Rocky Mount High School survived a barrage of threes from the Red Tornado's of Hickory and win their fifth STATE Basketball title with a going away 78-64 Saturday night in the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill.
Hickory made four of seven three pointers in the first quarter and jump out to an 18-10 first quarter lead. The score just might have been worse if it were not for Donte Battle who as a sophomore for the Gryphons brought his Man's game to the Hill and by games end had earned the games MVP honors scoring 20 points but he was THE MAN on the boards hauling down 16 missed shots.
Eleven seconds into the second quarter Hickory built their biggest lead of the game which was 11 points and for the next three minutes or so the Gryphons did good to keep the Tornado's within 11. Hickory made 7 of 12 threes in the first half. It has happened to everyone who has met up with the Gryphons in 2012 the wave after wave of pressure from the Gryphons finally wilted Hickory and by halftime the lead was only three.
The third quarter was owned by the Gryphons and finally all those threes that went in in the first half finally started clanking off the iron for Hickory. The Gryphon lead was six at the quarter but swelled to 17 by the time Mike Gainey put in the bench including MJ Gainey but MJ was not about to just hold the ball like D J Walker did who had missed all the games since January of 2010. MJ fired up a 25 footer and missed everything but the floor. As the clocked tick down to two seconds a teammate found MJ under the basket and MJ scored the final two points of the game for the victorious Gryphons.
Terrill Hilliard did not score for the Gryphons until the second quarter but finished as high man scoring 21. He was voted the East Regional Champs player of the game.. K J Peoples got his slam dunk in the Dean Dome finished with 12 while Tabias Hilliard had 10 and many came at the foul line late as Hickory was forced to foul. Levon Brutus had 9 points.
Hickory finished the game shooting 10-23 from beyond the three point line while the Gryphons did not make one. This game was won inside and the Gryphons out rebounded Hickory 51-38. Battled collected 16, Terrill Hilliard had 11 and K J Poeples 9 rebounds.
Rocky Mount out scored the Red Tornados 50-16 in the paint. The Gryphons score 26 points off of 20 Hickory turnovers. while the Gryphons had a nice game only losing the ball 18 times for the game. The Gryphons shot 41% for the game and Hickory finished 21-66 for the game and of those 21 made shots 10 counted three points each.
About 900 fans were waiting for the Grypons to cut down one of the nets when they got back home and spoils go to the victors as they will appear on WHIG-TV Sunday night at 8.00pm.
THE ROCKY MOUNT GRYPHONS ARE THE 2012 3-A STATE CHAMPIONS beating Hickory 78-64
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