Southern Durham hasn’t lost a game this season to a team from North Carolina, and that didn’t change on Monday afternoon in the N.C. High School Athletic Association 3A eastern regional championship game at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem.

The Spartans weathered every run from Swansboro, pulling ahead by double-digits in the fourth quarter en route to a 78-65 win.

Points weren’t easy to come by early. A.J. Morman Jr. scored the first eight points of the game for the Spartans and Jackson Keith added five more, but Swansboro had six different players score in the first quarter and led 16-13 after the first eight minutes.

That lead didn’t hold in the second quarter though.

Morman and Keith continued dominating the scoring for the Spartans, scoring all but four of Southern Durham’s 35 first-half points. It was enough to keep Southern Durham ahead of Swansboro though.

The Spartans got nine points from Morman in the second quarter to leave him with 17 points in the first half. Southern Durham led Swansboro 35-30 at halftime.

Swansboro was led by Malik Richmond’s eight points in the first half. Jonah Holt and Jermaine Cunningham each had seven points in the first half, but Cunningham left the game in the second quarter with three personal fouls.

Southern Durham extended its lead to seven points through three quarters, but Swansboro started the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 56-56.

Foul trouble became a problem for Swansboro after that, and free throws helped Sotuhern Durham reclaim a lead. The Spartans were 9-of-16 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter and 26-of-37 for the game. Keith scored 11 points in the fourth quarter and Vincent added seven more.

Keith finished the game with 30 points to lead all scorers. Morman was second in scoring for Southern Durham with 19 points, followed by Vincent’s 14 points.

Cunningham led Swansboro in scoring with 21 points. Tangiora posted 15 points and Richmond finished with 14 points.

Southern Durham will move on to the 3A state championship game on Friday where it will face the winner of Hunter Huss and Ben L. Smith, who play each other in the 3A western regional championship on Monday at 8 p.m.

This marks the first time since 1959 that Southern Durham has advanced to a state championship game in boys basketball. That season, the Spartans lost to Sanford in the 2A state championship.

Swansboro finishes the season with a 25-2 record. The loss to Southern Durham was the first since the Pirates lost to New Hanover on Jan. 18. New Hanover is playing in the 4A eastern regional final later this week.