SOUTHERN PINES — The Richmond Senior High School boys’ junior varsity basketball team earned a second-place finish in the First Bank Holiday Tournament on Friday.
A night after surviving an overtime win in the opening round, the Raiders would come up short against host Pinecrest High School. Having an off night on offense, Richmond fell to the Patriots 58-33.
The loss would prove to be the Raiders’ largest deficit this season, and the second time in as many weeks they lost to Pinecrest. Richmond now sits at 7-2 on the season.
“Going forward, we’re going to have to rebound better,” head coach Kenta Hutchinson said. “Pinecrest killed us on the glass offensively and defensively. And we couldn’t get going scoring the ball.
“We had a lot of stops early, but couldn’t convert on offense,” he added. “The guys did a good job of playing help man. We need to stop settling and get penetration to the rim and make the extra pass.”
Richmond shot just 4-for-24 from beyond the arc, something Hutchinson noted as contributing to the loss.
Leading Richmond with 10 points was sophomore guard Xavier Collazo, and sophomore teammates Micah Jackson and Luke Williams both netted 8 points.
The Patriots got off to a strong start in the first quarter, outscoring Richmond 14-8. Pinecrest kept the pressure on in the second to take a 30-17 lead into the break.
Richmond would score 10 points in the third quarter, the most of any period in the game for the Raiders. But their 16 second-half points could match the 28 points scored by the Patriots.
Hutchinson credited Williams’ efforts on the glass, who collected a team-high nine rebounds for the Raiders.
Off until after the start of the new year, the JV Raiders will return to action on Friday, Jan. 3, at home against Jack Britt High School.
