Gryphons beat Knights for first win of the season

Mike Gainey opened the door to Rocky Mount High’s locker room shortly after the final buzzer Wednesday, and with him poured out a wall of noise.

Gainey finally could exhale, as could his players, who the longtime Gryphons coach had left behind so they could celebrate on their own.

He had a steady stream of well-wishers, people who knew Rocky Mount High had slogged to an 0-13 start to this season and needed something – anything – to go its way.

The Gryphons got precisely that on Wednesday night, in the form of a wire-to-wire, 62-54, upset victory over fierce rivals Northern Nash.

Rocky Mount High led by as many as 14 and held off a second-half Knights rally that saw the Gryphons’ lead dwindle to one early in the fourth quarter.

“These guys have been working so hard despite not having won a game yet,” Gainey said. “It’s a relief to just get one out of the way. And nice to win the one game everybody in town shows up to.”

Rocky Mount High (1-13 overall, 1-3 Big East) junior forward Sherrod Greene sat next to Gainey for the Gryphons’ three conference losses, and by the third one, Greene told Gainey he was tired of losing.

It was up to the Gryphons to do something about it.

For a young, winless team in a rivalry game, a fast start is ideal, and Rocky Mount High jumped on Northern Nash (11-6, 1-4) from the first possession. Latrell Daniels and Kyle Barnhill staked the Gryphons to a 6-0 lead in the first 1:48 as Northern Nash turned the ball over on each of their first four offensive possessions.

Rocky Mount High pushed its lead to 12-2, forcing Knights coach Henry Drake to call a full timeout with less than half of the first quarter gone.

“I thought we were focused and ready to play, but our guys are just inexperienced,” Drake said. “They’ve got to understand that when our shots aren’t falling, it’s not the end of the world.”

Northern Nash managed just one field goal in the first quarter. Rocky Mount High’s fullcourt pressure defense flustered the Knights into 16 first-half turnovers.

Gainey said it’s the type of effort he has been looking for all season.

“That sort of defense – where we’re turning teams over and getting scores off of it – is the only way we’re going to be able to play and win,” Gainey said. “We just don’t have enough yet on the perimeter to score consistently in the halfcourt.”

Despite the early struggles, however, Northern Nash closed the first half on a 7-0 run to cut Rocky Mount High’s 28-14 lead to seven at the break.

“My teammates went into the locker room at halftime with their heads down a little bit,” Daniels, who finished with 13 points, said. “But coach (Gainey) said just to take care of the ball, make free throws, and keep playing good defense, and we would be fine.”

Given Rocky Mount High’s winless start to the season, though, a Northern Nash run felt inevitable at some point in the second half – and sure enough, the Knights stormed back.

After Gryphons guard Emmanuel Spruill knocked down a 3 from the top of the key for a 38-27 lead midway through the third quarter, Undray Cherry answered with a running layup and Raquan Harris drained a 3. Gainey called timeout, but a two-handed dunk from Knights forward Isaiah *** with 3:32 left in the period cut the Gryphons’ lead to four.

Northern Nash later closed to within one at 42-41 when Cherry swished a 3 from the corner with 31 seconds left in the third.

“That was a great team win,” Daniels said. “We stuck together when they started coming back. Nobody panicked, even when it would have been easy to.”

Raymond Bullock scored the first bucket of the fourth quarter to pull Northern Nash within one, but the Gryphons countered with a 9-0 run over the next 3:40, capped by a baseline jumper from Greene, to extend their lead to 10 and effectively put away the Knights.

GIRLS

N. NASH 49

RM HIGH 38Northern Nash coach Grover Battle was concerned about the Knights’ trip to face Rocky Mount High, and rightfully so.

The Gryphons beat Battle’s Knights in the Nash County Christmas Tournament in mid-December, and Northern Nash was coming off a rare Big East loss at Wilson Fike.

And so on Wednesday, the Knights went back to what has helped them win so often: a swarming defense that forces turnovers.

Northern Nash forced 15 Rocky Mount High giveaways in the first half as it build a 17-6 lead, and the Knights got enough offense from Kayla Tucker and Jahlia Williams after the intermission to hold off the Gryphons for a 49-38 win.

“The team defense was really, really good, to the point where I thought our lead (at halftime) should’ve been much bigger than it was,” Battle said. “They just hit some shots on us in the second half.”

Northern Nash (14-3 overall, 4-1 Big East) opened the second half on an 8-0 run to push its lead to 25-6 with 6:19 left in the third quarter, but Rocky Mount High (9-5, 2-2) wasn’t finished.

The Gryphons knocked down six 3-pointers in the third quarter alone – four from Michelle Gainey, who led all scorers with 18 – but the barrage only cut the Knights’ lead to eight. Shelby Meeks’ line-drive heave at the third-quarter buzzer, which would have drawn the Gryphons within five, went halfway down but rimmed out.

Battle’s team kept Rocky Mount High at arms’ length in the fourth quarter.

Jahlia Williams hit eight of 10 free throw attempts in the final period, and the Gryphons never got closer than eight.

BOYS
Rocky Mount High 62
Northern Nash 54
NN 7 14 20 13 – 54
RMH 16 12 16 18 – 62
NN: Raymond Bullock 17; Undray Cherry 15; Isaiah *** 6; Raquan Harris 6; Damian Moore 4; Darius Spragley 4; Demonte Williams 2.
RMH: Kyle Barnhill 17; Latrell Daniels 13; Sherrod Greene 10; Artavious Richardson 6; Spencer Ramsey 5; Juwan Jones 4; Emmanuel Spruill 3; Isaiah Morris 2; Jamar Ellis 2.

GIRLS
Northern Nash 49
Rocky Mount High 38
NN 9 8 16 16 – 49
RMH 3 3 19 13 – 38
NN: Jahlia Williams 15; Kayla Tucker 13; Cece Harrison 8; Shamiya Mercer 5; Keyonte Cherry 4; Amanda Richardson 4.
RMH: Michelle Gainey 18; Mya Pittman 9; Keyanna Spivey 6; Shelby Meeks 3; Natalya Cannie 2.

By FOSTER LANDER

Sports Writer for Rocky Mount Telegram

Wednesday, January 27, 2016