LUMBERTON — The chance to start on senior night can sometimes be a brief, two-minute cameo before returning to the bench as the regular starters go on to provide all of the night’s on-court production. Or it can be an opportunity seized.

Lumberton’s Damian Robinson made sure early on in Friday’s game against Purnell Swett he would take advantage of his night in the spotlight.

Robinson scored 10 points in the first nine minutes of the game, helping the Pirates build an early lead on their way to a 68-53 win over the visiting Rams.

“We wanted to start off early, we wanted to bring energy from the start, and just tranfer for the whole game,” Robinson said.

Lumberton (16-8, 11-3 United-8 Conference) jumped out to a 9-2 lead, with seven of those early points coming from Robinson, who hit a layup and a putback before a 3-pointer at the 4:05 mark of the first quarter.

“He’s been through a lot of injury this year, and he broke his hand last year in baseball and couldn’t really do much during the summer, and just has always had something going on this year,” Lumberton coach Bryant Edwards said. “I was glad he could have a good start at least to senior night, and hopefully that can transition into baseball and he’ll have a good year.”

Purnell Swett (5-18, 3-11 United-8) closed back to within a point by late in the quarter, with the Rams’ first five baskets each coming from a different contributor, before Dimetrious Jones hit a 3 with four seconds left to give Lumberton a 15-11 lead after the opening stanza. Robinson then opened the second quarter with another triple, making it 18-11 Pirates.

“It was big for the team,” Robinson said. “Started off, got us to a hot start, got us going. We had momentum for the rest of the game. And it felt amazing for me, especially on senior night.”

Lumberton outscored the Rams 23-7 in the second quarter, with senior Ayden Locklear hitting two 3s during the run, to take a 38-18 halftime lead.

Two Jodi Freeman baskets started the second-half scoring for Purnell Swett, and by the time Jeremiah Barnes hit a jumper with 5:25 left in the third, the Rams had closed to a 41-26 deficit against a team it lost to 69-20 on Jan. 23.

“The law is never give up,” said Mike Smith, Purnell Swett’s acting head coach in Jeremy Sampson’s absence. “You’ve got to have force through adversity, and as long as you keep going, never give up, the results will show itself — 50-(point margin) to 15, that’s results.”

But Jaiden Shephard and senior Dimetrious Jones got hot through the rest of the third quarter for the Pirates, with each hitting three baskets in the period to help stretch the lead to 56-37 by the end of the frame.

“We kept battling against adversity; keep making shots and contain them on defense, and that’s what we did,” Shephard said.

“That’s who Jaiden has to be for us,” Edwards said. “Especially late, he’s been doing that, and bouncing into the conference tournament, he’s going to have to be big for us; playoffs come, he’s going to have to be massive for us, and next year he should have the biggest breakout year we’ve seen in a while.”

Purnell Swett outscored the Pirates 16-12 in the fourth, but was never closer than the 15-point final margin.

Shephard finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, Dimetrious Jones had 16 points and Robinson finished with 10 for the Pirates; senior Nakoma Scott had 13 rebounds.

Collin Sampson led Purnell Swett with 18 points and Barnes had 12 points and six rebounds.

Edwards, in his fifth season at Lumberton, earned his 100th win in the program.

“Getting the win, it was coach’s 100th win, so that was the biggest accomplishment for us,” Shephard said. “We wanted to celebrate with the team, get hot, make shots and come out with the victory.”

“It’s just a reflection on good talent; the guys who have built the program accumulated the majority of these wins,” Edwards said. “I’m very thankful for all my current and former Lumberton players I’ve been able to coach. It’s definitely been a special few years.”

The teams will meet again in the first round of the United-8 Conference Tournament Monday in Lumberton.

“Monday will be less distractions,” Edwards said. “Senior night brings a lot of distractions, a lot of emotions, so we’re going to kind of tone it back on Monday night and settle back in to how we usually do things.

