Gryphons fall hard

There is an old saying that says "it's not the fall that kills you, but the sudden stop." Wednesday night was a sudden stop for the Rocky Mount boys basketball team as it fell at Northern Vance 82-53.

This is the second year in a row that Northern has eliminated the Gryphons in the basketball sectionals.

The Gryphons finished at 17-11 overall on the season and had a nine-game winning streak snapped.

Nash Central is the only NEW 6 team that will make it to the sectional finals as it knocked off D.H. Conley 51-48 at Nash Central.

Up next for the Bulldogs is a trip to Kinston Friday. Game time is 7 p.m..

Fike made the trip down to Bertie and returned home a 21-point loser to the Falcons, 78-57.

The most difficult assignment of the night was SouthWest Edgecombe's, which made a trip to Greensboro and played Northern Guilford, but came home a loser, 83-62.

So after winning four out of five on Monday night, the NEW 6 tonight loss three of four.

The last two surviving ladies NEW 6 teams are in action Thursday night as both teams will play at home.

Rocky Mount's girls will face Havelock, a No. 2 seed from the Coastal Conference. Havelock is now 20-7, while the Lady Gryphons, winners of 13 in a row, are now 21-4.

Havelock was a former Big East Conference team member with Rocky Mount until the last realignment in 2005.

SouthWest Edgecombe gets a home game because its foe Thursday, Western Guilford, knocked off a No. 1 seed in Oxford Webb on Tuesday. SWE, as a No. 2 seed, gets the home game because WG is a No. 5 seed.

The long-awaited return of Tiger Woods was a good one today as he won his first match at Accenture Match Play Championships in Arizona. His entire career he has been money in the bank on putts of 10 feet or less. Tiger is hitting his early 30's now. He has been off for eight months recovering from knee surgery. It will be interesting to see if he continues to drain those 10-footers.

Lady Gryphs Get Defensive

I think I can sum up for you in just a few stats what told the tale tonight.

• Eastern Wayne had 11 turnovers before scoring its first point.


• Its first point of the game did not come until 2.26 left in first quarter.


• The Lady Warriors did not make a field goal in first quarter.


• Their first field goal came with 3.24 to play in the half.


• By their first field goal, they had committed 22 turnovers.


• By games end, EW had 39 turnovers.


• It had more turnovers than points - 33.


• The Lady Gryphons had 35 points at the half.

To say the least, the Lady Gryphons, the No. 1 seed from the NEW 6, represented the conference well as they flat out embarrassed EW 66-33. At one point in the second quarter, the score was 26-1.

FreshmanTia Hudgins was the only Gryphon in double figuures with 17. Off the benchh, Alexis Farmer led the rebounders with 11. Ten different Gryphons scored and 10 had at least one rebound.

Seven players scored at least four points and nine different players had at least two rebounds.

The Lady Gryphons play home Thursday night at 7 in the semifinals of the sectionals.

Fike traveled across town and lost at Hunt by a 53-51 score.

Nash Central, which took on undefeated South Central, fell 55-41.

Southern Nash on the road at Overhills lost a close one 44-41.

SouthWest Edgecombe advances to round two, but to its surprise, it gets a home game on Thursday after the No. 1 seed Webb Warriors lost at home last night.

The NEW 6 girls teams are 2-3 during the first round and both RM and SWE get home games in the second round.

In the boys bracket, they went 4-1 opening night, but only Nash Central is home Wednesday night.

Rocky Mount boys travel to Henderson to take on Northern Vance Wednesday night in the sectional semis.

Dr. Barbara Holt, wife of Rocky Mount head football coach B.W. Holt, underwent surgery today at Duke. If all is well tonigh,t she may come home Wednesday. Please keep up the prayers for the Holt family.

Gryphons Get Revenge

It may have not been on the football field but the Gryphon Basketball team took out three years of football playoff pain tonight in whipping Western Alamance 77-55.

The Gryphon defense was so stifling on the Warriors that Coach Mike Gainey cleared the bench with four minutes to play in the first half with the score 33-6. The remainder of the game was played trying to keep everyone healthy for Wednesday night's game.

