Playing your first game out of the Christmas break is tough enough, but doing it on the road makes winning an even tougher task. The Westwood Rockets opened the 2015 calendar year in Wartrace on Monday night as they took on the always tough Champions of Cascade. In the girls game, Cascade used a 16 point 4th quarter to blow open a close game en route to a 44 to 29 win over the Lady Rockets. Seventh graders Morgan Jones and Ashley Starks each reached double figures for Westwood as Jones scored 12 points and Starks notched 11. Haley Miller added 4 points as the Lady Rockets record dropped to 9 and 8 on the season.
In the boys game, the Rockets got off to a slow start as they could notch only 3 points in the first quarter. From that point on, Westwood chased the Champions all night long getting as close as 2 points at the half before falling by a final score of 35 to 27. Chase Simpkins led the Rockets in scoring with 10 points while Marcus Pendleton added 8 points and Jake Hollandsworth scored 6 points.
Westwood will host Huntland on Thursday night as they close out the regular season at the Joel Vinson Gym. The Duck River Valley Conference tournament will tip off on Saturday at Forrest in Chapel Hill. The pairings for the Rockets and Lady Rockets will be determined following Thursday’s games.