Raider men roll over Rams

February 1, 2011

Southeastern Conference


Monday night at Purnell Swett, Richmond Senior men’s basketball coach David Laton felt like his team played the Rams’ game.

It turned out all right in the end for the Raiders, who left Pembroke with a 38-37 Southeastern Conference win.

But when the two teams met again Tuesday night at Raider Gymnasium to wrap up the season series, Laton wanted his team to be the one setting the tempo.

It took the Raiders awhile. But they eventually applied their coach’s game plan, and the result was a 58-43 win over the Rams.

With the victory, Richmond improved to 14-5 on the 2010-11 season (4-3 SEC).

“That was more our kind of game,” Laton said. “Tonight, we had nearly as many points in the first half (33) as we had all night on Monday.”

The Raiders dug themselves an early 12-5 hole — but it was a short-lived one. Richmond scored five straight points on a drive to the basket by Will Freeman and a 3-pointer by Tyquan Breeden to cut the Purnell Swett advantage to just two at 12-10.

Swett edged back out to a five-point lead at 15-10, but the Raiders promptly ripped off a 7-2 run to tie the game at 17 with less than a minute to go in the first quarter.

Richmond trailed 20-19 at the first stop, but took its first lead of the contest on a Justin Glenn jumper in the opening minute of the second period.

The two teams traded the lead over several possessions before Richmond surged out to a 30-25 lead on a 6-0 run. The Rams hung tough, however, and Richmond led just 33-30 at intermission.

The Raiders expanded their advantage to eight at 44-36 by the third stop, and opened the final stanza with a 10-3 run to pull away from the Rams.

Trey Little led Richmond with 20 points. Glenn added 14 and Freeman chipped in with 11 to round out a troika of Raiders in double figures.

Richmond returns to action Friday night at home against Lumberton. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m.