TaShawn Mabry took open shots from three feet from the basket the entire night but he played in limited time TaShawn had 30 points. Nick Hahula rained threes early and often during the opening salvo by the Gryphons and is the only other Gryphon to score in double figures with 11.

Philip Wilkins streak of double digit rebounds came to an end and no Gryphon had more than five rebounds. But tonight rebounds were not needed as the Warriors had trouble advancing the ball forward while Rocky Mount's opening blitz was under way.

Rocky Mount Travels to the #1 seed in sectional four Northern Vance Wednesday night who had a rather close game a 72-66 victory over 6-16 Bartlett Yancy.

Northern Nash traveled to Kinston to play maybe the best team in the east and Kinston probably proved it to Northern Nash with Kinston winning 83-35. At one point it was 40-9 in favor of Kinston.

Is the New-6 a power in basketball? Nash Central the only other conference member to have an opening round home game put away Eastern Wayne in the second half and advance to round #2 with a 62-43 victory. Nash central plays host to D H Conley Wednesday night.

The two conference surprises on the night belong to the #3 seed Fike Golden Demons who stunned Southern Wayne in Mount Olive 82-75. Up next for Fike is a trip to Bertie on Wednesday.

The #4 seeded Cougars of Southwest Edgecombe traveled to Spring Lake on the edge of Pope Air force base and beat Overhills by four points.

This means the top four New-6 basketball teams advance to round two Wednesday. SWE draws 25-3 Northern Guilford next.

Tuesday is the start of girls action as the lady Gryphons play host to Eastern Wayne Tip time is 7.00pm at the RM gym . There is a possibility that Lakia Bynum may be able to play Tuesday.

Tonight I must close with a prayer for Barbara Holt who undergoes cancer surgery Tuesday at Duke. All the Gryphon nation needs to pray for a good report for Barbara and BW.

Basketball Playoffs Start

Despite just playing Friday night, there is no time to celebrate a conference tournament championship as Rocky Mount hosts Western Alamance Monday evening at 7.

Every team is like a puzzle and this year's Gryphon basketball team took a while to get all the pieces in place.

Tashawn Mabry who during this eight-game winning streak is probably having the best period of what is becoming an illustrious Gryphon career.

Philip Wilkins has been close to double-digit scoring and rebounding during this streak.

Bobo Sharpe is approaching 500 assists in his career to go with over 1,100 points.

Darius McKnight has become a scorer and ball handler which was sorely lacking when the team was 8-10.

Nick Hahula continues to rain 3-point shots at just the right moment.

If the Gyrphons win Monday, they play the winner of the Bartlett Yancey-Northern Vance game which will more than likely be Northern Vance since they are 23-2 and at home.

The only way the Gryphons get a home game is if Bartlett Yancy wins which is not likely since they are only 6-15.

Tomorrow night is in all likelyhood the last home game of the year for the boys.

Despite being 20-4, the Lady Gryphons have a major injury to deal with since point guard Lakia Bynum was injured Friday night.

The girls start the playoffs on Tuesday. If they manage to defeat 9-15 Eastern Wayne, they play again Thursday against the Havelock-White Oak winner in Rocky Mount.

Tonight Duke defends home court and beat Wake Forest. To this point in the season, there doesn't seem to be a Big Four team that will make it to the Final Four.

However, Raleigh is hosting a first-round weekend and if Carolina and Duke can get to Raleigh then they both have a good chance for the Sweet 16.

Now, in retrospect, it may not have been such a great deal with all of Carolina players returning this year. They have all improved their offensive game but not a one has worked on defense.

I still like what I see in Wake. I know it is hard to believe, but the Wolfpack can still make the NCAA and have a good shot at finishing at 8-8 in conference play. Who would have thought that three weeks ago.

Basketball Brackets

Rocky Mount wanted this in football, but it will have to do in basketball as Rocky Mount High will host Western Alamance Monday at 7 p.m. in the RM high gym.

