High School Highlights and Lowlights:Roundball Roundup and Ramblings

The Highlights this week belong to the Smith Golden Eagle boys, the Dudley boys and girls, the Greensboro Day School boys and the again we shine the light on the Grimsley girls. The Smith boys pulled out a tough one against Page 76-74 and it was Tavarus Alston’s late three point shot that proved to be the difference maker in the Eagle’s win over the Pirates. I have been pumping up Smith all season long and Reggie Peace and his Eagles have yet to prove me wrong. Brian Wynn had 31 points and Alston added 25 to lead the Eagles to victory. Smith is now 13-7 and 7-1 in the Metro 4-A and to our credit here at GS ,I have had Smith ranked above Page all year long.

The Dudley boys proved to be #1 in the 3-A rankings when they came back from a 10-0 game opening deficit in their win Friday night win versus Morehead. The Panthers got down by as many as 15 points early in the first half but cut the lead to 6 by halftime. Dudley went on to win the game 86-66. Dudley followed that up with a 77-59 victory over previously unbeaten Burlington Cummings on Saturday. William Graves is averaging right at 25 points per game for the Panthers and William is grabbing nearly 10 rebounds per game as well. William should stay inside and play the power game for the Panthers because they need his strength around the basket. Graves is a man-child and I feel he should wait and work more on his outside game next year when he gets to the Dean Dome at UNC-CH. The Tar Heels will need William, but the Panthers need his insde precence to repeat as State 3-A champions.

Greensboro Day School destroyed Charlotte Country Day to improve to 25-2 on the 2005/2006 season. Johnny Thomas, Travis Leonard, and Bruce Woodall were the key scorers in the Bengals 59-27 win. Greensboro Day shows no signs of slowing down and the same can be said for the young ladies from Dudley and from Grimsley.

The Dudley girls are now 19-1 after Saturday night’s 82-71 victory over Cummings down in Burlington. Kris Britton’s Panthers romped over Morehead 93-35 Friday to improve to 9-0 in the Triad 3-A conference. Dudley has a very balanced squad with Mekia Valentine leading the way but she gets plenty of help from Sierra Little and Tiaera Reynolds inside and Dudley has been strong at guard and around the perimeter with Kendra Porter, Nikki Kee, Montague Austin, and Helen Terry. Valentine and Little get a lot of pub but Reynolds is a very hard worker around the basket and she deserves much credit too.

The Grimsley girls whom we have had ranked above Northwest for the entire season proved us to right once again when they stopped Northwest 53-40 on Friday. Grimsley’s defense was again the key to win as the Whirlies outscored the Vikings 13-1 in the 3rd quarter alone. Trumae Lucas and Nicole Hargraves continue to pace the Whirlies and Jasmine Alston stepped up in the win over Northwest to get her name on the web as well. Coach of the Year honors will be in line for the Whirlies Phil Weaver if his young ladies( and we do mean young), can go ahead and nail down the Metro 4-A crown.

More coming your way Tuesday on the rest of the GS teams and what they did last week, but we need to close with some ramblings from the just completed weekend. Former Grimsley boys standout Cameron Bennerman has put together a solid four year run in Raleigh with N.C. State and he connected on a huge 3-pointer to help lift the Wolfpack in their win over Clemson on Sunday. If not for Bennerman’s shot the Wolfpack would have lost the game in regulation and the road loss, coupled with the Pack’s loss last Wednesday to Seton Hall would have been too much for N.C. State to handle and their season would have been a lost cause and Herb Sendek would have lost his job and none of the Red and White fans from Raleigh would be coming to town for the ACC Tournament. As you can tell Cameron Bennerman saved the day again Sunday. Thank-you Cam and I can say I knew you when you were just a Freshman back at the local high school, Grimsley Senior.

Ivory Latta, who I don’t know very well, saved the night for Sylvia Hatchell’s Heels when NORTH CAROLINA beat DUKE Sunday night. This was a very intense battle between the two top-ranked women’s teams in the country and the Heels will be #1 and remain unbeaten after the victory. I don’t watch a ton of women’s college hoops but the fact that both teams had yet to lose this season and with it being the Sunday night headliner I was on board and not bored with the way the game was played. I congratulate both teams and say we look forward to a rematch of some sort for the ACC women’s tournament crown in March at the Greensboro Coliseum.

In other notes, Guilford College is in the midst of building a new football press box at their Armfield Atheletic Center and it looks like from I could tell after my Sunday night inspection that progress is coming along nicely. David Walters, the Quaker SID will be updating us soon about the sceduled completion date and where we will be sitting in the new facility.

The final word for this installment would be to tell you that another radio sports talk show has bit the dust. Sources tell us that Big Mo(Maurice Stanfield) is off the air at ESPN 1590. We are not sure when they ran Big Mo’s last show but we are hearing that you will soon be hearing Que Pasa’s hispanic broadcasting on the 1590 signal. We have one sports talk outlet remainig and it’s 790, The Ball, now carrying the Packman-Mark Packer out of Charlotte, 3pm-7pm Monday-Friday.

Final word number two for Monday. ESPN classic ran the movie American Flyers Sunday night and I tuned in after the women’s hoops and let me tell you I like this flick. I had seen parts of it before but I caught the closing portions on Sunday and this is one you need to rent. American Flyers with Kevin Costner, Rae Dawn Chong, Alexandra Paul(from Baywatch) John Amos(from Good Times) and a host of other great people. Riding those bikes through the Colorado Rockies, this was a real Classic Event. The bike racing scenes were very intense and that’s how my real red bloodied Americans like to see it happen. Cycling is a lost art and we need to bring competitive cycling back to the Gate City. American Flyers, I am with you brothers, the movie brought back some memories of cycling across the state of North Carolina, and more of you need to get on your bikes and ride.(This includes all men and all the fat bottomed women out there too) Closure is here and we will meet again soon at Greensboro Sports.