FAYETTEVILLE — A fourth-quarter scoring surge by the Richmond Senior High School girls’ junior varsity basketball team came up short Tuesday on the road at Seventy-First High School.
Traveling to play the Lady Falcons, the Lady Raiders dropped their second straight Sandhills Athletic Conference game by a final of 70-40.
Sophomore Daniah McDonald led the team in scoring for the second consecutive game, netting 13 points, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter.
Freshman EJ Davis had seven points and Nyla Stroman contributed six points, while fellow ninth grader C’Nedra Hinson rounded out the top scorers with four points.
“We had a lack of energy tonight,” head coach Demi Watkins said. “We came out slow and couldn’t put the ball in the basket. It felt like everything Seventy-First threw up went in.
“Daniah came alive in the second half, but our defense wasn’t there to make enough stops to get back in the game,” she added. “We have to stop coming out flat.”
Richmond would score 20 points in each half, while Seventy-First put up 21 points in the first quarter. Stroman scored four of her points in the opening frame, as teammates Da’Veah Robinson and Joy Styles each hit a three-pointer.
Hinson added a field goal for the final of Richmond’s 12 points in the first quarter.
A low-scoring second quarter saw the Lady Raiders outscored 18-8 by Seventy-First. Hitting one field goal each were McDonald, Davis, Jasmen Williams and Devaeh Wall. The Lady Falcons took a 39-20 lead into the break.
Davis had a productive third quarter, netting her final five points. But only Stroman would add two points the rest of the period, although Richmond’s defense held the Lady Falcons to just 11 points.
Like Watkins noted, the Lady Raiders’ best scoring quarter was the fourth, but was too late to catch up with the home team. McDonald scored four field goals and added three free throws and Hinson went 2-for-3 at the line for the team’s final points.
Richmond fell to 4-6 overall and 2-4 against SAC opponents. The Lady Raiders will return home Friday to play Scotland High School at 5 p.m.
