FAYETTEVILLE — Knowing its playoff hopes were on the line, the Lady Raider basketball team played its “best game” all season on the road Tuesday.
Playing the second-place Seventy-First High School Lady Falcons, Richmond used a strong second quarter to distance itself to a 60-41 win.
Behind strong performances from senior point guard Keionna Love, who scored a career-high 25 points, and junior guard Jayla McDougald, who added 18 points, the Lady Raiders defeated Seventy-First for the first time in 11 seasons.
According to Maxpreps, the last time the Lady Raiders had defeated the Lady Falcons was on Feb. 10, 2009, a 76-71 decision.
“This was the best game we played all year and it started on the defensive end,” head coach Teddy Moseley said. “We forced (Seventy-First) into a lot of bad shots early. Then Keionna and Jayla definitely got it going on offense tonight.
“This win came against a really good team and it couldn’t have come at a better time,” he added.
Entering the night in fifth place in the Sandhills Athletic Conference standings, the Lady Raiders rode the offense of Love and McDougald to upset the Lady Falcons.
Both players would net four three-pointers each in the win, with McDougald hitting all four of her’s in the first half and Love knocked in two on both sides of the buzzer.
After getting out to a 12-10 lead at the end of the first quarter, Richmond outscored Seventy-First 21-12 in the second period to take control of the game. McDougald scored nine points in the frame, all on three-pointers and Love’s two triples completed her 10-point first half performance.
Senior forward Jardai Tillman added her first two points of the game in the second, and she finished with seven points, adding five in the second half.
At the break, Moseley’s team led 33-22.
The Lady Raiders kept the pressure applied on both sides of the ball to start the second half, seeing its offense net 14 more points in the third. More importantly, the press defense kept the Lady Falcons to just five points in the eight-minute period.
Love hit her final two triples in the third, as McDougald, Tillman and junior Jakerra Covington all scored two points. Richmond took its largest lead of the night, 22 points, when Love struck from the right corner with 1:50 left in the third.
Leading by 20 at the start of the fourth, 47-27, the Lady Raiders went into protective mode and held the Lady Falcons’ offense at bay. Love notched seven more points to help secure the much-needed SAC victory.
“This was a big win,” Moseley said. “This is the first win for us against a winning team in the conference this year. I put two sets of numbers on the board -- 48 and 0-7 -- and asked which was more important.
“The 48-point win over Hoke (last week) didn’t mean anything, the 0-7 record against winning teams was the one we needed to focus on,” he added. “And the girls answered the call and I’m proud of them.”
For the Lady Falcons (16-6, 9-3 SAC), Nyielah Nick led the team with 13 points, followed by 11 points from Amore Kirkland.
Richmond improved to 14-8 overall and 5-7 against SAC opponents. Now the Lady Raiders will get ready for another road test on Wednesday at sixth-place Lumberton (10-11, 3-8 SAC).
“We’ll have to get rest tonight and hopefully we can ride this wave of momentum going into Lumberton,” Moseley closed. “That’s our main focus right now. We need to play well like we did tonight.”
Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. in Lumberton as Richmond goes for the season sweep.
Click hear to hear from Keionna Love on her career performance.
