PFAFFTOWN, N.C. — It may have taken a little longer than it wanted it to, but the Richmond Senior High School varsity boys basketball team earned its first win of the 2018-19 campaign Friday on the road at non-conference Ronald Reagan High School.
After starting the season with back-to-back road losses to Pine Forest and Southern Lee high schools (both playoff teams last year), the Raiders rebounded with a 46-31 win over the Reagan Raiders. Something the Richmond Raiders and head coach Donald Pettigrew worked on in practice Thursday was “getting back to the basics,” with an emphasis on the team’s post players.
“I really wanted our bigs to move more tonight,” Pettigrew said following the win. “We put a shuffle in place so they could move and not be so stagnant. We did alright, but again, we stood around a little bit too much later in the game. But we did a lot better tonight with a lot of things.”
A fast start in the first quarter helped make the difference, as Richmond lit up the scoreboard with an 11-2 lead at the end of the first eight minutes. Seniors Rod Newton and Alex Quick both finished the night with a team-high 10 points, and notched five and four points, respectively, in the first frame.
An opening basket by senior forward Xavier Pettigrew was followed by back-to-back buckets from Quick and Newton to give Richmond a 6-0 lead just over three minutes into the game. Newton hit from downtown, the first of his team-high two triples, to extend the lead to 9-2.
Quick hit a layup at the 3:40 mark, forcing Reagan head coach Jeff Overby to call a timeout. The break would prove effective, as Richmond went cold for the remaining of the opening quarter. Lucky for Richmond, however, was the lack of scoring from Reagan, as it finished with just two points and trailed 11-2 heading into the second.
Five different Raiders would combine to add 10 points in the second quarter, and give the visiting team a 21-6 halftime lead. Sophomore guard Caleb Hood, fresh off of beating the Reagan football team in the playoffs two weeks ago, opened quarter number two with a baseline drive for his only points of the game.
Junior guard Quamir Sivels added a bucket under the hoop, and the loudest play of the night came from junior center Jarvis Tillman, who slammed home an arching inbound pass from sophomore point guard PJ McLaughlin. Rounding out the half were four made free throws, two each from sophomore Nygie Stroman and freshman Kellan Hood.
Reagan scored the first of its two baskets at the 6:15 mark of the quarter, and Richmond’s defense held the Reagan Raiders off the board for 6:03, as a late-quarter shot off the glass ended the drought.
Out of the break, Stroman added three more of his seven total points in the third quarter, as the Raiders jumped out to an 18-point lead, 31-13, with just under two minutes to go. Quick quietly added four points, while Xavier Pettigrew completed a three-point play after getting fouled on a drive through the paint. A 4-0 Reagan run at the end of the quarter made it 31-17 in favor of the green and gold.
Much like the second quarter, the final eight minutes of regulation saw a handful of Richmond players added insurance baskets to secure the win. Newton drained his second triple, while McLaughlin joined the scoring parade with his only basket of the night, a deep three-pointer from the top of the key. Quick led the Raiders with four points in the stanza, as Richmond saw its lead climb to a game-high 22 points.
Aiding Newton and Quick’s respective 10-point performances were seven points from Stroman. Sivels had four points, while McLaughlin, Pettigrew and Tillman all finished with three points.
The win caps off a long week that saw Richmond play in three road games, all an hour or more from Rockingham. With the first week of the season in the books, Pettigrew has seen a lot of things come together, but there’s better play to still be found he noted.
“The first game we had eight players, and it’s really tough to play varsity basketball with just eight guys,” Pettigrew said. “I told the guys to be patient and we played two really good playoff teams to start the season. If we can finish 4-2 in these (six) crucial road games to start the season, that’ll be pretty good.
“Our defense was hit or miss tonight,” he concluded. “We rotated good and then we’d go the wrong way or not be quick enough. It’s a process — and I’m going to be patient with the first-year varsity guys. We’re getting to where we want to be.”
The Raiders will continue their string of six-straight games to start the season by visiting New Life Christian Academy in Fayetteville on Monday, Dec. 10. An official start time has yet to be announced, according to the team’s schedule.
