Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Gryphons Break Northern's Heart Boys Don't Break A Sweat

The weekly addition of the Northern- Rocky Mount girls basketball game with the Sectionals finals berth at stake and Rocky Mount stuns Northern 56-53 at Northern.  Tonight I was at the boys game where I personally counted 146 people including the players in the gym and the Gryphons hardly break a sweat in winning 73-53.  Mike Gainey never showed any sweat on his brow in Rocky Mount but after he loaded up the boys for the ride to Northern by the time he found a seat  in the tightly packed gym the sweat was streaming  down his face.

The Lady Gryphons jump out to a big lead in the first quarter 19-8 but the Lady Knights whittled away.  The half was 30-27 Gryphons ,42-all at the end of the third and Northern took the lead at 46-45 with just under five minutes to play. Foul trouble was big as Kelsey Daniels and Tyrekyra Thomas fouled out for the Lady Gryphons and J'Kyra Brown had four but she never fouled out and that was the bad news for Northern.
J'Kyra for the second game in a row throws down 32 to go with 37 on Monday.  Carmen Richardson handled most of the ball dribbling  and scored 14.

If there is one place Northern would love to have back it is at the foul line three times in the last few minutes they had two shots to tie and never tied the game at the line.  Their only lead of the game came on a jump shot from Alexus Hill but Tyrekyra Thomas made a Gryphon jump shot to give the Gryphons back the lead they would not lose again.  Hill and Quineshia Lynch score 14 a piece for Northern Camille Branch was next with 8.

 Rocky Mount will travel to West Craven Friday night for the sectional final at 6:00pm as West Craven beat Conley 59-49 to Host.  They will be part of a double header in Vanceboro but it will be West Craven boys in the second game.

Rocky Mount boys jumped on South Brunswick to a 24-5 lead in the first quarter.  Mike Gainey  suited up 15 players and 13 scored,  and 13 got rebounds.  It was 42-14 at the half and the biggest thing was not get anybody hurt.
 
M JGainey scored 17, Donte Battle 14, Michael Hines 10, Emanuel King 8. and then there was everyone else.  Jaquez Jones 4, Thomas Cooper 1, Mason Hines 4, Broderick Caudle 3, J T Smith 2, Armad Harrell 3, Amir Pittman 2, Tyler Harmonson 2 and Austin Warner 2. 

Rocky Mount won the boards 39-32 but it was about 25-5 with the first team in the game. The Gryphons only had ten turnovers with all of the line up changes while they forced 29 from West Brunswick  Friday night the Gryphon play at home at 7:00pm .  They will play C B Aycock who beat Conley tonight 62-51. 

Hunt was knocked out of the playoffs tonight losing 74-61 at West Craven.  The big upset of the night was Havelock beating Triton the #2 in the east 63-61.   The Rocky Mount Gryphon Boys and Girls still alive in the State Playoffs.