In a repeat of the Tigers’ first district victory over Lexington, RHS fought tooth nail for their second win over the Eagles on Tuesday night to close out its season.
“We started off slow but showed resilience throughout the game,” said Coach Marcus McNeil, after Tuesday’s 71-68 victory over the Eagles.
After trailing the entire game and into the fourth quarter, the three pointer by Mekhi Crawford and two threes by Kobe Mitchell got the crowd going and put the Tigers ahead to win the game.
“I want to give props to this year’s team. We have bright future and are heading in the right direction,” McNeil said. “There’s never going to be another team like this one. Even though the season didn’t turn out the way we hoped it would, I wouldn’t trade this team.”
“We’re going to miss our two seniors,” he said. “We’ll miss Ross Loth’s inside game and Mekhi’s Crawford’s intensity on defense.”
Because Lexington did not have a freshman team, McNeil brought up three RHS freshmen for the game and they all contributed.
Ivan Bonner scored 8 points and Braydon Thomas scored 6. Robert Owens hustled well in the game, according to McNeil.
“They gave the core group of juniors some much needed spot rest. I appreciated their effort and their output,” he said.
WHAT’S NEXT—“We’re going to put the basketballs up for little bit,” said McNeil. “We need to concentrate on getting quicker and stronger. Coach Miller has a great off season strength program, so we’ll work on that. At the end of the year, I’ll have them come in to shoot in the gym.”
“The seniors got us started by building a tradition and our juniors are going to move it forward. Next year, the team will have more of understanding of my offensive program and they will thrive with more rest they’ll get when I mix in the younger players.”
Rockdale 71, Lexington 68
RHS 13 14 19 25—71 LHS 20 16 19 13—68 RHS: Points: Loth 13, Anthony Dans-by 13, Mitchell 12, Crawford 11, Bonner 8, Jace Robinson 8 and Thomas
FEB. 14—For much of Friday evening, Rockdale and Cameron basketball fans were on the edge of their seats at Yoe High Gym as the two teams went back-and-forth over who got to lead the game.
Unfortunately, it ended with the Yoemen taking over late and beating the Tigers 73-59.
“We lost, that’s the bottom line,” said McNeil. “Our guys really have to learn how to close out down the stretch because when we go away from the flow of the offense, that turns into bad spacing on the court, which creates turnovers by us.”
Rockdale came into Cameron hot, taking a 15-3 lead early on before the Yoemen caught up, tying the game at 17 to close the first.
The second quarter also ended in a tie with a 31-31 score at halftime.
In the third, the other team from Milam County moved ahead of the Tigers before pulling away from Rockdale for good in the fourth.
Taking advantage of RHS turnovers, Cameron won 73-59.
Junior Anthony Dansby led the Blue-and-Gold with 14 and his classmate Ryan Blair had eight.
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