ROCKINGHAM — Ahead of a must-win week to stay in the state playoffs hunt that included three Sandhills Athletic Conference games, Richmond Senior guard Keionna Love knew her team would need to lock in.
In Friday’s home matchup with league rival Scotland, the upperclassman had the same mindset to game-high 24 points to go with seven rebounds and three steals in a 68-35 win.
“My mentality coming into this game was…’Well, this is our court, why not just run them over?’” said Love after helping the Lady Raiders collect a fourth straight victory to end the season.
With Love leading the charge, three other teammates joined her in double figures.
Jayla McDougald continued her hot scoring streak, netting 14 points. Jakerra Covington added another double-double, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds. And Senior guard Bree Wall chipped in with 11 points
Richmond (16-8, 7-7 SAC) coach Teddy Moseley expressed his joy of watching the group finish off a perfect week, especially the scoring from defensive-minded Wall.
“That was big. It was Senior Night and it meant a lot to her,” Moseley said of Wall. “I’m so happy for (Wall), Keionna, Jasmine Ewing and Jardai Tillman…I’m super proud of our seniors.”
Scotland (6-16, 3-11 SAC) forward Asjah Swindell matched the 19 points she had in the last meeting to lead the Lady Scots. Kadence Sheppard added 11 points.
When Love knocked down a 3-pointer in the early going that made it 8-2, Sheppard capped a run by the visitors, scoring a layup, plus the foul to close the gap to 10-7 with four minutes left in the first period.
But Love immediately followed with another triple and the Lady Raiders held a 15-8 advantage at the end of the period. The high-scoring lefty put in 17 first-half points, including an open-floor layup that extended the lead to 31-15 wit just 31 seconds until halftime.
A McDougald 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Lady Raiders a 34-17 advantage heading into the break.
Love was just as effective in the final two periods to put the group’s rival away. In the opening stages of the third, she connected on a straight-away triple that widened the margin to 39-17. To open the fourth, she collected a steal then went coast-to-coast for a score to put the Lady Raiders ahead, 48-22.
A few moments later, Love assisted on a Wall layup that put them up 51-24 and all but sealed the season sweep.
“So now, it’s like, we got that drive,” Love said of the winning streak to close out the year. “If we can beat these teams…then we can beat, probably, anybody.”
Moseley had similar thoughts and admitted that he was frustrated at times this season because the group wasn’t playing to its potential. Now he feels they have a shot at proving that potential, starting with next week’s conference tournament.
“The coaches, we’ve seen it in them all year and now, it just clicked. We are a good team. We can play, said Moseley.
Richmond will enter Monday’s first round as the No. 5 seed and travel to fourth-seeded Pinecrest.
Scotland is the No. 7 seed and will travel to second-seeded Seventy-First.
