The first five seconds of Tuesday’s basketball game between the Pinecrest and Richmond Senior girls displayed a quality of execution a college head coach could appreciate.

Former Pinecrest star and current Winston-Salem State head men’s basketball coach Bobby Collins looked on as the Patriots’ Janea Williams directed the opening tip-off to a breaking Jennie Joy, who caught and passed the ball in one motion to Shaniqua Collins for a bang-bang layup.

Coach Collins, and his sister Maggie Collins, accompanied their niece, Shaniqua, during the Senior Night ceremony held between the girls’ and boys’ games. Shaniqua scored a career high 16 points, but after jumping out to an early 10-3 lead, the Patriots wobbled and were defeated 50-40 by the Southeastern conference champion Raiders.

“What was amazing was when they tipped the ball off and Shaniqua got that first layup. It reminded me of when I used to get that first layup,” Bobby Collins said. “I was extremely proud of Shaniqua, of her intensity and her passion.”

Collins was the beneficiary of three assists from Joy as she added a pair of threes to the layup in a first quarter that ended with the Patriots trailing 16-15. An epidemic of passes with not enough zip contributed to 27 Patriot turnovers in the game as the Raiders expanded their lead to 39-32 at the end of three quarters.

Joy, who had eight points and six assists, fouled out shortly after feeding Collins for a three-point play in transition that got the Patriots as close as they would get at 41-36 with just over three minutes remaining in the game.

The Patriots take an overall record of 15-6, and a conference mark of 5-4, into tonight’s 6 p.m. regular season finale at Hoke County. Three of their losses have been to the Raiders, now 18-2 and 9-0. The Pats are in contention with Scotland County for third place.

In addition to Joy and Collins, the seniors honored were Ashleigh McKenzie, Lizzie Smith, Alexis Payton and statistician Corienne Whitfield.

Bobby Collins’ Winston-Salem State team improved to 16-4 on Monday with a 61-54 win over a St. Augustine squad coached by his former Pinecrest teammate Ken Spencer. The Rams lead the Southern Division of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Contact Charlie Bergmann at cbergmann@nc.rr.com

Richmond 50, Pinecrest 40

Richmond 16 7 16 11 50

Pinecrest 15 7 7 11 40

Richmond – McLaughlin 3 5-8 11, Bloomfield 6 2-8 14, Watkins 4 1-4 10, Ellerbe 3 4-9 12, B. Covington 0 1-2 1, Brewington 1 0-0 2. Totals 17 13-31 50. Pinecrest – Joy 3 1-1 8, Collins 5 3-3 16, Painter 1 0-0 2, Lynch 1 0-0 3, McKenzie 0 2-2 2, Smith 1 1-2 3, Williams 3 0-0 6, Payton 0 0-0 0, Little 0 0-0 0, Wrencher 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 7-8 40. Three-point goals: (R) 3 (Ellerbe 2, Watkins); (P) 5 (Collins 3, Joy, Lynch).