Armed with a tremendous amount of talent, the Rockingham Middle boys basketball team won back-to-back Southeastern Middle School Athletic Conference (SEMSAC) titles in 2021-22 and 2022-23, finishing both seasons with perfect 11-0 records. The Rockets defeated Sandy Grove 50-47 and East Hoke 40-20 in the 2022 and 2023 conference title games, respectively.
The 2023-24 Rockets once again fought their way to the SEMSAC championship, but there was one major difference between this season’s title appearance and the previous two – Rockingham was the underdog and had to play away from home.
The No. 2 Rockets travelled to No. 1 East Hoke on Thursday with both teams boasting matching 8-1 records, but the Eagles defeated the Rockets 38-30 during the regular season to earn the top seed using the head-to-head tiebreaker. However, Rockingham still came out on top when it mattered, defeating the Eagles 46-38 to claim the program’s third-straight conference title.
“We came in confident and felt like we had a good week of practice,” said Rockingham head coach Julius Bowden. “We knew we could play well. East Hoke has great energy and we knew we wanted to come out and match that energy.”
Despite a fast-paced effort by both teams, the scoring started slow as East Hoke managed to take an early 8-4 advantage late in the first quarter. A Kerick Hairston three-pointer cut the lead to one and with 35 seconds left on the clock, Devin Haynes connected on a pair of free throw attempts to give the Rockets their first lead at 9-8.
Just as it appeared that Rockingham would carry the lead into the second quarter, East Hoke’s Chandler Thomas splashed through a trey at the buzzer to put the Eagles in front 11-9 and the end of one.
The home team appeared as though it was going to pull away at the start of the second quarter. Traylin Jackson and MahRod Wood each turned steals into quick transition points giving the Eagles its largest lead of the game at 15-9, but from there it was all Rockingham.
While the name Julius Bowden may be well known to followers of Rockingham Middle basketball for his years of success as the head coach of the Rockingham program, it was the younger model that stole the show in the second quarter. Bowden’s son Julius “J.B.” Bowden, netted a career-high 12 points for the Rockets and did it all in just over five minutes.
Rockingham’s Cam’ron Coley split two East Hoke defenders and delivered a floater. Then, with 5:22 left in the second quarter, Hairston found Bowden open on the right wing and Bowden splashed it through.
Twenty-two seconds later, spectators experienced déjà vu when Hairston dribbled down the court following an Eagle turnover and pitched the ball out to Bowden again, who was set up in the same spot, and once again Bowden’s shot found nothing but net. The quick 8-0 run turned Rockingham’s 6-point deficit into a 2-point lead at 17-15 with 5:00 left in the first half.
After the two teams came up empty on their ensuing possessions, Rockingham appeared to have every intention of going back to Bowden, who was once again set up on the right wing, but this time the Eagles had him covered. With no opportunity to shoot, Bowden passed the ball back out to Hairston. Hairston faked a pass to C.J. Covington on the left wing and the East Hoke defense shifted towards Covington, leaving Bowden wide open. After the fake, Hairston passed the ball out to Bowden who was true once again for his third trey in less than two minutes.
Coley, who finished with a game-high 13 points, took a perfectly-placed baseline bounce pass from Haynes and delivered it for two more at the 1:10 mark. Wood finally stopped the bleeding for East Hoke when he connected with a perfect fadeaway shot from about 12 feet out over three Rocket defenders with nine seconds remaining.
But the Eagles would not get to celebrate long. Hairston found Bowden yet again on the right wing and this time with a defender’s hands in his face, Bowden banked it in at the buzzer to send the Rockets into the locker room with a 25-17 advantage after closing the half on a 16-2 run.
“The defense played good and we managed to out-rebound them, which was big,” Coach Bowden continued. “J.B. hitting those big shots in the second quarter to give us that cushion that we needed and our defense and rebounding were able to do the rest.”
Wood added two for the Eagles with a quick layup just six seconds into the third quarter followed by a 3-pointer from Hairston about a minute after that. Wood answered when he connected from the top of the key seconds later and hit one-of-two from the free throw line on the Eagles’ ensuing possession to cut the Rockingham lead to six at 28-22 with 8:35 on the clock.
