Northern-Rocky Mount To Square Off In Finals

The first night of the Nash County Holiday basketball tournament had all four girls teams in action and Northern Nash and Rocky Mount will square off Wednesday night in the finals.

The opening game saw undefeated Northern Nash remain that way as they came out of the dressing room playing full court defense and running at every opportunity. Their aggressive defense put Nash Central on the line 14 times in the first quarter but they could convert only two. Northern lead 17-4 at the end of the first quarter. Northern's defense kept up the pressure the whole game and the Lady Knights got balanced scoring lead by Khadesha Richardson who had 15 on the night. She was followed by Amanda Griffin with 12, Quannesha Lynch with 10 and Jessica Lyons 8. Jasmine Williams lead the Lady Bulldogs with 10 as Northern runs past Nash Central 58-35.

Neither teams shot well from the line as Nash Central after a terrible first quarter managed to hit 16 of 34. Northern made just 11 of 23.

The middle game of the opening night saw the host Lady Gryphons score the same number of points as Northern Nash but the defense held the lady Firebirds of Southern Nash to single digits in every quarter as the Lady Gryphons swarm all over the Lady Firebirds 58-23.

Once again tonight J'Kyra Brown was missing from the starting lineup but no problem as Tia Hudgins plays more like her brother Terrell did every day. Plant yourself near the basket and the ball will come to you and when it did she lit the score board for 31 after having just gotten 27 Friday night.

J'Kyra Brown did start playing in the second quarter and it took a while for her to trust her knee before she got into the flow of the game. She scored seven. Timisha Walker got nine on the night and Marquita Hines had 5. Rocky Mount once again was poor from the foul line hitting just 14-31.

Tyreka Nicholson was the leading scorer for Southern Nash as she scored five. Southern returns right back to the court Tuesday night meeting Nash Central in the girls consolation at 6.00pm. The night cap on Tuesday will be the semi finals of the boys as Northern Nash will take on Nash Central. For the match up between Northern and Rocky Mount Wednesday I hope it does not become a free throw shooting contest as neither team might win. They both have a lot of work to do on the free shots.

Tonight's night cap Rocky Mount came out for the starting lineups in the practice shorts and shirts and they must have thought the game wasn't going yet as they managed to score only three points in the first quarter. I heard a rumor that the game clothes were in the dryer and not ready at game time. Southern Nash did not take advantage as they could only make the ball go in the hole for seven points.

Rocky Mount picked up the pace in the second quarter and lead 26-17 at the half. The Gryphons changed into the game uniforms at the half and played the third quarter much like the first scoring only eight points but Southern could only muster six.

Rocky Mount finally found the range in the fourth quarter as Kenyatta Bullock made four three pointers in about two minutes and in doing so was the leading scorer for the night. Exzavier Cooper had 11 as they were the only double figure scorers for the Gryphons. Rocky Mount beat the Firebirds 58-41

KJ Peoples had a great night off the bench scoring seven points and hauled down 8 rebounds. Donte Battle had seven rebounds as the Gryphons out rebounded Southern 36-22. Josh Sessoms lead the Firebirds with 18.

Rocky Mount sits and waits until Wednesday when they will play in the finals at 8.00pm Wednesday. They meet the Northern- Nash Central winner as they play Tuesday at 7.30.

A real oddity tonight all three games played the winner had 58 points. If this was bowling you would win a patch for scoring the same score three straight games.

Christmas Tourney Starts Monday

Rocky Mount High School will host the the Nash County Christmas tournament for the last time in the old gym starting Monday night. The next time the Gryphons would be scheduled to host the event they will be in a new location and and the new gym will be less than two years old.

The event kicks off Monday night at 5.00pm with Northern Nash and Nash Central girls tangling with the winner not playing again until Wednesday at 6.30. The loser will play Tuesday at six. Game two of the night will have the host school the Lady Gryphons taking on Southern Nash. The same scenerio applies for the winner and loser as the NN-NC game.

