John Thompson USA South Coach Of The Year.

The conference USA South basketball tournament starts Thursday at NC Wesleyan and every conference announces their all conference teams and the top team in the league coach John Thompson has been named the coach of the year.  The Battling Bishops  were 12-2 this season which ties for  the most conference wins the Battling Bishops have ever had tying the 1987/88 team.

Brandon Brown the Bishops forward from Fayetteville and Adrian Moore sophomore from Plymouth have made the all conference team.  D J Weaver the senior From Newport News Virginia has made the second team.  The senior center from Winston Salem Shannon Huff has made the Conference USA South All Sportsmanship team.

Thursday afternoon at 1pm the conference basketball tournament will get under way in Everett Gym on the Campus of NC Wesleyan.  1pm the sixth seed Piedmont will play third seed Greensboro. The second game at 3pm will be the seven seed William Peace going up against the second seed Covenant.  There will be no stoppage between afternoon and evening session and the 5pm game has the five seed Ferrum facing four seed LaGrange.  The final game of the night the host and top seed the Battling Bishops meet up with the last team in the tournament eight seed Averett who's two games this year with the Bishops were overtime and three point difference.

Still have four Nash County high schools playing basketball three girls and a single boys team.  Southern Nash  16-8 just may have caught a major break as they take on Eastern Wayne in the second round who sports a record of 7-20.  The game is at Southern starting at 7.

Marquise Wright leads the way for the Firebirds scoring at a 16.6 and 11.4 rebounds.  Damien Bryant  is second in scoring at 10.9. The Firebirds are averaging 57 points a game and the Firebirds need to score closer to that figure over the 37 they struggled to get in the opening round.

Nash Central 21-4 the top Big East girls team alive is at home in the second round when they host
Triton 18-7.  Robbi Allen 15.8 and Michaela Nelms lead the way for the Lady Bulldogs while Hayden Worney 14 points and Je'nae Harvey carry the load for the Hawks.  The Bulldogs score at 52 a game while Triton gets 55 per game.

You know if Rocky Mount Had not won the Big East Tournament then Northern Nash 20-5 would have been at least 14 seed and would avoid Terry Sanford 25-1at least to the sectional finals.   The Knights are better than their 16 seed so the Bulldogs of Terry Sanford had better be prepared for a fight from the Lady Knights.

TS  is led by Ona Udoh averaging 14 per game. No other player  hits double digits which would tell me a team averaging 52 per game have a complete team with a lot of supporting players..  The Lady Knights leading scorer is Jahlia Williams at 11 and Kayla Tucker 10.8.  The Knights don't have a go to player either so this will be a battle of Titans.  This should be a regional matchup instead of a second round game.

The red hot Rocky Mount 16-8 Lady Gryphons are hitting the road and will be traveling to Rockingham County 24-4.  The Gryphons score at 49 per game while Rockingham 58.  They have three players hitting double digits.  Madeline Hardy 15.3, Macy Boler 13.6 and Gabrielle Gordon 11.9 will be a trio hard to deal with.

Keyanna Spivey 15.8 and Michelle Gainey 10.9 will need to hit their averages  and get plenty of support for the Lady Gryphons to pull off any upset in this game.

Playoffs Underway

The Lady Gryphons of Rocky Mount were the first Big East team to take the court because Both Rocky Mount teams were playing a double header.  Most all single games in the playoffs start at seven except  for those schools fortunate to have both boys and girls playing home games which would mean both are high seeds.

The Lady Gryphons jumped all over the visitors from Lee County with defense and timely baskets and have advanced to the second round of the girls 3-A tonight in Rocky Mount winning 54-31.  They will travel to Rockingham  County a 70-57 victory over Morehead.

Talking about playing defense the  Lady Knights of Northern Nash gave up less points that what the LadyGryphons did.  Northern beat Swansboro 45-28 and advance to round two where they will face the top seed Terry Sanford who was a 79-42 win over Southern Wayne.

In a game much too close for a top seeded team the Lady  Bulldogs of Nash Central survive the visitors from West Brunswick winning 55-52.

The top boys team in the Big East Southern Nash hosted Western Alamance and the favored Firebirds had a struggle on their hands as neither team could muster enough offense to pull away from the other.  In the end the Big East  top seed advances Southern Nash 37-35.

The Knights of Northern Nash had their hands full on the road at Jacksonville.  Midway the fourth quarter the Knights lead 50-48 and upset is on everyone's mind.  The final couple of minutes Jacksonville pulls all the rights strings and beat the Knights 71-59.

