ROCKINGHAM — Trying to get back in the win column following a Sandhills Athletic Conference loss earlier in the week, the Richmond Senior High School boys’ junior varsity team couldn’t eclipse rival Scotland High School on Friday.
Although scoring the basketball wasn’t a problem, defensive woes led to a 72-68 loss to the Fighting Scots.
Three Raiders helped lead the scoring charge by finding double digits, starting with sophomore Luke Williams, who went off for a team-high 21 points. Right behind him was freshman guard Dakota Chavis with 17 points, and sophomore Mehki Harrington found the basket for an even 10 points.
Fellow sophomore Xavier Collazo, who has been hot of late with a pair of 18-point games in the three prior contests, rounded out Richmond’s top scorers with eight points.
“It was another close game, and we fought hard,” head coach Kenta Hutchinson said. “But we weren’t able to pull off the win. In our last two losses, we haven’t been there defensively. We’ve kind of taken a step backwards defensively after such a good week last week with three wins.
“We just have to get back to the basics and continue to fight through the rest of the season,” he added.
The Raiders outscored Scotland 13-12 in the opening frame, using four points each from Harrington and Williams. Collazo drained the first of two first-half three-pointers, while sophomore Deshon Watson added a bucket.
Richmond and Scotland would battle in the second quarter and finished tied at 30 points entering the break. Netting 11 of Richmond’s 17 points was Williams, adding four field goals and a three-ball.
Collazo and sophomore Micah Jackson chipped in with one shot from beyond the arc.
Richmond responded out of the locker room by outscoring the Scots by four points to take a 49-45 lead into the final stanza. Chavis, who didn’t score in the first half, came alive in the third with seven points.
Harrington and sophomore Javares Stanback each hit three-pointers, with Williams adding three more points on a bucket and a free throw. Sophomore Travion Dumas scored his lone points of the game on a field goal.
It would be Richmond’s defense that came up short in the fourth quarter, allowing the Scots to pull ahead by four points, which would be the difference maker. Chavis finished the game with 10 points in the final stanza, with Harrington, Collazo, Watson and Williams combining for the other nine points.
“I’m still confident in our guys and that we can figure things out,” Hutchinson closed. “I know we can have a strong finish over the next three weeks.”
The Raiders (10-5, 3-4 SAC) will return to action at home on Tuesday against Purnell Swett High School.
Freshman Raiders roll past Scots
Across town at the Richmond County Ninth Grade Academy, the Raider freshman team re-entered the win column following a “no-contest” decision earlier in the week at Seventy-First.
Head coach Taivon Jones’ team would make easy work of Scotland, rolling to a 51-26 win. The victory helped the ninth-grade team improve to 4-1 on the winter.
Zion Baldwin set the pace for Richmond’s scoring, netting a game-high 20 points. Four of his teammates would each score six points: Tez Anderson, Zay Hubbard, Emoni McBride and Frazion Steele.
Taye Spencer chipped in four points, while Zyion Baldwin rounded out the scoring with three points.
“We started out slow,” Jones said. “But we picked it up in the second half. We play good defense as a team, so now we just have to turn it into easy offense.”
The freshman Raiders led 5-2 after the first quarter, using three points from Zion Baldwin and a bucket from Steele. In the second, Richmond added 12 points, while Scotland kept up with 11 points of its own.
Spencer led the way in the second with all four of his points, as Zion Baldwin added three more. Zyion Baldwin and McBride each netted a basket, as Hubbard notched a free throw. At the half, Richmond led 17-13.
Turning up the gas in the second half, the Raiders used 17 points in the third and 16 more in the fourth to earn the conference win. Zion Baldwin chipped in eight points in the third before finishing with six more in the fourth.
Anderson added all six of his points in the second half, and Hubbard knocked in a three and a bucket in the third for five points. McBride and Anderson each collected four points in the fourth.
The RCNGA Raiders will return to the floor Tuesday at home against Purnell Swett High School. Tip is set for 5 p.m.
