Lady Rockets Use Early Run to Get Past Lady Wildcats 40-25
ELLERBE – Just two days after scoring 42 points on their home court against in county rival Cordova, the Ellerbe Middle School Lady Wildcats struggled to get the ball in the hoop on Wednesday against the visiting Lady Rockets of Rockingham Middle School.
Rockingham scored just 14 seconds into the game and never looked back en route to a 40-25 victory over Ellerbe.
Allyiah Swiney, who finished with a game-high 15 points, was extremely generous with the basketball in the first quarter. On the Lady Rockets first possession, Swiney delivered a bounce pass to teammate Keyoni Nichols who was alone under the net. Nichols easily laid it in for the game’s first points.
Swiney bounced it to Nichols again on the Lady Rockets’ next possession which yielded the same result and Rockingham was up 4-0 less than two minutes in.
After an Ellerbe turnover, Mariah Waddell got on the board moments later with a short-range jump shot giving the Lady Rockets a 6-0 lead. The next two minutes were plagued with turnovers, jump balls, and steals by both teams triggering Rockingham to call a timeout.
When play resumed, Rockingham’s Kyla Sampson recorded her third steal of the opening quarter, this time finishing with a floater over the outstretched arm of Ellerbe’s Breanna Garrison. With that, the first quarter ended with the Lady Rockets ahead 8-0.
Just moments into the second quarter, Swiney intercepted a Lady Wildcat pass and returned it to the hoop to put her Lady Rockets up by 10. A baseline jumper by Ellerbe’s Chloe Nunn finally stopped Rockingham’s run with 4:19 remaining in the second. Daniah McDonald answered for the Lady Rockets with a layup, but Ellerbe did not give up.
After Nyla Storman’s shot bounced off the back iron, Curtia Crump hauled in the rebound and banked it in to cut Ellerbe’s deficit to eight at 12-4 with 1:43 left until halftime. Waddell and Swiney each added layups for the Lady Rockets before the buzzer and Rockingham took a 16-4 lead into the break.
Crump came out firing for the Lady Wildcats scoring on two layups early in the third. Stroman also tacked on a basket in the early moments of the third quarter as well, but Rockingham was also red hot after the break.
Swiney and Nichols each scored two field goals and McDonald and Waddell each added a layup in the period. Swiney and Sampson also each contributed a free throw and the Lady Rockets were up by 20 with only 12.9 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
The quarter did end on a high note for the Lady Wildcats. With time ticking down, Ellerbe managed to get the ball into the hands of Raven Robinson who launched one from well beyond the arc and the ball swished through the net as time expired. The impressive shot was celebrated by those in attendance, but the Lady Wildcats still entered the final quarter down 30-13.
Robinson, who finished as Ellerbe’s leading scorer with nine points, connected on two more three-pointers in the fourth, but it wouldn’t be enough to make up for the huge deficit and the Lady Wildcats fell 40-25 at home.
Scorers for Rockingham were Allyiah Swiney with 15, Keyoni Nichols scored eight, Mariah Waddell added six, Daniah McDonald and Kenleigh Frye each netted four, and Kyla Sampson had three points.
Scorers for Ellerbe were Raven Robinson with nine points, Nyla Stroman and Curtia Crump each added six, and Chloe Nunn and Jersey Barnum each netted two points.
Rockingham Boys Erase Early Deficit to Defeat Ellerbe 50-20
Rockingham’s Will Dawkins manages to score while surrounded by four Ellerbe defenders.
ELLERBE – For a moment, it looked as though the Ellerbe Middle School Wildcats boys basketball team may step up to the challenge and compete with a really tough Rockingham Middle School squad on Wednesday evening.
Rockingham missed its first five shot attempts and Ellerbe seemed to be matching the speed and physical presence as their in-county visitors. However, the Rockets were able to use long runs in the first, second, and third quarters to pull away from the Wildcats and went back home with an impressive 50-20 victory.
Ellerbe’s Emoni McBride, who scored 15 points in the Wildcats’ 45-34 victory over Cordova on Monday, recorded a steal early in the first and then netted the game’s first points on a mid-range jumper straight over the head of Rockingham’s Kellan Hood just over a minute and-a-half into the game.
Rockingham answered when Will Dawkins hit one-of-two from the free throw line followed by a layup by Micah Jackson to give the Rockets a 3-2 lead.
McBride took the ensuing inbound pass and dribbled coast-to-coast spinning around one Rocket defender along the way and banking it in over the head of another who fouled him in the process. After converting the old fashioned three-point play, Ellerbe led 5-3.
That’s when Rockingham came to life. In the final 2 and-a-half minutes of the first quarter, the Rockets scored 13 unanswered points. Jackson and Dawkins contributed to the run with two layups each, Spencer Harwood turned a steal into two points, Hood added two from the free throw line, and Dawkins netted one from the line as well. Just like that, the Rockets were up 16-5 at the end of the first quarter.
A Jh’Kwon Covington free throw to start the second quarter cut Ellerbe’s deficit to 10, but Jackson answered moments later for Rockingham when he too scored three points the old-fashioned way. Dawkins followed that up with a putback and the Rockets were pulling away 21-6 with 4:09 remaining in the half.
McBride rebounded a Jh’Kwon Covington miss and returned it for two for Ellerbe. Then Omarion Covington excited the home crowd when his three-point attempt rang true and the Wildcats had cut their deficit back to 10 points with 3:00 left in the second quarter.
From then on, it was all Rockingham. The Rockets scored the next six points in the second quarter before Kevon Gause hit a layup in the final minute for the Wildcats. With only 22 seconds remaining in the first half, Hood found an opening, laid it in, and was fouled. His free throw put the Rockets ahead 31-13 and they carried that lead into the break.
Rockingham outscored the Wildcats 13-0 in the third quarter, and then scored the first basket of the fourth quarter on a Cason Douglas layup extending the Rocket lead to 46-13 with 5:40 left in the game. A McBride jump shot ended Rockingham’s relentless 25-2 run that lasted 9 minutes and 50 seconds.
At that point, both teams began subbing in players from the bench to finish out the game and the Rockets held on to win 50-20.
