RAEFORD – The atmosphere at the West Hoke Middle School gym felt more like the playoffs than a season opener when the Rockingham Middle girls basketball team visited on Wednesday.
In addition to the hostile standing-room-only crowd, multiple injuries, a halftime buzzer beater, technical fouls and a game that came down to the final possession, the players, coaches and fans from both teams had to endure something that nobody was expecting when they arrived – a game that lasted twice as long as it should have.
Due to a communication issue between the officiating crew and SEMSAC leaders, the game was played using the high school timing rules (eight-minute quarters, no running clock). Despite protests by the coaches, the officials stated that they had to use the rules that they were instructed to use.
This meant that the middle school game, which typically lasts around an hour in real time, took nearly two hours to complete – lasting longer than most high school girls games. With the ensuing boys game using the same timing rules, those who attended both games were in the Tigers’ gym for just under four hours.
In addition to the frustration of the timing situation, there were numerous delays due to clock and score management issues with nearly all of them negatively impacting the Lady Rockets in some way. If that wasn’t enough adversity, Rockingham starting point guard Madisen Jackson left with an ankle injury less than two minutes into the game and was unable to return.
Despite being shorthanded and exhausted, the Lady Rockets managed to outlast a furious West Hoke rally in the final moments to take a 46-43 victory with them back to Richmond County.
After the first six minutes of the opening quarter, the Lady Rockets trailed 15-4 and appeared to be buckling under the pressure. However, Rockingham Coach Wandesha Jackson called a timeout, made some adjustments and the momentum shifted in a big way.
Following the huddle, Za’Ryah Williams was fouled going to the hoop and connected on one of two free throws. On the next possession, backup point guard Audicy Rush delivered a strike to teammate Addison Butler, who sprinted down the baseline behind West Hoke defenders earning an easy bucket.
Kaniah Little added to the run with a long jump shot from right wing just inside the arc. On Rockingham’s next possession, Little was fouled and made one of her two attempts from the free throw line to bring the Lady Rockets to within five points, 15-10, at the close of the first quarter.
Butler added a putback in the opening moments of the second period, followed by three points from the free throw line from Kaylan Parsons after getting fouled on back-to-back possessions which knotted the game at 15-all, completely erasing Rockingham’s 11-point deficit.
Rush gave her team the lead with a putback, but West Hoke reclaimed the lead just 9 seconds later with a 3-pointer ending Rockingham’s 13-0 run. Williams and Parsons each netted a free throw putting Rockingham back on top by one at 19-18, but once again West Hoke answered quickly with a swift 6-2 run to give the Lady Tigers a 24-21 heading into the final minute of the half.
After another basket from Parsons made it a one-point game, Little followed with two huge assists. First, she found Butler in traffic who banked it in from about 12-feet out. Then Little collected a mishandled ball from West Hoke and pitched it forward to an open Williams for another easy basket giving Rockingham a 27-24 lead with just 10 second left until the break.
Just like it had all game, West Hoke answered, this time with a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the teams into the locker room tied 27-27.
The Lady Rockets came out of the locker room playing much more aggressively on defense. They swarmed the West Hoke ball handlers, forcing the Lady Tigers into nine third quarter turnovers and limiting the home team to just two points. On the other end, the Rockets did a good job at creating free throw opportunities, but struggled at the line going only 2-for-8 in the quarter.
However, Parsons, Little, and Williams scored a combined 10 points in the period sending the Lady Rockets into the final quarter with a 37-29 advantage.
Williams extended the Rockingham lead to 11 points with a 3-pointer with 7:37 left in the game. After a pair of baskets from West Hoke, a Parsons free throw and put back along with another trey from Williams gave Rockingham its largest lead of the game at 46-34 with just 4:32 remaining.
That’s when the scoreboard issues made things a little more interesting. Despite the score being 46-34, the scoreboard read 44-34. Due to the scoreboard operator failing to run the clock properly, the final four minutes lagged on and the efforts of the officials to run time off of the clock as a countermeasure simply did not balance out the time properly.
Meanwhile, West Hoke managed to net nine consecutive points cutting the lead to three at 46-43, but everyone in the gym thought that the score was 44-43 due to the previous scoring issue not being corrected.
In the final minute of the game, the two teams tormented fans as shot after shot narrowly missed its mark. Then with five seconds on the clock, Little was fouled. Her free throw attempts missed their mark, but Rockingham recovered the rebound and seemingly ran out most of the remaining time with West Hoke stealing the ball as time expired.
The Lady Rockets stormed the floor in celebration, but the officials halted the activity and met at the scorer’s table.
It was determined that following the missed free throw, the clock never started properly. Even though Rockingham rebounded the ball and ran off several seconds, officials decided to give the ball to West Hoke with four seconds left (taking only one second off of the clock).
The situation still would have been easy to manage for the Lady Rockets had the scoreboard displayed Rockingham’s true 3-point lead. Rockingham was in no jeopardy of losing on a single shot. However, because the scoreboard had the Lady Rockets only ahead by one, they were forced to defend it differently. Fortunately for Rockingham, West Hoke lost control of the ball and the Lady Rockets held on for the 46-43 win.
“I was so impressed with how the girls played,” coach Wandesha Jackson said of her team’s efforts. “Madisen Jackson went down early with an ankle injury, but Audicy Rush managed to step up as point guard and lead the team to a victory. I am especially proud of Kaylan Parsons, who had the game-high 15 points. She gave us her all from start to finish and I couldn’t be prouder. Although we pulled it out, we still have some work to do.”
Williams finished the game with 11 points, Little scored 10, Butler netted 6, and Rush and Jackson had 2 points apiece.
Rockingham (1-0) will host Carver (1-0) in its home opener on Monday.
