From the Press Box

Firebirds Knock Off Bulldogs Again

2012-02-15T22:13:00.001-05:00

Southern Nash opened the semi finals of the Big East basketball Tournament feeling sorry for themselves losing one of their star players Monday night in Marcus Hicks to a knee injury. The Firebirds floundered during the first half and scored but 12 points. Nash Central to me seemed sluggish even when building a 27-12 halftime lead. It could have been 40-12.

Southern came out of the locker room and instantly cut into the Bulldog lead which they reduced to even Steven when Jalen Hendricks hit a questionable three pointer to end the third to give the Bulldogs a 39-36 lead. I am sure Robbie Kennedy and Firebird fans would liked to have seen the replay because it did look as if Hendricks was still on the way up when the horn sounded.

The final stanza went back and forth and by the 32 minute mark the game was tied at 52 and the game went into overtime. Southern held the Bulldogs to one field goal in overtime and come away with their second victory of Nash Central in five days 60-55.

Josh Sessoms lead the Firebirds with 13, Jonte Hunter11 and Brandon Stafford 10 to lead the #3 seed Firebirds. Jalen Hendricks topped the Bulldogs with 14 followed by Daniel Pittman with 11 and Phillip Jones with 10.

The opening game of the night the top seed Rocky Mount blistered Hunt for the first 12 minutes of the game and after that put the cruise control on and coasted to a 77-69 win over Hunt. The Gryphons lead 38-20 at the half . Hunt out rebounded RM 32-22 but the real difference in the game Hunt had 31 turnovers 21 in the first half .

Levon Brutus had 20, Terrill Hilliard 17, Tevin Taylor 13 and Donte Battle 10. Hunt was lead by Justin Jefferson with 17 Parker Lamn 17 and Daniel Westbrook 11. This was the 20th win of the season for the Gryphons who now meet Southern Nash in the Tournament final Friday night at 7.30.

Thursday is girls Semi night as Rocky Mount takes on Nash Central and Northern Nash in the night cap plays the #6 seed Fike. The two winners meet Friday night at 6.00pm. I was rather disappointed in the crowd. I figured by the end of the Hunt-Rocky Mount game as the Central/Southern crowd was just showing up the gym would be close to full never happened. Southern had the most vocal fans all night and just maybe the biggest showing from anyone's fans.

Intensity Building

2012-02-14T18:38:00.001-05:00

The whole idea about finishing first in any league is first of all you don't have to play in the conference tournament until at least Wednesday for the Boys and Thursday for the girls. This time of year rest will be few and far between from here until the end of the season whenever that is.

Rocky Mount boys hit the hardwood at Northern Nash Wednesday night at 6pm against Hunt who was a 55-42 winner over Fike Monday night. Hunt has earned at least the #4 seed and should they win the tournament could jump to #2 still in next weeks Sectional. Fike Mondays loser has to settle for fifth and there is no guarantee they will play next week.

Every conference is guaranteed one half of their league members plus one. Since the Big East has six teams three are in plus one more. Hunt got that one more spot Monday should they lose Wednesday to Rocky Mount. Throughout the East there are a couple of slots to fill to make 16 team brackets so the #5 seeds are looked at and the best of the rest get invited to the Sectional. Fike now 5-16 will probably not be a best of the rest.

Wednesday's lineup at Northern will be a good one with Rocky Mount and Hunt and Nash Central and Southern Nash. Southern has some questions from injuries Monday night as to how strong they will be the entire game. So it is Rocky Mount #1 seed against Hunt #4 seed and Nash Central #2 against Southern #3. Winners meet Friday night at 7.30pm at Northern Nash for the Conference Tournament title.

Friday is Regional Wrestling at Rocky Mount High School. This is the individual events not team so every Big East Wrestler that qualify for the playoffs will be wrestling starting Friday and if you win you keep going. It starts at 4.00pm Friday and then all day Saturday until all weight classes are finished and Regional champs declared. If I am not mistaken wrestlers can qualify for the state meet by finishing 4th or better in the regional. That still might mean they have to win four matches without losing in their weight class.

This week is try outs for all springs sports. Next Monday is the first official day of any sport to start spring practice. You will start to see spring scrimmages next week . Baseball opens with Rose on the 28th. That's two weeks from today.