The anchor game of the Monday night event will be the defending State 3-A champs Rocky Mount taking on county rival Southern Nash. This will be the Gryphons first action against any one else in Nash County since they won the 3-A title back in March. This game is scheduled for eight with the loser not playing again until five on Wednesday and the winner playing in the final game of the tournament at eight or so Wednesday night.

Day two will only have two games as the girls consolation game will begin at six and the Northern Nash Boys will take on the Bulldogs of Nash Central at 7.30. The boys loser will play again at five on Wednesday while the winner does not take the hardwood again until eight Wednesday night.

The Stretchlon Sports show will be taping all four of the opening round games and the two championship games. Wes Bradshaw will cover all three of the boys games this week and yours truly will handle the girls.

Tonight on the show will be the replay of Pam Gainey's 300th career victory a couple of weeks ago at SouthWest Edgecombe. Wes Bradshaw who if I recall has not been behind the mic since the State Championship basketball game will handle the historic event.

Whether getting behind the mic to doing radio or TV or just to do PA you develop friendships with people over the years and one of those people who I like a lot while covering his son playing for Northern Nash and Nash County Legion was Terry Woodley. We meet Saturday morning while getting tires and an inspection and spent several minutes rehashing old times and Terry giving me an update on Zach's life.

Zach is now a Junior at ECU and will not play baseball for the Pirates. Zach had arm trouble at Pitt CC and spurned an offer from Mount Olive to continue his baseball career. It is a pleasure to be around friends when you listen to them talk about their children and how proud they are of the people that they have become and the places they have been because of sports.

Gryphons sweep Rampants

Those of you that were in attendance at the boys game between Rose and Rocky Mount two weeks ago probably left as I did that night thinking that the Rampants would beat the Gryphons at Rose.

Not so fast my friend. Rose started quickly bombing away three point baskets and getting every loose ball and shot to a 21-9 lead early in the second quarter. Looking at the score board you would think the Gryphons were lucky to be so close, but then it happened. Those bombs stopped falling and the Gryphons took control of the boards.

A nice spurt by the Gryphons just before the half cut the lead to 27-23 Rose. Rocky Mount scored the first seven points of the third quarter and from that point on the Gryphons ran and ran and ran beating Rose 70-59. Towards the end those early three point bombs started falling again for Rose other wise this one would have been near a twenty point win.

Exzavier Cooper lead the scoring with 18, but this was not a one man night tonight as every man that played did what the team needed to win. Kenyatta Bullock netted 13, Tecoby Hines added 13 in the second half. Donte Battle as a six feet four inch freshman finds himself lined up every game against the other teams biggest player and tonight Donte added 7 points. MJ Gainey score 7 off the bench Tevin Taylor is beginning to find his shooting eye tossed in 6.

The Gryphons won the war on the boards 34-29 with Battle corralling 9, Exzavier snagged 7 and Tecoby Hines and Tevin Taylor each had six.

The girls game found the Lady Gryphons hitting the floor minus J'Kyra Brown who tweeked her knee that she had surgery on last year and sat tonight just for precaution. Tia Hudgins decided that she would pick up the slack and when the first team left the court with two minutes and 36 seconds to go in the game Hudgins had 27 points and Rose had 24. The bad news for Rose was that Tia's other teammates added 22 more as the Lady Gryphons pound Rose 49-29.

Marquita Hines and Tyais Cooper scored six points a piece, Timisha Walker had five, Kushunn Seabreeze collect 3 and Carmen Richardson rounded out the scoring with 2.

Rocky Mount dominated the boards winning that 40-22 with Hudgins getting 8 and Walker 7. The Lady Gryphon defense caused 27 turnovers but one major area of concern is at the free stripe. The Lady Gryphons were a dismal 10-28 so can you imagine what the score could have been in this one.

Both gryphon teams are now 9-2 and have games Monday in the Nash County Christmas Tournament. The Ladies play the second game Monday night at 6.30 and the boys follow at 8.00pm. They both play Southern Nash.

Not often do you ride to Greenville and win at any thing against Rose and tonight including both JV teams the Gryphons come home with four wins.