THRILLER NIGHT
♦ Jackets, Lady Jackets both use overtime to sweep North Murray
Senior Night at The Rock gave fans back-to-back doses of excitement as the Rockmart Lady Jackets and Jackets each battled their way to overtime wins.
Hosting Region 7-AA foe North Murray in their final regular season home games, Rockmart's girls outscored the Lady Mountaineers 10-2 in OT to win 49-41 Friday night, while Yellow Jackets senior Treylin Davis had 10 of his gameleading 32 points in the extra period for a 79-75 Rockmart victory.
The wins kept both Rockmart teams in the upper half of the region standings heading into their last regular season games at Model on Tuesday, Feb. 6. The Jackets will likely go into next week's region tournament as the No. 2 seed in the boy's bracket, while the Lady Jackets will try to hold onto fourth.
The Region 7-AA tournament begins Monday, Feb. 12, at Model High School in Floyd County.
Rockmart's Analee Morris and Sky
Myers each finished with 17 points to lead the Lady Jackets over North Murray on Friday, with each senior making an impact in overtime to secure the win.
Down 31-25 after three periods, Rockmart was able to tie the game at 39 apiece on a pair of free throws by Morris in the final seconds of the fourth quarter. North Murray failed to score to call for extra time.
Each team scored a layup early on in OT before the Lady Jackets (16-7, 6-5 in 7-AA) clamped down on defense and scored the next eight points. Rockmart went 6-of-8 at the line and was able to finally breath after Myers hit both of her foul shots with 19.1 seconds left.
In the boys' game, Rockmart appeared to be set for a comfortable win after starting out on a 14-4 run, but the Mountaineers stayed vigilant at the line, going 7-of-11 in the first period, and trailed just 16-12 after eight minutes.
The two teams would be locked in a back-and-forth battle for the remainder of the contest, with the Jackets holding onto the lead until early in the fourth when Beau Ellis sank one of his five 3-pointers to put North Murray up 54-52.
Rockmart (19-5, 8-3) managed to hang close before a trey from senior Sam Johnson was followed by a layup from MJ Berry to give the Jackets a
60-58 lead with 5:25 left in regulation. The Mountaineers took a timeout
with 11.9 seconds to go while ahead 67-65. Their ensuing inbounds went untouched and out of bounds to give Rockmart possession. Johnson then forced his way into the lane and put up a shot that was good with 5.4 seconds on the clock.
The score would stay 67-67 as the buzzer sounded, signaling a second overtime game for the evening.
Berry took charge for Rockmart right at the start of the extra period and put his team up 69-67 and ultimately a lead the Jackets would not relinquish for the rest of the game.
Davis came alive after a slow fourth period and scored 10 points, including a 3-point play after getting fouled on a layup after a steal and hitting both free throws with 8.5 seconds on the clock to seal the victory.
Johnson finished with 20 points and three 3-pointers while Davis had four. Rockmart finished with 11 treys in the game. Berry and Hunter Atkins both had eight points.