Gryphons sweep Rampants

Those of you that were in attendance at the boys game between Rose and Rocky Mount two weeks ago probably left as I did that night thinking that the Rampants would beat the Gryphons at Rose.

Not so fast my friend. Rose started quickly bombing away three point baskets and getting every loose ball and shot to a 21-9 lead early in the second quarter. Looking at the score board you would think the Gryphons were lucky to be so close, but then it happened. Those bombs stopped falling and the Gryphons took control of the boards.

A nice spurt by the Gryphons just before the half cut the lead to 27-23 Rose. Rocky Mount scored the first seven points of the third quarter and from that point on the Gryphons ran and ran and ran beating Rose 70-59. Towards the end those early three point bombs started falling again for Rose other wise this one would have been near a twenty point win.

Exzavier Cooper lead the scoring with 18, but this was not a one man night tonight as every man that played did what the team needed to win. Kenyatta Bullock netted 13, Tecoby Hines added 13 in the second half. Donte Battle as a six feet four inch freshman finds himself lined up every game against the other teams biggest player and tonight Donte added 7 points. MJ Gainey score 7 off the bench Tevin Taylor is beginning to find his shooting eye tossed in 6.

The Gryphons won the war on the boards 34-29 with Battle corralling 9, Exzavier snagged 7 and Tecoby Hines and Tevin Taylor each had six.

The girls game found the Lady Gryphons hitting the floor minus J'Kyra Brown who tweeked her knee that she had surgery on last year and sat tonight just for precaution. Tia Hudgins decided that she would pick up the slack and when the first team left the court with two minutes and 36 seconds to go in the game Hudgins had 27 points and Rose had 24. The bad news for Rose was that Tia's other teammates added 22 more as the Lady Gryphons pound Rose 49-29.

Marquita Hines and Tyais Cooper scored six points a piece, Timisha Walker had five, Kushunn Seabreeze collect 3 and Carmen Richardson rounded out the scoring with 2.

Rocky Mount dominated the boards winning that 40-22 with Hudgins getting 8 and Walker 7. The Lady Gryphon defense caused 27 turnovers but one major area of concern is at the free stripe. The Lady Gryphons were a dismal 10-28 so can you imagine what the score could have been in this one.

Both gryphon teams are now 9-2 and have games Monday in the Nash County Christmas Tournament. The Ladies play the second game Monday night at 6.30 and the boys follow at 8.00pm. They both play Southern Nash.

Not often do you ride to Greenville and win at any thing against Rose and tonight including both JV teams the Gryphons come home with four wins.

Unfinished Business

There are times when there is too much going on and it is hard to get all the info you know out in a timely manner. I am late with the all-conference Big East football team.

I don't know how many times there has ever been an all conference team with three brothers on it but Northern and Hunt lead the way with the team. T J Marshall and brothers Travonne and Tevin are part of an 11 man Northern squad making the all conference team.
T j is joined on the offense by Rashad Hedgepeth, Mitchell Wells, Rob Richwalski and Tavis Richardson.

Northern defense is lead by Travonne Marshall who was voted part of a trio as Big East defensive players of the year. Brother Tevin, Brandon Dawes, Quan Silver an Donavan Cooper make up the biggest Northern all conference team in quite a while.

Coach Mickey Crouch joined Hunt's Randy Raper in being named co-coach of the year.

Nash Central placed four members on the offensive team - Jalen Hendricks, Keiffer Griffin, Greg Arrington and Dequan Battle. They added another four on defense- Jeffery Lucas, Mason Wallace, Letovis davis and Chris Bullock.

Southern Nash placed four on offense and four on defense. Tracy Coppedge, Trendell Lynch, Terron Huffman and Tony Williams were the offensive players while Brandon Jones was also part of the three person defensive player of the year, AAron McFarland, Alkeen Thomas and Josh Sessoms were the defensive all conference players.

Rocky Mount placed six player. Rodquez Greene, Damien Strickland and Conner Daughtridge were the offense players while Nah'jerrelle Graves, Miguel Valdez and Darryn Lewis were the defense.

Rocky Mount had two tough basketball games Wednesday at Hertford County but both teams won. Tonight they travel to Rose in their last action before Monday's Christmas Tourament. I would suspect tonight's boys game will be a nail biter as the game here last week was a run and gun game with a court full of athletes on both sides.