LAURINBURG — Once again offensive woes sealed Richmond Senior’s fate against Scotland.
The Fighting Scots held the Raiders scoreless in the second quarter en route to a 68-27 victory Friday night at SHS Gymnasium in the regular season finale for both teams.
“They are another stacked senior team against our inexperience,” Richmond coach Victoria DeFrate said. “We have to find a way to eliminate turnovers when we’re under pressure. We took steps forward with that on Tuesday against Pinecrest, but couldn’t find that same ability tonight.”
Scotland outscored Richmond 18-0 in the second quarter to take a 34-8 halftime lead. Jonissa Monley, who has missed the majority of the season with a broken bone in her foot, returned to score four points in the second and finished the game with six.
“She’s probably around 60 or 70 percent, but her conditioning is the biggest thing,” Scotland coach David Johnson said. “I wanted to get her out there tonight, get her running around and feel the burn in her lungs. She had the look on her face and with the playoffs coming up, I want to ease her in there.”
Scotland (19-3, 9-1) clinched its second straight regular season Southeastern Conference championship and No. 1 seed in next week’s league tournament. Richmond falls to 6-16 overall and 3-7 in the SEC.
“We have five players that have played varsity since ninth grade,” Johnson said. “That’s what we have been building for. It’s not often you can called yourselves champions.”
The Raiders were paced by Shaquail Wall, who scored 13 points. Wall was the lone Richmond player in double figures. Heaven Smith was the team’s next highest scorer with four.
Richmond did receive good news after the game, when it learned Pinecrest stopped Hoke County 61-32. This allows the Raiders to finish in fourth outright and they will play host to the Bucks at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the first round of the SEC tourney.
“It’s great because it will really help the program to be able to get this young team experience in the playoffs,” DeFrate said.
— Sports editor Shawn Stinson can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 14, or by email at sstinson@civitasmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @scgolfer.
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