LAURINBURG — A wild finish to the end of the regular season Friday across the Sandhills Athletic Conference shook up the final standings.
Entering the regular-season finale, Richmond and Southern Lee high schools were tied for first place, followed by Pinecrest High School alone in third place.
In what most fans familiar with the SAC this season didn’t see coming, all three of those teams lost Friday.
Despite dropping two of their final three games of the regular season, Friday’s loss actually benefited Richmond and head coach Donald Pettigrew.
The Raiders started their three-game week with a pivotal overtime win against Southern Lee, which evened the season series and put them in contention for the conference crown.
Richmond’s season-long 13-game winning streak came to an end Wednesday at non-conference Pine Forest High School in a 67-65 loss.
Unlike their 36-point win over Scotland Jan. 17, the Raiders lapsed and suffered a 79-72 loss to the Fighting Scots in Friday’s final conference game.
Had Richmond won, the Raiders would have earned the outright SAC championship. Instead, Richmond was named conference co-champions with the Cavaliers. It marked the fourth straight season Richmond either won or shared the conference championship.
The top two teams had matching 9-3 records against SAC opponents and they split the regular-season series. The home teams won both of those meetings.
Raiders earn top-seed for SAC tournament
Following the shakeup of the conference standings Friday, which had Richmond and Southern Lee tied for first place, as well as Pinecrest and Lee County high schools tied for second place, a host of officials were involved with determining the conference tournament bracket.
James Johnson, Richmond’s athletic director, and SAC president Dr. Chad Hill worked with NCHSAA Commission Que Tucker to sort out the details.
Johnson explained that because Richmond and Southern Lee split their season series together, as well as both respectively going 3-1 against Pinecrest and Lee County, the deciding factor came down to each team’s record against fifth-place Union Pines.
Richmond went 2-0 against the Vikings this season compared to the Cavaliers’ 1-1 record, which awarded the No. 1 seed to the Raiders.
As the top seed, Richmond will get a bye in the first round and host the winner of No. 4 Pinecrest and No. 5 Union Pines Tuesday. The semifinal game will begin at 7:30 p.m.
