One of the keys to the Richmond Senior men’s basketball team’s success this season has been its strong second half in games.

The Raiders continued their winning ways Monday night, improving their record to a perfect 5-0 with a 60-51 win over Anson at Raider Gymnasium.

Richmond outscored Anson 34-24 in the final two quarters to erase a one-point halftime deficit.

Anson led 27-26 at halftime, but Richmond outscored the Bearcats 19-12 in the third quarter to take a 45-39 advantage in the fourth.

Richmond never relinquished the lead in the last stanza as the Raiders forced Anson to commit eight of its 28 turnovers in the final quarter.

“I thought our defense picked up in the second half,” Raiders coach David Laton said. “In that big third quarter, we created a lot of steals and continued to put pressure on the ball in the fourth. I thought our defense won the game for us.”

Offensively, Richmond received a strong performance inside from forward Will Freeman, who scored a game-high 24 points. Point guard Brian Love added 19 points, including 12 in the second half. Quinton Quick chipped in nine points, including seven in the fourth.

“I thought we ran our fast break better in the second half, and we got the ball inside to Will,” Laton said.

“A lot of his baskets were off our break when he posted up, and he did an excellent job of finishing around the rim. Brian came up big in the second half, picking up his scoring and Quinton played a heck of a fourth quarter.”

Richmond came out strong in the first, jumping out to a 8-0 lead and taking a 13-3 lead on Ouick’s transition layup with a little more than three minutes remaining. Freeman scored nine points in the first and 13 of his 24 points in the first half.

But Bearcats crawled back into the game as Anson scored the next 10 points to tie the contest at 13-all, heading into the second.

“Anson went to that full-court press, which we were expecting, but we made careless and bad decisions with the ball and that allowed them to get back into the game,” Laton said.

The contest stayed close in the second as Gary McKnight swished a long jumper in the corner before the buzzer, giving Anson a 27-26 halftime lead. The Bearcats were out-rebounded 15-5 and committed 15 turnovers in the first half, but went 12-for-16 at the free-throw line to go into the locker room with the slight advantage. Anson went 24-for-32 at the line for the game.

In the third, Anson’s Jamar Marshall sank the Bearcats’ fourth 3-pointer to cut Richmond’s lead to 35-33 with 3:09 remaining in the quarter.

But the Raiders answered back with a Freeman three-point play, followed up by a Kasheem Reid layup. Love’s two foul shots capped a 7-0 run to extend the advantage to 42-33 with a little more than three minutes remaining.

After Reid was hit with a technical foul, Anson reeled off six straight points, cutting the deficit to 42-39. But Love’s triple gave Richmond a 45-39 advantage into the fourth. The closest Anson came in the final period was 47-43 with 6:59 left to play on Chris Christian’s 3-pointer, who had a team-high 12 points, as the Raiders’ 6-0 burst pushed the lead to 53-43 with 3:54 left on Quick’s two shots at the charity stripe.

Richmond went 7-for-9 at the line in the fourth, and 16-for-21 at the free-throw line in the game.

“I was especially pleased with the free-throw shooting down the stretch,” Laton said.

“To be a good team, you’ve got to close out games by making your foul shots and we did that.”

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