The Gryphons, the No. 2 seed in the NEW 6, will host the No. 4 seed in the Triad Conference which has a 11-14 record.

There is good news and bad news for Northern Nash. They made the field as a wild card, but they drew the No. 1 overall eastern region team Kinston which is 23-3 on the year.

Nash Central, the NEW 6's No. 1 seed host Eastern Wayne, the No. 4 seed from the East Carolina conference and the #4 seed who has a 6-16 record.

SouthWest Edgecombe will travel to Overhills High and Wilson Fike will travel to Southern Wayne.

All sectional boys action is schedule for Monday at 7 p.m.

In the girls bracket ....

The Lady Gryphons will host Eastern Wayne 9-15 which will travel to Rocky Mount
More than likely the Lady Gryphons will be without the services of starting guard Lakia Bynum who had a lower leg injury Friday in the tournament championship game.

SouthWest Edgecombe will host Northeast Guilford, Fike will drive across town to meet Hunt, Southern Nash will make the long trip to Overhills and the Nash Central girls drew the short straw as they travel to South Central which is 25-0 on the season.

All opening round sectional play for the girls starts Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The end of regulation was very controversial to say the least in last night's boys tournament finals at SouthWest Edgecombe.

Nash Central's relentless press had Rocky Mount in a panic in the last few seconds. Trey Sumler's t tied the game with 2.7 seconds to play. The inbounds pass was stolen by Sumler who feed the ball inside to teammate Brandon Thomas who put up the last shot of the game.

As the ball is hanging on the rim the backboard light goes off to tell everyone the game is over. Depending on witch side you pull for, here is what happened.

Last night I was the colorman as Wes Bradshaw did the play by play for the "Stretchlon Sports Show".

I looked at the clock as Sumler intercepted the ball and tossed it over to where Thomas was under the basket. The scoreboard went to four zeros as Thomas received the ball, the horn sounded and when the horn went off the referee blew his whistle to stop the end of the game. While all of this is happening Thomas puts up the shot and the light comes on.

It was obvious to me the clock was not in sync relating to the four zeros and the horn. The light seemed to me to be a good half second or more behind the clock and horn. When you are discussing hundreds of a second, II might be off by a tenth.

The referee's whistle was much like that Ed Hoculi call in the San Diego-Denver NFL game last season. Once the whistle sounds, the play stops. (I know all the Bulldog fans think they got hosed last night, but I think the right call was made due to a poorly syncronized clock system at SWE.

The bottom line is I think the right call was made but clearly everyone in the gym could see the light did not go off until the ball was on the rim.

It's a Gryphon Night

Tonight at SouthWest Edgecombe High Rocky Mount High School brought home the conference tournament championship in both girls and boys basketball. However, both were completely different ways to win a championship.

The Lady Gryphons could muster on six points in the first quarter and only one player scored and that was Danita Whitaker. The second quarter the Lady Gryphons began to get more team scoring and looked as if they would lead by four at the half, but two turnovers in the last 20 seconds led to a tie at the half of 20-all.

Insert Arkenesia Melton in the third quarter and the ladies began to get some rhythm and good defense held Fike to only eight points and the ladies lead at the end of the third quarter 37-28.

Fike finally got going in the fourth quarter, but it became a shot for shot fourth quarter and the Lady Gryphons win their second NEW 6 Tournament title to tie SouthWest with two each. Rocky Mount won 58-48.

It was also the 20th win of the season for the No. 1 seeded Lady Gryphons who play at home Tuesday night against Eastern Wayne.

Dyonna Battle lead the Lady Gryphons with 16 followed by Tia Hudgins with 12 and Melton with 10.

Battle was named tournament MVP and Whitaker joined her on the All-Tournament team. Tramicka James scored 30 of Fike's 48 points and after 31 last night and 20 on Tuesday and no doubt she would have been the MVP if Fike had won the tournment.

In the nightcap, the Gryphons beat the Bulldogs 87-76 in overtime.

