ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. – Its players may have had the day off from school to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, but the Richmond Senior High School varsity basketball team was hard at work in the MLK Classic at Rocky Mount Preparatory High School Monday evening.
And despite an impressive 29-point fourth quarter performance, the Raiders weren’t able to hand the Jaguars their first loss of the season, falling 78-72.
Perhaps one of Richmond’s toughest non-conference opponents this season, Rocky Mount Prep (13-0, 5-0 Tar-Roanoke Conference) relied on a duo of seniors to hand the Raiders (5-10, 1-5 Sandhills Athletic Conference) their third straight loss, and their fifth in the last six games.
Jaguars’ seniors Kalil Baker and Keyshawn Bryant were the only players to score more than 20 points, netting 24 and 21 respectively. Richmond had strong performances from junior guard Malik Stanback (team-high 15 points) and freshman guard Caleb Hood (career-high 14 points).
According to Richmond head coach Donald Pettigrew, his team had a strong start but “turned the ball over way too much” in the opening half, adding that the Raiders had “10 turnovers in the first quarter” alone.
At the end of the first quarter, despite the high number of turnovers, Richmond only trailed 15-12. But Bryant floored ahead with eight points of his own, coupled with four more from Baker, in the second frame to push the lead to 34-23 heading into the locker room.
Richmond held strong in the third quarter, and was only outscored by the Jaguars by two points (22-20). Hood and Stanback each have five points in the quarter, and were helped by senior point guard Darrius Butler when he drilled a three-pointer from the left corner with 30 seconds remaining in the third stanza.
Entering the fourth quarter, Pettigrew’s team trailed by 12, 55-43. But the fight never left the Raiders as a Stanback dribble-drive got the scoring started early. With 6:43 remaining in regulation, Stanback scored another bucket on a hard drive through the paint, and was fouled in the process. He missed the ensuing free throw attempt on the three-point play, but collected his own rebound and laid it in the hoop to cut the deficit to eight points, 59-51.
A Jaguars’ turnover on the inbound found the ball in the hands of the Raiders, and while they weren’t able to connect, their full-court pressure defense kept Rocky Mount Prep at bay. Butler made smart plays on the next two Richmond possessions, first finding junior guard Bobby Terry under the rim for a bucket, and next hitting a 10-foot jumper in the paint, keeping the lead at eight points, 63-55.
But a Baker three-pointer silenced Richmond’s run, and he followed up on the next Rocky Mount Prep drive with a tough basket off the glass, but missed the and-one opportunity.
Hood, who had seven of his 14 points in the final quarter, next drilled both free throws on a one-and-one to cut the score to 73-62 with 1:26 left.
But the Raiders weren’t quite finished. After a pair of Rocky Mount Prep free throws, and trailing by 13 points with 42.7 seconds remaining, junior guard Roderick Newton grabbed an offensive rebound and two points, and was followed on the next Richmond possession by an identical play from Hood who hit a putback to narrow the lead to nine points.
With time ticking away and just 9.6 seconds left, Hood further impressed by making a pump fake under the rim and drew a hard foul. He hit the first free throw, missed the second, but finished the play by gathering his own rebound and getting another two points. The final push came from Stanback, who drained a triple with 4.6 seconds, but it wasn’t enough to eclipse a 78-72 lead.
The Raiders will look to get back in the win column Friday, as they’ll head to Pembroke to face Purnell Swett High School (5-6, 1-4 SAC) at 7:30 p.m. Richmond defeated the Rams 77-65 in the second game of the season on December 5.
