SOUTHERN PINES — The good thing about losing in a basketball tournament is the chance to play the following day.

Tuesday night., the Richmond Senior men’s basketball team, behind Brian Love’s game-high 19 points, rebounded nicely from Monday night’s opening round 67-51 loss to Broughton. The Raiders hung on to defeat Southern Lee 46-43 in a consolation game of the Holiday in the Pines tournament.

Richmond will play Overhills today in the fifth-place consolation game at 3:30 p.m.

The victory allowed the Raiders to improve their record to 5-2 on the season and snap a two-game losing streak. Richmond coach David Laton said he had a good feeling before his team took the court that the Raiders would play better than their performance on Monday.

“I could tell in the locker room that our guys were serious, and ready to play,” he said. “We needed to come back after losing our last two games, and it was good to get back on the winning track.”

The Cavaliers led 37-34 with 5:57 remaining in the fourth quarter. Richmond’s Will Freeman scored on a three-point play and Love followed with his third 3-pointer, giving the Raiders a 40-37 advantage with 5:08 left in the contest.

With Richmond holding onto a 42-39 lead, Darius Gill, who scored 10 points for the Cavs, swished a long jumper to cut the Raiders’ lead to 42-41. Anthony Keane’s putback gave Richmond a 44-41 lead with a little more than three minutes remaining.

The game then turned sloppy as both teams were plagued by cold shooting and turnovers toward the end of the contest. With the Raiders trying to run time off the clock, Love received an inbound pass in the backcourt with 37.9 seconds remaining.

As Love was about to be double-teamed, he lost control of the ball. Gill scored a layup off the steal and was fouled by Love in the process. But Gill missed a chance to even the game on the three-point play opportunity and the ball went out of bounds to Richmond. The Raiders led 44-43 with 31.2 seconds left.

However, Kasheem Reid’s inbound pass went out of bounds, giving the ball back to the Cavs. Richmond stepped up on defense though, as Freeman blocked Sherrid Toomer’s attempted floater out of bounds, and the Raiders forced a turnover on the next play with 17.2 seconds remaining.

Love, who nearly had the ball taken away again, was fouled by Ace Chalmers with 11.2 seconds left in the contest. Love calmly drained both free-throws, giving the Raiders a 46-43 cushion.

“I knew I had to knock them down after turning over the ball,” Love said. “I know as a senior my duty is to step up and be a leader. I’m not necessarily looking to be the leading scorer, but to be a contributor.”

On the Cavs’ final possession, Antonio Jackson, who had a team-high 11 points, saw his 3-pointer clang off the front rim at the buzzer, allowing Richmond to escape with a 3-point victory.

“We made some mistakes down the stretch, but I think this should help us be better prepared in the future : How to handle ourselves in a close game,” Love said. I think a lot of our games the rest of the way are going to be close. Hopefully, we will do a better job of executing late in games.”

Richmond limited Lee’s leading scorer Josh Mellette, who came in averaging nearly 15 points per game, to one point in the contest.

“I thought our defense was much more aggressive than on Monday,” Laton said. I felt like we were more alert and we played more together, which was a big plus.”

Richmond jumped out to a 6-0 first quarter lead, but Lee went into to the second with a 15-12 advantage. The Cavs extended the advantage to 24-15 on Chalmers’ trifecta with a little more than four minutes left in the quarter. The nine-point lead was the biggest lead by either team in the contest.

However, the Raiders used a 10-0 run to close out the second, capped by Jide Riddick’s two foul shots with 9.7 seconds left to give Richmond a 25-24 halftime lead.

With the contest tied at 29-all in the third, Chalmers’ fastbreak reverse layup capped a 7-0 Cavs’ spurt, giving Lee a 36-29 lead with 1:55 left in the quarter.

Richmond would pulled within two going into the fourth as Love’s triple and Reid’s two free-throws drew the Raiders within 36-34 heading into the last period.

Richmond outscored Lee 12-7 in the last quarter to prevail for the win. In the loss to the Caps, the Raiders were out-rebounded 23-14, but came back to have a 33-16 edge on the boards against the Cavaliers. Freeman had a game-high 13 rebounds.

Contact sports reporter Corey Davis at 997-3111, ext. 44; e-mail cdavis@yourdailyjournal.com