ROCKINGHAM — Prior to Friday’s Sandhills Athletic Conference opener against Purnell Swett High School, Teddy Moseley wrote “62-35” on the dry erase board in the locker room.
That was the score of the first meeting between Richmond Senior High School and the Lady Rams on Jan. 5, a 27-point loss for Richmond. He told his players that that outcome couldn’t happen again, and the Lady Raiders responded.
Behind eight three-pointers as a team, and going 16-for-27 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter alone, Richmond started conference play with a 62-55 win. It was also the team’s third consecutive victory.
“It got us fired up and we’ve been ready to play all day,” senior Jayla McDougald said of Moseley’s pre-game message. “It gave us energy and we fed off that.”
Richmond held a nine-point lead following a Jamiya Ratliff three-pointer with 3:33 to go in the third quarter. But the two teams locked the score at 50 points after a triple from Natalie Evington with 3:25 left in the fourth quarter.
From there, it was a battle from the free throw line by both teams. Five Lady Raiders hit at least one free throw in the fourth quarter, including going 11-of-15 from the stripe in the final 93 seconds of regulation.
Moseley was emotional after the game and said the team’s character showed in the back-and-forth affair.
“It was a big win tonight and I am so proud of those girls,” Moseley said. “They fought hard when we lost the lead, they battled back. And they showed their character.
“The difference between the opener and tonight isn’t what (Purnell Swett) did, it’s what we didn’t do the first time,” he added. “And tonight we did those things. We defended well, boxed out and did the small things. That built the big picture to help us get the win.”
For the second time in as many games, McDougald and Ratliff led the Lady Raiders in points. Ratliff scored a season-high 19 points to go along with her four rebounds, and McDougald was right behind her with 18 points and six boards.
The two players combined for six of Richmond’s eight triples, with Ratliff knocking down four and McDougald hitting two. Sophomore Kyla Sampson, who finished with nine points and five rebounds, had the other two.
“We’ve been getting a lot of shots up at practice and we have a lot of threats on the three-point line this year,” McDougald explained. “When one of us gets going, it fuels the others.
“Coach said free throws can really push us ahead, so it was important that we made them tonight,” she added. “We did really well as a team.”
Sophomore Kyla Sampson shoots a three-pointer during the second third quarter of Friday’s win.
An 8-0 run by the Lady Raiders in the first quarter erased an early deficit. Ratliff hit the first of her triples and senior Davionna Campbell scored a bucket from underneath for her two points.
McDougald got on the board with the team’s first free throw, and Ratliff added a putback off the glass to end the run with a minute to play. With 12 seconds left in the frame, Ratliff banged home a three-ball from the left corner.
Using a 9-4 run to open the second quarter, Richmond pushed its lead to nine points, 20-11. During that span Sampson splashed home her first triple, and McDougald netted two more three-pointers from opposite wings just 45 seconds apart.
Senior Jakerra Covington, who recorded a team-high nine rebounds, joined the scoring with a drive through the paint. That bucket, coupled with her hitting both ends of a one-and-one 16 seconds later, gave Richmond a 24-19 lead with just under four until the break.
A McDougald drive, two of her team-high 11 points in the second, made it a 10-point lead, 28-18. But Purnell Swett used a 7-4 run to make it a 32-25 Lady Raider lead at half.
“Jamiya did a great job and she’s on a roll with her confidence,” Moseley explained. “We’ve told her this needs to be her breakout season. And I tell all the girls that if they don’t believe in themselves, it’s no good. Now everybody is starting to believe and it’s showing.”
The Lady Rams outscored Richmond 15-12 in the third stanza and closed the game to a four-point deficit, 44-40, before the end of the period.
Ratliff capped her three-point clinic with two more, and Sampson drained a triple from the right wing with 4:02 left.
Three separate ties and lead changes in the opening 4:35 of the fourth quarter made things interesting down the stretch. Nyla Mitchell’s free throw gave Purnell Swett some life to knot the game at 45 points, and a pair of free throws from Evington tied it at 47 all.
After Evington’s triple at the 3:35 mark, one of her three three-pointers in the game, Richmond’s Allyiah Swiney made a steal and laid it in for an easy transition bucket to put the Lady Raiders up for good 52-50 with 2:20 to play.
“Early in the game I was missing layups and I was in my own head,” Swiney, who finished with six points, said. “I just had to make a play and I got the steal and it was an easy layup. Once we got it going, we closed out the win.
“Toward the end of the game we ran a lot of man defense and I think that helped,” she continued. “We isolated their shooters and we canceled some of their better shooters.”
To help seal the deal, Sampson hit both of her double bonus free throws a minute after Swiney’s basket. McDouglad added a free throw, Covington tacked on two more and Richmond held a three-point advantage with 57.2 seconds remaining.
In the final 30 seconds, two McDougald free throws and one each from Swiney, Ratliff and Sampson gave the Lady Raiders the win.
Evington led the way for Purnell Swett (2-2, 0-1 SAC) with 19 points. Kylie Chavis, who scored 16 points in the opener, was held to just nine points. Mitchell and Jada Coward added eight points each.
“I told the girls that down the stretch we made free throws when they counted,” Moseley said. “That’s what big teams do. Purnell Swett is a great team and Coach (Jonathan) Efird does a great job with them.
“But we were hungry because they embarrassed us the first time, and the girls really stepped up.”
Richmond (3-1, 1-0 SAC) will return to the court on Tuesday against Pinecrest (2-2). The home game is set for 5 p.m. in Raider Gymnasium.
