Gryphons Sprint To Regionals

THE NCHSAA HAS RESEEDED THE EAST REGIONAL AND THE GRYPHONS PLAY NORTH GUILFORD AT 7.00PM THURSDAY NIGHT AT MINGES AT WILLIAMS ARENA AT ECU

I mentioned when talking about Wednesday's victory over West Craven that one of the Assistant coaches had said walking off the court the the Gryphons were too quick and long. Well, Friday night that was apparent again as the Gryphons were able to come up with rebounds on the third attempt while C B Aycock would still be finishing their second jump at the rebound.

A major improvement in this years team is their ball handling and again tonight the play of Darius McKnight,Kenyatta Bullock and William Young lead the Gryphons. The turnover match up wound up 15 a piece in the game but with two minutes to go in the third quarter the Gryphons had committed only five. By that point in the game the Gryphons had control.

Darius McKnight lead the way for the Gryphons being one of five double digit scorers with 15 points and also showed that rebounding quickness with eleven rebounds. Detrail Jenkins was also a double double man with eleven points and twelve rebounds. The Gryphons win going away despite Tashawn Mabry sitting more than he wanted to with foul trouble but in limited play Tashawn gets seventeen points points and nine rebounds. William Young and Terrell Hilliard were double digit scorers from off the bench with eleven and ten points.

Mike Gainey earns his third trip to Greenville and the regional for the third time in nine years. The Gryphons will be matched up against South Central who beat Fike 77-57 and are sporting a 27-1 record. The other regional semi final will send two Mid Piedmont conference teams against each other as NE Guilford beat Southern Lee 60-50 and Northern Guilford edged Westover 59-58.

The 3-A regional is Thursday night and who plays in the early game or late game is not yet announced but with two teams from the same conference matched up in one game I can't see that game being the feature 8.30 game Thursday night. South Central being a local Greenville team and Rocky Mount from just down the road I would suspect you are going to have to be there before the first game starts if you want a seat in the 8,000 seat Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.

According to the NCHSAA website the matchups may be reseeded today and Rocky Mount very well may get one of the Guilford county schools in the Thursday game.

The lone Big East girls team finished their season last night losing to South Central 66-35. The Girls regional at Rose High school will feature two conference matchups. South Central and Havelock from the Coastal and Westover and Union Pines from the Cape Fear Valley tangle.