The Richmond Hill boys’ basketball team had its season ended Wednesday with a 58-56 loss to Ware County in the Region 3-AAAAA quarterfinals in Kingsland.
Wildcats head coach Bill Henderson said Ware County made big shots down the stretch that made the difference.
“I'm proud of the effort the guys gave not only tonight, but throughout the entire season,” Henderson said. “We have a great group of young men that have been an absolute pleasure to coach this year, and I am very proud of what they have accomplished.”
Isaiah Hill had 21 points for Richmond Hill. Andre Walker had 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Trey DeLoach had 12 points.
The Wildcats end the season with a 17-10 record. Eight of their losses were by six or fewer points.
Leading up to the quarterfinals Wildcats topped Bradwell Institute 67-50 on Tuesday and the Lady Wildcats fell 68-64 to Effingham County on Monday, with all games taking place at Camden County High School in Kingsland.
The Lady Wildcats’ season ended with a 5-20 record. The Wildcats were scheduled to play Ware County on Wednesday night; results were unavailable at press time.
On Tuesday, Richmond Hill trailed Bradwell 14-13 at the end of the first quarter, but came back to outscore the Tigers 25-13 in the second quarter and 17-13 in the third.
“We came out fairly sloppy last night, mainly on the defensive end, and that put us behind early,” RHHS head coach Bill Henderson. “We were slow on our rotations, and that led to some easy baskets for Bradwell. We were able to pick up the defensive intensity and clean up some of our mistakes in the second and third quarters, which helped us gain a double-digit lead.”
Isaiah Hill had 14 points to lead the Wildcats. Trey DeLoach had 10 points, nine rebounds and four steals. Leviticus Brown had 10 points and seven rebounds. Andre Walker had nine points and five assists, and Montest Bumpers had eight points.
The girls’ game on Monday saw wild momentum swings in the second half. Effingham County, which led 27-25 at halftime, outscored RHHS 25-10 in the third quarter and led by 20 points at one point in the fourth quarter, Lady Wildcats head coach Sarah Brown said.
However, Richmond Hill roared back with deep-range shooting, hitting six 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
Tiara Gandy hit a big trey to cut the deficit to one point, 65-64, with less than 35 seconds left. Effingham County hit a free throw to push the lead to two points. Richmond Hill had its chance at two free throws in the final seconds, but missed both. Effingham County then added two free throws for the winning margin.
“It is definitely a tough way to go out of the region tournament, but I could not be more proud of the way these girls fought, and down 20 points in the fourth quarter, we just ran out of time,” Brown said.
Gandy had 22 points. Jamie Bunting had 17 and Kia Davis had 11 points. Caitlin Elkins had five rebounds and four blocks.
Last Friday at RHHS, the Wildcats topped Statesboro 49-42 in their regular-season finale. Richmond Hill trailed 13-10 at the end of the first quarter, but then outscored the visitors 12-7 in the second and 14-9 in the third.
Hill led RHHS with 11 points, six of which came in the fourth quarter. Hill also had five steals. Walker and DeLoach each had seven points. Brown had seven rebounds.
The Wildcats were 6 of 8 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
Also Friday, the Lady Wildcats lost 44-29 to Statesboro. The Lady Wildcats trailed 25-15 at halftime to Statesboro. Richmond Hill held the Lady
Blue Devils to two points in the third quarter to get the deficit down to five points, but were outscored 17-7 in the final frame.
Bunting led RHHS with 10 points. Aubri Reed had eight points.