The weekend in review, if Leonard was there…..

Another busy weekend and we had several sports going on at the same time. High School basketball, baseball, wrestling, and college baseball.

The Greensboro Day School made it to the finals of the NCISAA 3-A boy’s basketball tournament but could not overcome the Greenies from Christ School out of Asheville. The GDS Bengals finish the season at (30-4) and this closes out the career’s of Bruce Woodall, Chip Wintringham, and George Bridges. Woodall is headed to the University of Virginia on a golf scholarship, Wintringham is going to Emory and Henry to play tennis and I’m not sure about big George. GDS returns Javan Mitchell, Jay Lewis, Ryan Carty, Christian Pulliam, Lucas Weavill, Jordan Robertson, and many others to the fold for next year. Saturday’s final:Christ School 50, GDS 41.

The Page boys won the Metro 4-A basketball championship over at Grimsley on Saturday afternoon but the Grimsley girls stayed unbeaten with their victory against their arch-rival the Page Pirates. For the Page boys, this was probably the best that they have looked all season long. Page was beating Grimsley up and down the court and the Pirates were hitting their outside shots. The Pirates didn’t have to rely completely on Juluis Brooks on the inside but Julius did contribute. So did Christian McCain on the inside and Jordan Weethe came off the Pirate bench and was on fire from the outside, whereas Grimsley was having trouble finding the right side of the barn, if you know what I mean.

For Page everybody kicked in and helped. Michael McIntyre was the leader with 17 but all of the Pirates that played were effecitive. Deonte Maddox, Desmond McRae, Mitchell Oates, AJ Finney, Luqman Tijani, Page was running guards in and out so quickly I thought we were watching an auto auction. With the final coming in at 72-52 Page you can tell that the Whirlies were struggling.

Grimsley was playing without defensive specialist Jonathan Leonard who was away at a soccer tournament. One has to wonder how much difference it would have made if Leonard would have been there. I spoke to a few parents after the game and they said they felt it messed up Grimsley’s team chemistry. I feel like Leonard’s absence probably accounted for a 12-14 point swing. At the most Leonard would give you around 6 points on offense but he would have been able to stop or take away 6-8 more points from Page on defense. The difference in the game was 20, cut down to 6 with Leonard’s 14 point swing and with Leonard at the game the Whirlie chemistry would have been in place. This is like splittig hairs but that’s what we do when we analyze and break these games down after they are over.

The key is to not take anything away from Page. The Pirates earned the victory and they deserve the title. We were just wondering if things might have been any different if Leonard would have been at Grimsley for the game on Saturday instead of at the soccer tournament.

My theory is that Jonathan Leonard would have been there for the game if it would have been played as scheduled on Friday night and not postponed and moved to Saturday afternoon because of the weather. If the game would have went on as scheduled on Friday then Leonard would have been available and we would not be talking about this scenario today.

Leonard already had his soccer tournament set for Saturday and he couldn’t miss it or could he? I don’t know, I just wish we didn’t have another mess on our hands. Do you think Leonard being there would have made a difference? I wish they would have played that game on Friday and we wouldn’t be asking these questions.

All the credit in the world should go to coach Robert Kent and his Pirates for winning the championship. Coach Kent has total respect for Coach Darren Corbett and his Whirlies and both teams are ready to move on with the playoffs.

The Grimsley girls made the move to (26-0) with their 61-53 win over Page. Grimsley out-scored Page 15-7 in the 4th quarter to win the game. It was 16-12 Grimsley after one period, 29-27 Grimsley at the half, and then 46-46 at the end of three quarters. Page has only lost 5 games all year and 4 of those were to Grimsley. Two regular season, one at the Little Four, and the conference finals on Saturday. Grimsley coach Phil Weaver is looking for that state championship and we hope he and his girls can get it.

