Here’s a recap of the first day of the Battle at the Rock Showcase
Here’s a recap of how Rock Hill-area schools performed on the first day of the three-day Battle at the Rock basketball showcase hosted at Northwestern High School.
James F. Byrnes 59, Nation Ford 23
It was a tough showing for Nation Ford, which shot less than 15% from the field in a 59-23 loss to Byrnes on Thursday night.
Head coach Kelly Bennett said that the main issue for his team going forward is replenishing the roster.
Nation Ford is without five players from last year’s team and having younger players play in more prominent roles can lead to growing pains.
“All of our young ones, they haven’t played together,” Bennett said. “They went to different schools, so over the summer, we tried to mesh at camp, and everybody wasn’t there. I’m literally starting over with a brand-new set of players. They’re talented as can be. They love the game, and they know the game; it’s just a matter of getting the youth out the way.”
Nation Ford struggled to maintain possession, committing 25 turnovers in the game.
Eighth-grader Ariah Heard had a stellar game for the Falcons, scoring 13 points to go along with five rebounds.
Bennett said that he wants the young talent to shine when they’re on the court, but he also is aware that getting younger players to fully realize their potential takes time.
“We try to play to their strengths,” Bennett said. “The youth does get in the way sometimes when you do that. Going into the season, I made sure I got to every middle school game to know what they like to do. A lot of our things is set up to help them get into what they like. Now, the other part is getting stronger. That’s a huge part, especially for our guards. If we get stronger, we’ll be able to take the bumps and knock off the screens and all that kind of stuff. Strength plays a huge part when you’re playing against someone who’s 18 with somebody who’s still 13. That’s a huge difference in development.”
The loss puts Nation Ford at to 0-2 to open the young season. The Falcons’ next game will be Dec. 4 at home against Northwestern.
Hartsville 52, Northwestern 11
Northwestern was unable to get anything going offensively in its 52-11 loss to Hartsville.
Northwestern’s roster had a combined 49 games of varsity basketball experience coming into the season, and that lack of veteran presence caused some problems in Thursday night’s loss.
In a fast-paced contest that saw more turnovers (69) than field goal attempts (64), the Trojans committed 43 of them. They were unable to build any momentum off defensive stops or a forced turnover.
Head coach Sha’Ron Robertson knows the lack of varsity-level experience is hurting her team, but she doesn’t want that fact to hurt their energy from tip-off to the final buzzer.
“We’re young, we’re inexperienced,” Robertson said. “We don’t have any varsity play, but that’s still not a reason to quit. Right now, we’re trying to work on effort, trying to put four quarters together. Good quarters. They don’t necessarily have to be all scoring, but four quarters of battle.”
With a team like Northwestern, Robertson said that there’s diminishing value on always focusing on the mistakes.
Sometimes, the best thing is to reinforce and highlight what goes right and continue to improve on it.
“I look from one game to the next,” Robertson said. “Whether it’s defensive rebounding, offensive rebounding, less turnovers, things like that. I believe in celebrating small victories in order to get to the bigger ones. So whatever we did good, we use that as a step to get to the next.”
This loss puts Northwestern at 0-4.
This story was originally published December 1, 2023 at 8:00 AM.