ROCKINGHAM — Nearly two weeks after the Anson Holiday Classic was canceled, the Richmond Senior High School girls’ basketball team hosted the Lady Bearcats in a makeup contest on Thursday.
Originally set for Dec. 20 and 21, the Christmas break tournament fell through at the last minute. But head coach Teddy Moseley arranged for Anson to make the trip east to see the two non-conference teams play for the third time this winter. It was also a chance for Richmond to stay active off a nearly weeklong break.
Behind three double-digit scoring performances, the Lady Raiders completed the regular-season series sweep with a 60-32 win on their home floor. It was also Richmond’s third-straight win, the second time this season it’s won three in a row.
Sophomore Jamiya Ratliff netted a team-high 11 points off the bench for Richmond (8-3), while senior starters Keionna Love and Bree Wall each contributed 10 points in the victory. Chipping in seven points was junior Jakerra Covington. Wall’s 10 points were a season-high.
Anson’s Revie Byers would finish with a game-high 13 points, and saw teammates Tammaria Bullock and Jyanna Willoughby add 7 points and 6 points, respectively.
While the Lady Raiders eclipsed the 60-point scoring mark for the third time this season, it was his team’s continued effort on defense that Moseley was most proud of Thursday.
“Defensively, we continue to get better and that’s the main thing,” Moseley said. “We’ve got to keep doing that because it’s only going to get tougher as we continue conference play. I feel like we have enough players who can score, now we just need to stop other teams from scoring.”
The Lady Raiders have held three of their last four opponents to 37 or fewer points, and are giving up just 32.4 points per game this season. Something Moseley credited in the strong surge lately was his players responding to what he and his coaching staff have been teaching.
“I’ve had more patience with them and have been doing more coaching about the positions I want them to be in,” he explained. “We’ve done the teaching, and now we’re re-teaching some things, and that’s helped a lot.”
Richmond got off to a fast start against the Lady Bearcats (3-9), rolling out to a 19-4 lead in the first quarter. Wall led all scorers with seven points, hitting a three-pointer and a two field goals.
The Lady Raiders would add 16 more points in the second quarter, seeing Love start things with a triple and two free throws on back-to-back possessions. Five other Richmond players would score in the frame: Jayla McDougald (3), Davionna Campbell (2), Asia Douglas (2), Covington (2) and Ratliff (2). At the break, Richmond led 35-11.
Freshman Kyla Sampson and Wall extended the lead to 30 points when they hit three-pointers on Richmond’s first two possessions of the second half. Ratliff added a mid-range jumper and a triple in the third, while senior Jardai Tillman banked a shot off the glass.
Ratliff mirrored her third-quarter performance in the final stanza, while Covington, Love and senior Jasmine Ewing each added two points to help ice the win.
“We’ve been a balanced scoring team all season and that continued tonight,” Moseley noted. “Almost every game we have a different leading scorer. We shared the ball really well tonight, and we’ll continue to improve on making shots under the net.”
Richmond will return to Sandhills Athletic Conference play on Friday at Jack Britt High School (8-3, 1-0 SAC). The Lady Raiders will be looking for their first SAC win of the season against what Moseley called “an excellent defensive team.” Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.
