The Greatest Game Of The Week

We hear all the time that a boxing match is the greatest match ever.  Football games are the biggest of the century.  Tuesday night Rocky Mount Girls travel to Northern Nash in what is becoming the biggest game of the week.  They met five times last season and already played for the Nash County Christmas Tournament Championship this year.  That one on a neutral floor went over time to decide a winner.

Two years ago Northern made it to the Regional representing the Big East.  Last season it was Rocky Mount.  Which one will it be just could be determined by who gets the #1 seed in the playoffs because the one that finishes second will probably wind up at South Central some where along the way in the Sectional.

I make all of this speculation base on every team staying healthy throughout the remainder of the season.  I previously spoke of Alexus Hill not returning to Northern's lineup in their victory over Fike on Friday night.  Hill is Northern's most athletic player but Northern has more players who play quality basketball in the game so if Hill is not 100% Tuesday Northern has other options.  Hill not being 100% at the end of last season helped Rocky Mount a lot as last season ended.

Rocky Mount is not as deep and if they lose any player to injury it will hurt them a lot more than Northern.  How ever an injury to J'Kyra Brown at any point in this season would be a killer for RM because Brown is the heart and soul of this team.  Her team mates tend to watch her when Rocky Mount has the ball and rely on her at the biggest moments.  J'Kyra has delivered but in all four of Rocky Mount's losses not enough help showed up to take the pressure off of Brown.  In the over time loss to Northern in the Christmas Tournament The Lady Knights simply wore Brown out double teaming her the entire game and she fouled out late in overtime but the game by then had been decided.

Rocky Mount can not afford for either Kelsey or Kyler Daniels to be in foul trouble  Along with J'Kyra Brown they are the height to compete with the likes of Jordan Oldham, Camille Branch, Deja Lewis, Khadijarh Richardson and they need to stay on the court the whole game to compete with Northern's height.  Northern has the luxury that if one is in foul trouble bring in someone from the bench that is just as big and talented.

All of that being said this game is probably going to be won by the guards.  Both teams are going to press all over the floor.  The one that makes the other pay the price for poor ball handling will win.  Shakyia Mercer and Quinesha Lynch will get most of that responsibility for Northern.  Rocky Mount will rely mostly of Carmen Richardson and Destini Parker.  They sure would love to let J'Kyra Brown go on down court and not have to be part of helping bring the ball up court.

I would suspect just because it is a Tuesday night that you had better find a seat by halftime of the boys JV game.  Now that Rocky Mount has a new gym and not quite as big as the old one Northern's gym is now the biggest in the conference.  It doesn't matter how big any gym is the house will be full for Rocky Mount and Northern  Tuesday night.