CANTON—Richmond Heights jumped out to an early lead and never relented in defeating Castalia Margaretta in a Division IV regional semifinal at Canton Memorial Fieldhouse on Tuesday, 60-40.
With the win, the Spartans will play in the regional championship game for a fourth straight season.
“We just had to trust the pressure. We wanted to make them play faster than they wanted to, and make them as uncomfortable as possible,” said Richmond Heights coach Quentin Rogers. “It’s the tournament where everyone plays hard and nobody backs down. We literally have to go at teams and try and break them.”
Josiah Harris scored nine first-quarter points for the Spartans and his teammates fed off that energy throughout the game.
Richmond Heights, who improved to 22-4 overall, took an 11-8 lead after the first eight minutes and used a three-point play from Detric Hearst, Jr. to push the lead to 28-15 at halftime.
“We just try and play off of each other and it showed today,” Harris said.
A 7-0 run in the third quarter helped Richmond Heights push its lead to 45-24 heading into the final eight minutes of play.
Harris finished with a game-high 19 points while Jaiden Cox-Holloway added 12. Dorian Jones and Londo Maiden also finished in double figures with 11 points and De’Erick Barber scored four. Hearst finished with three points.
“It just goes back to the discipline,” Rogers said of the offensive scoring. “Today, it was spread out and that’s what we prefer to be, spread out. We don’t want to put everything on one person.”
Richmond Heights will be back in Canton on Friday to play Louisville St. Thomas Aquinas in the regional championship game.