Season Best Forgotten

2012-02-13T20:35:00.001-05:00

If Rick Ruffin could go back in time and change the events of life I think he would start around August 1st 2011. Expecting the best returning player in the Big East back for his Junior year he found out that he had transferred to RM Prep. His second best player and his best outside shooter had decided life after high school was going to include a tennis racket not a basketball. His top two players gone Ruffin began the 2011-2012 school year perflexed at how to grow some tall basketball players by November. None were forth coming.

Using a five guard lineup at times Northern Nash has just completed a basketball season they had rather forget as the Knights of Northern Nash the host of the 2012 Big East Tournament has lost their 15th straight game and 20th on the season as Southern Nash ends the Northern anguish this season 70-48 in the opening round of the Big East Tournament. Southern plays Nash Central at 7.30 Wednesday night.

I would think that the least crowd of the week at the Big East Tournament will be Tuesday as the girls quarterfinals take off. The battle of Wilson County will send Hunt against Fike and Nash Central will play Southern Nash in the other game. Wednesday the upper echelon of the Big East joins the fun for the boys semi final.

Is there a new pro baseball prospect with Nash County connections? Sunday Alex Pearce pitch six innings of two hit ball as UNC Pembroke won their eighth game in a row and for Alex he has now pitched 12 inning this winter and is 2-0 as a pitcher for the Braves. He has now given up three earned runs in his 12 innings and that is an era of 2.25 Way to go Alex!

Speaking of college baseball D1 baseball teams will open their baseball seasons this weekend. Have you seen the State Farm Insurance ad with Aaron Rogers. The agent in the ad asking Aaron about his policies is Mike Sollie who is a former N C State baseball player and if you ever listen to 99.9 The Fan you have heard him many times advertising his agency in Raleigh. He got the gig with Rogers because he's one of the top selling State Farm agents in America.

I wished the sports news media could have gotten what they wanted Sunday. Tiger Woods fell by the way side as Phil Michelson charged from six shots back to win going away. All afternoon ESPN on their sport scroll of scores they were giving a play by play of Woods score. I thought CBS's coverage was about what you would expect as any Network carrying golf wants Tiger to make a charge to boost ratings. Tiger has seen his best days with the putter and he will win more tournaments but they will be few and far between. Michelson it was his 40th PGA title which makes him ninth of all time. If he had of come ten years before Tiger he would probably be held in high esteem as Arnold Palmer status but his career is in the shadow of Tiger who has the Jack Nicklaus status.

State Playoff Starts This Week

2012-02-12T07:08:00.000-05:00

This is second chance week as high school basketball begins conference tournaments. The Big Dogs know they are in but the middle teams have to sweat another week before they know for sure that they are in. Boys Rocky Mount, Nash Central and Southern Nash are in but the #4 seed is up for grabs.

Hunt and Fike who just played Friday night will be matched up again Monday night and the winner has the #4 seed unless Northern Nash the #6 seed comes up and pulls a shocker and wins the tournament on their home floor. The loser of the Hunt-Fike game could go if they finish fifth but no fifth seed is guaranteed to get in only the best of the rest fill ins get in. If one of the bottom rung teams wins the Tournament the only team guaranteed a seeding in the Sectionals is Rocky Mount. They are #1 regardless of this week Nash Central Could fall to third and Southern to 4th depending if a lower tier team would win the Tournament.

Hunt-Fike playing Monday could bring forth a nice Monday crowd because the loser just might not get into the Sectional so not only will they be playing their Duke-Carolina game twice in 72 hours. Southern gets the home team Northern in the other so the match ups Monday is a good lineup.

There is an old saying that if you don't dream it, it can't happen. Wouldn't it be special that if Rocky Mount Boys could win the title again and either Northern or Rocky Mount take the girls title. I do think that Rocky Mount boys are capable. Not only do you have to be really good but a fortunate bounce has to happen along the way to help out. I don't see either girls team quite at State Championship level but I could visualize both making the Regional if this Pod deal doesn't have them playing each other in the Sectional.

I worry that Rocky Mount would still have extreme trouble against a tall front line with guards that could handle the Gryphon press. Northern I think is a tad too slow with over all team speed. Their fastest and best player Alexus Hill is hobbled with that knee injury that happen in the Rocky Mount game three weeks ago and she is limited by the knee brace. All it would take for either team to make it to the finals is someone that you don't expect step forward and play out of their mind for four or five games and that could push either team deeper in the playoffs.

