Championship Week Begins

This morning all of the teams left still vying for the State Championship their coaches, principals and Athletic Directors meet to have news conferences with every major news outlet in North Carolina will meet in Durham  to probe and question them about there teams. Mike Gainey will be in the spot light for the Gryphons.

Tickets go on sale at 8.00am Tuesday in Coach Gainey's office. Advanced tickets are $9 and if you wait when you walk in the Dean Dome Saturday they will be 10 bucks. Just like two years ago the 3-A game is the prime time game and is scheduled to start at 7.30.pm.

The Gryphons will be the visiting team  and will wear blue.Coach Gainey wants every one wearing blue  to the game.

The Gryphon boys remain undefeated 18-0 in 2012. Saturday's lost broke a 19  game winning streak for the girls.

The boys five playoff games they have won by 17 points per game.  The closest being 14 points.  I sure would rather have had a 68-66 game along the way.

Burlington Williams in their zone defense deployed one of their taller girls on the point which caused the Lady Gryphons to shoot over a taller player on most of their outside shots. The Strategy worked.

Chant heard from Hawks crowd before the game  " We Believe"------"We are going to win".  "We believe"---"We are going to win".  Chant from Gryphons fans near the end of game.  "We Know"---"We have won".  "We Know"--- We have won".

Two locals refs that I know about called games in Fayetteville this week.  Ron Fly who now lives in Goldsboro  but formerly of Rocky Mount  was one of the refs in the girls game that followed the Gryphon boys.

  D J   Don Johnson had games in the Arena last week.  He had earned the Rocky Mount game Wednesday night but being a Graduate of Rocky Mount , his wife  Wanda a grad and all three of his sons graduated Rocky Mount, D J asked to be moved for a possible conflict of interest.  If you ever saw the Andy Griffith Show where Andy is asked to umpire a championship in which the umpire is sick and Andy fills in, and Andy calls Opie out at home where weeks later a picture taken by Helen shows Opie safe.  Don didn't want any part of the Rocky Mount game cause that a call he might make go against the Gryphons and all the Gryphon Nation be upset with him.  Conflict of interest works both ways.

I sure hope the Pep Band  goes to Chapel Hill again this year.  That really added a lot to the atmosphere for the 12,000or so that were there.

More news to pass on.   Gryphon baseball had three home games last week and lost all three.  14-1 to Rose.  3-0 to Southern Wayne and 15-1 to Riverside.  So far two runs in three games.  The Grypons are young and tender this year.

Girls softball is 0-2.  They lost to Tarboro 9-7 and to Louisburg 8-1.  They are improved this year and were playing with four or five starters still playing basketball.  They will be joining softball       
   this week.

Here We Come Again

Rocky Mount earn it second trip in three years to the State Championship beating Triton 82-67. They will meet Hickory who beat Concord in overtime in Greensboro 81-75 Saturday night. Game time is 7.30 Saturday night March 10th in the Dean E Smith Center on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

I don't know who the official score keeper was for this week's games in the Crown Coliseum but it must have been the first time they have ever kept stats. They had Rocky Mount shooting 29 out of 38 for the game and 4 out of 4 in three pointers.I had Rocky Mount with 30 turnovers they had 23. Either way despite the high turnovers Rocky Mount won by 15.

At ground level where we were at mid court you cannot hear the PA system. The speakers are aimed upwards and during the press conference at the top of the building you could hear the next games lineups as clear as a bell.

I thought we were going to have to recruit Morgan Doughtie to sing the National Anthem. The two young ladies didn't want to sing it without music after the CD failed at the start of the game. Morgan was sitting at the end of the Gryphon bench.

If you thought it was cold in the building, it was. Fayetteville has a minor league hockey team and the basketball floor was laid on top of the ice.

All three nights that I attended I heard more people holler three second violations from the stands and when I would look there would be no one in the lane. The floor of the Crown Coliseum has a Pro lane and inside of that the high school lane. People in the stands were seeing feet in the paint but it was the pro lane not the high school. The pro lane is about two foot wider on both sides.

Rocky Mount Prep first trip to the State playoffs ended last night at the hands of Plymouth 86-78. Great season for the Jags. In fact it is their best ever.

Lady Gryphons shot poorly and paid the price. Nice recovery from being 22 down to lose only by four. On Saturday the best team on that day Williams High won. #11 DaJea Scott their ball handler and leading scorer was a freshman.

There is one basic fact about basketball that is true every game. You must make shots go in the basket to win and the Lady Gryphons didn't make many. Give credit to Williams for their defense for that. Despite how badly they shot they only lost by four.

Tonight on the All New Sports Show Wes Bradshaw and myself will be live talking mostly playoff basketball. You can catch it on WHIG-TV starting at 8.pm. Mike Gainey will be live by telephone to talk hoops about 8.45.

REGIONAL FINALS GAME DAY

The Gryphon boys sat in the stands and cheered the Lady Gryphons on. If there was one thing they saw it was they could not dig themselves in a hole. The Gryphons led at the end of the first quarter 20 to 15 and 40 to 26 at the half. If you read the Rocky Mount Telegram this morning then you know that Mike Gainey was concerned about the comeback ability of the Triton Hawks. Triton was able to get 5 turnovers in the first 2 minutes of the second half. They were able to cut the lead to 11. The Gryphons went more than 5 minutes without another turnover and during that time they blew Triton away. By the end of the third quarter the Gryphons had run off to a 67 to 41 lead.

The fourth quarter the Gryphons only made half of their free throws and 15 turnovers. After a sloppy fourth quarter the Gryphons win 82 to 67.

