It was a perfect trap game but Richmond Hill’s boys refused to take the bait as they came out and took charge from the outset to post a dominating 61-42 non-region win over Southeast Bulloch Tuesday night at Wildcat Arena.

Drew Nudo and Alonzo Miller scored 13 points each and Marki Boone added 12, all coming in the first three quarters as Coach Bill Henderson pulled his starters late in the third quarter while holding a 53-23 lead.

Nudo also had a dominating game on the boards as the versatile 6-foot-3 senior had 17 rebounds and teamed with Miller and Boone to help the Wildcats dominate defensively in the paint.

“He’s a very versatile player because he’s skilled,” Henderson said of Nudo. “He passes well, he can handle the ball, but he’s also able to rebound and defend in the post. That has helped his rebounding.

“Between him rebounding and Marki and Alonzo rebounding, and if we can get our guards rebounding, then as long as we’re executing on the offensive end it gives us a chance to be really successful.”

The Wildcats were coming off a much-needed Region 1-6A win at Colquitt County where they won, 49-38, and will play their final home game of the season Friday night against Tift County so they were prime for a letdown.

It never came as unlike their first meeting with Southeast Bulloch, a 68-46 win where they led 27-25 at the half, this game was decided early.

Four minutes into the game it was knotted at 10-10 but Josh Mock, who leads the Wildcats in scoring at 14 points per game, took a nice pass from backcourt mate Sebastian Dorelien and drained a jumper to put Richmond Hill in front for good.

When Mock scored that jump started a 9-0 run that saw the Wildcats up 23-14 at the end of the first quarter which was highlighted by an outstanding performance at the foul line. Richmond Hill made its first 11 free throws before Boone missed a pair with 25 seconds left in the quarter.

After making 11 of 13 from the charity stripe in the first quarter Richmond Hill shot only five more the rest of the game, two in the second half, and finished 14 of 18.

Richmond Hill continued its offensive outburst in the second quarter as it again scored 23 points with the defense kicking in and limiting the Yellowjackets to four points for an insurmountable 46-18 halftime lead.

“The message we had to the guys at practice on Monday was that we had this great region win on Friday night and now let’s build off that,” Henderson said. “We told them all the things we did on Friday at Colquitt to be successful. Let's get a little bit better at it.

“They came out focused and took care of their business and executed,” Henderson said. “I thought the ball movement was great, I thought we made the extra pass and settled for better shots which earlier in the year was something that plagued us a little bit.

“I’m proud of them for coming out and doing what needed to be done.”

After Tift the Wildcats will close out regular season play at Lowndes County next Tuesday. If they can win out and a few other dominoes fall in place they have an outside chance of finishing as high as fourth-place.

If that happens Richmond Hill would host a first-round region tournament game on Feb. 16. Lowndes will host the final four teams as the Vikings clinched the regular season race by winning at Camden County, 63-60, on Tuesday night.

Going into the final week of the regular season Lowndes (17-6, 7-1) is in first-place followed by Camden County (16-7, 4-4), Valdosta (10-13, 4-4), Colquitt (9-12, 4-4), Tift (8-10, 3-6) and Richmond Hill (12-11, 2-6).

The win at Colquitt was a major confidence boost for the Wildcats as it was only their fourth region road win since joining Region 1 in the 2023 season.

A win against Tift on Friday night would give them momentum going into Tuesday night’s game at Lowndes. They lost to the Vikings, 63-60 in overtime, earlier but the Wildcats have shown they are more than capable of playing with the region’s best teams.