Lady Cougars defeat rival Reidsville

A win is a win, no matter how ugly.
That was the view of Rockingham County coach Woody Wall as his Cougars rolled over Reidsville 65-43 in a sloppy basketball exhibition at the RHS gymnasium Tuesday night.
The Cougars, featuring a veteran cast coming off a season-opening 70-47 victory over Eastern Guilford a week ago, simply had too much firepower for the young Rams playing their first game of the campaign.
“We won and I’m happy we won, but we didn’t play well,” Wall said. “We just didn’t look crisp, but at same time, any time you win and score close to 70 points, you’ve got to be happy.”
Krystal Moore scored a game-high 20 points for the Cougars, who also got 12-point production from Elizabeth Ferguson and Ashley Palm and eight points each from Lindsay Puckett and Katie Pace.
Reidsville expects to center everything it does this season around Elon University-bound Lei-Lei Hairston, but three early fouls sent her to the bench.
Hairston scored the Rams’ first two points, but she picked up her second foul with 6:21 left in the opening quarter. Three points by Morgan Daniels had the Rams within 6-5 but Hairston drew her third foul with 4:53 left in the quarter and spent the rest of the half on the bench.
Rockingham scored the final 10 points of the quarter to take a 16-6 lead and then padded the cushion to 34-12 at the half. Reidsville had 18 turnovers in a horrendous second quarter, giving them 27 miscues in the half.
But the Cougars didn’t take full advantage, joining the mayhem with 17 first-half turnovers of their own.
“We tried to go too fast in the first half,” Wall said. “We didn’t shoot well. It was miserable. If we hadn’t had that little spurt at the end of the half, it was a 15-point ball game.”
Reidsville coach Casey Elrod said his team will benefit from the learning experience.
“We lost nine players from last year, but you can see they’re learning,” he said. “That’s the important part and we’ll get better as the season goes along. It was great to play them (Rockingham) because they’re senior-heavy, they’re well-coached and their girls bust their tails every second of the game.”
Wall commended the Rams for their determined effort.
“They played hard,” Wall said. “They’ve just got to find their own identity.”
Hairston played the second half without picking up another foul and she finished with a team-high 13 points, including a pair of three-pointers in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Katlin Taffer added a pair of threes for the Rams and finished with eight points, junior Morgan Daniels notched seven as did freshman Bria Pass.
The Rams got within 50-30 in the final minute of the third quarter but Puckett’s three-ball at the buzzer silenced any plans Reidsville may have entertained for a fourth-quarter rally.
Ferguson scored six of her points in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter to put the finishing touches on the victory as both teams went with subs in the final minutes of action.
Reidsville is back in action tonight at Bartlett Yancey while Rockingham County returns home Friday to entertain McMichael.

SUMMARY
Rockingham County 16 18 19 12 – 65
Reidsville 5 7 18 13 – 43
ROCKINGHAM – Krystal Moore 20, Kylie Keck 2, Hannah Livengood, Lindsay Puckett 8, Ashley Palm 12, Orianna Clayton 2, Olivia Siler, Autumn Carter 1, Elizabeth Ferguson 12, Katie Pace 8, Whitney Barker, Kasey Walker, Becky Livengood.
REIDSVILLE – Ajavia Blackwell 2, Katlin Tafer 8, Shay Jones 3, Bria Pass 7, Eleisha Hairston 13, Shacree Herbin 1, Atavia Blackwell, Morgan Daniels 7, Jazmine Johnson 1, Teyanna Cobb 2, Stephonia Williams, Kim Roach.