Milestones

So far this season Rocky Mount basketball has played three 4-A schools with the sole purpose of getting ready for conference play. Their first week has seen the boys go 2-1 and they should have won the the other game. The girls won all three including beating Knightdale on their home floor in their own basketball tournament.

Coaches look for combinations of lineups that they will want to use as the season progresses.The preparation continues this week as the Gryphons hit the road for three games. Tonight they are at South Central a possible playoff opponent come February. Wednesday a trip to Beddingfield a place where the Gryphons have always found victories hard to come by. They close out the week with a visit to Pinetops and a game against SouthWest Edgecombe another team that is hard to beat on their home floor.

Lurking in all of this non-conference preparations is the possibility that Pam Gainey could win #300 in her coaching career. If the Gryphon ladies can find the victory column twice this week. If last week was any indication it will happen but wins will be hard to come by with the teams on the schedule this week. Good Luck Pam and the Gryphons.

If you are interested in playing pro basketball you can get a shot to be one right here in Rocky Mount on December 17th at 5.00pm at the South Rocky Mount Community Center. The American Basketball Association is going to add four teams to their league for the 2011-2012 season. Three of those teams will be in North Carolina. If the 17th is not a good date there will be a tryout in Greensboro on the 19th. Good luck to all you that think you are good enough.

Last week North Carolina played Minnesota and looked as if they could not figure out where the basket was and lost. Last night a Virginia team that already has three losses by more than 20 points opened the ACC- Big East Challenge playing Minnesota and Virginia dominated the back court at won. Early comparison having both UVA and UNC having played the same team at their place within two weeks of each other. If you Carolina fans thought last year was a disaster just wait two more months. Guard play is killing carolina again this year.

It was odd last night watching Ralph Sampson a UVA former player watch one of his sons that plays for Minnesota. Sampson also has a son playing for ECU.

NFL Taking Shape

The New England Patriots and the New York Jets have the best record in the AFC. The Atlanta Falcons the best in the NFC. Just four years ago Atlanta was going through one of the most embarrassing moments in their history with Michael Vick. Seems like a long time since then but it's been just four years. All three teams are 9-2.

Boy does it look like Julius Peppers picked a good team to go to or what. The Bears are 8-3 and sitting atop of the NFC North. I don't know whether you saw the Bears game today but Peppers was all over the field in getting Chicago into first.

The best fight of the year in pro boxing happened on the football field as Andre Johnson and Courtland Finnegan went three rounds. This is the second week in a row that punches have been thrown and the NFL had better get control of this quickly.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are tied with Indy for the lead in the AFC North. The Seattle Seahawks and St Louis Rams are tied in the NFC West at 5-6. If either finishes below 500 but wins the division they will host a first round playoff game.

Philip Rivers failed to throw a td pass last night breaking his streak of 24 straight games with a touchdown toss which was the longest active streak in the NFL. Despite that he was 11-11 in the second half and finished the game completing his last 13 in a row as the Chargers crushed the Colts giving Peyton Manning his worse loss at home in his 13 year career.

Tonight may be the worse Monday night game of the year as Arizona and San Francisco square off against each other. Don fret the NFL is back in action on Thursday. The ACC-Big East challenge starts tonight as the ACC tries to get back on their winning ways after having lost the challenge for the first time ever last year.

Gryphon Girls Off to Great Start

You cannot say that Rocky Mount basketball whether it's the boys are girls will back down to anybody when it comes to playing good teams early to see how you stack up.

The boys blew a 13 point lead in the fourth quarter Friday and lost by two points to Millbrook. Saturday they won a one point game 48-47 to Athens Drive. The first week of the season the defending 3-A State Champions have played three times against 4-A schools and are holding a 2-1 record.

Now let us look at the girls who won the girls Knightdale tournament Saturday defeating the host 62-55 in overtime. The girls are 3-0 and have met three 4-A schools and have taken them all. Fridays opening round they beat Wake Forest Rolesville 68-45.

Marquita Hines has be exceptional at point guard but the load of the offense has been carried by three players, Tia Hudgins, Timisha Walker and J'Kyra Brown as all three are averaging double figures the first three games scoring.

They will not be home again until Tuesday night December 7th. Despite their lost for the boys this is a good start for both basketball teams.

You would expect Nash Central to dominant the Big East Tennis all conference team and they did. Randi Price was Player of the year and she was joined by three other teammates. Sister Kaley Price, Lizzie Eakin and Dana Kelly. Lindsey Thomas and Caroline Nelson from Rocky Mount made all conference as well as Northern's Katie Beeman,Emily Moedl and Southern Nash's Casey Strickland.

