Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Earn 7th place at CNDC Tourney in Harvey with first season victory
NR-S senior Kaiya O'Connnor was incredible during the Rockets' home opener on Tuesday, Dec. 10, knocked down several shots from beyond the arc and nearly propelled her team to a fourth quarter comeback. Photo by Nathan Price.
The New Rockford-Sheyenne Rockets got their first win of the season on Saturday, Dec. 7, and very nearly earned an impressive comeback against the North Star Bearcats in their home opener on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
That first win came at the CNDC Tournament in Harvey against the Turtle Mountain Braves.
The Rockets were heavily favored in the matchup and they certainly took care of business, cruising to a dominant victory. That's despite suffering a slow start as the Braves opened up a quick lead in the first quarter.
But eventually, NR-S simply began to outpace their opponents.
A layup from NR-S junior Ava Peterson tied the game at 8-8, and then the Rockets went on a tear to end the quarter, ending up with a 15-8 lead after the first.
The Rockets never looked back from there, and the second half was particularly dominant. The NR-S defense allowed their opponents to score just four points in the second half, while nearly doubling their own point total on offense.
After going into halftime with a 36-23 advantage, the Rockets ultimately walked away with a crushing 62-27 victory.
However, the win only came after a pair of losses earlier in the tournament, first to Glenburn 41-50 and then to Drake-Anamoose 26-40.
The Rockets ultimately took seventh place at the tournament, which was won by Rugby. TGU and Glenburn finished second and third, Harvey/Wells County finished fourth, and finishing just ahead of the Rockets were St. John and Drake-Anamoose in fifth and sixth, respectively.
After the tournament, the Rockets played their best game of the season so far.
Against the North Star Bearcats on Tuesday, NR-S looked better on defense and at times were able to enjoy accurate stretches of offense.
They began the game with a 5-0 lead, and maintained a small lead for much of the first quarter. But the Bearcats came storming back in the second quarter and went into halftime with a slim lead of their own.
The third quarter didn't see much scoring from either team, but the Bearcats at one point had around a 10-point advantage – and that's exactly when the Rockets began to bounce back.
While stringing together several stops on defense, the combination of Addy Fandrich at the rim and Kaiya O'Connor from beyond the arc began to result in points.
O'Connor hit several 3-pointers to eliminate the Bearcats' lead in the fourth quarter, and Fandrich helped the Rockets take a small lead of their own thanks to her free-throw shooting.
However, the Bearcats hit a few free-throws of their own in the final minute, and NR-S wasn't quite able to get back ahead in the final seconds, ultimately falling by a score of 39-37.
The Rockets played their final game before the new year on Thursday, Dec. 12 against Napoleon in New Rockford. That game will be covered in the Dec. 23 edition of the Transcript.
