Basketball Recap: Purnell Swett Takes a Loss

Purnell Swett lost against Lumberton back in January, and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. The Purnell Swett Rams had to suffer through an 80-48 loss at the hands of the Lumberton Pirates. While losing is never fun, the Rams can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 516th, while the Pirates are ranked 121st).

Purnell Swett's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Jeremiah Barnes, who went 6-for-12 to rack up 18 points, and Collin Sampson, who posted 15 points. Charles Wilkes was another key player, putting up five points.

Jaiden Shephard was his usual excellent self, shooting 4-for-4 from downtown and dropping a double-double with 41 points and 25 rebounds for Lumberton. Shephard has been hot for a while, having posted eight or more boards the last 47 times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Amare Jones, who earned eight points in addition to ten assists and seven rebounds.

Purnell Swett dropped their record down to 5-18 with the defeat, which was their third straight at home. As for Lumberton, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won ten of their last 11 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 20-4 record this season.

Coming up, Purnell Swett is taking a road trip to take on South View at 7:30 p.m. on Monday. South View is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 66.1 points per game this season. As for Lumberton, they will welcome Gray's Creek at 7:30 p.m. on Monday. One thing working in Lumberton's favor is that they have posted at least 55 points in their last eight games.