Basketball Game Preview: Rockingham County Cougars vs. Northeast Guilford Rams

Rockingham County is 2-8 against Northeast Guilford since January of 2020 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Rockingham County Cougars are taking a road trip to face off against the Northeast Guilford Rams at 8:00 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.

It was a proper cat-fight when Rockingham County challenged Dudley on Friday. Rockingham County took a 75-61 bruising from Dudley. While losing is never fun, the Cougars can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 244th, while the Panthers are ranked 74th).

Dalton 'Dynamite' Johnson

Points

02/07/25 vs Dudley	22
02/05/25 vs Northeast Guilford	28
02/04/25 vs High Point Central	37
01/31/25 vs Eastern Guilford	34
01/28/25 @ Ben L. Smith	17
+ 6 more games

Despite the defeat, Rockingham County got top-tier performance from Dalton 'Dynamite' Johnson, who posted 22 points in addition to five assists and three steals. Johnson's evening made it 11 games in a row in which he has scored at least 17 points. Another player making a difference was Nick Rumbley, who dropped a double-double with 12 points and ten boards.

Even though they lost, Rockingham County smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive boards they've posted since back in November of 2024.

Meanwhile, Northeast Guilford had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 18 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Wednesday. They came within four points of losing the streak, but they secured a 56-52 W against the Yellowjackets.

Northeast Guilford's win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 17-5. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 68.7 points over those games. As for Rockingham County, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 11-9.

Rockingham County couldn't quite finish off Northeast Guilford in their previous meeting last Wednesday and fell 67-64. Can Rockingham County avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.