Gryphons Rebound

The Rocky Mount boys and girls basketball teams rebounded to night after both being clipped by Fike last Friday night. The start of the last week of the regular season the Gryphons hosted cross county rival Southern Nash and neither Gryphon team was very hospitable. The girls stay tied for first with a 52-36 win while the boys won by twenty 79-59.

The Lady Gryphons were lead in the second half by a very aggressive Danita Whitaker as she scored 12 of her 16 points in the second half and got ten rebounds most came after halftime. Tia Hudgins and Latoya Applewhite hit double digits with 11 and 10 each.

Southern Nash out rebounded the Lady Gryphons 36-29 but the difference in the game was the turnover difference. The Gryphons only committed 14 but the Gryphon defense caused 32.

The boys action saw the Gryphons trying to hold on to their one game conference lead and if one thing stood out to me was that Southern has about three players that can play with any body. Their problem is Rocky Mount has ten who can play with anybody and the Gryphons slowly pulled away for the 20 point win.

As usual Tashawn Mabry lead the way with 24, followed by William Young who tossed in four three pointers in collecting 16 points. Detrail Jenkins was the only other Gryphon to hit double figures.

The missed game last week due to the snow will be made up Wednesday night as Hunt comes to Rocky Mount. Wayne Wallace who does double duty as NC Wesleyan and Rocky Mount on the PA will be at Wesleyan Wednesday night so I will be behind the PA mic for Senior night.

Saw this today on Nick Phillips Blog concerning Gryphon Wrestler Chandler Phillips. Chandler who won the conference crown last Saturday at Northern Nash in the 140 pound weight class won his fourth conference championship as a Gryphon wrestler.

I don't know how many times that has ever been done at Rocky Mount or any where for that matter but winning four straight conference titles is close to winning the lottery, it is not done every day.

His freshman year, Chandler won the conference championship as a 112 pounder. Growing each year as a sophomore he won as a 125 pounder and as a junior won the 135 division. Going into the Tuesday night's first round of the playoff Chandler Phillips was 30-2 this year wrestling for the Gryphons.

With these kind of numbers Chandler has to be considered one of the greatest Gryphon wrestlers of all time.