WADESBORO — The Richmond Senior High School girls’ junior varsity basketball team was looking for an offensive spark Thursday to help it off to a two-win start of its season.
But the spark wouldn’t come the way it did two days earlier, and the Lady Raiders suffered their first loss of the season, 30-22, to Anson High School.
Sophomore Rayana Shubert would net a season-high 8 points, all coming in the second half for Richmond and first-year head hoad Demi Watkins. Her effort down low wouldn’t be enough, but it did cut a 11-point deficit down to a more manageable situation for the rest of the game.
Similar to Tuesday’s season opener against the Lady Bearcats, Richmond was slow out of the gate to find the basket. Freshman C’Nedra Hinson scored Richmond’s only two points in the first six minutes, and Da’Veah Robinson added a bucket in the early part of the second quarter.
Trailing 11-4, Watkins called a timeout and sophomore Raven Robinson responded with a 5-2 run of her own to cut the halftime deficit to 13-9. Robinson hit a three-pointer from the corner and followed up with a pair of free throws.
Shubert would take over in the third quarter, and scored all six of Richmond’s points.She hit a putback and a mid-range jumper on back-to-back possessions to make it a 14-13 ball game, and later laid the ball off the glass to keep the Lady Raiders close 16-15.
But two three-pointers by Anson in the final minute distanced the Lady Bearcats’ lead to seven points 22-15.
Netting her final bucket of the game just inside the start of the fourth quarter was Shubert, but Anson again went on a 7-0 run to open things up.
A late effort that saw buckets from Daniah McDonald and Devaeh Wall, and a Robinson free throw, gave Watkins’ squad a chance to make a run. But it wasn’t enough as Anson maintained possession in the closing minutes to secure the series split.
The JV Lady Raiders (1-1) will get an extended period of time off for Thanksgiving and won’t play when the rest of the Richmond programs pick things up at Southern Lee High School on Dec. 3 due to the Lady Cavs not having a junior varsity team.
