ROCKINGHAM — Just 24 hours after breaking two North Carolina High School Athletic Association single-game records, Paul McNeil Jr. achieved another career milestone Wednesday.
Remaining undefeated in the Jason Norton Classic, the Richmond Raider basketball team reached a dozen wins on the season.
Hosting Pine Forest High School for the fourth annual game, Richmond earned a 75-33 win with a running clock.
Norton, who passed away after a four-year battle with cancer in 2020, was a Richmond graduate who returned to his alma mater to teach and coach several sports.
In 2015, Norton became the athletic director at Pine Forest, thus linking the two schools. Head coaches Donald Pettigrew (Richmond) and David May (Pine Forest) both worked with Norton.
McNeil Jr. followed his historic performance Tuesday of setting the single-game scoring record (71 points) and most made field goals in a game (28) by boosting his career scoring total.
Netting 37 points on 9-of-22 shooting with six three-pointers, he surpassed the 2,000-point mark of his career. McNeil Jr. is averaging 33.1 points per game this season.
Entering the game with 1,988 points, McNeil Jr. reached the 2K point mark before the end of the first quarter. In 81 career games for Richmond, he’s scored 2,025 points (25.0 PPG) and is ranked 48th all-time in NCHSAA scoring.
Finishing the opening quarter with 14 points, McNeil Jr. recorded points 2,000-2,002 on a three-pointer from the left wing over Fredrick Logan just before the buzzer.
Adding to a 26-12 run in the first quarter were seniors Javian Drake and Braylon Barfield, who finished the game with 15 and 10 points, respectively.
Drake finessed his way through the paint for four buckets and eight points. Barfield battled in the post and scored two putbacks for four points.
McNeil Jr. had a pair of threes in the first along with a field goal and six free throws. He ended the game 13-for-16 from the line.
Richmond kept the fast-tempo offense moving in the second, rolling on a 24-12 run to go up 50-20 at halftime.
McNeil Jr. recorded 11 more points on two triples and five shots from the stripe to give him 25 points at the break.
Junior forward Ahaiver McDonald, who netted eight points in the win, scored all of them in the second. He bookended two triples around a pair of free throws.
Drake chipped in a basket and sophomore Jayden Hamilton beat the buzzer with a long-distance three-pointer to end the half.
Leading 61-24 in the third quarter, Drake drained a three-pointer from the left wing to put the Raiders up 40 points and start the running clock with 3:33 left to go in the stanza. He also had a bucket to end his scoring.
Barfield continued his dominant post play and scored his final six points from inside the paint in the third. McNeil Jr. had a three-pointer, two field goals and his two free throws made it 70-24 entering the final quarter.
With the clock moving, McNeil Jr. scored one more three-ball. Senior David McNair scored all five of his points in the fourth.
McNair stole an inbound pass for an easy two and connected on a three-pointer from the top of the arc. Junior Tyshawn Harris had a free throw.
Pine Forest (8-7) used nine points from Angelo Jones and eight points by Kabori Simmons in the loss. Dwayne Johnson added five points.
Richmond (12-5, 5-0 Sandhills Athletic Conference) has off until Tuesday when the Raiders will close out the first round of conference play at Scotland High School (6-8, 2-2 SAC). Game time is 7:30 p.m.
