Page can’t hold late lead, Dupont, Beloved, and Manley step up for Grimsley

News Flash:If you didn’t know about it already, the Page-Grimsley rivalry is the biggest in the history of this state, no matter what sport the Whirlies and Pirates are playing.

Page and Grimsley gave us another classic last night in boys basketball and it does not matter what sport they are playing, when the kids from these two schools get together in athletic competition it is going to be HUGE. It might even be pretty big if they meet somewhere and they’re not even involved in a sporting event. But football, wrestling, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, track, cross country, and last night basketball, these teams really know how to go at each other.

The Mac Morris Gym was packed and the girls game was close for a while but the Grimsley girls started hitting outside shots and with the Whirlies knocking down those long-range threes against that Page zone, it was Grimsley up 17-7 after one quarter and Grimsley winning the game to go (17-0). The final was Grimsley 59, Page 45. Page falls to (13-3). Grimsley now stands at (3-0) Metro 4-A and the Whirlies were led by the outside shooting of Trumae Lucas with 22 and Jasmine Alston with 15. Jasmine Gill, with a Boston College coach looking on, led Page with 28.

The boys game was a re-run in some ways, especially for the Page Pirates. Robert Kent’s kids have not been able to hold on to late leads in ball games that they should be winning and last night was no exception. The Pirates were up by 11 points late in the final quarter and even led by 7, 57-50, before Grimsley made a late charge to go up 61-58, just before Michael Oates hit a three-pointer to save Page for another four minutes as the contest headed into overtime.

Page couldn’t hold on to that lead, but we need to give Grimsley some much-deserved credit too. Grimsley battled back and had several runs that gave them the victory. With Page up 57-50, Grimsley had that 7-0 run during a stretch of just 22 seconds. This was all part of a 9-0 run that gave Grimsley the 61-58 lead before Oates final shot in regulation. Grimsley completed a 7-0 run to close out the game in OT. The Whirlies were down in OT 65-63 before they scored the last seven ponits of the game to win it 70-65.

Julius Brooks had some monster-dunks and big-time blocked shots but they won’t show up in the Pirates (0-3) Metro 4-A mark or help with the Page overall record of (8-8). Brooks finished with 13 to lead the Pirates but I was real impressed with a couple of new Pirates, at least I had not seen them before, and that’s Christian McCain and Michael Oates, both in off of the Page bench and playing well.

David Dupont had an outstanding game for Grimsley(13-3/3-0 Metro). Dupont ended up with 16 points but he was scoring key baskets late in the game and his rebounding on the defensive boards was remarkable. Dupont is a skinny kid, stands about 6’5 and he can play just about any position on the floor. You usually find him playing something like a point-forward position. This kid is a keeper and his dad David Dupont Sr. ironically was a star for Page back around 20-25 years ago. Keith Manley has matured for Grimsley and the junior center had 20 huge points for the Whirlies and he also had at least 10 rebounds. Manley is playing with poise that he didn’t show last season and this is what’s going to get him that college scholarship. JB(Jaquan) Beloved had another productive night for Grimsley with 18 points. JB was hitting three-pointers and driving layups, in fact Beloved had a one-on-none breakaway at the end of OT and could have scored the quick-easy basket but he pulled the ball out, hesitated and then drove in to score and hit a free throw to create the final five point Grimsley margin of victory. That last move by Beloved had me wondering, “What’s up with that?”.

Grimlsey got some excellent help off of the bench from little Aaron Wise. Wise is probably all of 5’6 and he came in and helped run the offense and he contributed 7 points. Wise was slick, not as slick as “Slick Watts” the former Seattle Supersonic, but Aaron Wise is big plus for Grimsley. Christian Tonkins and Jonathan Leonard did not have big scoring nights but they stayed in foul trouble as did most of the Whirlies in the first half.

This was one heck of a game, and they will do all over again in a few weeks and next the venue will be Grimsley’s home court, the Bob Sawyer Gym. Last night was a nice one to go along with that football game 24-23, Page over Grimsley, from back in the fall.

