Thunder Dunk by Tashawn Mabry
Photo by::
Morgan Doughtie
Charles Alston asked Mike Gainey in the media interview room following the game how he felt having just won the Eastern 3-A regional. Gainey couldn't fine the words but did say this "It feels good, All I know is we are going to the SHIP". For those of you who aren't up on the talk in the hallways of Rocky Mount High school the State ChampionSHIP is next Saturday at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill.
Rocky Mount was bigger and just as fast as Northeast Guilford and the combination proved deathly for the Rams. Guilford jumped out to a 7-2 lead but the Gryphons spurted on a 17-4 run and never looked back in beating The Rams 85-64.
Rocky Mount made an astounding 37 out of 39 free throws and by having the lead forced the Rams to fouls when they couldn't steal the ball. Northeast Guilford trailed 56-42 at the start of the fourth quarter and cut the lead to 60-51 when Rocky Mount exploded as they went to a spread offense but instead of holding on to the ball they attacked the basket. The Gryphons scored 29 points in the fourth quarter including 20 by Tashawn Mabrey who maybe played his best basketball game of his career as he scored 37 points.
Billy Young controlling the ball took it to the hole where several times Mabrey was free to send a Thunder dunk into the bottom of the net, Just over a minute to go one of those dunks almost took two Rams with the ball which put the Gryphon crowd into a victory frenzy.
Games like this aren't won by just one player as Tecoby Hines who failed to score played brilliantly on defense as did Terrell Hilliard coming off the bench. Detrail Jenkins once again scores double digits with 15 points and missed a double double by one as he had 9 rebounds.
The Gryphons play next Saturday night at 7:30pm at the Dean E Smith Center on the campus of UNC for the State 3-A Title. Right now I'm not sure who we play and at this moment don't care who we play but we will be there in the SHIP.
