Dominant All Day

Gryphons moved Tuesday night's Big East basketball game with Southern Nash to Monday night in  order to beat impending possible bad weather coming in Tuesday.  JV girls will start  at 3:45 followed by the  JV  boys and varsity girls about 6:30 andvarsity boys to follow.

Rocky Mount High caught up with the basketball schedule Saturday playing their third game of the week.  Only Fike and Rocky Mount will play the regular Tuesday-Friday next week as everyone else in of the Big East have three left to play.

Nash Central came to RMHS with both their varsity teams looking for the girls a victory over one of the top Big East teams while the boys just wanted a victory.  What happened was a total mismatch in both games.  Rocky Mount girls scored 37 in the first half which is more than Lady Bulldogs scored for the game.  Final Rocky Mount 60 Nash Central 33.  The   Boys game wasn't much better as the winless Bulldogs in conference play stay that way as The Gryphon  boys roll 73-39.

Carmen Richardson lead the Lady Gryphons with 19 and she lead in rebounding getting 9 of the Gryphons 48.  The Lady Bulldogs could grab only 20 as a team.  Rocky Mount jumped to a  19-5 first quarter lead but they caused 9 turnover in the opening sprint.  By games end NC had 30 turnovers but Rocky Mount using the bench at will had 32 by games end but were never threatened.  Kathryn Wilkins scored  12 for the Lady Bulldogs.

I don't believe Nash Central has any player over six feet three so you know they are in for a long night trying to get to the basket against the taller Gryphons.  What made this and even longer night is the Gryphons were even faster than the Bulldogs.

The Gryphons caused 26 turnovers while only misplacing the ball 13 times.  They out rebounded Nash Central 39-24 and anytime the turnovers and rebounds is that much of a mismatch then unless you make every shot the score is going to be lopsided.

Immanuel King lead the Gryphon scoring with 18.  Dante Battle got the most rebounds with 9 but the Gryphons had a total of 11 players to score and 11 got a rebound or more. Aaron Spivey  scored 23 for the winless Bulldogs.

Over at Northern the Lady Knights remain unbeaten beating Hunt 52-44 while the Hunt boys stay on top and unbeaten in conference beating Northern 74-59.  Next Friday night ends the regular season for the Big East and the conference Tournament starts Monday Feb. 17th.

A big shout out tonight for  Nash Central's Damien Silver as today he is a state champion. As he has won the 3-A 55 meters hurdles at the state indoor track championships.

Shift In The Standings

The big game of the night in the Big East was the top team in the league Hunt 5-0  going up against the upstart of the league Southern Nash 4-1.  Most of us in the business who are suppose to be  die hard know it all's have been whispering that the 4-1 start Southern has had has come at the hands of the bottom tier of the league. As soon as Hunt gets hold of them they will get put in their place. It is of course no fault at all that every time a game that snowed out it came to a team in the upper  crest of the league.

Well Hunt put them their place alright beating the Firebirds 62-50.  I would say that is a pretty good account of themselves considering no one else in the league has played the Warriors at Hunt as close. Hunt heads to Northern Nash Saturday at 6-0. Southern 4-2 will travel to Fike Saturday  Hunt girls beat Southern  62-52.

Something had to give tonight as Northern Nash traveled to Nash Central where both teams were seeking their first conference win.  Both at the halfway point stand at 0-5.  The Bulldogs lead late but The Knights pull out their first conference win winning 46-45.  Nash Central gets their chance at revenge as they travel to Northern Tuesday. Saturday Northern host Hunt while Nash Central will be at Rocky Mount.

I have not had much time since the Super Bowl to speak about the rout.  It seemed almost from the kickoff that Seattle had taken a five hour energy drink while Denver had on a pair of cement boots.  By the half time kickoff the game had become unwatchable.  I stuck to the end to just see how bad it was going to be.

On the way home work today as I rode by Wesleyan and there was a baseball game going on at Bower field.  Didn't it snow last night.

Victim Of Past Success

The 2013/14 Rocky Mount Gryphons are victims of all of the recent great success of Gryphon basketball. People in the stands expect them to perform as others have. I even think that this years players think that they should be just as good as the others. Where this team has missed out is they have had spells when their ability to handle the ball looks jv-ish.  Tonight's game with Fike They miss handled  to ball 16 times in the first half and found themselves down 31-27.

Then there was the second half when this team looked capable of beating anybody turned the ball over only  5 times  and their up and down the court game when they missed shots number 43 was there for the put back.  I don't keep up with offensive or defensive rebounds just the overall total and Emmanual King had a night tonight.  29 points 18 rebounds and most of his points were put backs.

Fike stayed close with the three point shots making ten but their inability to stop the Gryphons in the second half lead to a Gryphon 80-70 win.  Isaiah Alston scored 23 most in the second half.  Broderick Caudle added 12.  Rocky Mount secured 47 rebounds to 24 for the Golden Demons.  The Gryphons had 21 turn overs while Fike had just 11.

