Richmond Senior guard Tedarrius Wiley eyes the basket as he drives for a bucket Tuesday night at home against Pinecrest. Wiley was fouled on the play.
The Raiders trailed 68-67 with less than three minutes remaining, but sixth ranked Pinecrest outscored Richmond 13-5 down the stretch to prevail 81-72 in a high- scoring Southeastern Conference contest at Raider Gymnasium.
The loss snapped Richmond’s mini-two game winning steak and dropped the third-place Raiders to 14-6 overall, 5-4 in the SEC. The victory was Pinecrest’s 11 straight win as the Patriots, which won the regular season conference title with 56-44 victory over Scotland on Monday, improved their mark to 21-2, 9-0 in league play.
Patriots coach Mike Apple credited the victory to late-game perimeter shooting and good foul shooting in the fourth. The Pats finished 13-for-19 at the free-throw line, but made 8-of-10 at the charity stripe in the final quarter.
Julian Brewer scored 15 of his game-high 24 points in the second half to lead three Pats in double figures. Daquan Towns netted 20 points, while Phillip Wallace added 14.
Despite the tough defeat, Raiders coach David Laton was pleased with the way the team played against the best squad in the conference. Leading scorer Brian Love paced Richmond with 18 points, including connecting on five of the Raiders’ eight 3-pointers. Tedarrius Wiley scored 17 points, while Will Freeman was the third Richmond player to reach double figures with 12 points.
But Laton added what hurt Richmond late in the fourth was that Pinecrest executed well on offense and Richmond made too many mistakes with the ball in crucial situations.
Laton also said Richmond gave up too many second- chance points as the Pats outscored Richmond 30-21 in the final period.
“I thought we played really hard, and we played well in spots,” Laton said. “About the last four minutes, it seemed as if Pinecrest didn’t miss and they also made some tough shots. We gave up too many offensive rebounds, made some costly turnovers and took a couple ill-advised shots.”
The game was tied 53-all heading into the fourth. In the back-and-forth quarter, Richmond took its last lead on Wiley’s floater with 3:51 remaining that gave the Raiders a 64-63 advantage. Pinecrest used a quick 5-0 spurt to take a 68-64 lead on Daquan Towns’ three-point play.
“Daquan did a great job in the fourth of taking the ball to the rim with authority, and hitting his foul shots,” Apple said.
Love’s fifth and final 3-pointer cut the Pats’ lead to 68-67 with 2:58 remaining. But that was as close as Richmond would get as Pinecrest used an 8-0 run capped by Cedrick Threadgill’s steal and transition dunk, extending the Pats’ advantage to 75-68 with .40 seconds remaining.
“Pinecrest is a very athletic team and they made the key plays in the game,” Laton said. “But I told the team that we got third place in the conference sold up for the conference and state tournament. We know what areas we need to get better at and we’ve just got to get ready for Scotland.”
In an up-tempo first quarter, Love’s triple before the buzzer gave Richmond a 24-21 lead going into the second. Freeman’s open court two-handed jam put the Raiders ahead 29-23 with 4:58 left in the quarter.
But the Pats used a 10-0 run climaxed by Brewer’s layup off a steal to take a 33-29 lead with 1:52 left before halftime. Pinecrest closed out the half with a 16-4 run to take a 39-33 lead into the locker room.
Richmond hosts Scotland Friday night in the 2009-10 regular-season finale.
It will be Senior Night. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
Contact sports reporter Corey Davis at 997-3111, ext. 44; e-mail cdavis@yourdailyjournal.com
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