Refocused

Last year on the way to the State 3-A basketball title the Rocky Mount Gryphons took part in the 40th anniversary of the Holiday Tournament called these days the High school OT.  The Gryphons were rolling along and gave up an 17 point lead on their way to a loss.  That team learned a lot that day about how to handle big leads.  By the time the State playoffs rolled around nobody caught the Gryphons once they hit a double digit lead.

This week in the opening game Northside Christian Academy laid a hurting on the Gryphons winning by 14.  Yesterday Nuese Christian Academy played the wrong team at the wrong time as the refocused Gryphons put 103 points on the board to work their way today  to the fifth place game of the Tobacco Road Holiday Invitational Tournament in Durham.  Freedom High from Morganton played the Gryphons today and today the Gryphons spank the 4-A Freedom 101-70.

The Gryphons finish fifth in their tournament and with the win their record is now 10-1.  They will not return to action until Wednesday night when they host Rose.  They will host Nash Central in a rematch of the Nash County Tournament Friday night as they open conference play.

Today N C State beats a decent Western  Michigan who might surprise you is in the top 40 in the RIP.  The Pack 10-2 seems poised for conference play which starts next week and Januaray 12th looms large when Duke comes to Raleigh.

Carolina got a really nice win today beating UNLV ranked 20th ahead of Carolina in the polls.  Today was one of those games that so far this season maybe would have lost this one progress being shown by theTar Heels.  The Heels have a week off before they open conference play and with today's win are 10-3.

Duke took the best shot Santa Clara could give them today but who in non conference can beat Duke at home.  The Dookies always seem to get a player every year that plays out of his mind.  That player this year is Mason Plumlee.  He just might be the player of the year in the country at least as of right now.

You know the Cincinnati-Duke Belk Bowl game just might be the best bowl game all holidays.  The next night Virginia Tech and Rutgers played and what we hope is the worse bowl game of the year.  If there is any one worse than that one God help us to endure through it.