MATTHEWS — For a final time this season, the Richmond Senior High School boys’ basketball team took the court Thursday.
Traveling to No. 8 Weddington High School for the second round of the NCHSAA 7A West state playoffs, the No. 9 Raiders came up just short of advancing to at least the third round for the fifth straight season.
Despite trailing by as many as 14 points in the second half, Richmond never relented and fought till the end of a 70-60 loss.
Several times in the fourth quarter the Raiders cut the lead to single digits and trailed by as few six points.
Battling the height and half-court offense of Weddington, the Raiders stayed within a couple possessions on the scoreboard until about the midway part of the third quarter. For the better part of the second half, the Warriors (18-10) led by double digits.
Head coach Donald Pettigrew praised the Raiders’ efforts after the game, adding there’s nothing more he could have asked them to do this season on or off the court.
In his final high school game, senior shooting guard Amer Morrison led the team with 17 points. Fellow senior shooting guard Jayden Hamilton had eight points and senior center Domonic Tillman had four points.
Also reaching double figures was junior Chance Crowder, who scored 14 points. He had 11 points in the opening quarter. Other contributors were sophomores Donovan Jones (7 points) and Kerick Hairston Jr. (6 points), and freshman Cam’ron Coley (4 points).
Fast-paced and aggressive were both teams in the first quarter, as the officials let the Raiders and Warriors play basketball. Crowder was electric from the opening two minutes, connecting on a pair of triples deep along the left wing to give the Raiders a 6-2 lead.
Tillman answered a Warriors’ three-pointer with his first two points off the glass to build the score to 8-5. Two baskets and another lead change by Weddington were erased when Tillman added his final bucket of the first on a drive through the paint.
The first of two four-point deficits for the Raiders in the opening stanza came with 3:31 on the clock, 14-10. Hamilton and Crowder drew it back even with a jumper apiece.
Trailing 18-14, Crowder made some noise with his third three-pointer of the stanza. He connected on a shot in transition from the top of the arc.
Weddington made one of two free throws with 34.4 seconds left to take a 19-17 lead into the second.
While still playing upbeat, the Raiders couldn’t find their mark with as much accuracy in the second quarter. Richmond was outscored 12-7 and entered halftime down by its biggest deficit of the half, 31-24.
Hamilton drove the lane for two points a minute into the quarter, but the Raiders wouldn’t score again until Jones made a free throw to make it a 39-27 deficit with 4:38 to go in the half.
Richmond’s other four points in the quarter came on back-to-back possessions by Morrison and Coley. Making a steal, Morrison galloped to the rim in transition and Coley finished a drive for his first points of the game.
A 5-0 run by Weddington, its second such stretch in the quarter, put the Warriors up by seven at the break.
Both teams picked up the pace of play again in the third quarter, as Weddington opened its lead thanks to a 20-15 run. Morrison, who had 15 of his 17 points in the second half, started with seven points in the third.
A free throw from Crowder and an old-fashioned three-point play by Morrison kept the Raiders within 11 points with 5:22 to go. Two more shots from the field by each player, along with a Jones free throw kept the score at 46-35.
The Raiders scored four points in the final 2:45 thanks to a Jones putback and a jumper from Crowder. At the end of the third, Richmond trailed 51-39.
Morrison and Jones combined for a 6-0 run to open the fourth quarter to cut the lead to six points, 51-45. Morrison netted two transition buckets and Jones was good on two shots from the line.
The burst in momentum wouldn’t last, however, as Weddington went on a run to take a 60-50 lead. Those five points for the Raiders came on a Hairston Jr. triple from the right corner and another close-range field goal by Morrison.
Resorting to fouling the Warriors, Richmond did its best to stop the clock and get takeaways and turn them into baskets.
In the final minute of the game, Jones had a free throw, Hairston Jr. knocked in his final triple and Hamilton had four points on a free throw and a three-ball from in front of the Raiders’ bench.
The last basket for Richmond came on a transition layup by Morrison as the clock wound inside of 10 seconds.
The Raiders’ season came to an end with an 19-7 overall record in Pettigrew’s ninth season as head coach.
Richmond recorded a 8-2 mark in the Mid-South Conference, lifting the Raiders to their fifth straight year of winning or sharing a conference title.
Never losing back-to-back games more than once this winter, the team’s longest winning streak of the season was five games, which happened in the five games leading up to Thursday’s elimination.
