Guilford County goes (3-1) taking Three-out-of-Four Titles on Saturday:Congrats and ‘Shout Outs’ to the teams and coaches

The journey is over and three of our four Guilford County high school basketball teams came home with titles on Saturday and we need to give up ‘Shout Outs’ and send out to Congratulations to all of our Guilford County teams that were in action today/Saturday in Raleigh and Chapel Hill….

The Southwest Guilford Cowboys win 73-49 over Raleigh Leesville Road, the Northwest Guilford girls win 36-34 over Southeast Raleigh, the Northern Guilford Nighthawk girls take their title 66-64 over Hickory Ridge and the “No Quit ‘Cats”, from Eastern Guilford High School, almost made it a Clean Sweep for the GCS programs, before falling 70-66 at the hands of the Cox Mill Chargers….

Three-out-of-Four games go the way of Guilford County and that is unreal and nearly remarkable….

‘Shout Outs’ and Congrats to all of our schools/teams and to each and every player and coach…

We should see Northwest Guilford, Northern Guilford and possibly Southwest Guilford and Eastern Guilford all back here again next year, in the finals…

SWG is moving down to the 3-A ranks and if they stay in the West and if Eastern Guilford remains in the East, we could see the Cowboys and the Wildcats playing for that NCHSAA Boys 3-A Crown next year…SWG may have to get past Cox Mill and Wendell Moore to make all of that a reality, but then again, why not??? It could happen….

What a day/night and the games were all very entertaining and exciting….

The Northern Guilford girls had never won a basketball title before today, Northwest Guilford got their first girls title, although the NWG men won it all back in 1967, while the Northern boys won it all a few years back, but they had to give the title back and back in 1996, Southwest Guilford won the 2-A Men’s title, when they were led by Coach Robert Kent…Eastern Guilford is still searching for that first basketball state title, and it may be on their plate for 2017-2018….

Kudos and congrats to SWG coach Guy Shavers, NWG coach Darlene Joyner, NG coach Kim Furlough and EG’s Joe Spinks….

This has been quite the run in basketball for our Guilford County Schools….

Just a few final thoughts and I will try and add more thoughts and notes on Sunday….Elissa Cunane may just be the top basketball player right now in Guilford County and that includes male and female players….If she just gets a bit stronger, the roof is the goat or something like that for her….Maybe we should say “The Roof is the Wolf” for her…If Jaylen Alston goes 18-24 at the foul line, instead of going 11-24, then EG would be in line for that State Title…It just was not Jaylen Alston’s night at the line and if makes say 6-7 more FT’s, EG is your Boys 3-A Champion and it was again, just one of those nights and it will get better for JA and he will go a long way in basketball….Right, 18-24 and that is still missing six, but it is 7 more made and with the game difference being a four-point margin in favor of Cox Mill, the FT’s would have been the difference and we don’t need to dwell on it, but just look it over before we move on….Here’s hoping the Langley Brothers, Kobe and Keyshaun are a lock to stay at Southwest Guilford for the next two high basketball seasons….No need to go elsewhere when you have a chance to now win back-to-back 3-A Titles and you can add those to your newfound 4-A Basketball Crown….Stay put and make your mark at SWG and stay on “The Ranch”…..Kitley(Liz) and King(Cayla) combined for 31 of their Viking team’s 36 points in the 4-A Title Game and NWG still got 5 additional points(probably adds up to 2 buckets and a free throw) from Bria Gibbs, and those Gibbs’ points prove to be vital to the Vikings’ success….And we need to give props to two more of those Vikings and their efforts in Saturday’s Championship game and that would be Lindsay Gauldin with 4 steals, 4 assists and 3 rebounds, while Thalia Carter had 3 rebounds and along with Lindsay, Thalia had super day on defense for NWG….

In the NG girls game when Elissa Cunane fouled out with just 1:30 remaining and the Nighthawks up by right at 8 points, you first felt like the ‘Hawks had this one wrapped up, but that was the longest minute and a-half that I have ever had to sit through…It got crazy out there and you could see the lead slipping away, but Northern fought through it and claimed the title and as the old YMCA director used to say up in Springfield, Mass., it doesn’t matter if you win by 1 or 100, a “W”, is a “W”, and always a big “W”, at the YMCA or the YWCA….NG had some help for Cunane tonight, with 14 points from Kassie Robakewicz, 10 from Mercedes ‘Benz’ Wampler and 7 each from Sami Furlough and Kelly Lomax…Plus four points from the Nighthawk bench in the form of Janelle Henderson…Quite an effort by the Nighthawks and our GreensboroSports Radio record for the Northern Guilford Nighthawks in State Championships now stands at (6-0)…Four football titles, one boys basketball title(had to later be returned, but they did win the game over Forestview) and the girls have themselves a title too, on the 3-A Ladies Level….I’m telling you, (6-0) is not too shabby….We couldn’t get it done with the NWG girls last year, but they got it done with Kris Walser and Coach Daryl Steele at the wheel….SWG boys had Kris and “The Coach” calling their shots too and not too bad at all for Kris and “The Coach” when you look at how their games turned out today….

I did my first title game on this day back in 1996 and the Dudley Panthers’ boys team took the NCHSAA 4-A Title over Richmond County in OT….Big bear hug from Panthers’ coach David Price after the game….I still remember the game I called with Greensboro Day School over Charlotte Christian and Steph Curry in a packed Dillard Athletic Center on the GDS campus….

This time of year I am wired and probably could knock down a brick wall right now if I had another round of Mountain Dew, but this will have to do for tonight…..

We have posted basketball notes and quotes for the past four and a-half months and now the Journey is Done….We may add some more here tomorrow, but I think we have just about given all that we can and have run our course for this season….Sure hope our teams WILL be back in the mix and in the fray again next season/year…

Good night and again good job from all of our Guilford County teams and that includes the Cowboys, the Vikings, the Nighthawks and the Wildcats….By seeing these kids over the past few years I feel like I know them pretty well and look forward to following all of their basketball careers in the future….

We now move on to the next challenge….And I can’t believe how much I wrote here tonight, when I thought my words were dead for the day, but they showed up and did us justice….

All you young basketball players, Thanks for the Memories………..

2 thoughts on “Guilford County goes (3-1) taking Three-out-of-Four Titles on Saturday:Congrats and ‘Shout Outs’ to the teams and coaches

  1. Great wrap-up, Mr. Durham! I would like to echo your words of gratitude to the players for the memories! Yesterday was filled with memories that I will be talking about in many years past 2037, lord willing. Congratulations to all of our Guilford County teams on great seasons! To the winners, congratulations on your Titles!

  2. What a day it was on Saturday and what basketball year it has been for Guilford County…

    History-making season/year for our Guilford County teams and NO DOUBT about that….

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