Like it did in the second quarter, Rockingham ended the third on another big run with four different players contributing to it.
Coley started things off when he hauled in an offensive rebound, returned the ball to the basket and was fouled in the process. He was true on the “and one” opportunity extending the lead to nine. Moments later, Hairston connected on his third three-pointer of the game and Haynes followed with a putback.
Javeion Littlejohn closed out the third quarter scoring when he stripped the ball away from the Eagles and took it the other way for an easy layup with 1:35 left on the clock.. The 10-0 Rockingham run gave the Rockets their largest lead of the game at 38-22.
By this point, second and third-chance Rockingham points were clearly impacting the score. “They absolutely dominated us in the first matchup in rebounding,” explained Coach Bowden. “We showed them videos of the game and showed them how we were not getting into position, and how they were. That was the difference between the first game and this game here. Just being where they needed to be.”
The Eagles refused to go way. Omakaro Maya, Brian Redmond, Deondre Moesby Smith and Jackson all contributed to a 7-point East Hoke run to begin the fourth quarter. The quick scoring spurt reduced Rockingham’s lead to single-digits at 38-29, forcing Rockingham to call at timeout with 4:14 left in the game.
Between the baskets, East Hoke did everything it could possibly do to work its way back into the game over the next two and-a-half minutes. Jackson had three shot attempts and three rebounds, Wood stripped the ball away from the Rockets and attempted a short jumper off of that steal, and Redmond blocked a C.J. Covington layup attempt and cornered Hairston to force a turnover. During that time, East Hoke outrebounded Rockingham 8-2, had more shot attempts 10-2 and forced four Rocket turnovers.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, despite their impressive defensive efforts during that stretch, their own shots narrowly missed their mark, resulting in a stalemate and keeping Rockingham’s 9-point advantage intact at the two minute mark. To complicate things even further for the home team, Redmond was removed from the game when it was discovered that he was bleeding.
Redmond would return with 1:06 remaining, but during his absence, Rockingham benefitted from a Coley putback and a pair of Xander Chavis free throws. Wood did manage a free throw of his own for the Eagles, but the Rockets now led 42-30 with just over a minute left.
Even still, East Hoke refused to go down without a fight. After Chavis missed the second of two free throw attempts, Jackson hauled in the rebound and went coast-to-coast netting a layup and drawing a foul from Hairston in the process. After netting the follow-up free throw, Jackson turned a Rockingham turnover into 3-more points with a trey from the right wing. Just like that, Rockingham’s comfortable lead was now just six points at 42-36 with 49 seconds remaining.
After Jackson’s long ball, East Hoke’s full-court pressure saw all five Eagles on their own end of the court. Coley inbounded the ball with a long pass to Covington who had slipped away from the crowd and was all alone on the other side of the halfcourt stripe. Covington’s layup with 35 seconds left seemed to ice it and the Rockingham bench and fans began to celebrate.
Jackson got one more open look from beyond the arc on East Hoke’s next possession, but it barely missed hitting the back of the iron just a little too hard and popping out. Coley rebounded the miss and passed it out to Haynes who quickly passed it down court to Chavis. With time running out, East Hoke was forced to foul Chavis who hit both of his free throw attempts with 24 seconds left.
Maya added a floater for East Hoke with about 5 seconds remaining rounding out the scoring.
Coley finished the day with a double-double (13 points, 13 rebounds) and Bowden netted 12 for Rockingham. Hairston finished with 9 points, Haynes and Chavis each scored 4 and Covington and Littlejohn each added 2.
Jackson and Wood each finished with 10 for the Eagles. Maya added 8, Smith netted 5, Thomas scored 3, and Redmond added 2.
Rockingham ended its season at 9-1 while East Hoke finished at 8-2.
“These kids work hard and they go through a lot in practice,” Coach Bowden concluded. “I’m so proud of them. This was a great atmosphere. Our fan support was big today as well. We had a crowd make the trip. They were great.”
Note: The Richmond Observer would like to thank Hal Nunn of Sports Blast of Hoke County and Raekwon Butler of East Hoke Middle School for their assistance with information for this game and for providing the Richmond Observer with East Hoke basketball information throughout the season.
