ROCKINGHAM — A host of Richmond Raider basketball players helped the team’s five seniors earn a double-digit senior night win on Tuesday.
Hosting Seventy-First High School, the Raiders netted a season-high in points enroute to a 72-60 win over the Falcons.
Ahead of the game, the program’s five seniors were recognized. Escorted by parents, teammates and friends, C.J. Tillman, Dylan Lewis, Patrick McLaughlin, Nygie Stroman and Travis Thomas took to halfcourt to celebrate their special night.
“The whole team played with really good energy tonight,” head coach Donald Pettigrew said. “It was senior night and Nygie, P.J., Dylan, Travis and C.J. are boys who mean a lot to this program. The last three years have flown by and it was good to get the win for them on senior night.
“It’s always tough to do that with so many emotions going on, but the guys focused and played hard,” he added. “They played with a little extra umph tonight.”
Pettigrew said Tuesday’s game was the first time all season that the entire roster had been together. Injuries and COVID-19 protocols had kept the Raiders apart prior to the win over the Falcons.
Freshman shooting guard Paul McNeil would lead the Raiders with 17 points and notched a double-double with 10 rebounds. Stroman also had a double-double, scoring 10 points and grabbing 11 boards and stuffing four shots.
Lewis impressed with a stat line of 14 points, eight rebounds and a team-high five blocks in the post. McLaughlin, the team’s floor general, dished out five assists and recorded five boards to go along with his lone point.
Thomas was helpful on defense, adding four rebounds and two blocks. Off the bench, freshman Jamarion Wall scored 12 points, nine in the second half, and sophomore Dakota Chavis chipped in nine points, six coming in the opening two quarters.
“It felt good to play well tonight because I had my family here, and that meant a lot to me,” Lewis said. “Senior night was a blessing because we weren’t sure if we’d get to play this season. It’s good to be here because there’s bigger stuff going on in the world, but it's great to be able to play this game with my teammates.
“I didn’t try to force shooting the ball,” he added. “My teammates found me and they gave me the ball. We all trust each other and that showed tonight.”
Five Raiders scored in the opening quarter to take a 13-9 lead. Stroman hit a pair of buckets in the post for his first four points and Lewis kissed the glass in transition and tacked on a free throw.
Chavis and juniors Xavier Collazo and Deshon Watson each scored two points in the frame.
The second quarter proved close as both teams traded baskets. Watson and Wall had putbacks early and McNeil joined the scoring mix with a floater in transition to put the Raiders up 19-11 with 5:25 left in the half.
Two drives from Chavis, coupled with a McNeil triple and baseline drive, kept Richmond up by eight points. Stroman made a sweeping block on Cameron Shelton with 24.8 seconds left to preserve the lead.
McNeil was awarded the final two of his nine second-quarter points near the buzzer on a goaltending call. Richmond held a five-point lead, 30-25, at the intermission.
A much more aggressive second half by the Raiders saw their lead jump to double digits early in the third. McLaughlin lobbed a ball near the rim for McNeil, who tapped it in to extend Richmond’s lead to 37-27 with 5:20 to play.
That was one of McNeil’s four field goals in the stanza and Lewis added two more points on a shot in the paint. Stroman etched three more points on a putback and a free throw, and Wall regained an 11-point lead with a triple from the left corner at the buzzer.
“We tried to get Jamarion going tonight with it being his first game back,” Pettigrew said. “He was excited and he took shots and started scoring. He’s going to be special for us and he’s a scorer. We expect big things out of him moving forward.”
Entering the fourth quarter up 46-35, the Raiders added 26 points in the final eight minutes. Richmond used a 6-0 run to start the quarter and relied on free throws late. Richmond connected on 17-of-20 shots from the charity stripe in the fourth.
Lewis ended his night with nine points in the fourth on two jumpers and five free throws. Wall had six points and went perfect from the line on all four shots.
Chavis added insurance points with two free throws with just over a minute to play, and Stroman capped his night with a free throw with 13.2 seconds on the clock.
“We knew there would be a lot of emotions tonight, and to get a win by a large margin, that was important,” Stroman said. “Once we started, the emotions went away and we just played basketball.
“We locked in on defense because we haven’t been playing to our potential,” he added. “Tonight we carried over what we’ve been working on in practice.”
Randy Dockery and Jared Davis both had double digits for the Falcons (3-4, 3-4 SAC) with 15 and 12 points, respectively. Shelton added nine points and Julius Brown and Jakoi Hassell finished with eight and seven points.
The Raiders (4-2, 3-1 SAC) have a big SAC game at home Wednesday against Pinecrest High School (7-1, 5-0 SAC). Tip is set for 7 p.m.
“I had the guys start off in man defense tonight and we wanted to try something different,” Pettigrew explained. “That helped us pick up the pace a little bit, and that will hopefully carry over into another big game tomorrow.”
