Who'd You Expect

Rocky Mount and Northern Nash girls will meet for the championship of the Nash County Christmas tournament after both won their opening night games and will meet for the first time this season but it probably won't be their last time against each other. The opening game was the best game of the night as once beaten Nash Central girls took on the Lady Gryphons who come in at 4-2. This one found Rocky Mount ahead 36-32 in the third quarter but the Lady Bulldogs scored 11 straight points to lead 43-36. The fourth quarter the Gryphons attacked the basket driving to the basket producing scores rebounds or fouls going to the free throw line and the Lady Gryphons pull out a 60-53 victory. The Lady Gryphons play in the championship game Thursday night at 6:30 while the Lady Bulldogs play again Wednesday night at 6pm against Southern Nash. The home team Northern Nash will play against Rocky Mount Thursday night. Carmen Richardson lead Rocky Mount with 22 followed by Keyanna Spivey 13 and T T Thomas 12. Nash Central was lead by Deztanie Hill 14, Ni'ya Styles 13 and Alexia Jones 12. When you win the rebound game 51-19 you would expect the team to win and that is exactly what happened as the Lady Knights Of Northern dominate Southern Nash 61-39 but at one point it was 50-20 before the subs finished the game. Alexis Hill lead the way with 18 points and she was one of six Knights to get at least four rebounds. Kia Thomas added 12 points and 11 rebounds. Northern's record jumps to 7-1 while Southern drops to 4-6. The lone boys game of the night featured the home standing Knights 3-5 against cross county rival Southern Nash 3-7. From the get go Southern found open shots and they made them leading to a 42-29 lead at the half. Northern's defense tightened up in the second half but they were never able to get closer than eight but the last 90 seconds the game became a romp for Southern winning 79-61. Southern had five players in double digits In scoring lead by Deon Lavendar 15, Tahj Deans 14, Aaron Newkirk 14 Bryan a Vines 13 and Richard Hall 13 . Demonte Johnson lead Northern with 17 followed by Isacc Dupree 16 and Paul Cherry 14. Southern will play in the championship game Thursday at 8pm against the winner Wednesday night between Rocky Mount and Nash Central while Northern will play the loser of Wednesdays game at 5pm. ECU freshman J'Kyra Brown was named Monday as the rookie of the week in Conference-USA after scoring 22points last weekend for the Pirates. So far in her freshman season J is averaging 6.8 points for a one loss Pirate team.