CHAPEL HILL — For the first time in five years, the Richmond Senior High School boys’ and girls’ basketball programs both qualified for the 4A state playoffs.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association released its official playoff brackets on Saturday around 3 p.m.
Less than 24 hours after the conclusion of the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament, the Raiders received the No. 1 seed and home court advantage in the 4A East bracket.
The Lady Raiders clinched the No. 8 seed in the 4A East and will have at least a first-round home game.
The playoff seeding process used a new formula that seeds teams based on their rating percentage index (RPI).
According to the NCHSAA’s website, RPI is calculated by using the following formula: RPI = (0.3 x WP) + (0.4 x OWP) + (0.3 x OOWP).
WP stands for a team’s “winning percentage” (divide the number of wins by the number of total games played).
OWP is the “opponents’ winning percentage” (average the winning percentages of a team’s opponents) and OOWP is the “opponents’ opponents winning percentage” (the same process but for the opponents of a team’s opponents).
Richmond’s teams both received an automatic playoff bid for winning the SAC 4A championship.
Road to state championship runs through Rockingham, No. 1 Raiders
Head coach Donald Pettigrew and the Raiders will have home court advantage for as long as they’re in the playoffs after earning the No. 1 seed.
Richmond finished the season with an RPI of 0.687656, edging No. 2 New Hanover High School (0.667530). The team finished the regular season as SAC co-champions, before edging Pinecrest High School in the SAC tournament on Friday.
The Raiders (23-1) had a winning percentage of 0.958333, an OWP of 0.605540 and an OOWP of 0.526468.
Richmond will host No. 32 Green Hope High School (10-15), which finished sixth in the 4A Southwest Wake Conference standings. The Falcons, which are coached by Alejandro Ellis, had an RPI of 0.498845.
As the last team in, Green Hope (Cary, N.C.) bested Purnell Swett High School (0.493113) to secure the No. 32 seed.
The Raiders, who enter the playoffs on an eight-game winning streak, are averaging 73.6 points per game and allowing opponents to score 54.4 points per game. Green Hope scores 58.0 PPG, while giving up 68.9 PPG.
Last season, the No. 14 Raiders lost to No. 6 Apex Friendship High School in the second round.
The opening round of the NCHSAA 4A East playoffs will start Tuesday, with the Raiders’ start time still to be determined at the time of publication.
LINK: NCHSAA boys’ basketball playoff brackets
No. 8 Lady Raiders secure first-round home game
In his fourth season at the helm of the Lady Raiders program, head coach Teddy Moseley is getting his first chance to coach in the postseason.
Richmond just missed out during last season’s run, but the Lady Raiders are now the No. 8 seed. They will have a first-round home playoff game against No. 25 Wake Forest High School (14-11).
The Lady Raiders (19-5) won the SAC outright with a perfect 12-0 record and finished second in the SAC tournament on Friday. Registering an RPI of 0.615961, it was the 11th best ranking in 4A East play.
Moseley’s squad had a 0.791667 winning percentage, a 0.571851 OWP and an OOWP of 0.499068.
Having won 12 of their last 13 games, the Lady Raiders will welcome in the Lady Cougars, who placed fourth out of six teams in the 4A Northern Athletic Conference. Wake Forest had the state’s 24th best RPI of 0.542827.
On paper, the Lady Raiders and Lady Cougars are closely matched in scoring and points against. Richmond is averaging 54.3 PPG and 39.0 points against per game, while Wake Forest averages 50.3 PPG and gives up 42.2 PPG.
The last time the Lady Raiders made the 4A state playoffs was in 2016-17 as a No. 31 seed. Former head coach Rosalind McDonald and the Richmond girls lost in the first round to No. 4 Ardrey Kell High School.
The opening round of the NCHSAA 4A East playoffs will start Tuesday, with the Lady Raiders’ start time still to be determined at the time of publication.
LINK: NCHSAA girls’ basketball playoff brackets
