ROCKINGHAM – The first complete regular season is in the books for the Richmond Senior High School Raiders basketball team under first-year head coach Donald Pettigrew. And though it wasn’t the season he or his players anticipated, there’s a lot of momentum going forward.
Friday marked Senior Night inside Raiders Gymnasium, as Richmond hosted its biggest rival in Sandhills Athletic Conference foe Scotland High School. Despite an early-game and halftime lead, the Raiders lost to the Fighting Scots for the second time this season, going down 58-42 in the regular season finale.
The Raiders bid farewell to five seniors, as they were recognized in a pre-game ceremony. Seniors on this year’s team were: Darrius Butler, Kaleb Douglas, Malik Flowers, Carl McNeal and Da’Shaun Wallace. Four of the five got the start in their final game, while Flowers was inactive due to illness.
Wallace had one of his best scoring performances of the season in front of a packed crowd, as he netted a team-high 15 points. But his effort from inside the paint wasn’t enough, as Richmond (7-17, 2-12 SAC) will finish the season tied for last place in the SAC with Purnell Swett High School. Scotland (15-7, 9-5 SAC) is tied with Pinecrest High School for second place.
A game that was physical from beginning to end, Richmond jumped out to an early 10-7 lead in a low-scoring first eight minutes. Wallace opened the Raiders’ scoring with back-to-back layups, followed by a hard Douglas drive over Scotland’s Niem Ratliff. Both Douglas and Ratliff jawed at one another following the play, which resulted in several other outbursts before the officials issued warnings to both benches and got the game under control.
Sophomore Jarvis Tillman and McNeal each added buckets in the final minute to give Richmond the lead, 10-7.
A quick start to the second quarter thanks to a Malik Stanback three-pointer from the right wing over Scotland’s Isaiah Bostick, coupled with a Tillman putback, gave Richmond its largest lead of the night at six points, 15-9. But the Fighting Scots wouldn’t go away quietly before the half, as the teams traded basket for basket in the final two minutes.
Freshman guard Caleb Hood scored his only three points of the night on a driving layup and a subsequent free throw on the foul to knot the game at 19 points. A pair of Butler free throws on a one-and-one opportunity, and two more Wallace baskets in the final 30 seconds gave Richmond a 24-22 lead at the break. But it wasn’t enough to hold.
The Raiders and the Fighting Scots matched one another as the third quarter got underway, as the third frame saw five ties and five lead changes. The last lead change came with just over two minutes to go in the third when Scotland’s Justin McRae hit a jumper off the glass. McRae owned the third quarter, scoring nine of his game-high 17 points.
Butler, Douglas, Tillman and Wallace each had one field goal to combine for the Raiders’ eight points in the third quarter. McRae’s bank shot would prove to start 7-0 Fighting Scots run to end the quarter and serve as the game’s final lead change. Entering the fourth, Richmond only trailed by seven, 39-32.
But the Fighting Scots hit their stride in the final quarter, and pulled away much like they did in the two teams’ first meeting on January 12. An early three-pointer by Scotland’s Janoah McRae following a half-court Richmond turnover started a 14-5 Scotland run during a 2:13 span. McRae would hit two more triples from beyond the arc to extend the lead to 17 points, 54-37.
Richmond would never recover, as it only managed to score five points in the game’s final 5:31 of play. The lapse in scoring has fit a season-long narrative that Pettigrew says is his responsibility.
“I should have done a better job (this season) coaching the guys and getting them to score more points,” Pettigrew said. “It’s on me.
“But the guys still played hard,” he added. “I’m proud of my seniors who never quit.”
With the completion of the regular season, the SAC conference tournament will begin next week. The bracket will be finalized during a meeting Saturday, but currently, Hoke County High School holds the No. 1 seed, followed by Pinecrest and Scotland tied for second, and Seventy-First and Lumberton tied for third.
The top four teams, which will be decided during Saturday’s meeting, will host the lower four teams. Regardless of who they face, the Raiders will be on the road in the opening round. Games for the SAC tournament will begin on Tuesday, and are single-elimination. As soon as the matchups are set, the RO will report on where Richmond will play.