Elsehwere last evening, WS Parkland topped the SWG boys 79-62 to send SWG to (2-14). Tyisha Bridges led the SWG girls over Parkland 74-35. Bridges had 29 and her teammate Gladney Brown added 19 points for the Cowgirls. The SEG boys got blown out 74-56(25-8:3rd quarter) but the SEG girls(15-4) were winners 65-46 over Eastern Randolph. Gibbs, Alston, Beasley, and Hackett again led the Lady Falcons to victory. Those four girls have been very tough for SEG. The NWG girls won again, 65-44 over East Forsyth. NWG girls now (16-1). Northeast Guilford got a sweep against Rockingham County with the NEG girls getting a huge victory over a very tough Cougar girls squad, NEG girls win it 63-49. The NEG boys won in a comeback, 55-50 with Seth Hawkins leading the way.

Dudley took two from Western Alamance, 74-32 girls and 84-43 boys. Paul Lambeth was at the Dudley games and should have more for us later today. The Eastern Guilford girls have now run their record to (13-3) with a 50-25 win over McMichael last night. Lashonda Anderson had 24 and Capricia Smalls 13 for EG. EG’s boys won out 71-62. Morehead’s girls were victorious over Northern Guilford 60-57 but the NG Nighthawks won the boys game 54-39 as Jacob Lawson had 19 points and 11 boards, while Jonathan Frye and Dylan Berry added 12 and 11 points respectively. The HP Wesleyan girls were upset by Forsyth Country Day 52-50 but the Western Guilford boys grabbed a win from Bartlett Yancey winning 70-54 and the WG Hornets are now (10-6) for the year. Finally, the Southern Guilford girls were losers to West Stokes falling 50-42.

Boy this is a lot of games and I think we missed a few, Smith/HPC, NWG boys-EF, WG girls, Southern Storm boys, but we will try to find those and get them up here later today.

Update on the other games courtesy of Greg Johnson from High Point:
The Smith Golden Eagles made it two wins in a row under new head coach Brian Jones, who took over last week for Gene Banks, Golden Eagle boys 68-52 over High Point Central. The Golden Eagles(3-12) have now found their focus in flight, with two straight wins to show for their efforts. The HPC girls tripped up Smith 46-30. The High Point Andrews boys were upset by Reagan, 46-43, the Reagan Raiders beat the HPA Red Raiders. The Northwest Guilford boys saw their three game winning streak come to an end as they were throttled by East Forsyth. 80-47. Thanks to Greg J. and I believe we have just about every score covered.

6 thoughts on “Page can’t hold late lead, Dupont, Beloved, and Manley step up for Grimsley

  1. Jamos24, are you just waking up and reading this? We’ve got to get you back to Greensboro so we can get you up and rolling earlier in the day. Congrats to your teams(Grimsley boys and girls) and have you heard anything from PagePirates44?

    Also we have the message board/forum open now so you can get in over there too and voice your opinion. Just click on forum at the top of the home page.

    Good to hear from you again and thanks for checking in. AD

  2. I actcually checked in last night around 11:30 after getting off work and didn’t see a score, but good news for the Whirlies, the girls look ready for State and the guys could make a run at the conference title, don’t know about Page 44, guess he’s a football guy. Oh yeah, heard yall got some snow.

  3. Hey guys, sounds like it was a great game. I havent had much time to get on here and chat.

    Also, whats going on with Coach Kent’s Pirates? They went from 6-0 to 8-8.. thats 2-8 in the last 10. I knew we were REALLY young.. but i didn’t know it was going to show like this. Only 2 seniors in the rotation (nick jones and luqman tijani). Julius Brooks, Oates, Mcintyre, Wethee, Maddox, McCain, and Spain… are all underclassmen.

  4. There he is! Good to see ya 44! I am as surprised as you, never thought the Whirlie boys would do so well, or the Pirates at .500.

  5. If this is the real Jaquan Beloved that i knew and went with in the 7th and 8th grade im proud of you . I wish i could get in touch with you and talk to you but no contacts. So hey and tell my cousin Jasmine i said hey if you see her.

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