GASTONIA — It may have taken eight additional minutes of play Friday night, but the Richmond Raider basketball team won a double-overtime thriller in the second round of the Ashbrook Holiday Hoopfest in Gastonia.
A night after losing to No. 4 Hunter Huss High School in the opening round, the No. 7 Raiders rebounded with an 82-75 double overtime win against No. 6 Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology (Charlotte, N.C.). Friday’s win was the second of three games for the Raiders at the holiday tournament, and marked their third win in their last four games.
Richmond (4-6) held a 33-28 halftime lead against the Cardinal (4-6), but was outscored 41-36 in the second half. Berry’s Darius Best knotted the game at 69 points as the regulation buzzer expired, hitting a baseline floater from the right side off of an Elijah Smith half-court inbound pass.
“We were up nine points (in the fourth quarter), but we started turning it over,” Richmond head coach Donald Pettigrew explained. “They (Berry) forced a turnover and we let them tie it up to force overtime.”
In the first four-minute overtime period, neither team found its stride, as both squads netted two points each. For the Raiders, it was junior center Jarvis Tillman who hit a pair of free throws, and Berry’s Anthony Moore answered with two free throws of his own.
Tied at 71 on the scoreboard, the second overtime period quickly turned into the Patrick McLaughlin show, as the sophomore came up big in the final minute, netting seven of his 10 total points in the second extra frame.
McLaughlin, a point guard who is in his first season at the varsity level, gave the Raiders their final lead of the night with just six seconds remaining on the scoreboard. After receiving a pass from fellow sophomore guard Caleb Hood, McLaughlin drained a contested three-pointer from the left corner, as the dagger would serve as the game-winning bucket, giving the Raiders a 78-75 lead.
But he wasn’t done, as McLaughlin would go on to net all four insurance points for the Raiders from the charity stripe to close out the game’s final seconds.
While most of the night’s excitement came in the closing minutes, several other Raider players contributed to the team’s win. Senior forward Xavier Pettigrew, who scored 10 points against Huss, followed up with his biggest game of the season, netting a team-high 21 points, eight of which he recorded in the fourth quarter.
Senior guard Alex Quick added 14 points in the win, with eight of his points coming in the second half and overtime. Three more Raiders, Hood, McLaughlin and senior shooting guard Rod Newton, tacked on 10 points each.
Pettigrew noted that sophomore Nygie Stroman netted nine points, while Quamir Sivels and Tillman fished the night with four points each. Tillman “also blocked a lot of shots and got a bunch of rebounds.”
The game’s leading scorer was Maurice Brown, who netted five three-pointers on his way to 23 points. Best was second-best on the team with 20 points, but neither effort was good enough to defeat the Raiders.
“PJ hit that big three at the end of the game and hit all four of his free throws when we needed them,” Pettigrew said. “It was a good defensive game (for us), and we were able to slow down (Berry’s) really good guard play.
“This is a good win for us,” he concluded. “I think seeing the teams that we’ve played, and winning in overtime, has shown us we can play with anyone. This is giving us some confidence and we’re now getting the ball inside. Zay had a big game tonight and we’re doing a better job of feeding the post.”
Now 1-1 in the tournament, Richmond will face No. 5 Hickory Ridge High School in Saturday’s finale. The Ragin’ Bulls defeated host Ashbrook High School 64-62 in the second round.
Regardless of the team’s outcome in the tournament, Pettigrew expressed that the Holiday Hoopfest has “helped us immensely for conference play,” which will pick up following the holiday break against Jack Britt High School on Friday, Jan. 4, in Rockingham.
