Gryphons-Lady Knights CHAMPS

I don't know whether I have enough space to tell you about the Rocky Mount-Nash Central boys game.  Tied 31-31 at the half Rocky Mount came out of the locker room and for six minutes played like State Champs running out to a 55-35 lead. The next five minutes Nash Central look like champions as they cut the 20 point lead to one with 5:11 to play in the game. Over the next four and a half minutes Rocky Mount got the lead back to ten and even cleared the bench with 30 seconds to play but Nash Central hit two threes and with ten seconds to play had cut the lead to 71-67.  Gryphons win 73-67.

Levon Brutus had the Tournament of his life scoring 25 points and earning the MVP honors.  Sophomore Donte Battle when ever he realized that he is big at 6 feet six and broad shoulders and if he plays as aggressive as he played the first three quarters all the time then the next two and half years the Gryphons are in good hands, Donte had 15 points.  Tevin Taylor added three treys right when Rocky Mount could't  miss a three had several steals and got every rebound. He score 11 on the night.  Terrell Hilliard also score 11 but left several points  on the foul line.

Interesting enough Rocky Mount lead by 11 in the second quarter only to see Daniel Pittman hit a three off an inbound pass with .9 tenths of a second to go in the half.  I thought when the clock was less than a second you had to throw the ball up as quickly as possible but Pittman faked took one dribble and fired up a 22 foot shot and the horn didn't sound until the ball was halfway toward the goal heading to the bottom of the net.

Nathaniel Pittman did all he could do to keep Nash Central in the game scoring 27.  Teammates Jalen Hendricks and Christian Jones had 11 and 10 points.  Southern Nash's Josh Sessom, Daryl Purdy of Northern, Nathaniel Pittman, Donte Battle and Terrell Hilliard were on the all tournament team.

The girls games was Northern jumping to a 14 point lead and held that rate for a good part of three quarters until Nash Central cut the lead to ten and had the ball but never got closer than ten points.  The last couple of minutes Northern finally was able to rid themselves of the pesky Lady Bulldogs and win the Nash County Holiday Tournament 56-34.  It was Nash Central's first loss of the season.

Northern had only one player to hit double figures and that was Kadeshia Richardson  with  10.  What Northern got was ten players scoring and all played tall, aggressive defense, dominated the boards and had plenty of fouls to go around without being in foul trouble. The Lady Knights made it to the Regional last season and they look better right now than they did  then.

The Tournament MVP was Sophomore Alexis Hill and joining her on the all tournament team was J'Kyra Brown of Rocky Mount, Kadeshia Manning of Southern Nash, Niya Styles of Nash Central, Timyra Staton of Nash Central and Kadeshia Richardson of Northern.

The boys consolation game  Southern Nash whipped Northern 61-32.  The third quarter they had expanded the lead to 38-8 before Northern got any offense going.