RHS falls short to rival Cameron, 46-44
Tiger basketball went head-to-head with longtime foe Cameron in a nail-biter Friday, facing off with a visiting Yoe team that currently sits in third place in District 19-3A. Just like last Friday’s matchup in Troy, the Blue-and-Gold found themselves in a game where the winner wasn’t decided until the final play.
Unfortunately for Rockdale, it wasn’t the Tigers that came out on top this time. It was the other team from Milam County who left RHS Gym with a 46-44 victory after freshman De’Andre Stephens’ last second jump shot rimmed in-andout as time expired.
Rockdale coach Sean Lexima said he was proud of his team’s effort, but said trouble started early for them.
“I’m going to be blunt...it was rough,” he said. “There was a 12-4 foul count, that hurt us a lot. I’m not sure if Cameron was just good at drawing fouls, but that put us in a bad situation.”
This means that RHS had to go long periods of time without some of his key players during the second and third quarter in order to preserve them for the game’s final quarter.
Rockdale led early in the night with three pointers from senior Chris Perez and David Penny, giving the team a 10-6 lead at the close of the first quarter. After foul trouble started to occur in the second, the Yoe went on to score 10 of their 14 points in the quarter from the free throw line. Despite Cameron taking advantage of Tiger fouls, the Blueand- Gold went into halftime still holding the lead, 23-20.
In the third, the Yoemen began full-court pressing on every Tiger possession and were able to pull ahead 37-34 at the end of the quarter. The fourth was slow for RHS, as Cameron was up 42-34 mid-way through the fourth. This changed as Penny hit two threes to make it 42-40 with 3:27 left to play. Although Cameron would hit two more shots and go up 46-42 in the game’s final minute, an uncontested layup by Robert Owens with nearly 20 seconds left put Rockdale back in a position to tie or win the contest.
Thanks to a steal by Tiger senior Devon Hicks, the home team got the ball back with a little more than eight seconds remaining on the clock. But as Perez brought the ball up in the game’s final seconds, it was knocked out of bounds, giving Rockdale only 1.8 seconds to score. Despite having trouble inbounding the ball, Stephens was able to get open before catching the ball, pump-faking twice and getting a shot off. However, his attempt rimmed out and Cameron won.
Leading scorers for the Blue-and-Gold were sophomore Erik Sheppard with 10 points, while Penny and Perez scored nine and eight.
The Tigers a re 2-11 through 13 district games this season, but they’ve held their own against ranked and playoff-bound opponents and have improved steadily over the 2022-23 season.
“I feel like we’ve been playing close with all of the top teams in our district, even in our first game with Lorena,” Lexima said. “It just speaks to their heart and camaraderie and how they work together for each other.”
In the most recent Texas Association of Basketball Coaches’ poll, district opponent Lorena is the thirdranked team in Class 3A.
Lexima also mentioned that his team has risen to the occasion and displayed a lot of strength along the way.
“These kids, they have bowed up the entire season,” he said. “There are a lot of things I have been asking of them that they’re not used to doing.”
“We’ve been in uncomfortable situations and they have been extremely resilient,” he added. “I couldn’t be more proud of the way they played over the last couple of months, I wish I had them longer.”
The Tigers played in their final district game on Tuesday after press time in Academy. This was the final high school basketball game for Hicks, Perez, Owens, Ivan Bonner, Aiden Hirt and Christopher Miles.
Lexima also talked about how his team has improved since the beginning of district play in late December.
“They’re a little more patient, there’s a little more movement on offense,” he said. “On defense, they’re kind of figuring out what I’m asking for. And we have a lot of key parts moving forward.”
Returning players for the Tigers include Stephens, Penny, Sheppard, starting point guard Gerren Marrero, Tim Grice and Ace Taylor.
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