PEMBROKE — From the start, Purnell Swett girls basketball coach Robert McLean has characterized this season as one in which the young Rams were likely to experience some growing pains.

Those showed Tuesday in a 59-37 home loss to Seventy-First.

“We just couldn’t take care of the basketball tonight,” McLean said. “Way too many turnovers, and rebounding, we just gave them too many opportunities on the offensive end. If you give a team three or four looks, they’re going to score. I think our effort was missing tonight.”

That effort led to a quick deficit for the Rams, with Seventy-First (5-7, 2-1 United-8) jumping out to a 9-0 lead behind five early points from Mariyah Massey as the Falcons held Purnell Swett (3-8, 1-2 United-8) off the scoreboard for four minutes to start the contest.

Alexis Locklear hit two free throws for Purnell Swett after a Falcons technical foul for the Rams’ first points with 3:36 left in the first quarter, and Niyah Locklear hit a layup 11 seconds later to make it 9-4. The Rams didn’t score for the rest of the period, though, and Seventy-First took a 13-4 lead at the end of the opening stanza.

“That’s kind of where we’ve been all year — we can’t quite put a full game together,” McLean said. “Those are talking points that we’re going to have after the game, and we’ll watch film tomorrow and see where we can get better, things we can correct.”

The Falcons expanded their lead to 21-6 with 5:52 to go in the first half before Jayda Dial hit a 3 that kickstarted a better second quarter offensively for the Rams. The teams traded baskets the rest of the half, with Seventy-First leading 32-18 at intermission; Niyah Locklear scored eight points in the second quarter for the Rams.

Niyah Locklear scored the Rams’ first nine points of the third quarter, including the first five to start the period and cut the Falcons’ lead to 32-23. Alani-Skye Wilkerson hit two 3s to answer, and after a Kariana Williams layup the Seventy-First lead was 41-26 with 4:18 left in the third. Purnell Swett got closer again after a Dial triple made it a 43-32 game, but Williams scored the last five points of the quarter to give Seventy-First a 48-32 lead entering the fourth.

Purnell Swett cut the Falcons’ lead to 14 twice in the early moments of the third quarter, but Seventy-First went on an 8-0 run in the middle stages of the fourth quarter before neither team scored over the last four minutes.

Niyah Locklear led the Rams with 19 points; Jayda Dial scored nine points and Bri Brewington had seven.

“(Niyah Locklear’s) confidence (is big), being a senior, playing the trials of conference play and understanding what it’s like in conference play,” McLean said. “We’re just hoping these girls playing now can gain some confidence by playing with her and playing around her going forward into the second half of the conference.”

Williams led the Falcons with 15 points and Massey and Wilkerson each tallied 13.

Seventy-First snapped a seven-game head-to-head losing streak against the Rams.

Rams boys overmatched in loss to Seventy-First

Facing a tough test against United-8 Conference-leading Seventy-First, it became clear from the early moments of Tuesday’s game that the Purnell Swett boys basketball team would not be upsetting the Falcons.

Seventy-First was dominant from start to finish in a 75-28 win over the Rams.

“We watched film, we scouted; I said ‘they’re quicker than we are, they’re taller, they’re more athletic, more skilled’ — so it’s going to be tough from the get go,” Purnell Swett coach Jeremy Sampson said. “Basically we had to play a perfect game (to win), and we didn’t. We had to run a good press offense and beat their press and cut down on turnovers and keep the score in the 40s, and obviously we didn’t do that. … It’s a tough task anytime you play Seventy-First — they just reload every year.”

Purnell Swett (2-8, 0-3 United-8) took a 3-2 lead after Tim Locklear hit a 3 with 6:28 left in the opening quarter. But the Rams didn’t score the rest of the period, while Seventy-First (9-1, 3-0 United-8) stretched its lead to 17-3 by quarter’s end behind seven points from Mylon Campbell.

Collin Sampson hit a pair of baskets early in the second quarter to cut Purnell Swett’s deficit to 19-7. Seventy-First then scored the next 18 points and closed the first half with a 24-2 run to take a 43-9 lead at intermission. Campbell repeated his first-quarter performance with another seven-point frame.

Purnell Swett outscored Seventy-First 11-7 over the first 4:28 of the third quarter, making it a 50-20 game, with six Tim Locklear points in the span. The Falcons scored the next eight points and led 58-20 at the end of the third quarter.

“I saw some bright spots in the second half,” Jeremy Sampson said. “I saw some kids that want to play. They were relatively young, a lot of juniors. I told the guys keep building; we’ve got 13 games left, keep building and let’s get the games that are gettable.”

Tim Locklear scored nine points to lead Purnell Swett and Collin Sampson added six.

“I’m glad Tim stepped up,” Jeremy Sampson said. “He hit a couple of 3s and looked good there. And I thought Aiden Clewis played well.”

Campbell finished with 14 points to lead Seventy-First. Daekwon Dunn had 10 points and Xavier McBryde and Deandre Nance each scored nine points.

Purnell Swett lost its sixth straight game overall and its eighth straight in the series against Seventy-First. The Falcons have won eight straight games overall.

Purnell Swett plays Thursday at Jack Britt before traveling to Douglas Byrd on Friday. Seventy-First plays Friday at Lumberton.