ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond Senior High School junior varsity girls’ basketball team had a busy weekend.
Playing a Mid-South Conference game Friday and a holiday game Monday, the JV Lady Raiders split the two contests.
Opening the weekend with a victory at home, Richmond defeated Jack Britt High School in its conference opener. During Monday’s MLK Jr. event, the JV Lady Raiders lost to Sanderson High School.
Conference opener yields big win
A fast start through the opening half of Friday’s MSC opener led to a 59-13 win for the JV Lady Raiders over Jack Britt.
Richmond outscored the Lady Buccaneers 22-4 and 21-0 in the first and second quarters, respectively, to take a 43-4 lead at halftime.
Both teams scored eight points in the third quarter and Richmond closed out the victory on an 8-1 run in the final quarter.
Sophomore Erin Drumwright had a breakout game with 21 points. She led the charge with 13 points in the first quarter on five field goals and three free throws.
Drumwright had four points in both the second and third quarters, including a three-pointer before the break.
All eight players for Richmond scored in the win, including double-digits from sophomores Kaylee Connor (11 points) and Amonie McNeil (10 points).
Other scorers were Emani Ingram (5 points), Lyra Newton (4 points), Mary Little (3 points), Aubree Brewington and Emoni Covington (2 points each) and Alexis Mosley (1 point).
“This was a good win for us,” head coach Tonia Breeden said. “Erin and CC had a great game scoring, and everyone got to score.
“I also want to shout out Jack Britt’s players for their awesome sportsmanship after the game.”
Missed opportunities in holiday loss
Monday’s game was much closer and one that Breeden felt could have been won by the JV Lady Raiders had they limited their mistakes.
Richmond played Sanderson High School as part of an MLK Jr. Day event and lost 39-35.
Richmond led 10-8 after the first quarter, but a slow second stanza for the Lady Raiders led to a 20-16 deficit at halftime.
A 12-10 run by Richmond in the third cut its deficit to 30-28, but Sanderson held on by going on a 9-7 stretch in the final eight minutes.
McNeil was the leading scorer for the JV Lady Raiders with 13 points. Ingram scored nine points and Drumwright finished with seven points to help lead the team.
Connor and Little had two and four points, respectively, to round out the team’s efforts.
“This was a tough loss and we basically beat ourselves,” Breeden explained. “It’s hard to win a game when you have 25+ turnovers, 15+ missed layups and go 7-for-22 from the free throw line.
“If you take half of those things away, we win that game easily. I try to tell the girls how important these things are and now hopefully they see it. We will continue to work on them.”
The JV Lady Raiders (6-4, 1-0 MSC) play at Hoke County High School Tuesday for another conference game. Action will start at 5 p.m.
