PEMBROKE — Despite having an early lead, the Richmond Senior High School girls’ basketball team suffered a loss to Purnell Swett on Wednesday.
Falling to the Lady Rams for the second time this season, the Lady Raiders were defeated 78-30.
Head coach Teddy Moseley said the score wasn’t a total indicator of the progress shown by the Lady Raiders.
“The effort that we put in tonight was much better,” Moseley said. “We got hit pretty hard last night and the girls stood up tonight. We lost by almost 50 points, but I’m proud of the team.
“We’re seeing a lot of improvements,” he added. “I thought we played well in the beginning and our man defense looked good. We had them tired but we got in foul trouble in the first quarter and had to go into zone. (Purnell Swett) hit a lot of threes.”
Richmond jumped out to a 3-0 lead, starting with a free throw by sophomore Quanna Bostick before the opening tip.
A book violation and a technical foul against Purnell Swett awarded Richmond two free throws.
Junior Makailah Jackson added a transition bucket with 7:40 left in the first to extend the lead.
The Lady Rams (3-1) responded with a 19-7 run in the remaining 6:55.
Junior guard Keyoni Nichols, who finished with four points, added all of them on a pair of free throws and a transition layup.
A bucket by freshman J’Nasia Neal and an Olivia Brown foul shot pulled Richmond to a 19-10 deficit heading into the second.
The Lady Rams broke the game open with a 14-0 scoring burst. Breaking the drought for Richmond was senior Nyla Stroman, whose two free throws came at the 4:52 mark of the second to stop the bleeding.
Helping chip away with a 6-0 run of her own was Bostick, who led the team with a career-high 10 points. She completed a duo of old-fashioned three-point plays to make it 37-18.
One more bucket from Neal saw Richmond enter the intermission down 50-20.
Outscored 17-1 in the third, Richmond saw a running clock start with 5:01 left in the period. Bostick made a free throw in the closing seconds.
A fast-paced fourth quarter resulted in five points from senior guard C’Nedra Hinson. She connected on a triple and a transition bucket.
Bostick added the final of her two points on a breakaway basket. Purnell Swett outscored Richmond 11-9 in the fourth.
Jackson grabbed a team-leading six rebounds and Bostick notched four boards. As a team, Richmond turned the ball over 32 times.
“Quanna has been through a lot and has beat herself up,” Moseley said. “I told her she can’t be hard on herself and she deserves this.
“If we play like this the remainder of the season, and we’ve played some top-tier teams in the state, we can still put up a fight.”
The Lady Rams were led in scoring by Kylie Chavis (26 points), Nyla Mitchell (22 points) and Natalie Evington (13 points).
Richmond (0-5) returns home to face non-conference Uwharrie Charter Academy (2-1) on Friday, starting at 6 p.m.