Nash Central's coach Susan Mccarthy was named coach of the year.

If you were not at the Rose- Rocky Mount basketball game last Tuesday you can see a replay tonight on the Stretchlon Sports Show. It is worth watching as both squads are loaded with talent.

Tarboro Looks @ Third Straight Finals Trip

Last night Tarboro took advantages of a few opportunities while the East Duplin's many chances failed to produce more points than the Vikings and Tarboro lives to play another day. They will host East Bladen for the Eastern Regional title.

Northern Nash's defense kept them in the game but the defense didn't get enough help from their offense which failed to score in the second half. Hunt becomes the second Wilson County team in the East Regional in the last seven years, people forget that Fike played for the State Title seven years ago. Hunt plays Northern Guilford.

The Wolfpack hopes of playing for the ACC title ended today losing 38-31 to Maryland. State has beaten Carolina four straight times while losing to Maryland eight out of the last eleven, go figure.

The first ACC chmpionship game ever to be played in North Carolina will feature Florida State and Virginia Tech. Over 60,000 tickets have been sold already making it the most successful ACC championship ever. Even though there will not be a North Carolina team in it now probably the best possible two FSU and VAT will sell the game out.

Do you her the sigh of relief coming from all Carolina football fans tonight. A lost to Duke would have put a real capper on this season of disappointment had they lost to the Devils.

Trying to find the Gryphon basketball scores but to no avail.

Heart Break Friday

Eight weeks ago Northern Nash lost to Hunt 28-10 in the first conference game of the year. Tonight in the last football game played between two Big East Foes Hunt holds off Northern 14-7 to earn a right to play for the Eastern 3AA Eastern Finals next week.

Thw game was in doubt right to the next to last play as Hunt held the Knights out of the end zone with less than 20 seconds to play. There is no joy for the Knights tonight losing this heart breaker but once the hurt subsides, there will be an extreme pride that will over take this team as the Knights of 2010 will be remembered as the team that brought Knights football back to the playoffs.

Way down south in Duplin County another game was played right to the wire as Tarboro survives to host the eastern finals again as Tarboro beats East Duplin 13-10. Tarboro is the top seat 2-A team left and as the top seed will host next weeks game.

I am getting this info off of Facebook but it looks like the Gryphon Boys lost by a point in the Knightdale basketball tournment today to Millbrook while the girls won beating Wake Forest Rolesville.

I had said earlier this week about Roman Kelly's South Brunswick team having to forfeit their third round game because they had three players thrown out of last week's game for fighting. The NCHSAA did uphold the ruling so South Brunswick sat out tonight's game at Havelock. South Brunswick is the first team ever in the history of the NCHSAA to forfeit a playoff game for fighting violations.

There were four high schools that were ineligible for the playoffs this year due to the fact they exceeded the seven players tossed out during the season. They were Union Pines, Pinecrest, North Lenoir and Pamlico. Pinecrest and Pamlico both had enough wins to qualify for the playoffs but were not allowed to play.

Giving Thanks-Turkey And Football

I am going to look at my picks for Friday night today instead of on Thursday because of the holiday. Last week I was a dismal 1-2 picking Roanoke Rapids and North Edgecombe and this week we are back with a Big East game which has been topsy-turvy all season.

Tarboro @ East Duplin: This may be bad luck for the Vikings but after last week they convinced me to stick with them through the next two weeks. After having picked against them last week Tarboro fans may want me to pick against them again to bring them luck. My biggest concern about this game is it is a road game.

The only game we can even think about comparing is that East Duplin did play Rocky Mount the third game of the season and if the Gryphons had any offense at all they could have won that game but lost 14-0. The Gryphon defense held their own but if I recall East Duplin started every drive in the game on the Rocky Mount side of the field. If I can make a judgement just on that alone I don’t think East Duplin can out score Tarboro.

Vikings 21- East Duplin 7

Now here we go with this weeks Big East game of the week which seems to occur rather often during the playoffs. Hunt won the earlier meeting at Hunt 28-10. That was the first conference game for both. If you look at the Knights offense then and now they have made enough strides to be able to win this game. Somewhere along the way the Knights will need a pass play to pull them out of a hot frying pan. In this case the same might be said of Hunt.

If this was to be an offensive game I think that Northern’s defense will hold down Hunt better this time over their last meeting due to the fact that Northern’s offense is helping the defense by occupying the clock now over when these two played eight weeks ago.