The highest seeded team with the worse record Rocky Mount hosted Cedar Ridge and CR jumped on top of the Gryphons  from the opening tap and the Gryphons had to crawl back the entire game.  They got to the mountain top but could never tie or take the lead.  A run and gun games goes to Cedar Ridge 81-77.

The Bulldogs  of Nash Central have have two weeks that their season went from on the verge of a regular season title to a tie for the top spot and losers of any tie breaker.  Tonight their season ends in Lee County losing 69-50.

The Fike Golden  Demons traveled to Asheboro and the Golden Demons season is over after a 69-48 loss.

The only Big East girls team on the road got punished by Northern Guilford losing 71-42

Hunt on the road to Southern Durham  had no luck what so ever as Southern  Durham dispatches the Warriors 77-53.

Three girls team were home and all three advanced.  Nash Central, Northern Nash and Rocky Mount.  Two boys teams played at home and Southern Nash advances.  Rocky Mount's season is over.  Fike girls the only girls team on the road lost.  All four boys teams on the road all four lose.  Fike, Hunt, Nash Central and Northern Nash

The Pursuit Begins Tuesday Night

Six guys teams from the Big East and four gals teams hit the court Tuesday  in the first round of the state  3A basketball playoffs.  Only one school Rocky Mount have both of their teams at home and the Gryphon Girls begin play at 6pm against Lee County.  They will be followed by the Gryphon boys hosting Cedar Ridge.

The other Big East teams will all begin play at 7pm and for the Northern Nash girls they are home to Swansboro.  Nash Central girls host West Brunswick.  The last of the four Big East teams Fike will be traveling to Northern Guilford.  Southern Nash boys as Big Champs are home with guest from Western Alamance.  All four remaining Big East boys  teams are on the road.  Northern Nash visiting Jacksonville, Nash Central pounding the pavement to Southern Lee.  Both Wilson County schools Fike at Asheboro and Hunt at Southern Durham.

This Thursday the Conference USA South men's tournament will start in Everett Gym at North Carolina Wesleyan.  The games will be at 1-3-5 and 7 and the 7 pm game will feature the conference champions  Battling Bishops.  The women's tournament will also start Thursday but it will be without  the Lady Battling Bishops who found themselves in a three way tie for the last spot in the tournament  and they lose out on a bid finishing 9th.  The girls tournament is being played at Maryville.

Ever since the Carolina Duke game there has been tons of Carolina fans pressure on Roy Williams for not calling a time out and not getting much of a shot off  to try to win the game.  There are all types of coaches and I think Roy falls under the run and gun type.  Let's go as fast as possible and get off as many shots as possible.  The more shots the more chances for points.  Mike Gainey falls under this category in my opinion.  It has worked pretty good for both as Roy Williams has two national
championships and Mike Gainey has two state 3-A titles.

The next type of coach is the one that loves to run down the time clock and keep the game in the 50's and that kind of coach is coach Bennett at Virginia.  Most coaches regardless of their style because they like one way they have a hard time changing to conform to the talent they have.

There is of course one coach who because of injuries changed his entire plan mid season twice and the changes led his team to National titles.  We are of course talking about coach K winning the title in 2010 and 2015.  There are not that many coaches who know Several ways to win.  One of the biggest issues in college coaching is recruiting players that fit your coaching style.  Roy has run and gun players when forced to play half court by the other team play soft.  K beat Roy because K kept the game to where Carolina played soft when they should have been pounding the ball inside.  Teams play about 35 games a year one loss is not dropping any team out of the playoffs so people need not get suicidal over one game.  At least not until the playoffs and one loss sends you home.

Ten Of Twelve Big East Teams Begin Journey

All six Big East boys Basketball team are in the playoffs and the Four girls teams that hit 15 wins are all in.  There is one reason why there is no big winners in the boys and that is they are all average in size.  There is not a dominant team among them.  That being said getting any team this week into the Regional will be difficult for the Big East.  On the girls side they have a much better chance to get a team to Fayetteville but for any team it is never easy.

Northern Nash 19-5 Girls seeded 16th.  Sneaks in for a home game opening night.  They will have the 17th seed in house Swansboro 18-8 overall.  Swansboro is led by Miranda Glover scoring 13.6 and Jessica Edwards pulls down nine rebounds.  This is a sectional final quality opening game.

Seven Nash County teams are in three girls and four boys and the Girls Nash Central 20-4 hosting West Brunswick 9-14 should be the only game of the seven that a local team will be the the favorite.
The Lady Bulldogs are seeded 4th and the Trogans 29th.  A must win for the Bulldogs.

