As the Richard Montgomery Rockets were 1-6 and the Long Reach Lightning were 0-7, perhaps it was not surprising that a game between the two of them consisted of a sloppy 32 minutes of play.

Those 32 sloppy minutes of play on Monday would still produce a winner, however, with the Rockets topping the Lightning, 59-47, on the first day of the MoCo-HoCo Challenge.

It took a few minutes for both teams to shake off the rust from their holiday vacations. In the first quarter, both teams would struggle from the field.

The only player that seemed to be converting early on was Long Reach's point guard, Daryl Taylor. The junior point guard hit a pair of three-pointers to put the Lightning up 13-10 by the end of the first quarter.

But in the second quarter the Rockets made the proper adjustments in guarding Taylor. They forced his dribble to the left and prevented him from getting open shots.

By exploiting that single weakness, the Rockets were able to dismantle the whole offense for the Lightning.

The winner of this game would be the team that made the least mistakes. Eliminating Taylor's offensive presence made a huge difference in that aspect of the game.

With Taylor limited, Long Reach's shot selection was greatly impacted. And Taylor was forced to pick up his dribble, which in turn forced him into making some bad passes.

The Rockets were able to keep the Lightning to a total of just three points in the second quarter.

While Long Reach struggled to get its offense going, Richard Montgomery was starting to find its groove. The Rockets took the lead late in the second quarter and went up big. By the end of the second quarter, the Rockets led 30-16. 

Swingman Justin Senou provided the spark for the Rockets. By causing a few turnovers and driving hard to the rim, the sophomore swingman chipped in six straight points and finished the quarter with nine. 

The Rockets would hold the lead for the rest of the game. Although they, too, struggled to get in an offensive groove, guards Paul Sewell and Senou were able to knock down a few midrange shots to keep their team ahead.

Long Reach could not answer Richard Montgomery's full-court press. Turnovers were created from errant passes ,and they even struggled to inbound the ball on numerous occasions. They turned the ball over on 5-second violations twice and had to use a timeout on another occasion. 

Sewell had a breakaway dunk to put the game away for the Rockets late in the third quarter. 

The Lightning would go on a few runs but could never again cut the lead to single digits.

Long Reach will finish out the MoCo-HoCo Challenge today with a game against the Paint Branch Panthers. The Panthers beat Howard on Monday, 57-47. Howard will face Richard Montgomery.

Richard Montgomery Scoring:

Paul Sewell 15, Justin Senou 14, Brian Gaynor 11, Naol Ayana 6

Long Reach Scoring:

Darryl Taylor 18, Avery Allmond 14