Pair of wins keep Lady Raiders near top of standings

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LAURINBURG — A pair of wins during Thursday’s Sandhills Athletic Conference meet kept the Richmond Senior High School girls’ bowling team near the top of the standings.

Rebounding from two losses during their last outing, the Lady Raiders opened the new year with victories over Pinecrest and Union Pines high schools at Laurinburg Lanes.

Prior to the start of Thursday’s meet, the Lady Raiders were in third place with 19 points, trailing first-place Pinecrest (22 points) and second-place Hoke County (20 points).

“This was a much better outing than our last meet before winter break,” head coach Ashleigh Larsen said. “The girls were able to put together some really strong games and we held on in the final frames to get the win over Pinecrest, which will help us in the standings.

“The match with Union Pines was a way for us to collect five points while working on our technique since they didn’t have a full roster,” she added. “Getting these eight points was really important today.”

Final frames decided win over Pinecrest

In their match with Pinecrest, the Lady Raiders held on for a 500-498 victory. Game scores were 153-112, 143-134, 101-131 and 103-121.

Despite losing the last two games, Richmond edged out the two-point win when Pinecrest wasn’t able to knock down any pins on its last frame. 

The Lady Raiders averaged a game score of 125 pins, rolled five strikes and 11 spares and had a team closing percentage of .372 (16-of-43).

Junior Jentry Denson had a team-best .630 closing percentage (5-for-8). All of her closed frames were spares, which marked a single-match season best for her.

Senior anchor Ava Thompson rolled two strikes and added three spares (5-for-11), and freshman Kaylon Wynn also knocked down a pair of strikes, which was tied for the team lead. Wynn’s other closed frame was a spare.

Senior Hanna Smith contributed one strike and one spare, junior Skyler Collins had one spare and adding to the pin total was freshman Sydney Barnes.

Lady Raiders sweep Union Pines for second time

Taking advantage of Union Pines having just four bowlers, Richmond cruised to a 5-0 victory. Game scores were 117-63, 111-63, 120-68, 115-85 for a final pin count of 463-279.

Closing 16-of-42 frames (38.1%), the Lady Raiders matched their strikes (5) and spares (11) totals from the Pinecrest match. Richmond averaged a game score of 115.8 pins.

Smith stepped up to close 5-of-8 frames (63%), knocking down nearly half of Richmond’s spares with five of them. That was a single-match season-high for Smith, who also posted a season best combined closing percentage between the two matches (7-for-16, 43.8%).

Thompson closed out 60% of her frames (6-for-10), rolling a trio of strikes and three spares. 

Richmond’s other two strikes in the match were recorded by Collins and Wynn. Both also closed out additional frames with one and two spares, respectively.

Barnes and Denson weren’t able to close any frames in the five-point win, but added to Richmond’s overall pin count.

The Lady Raiders (6-2) will face Hoke County and Scotland high schools next Thursday at the Sandhills Bowling Center in Aberdeen. Matches will start at 4 p.m.

PHOTOS: Click here to view photos of Richmond’s conference matches from Thursday.

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