Do you Know The Way To Fayetteville?

Three Nash County teams entered tonight with a shot at the regional next week in Fayetteville and two are going. The Lady Knights of Northern Nash and the boys of Rocky Mount have won their second straight sectional and will return to the regional for the second year in a row.

The Eagles of West Craven took advantage of two Gryphon turnovers the first minute and a half of the boys game causing Mike Gainey to use a quick time out trailing 7-0. Fresh from the time out Tevin Taylor and Kenyatta Bullock made five straight three pointers in about two minutes and all together scored 19 points in a row for the Gryphons. Their rain of threes sent the crowd into a tizzy and the Gryphon defense smothered the Eagles and before the they could blink trailed 19-9. From that point on the Gryphons controlled the game hitting 100 points before it was all over. Rocky Mount 101-West Craven 85.

Once the three point barrage was over the Gryphons relied on defense and fast breaks to score at will as the Eagles could never stop Rocky Mount long enough to get any closer than 14 in the second half.

Terrell Hilliard led the Gryphon scoring with 22, Tecoby Hines followed with 17. The double digit scoring was not over as Kenyatta Bullock added 16, Exzavier Cooper 14 and Tevin Taylor 13. The biggest cheer of the night was when Tabias Hilliard drilled a three with over a minute to play which gave the Gryphons triple points with 100.

Rocky Mount won the rebound battle 30-25 and the Eagles committed 21 turnovers to 18 for the Gryphons. Aaron Pate lead the Eagles with 22 while teammate Tony Cox had 21. Gryphons have too much team speed for the Eagles and advance to the Eastern Regional this year having moved from Greenville to Fayetteville.

Rocky Mount heads to the Regional winners of nine straight playoff games over two years. Monday there will a regional meeting where the seedings will be announced.

Rocky Mount 101 West Craven 85

Northern Nash girls jumped all over Havelock Rams girls from the get go tonight leading early 16-2. Northern never let Havelock get much closer and have advanced to the girls regional in Fayetteville whipping Havelock 60-48. Grover Battle will join Mike Gainey in the regional meeting Monday to learn what the girls bracket will be.

Northern Nash 60 Havelock 48

Ever since the last regular season game of the year when Northern whipped the Lady Gryphons at home the Gryphon ball handling has been suspect at best. Tonight against a South Central team with two of their players heading to Division 1 basketball the Lady Gryphons needed ball handling. The December meetings between South Central and Rocky Mount the Falcons had proven to be taller and quicker than the Lady Gryphons . Two months later South Central was just as tall and had not lost one bit of speed either. When you throw in the Gryphon lack of confidence handling the ball and in the end South Central will return to the Regional slamming Rocky Mount 72-52.

Carolina bound Danielle Butts lead the way with 25 for the Falcons. Amber Clark and Janesha Ebron each added 15. Timisha Walker playing her last game for Rocky Mount single handedly kept the Gryphons in the game in the first half scored 16 but there was too much Falcons in the end. J'Kyra Brown lead the Gryphons with 19. Rocky Mount committed 29 turnovers while the Falcons had just ten. Rocky Mount had a 38- 17 advantage in rebound but the turnovers were just too much to overcome.