Gryphons-Lady Knights CHAMPS

I don't know whether I have enough space to tell you about the Rocky Mount-Nash Central boys game.  Tied 31-31 at the half Rocky Mount came out of the locker room and for six minutes played like State Champs running out to a 55-35 lead. The next five minutes Nash Central look like champions as they cut the 20 point lead to one with 5:11 to play in the game. Over the next four and a half minutes Rocky Mount got the lead back to ten and even cleared the bench with 30 seconds to play but Nash Central hit two threes and with ten seconds to play had cut the lead to 71-67.  Gryphons win 73-67.

Levon Brutus had the Tournament of his life scoring 25 points and earning the MVP honors.  Sophomore Donte Battle when ever he realized that he is big at 6 feet six and broad shoulders and if he plays as aggressive as he played the first three quarters all the time then the next two and half years the Gryphons are in good hands, Donte had 15 points.  Tevin Taylor added three treys right when Rocky Mount could't  miss a three had several steals and got every rebound. He score 11 on the night.  Terrell Hilliard also score 11 but left several points  on the foul line.

Interesting enough Rocky Mount lead by 11 in the second quarter only to see Daniel Pittman hit a three off an inbound pass with .9 tenths of a second to go in the half.  I thought when the clock was less than a second you had to throw the ball up as quickly as possible but Pittman faked took one dribble and fired up a 22 foot shot and the horn didn't sound until the ball was halfway toward the goal heading to the bottom of the net.

Nathaniel Pittman did all he could do to keep Nash Central in the game scoring 27.  Teammates Jalen Hendricks and Christian Jones had 11 and 10 points.  Southern Nash's Josh Sessom, Daryl Purdy of Northern, Nathaniel Pittman, Donte Battle and Terrell Hilliard were on the all tournament team.

The girls games was Northern jumping to a 14 point lead and held that rate for a good part of three quarters until Nash Central cut the lead to ten and had the ball but never got closer than ten points.  The last couple of minutes Northern finally was able to rid themselves of the pesky Lady Bulldogs and win the Nash County Holiday Tournament 56-34.  It was Nash Central's first loss of the season.

Northern had only one player to hit double figures and that was Kadeshia Richardson  with  10.  What Northern got was ten players scoring and all played tall, aggressive defense, dominated the boards and had plenty of fouls to go around without being in foul trouble. The Lady Knights made it to the Regional last season and they look better right now than they did  then.

The Tournament MVP was Sophomore Alexis Hill and joining her on the all tournament team was J'Kyra Brown of Rocky Mount, Kadeshia Manning of Southern Nash, Niya Styles of Nash Central, Timyra Staton of Nash Central and Kadeshia Richardson of Northern.

The boys consolation game  Southern Nash whipped Northern 61-32.  The third quarter they had expanded the lead to 38-8 before Northern got any offense going.

Gryphons Down Northern

The Gryphon boys basketball team beat Northern Nash in what for them was an opening round  and by winning advance to the Championship game Wednesday night at around 7.30.  The Boys win 71-47 over the Knights.  The boys are now 7-1.

The Lady Gryphon girls play the 3rd place game tonight and beat Southern Nash by a 70-41 score.  The Lady Gryphons rebound after losing their second game of the year last night to Northern.  Their two losses so far have come at the hands of once beaten Millbrook and undefeated Northern.

I like this new format being used for the tournament.  Three games opening day including the home team playing in  two games.  The second night featuring  the loser of the girls  games and the boys game from the set of teams not playing the home team on Monday.  In this case that put Rocky Mount having both teams playing on the second night.  Wednesday will start with the third place boys game and then the two championship games.  I think this three day deals has potential to have great crowds every night

Tarboro High School's Todd Gurley was named NCPrep.Com high School Football player of the year today.  The Associated Press also named their all state team and Gurley made that team too.  Gurley is expected to make his intentions known  on January 3rd.  Rumor Mill says it is down to Georgia and North Carolina.  Why Georgia you ask, Keith Marshall the highly recruited back from Millbrook who chose Georgia and Gurley are good friends and the story goes they made a pact to go to college together.  North Carolina remains in the picture due to Tarboro native and resident Kelvin Bryant.  Bryant has been a mentor  for Gurley the past few years and I think you know why he wants him to go to Carolina.

If you keep up with the goings on in the NFL you know one week a team looks like world beaters and the next they are worse than a jv squad.  I think if you look at the blocking stats most any NFL game and it will tell you why teams win and lose.  I told you yesterday about my man Philip Rivers.  During the six game losing streak of the Chargers he had a quarterback rating of 76 and in those six games sacked 20 times.  During the Chargers three game winning streak he has been sacked only once and a QB rating of 132.  If you saw the Packers Sunday Aaron Rogers stay on his back more than both feet planted and he had his worse rating of the year.

The quarterbacks get all the glory for winning and all the blame for losing but football is a team game and those guys in the trenches open the holes for the running backs and keep the quarterbacks upright.  If you look at all the teams that have clinched playoffs spots what do they all have in common? A good line!