“I think we gained pretty good momentum for the tournament, playing a team like Lumberton,” Smith said. “They’re well-coached, and just playing against them we get better. We learn from our mistakes, and that’s what you saw tonight.”

Whitley, Locklear lead Lady Pirates to win

From the start of the season, Charley Whitley has provided the energy for the Lumberton girls basketball team. As the season got deeper, she has provided more and more scoring, too.

Whitley teamed up with Gabby Locklear to provide a big one-two punch for the Pirates, leading to a 51-35 win Friday over Purnell Swett.

“Charley, she just works so hard; it was inevitable she was going to find her way and find her rhythm,” Lumberton coach Ivy Johnson said. “She’s a hard worker, so of course that’s going to follow her, because that’s what happens, success finds hard work. Her and Gabby, they’ve just both been really kind of getting comfortable in these games and finding ways to score. They’ve both been hitting shots, and Gabby’s been finding her way to the free-throw line a lot more.”

“I think as a team we got going; our defense really fueled our offense,” Whitley said. “We score best in transition, so getting us in transition was key.”

Whitley scored 17 points, including eight of the team’s first 10 as the Pirates built an early lead; one of the smaller players on the floor, she also led the Pirates with seven rebounds.

“That’s just her tenacity,” Johnson said. “She’s just a work horse. She doesn’t know how to stop. Sometimes we’re like ‘Charley, slow down,’ but that’s Charley, she only knows one level, one gear.”

“I just think rebounds has to do with effort — if you want the ball go get the ball,” Whitley said.

Gabby Locklear, the Pirates’ leading scorer this season, scored 20 points with four rebounds for Lumberton. Andrea Brown had 10 points and six rebounds.

Lumberton (8-14, 6-8 United-8) scored the first seven points of the game, including a 3 and a steal and layup by Whitley; she hit a 3 later in the quarter for a 10-4 lead, then Gabby Locklear hit back-to-back 3s for a 16-6 Pirate advantage at the 3:30 mark before neither team scored for the rest of the quarter.

“I think it was that early hole; I think we got down eight and that’s where it stayed at,” Purnell Swett coach Robert McLean said. “Their guards just made shots; they handled the ball, and we turned the ball over too much, and ultimately their guards just made shots. We never could break that seven-, eight-point window.”

Purnell Swett (6-18, 4-10 United-8) closed to an 18-13 deficit after two Alexis Locklear buckets and a basket and one free throw from Niyah Locklear, and a Niyah Locklear putback with 2:03 left in the half got the Rams to a 21-17 deficit. Lumberton ended the half with a 6-0 run over the last 38 seconds, with Andrea Brown and Whitley scoring baskets before Brown hit a 12-foot jumper at the buzzer for a 27-17 halftime lead.

Whitley scored all eight of Lumberton’s third-quarter points, including two triples. Purnell Swett twice got within seven points in the period before Lumberton took a 35-25 lead to the fourth.

Led by five Niyah Locklear points in the quarter, Purnell Swett closed to a 41-35 deficit with 2:20 left in the fourth. The Pirates hit eight straight free throws, including six by Gabby Locklear, to build their lead to 49-35 before a late jumper, also by Gabby Locklear, established the final 16-point margin.

Niyah Locklear scored 14 points with 18 rebounds for the Rams; Jayda Dial scored seven points and Alexis Locklear had six.

“(Niyah) is a huge hole for us to fill next year,” McLean said. “Just consistency all year, for a team that has struggled to score. She’s been our first option all year, and we just played through her. As she goes, we go.”

Lumberton beat Purnell Swett for the second straight time after losing the previous nine meetings in a row.

“That was something that the girls wanted to do and that’s a goal that they accomplished,” Johnson said. “It was a very physical game, and I thought that we did a better job at adjusting through some of that physicality tonight, and keeping our composure and still working to play our game.”

Both teams will enter the United-8 Tournament, with first-round games on Tuesday.