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.