The Gryphons had 7 players to score at least 5 points with Terrell Hillard leading the way with 23. Four of the Gryphons were in double figures. Levon Brutus had 14, Donte Battle 12, KJ Peoples 10 and Tevin Taylor 10.
The Gryphons won the rebounding battle 33 to 29. THey also won the turnovers having 30 while Triton had 24.The Gryphons had a miserable day at the foul line with 20 out of 38.

Despite not playing at their best the Gryphons win comfortably 82 to 67.
Kendrick Harris led the way for the Hawks scoring 21. Patrick McNeil was their leading rebounder getting 9.

The Gryphons return to the State Championship for the 2nd time in 3 years. They will play at 7:30pm Saturday night at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill.


The Rocky Mount Lady Gryphons ran into a hot shooting Bulldogs of Burlington Williams who in the first half shot a scalding 66% while the Gryphons could make only 5 of 20 shots. The Bulldogs built a 33-17 halftime lead in which the Gryphons couldn't do much in the 3rd quarter and the score at the end of 3 quarters was 45 to 29. It got even worse as the Bulldogs increased the lead to 42 to 22 which was the biggest lead of the game.

And then it started. The Gryphons still weren't making shots but finally their defensive pressure took a toll on the Bulldogs who up until this point had figured out the Gryphon press. The Gryphons cut the lead to 45 to 41 with 4 minutes to go in the game. From that point on, Williams made their free throws and the Gryphons struggled right to the end to make buckets. Final Score Burlington Williams 54 Lady Gryphons 50.

Number 11 Dajea Scott, a Freshman for the Lady Bulldogs scored 23 points to lead the way for the Buldogs. The Lady Gryphons outrebounded the Bulldogs 38 to 25. For the game, the Bulldogs shot almost 59% while the
Gryphons were able to get up to 39% for the game.

J'Kyra Brown drew her fourth file late in the 3rd quarter and at this time the Gryphons are about 16 behind and if one thing happened it forced her teammates to start looking for their shots. Brown led the way for the Gryphons getting 19 but those 19 came on 21 shots. Senior Tia Hudgins playing in her final High School Game had 12 rebounds and 11 points. Alexis Cooper had 9 and Carmen Richardson had 7.

The way the Lady Bulldogs played today there is only one team Rocky Mount has played that performed better and that was 4-A Milbrook and that was the first game of the season. The Lady Gryphons dig too big of a hole and lose in the Regional Finals.

On The Verge Of History?

Late Friday night Rocky Mount Prep joined both of the Rocky Mount High school teams as Saturday will be Rocky Mount day at the Eastern Regional.  Prep destroyed West Columbus 88-57 to advance to the Regional 1-A final where they will play Plymouth.   Gryphon girls play at noon, Gryphon boys play at 2pm and  the Prep Jags finish up the night at 6pm.   It will take enormous research to figure out whether one city has ever had three of it's school in the Regional finals all the same day.

Never in the history of Rocky Mount High have both the women and men played the same year with a chance to win a Regional Championship.  Saturday at high noon the girls play Burlington Williams a team that will do everything in their power  to stop Rocky Mount girls from getting to Chapel Hill.  No one has to this point and why has no one been able to?

Reason #1 is J'Kyra Bown.  There is no doubt she is a division one basketball player.  She has that something inside of her  that will not let her lose.  The reason this team wins is J plays within the team concepts and only takes over when it is time.  The past two weeks there have been moments that either Northern or West Craven could take control but she did instead.

Reason #2  Pam Gainey has adjusted her methods of attack in the last four meetings against Northern.  That shows me  she and her staff  are very capable of making the right decisions at the right time.

Reason #3  Every player on this team knows their role.  Tia Hudgins get rebounds and play defense.  Alexus Cooper helps control the ball and is excellent on defense.  Carmen Richardson has blossomed into a  spark plug on both defense and can help on offense.  Amani Kipp the biggest surprise of the season.  She needs to stay out of foul trouble.  Ty'ais Cooper  Ball handler from off the bench who can play D.  Kelsey Daniels is four minutes  per half on dominance in the middle on D. She is all elbows but any point from her is a bonus.

All the pieces fit.  If they fit for two more games  they just might?

Reason #1 for the boys:  Best thing that happen to this team was going to the Holiday Tournament and getting beat twice when they could have won  both.  Mike Gainey message of playing hard all the time finally hit home.

Reason #2;  Terrill Hilliard is a great teammate. Can score but loves to get an assist  for a teammate.  This team has so many options Terrill doesn't have to get 20 every night.

Reason #3.  This team seems to have everyone peaking together.  Donte Battle is just realizing as a sophomore he is a horse in the middle.  If he wants to be he can be unstoppable.  K J Peoples if he finds the right college could blossom into a all conference player at the next level. Levon Brutus, if he was six foot tall would be a D-1 basketball prospect.  Like K J if he finds the right school he could score 20 every night. Tabias Hilliard the guy who handles the ball and plays D.  Doesn't mind if he doesn't score.

 Tevin Taylor has one pretty jump shot and if he is on can bury a team in 30 seconds with the outside shot.  The Hines Brothers, Mason and Michael. There is no letup with them in the game.  They play great D but between them can get 10 points a game off the bench. Jaquell Bryant doesn't score when backing up Donte but there is no letup on D.

Then when rest of the bench plays they are better than anybody else's bench.  When I say bench I'm talking about players  #10-15 .

Reason #4  Taller and faster than most other teams.

Just two more to get.  One note which might be in Rocky Mounts favor.  The Gryphons won a state title in baseball in 2008, basketball in 2010 and this is an even year 2012.