Lovell Joy is known for stepping up in critical situations as a wide receiver for Richmond’s state championship football team, and he did the same on the basketball court Friday night.

Joy scored the game-winning basket with six seconds left in the game to give Richmond its first Mid-Southeastern Conference triumph of the season. The Raiders edged rival Scotland 53-52 at Raider Gym.

Following a Richmond (6-8, 1-4 MSEC) timeout, Harold Sellers, while standing next to the Raiders’ bench threw a quick inbound pass to Love, who with his defender pinned underneath the basket, caught the ball and put the shot off the glass for the last of his game-high 17 points.

Joy credited Raiders coach David May for drawing up the play during the timeout.

“It was an excellent call by Coach May,” Joy said. “Markus (Diggs) set a good screen and Harold threw a perfect pass to me. I was able to get a good look and the shot fell through for us. It feel good that coach has the confidence in me ti go to me in crunch time.”

Joy scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half. He made two free-throws with 1:05 left in the fourth quarter, which gave the Raiders a 51-50 advantage.

Scotland (5-6, 2-3 MSEC) missed four straight front-ends on 1-and-1 attempts that set up Joy’s heroics.

“Scotland missed some timely free throws towards the end of the game that kept us alive, and we were able to make the clutch plays down the stretch,” said May. “We’ve lost a couple of these close games, but it was good to finally pull one of these out. Hopefully, this will give us some confidence and we can start to turn this around.”

The Raiders play at Seventy-First Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

Lady Raiders fall

The Richmond women’s basketball team overcame a double-digit deficit in its last conference game versus Douglas Byrd, but couldn’t against Scotland.

The Lady Raiders trailed the Lady Scots by 14 points entering the fourth and narrowed the deficit to two points, but were unable to grab the lead in a 59-55 defeat.

Richmond (7-3, 3-2) limited Scotland to six points in the fourth quarter and trailed 57-55 with 1:32 remaining, but were unable to knot the contest.

“I was pleased with the comeback, but we had some bad shot selections and threw poor entry passes into the post late in the game,” Lady Raider coach David Laton said.

Richmond’s chances of winning its third straight game came apart in the second quarter. Trailing 15-13 entering the period, the Lady Raiders committed 10 turnovers in the quarter to help the Lady Scots take a 36-22 advantage into halftime.

“Our players have to learn how to play through situations when things go bad,” Laton said.

Patrice Legrande scored a team-high 17 points, while Abril Stroman added 10 points.

The Lady Raiders play at Seventy-First Tuesday at 6 p.m.

JV Lady Raiders

stay perfect

The Richmond junior varsity women’s basketball team improved to 8-0 after a 50-45 victory over Scotland.

Rasheda McNeil paced the JV Lady Raiders with 22 points, while Shaquitta Covington scored 12 points.

The JV Lady Raiders host Seventy-First at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

JV Raiders win again

The Richmond junior varsity men’s basketball team rolled to its second straight win with a 75-55 victory over Scotland.

Andrew Carter paced the JV Raiders (5-5) with 15 points. Will Freeman added 13 points and Tyrell Knight chipped in with 11 points.

The Raiders host Seventy First at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

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