SAVANNAH

GIRLS

Sometimes teams have a game which is unexplainable.

Richmond Hill girls’ basketball coach Sarah Jones is hoping that’s the case with her team after it found itself on the short end of a 30-point blowout last Saturday afternoon at Woodville-Tompkins.

The Lady Wildcats (8-3), coming off a 30-19 win at Liberty County Friday night, were no match for a Wolverines (7-5) team that started out hot and never cooled off in coasting to a 57-27 win. It was Woodville’s fourth straight victory.

Richmond Hill was playing without senior center Zoraya Thornton who Coach Sarah Jones said was out of town but it’s doubtful if her presence would have made much difference. The 6-0 Thornton is the team’s leading rebounder and a presence inside defensively.

The Wildcats had beaten Woodville 45-35 earlier in the season but they seemingly sleep walked through the early afternoon (3 p.m.) start.

“We struggled offensively,” Jones said. “Our effort was good, but the shots would not fall.”

“Against Liberty County we executed really well and got some good shots. We’ll bounce back.”

Richmond Hill play St. Vincent’s Academy at home on Monday and will then be idle until Dec. 28 when it plays at Hilton Head High School.

Woodville, a team that likes to play an up-tempo game, forced the Wildcats into playing at its pace as it jumped out to a 16-6 first quarter lead and never looked back.

The Wildcats rely on a solid defense and an offense geared to getting good shots which enables them to control the pace of the game. Richmond Hill entered the game averaging 38.9 points per game while allowing only 28.9.

Woodville had 33 points at the half which enabled it to hold a 19-point lead against a smaller Wildcats team that struggled to get off good shots against the pressing Wolverines who dominated the board.

It was 46-20 after three quarters and the Wolverines, led by 6-foot-2 center Brianna Pelote’s 20 points, closed it out on an 11-7 run in the fourth.

Brionna Sutton had seven points to lead the Wildcats who got five each from Kayden Lawrence and MaKiyah Matthews. Jessica Meyer added four points while Ke’yanna Gupton and Jada Brown each scored three.

At Liberty County the pace was more to Richmond Hill’s liking as it got seven points each from Thornton, Matthews, Sutton and Brown with Lawrence adding two. The Wildcats had also beaten the Panthers by 11 points, 41-30, earlier in the season.

BOYS

In a turn of events no one saw coming Woodville-Tompkins exploded in the third quarter to hand Richmond Hill a 70-39 spanking last Saturday afternoon at the Woodville gym.

The Wildcats (4-7) trailed the Wolverines 29-28 following a Brayden Baker basket seconds into the second half only to see Woodville go on a 16-0 run to turn the game into what became a rout.

Woodville (6-5) led 29-26 at the half as Richmond Hill, thanks to Baker’s 14 points, was looking to post its second win of the season over the Wolverines, having prevailed 76-69 earlier.

“We had a few good looks early in the third that we didn’t take advantage of,” Coach Bill Henderson said. “We missed a few shots in the paint and then let them get out in transition for some easy scores.”

This marks Richmond Hill’s worst start to a season since Henderson’s second year as head coach in 2013. That team started 2-9 before finishing 9-20 while still managing to advance to the state playoffs.

This Wildcats were coming off an encouraging 62-57 loss at Liberty County—they lost to the Panthers by 18 points earlier—and in their prior game had beaten Glynn Academy, 53-43, which offered a glimmer of encouragement for a young team short on experience.

So going into the game at Woodville there was no reason to not think it was going to be a tight, competitive game.

And for 17 minutes it was. Then everything went awry.

After Baker’s basket on the first possession of the second half Richmond Hill did not score until sophomore Skyler Riley made one of two free throws with 2:36 on the clock.

By that time the Wolverines held a 45-29 lead and were playing with a full head of steam that saw them seemingly turn every Richmond Hill missed shot and turnover into an easy basket at the other end.

After Riley’s score Woodville closed the quarter on a 13-3 run which meant it had outscored Richmond Hill 27-6 in the third quarter.

Henderson acknowledged the game was all but over as he pulled his starters, playing his reserves in the fourth quarter.

“They went on the run and got us down double digits and then we got away from what we were having some success with in the first half,” Henderson said. “Execution on the offensive end wasn’t great then defensively we gave up too many easy baskets off transition and easy drives.

“We’ve got to keep working on the defensive end and rebounding has to improve before we head into the stretch of region play after the new year.”

Baker scored 16 points, 14 coming in the first half.  Baker got off only two more shots in the quarter, missing both.

Henderson felt the Wildcats had a good shot at getting the win at Liberty County but could not convert on the offensive end of the floor down the stretch.

“We played fairly well,” Henderson said. “We had some issues on the defensive end and they made us pay. Little things like communication and not being in position to stop dribble penetration and they took advantage of it.

“We still had an opportunity to win, but unfortunately missed a few good shots.”