The ChampionSHIP & The Celebration

ChampionSHIP Belongs In Gryphon Land

Rocky Mount High school rode all the way to the Hill to bring home the state 3-A championship back to the MOUNT.

The Grypons jumped on the Spiders early and raced to a 22-12 lead late in the first quarter and all of a sudden Tashawn Mabry comes up gimpy and Rocky Mount lost all the MO they had going. Before the half ended Concord had trimmed the Gryphon lead to two.

Some where early in the third quarter Mabry decided pain or not it was time to go and the Gryphons went, building as much as a twelve point lead until a scrappy bunch from Concord did everything they could muster from JacQuise Moore who took game high scoring honors with 28.

Mabry who had six at the half collected 20 in the second half and 26 for the game earning the MVP of the Championship game. Mabry gathered ten rebounds and had a double double but he was joined in the double-double game by Detrail Jenkins with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Darius McKnight who earned the Eastern Champion award as the best player poured in 14 points and he was joined in double digits by Billy Young with 12.

You can not win a championship without unsung hero's and Marcus Jones, Kenyatta Bullock and Terrell Hilliard all gave us performances that we could not have won without them.

Concord wanted to make a living off the full court pressure but one of the keys stats of the game was the Gryphons committed only 15 turnovers. The smaller Spiders out rebounded the Gryphons in the first half 25-22, but it was all Gryphons in the second half winning the boards 25-12. Gryphons are State 3-A Champions 84-79 over Concord.

It is hard to tell how many folks were there tonight from Rocky Mount but my guess is 7,000. About 750 of those fans were in the gym at midnight to welcome the champs home. The NCHSAA will not allow any team to cut down the nets after their championship because there were four games there and they would have had to replace the nets at the end of every game. So the Gryphons cut down the nets at Rocky Mount High school at around 12.30am.

The clock said 12.58am when we arrived home. It is day light saving spring forward so it was actually 1.58am. I have to be at church at 8.00am so there will be no pictures tonight. Sunday afternoon we will display the Pictures Morgan took for the yearbook.

WAY TO GO GRYPHONS!!!!!!!!!! STATE CHAMPS