Rocky Mount 15-8 a state 14 seed host Lee Co 18-7 seeded 19th.  Aren't home games suppose to be easy in the first round.  Both Northern and Rocky Mount have their work cut out.  Lee County is lead by Shantel Bennett scoring 17.5 and Amoria Neal-Tysor 14.9.

The fourth member of the Big East girls Fike  is the only girls team on the road.  They are a 21 seed and they visit Northern Guilford a 12 seed.

If it was a tough draw for the girls let See what the guys have to face.

Rocky Mount 7-15  winners of seven of their nine  are a 16 seed will host Cedar Ridge 17-9.  They are lead but Peyton Pappas 23.6 and Jacob  Thomas 17.1 both are seniors.  Despite their
record Rocky Mount is playing as good as any Big East team but they have their hands full.

Northern Nash 13-11 travels to Jacksonville 22-5.  Of all the hard games that the Big  East has Northern  gets the toughest.  The Cardinals are led by Bobby  Grubbs and Tavien Cooley between they they score 29 per night.

Nash Central 12-12 right now the most  struggling team of the lot get no mercy from the seedings either facing Southern Lee 19-7.  The Bulldogs  have fallen to a 21 seed will be at Southern Lee a 12 seed.

Southern Nash the Big East top team 15-8 host Western Alamance 11-13.  Yes there is one game the Big East boys will be favored .  The Firebirds have the highest seed 8th  and a home game against a team with a losing record and in these playoffs the Big East doesn't get many of those.

Back to Back

Wilson Smith of Rocky Mount High School Wrestling team may have sealed the deal on being the greatest wrestler in the history of RMHS.  Tonight Smith wins the 126 pound weight class for the second year in a row by a score of 7-1.

Boys  high school basketball playoffs.

Rocky Mount 7-15 but for playoffs purposes 6-14 will host Cedar Ridge 16-6 in the first round. Cedar Ridge is out of Hillsbourgh.

The champions of the Big East Southern Nash 13-8 will host Western  Alamance 11-11.

Falling all the way to third in the seedings Nash Central 12-10 a 21 seed in the state brackets travels to Southern Lee 17-5 will hit the road the fifth seed
.
Northern Nash draws the 21 seed and will travel to Jacksonville who carries a 10 seed and 18-2

Fike and Hunt both have made the playoffs so all six boys team have made playoffs and they are on the road. Rocky Mount and Southern are home everyone else hits the road.

Girls: Northern Nash girls are seeded 16th and will be home Hosting Swansboro.

Nash Central will be home hosting West Brunswick who is seeded 29th out of 32

Rocky Mount by winning the Big East tournament really put a kink in the seedings by jumping from fourth to second in Big East will be home hosting Lee County.  Look for a doubleheader Monday night at Rocky Mount with both Rocky Mount teams.

North Carolina Wesleyan closed out their regular season with a 91-84 victory Methodist.  They finish the season on a 10 game winning streak and will host the USA South Conference Tournament starting next Thursday..

The Battling Bishops will play the 8th seed Averett at 7pm.
The 5pm game 4/5 game is in same bracket as Battling Bishops is Lagrange/Ferrum
The 3/6 matchup will start the tournament at 1pm when Greensboro 3rd plays Piedmont
They will be in same bracket as 2nd seed Covenant and 7th seed William Peace at 3pm

Busy Day In High School Sports

THe boys Big East Conference basketball championship was contested between two team tie for first in the Firebirds and Gryphons and a sluggish first quarter saw the Gryphons lead. 10-8. The second quarter the pace was better and by halftime the Gryphons led by one at 23-22.  The Firebirds got rolling in the third and Rocky Mount  found scoring to be a challenge and the Firebirds led 41-33 after three.

Rocky Mount challenged in the fourth but when the clock hit 00 Southern Nash  prevailed 56-50.  To say it has been a  few years since Southern Nash has celebrated as a champion most of the students at Southern Nash  weren't even born 1998.   Southern awaits the high school seedings and who will be coming to Firebird gym in the first round of the playoffs.

There are many that will ask the question why do they still have high school tournament basketball.  The answer is of course is the conference makes money and  the best reason is every team gets a second chance.  Tonight in Wilson's Fike  high school the fourth seeded team the Rocky Mount Lady Gryphons have completed a sweep knocking off the top two teams Nash Central Wednesday and tonight Northern Nash 45-34.  The victory jets the Lady Gryphons to second seed when the basketball seeding for the state tournament come out tomorrow which will guarantee the Lady Gryphons at least one home game.

