Brian Love and his Richmond Senior men’s basketball teammates will open SEC Tournament play Tuesday night at home.
Richmond (14-6, 5-4 SEC) will be the No. 3 seed in the league tourney and host sixth-seed Purnell Swett (2-17, 0-9 SEC) at Raider Gymnasium. The tipoff for the contest is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
The Raiders won both meetings over the Rams during the season by more than double digits — 69-32 on Jan. 12 and 47-33 on Feb. 2. If Richmond do make a long run in the conference tourney, the Raiders could possibly play four games in five days next week.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem,” Raiders coach David Laton said. “I’d rather play than practice. At this point of the season, you’re not adding anything, but trying to get better at what, you’re doing. As a team, we look forward to next week.”
Lumberton and Hoke will play in the other first round matchup. Monday’s games will determine, which team will be the No. 4 and No. 5 seed in the tourney. The higher seed will have the home site. Right now, both teams are tied in the conference for fourth with 3-6 records. Lumberton holds the tiebreaker over Hoke by sweeping the season-series if both teams remained tied for the No. 4 seed.
The Pirates will host the last place Rams on Monday, while the Bucks will attempt to go on the road and knock off first place Pinecrest. Hoke would need to defeat sixth- ranked Pinecrest and have Lumberton lose to Swett to be the fourth seed.
The Patriots (21-2, 9-0 SEC) won the regular season conference championship last Monday over Scotland (13-9, 7-2 SEC) and will go into the SEC tourney as the No. 1 seed. Scotland no matters what happens in the game against Richmond has drawn the two seed.
Both the Pats and Scots have first round byes. The winner of the Richmond-Swett game will go to Scotland on Wednesday, while the victor of the Bucks-Pirates’ contest will travel to Pinecrest.
The winners from Wednesday’s games will play for the conference tourney title on Friday at the site of the higher seed.
On the women’s side of the SEC, the conference tourney also starts on Tuesday with second round action on Thursday and the championship game on Friday.
Richmond (18-3, 8-1 SEC) and Lumberton (17-2, 8-1 SEC) are both tied for first place in the conference. Each team won on the other’s home court during the season.
A Richmond win over Scotland coupled with a Lady Pirate loss to Swett would make the Lady Raiders the No. l seed.
But Lumberton would be the regular season conference champs and the top seed with a victory over the Lady Rams and a Lady Raiders’ defeat to Scotland.
Either way, Richmond and Lumberton have both drawn first round byes.
Scotland has clinched the third spot, but the fourth, fifth and sixth seed will be determined Monday. If Pinecrest defeats Hoke, then the Lady Pats are the No. 4 seed, Hoke will be No. 5 and Swett will be No. 6.
The winner of the No. 6 and No. 3 seed game will play at the No. 2 seed on Thursday, while the winner of the No. 5 and No. 4 matchup will hook up with the No. 1 seed.
The victors of the second round games will meet up for the tournament title.
Contact sports reporter Corey Davis at 997-3111, ext. 44; e-mail cdavis@yourdailyjournal.com
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