LUMBERTON — Four quarters of basketball wasn’t enough to decide Wednesday’s Sandhills Athletic Conference semifinal game between the Richmond Raiders and Lumberton High School.
Knotted at 55 points following regulation, the No. 2 Pirates edged the No. 3 Raiders 69-61. Richmond was outscored 14-6 in the extra four minutes of play.
In what was expected to be a battle to the final buzzer, Richmond head coach Donald Pettigrew said it wasn’t the outcome the team wanted. However, he was more than pleased with the efforts of his team in what he called one of the most exciting basketball games of the season.
“This was a heck of a game and this is what our conference is about,” Pettigrew said. “I hate that we’re switching conferences, but there is so much competition this year. Both teams played hard and we did the little things, but just came out on the wrong end.”
Overcoming deficits at the end of the first and second quarters, the Raiders held a 48-43 lead after the third. Freshman guard Jamarion Wall, who led Richmond with 20 points off the bench, drained one of his team-high four three-pointers with 10 seconds left to maintain the lead.
Lumberton opened the fourth on a 10-4 run and retook the lead on a drive by Jadarion Chatman, 53-52. The Pirates tried to play keep-away for the final 1:51, and senior Charlie Miller added to the lead with a pair of free throws to make it a 55-52 game with 31.1 seconds left.
On the next Richmond rush, Miller fouled freshman Paul McNeil on a three-point attempt, which sent him to the line. Not crumbling under the pressure, McNeil drained all three shots from the stripe to tie the game with 22.2 ticks on the clock.
Richmond forced a turnover in the closing seconds and senior forward Nygie Stroman’s three-point attempt at the buzzer hit the iron and bounced out.
“It was a big moment for the team and I tried to be clutch, and I made all three shots,” McNeil said of his three free throws. “We needed those points and we really wanted to get to the conference championship.”
Buckets from Chatman and Miller gave Lumberton a four-point lead to start overtime, but Wall answered with a jumper at the 3:10 mark. Following another Chatman drive, senior Dylan Lewis tipped a putback in and Stroman drilled a pair of free throws to tie the score at 61 points with just over 90 seconds to play.
An 8-0 run by the Pirates, including a three-pointer from Miller, sealed the victory for the home team. Pettigrew said some lapses on defense, ball control and missing assignments by the Raiders helped Lumberton earn the win.
“Turnovers down the stretch hurt us, but the guys played hard,” he closed. “Part of basketball is missing a free throw or not getting back, but the effort was there. I told the guys that’s all that matters and I can handle that, win or lose.”
Wall and McNeil were Richmond’s top two scorers, netting 20 and 16 points, respectively. Both had eight points in the first half and combined for 13 of Richmond’s 19 points in the third quarter. Wall was 4-of-5 from downtown, while McNeil collected four rebounds.
“The way Jamarion and Paul played tonight speak volumes about them as freshmen,” Pettigrew said. “They are both tough and made some big shots for us. That’s what we expect from them.
“I’ve never seen two freshmen who aren’t scared of the moment,” he added.
Lewis was also in double figures, finishing the night with 14 points and seven rebounds. Stroman tacked on nine points and five boards, while senior point guard Patrick McLaughlin returned from injury with two points, two rebounds and three assists.
Miller led Lumberton with 20 points, Chatman added 16 points and both Angel Bowie and Matthew Locklear chipped in 14 points.
The No. 3 Raiders will wrap up SAC tournament play on Friday in the consolation bracket at home against No. 5 Seventy-First High School. The winner will take the third-place spot in the tournament.
“We are going to work on our free throws more and hopefully rebound better,” McNeil said of Friday’s game. “We need to work on our plays more because some of our motions were off tonight. We’ll work them to perfection.”
