PEMBROKE, N.C. – The Richmond Senior High School varsity Lady Raiders basketball team jumped out to a fast start Friday night – and thankful it did, because Richmond only managed to score 14 second-half points.
On the road against Sandhills Athletic Conference opponent Purnell Swett High School, with the game played at Pembroke Middle School, Richmond (5-7, 3-4 SAC) completed the season sweep of the Lady Rams (3-9, 0-6 SAC) in 44-29 fashion.
Friday’s win marks the Lady Raiders’ fourth win in the last six games, as it appears head coach Rosalind McDonald’s team is starting to figure things out.
The only point in which Richmond trailed the Lady Rams Friday was following a game-opening layup by Tiana Jacobs and an ensuing bucket from Rebeckah Chavis. After that, the Lady Raiders used a combination of speed, transition game and tough defense to hold their opponent to a team-best 29 points allowed this season.
“Our focus coming out was to play strong defense,” McDonald said in a postgame interview about her team’s impressive start. “We did a great job at that in the first two quarters. And that helped us get some easy steals, and we were able to capitalize on that.”
Just 20 seconds into the game, Richmond County Official Female Athlete of the Week junior guard Talia Wall knotted the game at two. But it was Richmond’s freshman forward Jakerra Covington who stole the show early.
Covington took a pass under the hoop from teammate Lexyona Ingram for her first basket of the night with 6:11 remaining in the opening quarter. Following an Ingram block on the next Lady Rams possession, Wall found Covington cutting to the hoop, in which the freshman gave Richmond a 6-4 lead, and one the Lady Raiders wouldn’t give up the rest of the night.
From that point until the buzzer at halftime, Richmond was all pedal to the metal. McDonald’s team strung together several big scoring runs, and held the Lady Rams scoreless for 5:35 to close out the second stanza.
Sophomore point guard Allexis Swinney joined Covington on the scoring action early, as she had a first-quarter best six points. Following a coast-to-coast layup and a free throw, Swinney hit from downtown with 35 seconds remaining in the first to give the Lady Raiders a 12-6 lead. Senior Saleemah Brown bumped it to 13-6 following a foul shot to end the opening quarter.
More impressively, the Lady Raiders outscored their opponent 17-2 in the second quarter. Ingram opened an 8-0 Richmond run with a 10-foot jumper at the 7:22 mark, and the lead was pushed to 10 points, 17-7, when Wall gathered an offensive rebound and a bucket on the next possession.
Sophomore guard Layne Maultsby got into the scoring column as she hit a shot from the paint following a Lady Rams turnover. Just seconds later, Swinney forced a turnover and returned the ball to the basket for two more.
Ingram led all scorers in the quarter with eight points, and hit an athletic turnaround jumper to extend Richmond’s lead to 23-8. That basket would spark a 7-0 Richmond run to end the quarter, as Ingram, Covington and sophomore Keionna Love would all bury shots down low.
A suffocating press from Richmond forced multiple first half Lady Rams turnovers. Ingram also collected three blocks, and what few shots Purnell Swett managed to get off were contested and poorly executed.
Heading into the locker room at halftime, Richmond held 22-point lead, 30-8. But following the break, the Lady Raiders “came out flat”, according to McDonald. But the second-quarter performance would be enough to carry them through.
Richmond only scored eight points in the third quarter, and even fewer in the fourth, with six points. But despite the shots not falling, the Lady Rams weren’t able to close the gap.
Jacobs broke a 6:36 Purnell Swett scoring drought that carried over from the first half with a hook shot just over a minute into the third. On the ensuing Richmond possession, Ingram took an inbound pass to give the Lady Raiders their largest lead of the night (24 points) and a 34-10 lead.
But the third quarter belonged to Jacobs as she drained six field goals for 12 points. At times, the Lady Rams appeared to get the momentum to swing their way, including a 6-0 scoring run in which saw two baskets from Chelsea Jones. Another lengthy Purnell Swett run, this one an 8-2 stretch to end the quarter, saw the home team pull within 12 points, the smallest deficit since it trailed 21-7 in the first.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Richmond still maintained a lead, but had been outscored 16-8 in the third.
But the would-have-been comeback by the Lady Rams ran out of gas, thanks in part to Richmond using the advantage of not having a shot clock. While the Lady Raiders didn’t become complacent in their shooting efforts, not many shots fell in the final frame, as they scored a quarter-low six points.
Ingram, Brown and junior Jayana Nicholson each hit a field goal, and it was enough to secure a healthy 15-point victory.
Jacobs led all scorers with 16 points, but Ingram (14 points) and Swinney (12 points) did more damage as a duo. Jones finished with seven points, and Covington tacked on five for Richmond. The Lady Raiders had eight players net points in the win.
“Lexyona, offensively, has pretty good shooting range,” McDonald said of her top scorer. “And defensively, she does a great job. She loves to block and did a good job at doing both tonight.”
Richmond will continue play next week, as it will head to Pinecrest High School (13-1, 6-0) on Thursday and look to avenge a 62-52 loss from the fourth game of the season. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.
