Saturday, February 25, 2006
The former Woodrow Wilson standout helped the team to the league crown.
By JOHN KOVACH
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
PAINESVILLE -- The Lake Erie College basketball team is basking in the school's first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference regular season championship in any sport.
Making a big contribution to that unprecedented milestone is Reggie Richardson, a senior guard from Woodrow Wilson High, who is in his second season with the team.
Richardson scored a career-high 33 points, including 20 with five 3-point goals in the final seven minutes, to help the Storm defeat Pitt-Bradford, 78-76, in overtime on Feb. 17 to win the school's first league title.
Richardson led a comeback from a 17-point deficit and tied the game in regulation with a 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining. The Storm won the game on senior Chad Hunt's 3-pointer with six seconds remaining in overtime.
Hunt is the son of Lake Erie's interim coach, Cliff Hunt, who is in his first season at the helm after serving as an assistant coach the previous season.
Gained league honors
Richardson, whose 33 points bettered his career high by two, was named AMCC player of the week.
On Feb. 11, Richardson scored 31 points in Lake Erie's 94-71 win over Mount Aloysius.
The Storm entered last week's AMCC tournament at Lake Erie with a 19-6 record, including 15-3 in the conference.
Richardson's strong two-game performance gave him the team scoring lead with a 13.3-point average, while he also leads the team in assists (4.3 average) and is No. 2 in steals (35 total).
He has made 104-for-226 (46.0 percent) from the field, including 20-for-65 (43.1) from 3-point range; and he is 97-for-146 (66.4) at the foul line.
Standout last year, too
Last year, in Richardson's first season with the Storm, he helped the team in assists average (5.4) and was No. 2 in scoring average (13.1).
He was 130-for-254 (51.2 percent) from the field, including 25-for-64 (39.1) from 3-point range; and he was 69-for-100 (69.0) at the foul line.
The son of Gloria Richardson of Youngstown, Reggie is majoring in business administration.
Also with the Lake Erie team is J.D. Johnson, a junior guard from Howland. Johnson has played in 18 games and scored 15 points on 6-for-12 (50 percent) from the field, including 3-for-8 (37.5 percent) from 3-point range.
Other Lake Erie scoring leaders are Robert Williams (12.6), Howard Washington (9.3), Jajcen Harris (8.6), Darnell Campbell (7.8) and Chad Hunt (7.2). Campbell also is the top rebounder (5.0).