The Richmond junior varsity women’s basketball team continued to dominate its competition Tuesday.

Behind Deshantia Bell’s game-high 23 points, the J.V. Lady Raiders improved their record to 14-0 on the season with a 60-16 rout over Purnell Swett at Raider Gym.

Last week was an emotional time for the entire Richmond Senior High family as the J.V. Lady Raiders felt the pain of the passing of J.V. Raider player Jammal Kegler.

“This is a very hard time for everybody,” J.V. Lady Raiders coach Lisa Bigby said. “I thought our girls came out and showed good team spirit, and we were able to come away with another win.”

Bell set the tone by scoring eight of Richmond’s first 13 points, helping the J.V. Raiders take a 19-6 advantage into the second quarter. Bell finished with 12 of her game-high 23 points in the first half. Bigby admitted that Bell has been on a scoring tear lately.

“Deshanita has scored 20 or more points in our past few games,” Bigby said. “She’s a very good shooter and she really stepped up her play in this game.”

The J.V. Raiders used a 9-1 run to start the second capped by Tiara Ellerbe’s layup to increase the advantage to 28-7 with less than four minutes remaining in the quarter. Ellerbe finished with 13 points in the contest.

Richmond went on to outscore Swett 15-3 in the quarter to take a 34-9 lead into halftime. The J.V. Lady Raiders’ hounding and smothering defense forced the J.V. Lady Raiders into committing 27 turnovers, 16 coming in the first half.

Richmond also limited Swett to single digits in all four quarters of action.

“I thought we did a good job of creating turnovers and turning them into points,” Bigby said.

“Defense is the key to us winning and as long as we continue to play good defense, we should continue to come out on top.”

The J.V. Lady Raiders pushed their lead to 48-14 after three quarters of play. In the win, Brittany Covington scored six points, Shaquitta Brewington, Wendy Farrell, Jackie Brown and Keyana Harris all had four points apiece. Lauren Knotts chipped in with two points.

“I like that our secondary players that don’t normally score were involved in the offense,” Bigby said. “Hopefully, we with continue to get a team effort in the rest of our remaining games.”

The J.V. Lady Raiders will attempt to continue to stay unbeaten when they travel to Hoke Thursday.

The tipoff of the game is slated for 5 p.m.

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