The Richmond Green freshman boys basketball team had seen favorable results in its past three games.

But the Green team’s quest to win its fourth straight contest fell short as Hoke held off a late Richmond rally to escape with a 41-39 victory Thursday afternoon at the Ninth Grade Academy Gymnasium.

The loss snapped the Green team’s three-game winning steak and dropped Richmond’s record to 6-6 on the season. Richmond trailed 31-27 going into the fourth quarter. BJ Cooke, who tied Josh Calhoun with a team-high nine points, swished two free-throws to narrow the Bucks’ lead to 31-30 with 5:52 left in the game.

But Hoke quickly went on a 6-1 run as Dakwan Wade, who scored all of his game-high 12 points from beyond the arc, buried three straight 3-pointers, pushing Hoke’s advantage to 40-32 with 1:34 left to play. The Bucks drained seven triples overall in the game.

“When we starting to come back, they made some 3-pointers that were some daggers,” Green team boys coach Jay Jones said.

The Green team didn’t go down easily as back-to-back layups from Cooke and Devontae Watkins cut Hoke’s lead to 40-36 with 30 seconds left. After Hoke made one of two foul shots to lead 41-36, Calhoun swished a 3-pointer to trim the Bucks’ lead to 41-39 with 2.8 seconds left to play.

After a time out, Hoke tried for a long inbound pass, but the ball went out of bounds with 0.7 seconds remaining, giving Richmond one last chance to tie or win the game. But the Green team failed to get off a shot, allowing Hoke to prevail with a two-point win.

“This game kind of reminded me of that close loss we had against Scotland,” Jones said. “Hoke has a lot of talent and their only two losses have come against an undefeated Scotland team. We missed some point-blank shots and also had some unforced turnovers that hurt us in the fourth. But we played hard on defense and I was proud of our effort.”

Calhoun’s long 3-pointer before the buzzer cut Hoke’s lead to 7-5 in a low-scoring first quarter. Richmond slowed down the pace of the game in the opening period. Jones said the reason for the strategy was for his team to stay in striking distance and try to pull out the game late.

“We wanted to slow it down and not to get into an up-tempo game with them. We executed it well and took care of the ball. It almost worked out for us. But hopefully, we can come back in our next game and get back on the winning track.”

The Green boys team returns to action against Purnell Swett Monday at the Ninth Grade Gym with tipoff slated for 6 p.m.

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