was max effort; Nyla kind of (sprained) her ankle, and still came back and had a great game.”

Colon scored 20 points, Makyla Drain scored 10 and Aekins added seven for South View; Jasmine Scriven and Unity Youngblood each had 11 rebounds.

Purnell Swett took a 7-2 lead and led by five on two more occasions in the first quarter. South View began a run late in the quarter which closed the lead to 13-11 when the period expired and continued into second stanza; by the 3:27 mark of the half, the run was 15-2 and the Tigers led 21-13.

Triples by Evington and Mitchell pulled Purnell Swett to a 22-19 deficit late in the half before South View took its six-point halftime lead.

Rams boys win another nailbiter

The Purnell Swett boys basketball team has made a living out of winning close games this season, and Tuesday’s game against South View was the latest installment.

Connor Harris made three key plays in the final minute and a half to lead the Rams to a 44-42 win.

“They’ve figured it out and played with a little heart, and figured out how to win these close games, where in the past we make a turnover or foul or whatever,” Purnell Swett coach Jeremy Sampson said. “They’ve figured it out. Jack Britt, Cape Fear, here, we’ve been down and came back.”

With Purnell Swett (10-10, 8-3 United-8) trailing 42-38, Harris hit a jumper with 1:22 left to cut the deficit in half. On the Tigers’ next possession, Harris stole the ball, then found Jaqueze Graham for a game-tying layup with 1:06 to go.

“I knew they were going to bite on my drive, so I saw them leave me open and I took it,” Harris said. “The steal, I read the ball handler’s eyes and I just ran with it.”

After an offensive foul on South View (4-17, 3-8 United-8), Purnell Swett held the ball until the final seconds; a Harris rebound and putback gave the Rams a 44-42 lead with 11 seconds to go.

“I saw (Graham) shoot it … Marcus is an outstanding rebounder, so he got the ball, but when it spilled out of his hands I got it; I was in the right place at the right time,” Harris said.

The Rams defense got a stop in the final seconds as South View missed a potential game-tying shot attempt.

Purnell Swett overcame a 40-34 deficit with 3:56 to go, outscoring South View 10-2 in the final 3:13. The run began with a floater by Marcus Lowry and a layup by Harris before Harris’ key jumper at the 1:22 mark.

The Rams won their fourth straight game; three of the four have come by five points or less, with the other in overtime.

“Heart, that’s all we’ve got, we’ve got heart,” Harris said. “We play hard and we love each other, we love to do it. … We were just trying to stay focused at all times, keep our head straight. We’ve been here; the last four or five games we’ve been in these similar positions, since after the Shootout.”

Harris scored 15 points with five rebounds for Purnell Swett and Collin Sampson scored eight points. Adarius Grissett and Riley Brooks both scored six points, with Grissett grabbing a team-high eight rebounds.

Demarcus Spearman had 16 points to lead South View and Raylan Mesa-McLucas and Chase Evans each scored seven.

Purnell Swett took a 13-7 lead five minutes into the game and led 13-11 after the first quarter. South View outscored the Rams 10-4 in the second quarter and took a 21-17 lead at halftime, finishing the half with an 8-0 run over the final 1:23.

The Rams briefly tied the game at 22-22 before a Spearman 3 gave South View back the lead late in the third; the Tigers took a 27-26 lead to the fourth.

Harris hit a go-ahead 3 in the opening seconds of the fourth and Graham hit a layup for a 31-27 lead; South View responded with a 13-3 run to take its late six-point lead; Spearman led the Tigers charge with six points during the run. Collin Sampson hit Purnell Swett’s only basket of the stretch, a 3 to give the Rams a 34-33 lead with 4:45 left.

Purnell Swett hosts United-8 leader Seventy-First on Friday.

Pirates dominate Gray’s Creek

The Lumberton boys basketball team earned a 78-37 road conference win Tuesday at Gray’s Creek.

Lumberton (18-2, 10-1 United-8) led Gray’s Creek (4-15, 2-9 United-8) 48-18 at halftime.

J.B. Brockington scored 21 points with eight rebounds, 13 assists and five steals for Lumberton and Tre Lewis also recorded a double-double with 15 points, 12 rebounds and three assists. Jacob Hammonds scored 12 points with two assists for the Pirates.

In the girls game, Lumberton defeated Gray’s Creek 53-22.