Nash Central the conference regular season champs still claims first by rule and Northern Nash will fall to a third seed.  More than likely a road game for the Lady Knights instead of a home game if they had of held on to the second seed.  Fike who was third during the regular season falls to fourth.  The Gryphon victory insures the Big East will send four teams to the state playoffs with at least 15 victories.

Results from last week's East regional wrestling Rocky Mount High sent four wrestlers to the state finals which started Thursday night.  Southern Nash qualified one wrestler and all five started with one match Thursday night.

The Gryphons four wrestlers were Wilson Smith the two time state champion wrestling at 126.  Rashawn Lawrence competing at 106.  Alex Henderson on the mat at 160 and Sedrak Sheppard 170.  Southern Nash has Kendrick Watson competing in the heavy weight division at 285.

The top four wrestlers from each weight class make up 16 who wrestle four matches as long as they win.  A loss and you fall to the consolation.  In other words if you lose your first match then you fall to consolation and if you don't lose in you next three matches you can finish 9th.  If you lose your second match then you are trying for fifth, your third match you are fighting for 3rd and of course if you are undefeated after 3 matches you are going after a state championship in you weight class.

Alex Henderson lost his match Thursday night 10-2 and lost by pin today to be eliminated. Sedrak Sheppard won  on Thursday 13-6.  He lost his quarter final match 13-6 and fighting for 5th lost in the consolation round by pin.   Rashun Lawrence lost his Thursday match 11-0 but wrestled twice today and won 9-2 and 5-1. Kendrick Watson lost in overtime Thursday 4-2 and wrestling twice today still has a shot at 9th winning by two pins.  Both Lawrence and Watson have one match on Saturday morning.

Now for the results for the two time defending state champ Wilson Smith.  He won his match Thursday night 15-0. His quarter final match he won by pin.  The semi finals he won 3-1.  He has one more match to win to be a three time state champion.

Gryphon Run Continues

The unlikely run of a team that has almost twice the losses than wins on the season the Rocky Mount Gryphons continued tonight in Wilson in the semi finals of the Big East tournament when they met their arch rival Northern Nash.

Northern rejuvenated after breaking their eight game conference losing streak Tuesday night in the opening round of the Big East tournament knocking off Nash Central one of the three teams tied for first.  It is just as possible for the team that finished last in the league to run the table in the Big East Tournament as the team with all the losses.

So two teams with so much to gain played the first game of the night and Rocky Mount had a steady lead throughout the first three quarters leading most of the time around eight points.  Northern made a last stand push down the stretch cutting the lead to one under a minute to go.  The Gryphons made enough free throws to hold off Northern 55-53.

Northern now waits to see where they will be seeded but more than likely they will open the playoffs next week at a conference champion.  Rocky Mount winning only their 7th game all year can still win the Big East number one spot Friday night. They already know by winning tonight they can be seeded as at least the number two from Big East which should provide a home game next week.

Three teams tied for first and Southern Nash won the draw to be seeded in the one  spot for the tournament.  In order to get the conference top seed in next week's state tournament Southern sat out until the second game tonight and they face the host team Fike.

The game went much the way the first  game of the night did as The Firebirds started slow but during the second and third quarters had a comfortable cushion.  The Golden Demons did not go quietly into the night and Made a run in the fourth.  Much like the first game Southern Nash survives and will pay for title 51-46.

Rocky Mount lost twice to Southern Nash by 16 during the Christmas Tournament and lost by 16 in the first cycle visit to Southern.  Just 10 days again Rocky Mount won by 8 at Gryphonland.  What's on the Line Friday night the top seed in next week's. state tournament.

The girls game starts at 6pm when Northern Nash and Rocky Mount play for the title. It doesn't
 Happen often but four teams from Nash County will travel to Wilson County  to decide Big East tournament titles.


Last night's victory by NC Wesleyan over Averett gave the Battling Bishops the regular season title and the number one seed in the USA South tournament next week.  Whether it's the girls or boys the regular season champs host the Tournament. Starting next Thursday the top eight teams will report to Rocky Mount where starting at 1pm Thursday afternoon the 3/6 seed teams will clash.  The 3 PM game will feature the 2-7 teams.  The five o'Clock game will be the 4/5 teams.

The host Battling Bishops will play the number eight seed in the nightcap at seven PM.  Every team in the league has one game left this Saturday and the only team that know whether they are as far as seeding is the top team North Carolina Wesleyan.  Two through eight will not be known until the end of play Saturday.