LUMBERTON — A defensive first half quickly turned into an offensive second half for the Lumberton boys basketball team as the Pirates came away with the 55-31 win over Purnell Swett in the United-8 Conference Tournament.

“That’s the third time playing them in a span of one month,” Lumberton coach Bryant Edwards said. “When you play somebody three times no matter who they are it’s always hard to beat somebody three times especially a Purnell-Lumberton rivalry. It was a good environment tonight and we had fun.”

With the win the No. 2 seed Pirates (17-8) advance to the tournament semifinals where they will face No. 3 seed Jack Britt at 6 p.m. Wednesday at host school Seventy-First.

“They’re (Jack Britt) a tough defensive team,” Edwards said. “Coach (Isaiah) Walker does a great job as one of the best coaches in this area if not the state and a lot of respect for him. It’s gonna be a tough one. They’re going to grind defensively and wanna show the pace and we’re going to try and push the pace on.”

Both sides kept it close to start the first quarter as the No. 7 seed Rams held the 5-3 advantage early in the quarter before the Pirates came back and took a 9-6 lead heading into the second quarter. The low scoring continued for both sides until late in the second quarter when the Pirates put together a 6-2 scoring run to take an 18-12 lead at the half.

“I told them survive and advance, like the state playoff games you survive and advance,” Purnell Swett coach Jeremy Sampson said. “We had to survive and advance, and we didn’t survive tonight, but they didn’t quit, and they kept battling. Lumberton has a great team, great coach, and I wish them the best of luck in the future.”

The Pirates came out in the second half on fire, quickly going on an 8-0 run to extend their lead to 26-12. The third quarter belonged to the Pirates offense as they started to fire on all cylinders and take a comfortable 43-20 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The Rams didn’t quit though as they continued to fight and chip away at the lead, but the Pirates managed to close things out for the win.

“It was physical, really chippy and I enjoy games like that,” Edwards said. “I enjoy coaching games like that. All players enjoy playing games like that. Down the stretch, we gotta take care of the ball better and put teams away.”

Jaiden Shephard led the way for the Pirates finishing with 13 points, Amare Jones followed with nine points. Isreal Perkins and Aiden Locklear each had six points and Dimetrious Jones had five.

For the Rams they were led in scoring by Jeremiah Barnes with eight points and Collin Sampson and Timothy Locklear with six points each.

“I thought we played a pretty good defensive first half, just couldn’t make many shots, they’re long athletic and just made it tough for us,” Jeremy Sampson said. “But I’m proud of the guys, they fought it’s been a tough season, but they didn’t quit, number two team in the conference and you hold them to 18 in the first half. Something to build on for next season.”

The Rams finish the season with a 5-19 overall record and a United 8 conference record of 3-12.

“Got some young guys coming up and a lot of my team this year were JV kids from last year who didn’t get to play a lot, but something to build on next year,” Sampson said. “Gotta gets these kids in the gym and off season workouts and see what happens but looking forward for the future.”