Nash Central shot out to a 22-13 lead in the first quarter as Michael Speight led the Bulldogs with 11 in the quarter. From the get-go tonight, RM's Darius McKnight had the assignment of covering Trey Sumler all over the court, including timeouts and McKnight through three quarters held Sumler to only three points.

There was one point in the game during foul shots that every time Sumler tried to go to the other side of the lane McKnight was with him step for step.

Rocky Mount was able to outscore the Bulldogs in the second quarter by 13 to lead at the half by three at 33-30.

Rocky Mount built its lead to 10 points with less than two minutes to play, but with a unrelenting defensive surge by Nash Central, it managed to tie the game and send it to overtime.

This was a game that nobody wanted to lose. Sumler got going in the fourth quarter and finished the game with 18. Speight had 15 points a wheelbarrow full of rebounds.

Bulldog guard T. J. Bryant, nephew of area football legend Kelvin Bryant, added 15 mostly three pointers. And when Nash Central was on the verge of being blown out, his shots kept it in the game. The fourth member of the Bulldogs to hit double figures was Dominique Holloway who added 12.

Despite the Bulldogs' efforts, the best team tonight was Rocky Mount as it won its eighth game in a row and moved to 16-10 on the season and won its third NEW 6 tournament championship in the league's four years.

Tashawn Mabry had 32 points and yanked down 15 rebounds. McKnight added 16 points and late in the game when the Gryphons looked shaky with the ball, McKnight was money in the bank handling the ball.

But the night belonged to Philip Wilkins. Philip, for the first time in his caree,r had 21 points but when the Gryphons needed a rebound, Philip pulled down 20 on the night.

If there was any doubt whether Nash Central and Rocky Mount were rivals tonight eliminated any doubt. Tonight's game was the best game I have seen all year on TV or live. Every player gave all they had on both sides and either side had plenty of chances to win the game in regulation.

Mabry was named the tournament MVP and was joined on the All-Tournament team by Wilkins and McKnight. Sumler and Speight joined Fike's Jeremy Adkinson on the squad.

The Gryphons play at home Monday night in the first round of sectional play.

Championship Double header Tonight

The lady Gryphons were steady and prevailed last night over the Lady Firebirds of Southern Nash.

The Ladies play tonight at 6.00pm against Fike who upset Southwest Edgecombe on their home court.

In the second game tonight Rocky Mount will try to upend Nash Central for the second straight Friday night.

Both Fike ladies and Rocky Mount boys are trying to win the conference tournament as #3 seeded teams and in doing so try to capture the #2 seeding from the conference in the playoffs.

The big difference in a #2 or #3 seed is a home game in the opening sectional game over being on the road as a #3 seed.

If the lady Gryphons win the conference tournament it will be win #20 on the season.

Wednesday night after game press conference Roy Williams blurted out a vulgarity in which both the Tarheel and Wolfpack sports networks were carrying live.

I don't understand why the ACC has not suspended Williams for at least one game for the over the air ways blurt.

Anyone who has ever been within ear shot of most college coaches knows that "amen" and "praise the lord" is not the normal speach while on the sidelines. Most of Roy williams salary is paid through radio shows before and after games and Weekly TV shows so he knew he was live on the air somewhere.

In NASCAR drivers have been fined $25,000 for cussing after interviews. Since the ACC is not responsible for a coaches salary they are the governing body of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

I say Roy needs to sit out one game.

I did play by play for Chowan College for 13 years and Bob Burke was famous for his tirates on the sidelines. A Baptist college and Bob Burke didn't seem to fit. I think that is one reason he was never hired as a D-1 coach. If Burke had of had a losing record he would have been replaced in a flash.

In all the before and after game radio interviews he never let one slip

Thanks Bob.

Duke tried Jon Schyer at point guard last night in a non conference win against St Johns. Bobby knight the color TV analyst justed loved the moved.

I see it only makes Duke slower. For some reason Coach K thinks the guards are their problem but I think it's big men inside defensive player is killing them.

I will blog again after I get back from the B-Ball tournament tonight around 10.30 with the results.