AUGUSTA — Michael Christie wasn’t sure he believed the hype about Elan School or its record.

The Richmond senior already had seen enough of the Buccaneers’ Jack Peters two years ago in the Western Class D boys’ basketball tournament to know that Peters was legit, though.

“He’s an unbelievable athlete. He deserves every bit of recognition he gets,” Christie said. “I didn’t want to back off him at all, because they were going to shove it down our throat if I did.”

Christie played most of the fourth quarter Saturday morning with four fouls, yet still held the do-everything Peters to two inconsequential buckets. They were No. 6 Elan’s only four points of a period that saw No. 3 Richmond race away to a 49-34 quarterfinal victory.

The three-time defending regional champion Bobcats (14-3) will meet No. 2 Greenville in Wednesday’s semifinals. Greenville edged Valley, 68-67, in another quarterfinal at Augusta Civic Center.

One of four seniors in a starting five that played every second of the game, Christie scored eight of his 15 points in the fourth quarter. He was 6-for-6 from the line in the final 2:26 and 10-for-10 overall.

More importantly, he kept Peters to the dull roar of 15 points and 12 rebounds.

“Michael did a nice job on him,” Richmond senior Kyle O‘ Brien said. “When he got four fouls it scared me a little. He kept his composure, and he played well.”

O’Brien provided the down-low element of the Bobcats’ inside-out game with 14 points and 14 rebounds.

Tom Carter added 11 points and nine boards. Wade Tuttle chipped in nine points and seven caroms.

Carter and Christie each knocked down a 3-pointer to resuscitate a Richmond offense that sputtered out of the gate,

“Once we started making those shots from the outside, it opened up the middle so Kyle got some looks and Wade got some looks,” Carter said.

Elan led 12-6 early, then weathered a run of nine unanswered Richmond points to restore a 22-19 edge at the half.

Christie tied it with a wide-open 3-pointer with 3:10 remaining in the third. Carter put the Bobcats ahead to stay with a right baseline jumper on Richmond’s next trip.

Falling behind forced the Buccaneers (16-3) out of what had been a successfully patient offensive approach. Elan went 5-for-23 from the field in the second half.

“We were really helter-skelter at the beginning of the game, just running around,” Christie said of the rapid reversal. “Everybody made a big deal about this team, but we could have played them any day of the week.”

Richmond led 33-30 after three.

Peters scored to open the fourth period. Tuttle answered to trigger a 12-0 run aided by a technical foul, one that gave the Bobcats a six-point possession — all Christie free throws.

“Pretty much at the beginning of the game we wanted to see how they work and how they passed the ball,” O’Brien said. “Peters is a great player. We knew coming in he was going to score some points. They did pretty good defensively, and we kind of adjusted to it.”

Stephen Kelly contributed 10 points for Elan. Colin McNeil made four steals.

The Buccaneers gave away opportunities to pad their lead at the free-throw line. Elan went 5-for-13 from the stripe.

koakes@sunjournal.com

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