LAURINBURG — Richmond and Scotland’s men’s basketball teams played two closely contested games during the regular season, but the Scots made sure there wouldn’t be any late-game drama in the third matchup.

Scotland used its muscle in the paint and also solid perimeter shooting to lead virtually the entire game. The second-seeded Scots coasted past the third-seeded rival Raiders, 65-52 in the semifinal round of the Southeastern Conference tournament Wednesday night.

Scotland (14-10) advanced to play Pinecrest in the conference championship game on Friday.

The top-seeded Patriots defeated fifth-seeded Hoke, 65-53 in the other second- round game.

According to Raiders coach David Laton, Richmond (16-7) will play host to Durham Jordan at Raider Gymnasium in the first round of the 4AA state playoffs Monday night.

In the opening-round victory over Purnell Swett on Tuesday, the Raiders controlled the action on the boards, as Richmond outrebounded the Rams 41-17. But Scotland crashed the glass more consistently in the second-round contest. The Scots had more second-chance opportunities off offensive rebounds and finished with a 32-18 rebounding edge in the game.

“The thing that really hurt us was rebounding,” Laton said. “We really didn’t do a good job of boxing out like we did on Monday. Rebounding really allowed them to gain some extra possessions and they took advantage of those.”

Laton said Richmond also failed to match Scotland’s aggressiveness.

“We didn’t play as physical as we could have, and Scotland was the aggressor,” Laton said. “I thought that was something we did well Monday, but not in this game.”

Richmond’s only lead was at 6-4 on Anthony Keane’s 3-pointer with 5:20 left in the first quarter. Keane buried four treys in the game and was the only Raider to reach double figures with a team-high 12 points. Richmond’s top three leading scorers — Brian Love, Will Freeman and Tedarrius Wiley — combined for just 18 points.

“You’ve got to give Scotland credit for doing a good job defensively,” Laton said. “When your top three leading scorers are held in check, it’s usually going to be an off night offensively. Our offense was really stagnant, and we didn’t get into our fast break.”

With the score tied at six, Scotland went on a 7-0 run to take a 13-6 lead with less than three minutes left in the opening quarter on a jumper from Lamar McIntyer, who scored 11 points. The Scots led 18-12 at the end of the first stop.

Scotland continued to keep the pressure on in the second as Mo Covington, who scored a game-high 19 points, nailed a mid-range jumper to push the advantage to 28-18 with with 4:07 remaining in the quarter. Lamont Brown’s baseline layup with .30 seconds remaining allowed Scotland to take its biggest first half lead of 12 at 34-22 into halftime.

“They really did a good job of getting guard penetration, and when we stepped in, they kicked it out and made some perimeter shots,” Laton said.

On Monday, Richmond erased a 15-point second half deficit to come back and defeat Scotland 57-54 on Senior Night.

But the Scots weren’t about to allow lightning to strike twice in the same week.

Covington, who scored 11 of his 19 points after intermission, scored six of Scotland’s first eight points to help stretch it to a 42-28 advantage with less than four minutes left in the third. Scotland built the lead to 51-31 with 1:18 left in the quarter on an inside layup from Dominique Clark, who finished with 15 points. Brad McMillan’s coast-to-coast left-handed layup with two seconds remaining gave Scotland 55-37 lead going into the fourth.

McMillan’s was the Scots fourth player to reach double figures with 10 points.

“Mo (Covington), Dominique (Clark) and Brad (McMillan) are the guys we count on to lead us, and they all had strong games offensively,” Scots coach Mike Ritchie said.

In the final period, McMillian’s driving layup gave Scotland a 59-37 advantage, which was the biggest lead of the contest. Richmond used a 10-0 run capped by Trey Little’s steal and fastbreak bucket to cut it to 59-47 with 3:27 remaining. But the Raiders got no closer the rest of the way.

Laton said Richmond will now prepare for the state tournament.

“I told the guys we had a good week, and I thought we played hard in this game,” Laton said.

“I was told that this will be the first in a long time that we will have a sectional state playoff game at home, which should be exciting. We’re going to do some scouting and get ready for Monday.”

Contact sports reporter Corey Davis at 997-3111, ext. 44, or via email at cdavis@yourdailyjournal.com.