ROCKINGHAM — Richmond Senior High School’s girls’ and boys’ varsity basketball teams will enjoy a couple extra days of preparation heading into the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament.
The Lady Raiders and Raiders both earned the No. 1 seed of the conference tournament, which comes with a first-round bye.
Lady Raiders prepare for Wednesday’s second round
Winning the conference outright, the Lady Raiders went a perfect 12-0 this season. It was the first time the team had an undefeated conference record since the 2010-11 season, which is also the last time it won the conference.
The Lady Raiders averaged 60.7 points per game against SAC opponents, while allowing teams to score just 34.9 points per game (average margin of victory of 25.8 PPG).
Head coach Teddy Moseley’s team had five wins of 40+ points, winning two games against Southern Lee and Hoke County by a season-high 44 points.
The girls’ SAC tournament begins with the first round on Monday, but the Lady Raiders won’t play until the second round on Wednesday. Richmond will play the winner of No. 4 Union Pines and No. 5 Lee County at 6 p.m.
Should they win that game, the Lady Raiders would compete in the SAC tournament championship on Friday. That game would also be at 6 p.m.
Raiders win toss, secure top seed
Head coach Donald Pettigrew and the Raiders finished the regular season as co-conference champions with Pinecrest High School. Richmond and the Patriots both had matching 11-1 SAC records and split their two meetings.
At Saturday’s conference coaches meeting, Richmond won the coin toss tiebreaker. That earned the Raiders the top seed in the SAC tournament and gave them off until the second round on Thursday.
The Raiders led the SAC in scoring this season, averaging 73.9 points per contest. Teams managed to score 54.4 points against Richmond, which was third best behind Pinecrest and Union Pines.
The boys had a margin of victory of 21.7 points in their 11 wins, and only lost to Pinecrest by four points in their lone loss. In the first meeting, the Raiders rolled the Patriots by 28 points.
Seven of the Raiders’ SAC wins were by 21 points or more, with their 50-point win over Lee County last week serving as the biggest win.
The boys’ SAC tournament will start on Tuesday, and the Raiders will host the winner of No. 4 Union Pines and No. 5 Scotland on Thursday at 6 p.m.
A win would advance the Raiders to the title game, which would be played at home on Friday at 7:30 p.m.