The Rockingham Middle School girls’ basketball team will face the Carver Middle Lady Eagles on Thursday in the second round of the Southeastern Middle School Athletic Conference tournament.
Rockingham, the No. 1 seed, advanced to round two courtesy of a first-round bye. The Lady Rockets kept their undefeated season intact with a victory over Sandy Grove in the regular season finale on Monday.
Carver, the No. 4 seed, advanced to the second round by defeating Spring Hill in round one on Tuesday.
Lady Rockets remain undefeated
ROCKINGHAM – With the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye in the Southeastern Middle School Athletic Conference already locked up, the Rockingham Middle School’s girls basketball team did not need to win its season finale game against Sandy Grove on Monday, but the Lady Rockets defended their home court and their perfect record with a lopsided 31-6 victory over the visiting Lady Panthers.
Kaniah Little was an offensive and defensive force in the victory netting a game-high 13 points and recording 8 steals in the first three quarters of play. She sat out the fourth quarter as Rockingham coach Wandesha Jackson opted to sub in players while the Lady Rockets were comfortably ahead.
The game got off to a slow start as the Lady Rockets only held a 10-4 lead at the half. Rockingham outscored Sandy Grove 17-0 in the third quarter with Little leading the way with nine points during the run.
Teammates Kaylan Parsons (4) and Madisen Jackson (2) added the run’s remaining six points and the Lady Rockets carried a 27-4 advantage into the fourth quarter.
Jackson and Addison Butler each added putbacks in the final quarter to increase the home team’s lead to 31-4. The Lady Panthers added a late basket in the final moments for the game’s final points.
Hicks, Carver down Spring Hill
LAUREL HILL – A 22-point day from Asia Hicks helped Carver Middle pull away from in-county rival Spring Hill for a 33-20 win in the first round of the SEMSAC Tournament.
The Lady Eagles dominated from the opening tipoff, soaring to a 19-6 halftime lead, but the Lady Spartans came to life in the third quarter. Following Hicks putback a minute into the second half, Spring Hill’s Dereyanna VanDerHall banked one in with 6:08 on the clock. She then stripped the ball away from Carver and connecting on a three-pointer, cutting the Spring Hill deficit to just 10 points at 21-11 with just 5:36 left in the third period.
VanDerHall added another layup in the quarter, but two baskets from Hicks ended the threat and the Lady Eagles carried a 25-14 lead into the fourth quarter.
Hicks scored the first five points of the fourth quarter triggering Carver to put its subs into the game and slow down the tempo.
Diamond Swiney banked in a trey for with 1:28 left in the game for the only second-half points for Carver that were not scored by Hicks.
Swiney and Khloe Radford each finished with 4 points for Carver and Serenity McCrimmon added 3. With the win, Carver improved to 7-3 on the season.
