HS hoops report

I was over at Dudley last night and I should have some video for you on the Dudley-NEG game later on this week. I ran into former Dudley guard “Little Mike” Reese, whose daughter “Little Shelly” Reese plays for the NEG girls. “Little Mike” was talking about the old days at Dudley for him, back in the early 1970’s, when he was playing point guard, just like his daughter does for NEG, and when he was playing two guard and anywhere else they needed him. “Little Mike” said he spent time with some NBA developmental teams as a player and he has coached girls basketball most recently up in Charlottesville, Virginia.

He also told me that he has a picture at home of him and former Dudley football great Jeff Davis(linebacker at Dudley and All-American LB at Clemson) and three other little neighborhood kids all in the bathtub together conserving water(there was a need for it even back in the 70’s). The photo of the five kids bathing together was affectionately known as “Five Ducks in a Tub”.

Back to the ball game, Dudley was down 17-1 early and then out-scored Northeast Guilford 19-0 in the second quarter to give the Panthers the victory 56-53. NEG was up on Northern Guilford 11-0 and let the Nighthawks back in the game and NGHS went on to win it at NEG. Last night NEG is hitting everything and leads Dudley at Dudley 17-1 and the Rams can’t hold the lead.

Bottom line, “the NEG Rams can’t hold on to the lead”. I hate it for NEG coach Curtis Hunter and his Rams and I’m sure Coach Hunter hates it too, but that’s the way it is and I’m not exactly sure if there is something wrong here or if tough luck is hiding out in one of the player’s gym bag.

For the Northeast Guilford girls it’s almost a carbon copy. The Rams led Dudley 13-5 after one quarter and were up 17-15 at the half before Dudley out-scored NEG 23-6 in the 3rd quarter to win the game over NEG going away, 47-33. NEG coach Wayne Stevens didn’t use the excuse that his couldn’t hold the lead, he said his team QUIT. Coach Stevens said after the game to anyone that would listen that we quit. “My team quit”, said coach Stevens, who was not very happy about the loss to Dudley(8-4)/4-0). Helen Terry and Desiree Drayton helped the Dudley girls secure the win. Amanda Hairston, daughter of former Elon star Eric Hairston, who just passed away four weeks ago, well Amanda is playing hard and she’s a big part of this Dudley girls team and their success.

Brandon Pennix paced the Dudley boys(11-2/5-0) in scoring and rebounding and Ricky Smith is becoming a shot blocking machine. Marcus Heath hit key free throws for the Panthers plus PJ Hairston did not dominate but he was consistant. Pennix had 17 and Hairston 12, while Seth Hawkins was the top-man for NEG(9-6) with 15 points.

In other action, the Western Guilford boys improved to (9-6) with their 59-54 win over Western Alamance. High Point Andrews goes to (11-3), defeating SWG 66-61. The Ragsdale Tiger boys and girls are both heading toward conference championships if they keep this up, Tiger boys(15-2/5-0) 73-59 past SW Randolph and the Ragsdale girls(14-2/5-0) roll again, 72-38 over SWR. Wally Jones is taking over for the Ragsdale boys, WJ had 20 last night against the SWR Cougars.

The SWG girls(6-9) defeated High Point Andrews(6-9), 45-38, with Tyisha Bridges locking in 16 points for the victorious Cowgirls. High Point Wesleyan got a split at North Raleigh Christian, with the HPW girls winning 55-26, taking the Trojan young ladies to (16-4), while the men of HPW were falling to NRC in a close one, 69-67. Two of our area’s better independent school players, James Robbins and Josh Coble led HPW, JR had 28 points and JC had 19.