WALES — Zach Small got down to business quickly Wednesday night.

The Richmond senior scored off the opening tip and, within 6:09, he had the scored the eight points he needed to go over 1,000 for his career. He scored the deciding basket on a 3-pointer from the right side and Oak Hill officials stopped the game to recognize his achievement.

Zach Small

Small finished with 39 points to lead the Bobcats (3-0) to an 80-56 victory over the Raiders (0-3).

Small joins a select group of 1,000-point scorers at Richmond that includes Mark and Glenden Kendrick and Jeff Bodge. The 6-foot guard has a strong all-around game that allows him to score inside and out.

“He works hard at his game,” Richmond coach Phil Houdlette said. “When he’s not playing, he works in that little gym down at Bowdoin. That makes a difference, he’s serious about playing.”

Small is a standout in three sports at Richmond as a pitcher/shortstop for the baseball team and a center midfielder for the soccer team.

“I’m not like a lot of other kids are,” Small said. “They play a lot of AAU basketball whereas I play three sports and I don’t have that much time. I go to the YMCA and play with a lot of older kids and I feel playing with all those older kids had really just developed my game overall.”

Small scored 23 points in the first half on a variety of moves that included a pair of 3-pointers and strong drives to the basket. A strong ballhandler, he has the ability to get defenders off their feet and finish the play past them.

“I come out and hit a couple of shots then they have to make the decision whether they want to stop the drive,” he said. “Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t.”

The Raiders hung with the Bobcats for the first half behind seniors Darryn Bailey (13 points) and DJ Pushard and trailed just 36-30 at the break. Coach Thomas Smith made liberal use of his bench while the Bobcats stuck primarily with their starting five.

“We’re not deep,” Houdlette said. “Our kids off the bench are inexperienced. They haven’t played at this level yet.”

The Bobcats played mainly a Class D schedule last year while competing in Class C South but this year they’ve moved into the tougher Mountain Valley Conference which includes larger schools.

“We’ve got 140 kids (in the school),” Houdlette said. “It’s a thing of depth.”

The Bobcats applied full-court pressure in the third quarter and quickly ran their lead to 15 (50-35) behind Small, who scored 12 points in the first three minutes, including a pair of 3s. Senior Matt Rines came alive in the second half, scoring 17 of his 22 points in the third quarter.

“We’re really jelling together,” Small said. “We play a lot of basketball after the season before baseball. We’ve really come a long way.”

The Bobcats also got good minutes from Dan Stewart, Nate Kendrick and Casey Gorman while Cohen Donnell (12 points) and freshman Gavin Rawstron played well for the Raiders.