Lady Cougars start slow, win opener

The Rockingham County Lady Cougars got off to a slow start in Tuesday night’s opener at South Stokes, trailing 9-2 at one point, but grabbed a 31-19 halftime lead in route to a 63-41 victory over the Lady Sauras.
Rockingham County (1-0), which is trying to replace four starters from last season’s East Regional-qualifying team, got a game-high 17 points from senior Lindsay Puckett. Puckett also dished out four assists, grabbed seven steals and had five rebounds.
Center Autumn Carter had a team-high 11 rebounds to go along with 14 points.
RCHS, which outscored South Stokes 16-6 in the second quarter, led by just two – 15-13 at the end of one period.
The Lady Cougars outdid their first-half performance with 32 points in the second half. RCHS outscored the Lady Sauras, 32-22 after the break.
Mercedes Jones (11) and Katie Pace (10) also topped double-digits for Rockingham. Jones also chipped in with five rebounds and six steals and Whitney Barker added seven assists, seven rebounds and nine steals.
In the loss, South Stokes (0-1) got 14 points each from Hannah Wood and Keyonna Joyner.

Second quarter dooms Cougars at South Stokes
After trailing 16-13 at the end of one quarter of play, Rockingham County was bitten by the turnover bug and that, along with allowing offensive rebounds, doomed the Cougars at South Stokes Tuesday night, 80-58.
South Stokes (1-0) grabbed 14 offensive rebounds and took advantage of 27 RCHS turnovers. The Sauras outscored the Cougars 30-9 in the second quarter and led 46-22 at halftime.
Rockingham (0-1) outscored the home team 36-34 in the second half.
“When you shoot 54 percent you’re suppose to give yourself a pretty good chance to win the game,” said RCHS head coach Jeff Hamilton. “Too many turnovers and too many offensive rebounds, that’s why we lost.”
During a stretch in the second quarter, Rockingham County – which trailed by just six points – had four turnovers and South Stokes grabbed five offensive rebounds, all leading to lay ups and lay-ins and the visitors quickly found themselves down 24.
In the loss, the Cougars got 13 rebounds and eight points from Guy Wall and 13 points and five assists from Tyler Moore.
RCHS also got 15 points from Malcolm Broadnax and five from Ian Smith.
South Stokes was led by Cole Green’s game-high 29 points. Nick Adams chipped in with 12 as did Hunter Duncan.
Both RCHS teams return to action against Bartlett Yancey Tuesday night.
Action begins with the girls’ varsity game, scheduled for 6 p.m. in Wentworth.