Looking toward Friday night there is a good chance Rocky Mount and Northern Girls could meet for a fourth time in the finals. If the seeding go as expected that would match Nash Central against Rocky Mount in the boys final. Man, this week with the possible match ups on Monday and as the week develops what might transpire later. This could be one of the best attended tournaments in a long while.

Banner Time For Rocky Mount

2012-02-11T13:26:00.002-05:00

There is nothing that could be better in life to graduate from school and years later return and look up on the wall and see you name as State Champion. Today that list has grown of names on the wall at Rocky Mount High school as senior Paul Lilley has won the one mile at the State Indoor Track championships in Chapel Hill. His winning time was four minutes and thirty three seconds a full two seconds ahead of second.

Lilley is one of those athletes that is good at any thing he does. He played soccer for the Gryphons in the fall and when opportunity and timing was right ran Cross Country in his spare time. After a hard day of soccer practice is is hard to go run the necessary mileage to train for XC. Yet during the Regional in XC he finished in the top ten as a part part performer. This winter with no other sport but running dedicating to one sport has made him a champion.

The day was not over for Lilley as he ran in the 1,000 meter race not long after his championship and finished fifth. I am sure that if I had of just won a State Championship my feet would not yet touch the ground and fifth is a great effort after all the emotion of a championship.

Sunday night WHIG TV is starting their new version of the show that use to be the Stretchlon Sports Show. It will be called the all NEW Sports Show. We will try to cover games closer to the week that they are performed and there will be more live shows each month. Sunday Night Wes Bradshaw will be live with Todd Gurley the Tarboro Viking football player and then next Friday night our cameras will be at Northern Nash to record the Big East Basketball Tournament Championship. I am sure in the future we will have Paul Lilley as a guest. The newest Gryphon State Champion.

20-0

2012-02-10T23:43:00.001-05:00

Tonight not one more person could have seen the game but just about everybody in Nash County tried and what they saw was an all out battle for the Big East Girls Championship and the only thing missing was the shoulder pads and a helmet because there were no prisoners taken.

Rocky Mount shot out to a 31-14 halftime lead scored the first bucket of the third quarter to lead 33-14 and Northern's defense became a vacuum cleaner and completely throttled the Lady Gryphons. Rocky Mount had 20 turnovers in the second half and this gave Northern a chance as they tied the game at 43 midway of the fourth quarter. J'Kryra Brown scored 5 of the last seven Gryphon points and Rocky Mount captures the Big East Championship in Northern's backyard 50-43.

When Northern Beat Rocky Mount in the Christmas Tournament they were able to dominate the Lady Gryphons up front and would not allow them near the basket. The two meetings since then Rocky Mount has clearly been the quicker team and the improved inside play of Amani Kipp. Kipp scored but two points but pulled down 9 boards and there is no telling how many altered Lady Knight shots. Most of the Northern come back occurred while Kipp was on the bench with three fouls.

Once again tonight Northern failed to make any outside shots as they hit only one three. Rocky Mount tonight varied their defense from pressure to zone and it surely worked in the first half but Northern's defense got them back in the game in the second half..

J'Kyra Brown scores 25 and hauls down 12 rebounds. Tia Hudgins scored 9 and Alexus Cooper 8 for Rocky Mount. Jasmine Griffin scored 10 but four other Lady Knights had at least 8. Alexus Hill 9 and Jessica Lyons, Quanneshia Lynch and Khadijrah Richardson were with 8.

This is only the second loss of the season for Northern and it comes against their arch rival both times. Rocky Mount finishes the regular season 20-2.

Unlike last time everybody stayed for the boys game as you could not see any available space when the boys tipped off. Seemed as if the game was prime time. The girls jv game went past five thirty to complete and the boys jv game went into overtime and did not finished until 7.20. Once the girls game ended it was senior night at Northern and by the time of the tip off everyone was looking for ESPN as the game managed a 9pm start.

Northern stayed close for a quarter but by the half Rocky Mount had built an 18 point lead and most of the Northern Crowd went home and the Rocky Mount folks glowed in the moment of both teams going undefeated during the conference regular season. Mike Gainey and I were talking and he thinks that has never been done in Rocky Mount history.

Levon Brutus would like to play Northern every game as he followed his 31 against the Knights at Rocky Mount with 26. He is the only Gryphon to hit double figures but 12 different Gryphons scored . Lorenzo Wilkins lead Northern with 16.

