LAURINBURG — Scotland’s Artemis Robinson hung his head after missing a 3-point field goal and watching his team turn the ball over moments earlier.
As he stood waiting for Richmond Senior’s Josh Calhoun to shoot the front end of a 1-and-1 with 14.7 seconds remaining in the game, Robinson hoped to get one more chance.
He got it.
Calhoun misfired on the free throw and Robinson pulled down the rebound. As he brought the ball up the court, Robinson called for his teammates to clear the left side of the court. With time running down, Robinson drilled the game-tying 3-point field goal with 4.7 seconds left in the contest.
“It’s something we do everyday in practice,” Robinson said. “I stepped back and pump-faked my man. I just arced the ball and followed through. I knew I had it.”
Robinson wasn’t quite done.
On the inbounds play, the Raiders attempted to look for a long pass to try for the game-winning shot, but were forced to take a timeout. After the timeout, Richmond’s Xavier Davis sailed the inbounds pass out of bounds, giving Scotland a final chance to pull off the upset.
The Fighting Scots tried to find Aly Kaba inside the lane, but the Raiders knocked the ball back out of bounds. On the ensuing play, Scotland passed the ball to Kaba, who gave it to Robinson. The senior launched a jumper has time expired which fell short. However, Richmond’s Trey Pettigrew was whistled for a foul, giving Robinson two chances to win the game.
He only needed one.
Robinson drained the first free throw to give the Fighting Scots a 48-47 win over their rivals.
“I told the officials after I missed that earlier 3 that they were tugging on my shorts,” Robinson said. “When I got the ball back and I made sure I followed through to get the foul. I may have acted a little bit there to get the call.”
After the game, Richmond coach David Laton accepted the responsibility for the loss.
“This was the worst coaching job in preparing a team and coaching a team in a game I have ever done,” Laton said. “I made a couple of horrific decisions during the game that cost us. I accept full responsibility.”
Scotland improves to 3-18 on the season and 3-7 in the Southeastern Conference, while Richmond falls to 17-7 and 7-3. The Fighting Scots will open the conference tournament at Lumberton Monday, while the Raiders will play host to the winner of Purnell Swett-Pinecrest contest Wednesday night.
— Sports editor Shawn Stinson can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 14, or by email at sstinson@civitasmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @scgolfer.
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