Home Local Sports Lady Rockets cap perfect season with win over rival Hamlet

Lady Rockets cap perfect season with win over rival Hamlet

Rockingham's J'Nasia Neal passes the ball as Hamlet's Olivia Brown defends.
Deon Cranford - The Richmond Observer.

HAMLET — The Rockingham Middle School girls’ basketball team capped its undefeated season in a low-scoring affair against rival Hamlet on Monday.

Playing on the road, the Lady Rockets earned a 22-12 win over the Lady Red Rams. With the victory, Rockingham improved to 9-0 and will be the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.

In what was a very physical game, there were numerous blocks, steals, jump balls and turnovers. There were 16 possessions in the opening quarter that didn’t even end with a shot attempt.

Early on, it appeared as though Madisen Jackson’s two putbacks for the Lady Rockets would be the only field goals of the first quarter, but J’Nasia Neal connected on a jump shot from near the free throw line at the buzzer.

Hamlet was unable to net a single field goal in the first quarter with their only points coming on a pair of Olivia Brown free throws. After the first period, Rockingham led 7-2.

The start of the second quarter was more of the same, with neither team getting any shot opportunities. 

After five minutes ticked away in the second quarter, Hamlet’s Amonie McNeil brought some life back to the home crowd when she connected on a short jumper and then scored on a putback just seconds later to bring the Lady Red Rams to within one point.

With just under a minute remaining until halftime, Neal made her presence known once again when she intercepted a Hamlet pass and took it the other way for an easy two.

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Brown added another free throw just before time ran out and the visiting Lady Rockets were ahead 9-7 at the break.

Again, the third quarter started with a long scoring drought as 6:43 ticked away before Brown broke the ice with another free throw bringing the Lady Red Rams to within one point again.

That’s as close as it would get, and it did not stay that way long. Seconds later, a Neal layup started a 10-0 Rockingham run that did not end until a Brown jump shot with 3:40 remaining in the game.

Brown tried to make it exciting when she pickpocketed the Lady Rockets on the very next possession and returned it for two more just 20 seconds later.  Those two baskets cut the Rockingham lead to 19-12, but those would be Hamlet’s last points of the game.

Jackson added 3 more points in the final 55 seconds.

Jackson and Neal each had 10 points for Rockingham. Kamora Watkins scored one point on a first-quarter free throw and Ella Parker connected on a fourth-quarter free throw.

Brown netted 8 points for Hamlet and McNeil scored 4 second-quarter points.



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