Like football Northern went all the way to the last conference game of the year to win their first but tonight Northern is denied a conference victory as Rocky Mount goes unbeaten in conference play and 19-3 overall with a 77-54 win over Northern Nash.

Northern boys play Monday in the opening round of Big East Basketball Tournament at Northern while the Rocky Mount boys are off until Wednesday. Despite beating Northern Girls they may have to do it again next Friday night in the tournament finals if both teams get by their semi final games on Thursday.

Sometimes There Is Profit in Mayhem For Duke

2012-02-10T04:05:00.000-05:00

I really thought Carolina would win the battle of the blues between 10 to 15 points so with two minutes left the score 80-69 it was about what I figured it would be. Mike Gainey has been preaching to the Rocky Mount Gryphons that once you get a lead keep your foot on the floor board. The last time Rocky Mount lost they lead by double digits and put it on cruise control and loss all momentum. The same thing happened to Carolina last night.

Wednesday night a very odd two minutes of circumstances leads North Carolina to lose at home to Duke. Down two with ten seconds to play I don't think that there was anyone watching on TV or at the game thought anybody other than Austin Rivers was going to take that last shot. Why not double team him because everyone knows he not going to pass it to anybody else. Maybe force a bad pass. The very least a drive to the basket he might draws a foul and has to make two shots to get to overtime. Even a two point shot you still have overtime.

Tyler Zeller played eight seconds of great defense and he made on major mistake. He started thinking. He had Rivers covered up and with three seconds to go Rivers is trapped by Zeller's size, can't shoot over it and he is big enough he could hardly drive around him. Zeller thought suppose he drives around me and he backed up just a step. That one step opened up River's selfish play to become a national hero. The wide open goal that now Rivers can see for the first time since Zeller started guarding him. There was time for a heave and a legend is born.

Why any team allows a three when you are ahead by two makes no sense to me. All the mayhem that happened to Carolina the last two minutes got even worse with less than a second to play. This game had been really good all along but the last two minutes boost this game in to the legendary status.

Tonight the Lady Gryphons and The Lady Knights Of Northern Nash collide for first place. The last time they played in Rocky Mount it got very chippy and they were only playing for the league lead. Tonight they play for the bag of marbles. Be there early.

Mike Gainey can surely use last night's Carolina-Duke game as why you never need to be on cruise control. Keep the pedal to the metal. If some mamas and papas upset when you score a 100 on their sons so be it.

Rocky Mount and Nash Central have byes in Monday night's Big East Tournament. They play in the semi finals on Wednesday. Both Northern and Rocky Mount girls have byes to Thursday

Football Coaches Say No To The Pod

2012-02-09T05:20:00.000-05:00

North Carolina High School football coaches have voted out the football playoff Pod system which they have tried to use the past two football playoffs. The two years that it has been in play I have not heard anyone who liked it so why it took two years to get rid of it I don't know. Basketball will use the system this playoff year so if it didn't work for football then why should the Pod last more than this year before they throw it in the trash heap?

Today is the State 3-A Swimming and Diving Championships going on today at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary

Saturday is the State Indoor track Championships which will once again return to the Eddie Smith Arena the indoor track at UNC Chapel Hill. It had to be held outside last year because the ESA was remodeled. Gryphon Mason Holt has run the best qualifying time in 3-A this winter in the mile run.

Rocky Mount High School will host the Eastern Regional in Wrestling on February 17th and 18th. It all kicks off Friday afternoon and goes all day Saturday until the last match is finished. The Big East sent a bunch of wrestlers to the State from the Regional last year. Hope there is a conflict that night as that is Championship night in Big East basketball. Hope both Gryphon teams are playing.

Big East Wrestling Champs Rocky Mount had to have a road game due to a home basketball game last night and lost in the Duels to Western Harnett. Northern Nash as the #2 seed also lost so the only two team in the big East in duels are out.

Everything is set as Lady Gryphons unbeaten in conference play and losers twice this season take on one time conference loser and loser of only one game all season Northern Nash Friday night at Northern with the winner securing the #1 seed in the Big East Tournament and the #1 seed in the sectional. This pod system who knows what good being #1 will do. Remember the game at Rocky Mount three weeks ago was sold out by tap time of the game. This is for all the marbles so you had better be in place by half time of the boys jv game.

I bet you haven't thought about this. Neither Gryphon basketball team has lost in 2012