Pizza Hut Invitational Basketball Tournament with NG and Ragsdale victories

Good info from Don and Joe on the day’s earlier games and this evening it was Northern Guilford over Northeast 85-56 and Ragsdale topped Northwest 75-64.

Northern led by Jonathan Frye, had no problem with Northeast, as Coach Stan Kowalewski was able to go deep into his bench and get playing time for nearly every man on his squad.

Northern versus Ragsdale on Friday might just turn out to be a classic as both teams are loaded with talent. I had the opportunity to watch both NG and Ragsdale tonight and they are for real and you need to get out to the Coliseum Special Events Center and check out NG-Ragsdale and GDS-Page on Friday night.

Northern had Frye and then there was Neal, McCain, Lawson, Grant, Lamont, McBeth, Berry, Mitchell, Dillard, and all the Nighthawks.

Ragsdale has a ton of talent with Jay Canty,,who looks like he is playing in college already, even though he is still a Tiger. Canty has the dribble, the rebounds(with 15 tonight), the floater, the three-pointer, and more than most defenses can handle. Canty was right at 20-plus points tonight and he has Wally Jones as a strong member of the Tiger supporting cast. Tyquan Roberts, Josh White, and CJ Plummer are very important players in the Ragsdale system.

Defense will be the key in these games tomorrow night.

Who is going to cover Canty? Who will be on Frye? Who will take Lawson? Does it go Neal on White, Jones on Frye, McCain on Canty? Is McCain quick enough to keep up with Canty? Who brings the help defense? Do Frye and Canty go at it one-on-one?????

Do you match up Roberts on Lawson? Will we see Plummer on the the other Nighthawk starter? Who will be the other Nighthawk starter????? McBeth, Grant, Lamont, Berry…..The Lamont-Plummer match up seems to fit, but will that be it?????

Page-Greensboro Day should be equally exciting and we will have Joe Barile on this game for Friday night. Julius Brooks was right at 18 points tonight in the Pirates’ win over Grimsley and Jordan Weethe looked like he was having fun out there too for Page. Brooks was out there blocking shots, slamming dunks with two hands, he was rebounding and he put on an MVP-type performance in game one, just as Canty did for Ragsdale.

The Brooks-Javan Mitchell battle should be one of the best-ever. The paper said that Michael Lewis had 17 for GDS in their win over Smith, I think that had to be Jay Lewis and there were some other names that were showing Smith first names and Greensboro Day last names on the scoresheet……

Chris Knight played strong for Page on Thursday and Mitchell Oates, AJ Finney and Stacey Greene were very big in the Pirate backcourt…..

GDS with Javan Mitchell, Jay Lewis, Christian Pulliam, Ryan Carty, Brandon Dorsett, and Jordan Robertson will be ready for Page. The Bengals have won three straight Pizza Hut titles for a reason and you will see that reason on Friday night.

It all goes back to defense and that’s why the Freddy Johnson teams are so strong. Oates, Finney, Greene, Weethe, Brooks and then Spain, Knight and Daly in the reserve rolls, it should be a great game and one we know Page coach Robert Kent is very hungry for…..

Can’t wait till Friday at 6pm and the girls games run with the 1-4 seeds holding up as well with NWG vs. Grimsley and Page-Ragsdale going at it. Page had to fight very hard to get past the girls round one and that might make them a better club for Friday. Page just got past the Tigers in Jamestown earlier in the year.

One thought on “Pizza Hut Invitational Basketball Tournament with NG and Ragsdale victories

  1. Canty had 23 tonight and so did Jones for Ragsdale. I only saw a little of the Northern game but Frye looked good.

    Frye played with all the Ragsdale guys in middle school so they know each other well.

    It looks like these teams match up well. Should be a great up and down game played at a very high level.

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