Gryphons Advance

The Rocky Mount Gryphons have survived their worse shooting night of the season and have advanced to the East Regional 3-A finals  with a 62-50 victory over West Craven.  They will meet J F Webb who dumped Eastern Alamance 65-56 in the night cap.  Tap time for the Regional final is 6pm Saturday night.

Rocky Mount defense gave them a quick lead in the first quarter but hot outside shooting by the Eagles gave them the half time lead at 28-27.  The Eagles Josh Cuthbertson top player once again this year was limited by the Gryphons as his near 30 points per game was about 11 below average as he finished with 19 points.  However  the Gryphons never could keep him off the boards as Cuthbertson pull down 18 boards which was over half of all of WC's rebounds.

Where the Gryphons controlled the game was Cuthbertson loves to drive to the basket from the top of the key and if he made it to the rack Donte Battle, Immanuel King or Jaquel Bryant were there to stop his penetration  but what hurt worse for WC is the Hines brother were like nats and Cuthbertson had ten turnovers in the game.  The Gryphons force 23 in the game while once again the Gryphons protected the ball for the most part only committing 13 themselves.

Rocky Mount made their move in the third quarter behind the shooting of Broderick Caudle who saw lots of action in the third quarter with Michael Hines on the bench with three first half fouls. Caudle had two threes and a bucket to give the Gryphons a 45-36 lead at one point.  Nursing a 4th quarter lead the Gryphons didn't do themselves any favors as they misssed more ft's in the fourth than they made finishing 21-36 for the game.

Despite shooting only 36% for the game the Gryphons win their 10th double digit playoff game in a row.  The stat of the game is the Gryphons caused 23 turnovers and scored 23 points off those to's while the 13 Gryphon miscues  only gave WC 9 points.  A 14 point difference in a 12 point win.

Broderick Caudle off the bench lead the Gryphons in scoring with 15.  Mason Hines and Michael Hines followed with 12 and 11 and many of their points came off steal and lay ups.  The Gryphons win by 12 with their two top scorers Battle and M J Gainey only getting 7 and 8 points each. Cuthbertson scored 18 and Demetres Abrams 16 lead the way for the Eagles.

This is the fourth straight year that Rocky Mount has dumped WC from the playoffs.  It also sets up that two of the four games that will be played in the Crown Coliseum Saturday will have Rocky Mount teams playing.  Rocky Mount Prep plays at 2pm against Eastern Carteret and Rocky Mount plays Webb at 6pm with the winner in both heading to Reynold Coliseum Saturday March 16th for the State Finals

The victory was #25 on the season for the Gryphons.  The Gryphons outscored West Craven 26-22 in the paint.  Fast break points were even at 12 but the Gryphons outscored WC 19-10 in bench scoring 15 of that coming from Broderick Caudle tonight's player of the game.