LAURINBURG – Yes, it was raining on the campus of Scotland High School Friday night. But it was also raining inside the Fighting Scots’ gymnasium – three-pointers, that is.
And the Richmond Senior High School varsity boys basketball team had its fair share of them, despite dropping its fifth straight conference game in a row, 67-53 to Sandhills Athletic Conference rival Scotland (11-3, 5-1 SAC).
A combined total of 18 three-pointers rang home, as the teams split the tally with nine triples apiece. Richmond (5-9, 1-5 SAC) also put together its best team three-point shooting performance of the season.
Richmond junior guard Roderick Newton had a team-high in threes (four) and points (14), all of which came in the second half of the shootout, including three fourth-quarter three-pointers. Along with Newton, four other Raiders hit from downtown, including junior guards Mycah Wilson (two), Alex Quick (one), Malik Stanback (one) and Bobby Terry (one).
But Newton and the Raiders were outdueled by Scotland’s Niem Ratliffe (13 points, two three-pointers) and Isaiah Bostick (game-high 18 points, three three-pointers). Before the game, Ratliffe was recognized for netting his 1,000th career point earlier this week.
“I thought the offense played better tonight,” head coach Donald Pettigrew said following his team’s three-point shooting clinic. “But I felt the defense had lapses where we didn’t rebound. That’s big when they (Scotland) can hit that big shot.”
One of those lapses came at the game’s start when Scotland flew out to a 10-2 lead, which included a strong right-handed jam from Bostick on a fastbreak for the first points of the game. Ratliffe connected from beyond the arc, before sending a perfect alley-oop pass to Bostick on the next possession for his second dunk of the night.
Richmond called a timeout following a Bostick three, and managed to hold the Fighting Scots to just five points in the final 5:45 after allowing 10 points in the opening 2:15.
The only quarter the Raiders outscored their opponent was the second (14-13), which saw some key buckets from players off the bench. Wilson, who hasn’t gotten much playing time this season, entered midway through the second frame and immediately drained a triple along the right wing off a pass from senior teammate Carl McNeal. Wilson’s bucket cut the deficit to 19-8.
Richmond senior forward Malik Flowers, who finished the night with nine points, was a strong presence in the paint all night. He managed to muscle himself to the line a couple times in the quarter, hitting three of four from the charity strip.
Terry got into the mix just moments later when he hit his lone three-pointer of the night from the left corner of the floor, helping chip away at a 22-13 Scotland lead. Wilson rounded out the stanza hitting his final triple from no-man’s land with 40 seconds remaining in the half.
The Raiders would cut their deficit the closest to the Scots’ lead the rest of the night at 26-19, but headed to the locker room trailing 28-19.
Flowers opened the second half with a turn-around eight-foot jumper in the paint, and added the exclamation point by draining the and-one opportunity. Despite Newton hitting his first triple, coupled with a Stanback dribble-drive, nothing much else clicked for the Raiders in the third. The defense fell into another “lapse” as the Fighting Scots held onto a 10-point lead, 41-31, heading into the final frame.
Both halves had nine total three-pointers, but both teams saved their most for the fourth quarter, as each drilled home four in the game’s waning moments.
A 10-4 Scotland run to open the quarter pushed the Raiders’ deficit to 16 points, which was helped by back-to-back threes from sophomore guard CJ Settles and senior guard Brenton Thomas.
Newton continued to work, hitting his second three of the night. But a quick attack on three straight possessions, which saw a Settles jumper and threes from Bostick and Thomas, extended the Scots’ lead to a game-high 20 points, 59-39.
A last-ditch effort by the Raiders to mount a comeback came up short in the form of two more Newton threes, a triple from Stanback and a Wilson hitting both free throws following a Scotland technical foul when Bostick held onto the rim too long following a breakaway dunk.
“Mycah is a shooter, and the coaching staff decided to give him another chance,” Pettigrew said of his rotating players into games.
“We were lazy (early on) and playing nonchalant,” Pettigrew explained. “But we were able to slow Scotland’s big plays by having the outside wing guy put his arms out and keep them from shooting.”
The Raiders will head to Rocky Mount Preparatory on Monday, January 15, for a non-conference matchup for the Martin Luther King, Jr., Classic. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m.