Northern 27- Hunt 21

The Big East will send a team to the eastern final again as the conference is 3-1 against outside competition and 1-1 against each other and after Friday night two Big East teams will have been knocked out of the playoffs by other Big East teams.

Jammin 99 will carry the Tarboro-East Duplin game. Since that is the longest trip for our two local teams that is probably a good game to carry on the radio.

Andrew Morales, Matt Williams and Drew Gorham were named to the all region soccer team. They were the heart and soul of Gryphon soccer team that won the most games in a season 22. Drew Gorham was also voted the Defensive player of the year in the Big East and Coach Drew Nic was voted coach of the year.

Six Gryphons were named all conference team. Joining Morales, Williams and Gorham were Paul Lilley, Mark Gray and Robert Chambliss.

Raleigh Native Josh Hamilton was voted the MVP of the American League yesterday. I don’t know whether there is any MOJO here or not but Philip Rivers who spent four years in Raleigh playing for N C State has a shot at being MVP of the NFL.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski won his 800th game at Duke last night as Duke won the championship of the O’Reilly Auto Parts classic beating #4 Kansas State 82-68. Carolina won over Asheville but not impressively 80-69

We are celebrating Thanksgiving. It is a time to be thankful. We have so much in this world now-a-days to be thankful for that we forget that this cell phone, cable TV, and computers world we live in didn’t just happen and here it is. Soldiers fought for the privilege for us to live this way. Farmers grow the crops that we go to the grocery store to buy. We all have to remember Harris Teeter just doesn’t have all this food in the back room to go get when we want it.

We must be thankful to our creator who has blessed us with all that we have and yes he keeps providing to us even when we let him down.

Have a wonderful holiday whether you get one day off or get a four day holiday but let’s remember to be thankful.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Defending Champs Off And Running

The opening night of the high school basketball season brought J H Rose to take on the Gryphons and you missed a good one tonight. Both teams were athletic and considering it was the opening game well played.

Mike Gainey sent out senior transfer Exzavier Cooper to play in his first Gryphon game and at the other end started a freshman big man as part of the Tashawn Mabry less Gryphons. Cooper who has been the big talk during the summer did not disappoint scoring 22 points and grabbed six rebounds. Freshman Dante Battle at 6 feet four inches got a double double in his first high school game getting 13 points and grabbing ten rebounds.

Rose hit a three point shot to take a 70-69 lead only to see the Gryphons drain a three and three straight trips down court the Gryphons forced turn overs and took advantage to beat Rose tonight 79-70.

Kenyatta Bullock scored all 11 of his points in the fourth quarter and three of his shots were part of a fourth quarter as each team match three pointers. Tacoby Hines hindered with foul trouble score 11 but sat the entire third quarter waiting for the fourth quarter push.

Tonight the Gryphons down 4-A Rose 79-70 a game in which every fan got their money's worth. MJ made his varsity debut coming off the bench and scored six points . MJ is Mike Gainey Jr. Terrell Hilliard had five, Kenneth Peoples 4, Bruce Applewhite had 3 . Tobias Hilliard and Damien Strickland each had two points.

Surprisingly enough the game was very smooth for the most part with Rose having 18 turnovers and the Gryphons 17. Rose won the rebound battle 35-33.

Pam Gainey put one of her taller teams that she has ever had on the court but you can believe they started out in man to man full court pressure. This team is quick and if it wasn't for a bucket by Rose with 2.6 seconds to play in the quarter Rose would not have gotten a field goal. The Lady Gryphons lead 27-3 at the quarter, 47-10 at the half and wins it 67-40.

12 Lady Gryphons played in the first half multiple minutes. Rocky Mount caused 35 turnovers but they themselves had 32. A very big disappointment for the Ladies was that they only made 5 of 22 fouls shots.

Sophomore JKYria Brown who like Cooper for the boys has been the big talk this summer coming off her knee surgery as a freshman did not disappoint either the Gryphon fans scoring 13 but the Lady Gryphons were lead by Tia Hudgins had her way underneath scoring 18. Timisha Walker had double figures with 10 then Tyais Cooper had 8, Kashunn Seabreeze collected 6, Kelsey Daniels had 4,Precious White 4, and Marquita Hines had 2.

Last year during the State championship game the Gryphons carried a pep band with them to Chapel Hill and tonight the pep band was in full force giving all the fans music during halftimes and when the cheerleaders were not on the court during timeouts. I really think pep bands add a lot to the atmosphere to any game.

Gryphons are in action Friday and Saturday in the Knightdale tournament again this year.