FAYETTEVILLE — Despite only scoring two points in the fourth quarter, the Richmond Senior High School girls’ basketball team held on to win its first-round game of the Gil Bowman Holiday Classic on Thursday.
Extending its winning streak to five games, the Lady Raiders used a basket from senior center Jai’Maya Ratliff to edge Corinth Holders High School 39-38.
The loss for the Lady Pirates (4A, non-conference) was their first of the season (4-1).
The Lady Raiders were outscored 22-13 in the second half, but a strong opening two periods proved to give them a big enough cushion.
Ratliff scored the final of her 9 points on an inbound play with 6:55 to go in the fourth, and it would be the last time Richmond scored in the game.
Corinth Holders opened the final stanza on an 11-2 run, but failed to score a basket in the final 1:32 of regulation. The Lady Pirates had several fouls to give, which kept Richmond from getting to the free throw line.
“The main focus in the final minute was they were denying Jamyia (Lindsey) the ball,” head coach Teddy Moseley said. “We want the ball in her hands at all times and we were trying to set screens to get her open.
“Spreading the floor and getting a good inbound pass was also big because we knew they didn’t have many fouls,” he added. “They started using them and we need to do a better job of using the time to dribble the ball.”
An offensive rebound by junior C’Nedra Hinson with 1:08 to play knocked nearly 20 seconds off the clock before the Lady Pirates knocked it out of bounds. That play led to five combined timeouts in the final 48.6 seconds.
Freshman point guard Jamyia Lindsey, who scored a team-high 12 points, forced a steal and was fouled with 2.3 seconds to go. That led to an inbound and foul, followed by another inbound to run out the clock.
“We have to be able to focus and know what to do in pressure situations,” Moseley said. “There were too many times where they were in a zone and we forced it. Our goal was to bring them out of the zone, but we turned the ball over too much, especially in the second half.”
Lindsey scored her first five points in the first quarter, leading Richmond to a 13-11 advantage. Sophomore forward Ryelan Lyerly hit a shot high off the glass to start a 7-0 run that put Richmond ahead for good.
Ratliff got her scoring started with 4 points in the first, and sophomore guard Keyoni Nichols scored two of her 4 points in the game.
A 13-4 swing by the Lady Raiders in the second quarter put them up 26-15 at half time.
Lindsey added five more points, Lyerly rattled home a triple from the left corner and Ratliff scored three points. Nichols also added a basket to end her scoring.
Richmond led by as many as 16 points in the third quarter when Lyerly, who had 8 points, connected on another three-pointer, this time from the wing.
Freshman Rena Drake added 4 points and junior Joy Styles scored 2 points in the third, but a 7-0 run by the Lady Pirates closed the gap to 10 points, 37-27, entering the fourth.
Scoring a game-high 21 points, including 5 points in the fourth, was Kamea Davis. Teammate Abbey Gallons contributed 11 points in the loss.
“Survive and advance, that’s what it’s all about,” Moseley closed.
Richmond (5-1) will return to Terry Sanford High School for the second round on Friday and play Westover High School (5-3) at 7 p.m.
