Rockmart boys and girls sweep first round
Big rallies in region tournament games give Rockmart 7-AA titles for season
The Rockmart boys and girls punched their ticket into the Sweet 16 of the Class AA playoffs with a pair of wins to cap off last week, and are prepping to host once again on Thursday.
The boys are set to host Northeast from Bibb County, and the Lady Jackets will be facing East Laurens in a pair of second round playoff games after big victories in the first round over Jordan and Callaway respectively.
The girls (21-6) were up by only single digits at the half as Berry sat out for a breather, but the team came back and fired on all cylinders to shut down the Lady Cavaliers in a dominant second half. Berry combined with Rockmart’s Megan Little to put up 38 points in the second half as
Little finished the night with 21 points.
Rockmart coach Andre Clark said the girls will still have to work on allowing others to get the ball and score as the team looks to go deeper in the postseason and Berry and Little find themselves the center of opposing defense’s attention.
“Teams are going to continue to face guard Keyarah and face guard Megan, so we need others to step up and score,” Clark said.
The Lady Jackets will host East Laurens in the second round next week after the Lady Falcons defeated Thomasville 50-41.
Tyler Rowland led the Rockmart boys’ efforts Friday to keep the Jackets ahead with 22 points on the night, while Juke Boozer and Javin Whatley both put up 11 each to help push Rockmart over the top.
The Jackets (17-10) will host Northeast in the Sweet 16 next week following the Raiders’ 60-58 win over Early County on Friday. Coach Vic Calhoun said his team is looking to do something no Rockmart squad has done since 1968 — go into the Elite Eight.
“If we win one more game, we’ve done something that we haven’t done in more than 50 years here,” he said. “And we get an opportunity to do it on our home floor, so we’re excited about it.”
The pair of wins come off one of the biggest performances for both teams last Monday to clinch the top spot of 7-AA for the year.
In a rematch of last year’s Region 7-AA girls’ basketball tournament, Rockmart again topped Chattooga to hoist the first-place trophy for the second straight season.
Again seeded No. 2 in the tournament, the Lady Jackets came back from a thirdquarter deficit to top the hosting Lady Indians 57-56 in the region championship game that was postponed from last Saturday to Monday due to weather.
Berry, the junior wing that has been the driving force behind Rockmart’s backto-back championship seasons, led the Lady Jackets on Monday with 44 points.
“At the beginning of the year, a lot of people probably doubted us,” Rockmart coach Andre Clark said. “We graduated some key players last year, but we have the best player in Georgia on our basketball team, and that helps a whole lot. I’m super proud of this group.”
Berry finished the first half with 21 points, but had three fouls when her team went into halftime leading 32-31.
When Berry took her fourth foul of the game just after the start of the third quarter, Clark said adjustments had to be made to stay in the game, adding that with Berry sidelined for some of the third quarter, the player’s aggressiveness was missed.
“I had to do something,” Clark said. “She likes to jump past the lanes, but when she gets early fouls like that, she can’t. That part of it hurt us, but the other girls stepped up and kept her out of the way. It worked out for us.”
Despite the fouls, Berry still scored six points in the third quarter and led a rally in the fourth quarter to retake the lead. Down 56-55 with less than a minute to play, Berry hit a bucket to give Rockmart the lead and, ultimately, the win.
“We had to stay calm and move the ball around,” Berry said. “No fouls. Don’t touch anybody else. Don’t try to steal the ball or anything. Just keep my hands to myself.”
Chattooga had a chance at the win when they inbounded the ball with less than 20 seconds on the clock, but layups under the basket didn’t drop for Chattooga.
Chattooga was led by Faith Ann Foster with 18 points, Nevaeh Morgan with 16 points and Makiya Parrish with 14 points. Megan Little, who fouled out in the fourth quarter, added seven points for the Lady Jackets.
In the other championship game last Monday, the boys rallied for a win as well. They trailed for most of the game and came back to topple the top-seeded Chattooga in the tournament.
The win was the second game in a row Rockmart has come from behind for a win after trailing against Model in the semifinals.
“It’s great. I’m just proud of our kids,” Clark said.
“We’ve been preaching to them the fourth quarter is ours. We work so hard and condition ourselves for the fourth quarter and this tournament has proven that the fourth quarter has been ours. I’m so proud of the guys. They fought tooth and nail and never gave up. It’s a big win for our program.”
The game was tied 16-16 at the end of the first quarter and the Jackets didn’t lead again until the last seconds of the game when Tyler Rowland sank two free throws to give Rockmart the points needed to get the win.
Juke Boozer converted a three-point play to tie the score with 38 seconds left to play, then as time was running out, Rowland pulled up for a 3-pointer with 7.3 seconds left on the clock and was fouled, putting him at the free throw line to score the winning points.
The game was a rematch of last year’s region title game that saw Rockmart come up short. The Jackets had also lost to Chattooga twice earlier this season.
“We knew that we had never put a full game together,” Calhoun said. “We knew they weren’t necessarily a better program than us, we just had to keep at it and to play team basketball. We just stayed the course and kept ourselves in it. The defense won it tonight.”
Calhoun said he held back some players who normally get more minutes, including Ty Floyd and Sherman Davis, but the strategy paid off late in the game.
“It took their minutes away,” Calhoun said. “Those are guys who are starters, and they didn’t complain, and they didn’t pout. They knew it was for the team. It worked tonight.”
Boozer led the Jackets with 21 points, Rowland finished with 11 points and Javin Whatley added 16 points.