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.

Sectional Finals Tonight!

I understand WNCT channel 9 in Greenville has a story on line about Terry Pittman the Red Oak Middle school student who had the severe spinal injury in September. Their story which ran on the news last night shows Terry walking the halls at Red Oak. It is a blessing for Terry and Colt Brake. There have been times in the past injuries like they had meant permanent disability for the remainder of their lives.

Improvements in medicine plays a part but I think in both of these cases the power of prayer has had an extreme part in people being united in helping both get well. Their journeys are not over in recovery.

Tonight it is the Big East against the Coastal for sectional championships and the right to move on the East Regional. The Big East has a higher seeding priority this year and all four games are being played at Big East Gyms.

Northern Nash girls take on #2 seed Havelock at Northern while in Rocky Mount the #1 seeded Lady Gryphons take on South Central. These two have had a home and home series in December and South Central won both close games. There is the old saying it is hard to beat a team three times in a season and we hope that holds true tonight.

Hunt the #1 seed in the Big East boys is hosting #1 Coastal South Central while as the second game of a double header in Rocky Mount the Gryphons the #2 in the Big East host Coastal #2 West Craven. These two met in the second round last year in Rocky Mount. Winning the State Championship last year and surviving the first two rounds this year Rocky Mount has won eight straight playoff games.

The way the brackets are set up winning the sectionals will send each winner against each other next week in Fayetteville. If Rocky Mount and Hunt both win tonight they will square off against each other in the regional. If Northern Nash and Rocky Mount girls win then they have to travel all the way to Fayetteville to meet each other for a fifth time this year. I think we all are pulling for it to happen. Charles Alston has reminded me that Regional reseed so we will have to wait to see if all four of our teams make it and whether reseeding will matter to us either way.

Tonight if you are going to be in the gym at Rocky Mount then you get to hear me on PA. Wayne Wallace the PA Voice of The Gryphons is doing PA at Wesleyan tonight in the semi finals of their conference tournament. I know Wayne wants to do both. Did you see the “Telegram” this Morning as they have an article on Wayne retiring after this weekend from Wesleyan PA announcing?

Gryphon baseball finished up their scrimmages yesterday traveling to Bunn. The e-mail that I got said the Gryphons won 29-8 give or take a run or two. Season opener is Tuesday at Rose.

The state wrestling tournament got underway last night and last until Saturday afternoon. Ten Nash County wrestlers are vying for state championships. I hope we have some winners, that way we can do a live wrestling show on WHIG-TV like we just did last weekend for indoor track. If it happens it would be on TV next weekend.

Whether it is at Northern or Rocky Mount, go cheer for our local teams in their quest to make the eastern regional in basketball. GO Gryphons –Gryphons- and Knights!