CHARLOTTE — The Richmond Senior girls basketball team’s season ended Tuesday night with a 63-33 loss to Ardrey Kell in the first round of the 4A NCHSAA State Playoffs.
Richmond kept it close throughout the first eight minutes, only trailing by two after the first quarter, but the game started to slip away in the second period. Ardrey Kell poured in a quarter-best 20 points and held a 31-21 lead at halftime.
After scoring 12 poins in the second quarter alone, the Lady Raiders were only able to score a total of 12 points in the second half. The Lady Knights, on the other hand, poured in 32 points in the final 16 minutes in order to advance to the next round — where they will play North Mecklenburg.
Kennedy Alexander had a team-high 12 points in the loss. Zariah Williams added eight, Veronica Griffin, Alexis Swiney and Zelda McLaughlin each had four and Layne Maultsby chipped in two points.
Richmond, which ends the season with an 11-12 overall record, saw a lot of improvement under second-year head coach Rosalind McDonald. The Lady Raiders reached the playoffs for the first time in three years, swept conference rival Scotland and enjoyed a four-game win streak last month.
Griffin, McLaughlin, Williams and Mya Holiday were the team’s four seniors. They played key roles for the Lady Raiders throughout their careers. Now, players like Swiney and Alexander are going to be called on to step up in the coming years.
“I think overall we would have wanted our record to be better and made it further in the playoffs, but we’re a young team,” McDonald said. “We have a few more years with this group of girls, so we’ve laid a foundation.”
Reach sports editor Leon Hargrove Jr. at 910-817-2673 and follow the sports section on Twitter @RCDailySports.