On Tuesday, Jan 24th, the Judson Rockets (16-12) hosted a home game against the Steele Knights (16-10). 

The Rockets came out guns blazing in the first few minutes with three consecutive 3-pointers, two of them by Senior Donavan Gomez and 1 from Jordan Owens. The rest of the first quarter was slow and uneventful ending in a score of 9-5 Rockets. 

To start the second quarter the Knights started to pull away early, outshooting the Rockets 20-12, until Sophomore Elijah Favela made a 3-pointer that electrified the crowd and the team. He also hit a two-pointer followed by free throws from Sophomore Izziek Chandler which shortened the lead to 20-17. The rest of this quarter was slow with the knights constantly pulling away more and more. 

In the third quarter Gomez started to take control of the game with 2 back to back threes and tied the game 47-47. Then another three-pointer from Chandler extended the lead to 50-47 Rockets. The remainder of the quarter was mostly a back-and-forth until Freshman Gerald O’Neil hit a three which was the last point of the quarter for the Rockets making the score 53-57 Knights. 

To start the fourth and final quarter, O’Neil and Freshman Chris Gooden scored two back-to-back and 1’s which gave the Rockets momentum. The Knights started trapping which caused mistakes on the Rockets, which gave the Knights the lead closing into the final minutes of the game. The Rockets battled back with Favela scoring another bucket and making a and 1 basket. Sadly this was not enough for the Rockets to come out with the win losing 69-61 to the Knights. 

For the next game the Rockets (16-13) will face off against the New Braunfels Unicorns (23-4) on Friday, Jan 1/27, 7:00 pm At New Braunfels High School.