Friday Night Finish:”Hard Fought Game” with SWG over NWG 96-93

Maybe tonight’s game was like some of those old Northwest Guilford games when they had Rusty Larue and the Vikings found themselves in some of those “Hard Fought Games” with Reidsville and C.C. Harrison…

Every kid that was on that court tonight deserves a fist bump of some sort, because the Northwest Guilford-Southwest Guilford men’s basketball game was on of the most “Hard Fought Games” that you will see/witness….

When the kids were walking off of the court at the end of the game, it looked like they had been in a war, or maybe a street fight…Really both teams had fought so hard tonight and you have to have all of the respect in the world for both of these basketball teams…

What do you say about a kid like Jace Yeoman from Southwest Guilford, who couldn’t even make the Cowboys’ squad/team last year, he was cut from the team and he was watching this game from the stands and now here he is this year out there in the REAL thick of this SWG-NWG battle and scoring in double-digits and in turn he is one of the top scorers on the court for this game….Jace Yeoman, not even on the team last season and out there tonight, as one of the key components on this SWG team, which is now (5-0) in the Piedmont Triad 4-A Conference…

And what about Kaymon Mitchell for SWG? He hit two of the biggest free throws of his career down the stretch in the victory this evening…Mitchelll made a difference and how much did senior guard K.J. Langley mean to the Cowboys???

Langley with 31 points and all kinds of body work out on that court….Langley played his heart out and he didn’t even get to play the last minute of the game, do to the fact that played so hard, he fouled out and it was a credit to the Cowboys that they were able to finish without K.J. in the lineup, during the closing seconds of this contest…

This was a battle that is really hard to explain….It is almost like you had to be there to completely understand and appreciate the effort of these two teams and be able to take in the full effect of this “Hard Fought Game”

Jaylen Gore hit key shots and free throws for Northwest and he drew a key foul from K.J. Langley late that gave NWG a chance to stay in the game and to be in the game late, and I’m talking REAL late…

Jalen Spicer(Northwest Guilford) made big plays and Thomas Hennigan(NWG Vikings) made a big play on the last touch of the game where he pulled a swipe steal near mid-court and he heaved the ball from near the three-point line and sent a shot toward the basket that hit the backboard, with the ball bouncing off of the rim and nearly going in and if that shot falls and if it left Hennigan’s hands behind the three-point arc, we’ve got OT and we might still be playing inside the Jim Coggins Gym at Southwest Guilford High School…

Just a great game-ending play by Hennigan and he came ever so close to not allowing SWG to close out the game in regulation…

The way the coaches saved and used their timeouts late, it seemed like we were already in overtime, when Hennigan’s shot took flight…That will be a shot people will talk about for a long, long, time…

The “what-if” factor is what keeps people coming back and that is what makes the re-match one that you can’t miss….

Hennigan’s shot at the end, Gore’s game, Spicer’s game, the whole game from both teams, the effort by Kevin Henry and on we can go…

It is almost like ‘Choose your Player’ from this “Hard Fought Game”….

The Jace Yeoman talk could go on for weeks….Who was the kid? I don’t ever remember seeing him before, but he gave us all a “Hard Fought Game” and a game we won’t soon forget tonight….

‘Choose Your Player’ and don’t leave out Kaymon Mitchell…Like we said up top, those two free throws were HUGE….

‘Choose Your Player” with K.J. Langley putting himself in the running for Guilford County Player of the Year, after the effort he put forth this evening….He has to be a candidate, along with Quayson Williams(Eastern Guilford), Jalen Seegars(Page), John Puryear(Grimsley), somebody from NWG, maye Aaron Simpson from Smith and we will see how things go the rest of the way, but that is a start…Private school guys you are talking Harry Giles, Peter Agba, Darius Moore and more….

I will have some thoughts on the NWG-SWG girls game coming up soon here, I just had to get that “Hard Fought Game” idea down on here, while it was working its way through my brain and body…..It will take a long while to wind down tonight, after watching and being right in the middle of that ‘Hard Fought Game”….

Jace Yeoman, where did that kid come from, but I bet you one thing, Southwest Guilford is glad he showed up and very pleased that he didn’t give up…Hard to believe, but it’s all REAL and it was a REAL “Hard Fought Game” tonight….

On the NWG-SWG girls game, now Northwest runs their record to (18-0) with the 66-46 victory and it was not NWG’s night early in this game as the Vikings fell behind 7-4 to SWG, before NWG went on a 13-0 run and then they out scored Southwest 32-16 the rest of the first half to take the 36-23 halftime advantage…

Northwest kept the pressure up and turned the heat on as they went on to grab a 16-7 spread over SWG in the third quarter….Hailey Barber led the way for NWG with 14 points, while Toni Tucker, Morgan Pointer and Leah Wallace had 11 each for the Lady Vikings…SWG was paced by Lashonda Monk with 12 and Tea Medley chipped in 10 for the Cowgirls….

A couple of key difference-makers for NWG were Leah and Bria….That is Leah Wallace and Bria Gibbs…Gibbs may only be a freshman, but she is playing BIG for NWG as the understudy for junior center Morgan Pointer….Wallace scores so quick, if you blink, you may miss one of her buckets…..Gibbs is doing it on the boards, at the line and all over the place…The future is bright for NWG with young players like Gibbs and fellow-freshman Lindsay Gauldin….

Friday night was a productive evening for Hunter Newman…The senior got in on the scoring act and Hunter was after her prey and this day her prey was anything 2-3 feet from the basket and she would bag it/take it…Good to see Hunter getting in on the scoring show and Catherine Moore was in on it too…Moore gave NWG boost in the absence of Savannah Neas, who is out with a hand/right arm injury….NWG still went 8 deep tonight with Barber, Tucker, Pointer, Newman, Moore, Wallace, Gibbs and Gauldin all doing their part to make NWG (18-0)….

The ceiling is very high for this team and was really wanting to see a game with Northwest Guilford vs. Dudley tonight, right after the SWG-NWG men finished up…We could have got that game rolling at 9:45 and we know the winner of a contest like that will have to face the Myers Park Mustangs somewhere down the line….

Myers Park and some of the other Charlotte teams are waiting in the wings for either NWG or Dudley and they might be after both of them come the Regionals in the West…..

Once NWG sees the finish line, they start to work harder lead by Barber, Tucker, Moore and Wallace out front and NWG is going more BIGS now too with Pointer, Newman and Gibbs…

When NWG gets Neas back it will help their overall balance…..

We don’t see NWG losing any conference games this season and maybe not next year too…

Sounds like a good goal and an attainable goal too, so why not shoot for it…..

“Hard Fought Games” tonight and it will take a little time to settle down and get to sleep after this run…..