The Richmond men’s junior varsity team has been on the short end of some tight games this season and they found themselves in another close contest.

This time, the JV Raiders were able to outlast Hoke 65-59 Friday night, and rebound from Tuesday’s loss to Seventy-First.

“Those guys were still hurting from that loss to Seventy-First, but they showed a lot of fight to bounce back and win,” coach Donald Pettigrew said. “They did something they haven’t done in a while...played with some passion.”

Will Freeman scored a team-high 21 points, and jump started Richmond’s night by scoring 12 points in the first quarter to give the Raiders (6-6) a 19-13 lead.

But Hoke turned the tables in the second quarter behind its full-court press, which caused 10 Raider turnovers. The Bucks also used their free throw shooting to take a 36-35 lead into the halftime break. Hoke was a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line in the period.

“The first quarter we were taking the ball to the rack (basket), but in the second, we were shooting too many jumpers,” Pettigrew said. “On defense, we didn’t do a good job of helping out.”

Hoke extended the lead to 45-37 in the early moments of the third quarter, before Richmond responded with a 8-2 run to tie the game at 47. The Bucks scored the period’s final points and took a 49-47 advantage into the final eight minutes.

In the decisive fourth quarter, the Raiders forced four straight turnovers when the game was knotted at 58 and held the Bucks to a single point in the last two minutes of the game to put the game away.

Besides Freeman, Antonio McNeil was the only other Raider in double figures with 17 points .

The JV Raiders host Jack Britt on Jan. 23.

JV Lady Raiders keep rolling

The Richmond junior varsity women’s basketball team continued its winning ways after rolling past Hoke 59-35 Friday night and improve to a perfect 10-0 on the season.

The Lady Raiders used its full-court defense to create turnovers and turning them into easy points. Richmond raced out to an 18-9 first quarter lead over visitors.

“Like all season, we trigger our offense from our defense,” JV Raiders coach Nellie Harrington said. “Our press worked really well, especially in the first quarter.”

Harrington added Shaquitta Covington was able to push the ball up the court on the fastbreak. Covington scored 10 of her 19 points in the first quarter. Backcourt mate Rasheda McNeil matched Covington with 19 points.

Richmond increased the lead to 34-16 at halftime, and the advantage budged to 47-22 at the end of the third quarter.

The JV Lady Raiders will now face MSEC conference foes a second time beginning with Jack Britt on Jan. 23.

“Teams have gotten to see what can do, and we know it’s going to be a challenge to remain undefeated,” Harrington said. “We’re just going to take it one game at a time.”