TOO Tall

Tuesday night's 4th round  girls basketball game between Rocky Mount and Northern Guilford  came down to one thing.  5'9" just can't do anything with a good athletic 6'5" player.  Only down one  early in the fourth quarter the Lady Gryphons had no answer for Elissa Cunane who scores 24 points 20 rebounds and six block shots.

Too short to get rebounds the Lady Gryphons needed the defense to harass the Nighthawks.  The final stats show that NG had 8 steals to only 6 for the Gryphons.  The tale tell sign in this one is Rocky Mount had 17 turnovers to 10.  We may have had a real ball game here if those numbers right there were reversed.

 Despite the overwhelming size difference the rebounding was 41 for Northern Guilford with Cunane getting 20 of those.  Rocky Mount pulled down 32 which  says the Gryphons did a good job of getting the ones that Cunane didn't get.  Ashley Hatfield led the Gryphons  getting 11 missed shots.
Keyanna Spivey the main Gryphon inside player still pulled down 8 rebounds just a  couple off her average but scored just eleven points nine points off her average and so it is the difference in this one comes back to that tree the Nighthawks had in the middle.  There is bad news for everyone Cunane is only a junior.

I don't understand why certain places have tall people like the Greensboro area while out here in the east we run fast.  It doesn't matter what sport you play even in football a running power football team going up against a speedy team the team that does what they do best  will win most every time.  If you run up on a game that two teams collide play up to their full potential there is where you get the great games.  Last great game I saw was the Havelock/Rocky Mount football game as both teams defenses put on a show.

The bottom line is Northern Guilford did what they did best better than what the Lady Gryphons do best Defense.  I know this is no consolation but other than the lone loss that the Nighthawks took against 4A NW Guilford this ten point loss for  the Gryphons is the closes game Northern Guilford has played all year.

Shelby Meeks and Mya Pittman each scored 12 points for the Gryphons.  The Lady Gryphons needed outside shooting and they went 5 for 15 from three point land.  NG made just 2-18 so the inside dominance covers this game.

Who thought when the season started  that this Gryphon  team would be playing  in a fourth round game.  Nash Central was the preseason favorite but a major injury derailed them to not get past the Gryphons in the third round.  A healthy Bulldog team with what they did without their star,, no telling what they may have been able to do.

Pam Gainey always seems to get more from her players  that what the prospects look like early in a season.  If you watch her coach she is a defense first coach.  That old saying defense wins  championships and in the case of this Gryphons girls basketball team that was so true until they ran into a Redwood tree.