ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond Senior High School girls’ basketball team saw its conference skid slide to three games Friday against Jack Britt.
Dropping their third-straight Sandhills Athletic Conference game, the second such streak this season, the Lady Raiders fell to the current conference leader 63-39.
Three Richmond players would account more much of the team’s scoring, all reaching double digits. Senior point guard Keionna Love led Richmond with 14 points, eight in the first half, and junior forward Jakerra Covington netted 11 points.
Fellow junior Jayla McDougald, who has been quiet on the scoresheet the last couple of games, rounded out the top scorers with 10 points. Adding two points apiece were senior Jasmine Ewing and junior Davionna Campbell.
Setting the pace for the Lady Buccaneers (17-3, 10-0 SAC) was junior point guard Nyla Cooper, who scored a game-high 21 points. Adding 16 points was Kaya Goldsby and Ashara Hayes chipped in 10 points.
Despite the loss, head coach Teddy Moseley was proud of his team’s effort against a tough conference opponent.
“We had a good game plan going in, but Jack Britt came out on fire,” he said. “In the second half, we played much better. The fight was there, and we have a lot of it. It’s just we don’t execute what we need to do. That’s the sum of everything right now.
“Jakerra played well, and Jayla came out and played a really good game attacking the basket,” he added. “All of the girls gave all that they had, but it’s extremely frustrating. We looked lost although we had a game plan.”
Jack Britt, like Moseley noted, got out to a fast start. Cooper connected on four three-pointers in the quarter to give the Lady Bucs a 26-12 lead at the end of the first eight minutes.
Love scored the first of her two three-pointers in the game, and McDougald matched her with three free throws.
Richmond began the second quarter on a 7-2 run to pull within nine points, 28-19, but that’s all the closer the Lady Raiders would get the rest of the game. At the half, Richmond trailed by 23 points, 45-22.
In the third quarter, the Lady Raiders added 10 more points, before ending the game with their lowest scoring quarter in the fourth with seven points. Covington and Love both had six points in the second half and McDougald added five, all in the third.
“We knew Jack Britt was going to press the entire time,” Moseley said. “We had such a great practice on Wednesday working against the press all of practice. And we got in the game tonight and we didn’t execute at all.
“The girls have to get better at being receptive to coaching,” he closed. “We’re doing our best as coaches to try and get them to realize what’s going on, and a couple of changes could make a difference.”
The Lady Raiders will look to end their losing streak when they host Hoke County High School (4-15, 0-10 SAC) on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