Myquan Gooding lead the Golden Demons with 23.  Trevon Virgil 19 and Anthony Evans 10.  Rocky Mount is now 5-2 in the Big East while Fike drops to 3-4 .  The Gryphons host Nash Central Saturday afternoon sometime near 5:30.

Fike girls won the opening tip and took a shot and their next 6  trips down the court were turnovers and by their next shot the Lady Gryphons were ahead 12-0 .  From that point on it was what is the final score going to be.

Rocky Mount girls win their fifth conference game with two losses.  The Fike girls are winless on the conference season as the Lady Gryphons win 71-47.  Fike finished with 32 turnovers but between coasting along  the Lady Gryphons finished with 25 themselves.

Carmen Richardson lead the Gryphons with 24 and Tarmara Harper added 15 points and 10 rebounds.  E J Proctor scored 24 for the Lady Demons.  Rocky Mount won the rebound battle 39-30.
The Gryphons jv girls play Nash Central starting at 1pm Saturday afternoon.  the varsity girls will begin about 4pm

Strangle Hold

Hunt High already with a conference football title under their belt are now on the verge of adding a basketball crown to their 2013/14 school year. Nine days remain until the dust will settle and a regular season champion will be crowned.  Hunt's comeback win at Rocky Mount on Tuesday all but put a bow on the regular season for the Warriors.

Hold the phone folks, there is one team who we normally expect to find in the second division of the Big East right now sits in second only one game behind Hunt and they will play Hunt twice in those final nine days.  Yes, the Firebirds of Southern Nash after routing Nash Central last night are 4-1 a single game behind Hunt.

The reshuffled Big East schedule due to all of this inclement weather we have had the last two Wednesdays  has bundled a load of games to be played these final days of the season.  One sprained ankle by a teams star player could mean that player could miss one half of conference play in the last nine days.

Hunt at 5-0 host Southern Nash Friday.  Should Hunt win they would surely be in the driver seat with a week to go.  But if Southern wins it is a sprint to the finish but a home game against Hunt again next Wednesday.  Southern's problem they have one extra game to play over Hunt and they played that game last night so both have five games to play.

Hunt travels to Northern Nash Saturday, host Nash Central Tuesday and finish next Friday at Fike.  Southern travels to Fike Saturday, at Rocky Mount Tuesday and finishes with Nash Central The final night.  Rocky Mount 4-2 host Fike tonight, Nash Central Saturday, Southern Tuesday and visit Northern for their annual last night

Fike 3-3 still has a game with Rocky  Mount tonight, Host Southern on Saturday and host Hunt on Valentines night.  They have a Tuesday trip to Northern.  Even at 3-3 and games against all three teams ahead of them in the standings this season is far from over.

Tuesday was the first two rounds of the state duel wrestling championships with the top two Big East teams Rocky Mount and Southern Nash being the only two on the road.  The wrestling is broken down into four teams playing two rounds in one day.  Southern Nash takes on the host team in their four team bracket West Brunswick and lose their opening match 40-28.

Rocky Mount has a four team bracket hosted by Havelock and guess who the Gryphons got to play first?  The Gryphons won their opening matching beating the host Rams 41-27.  While the Gryphons are winning Swansboro on another mat is winning their match to set up a second round match of Rocky Mount and Swansboro meeting in Havelock.  Swansboro takes down the Gryphons 46-27 to end the Gryphons season with a record of 31-7.  Boy J J Jones' boys have a heck of a season.

Charitable Contributions

Tonight Rocky Mount High school made a major charitable tax contribution on their 2014 taxes when they handed the Hunt Warriors two games at the free throw line.  The Lady Gryphons made just 15 of 33 free throws on the night and made a valiant come back 10 points back with less than two minutes to play and had two rebound put backs to tie the game but neither fell an Hunt Lady Warriors beat Rocky Mount 59-53.

The boys were sailing along at the end of three quarters leading Hunt 52-42 but failed to make any of their eight free throws in the 4th quarter plus turned the ball over way to much and lose 62-60 to the Warriors. Hunt now stands at 5-0 in conference play while Rocky Mount drops to 4-2.

The Lady Gryphons trailed by six at the end of the first quarter, ten at the half and at several points in the third quarter by 12 but pressure defense they cut it to four at the end of three but the Warriors built it back to 12 in the fourth and at 1:57 the Gryphons trailed by 10. Carmen Richardson lead the fourth quarter flurry for Rocky Mount making 8 of 9 free throws down the stretch but that left Rocky Mount hitting only 7 of 24 earlier in the game.  Tarmara Harper scored 12.  Ashley Hatfield grabbed 12 rebounds and Richardson has 11 as the shorter Gryphons out rebound Hunt 50-45.

