RED SPRINGS — Depth is growing for the Red Springs boys basketball team in the three weeks since its season started.
On Friday night at home, seven players scored and 12 players saw the court in the Red Devils’ 53-40 Three Rivers Conference win over East Columbus, their third victory in a row.
“They are getting a little more comfortable in what we are doing and everybody is contributing,” said Red Springs coach Glenn Patterson, whose team started 0-3 before the win streak.
“At the rate we play, we want people to come off the bench and give us some minutes. I think that’s the difference. In the Lumberton game, we were limited in rotation, and we are starting to utilize people on the bench now.”
After a slow start, where it didn’t score until the 2:25-mark in the first quarter, Red Springs (3-3, 3-1 TRC) used its depth in the second quarter to take the lead, and nurse it to 11 points at the half, 26-15.
In that second quarter, senior guard Keagan Brayboy scored 10 of his game-high 17 points, including six straight heading into the break.
As the game wore on, fatigue didn’t hit the Red Devils as their depth helped hold off advances from East Columbus (3-4, 1-3 TRC) in the second half.
In the third quarter, the Gators trimmed the lead to seven at one point before a Jaylon Woods triple with a little more than two minutes to go in the quarter put the lead out to 32-24. The same happened in the final quarter before Keyante Graham scored all of his four points in a short span to keep the advantage at double-digits.
“All those are reserves that come in and played a lot of minutes for us,” Patterson said. “As long as we can keep the bench giving us minutes, I think we will have opportunities to win some ballgames.”
Along with Brayboy’s scoring, the Red Devils’ recent run has been aided by the inside play of Shyheim Richardson. Against East Columbus, he had his third straight double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
“We had to bench Shyheim early, but Shyheim answered to the call,” Patterson said. “We sat him down because we felt he wasn’t giving us what he should, and since then he has been giving us numbers the last three ballgames.”
Jaylen Mack also added eight points for Red Springs in the win. East Columbus’ Donovan Worley and Alterek Simpson both had 10 points.
Bratcher lifts Red Springs girls
RED SPRINGS — After the team’s top scoring threat, Taylynn Atkinson, fouled out with a minute to go in Friday’s contest against East Columbus, the Red Springs girls basketball team needed a lift, and found it from senior Jalexis Bratcher.
Bratcher hit two mid-range jumpers inside the final minute of the contest to lift the Lady Red Devils, 32-31.
“I’m sure proud with how they hung tough, especially when you lose Taylynn. They didn’t hang their heads and laid down. They went out there and scrapped and played harder and managed to pull that game out,” Red Springs coach Robert Dove said. “I’m proud of Jalexis because she hit some really big shots and that helped us win that game. That was just a good effort the last minute and a half.”
Red Springs (2-4, 2-2 TRC) trailed East Columbus (1-6, 0-4 TRC) by as much as five points in the final period before closing the game on a 6-2 run. Atkinson sat for a majority of the fourth with foul trouble, but came off the bench with less than four minutes to go, and cut a 29-24 East Columbus lead to 31-28 with 1:58 left. A fifth foul was called on Atkinson with a minute to go, and that’s when Bratcher came in with a free-throw line jumper at the 30-second mark. Red Springs followed by forcing a turnover and Bratcher hit the game-winner from the left wing with 10 seconds to go.
Bratcher had a game-high 11 points, while Atkinson chipped in 10 points.
East Columbus’ La’Zaydia Flowers led her team with nine points.
Red Springs travels to South Robeson, while East Columbus hosts South Columbus on Monday.
