Rockland stays hot, beats Butte County behind guard power trio
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ROCKLAND — The backcourt trio of Aiden Radford, Woodrow Lowder and Zach Permann proved too much for Butte County, as Rockland handed the Pirates their first loss.
Butte County (3-1) is responsible for Rockland’s lone loss on the young season, beating the Bulldogs (5-1) at the Carey Holiday Tournament last week.
This time around though, playing on their home court Tuesday night, Rockland rode its explosive backcourt to a 63-46 victory.
Head coach Shae Neal said after the “fun win” that his team, with its offensive firepower, is a very difficult cover.
“I’ve got four guards out there and usually three of them are on,” he said. “We’re tough to guard when we have all four playing and doing what they’re supposed to. Our guards are playing really, really well right now.”
Xavier Parris, the fourth member of that group, had an off-night, but the other three picked him up.
Lowder scored a team-high 21 points, also contributing six rebounds and three steals, while Radford chipped in with 14 points, two rebounds and five steals.
Permann, just a sophomore, scored 12 points to go with one rebound, but was tasked with being the primary defender on Butte County’s primary scoring threat, Koden Krosch.
The Bulldogs got off to a slow start, falling behind, 7-3, almost immediately. But behind an active defense, including a pair of steals from Parrish, Rockland scored 16 straight to grab to a 19-9 advantage.
Permann, who appeared to slow down later in the game after chasing Krosch all night on the defensive end — and also leading the Rockland JV squad to a victory earlier in the evening — was responsible for seven points during the run.
Rockland held the multi-possession lead until late in the second quarter, when, behind Krosch and the 6-foot-4 Dean Rogers, Butte County pulled ahead, 30-28.
But a pair of triples from Lowder to go with a layup from Hayden Smith sent the Bulldogs into the break ahead, 36-30.
Butte County mounted one more challenge midway through the third quarter, when a Krosch triple pulled the Pirates to within three, but as it did all night the Rockland offense had an answer, scoring six straight.
Krosch led all scorers with 23 points, adding eight rebounds and seven steals, but, as Neal said after the game, the trick was forcing him to work for those points.
Rockland lacks height, with just two players listed as being over 6-foot — and only one of them, Smith, seeing significant playing time. But they make up for, Neal explained, by being fundamentally sound and “just absolutely grinding it out.”
Undersized teams, he added, have to be willing and able to work harder than their opponent for a full 32 minutes.
“We work hard — we absolutely work hard, that’s one of our staples: we just try to outwork everybody,” he said. “It just comes down to grit.”
While they were “flying around” on the defensive end, Neal said his team allowed far too many open 3’s, which is something they will have to fix before returning to the court to face Challis on the road Thursday.
The Pirates will lick their wounds before returning home to host Garden Valley on Friday.