FAYETTEVILLE — After cradling a two-point lead over the Sandhills Athletic Conference’s second-best team at the end of one, Richmond Senior guard Jayla McDougald got hot.
The junior guard connected on a trio of 3-pointers, accounting for nine of her 18 points and propelling the Lady Raiders to a 60-41 road win on Tuesday.
“I was on fire and I had to keep it up because my team was expecting me to make them,” McDougald said after the game of the scoring streak.
“I knew we had to win to make the state playoffs, so I had to do what I had to do for my team.”
With the victory, Richmond (14-8, 5-7 SAC) keeps its hopes of receiving an at-large berth to the state playoffs alive, while getting its first win over Seventy-First since 2009.
Lady Raiders coach Teddy Moseley reminded the group of its subpar record against winning teams this season, something McDougald credits to the inspired effort to halt the Lady Falcons’ current six-game streak.
“I think it fired all of us up because we knew they were second in the conference, so we had to win and we had to make him (Moseley) proud,” she said.
McDougald knocked in an early triple that gave the Lady Raiders a 7-2 advantage just two minutes into the game.
In the second quarter, that saw the group outscore the Lady Falcons 21-12, McDougald appropriately sank another 3-pointer from the left wing in the closing seconds of the half to give the Lady Raiders a 33-22 lead.
“They answered the call tonight, man,” said Moseley of his group.
“[McDougald] got it going tonight and I’m so proud of [her]. I’ve been trying to get her confidence going all year and tonight…she was just in the zone. I could tell she was focused.”
Moseley also credited team defense for why the team took off in the second period. He added that capitalizing off turnovers was the biggest difference in the positive results.
Junior forward Jakerra Covington got in the passing lanes for a steal late in the second quarter, then flicked the ball forward to Asia Douglas for a layup that stretched the lead to 30-22 just before McDougald’s trey to close out the run.
The second half proved just as impressive for the visitors as they steadily poured on the points while holding the Lady Falcons in check.
“Normally we’ll start off strong in the first half and we’ll come out in the third and fourth quarter and let off a lot because we think we’re safe,” said McDougald.
“But tonight, we just kept going. We had to make sure to keep our attitudes in check and make sure everybody was still going as hard as they could.”
McDougald started the third period with a pair of free throws that extended the lead, 37-22. Then, backcourt mate Keionna Love took hold of the offense to help seal the victory.
Love finished with a game-high 25 points, 15 of which came in the second half. She knocked down two 3-pointers in the frame, the second of which came off a McDougald assist and resulted in the biggest lead of the contest, 47-25, with 1:46 left.
In the fourth, Love’s tough layup made it 56-36 with just over two minutes left. And McDougald capped the big win with a steal and layup to make it 58-39 with just 46 seconds remaining.
Up next, the Lady Raiders head to Lumberton on Wednesday for a rescheduled game from last week.
Seventy-First (16-6, 10-3 SAC) guard Nyelah Nick scored a team-high 13 points and A’more Kirkland ended with 11 points.
Jardai Tillman added seven points in the win.
Raiders withstand road test, down Falcons, 52-47
FAYETTEVILLE — Basketball is widely known as the game of runs and for the Richmond Senior boys nothing was more true in its road matchup with Seventy-First on Tuesday.
After the Falcons had the first run of the contest and held the Raiders scoreless through the opening three minutes, but it was the visitors’ third-quarter spurt that keyed a 52-47 victory.
Richmond guard Dylan Lewis netted a team-high 12 points, seven of which came in the third.
Lewis scored five straight points to open the frame and extended a one-point halftime lead to 23-17. His seven points were key in the Raiders’ 11-0 run that temporarily gave the group breathing room.
But that was to be short-lived as the Falcons immediately answered with seven straight points to close the gap, 29-24, with just under four minutes left in the period.
The Raiders closed the frame by outscoring the home team 10-5, and Kellan Hood’s 3-pointer just before the buzzer made it 39-29.
Seventy-First guard Alvin Freeman had a game-high 15 points including a pair of triples in the fourth quarter. His first 3-pointer capped a 10-3 run that cut the deficit to 42-39 with just over five minutes remaining.
But Richmond answered with eight straight points and P.J. McLaughlin’s full-court lob to Caleb Hood resulted in an easy layup to give them a 50-39 advantage with just over two minutes left.
Falcons guard Quiones Clayton ended with 13 points, none bigger than the triple that sealed the team’s last run of the evening, an 8-0 spree that cut the deficit to 50-47 with just six seconds left.
But Lewis came with the final blow, closing the contest with a pair of clutch free throws to quiet the senior night crowd.
The Raiders (16-6, 9-3 SAC) travel to Lumberton on Wednesday with a chance to temporarily claim sole possession of second place in the conference.
McLaughlin added 10 points, Jarvis Tillman chipped in with nine points and Nygie Stroman had seven points in the win.