Hunt wasn't in a giving mood like Rocky Mount made 15 of their 20 shots at the free stripe. Brianna Anderson lead the Warriors with 19. Alexis Williams scored 11 and Kianna Ballard 10.  Williams had 16 boards while Destinee Hinnant had 11.  Rocky Falls to 4-2 in the Big East while Hunt is 3-2.

The Gryphon boys playing their three guard lineup played much better defense early on Hunt.  Seems when the turnovers started big time in the fourth the D on the outside shot went away and Quan Kent made them pay scoring 22 on the night but made three straight thres when Hunt was making their
move.

Donte Battle 25 points 13 rebounds  lead the way but Isaiah Alston pumped  in 22 .  Rocky  Mount won the boards 37-25 but they also made lots more turn overs than Hunt 21-10. Keenon Tabron scored 16 for the Warriors while Josh Willingham added 12.

Northern Nash girls now have a two game lead as they beat Southern Nash. 63-40.  All the Hunt boys need to do is not fall down the next two weeks as they lead the boys by a game and a half.

Who Wants Second

I think we have seen that the team to beat in Big East basketball is the Lady Knights of Northern Nash.  They have already beaten Rocky Mount the team that seems to be the prime candidate for second twice and by 17 on Rocky Mount's home court.  The only team in the league that compares size wise Hunt, Northern has already taken them down by 17 on Hunts home floor.  Due to all the weather complication Northern and Nash Central have yet to meet but both Rocky Mount and Hunt have handled the Lady Bulldogs.

Tonight Rocky Mount host Hunt.  Rocky Mount's four conference wins have been close by less than seven points in each but all four have happened on the road. Their five remaining games left to play only a road trip to Northern is away all others are against teams they won on the road.  Since all four wins were close they are no shoo in to win any the second time around.

Enter tonight's game with Hunt, Rocky Mount won  55-51 at Hunt but the Lady Gryphons had trouble getting the ball inside against the tall Hunt front line.  Rocky Mount's advantage was the pressure defense that as the game went on the Hunt taller girls tired and the Lady Gryphons took advantage.

Now at this point Nash Central is 1-2 with seven games to play in the last two weeks of the season. They have two meetings left with Northern which is not exactly in the Lady Bulldogs favor.  Four teams will make the playoffs and at this point Fike is winless so you would think either Nash Central or Southern will be fighting for the fourth playoff spot or if either Nash Central or Southern can best Rocky Mount or Hunt to drop them down to join the battle for fourth.

Southern Nash girls stand at 1-2 with a Loss against Northern and Rocky Mount.  They too have seven games to play and if you include the next two Saturdays they have only 12 days to play those seven games.  That doesn't leave much practice time and not many players get better until you have time to be taught what your mistakes were and then practice  improving before the next game.  There will be a couple of back to back nights with no practice in between.

Tonight the fight begins for who wants second.  A loss now for either Rocky Mount, Hunt, Nash Central or Southern Nash just pushes the loser  closer to fifth spot and out of the playoffs. Who wants a bye in the Big East tournament along side Northern will be the team that wins the most games between the four team tangled together.  I don't foresee any one beating The Lady Knights the rest of the way during the regular season. The one that beats all the others will get second.

Week Of Decision

There is two weeks to go as far as days on the calendar but for some three weeks worth of games still to play.  Hunt 4-0, Rocky Mount 4-1 and Nash Central 2-1 would seem to be the only teams with a real chance to win the Big East regular season.

Southern Nash still has seven games left  and their biggest issue is finding dates that match up with everyone they still have left to play. Hunt must play six times and Rocky Mount has only five on the schedule and four are at home.

You have to look no further than Tuesday night to find the most important game left on the Big East schedule. Hunt  13-3 and 4-0 makes a visit to Rocky Mount 10-6 4-1.  When these two met way back before the snow weeks this was no contest.

The Warriors completely dominated the Gryphon back court and never allowed the Gryphons to get inside where the biggest front line in the Big East lives.  Recently to combat the difficulty handling the ball Rocky Mount has gone to a smaller front line but still remains the biggest but with more ball handlers the Gryphons hope they match up better this go round.

Hunt's defense was as quick as the  Seattle Seahawks on the Gryphons last time and this will be the winning factor. Can Rocky Mount solve the pressure supplied by the Warriors and get the ball inside.  Will Hunt  be too quick once again.

The Big East Tournament will be in Rocky Mount and for any team hoping to advance to the Regional home court advantage is vital.  Should Hunt win Tuedsay they most like will win the regular season and even if the Gryphons would win the Tournament Hunt would have the top seed where I doubt the number two seed would get more than one home game in the sectional unless there would be some monumental upsets in the opening game to alter home court advantage.

To say the least tomorrow's game is worth a sellout but in the first meeting the Hunt home crowd was very sparse.  Remember Hunt is a football school first but in order to win and go deep in the playoffs their crowd will need to help them to advance when the really good playoff  games come.