Unable to relocate install?

Hello
  On our large machines, we do not get to write into the system directories.  However, I keep getting errors trying  to relocate SCons (below).  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.
  Ray

python setup.py install --prefix=/N/soft/rhel7/scons/4.1.0
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "setup.py", line 46, in <module>
    version=get_version('SCons/__init__.py'),
  File "/N/soft/rhel7/python/3.6.8/lib/python3.6/site-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 128, in setup
    _install_setup_requires(attrs)
  File "/N/soft/rhel7/python/3.6.8/lib/python3.6/site-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 121, in _install_setup_requires
    dist.parse_config_files(ignore_option_errors=True)
  File "/N/soft/rhel7/python/3.6.8/lib/python3.6/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py", line 494, in parse_config_files
    ignore_option_errors=ignore_option_errors)
  File "/N/soft/rhel7/python/3.6.8/lib/python3.6/site-packages/setuptools/config.py", line 110, in parse_configuration
    options.parse()
  File "/N/soft/rhel7/python/3.6.8/lib/python3.6/site-packages/setuptools/config.py", line 380, in parse
    self.section_prefix, section_name))
distutils.errors.DistutilsOptionError: Unsupported distribution option section: [options.data_files]