FAYETTEVILLE — The Richmond Senior High School girls’ basketball team and second-year head coach Teddy Moseley put their pre-season efforts to work on Saturday, competing in two scrimmages at Terry Sanford High School.
With just over a week separating the Lady Raiders from their season opener against Anson High School, the team picked up two wins. Richmond began the day with a 44-6 win over host Terry Sanford before ending the day with a 21-7 victory over Douglas Byrd High School.
Richmond is a mix of returning veterans and some fresh faces this season. Leading the team Saturday were juniors Jakerra Covington and Jayla McDougald, senior Bree Wall, as well as senior transfer Keionna Love, who returned to the Lady Raiders after a season at the O’Neal School.
New to the varsity level this winter will be juniors Kelly and Shelly Hoffman, along with freshman Kyla Sampson.
“It was a good first day, and the girls did a lot of good stuff from what I saw,” Moseley commented. “The defense worked really well, but I told the girls we still have to work on finishing around the basket.
“Jayla, Keionna and Bree played well and it was good to see the chemistry between our guards,” he added. “The biggest thing I was looking at was how we played from the start, and the girls had a lot of energy at the beginning of both scrimmages. They played hard from the tip.”
Playing four eight-minute quarters in both games, Richmond’s defense was “smothering” against Terry Sanford. Although the Lady Raiders didn’t score as many points against Douglas Byrd, Moseley said he was still impressed by the way the defense controlled the tempo.
He added it was good to see Love and Sampson in action, as both have performed well in practice. Sampson is entering her first season on varsity as a freshman and is coming off an ACL injury in middle school. She made the first shot she took, and Moseley said that was some “good reassurance” for her ahead of the season.
“Overall, it was a good effort,” Moseley said. “I knew the offense was going to be there and now a lot of the girls understand the speed of the game. Jayla and Jakerra played in a summer league and that improved their game.
“Jakerra was Jakerra, and she brought the same energy she always does,” he closed. “She’ll get back to her form before the season starts and really adds toughness on defense.”
Moseley also tipped his cap to his new assistant coaches, Taneika Reader and Marissa Toney. Praising their “awesome work,” Moseley said Reader is great at analyzing adjustments and putting them on the dry erase board to discuss with players. Toney, a teacher at Rockingham Middle School, “really knows how to talk to the girls during breaks and help them.”
The Lady Raiders will return to practice Tuesday and will play an intersquad scrimmage on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
ROSports will publish a full varsity season preview this week, complete with Raider Video Chat segments of players and coaches.
