First Time Ever

For the first time in Rocky Mount Basketball history, both the mens team and the womens team will play in the Regional Championship Game Saturday at Crown Colisuem. Much in the same fashion as the ladies did last night the Gryphons cruised in the fourth quarter and beat the number 1 seed in the Sectional West Craven Eagles 73 to 53.

The Rocky Mount Gryphons basketball team came to Fayetteville to take on the 29 and 1 West Craven Eagles. The Gryphons come in to this game under extreme pressure. Not only are they playing a once defeated team but they certainly want to do as good as the Gryphon girls and win a regional basketball game. Once inside the arena we discovered that Coach Mike Gainey is a little under the weather. To add to the Gryphons problem the girls basketball team had practice this afternoon and was bringing the cheerleaders to the game and they were late getting to the coliseum.

The opening tap was won by West Craven and in a matter of seconds they had a 2 to 0 lead. A quick turnover by the Gryphons and a 3 point basket by West Craven and the score was 5-0. The Gryphons finally settled in to play and took control of the first quarter. Gryphon big man Donte Battle led the way scoring 6 points in the first quarter. The leading scorer for the Eagles, Josh Cuthbertson was shut out in the first quarter and the Gryphons lead 19 to 10.

The second quarter was pretty even and Cuthbertson did not like Lavone Brutus being in his shirt on defense which led to a technical foul on both players and the Gryphons led 24 to 14 and all the way to the half it was pretty even with the Gryphons leading 36 to 26 at the half.

The Eagles came out with a surge to start the third quarter and cut the lead to 7 but the Gryphons responded and pretty much kept WC at bay the remainder of the quarter.. The Gryphons had foul trouble as Donte Battle had to sit with more than 4 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter with 4 fouls. Mike Gainey and his coaching staff decided to go to a zone defense to protect other players who were also nearing foul trouble. Now in a zone defense the WC offense was not able to penetrate to the basket and had to rely on outside shouting and their offense momentum stalled. The Gryphons led 52 to 40 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The fourth quarter the Gryphons went to a more spread offense and many of their points came on back door with layups at the baskets. By games end the Gryphons had stretched the game to 20 and the subs were in. KJ Peoples led the Gryphons scoring 18 but there was plenty of help to go around as Terrill Hillard had 13, Lavone Brutus and Donte Battle had 12 each.

The top 2 scorers for WC were held to 22 points. Josh Cuthbertson had 11 and Aaron Tate had 11. Tyrone Brown also contributed 11. In the end, the Gryphons had too much defense for the Eagles.

IT'S A GOOD NIGHT TO BE A GRYPHON!!!

  Both mens and womens teams with play Saturday in the Regional finals with the girls tap off at Noon and the boys to follow at about 2:30. We are at this time hoping to carry both games on WZAX 99.3 . The next Rocky Mount team to play will be the Jaguars of Rocky Mount Prep who play in the 1-A semi's on Friday night. There is a good chance that you can come to Fayetteville Saturday and watch 3 Rocky Mount teams. If the Jags win Friday night they will play at 6:00pm Saturday.

Undefeated NO More

The top 2 seeds in the Eastern Sectional undefeated West Craven 29-0 met the Gryphons of Rocky Mount High School 26-2 in the opening game of the Eastern Regional of 3-A High School Basketball. Both teams earned their way to the Regionals after successfully winning 3 games in the Sectional on their home courts last week. The game started at 7:00 pm at Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville.

Carmen Richardson made a lay up at the end of the 3rd quarter to give the Gryphons a 50 to 46 lead and that was the momentum changer that a game for 3 quarters had gone back and forth turned the  Gryphons way. The Gryphons lead 50 to 46 at the third.

The Gryphons came out and blitzed the Eagles in the first couple of minutes to jump to a 61 to 48 lead. For the last 5 minutes of the game Rocky Mount ran  a motion offense keeping the ball away from the Eagles. The Gryphons advance to the Regional Final  after holding WC to only 4 points while the Gryphons score 21.

FINAL SCORE Gryphons 71  WC 50.

The game started out as a run and gun a fair. You could tell these were 2 quality teams going head to head. At the end of the first quarter the game was tied 16-16. The second quarter started out just like the first quarter and both teams were going up and down the court. The two super star players, one on each team showed their super star status. J'Kyra Brown led the way for the Gryphons scoring 16 points. Jamie Cherry their top scorer led the way the way with 15. Tia Hudgins added 10 for the Gryphons. West Craven dominated the boards mostly on the offensive end as they had 25 rebounds to the Gryphons 15. West Craven had 7 turnovers where the Gryphons only had 6. This was truly 2 top teams going head to head in the first half.

J Brown led the Gryphons scoring 31 points but she had plenty of help. Tia Hudgins 19, Carmen Richardson had 9 as the leading scorers for the Gryphons. Jamie Cherry led the Eagles scoring 21.
WC led the rebounding with 31 but only got 6 in the second half. Rocky Mount finished the game with 27.

The Lady Gryphons advance to the Regional finals Saturday at high Noon at Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville. They will play Burlington Williams who was a 47-46 winner over Chapel Hill.  The Gryphon boys who were in attendance to watch their girl teammates will play their Regional game Wednesday night at 7:00 pm at Crown.

GRYPHONS 71  West Craven 50