Hornets Buzz: Rockets come out on top, 60-40

After a week off, the New Rockford-Sheyenne Rockets were back in action on Tuesday, Jan. 16 on their home court against the Harvey/Wells County Hornets. 

After the recent three-class system change, the Hornets are no longer in Region 4 with the Rockets. They are now included in Region 4 alongside Bishop Ryan, Drake-Anamoose and Our Redeemer's, to name a few. 

This season, the Hornets have quite the underclassmen team, with only one senior on the roster. Besides senior Breanna Heilman, the Hornets' starting five included a junior, a sophomore, a freshman and an eighth grader. 

Although they are a young team, they know how to keep a game interesting. 

Thirty seconds into the game, HWC sophomore Rachel Neumiller scored the first points of the night from a 3-point shot. 

But Neumiller wasn't the only athlete shooting from beyond the arc. NR-S junior Kaiya O'Connor was left wide open to swish a 3-pointer for the Rockets. 

It wasn't but a few minutes later that Heilman secured her only 3-pointer of the game to tie the score up at 8-8. 

In the first quarter, the Rockets and Hornets were both scoring every possession they had. At the end of the first, they were tied up at 14-14. 

HWC eighth grader Addisyn Faul came out fired up in the second quarter, to score 11 of the 13 points scored by the Hornets. The Hornets' defense only allowed the Rockets to score 10 points, taking the lead at the half. 

Then the defensive duo – Kelsie Belquist and O'Connor – played their absolute best as they started the second half.

The Rockets began to full court press with Belquist and O'Connor double-teaming on defense nine times out of 10. With this, steals and breakaways to the basket occurred more often than the Hornets would have liked. 

This time, the Rockets out-scored the Hornets with a total of 21 points, while allowing the Hornets to score only nine. 

And the fourth quarter went just as well as the third for the Rockets. 

The Rockets only allowed the Hornets to score four points to their 15, giving the Rockets 60-40 win. 

Lead scorers for the Rockets were O'Connor with 19, Belquist with 16 and Ava Peterson with 14. As for the Hornets, Faul led with 20, followed by Neumiller with nine. 

The Hornets have three games on the docket for this week. They will host the Drake-Anamoose Raiders on Tuesday, Jan. 23 (A,B) in Fessenden. Then on Thursday, Jan. 25 they will take on the Lewis & Clark-Berthold Bombers in Berthold. And to end the week, the Hornets will be back in Fessenden to take on the Kidder County Wolves on Saturday, Jan. 27, at 4:30 p.m.

Next up for the Rockets will be District 4 play in McVille on Tuesday, Jan. 23 (A,B,JH) starting at 4:30 p.m. The Rockets will also co-host the May-Port-C-G Patriots with the NR-S boys' basketball team on Saturday, Jan. 27 (A,B) starting at 12 p.m.

Nondistrict Girls Basketball

NR-S 60, HWC 40

at New Rockford

HWC 14 13 9 4 40

NR-S 14 10 21 15 60

HWC: Addisyn Faul 20, Rachel Neumiller 9, Breanna Heilman 5, Rylee Jones 4, Brooklyn Dockter 2. Totals: 17 FG, 2-4 FT, 11 fouls. Three-pointers: Faul 2, Neumiller, Heilman.

NR-S: Kaiya O'Connor 19, Kelsie Belquist 16, Ava Peterson 14, Lora Wobbema 4, Katie Allmaras 3, Addysen Fandrich 2, Bailey Jacobson 2. Totals: 22 FG, 10-16 FT, 9 fouls. Three-pointers: O'Connor 3, Allmaras.