Knights can't stay with Musketeers

The Evans High School boys basketball team knew the quality of its opponent Monday.

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With a 20-game region schedule, the 3-AAAA race is a long one. Along the way, there are tests like the one Evans faced last week.

Richmond Academy, considered the top team in the region, visited the Knights and came away with a 77-67 victory.

"Richmond's the big boys on the block," Evans guard Trevor Foreman said. "We just tried to take them on."

For a half, the Knights showed they could contend with the Musketeers, who returned the majority of their region championship squad from last season. Richmond Academy started the game on a 9-0 run, and never trailed. But Evans pulled even during the second quarter, and trailed by just a basket at the half.

"They kind of took it to us the first quarter," Foreman said. "Once we figured out we could play with them, that's when we started getting it together, getting loose balls and hustling."

The Musketeers flexed their muscle to start the second half, and made a run the Knights could not overcome. Richmond Academy's Desmond Lofland, who sat much of the second quarter with three fouls, scored 10 of his 18 points during the third quarter to help the Musketeers blow it open.

"Desmond played probably the best game I've seen him play," Musketeers coach Steve Nobles said. "And I've seen him play four years."

Nobles' team remained undefeated to start region play. Raston Brown led the Musketeers with 22 points.

Lofland said the Musketeers concentrated on a fast start, that they wanted to set the tone early on the road.

"We watched a clip of (University of) North Carolina the other day," Lofland said. "They got the ball down the floor and scored in three seconds. That's what we try to push to do. Set the tempo high."

Evans, which suffered its first region loss the game before at Josey, made several attempts to close the gap. The closest the Knights came the final quarter was nine points, after a Troy Griffith 3 pulled his team within 61-52.

The game's only tie came with 34 seconds left in the second quarter. Evans senior Tony Davis, who led all scorers with 25 points, scored three consecutive baskets to even the game at 32 with less than a minute before halftime. But the Musketeers scored again before the half and controlled the boards and created turnovers to run away during the third quarter.

"They got too many second shots the third quarter," Evans coach Kevin Kenny said. "We turned the ball over a couple times. Richmond turns those into points real quick."

Kenny returned only two players who received significant playing time a season ago. He said the senior-laden Musketeers made a comeback difficult for his young squad.

"They made their run, we couldn't weather it," Kenny said. "They took advantage of that, like a well-coached team does."