Gryphons Sweep Titles

I walked in the gym tonight at 5.30 and there was well over 100 people standing in line to get into tonight's championship games. They also had a counter standing near the security screening and they were counting people as they entered. Entering the gym there was already 500 sitting and watching an empty floor waiting to see any thing at that point.

If you were a Gryphon fan you got your monies worth and if you pulled for Northern and about half the gym did they went home sad. Lady Gryphons pulled away late to take the Women's Big East title 55-40 while the men's game went right down to the last turnover before the Gryphons walk off winners 71-68.

The Ladies were playing for the #1 seed in the sectionals and to say that the blood was flying was no lie as Charice Bullock of Northern just maybe had her front teeth knocked out in the second quarter as it was that kind of game. Rocky Mount played without starting guard Marquita Hines who injured her wrist in last night's win in the semi finals. Eight players played for Rocky Mount but mostly Pam Gainey went with six players for most of the game. The Gryphons were prepared tonight for the smothering defense that Northern laid on them last Friday night.

J'Kyra Brown the tournament MVP scored 18 points sharing the point guard duty with Carmen Richardson and Ty'ais Cooper. Tia Hudgins (All Tournament) lead the scoring with 19 and Timisha Walker got 10 rebounds.

Khadijah Richardson lead Northern with 12. Rocky Mount stopped Jasmine Griffin who scored 23 inside last night but collected only five tonight. Rocky Mount heads into the State Playoffs 23-3 while Northern isn't shabby at all at 19-3.

The boys game can be summed it easily. Turnovers! Northern had 30 while the Gryphons had 17 but the second half was the tale. Northern had 18 turnovers while Rocky Mount just had 6 and Northern went from leading by six at the half to down by as many as 10 with three minutes to play.

Exzavier Cooper saved his best game as a Gryphon for tonight as he scored 28 and won the MVP. One of the hottest players in the league right now Terrell Hilliard scored 13 and joined the all tournament team.

The Freeman Brothers Darius 13 points 12 rebounds and DeShawn 15 points 11 rebounds were also named all tournament. Northern won the rebounding battle 38-26 but the turnovers were too much to over come. Mitchell Wells had one of his games of his career for Northern with 14 points.

Rocky Mount heads into the playoffs 19-7 and a #2 seed and Northern 16-8 a 4 seed. The brackets will be out Saturday afternoon for the upcoming state playoffs.

The NCHSAA disqualified Hunt from the wrestling playoffs as well as several other teams for not reporting their correct record. It is a shame that players work so hard to excel in their sport and they lose it all because someone wasn't paying attention.