WILMINGTON — Opening its new season Saturday, the Richmond Senior High School girls’ basketball team suffered a road loss.
The Lady Raiders and second-year head coach Taneika Reader kept their season-opener close against New Hanover High School, but lost 43-36.
A slow start by the team resulted in a 13-6 deficit at the end of the first quarter, which grew to a 23-12 gap at halftime.
Surging ahead out of the break, Richmond outscored the Lady Wildcats 18-6 in the third quarter and gained a 30-29 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
That lead, unfortunately, wouldn’t hold, as a 14-6 run by New Hanover reversed Richmond’s lead for good.
Seven players found the bucket for the Lady Raiders, including a team-high 16 points by senior Jasiah Gilchrist. She scored nine points in the third quarter, including a pair of three-pointers.
Freshman Amiah Streeter scored seven points in her high school varsity debut and Richmond’s third-leading scorer was junior Kaniah Little with five points.
Other scorers were seniors Olivia Brown (4 points) and J’Nasia Neal (2 points), junior Iyana Little (1 point) and sophomore Erin Drumwright (1 point).
“We most definitely have to get back in the lab to get better on defense and executing our sets,” Reader said. “There are no excuses for the lack of playing defense. We’ve got to get better on that end.”
The Lady Raiders (0-1) will have off for the holiday and return to action Friday, Dec. 5 at home against non-conference Westover High School (3-0). Action will start at 6 p.m.
JV Lady Raiders also fall
The Richmond junior varsity girls’ basketball team also opened its season Saturday at New Hanover and lost a close matchup 32-31.
No other additional scoring information was provided at the time of publication.
The JV Lady Raiders (0-1) play at non-conference Southern Lee High School next Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.
