The Rockdale Tigers lost 71-38 to Little River-Academy in their final 19-3A District contest before the Christmas break.
“I have to do a better job of coaching and getting my guys to understand what we are doing as far as our game plan goes,” said Sean Coleman, Rockdale High School boy’s head basketball coach. “That is all on me, I will get better and make adjustments.”
The Bumblebees built a 15-7 lead to end the first, and outscored the Tigers each quarter for the remainder of the game. Kobe Mitchell was Rock-dale’s leading scorer with nine points.
Prior to Friday, the Bumblebees were 1-0 going into their match-up with the Tigers. They opened district play with a 64-55 overtime win at home against Troy, a team picked to place third in District 19-3A by Texas Basketball Magazine in front of Academy. Rock-dale faces Troy when district play resumes in January.
“This first week, we made a lot of simple mistakes,” Coleman said. “We have to get back to basics. Also, our defense is our calling card, so we have to keep our focus on the opposite end at a very high level.”
Earlier in the week, Rockdale started off district play with a 54-53 loss to the McGregor Bulldogs at RHS gymnasium. This is the fourth consecutive season the Tigers have began district play with an 0-2 record.
The Bulldogs had a 15-8 lead at the close of the first quarter. Rockdale turned the momentum around in the second, outscoring McGregor 19-12 to make it a tie ballgame at the half.
The Tigers were up by two in the final quarter, before the Bulldogs regained control of the game with an eight point run that lasted three minutes. Unable to make up ground, Rock-dale went into the final minute down two possessions. Cayden McBride’s buzzer-beating three ended the game with the Tigers losing their first district contest 54-53.
McBride led Rockwith 11 points and 10 rebounds. Other key scorers for the Tigers were Mitchell with 10 points, Braden Moore with eight, and Kelan Evans, who had seven. Zac Davis scored seven points and had nine rebounds. On defense, Davis had five rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
Before resuming play in the new year, The Tigers will play in the Buffalo tournament Thursday through Saturday. RHS is scheduled to face Gateway Charter Academy of Dallas at 11 a.m., and West Hardin at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
In 2019, tip-off for the Troy game is at 7:45 p.m. at the RHS gymnasium on Friday, Jan. 4.
According to Texas Basketball, Troy has four returning starters all from their junior class under second year coach Eddie Dewbre. Tyler Jarolik led the Trojans with 21 points per game in the 2017-2018 season and classmates Beau Workman, Sam Jones, and Ben Presley were also key contributors as sophomores.
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