Person’s junior forward and top scorer Tony Winstead has had some big games and moments for the Rocket boys this season, but probably no stretch of time was more important than the final two minutes of Friday night’s regular-season finale at Rocket Gymnasium.

Ahead by a 50-48 count late in the fourth quarter, the Rockets got the lift they needed when Winstead scored six of the next eight Person points on two field goals and two key free throws to give the hosts a 58-50 advantage with under a minute left, which eventually proved to be the difference in an uplifting 62-57 Piedmont Athletic Conference victory over the Hillside Hornets.

The Senior Night win was a legitimate morale booster for the struggling Rockets (3-11 in the PAC-6, 10-13 overall), who had dropped nine of their previous 11 contests and hadn’t earned a league victory at home all season.

“It always feels good to win at home. It’s been in the paper a couple of times about how we hadn’t won a home game in the conference,” said Dacus. “That really got us to focus toward getting this victory tonight.”

It also gave Person a sweep of the season series against the second-place Hornets (9-5), who entered the contest having won five straight conference games.

In addition it should give the Rockets a huge dose of confidence heading into the PAC-6 tournament, which begins next Tuesday night.

East Chapel Hill knocked off Northern, 76-64, on Friday to finish tied for second with the Hornets, and depending on the results of other games or how any tiebreakers are worked out, it looks as if the Rockets will either be playing at Southern Durham, which clinched the regular-season title on Tuesday, at Hillside, or at ECH.

No matter what, Person has shown during the course of the season that it can play with any one of these teams, having lost twice to the Wildcats by five points or less and the Spartans by just five points last week.

Rocket head coach Charles Dacus said his team is capable of pulling off a surprise in the tournament. Person would need to win the tourney outright to make the Division 4A playoffs.

“If you advance to the championship game, fatigue can be a factor [three games in four nights], but winning three games next week is not out of the question for us,” he said.

In Friday’s game, Alex DeVaughn (eight points, 6-for-8 from the foul line) returned after missing two games and contributed three big free throws in the final seconds to help seal the win.

A 3-pointer by Hillside’s Brandon Henderson brought the visitors to within three (58-55) with 29 seconds to go before three freebies by DeVaughn and one more by Mark King finished off the Hornets.

Winstead finished with a game-high 19 points, while Mike Williams had his second 13-point performance in the last three games. Both players hauled down 16 rebounds each. The Rockets had 50 as a team.

After seeing his squad have its worst rebounding game of the season at Jordan on Tuesday (just 23 boards total), Dacus was pleased to see the major turnaround (more than double the output) on Friday.

“Jordan plays the best defense in the conference in my opinion. That’s one reason we were held down the other night,” he said. “We controlled the boards offensively and defensively tonight. They got a few offensive rebounds in the first half, but Tony and Mike really attacked the glass for us.”

Despite an overall 3-for-9 effort at the line, Winstead’s performance, especially in the game’s late stages, was not lost on the coach either.

“Tony’s been able to hit free throws in clutch situations like he did tonight,” said Dacus. “We were determined to get the ball inside to him in the second half because we knew he could finish once we got it there.”

Hillside actually took a 21-16 lead into the second quarter before the Rockets regained the advantage by outscoring the Hornets, 15-8, in the second period for a 31-29 lead at the break.

Person increased its lead to 45-40 after three periods,

Hillside was led by Ronnie Williams with 17 points (11 of them in the opening quarter) and Latrelle Royster with 12.

Person seniors Donte Cameron (two points, five rebounds) and Ahmad Arthur (two points) were honored before the game. King had another solid outing and finished with 11 points and Monroe Faulkner contributed five points.