One quarter of good basketball didn’t get it done for the Pinecrest boys in Friday night’s Southeastern Conference opener at Lumberton.

The third-period surge by the Patriots reduced a 22-point halftime deficit to single digits before the Pirates pulled away in the fourth to hand them a 66-43 defeat. The Pats take a 5-10 mark into Tuesday’s league contest at Scotland County, while the Pirates improved to 9-5.

Justin Ray led the Patriots with 13 points. Traivon Williams had a double-double that included 10 points and 10 rebounds. Christian McRae led the home team with 14 points.

The veteran Pirate squad jumped all over 10 first-quarter Patriot turnovers to take a 20-8 lead. It mixed in three treys in the second period as the margin grew to 41-19 at the intermission.

“They came out ready to play,” Patriot coach Andrew Lacey said of the Pirates. “They were a team that was very experienced and played very poised. We turned the ball over and dug ourselves a hole.”

On the first possession of the second half, Patriot guard Jermaine Martin-Calhoun turned a nifty drive down the lane into a three-point play. The Pirates then scored their only two baskets of the period before Adam Cummings started a 14-1 Patriot run with a three.

Greg Barnes and Brendan Ortiz combined for eight points during the rally. With 6:55 remaining in the game, Williams passed to Ray for a basket that made it 46-37.

“I thought we came out flat in the third quarter,” Pirate coach Ted Gaskins said. “In the fourth quarter we kind of realized we had a game.”

The Patriots had a couple of chances to dig further into the deficit before more turnovers contributed to a 7-0 run that put the home team back in a comfort zone. McRae had 11 points in the final period.

“We played with a lot more intensity defensively,” Lacey said of the near shutdown of the Pirate offense in the third quarter. “It took everything we had to cut the lead to nine. Then they went back on the run.”

In the other first night league games, Hoke County (10-1) knocked Richmond Senior (10-1) from the undefeated ranks 54-50 in Raeford, and Purnell Swett defeated Scotland 58-50.

Pinecrest 8 11 16 8 — 43

Lumberton 20 21 4 21 — 66

Pinecrest: Martin-Calhoun 2 1-1 5, Ray 5 1-4 11, Barnes 3 0-0 6, Cummings 1 0-2 3, Williams 5 0-0 10, Brower 0 0-0 0, McCrimmon 0 0-0 0, Ragin 0 0-0 0, Ortiz 2 0-0 4, Painter 0 2-2 2, McGriff 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 4-9 43.

Lumberton: Strother 1 4-8 6,Davis 1 0-0 2, Haith 2 0-2 4, Johnson 2 2-4 10, McNeill 4 1-1 10, McRae 4 6-9 14, Nagrampa 2 0-0 4, Bullard 3 2-2 10, Frederick 1 0-0 2, Smith 3 0-0 6. Totals 23 15-26 66.

Three-point goals: (P) 1 (Cummings); (L) 5 Johnson 2, Bullard 2, McNeill).