ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond Senior High School boys’ basketball team started its playoff run with a bang Tuesday, while second-year head coach Donald Pettigrew earned his first career postseason win.
The No. 15 Raiders welcomed in No. 18 Hickory Ridge High School, and ended the Ragin’ Bulls’ season with a 67-59 victory in the opening round of the NCHSAA 4A state playoffs. The win marked Richmond’s first playoff win since Feb. 21, 2017, when the Raiders edged Vance High School 123-118.
“Coach (David) Laton always told me it was never easy to win a playoff game,” Pettigrew smiled following the win. “The team came ready to play tonight, and we knew Hickory Ridge was going to be tough. But it’s really good for us as a team to get a playoff win. Now our minds are getting ready for the defending champs.”
The first-round victory secured the Raiders (17-11) a meeting with No. 2 Independence High School (21-6), which defeated Heritage High School in the 2018 4A state championship. The Patriots had a bye Tuesday after winning the Southwestern Conference title.
Senior forward Xavier Pettigrew had a big night for the Raiders, earning a double-double with a team-high 16 points and 10 rebounds. He also swatted a team-high five blocks, with the Raiders finishing with 10 as a team (junior Jarvis Tillman had four more).
Richmond opened the game on a 10-5 run to take an early lead, but a field goal by Hickory Ridge’s Jordan Lubamba started a 9-0 spurt that gave the Ragin’ Bulls a 14-10 lead.
Sophomore PJ McLaughlin knocked down a pair of free throws with 15.8 seconds remaining, but a Talyn Hunter layup with under five seconds to go extended Hickory Ridge’s lead to 16-12 at the end of the first frame.
The first half was a low-scoring affair for both teams, but Richmond managed to pull ahead to take a 27-25 lead into the intermission. Pettigrew opened the first two minutes with three straight field goals in the paint, cutting the deficit to one point.
Four points from junior guard Quamir Sivels in the period, and three more from sophomore Caleb Hood allowed the Raiders to find some rhythm before the break. Sivels’ baseline jumper with 1:02 left gave the Raiders the final lead change of the night. Tillman came up big with a block on Lubamba in the closing seconds.
The Raiders’ best scoring quarter during the win was the third, as the team nearly doubled its score with 23 more points. Pettigrew added seven more to his total, connecting on two jumpers and adding three free throws.
Hood contributed five more of his 10 total points, as sophomore Nygie Stroman beat the buzzer on a breakaway one-handed jam on a McLaughlin outlet pass. Up 12 points, 50-38, it was Richmond’s largest lead of the game.
Hickory Ridge (13-13) wouldn’t go down without a fight, as the Ragin’ Bulls used a 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter to cut Richmond’s lead to four points. Pettigrew stopped the bleeding with a bucket and a foul with just over five minutes remaining.
Stroman danced his way to another dunk on the next possession, and the Raiders closed out the win in the final minute on two free throws apiece by McLaughlin and senior Alex Quick. McLaughlin intercepted an errant Hickory Ridge pass with 14 seconds remaining, as Richmond passed the ball around to run out the clock and head to the second round.
Pettigrew had 16 points, Stroman netted 13 points, Hood finished with 10 points and McLaughlin contributed nine points in the win. The leading scorer for Hickory Ridge was Lubamba with 18 points, while Jordan Marsh added 17 points.
“We weren’t giving any championship effort and we came out flat in the first half,” Pettigrew said. “I told the guys no one is going to sit down for us now that we’re in the playoffs. We did a better job in the second half.
“Zay was big for us tonight when we needed him,” he concluded. “Independence has some really good guards and they’re athletic. I’d rather have it no other way than to try and knock the champions off.”
Pettigrew added that the second-round matchup, which is scheduled for Thursday at Independence, is “personal.” When he played at Richmond, Pettigrew and the Raiders lost to the Patriots in the 1997 state title game, and he added that current coach Preston Davis was on that team.
