ROCKINGHAM — Second-chance points fueled by an aggressive rebounding effort by the Richmond Senior High School boys’ basketball team Tuesday put the Raiders back in the win column.
Ending a two-game skid, the No. 1 Raiders pulled away late in their Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament game, defeating No. 4 Pinecrest High School 71-61.
The semifinal matchup against the Patriots saw Richmond chip away at a first-half deficit before tying it at the half and pulling away for good in the fourth quarter.
Head coach Donald Pettigrew praised the team’s rebounding and hustle during his postgame speech, adding that the Raiders answered the call despite not being 100% healthy.
Senior guard Ahaiver McDonald scored a team-high 24 points on 10-of-20 shooting. He scored 18 points in the second half.
Also reaching double-digits for the Raiders were sophomore Chance Crowder (13 points) and juniors Jayden Hamilton and Amer Morrison (10 points each).
Richmond shot 29-of-61 as a team and was helped in scoring by senior Davion Ingram (7 points), junior Domonic Tillman (4 points) and senior Keyonta Davis (3 points).
Pinecrest (15-9) outperformed Richmond in the early going, taking a 17-11 lead after the first quarter. McDonald scored all six of his first half points in the opening stanza, including a three-pointer in the final two minutes.
Trailing by as many as nine points in the second quarter, the Raiders started their shift in momentum with a 10-6 run through the first four minutes. Morrison started it with a trey before Crowder collected four of his eight first-half points on a pair of transition buckets.
Ingram, who was big on the boards and played a large role defensively in the second half, got on the board with a free throw. A mid-range jumper from Crowder cut Richmond’s deficit to 26-21.
In the remaining four minutes of the second, Ingram began a 13-8 scoring stretch by tipping in the ball after four failed attempts by the team in the paint.
Baskets from Morrison and Hamilton, followed by a pair of Tillman putbacks, tied the game at 31 points. With 39 seconds to go, Davis made a bucket and converted on the and-one opportunity to send the game into the half tied 34-34.
Richmond began the third on a 5-0 run, using points from Hamilton and McDonald to take a five-point lead. After Pinecrest tied it back up at 39 points, Hamilton and McDonald combined for a 6-0 run to make it 45-39.
In the final 90 seconds of the third, McDonald made a hook shot in the lane to bring his total to 15 points, capping a nine-point effort in the third. Ingram intercepted the ball on an errant pass and went coast-to-coast for a layup to give Richmond a 49-46 lead after three complete.
The Patriots wouldn’t go away quietly, regaining a 50-49 lead early in the fourth. Morrison added his final two points in the game from the line to give Richmond a one-point advantage.
A couple of free throws by Pinecrest swapped the lead again, but Ingram answered with a putback under the glass for the game’s final tie. With 5:22 to play, Crowder finessed his way through the lane for a bucket and completed the old-fashioned three-point play to make it 56-53.
Hamilton capitalized on a transition basket that was set up by an Ingram steal, which set in motion five straight points from McDonald, which featured a breakaway one-handed jam.
Leading 63-59, Hamilton drove the lane for his final two points with 1:38 to play. McDonald capped his big night with two more transition baskets in a 20-second span, and Crowder hit two free throws to punch Richmond’s ticket back to the SAC championship game.
The No. 1 Raiders (15-9) will host No. 2 Southern Lee High School (21-3) Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the SAC tournament championship game.
In what will be the rubber match, the home team has won both games during the season series.
Sports editor’s note: Statistics provided by assistant coach Keith Parsons.