There was a baseball scrimmage over at Ragsdale on Saturday with Northwest Guilford and AL Brown out of Kannapolis joining the Ragsdale Tigers for the day’s festivities. The NWG fans and parents were very appreciative to Ragsdale for hosting the scrimage.

Baseball down in Texas where the Black Knights of Army dropped four games in the round-robin tournament but Clint Moore from Grimsley started all four game for the men from West Point and he came away with 3 hits and one RBI. Moore also got in one inning of work on the mound and allowed just one hit, a double, while facing four batters. Moore leaves Texas batting .200 but he has four starts at shortstop under his belt as the Black Knights head back to New York. They will be back in action this coming weekend.

7 thoughts on “The weekend in review, if Leonard was there…..

  1. I don’t think the outcome would have been any different. I think Page was on a mission to win the title, seeing how they played toward the end of the season. Third times a charm.

    Page returns ALOT of talent next year too.

  2. What do the Grimsley fans think?

    I can see where you are coming from with Page dead on that title mission but if Leonard had been there do the Whirlies think the outcome might have been different or at least closer than the 20 point margain?

    Leonard is a very good defensive player.

    Or was this just the Pirates’ day and no matter who was in there , it would not have made a difference?

    The game was a blowout and Grimsley never seemed to be in the game, did the lack of Leonard mess up their team chemistry and normal balance in regards to the player rotation?

    This gives us something to chew on.

  3. I think it would have made a little difference but page wold have won the game. Grimsley had to insert sophomore carter gourley into the starting lineup in leonards place. this kid can really shoot it but he had a real off nite shooting the ball and got into foul trouble early. Beloved an david dupont also could not hit anything. all three of these guys can stroke it but just did not have it on saturday. it did seem like grimsleys chemistry was a little shaken but i am going to go off a limb and say that they regroup and make a deep playoff run. what do you think about that andy? page and grimsley represent the metro 4-a

  4. Andy….Jonathan Leonard??? Come on. I didnt see this speculation when Page played without Deonte Maddox or AJ Finney against the Whirlies. Taking anything away from the kids at Page, which you have done regardless of saying you were trying not to, is sad. Andy, it was 43-18 at the half. Page was in the 4-Corners offense in the 2ND QUARTER!!! You don’t think that Page maybe didnt play as aggressively in the 2nd half that could have made it a 40 point game. It did reach 30 at one point and the refs started feeling sorry for Grimsley and let them rip Page’s arms off for a stretch. It was an old fashioned a** whooping and for you to speculate that it would be different if JONATHAN LEONARD was there……wow, just wow. As my grandma always said “you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken s***.” Grimsley got smacked because they can’t score against a zone and couldnt handle Page’s fast break. When they got up Page spread em out and it was over well before halftime. Page showed they were the superior team talent-wise. They havent always played very well together the entire season but when they do they are one of if not the best team in the area. Jonathan Leonard…give me a break.

  5. I still had Page winning the game by six to eight points if Leonard had been there. We need to play another one of these Page-Grimsley games on a neutral court and let the chips fall where there may. The lack of Leonard had to effect Grimsley’s team chemistry and attitude but as I said in the article, Sautruday was the Page Pirates’ day and I told a friend of mine Saturday morning before I was even aware that Leonard would not be there that I thought we might see two upsets on that afternoon.

    The Whirlie girls got their title but the Page boys are your Metro champions. That girls game was pretty close too though. 46-46 after three quarters, Page was a very tough opponent and Grimsley had to pull it out in the final period.

    We need to keep this discussion open. I know there are some people out there that have something to say but they are holding back.

  6. Congrtas to the Pirates, its about time they beat GHS, I do wish Leonard could have been in the game, but oh well, lookin forward to the playoffs, GO WHIRLIES!

  7. Page won, but the game suffered because of this poor turnout. There were maybe ten page kids (not including about fifty freshmen) and grimsley’s kids were not loud at all. It’s a shame that such a great rivalry went practically unnoticed last saturday.
    red death! go pirates

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