COURTLAND
The Southampton Academy Raiders had their hands tied in the first quarter of play as they faced the Warriors of Richmond Christian at home on Friday. After being behind 11-0 in the opening minutes of play, the Raiders’ Caleb Kidd got the home team on the scoreboard with a free throw. The Raiders ended the first quarter with only adding one more point and were trailing the Warriors 11-2.

Entering the second quarter, the Raiders picked their game up a little. The Raiders’ center, Lucas Vinson, stepped up for the home team with some hard-fought eight points to allow the Raiders to close the half being down 16-25.

Coming back after halftime the Raiders looked like a different team. Raider head coach, Chris Pope stated after the game that during his half time talk, “I told them that a couple of kids were not moving on offense and they needed to pick their game up a little bit.”

And that they did, as in the opening minutes they closed the score to 25-24 at the 4:34 mark in the third quarter. At 3:55, Raider Wyatt Jernigan connected on a 3-point basket to tie the score a 27 all. The third quarter ended with the Raiders behind 33-34.

Going into the final quarter of play, Montae Barrett scored two points to put the home team ahead for the first time with the score, 35-34 early in the quarter. The Warriors were able to hold the lead, and at the 1:58 mark were ahead 43-37 and began to slowing the ball down to eat time off of the clock. With 13.8 remaining in the game, Kidd hit one of two free throws to tie the score at 46 all. The Raiders having the ball with only a few seconds on the clock could not score and the game entered a four-minute overtime period.

In overtime, the two teams continued to battle neck-and-neck, but not able to score. At the 1:01 mark, Lucas Vinson dropped in a shot that put the Raiders ahead 48-47. Going under one minute remaining in the game, Kidd dropped in one of two free throws to push the Raiders’ leading score to 49-47. The Warriors’ Jason Dawson with the ball was fouled on a shot with 14.7 remaining to play. At the foul line, Dawson missed both shots and the Raiders got the crucial rebound. The Warriors immediately fouled Raider Will Belmonte. Belmonte missed on both free throw attempts, and the Warriors got the ball with .3 left on the clock. After a Warrior timeout, their inbound pass failed and the home team took a big 49-47 win.

Pope also said after the game, “I thought our kids played well after the first quarter. You know, the first quarter you score two or three points and get yourself behind the eight ball, but we fought back and finally made a few shots. At halftime I told them to not turn the ball over for one, I think we had seven turnovers in the first four minutes of play so I told them to stop turning it over and we were a little bit better.”

This week, the Raiders are scheduled to play at Amelia Academy at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, then 6 p.m. on Friday at Suffolk Christian.