Some of our observations from Day One of the 2018 HAECO Invitational Basketball Tournament….
Not too much drama during Day One of the Tournament, but Day One was not without its key moments….And here are some we will remember from Day One…
Cayla King(Northwest Guilford High School) scored the 1,000th point of her high school basketball career and just a few minutes later, she turned her left ankle by stepping on an opponent’s foot and Cayla had to leave the game vs. Smith HS, and it looks like King will be out of action for 2-3 weeks, for the NWG Vikings…She will not play again in this the HAECO Tournament and how her treatment goes will determine when she can return…I still remember Cayla’s freshman year at NWG, and she made the HAECO All-Tournament team, her freshman year in high school…I still can’t believe that this kid is now a senior and I hope her rehab goes well and that she can be back sooner than later…She told me that earlier in the year, when she was out with back trouble, that she would be back sooner than later, and I hope that is the case this time around…
NWG vs. the Greensboro Day School Bengals without Cayla King is going to be interesting…NWG, the girls #1 seed and GDS, girls #5 seed….GDS had the player that might have been the top overall player in the HAECO for Day One, and that would be Je’Bria Fullwood…We started calling her “Full Throttle” Fullwood…This kid has so much energy you think you are watching a college kid in action, but Fullwood is just a sophomore in high school, and a sophomore that scored 21 points and she grabbed 14 rebounds in Wednesday’s Round One win, by GDS over Dudley….Fullwood has one gear and that is “Full Throttle”….On those 14 rebounds by Fullwood, 10 of those came on the defensive boards…
The Page girls defeated Northern Guilford, 62-58 in Overtime and this is one win I did not see coming, but Congrats to the Page Pirates on this victory…I need to check in with Coach Ed Johnson, from Page HS, and find out what the game plan will be when Page meets Ragsdale on Thursday….Page the girls #6 seed upended Northern Guilford, the girls #3 seed and NG had defeated Page, 44-36, back in December….Page got 13 big rebounds from Alaila Kreuter, plus Page had Anna Schmedes go 9-13 from the free throw line and Mikayla Lovell was 8-12 from the charity stripe…Schmedes scored 22 points, while Kreuter and Lovell kicked in 12 points each…
Page can beat Ragsdale, the Pirates just have figure out a way to slow down the Tigers….The Tigers ran past Grimsley, 70-37 on Wednesday, with Faith Price going for 16 points and Brooke Bradford hitting 15 points for the Tigers…This will be a marque game for both teams on Thursday, with the Page-Ragsdale results sort of setting the tone for how things might turn this season, in the Metro 4-A Conference for the girls…NWG mighty tough, HP Central has only lost one game, Ragsdale has not lost, the Tigers are now (8-0) and Page wants to get closer to the top of the league…Grimsley is growing, but it won’t all happen for Grimsley, this season….
In the boys bracket, #2 seed Northwest Guilford, just barely got past Grimsley, with the Vikings prevailing, 56-52…NWG has Smith next and Smith came out hot vs. Ragsdale….Northwest Guilford got its usual effort from Dean Reiber and Christian Hampton, with Reiber going for 22 points and Hampton hit for 16…NWG has to get help from their other parts/sources….NWG did get 9 points from Brandon Thomas and that is a start, but NWG only out-rebounded Grimsley 35-34 on the boards…Reiber went 10-20 from the field for NWG and Hampton was 5-13 and the next Viking baller only took 7 shots, and NWG is going to have get more shots from their supporting cast for Reiber and Hampton….No real surprise on the Grimsley stat sheet, with Devin Resper with 14, Ahmil Flowers with 13 points and 11 rebounds, plus freshman Travis Shaw had 12 points for Grimsley….
#3 Smith’s boys vs. #2 Northwest Guilford in the semifinals should be a good one, and we remember NWG topped Smith, 55-51 back in November, at NWG….
Smith got 17 in their win over Ragsdale and their scoring leader with those 17 points, was Silas Mason…Nic McMullen added 14 for Smith and then Smith got 13 points from Khalid Hinds….Balanced night for Jordan Williams from Smith with 8 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists..Smith has those top 4 players doing their jobs and now Smith must get more help from Juwelz Hargrove and he did knock down 6 points for the Golden Eagles on Wednesday, and after Hargrove, Smith was very quiet…So, Smith vs. NWG is going to call on some players that have not been showing up in the scoring column, to get their name called out and maybe be announced for hitting the game-winning shot…
The kids from Greensboro Day School, on the boys side, that really got my attention today were Banks Handy, Whit Trevy and Josh Taylor…Taylor was a perfect 5-5 from the floor in the first half for GDS and this kid was taking shots that are of the very high percentage range, right near the basket, with “The Slam” by Taylor, being the order of the day….Taylor reminds me some of Johnny Thomas, who was with Greensboro Day a few years back and Thomas later played for N.C. State…Taylor can get it done, and he got it done tonight…You have to love the unselfish style that Handy and Trevy play with….One is #4(Handy) and one is #5 Trevy and when they go flying down the floor together, you never know which one will end up with the take to the hole….Those two kids are the personification of “Team Players”…..I like the way those two work together, and they are not part of the first unit, but their value is highly evident, in the grand scheme of things for the GDS Bengal boys…They sure got my attention tonight and it was good to see Noah Dunn back out there on the court and on the run again, for Greensboro Day….
GDS vs. Page on Thursday could be a problem for Page, since GDS was able to rest their top 8 players most of the second half, in their win over Northern Guilford….I did like the shooting night that Carson Lomax had for the NG Nighthawks…
I told Dennis White, our GreensboroSports Radio associate, that if Jaden Ellis had 15 points for Page tonight, Page would win over Dudley…Well, Ellis had 15 points in the first half…Ellis finished the game with 24 points for Page, going 12-16 at the foul line…Page saw 16 points for Mike Maxwell, 12 for Will Clem and 11 from Deshaun Ballard and Page shot 22-32 from the free throw line as a team, while Dudley, in the Page 82-69 win, Dudley only made it to the free throw line 12 times, Panthers 10-12 at the stripe….Another interesting point was Dudley out-rebounded Page, 43-29…..He stayed in foul trouble most of the night, but we really liked the Dudley new big man, Tyler Young, who finished with 10 points in just 7 minutes of action…That is uptick scoring there for Young…Young was 5-7 from the floor and all of his shots were 2-3 feet from the bucket….Jaden Ellis played 31 of 32 minutes for Page….
The Page boys, your #4 seed vs. Greensboro Day, the #1 seed and although the Page kids and all of the kids in this tournament are still young, the Page regulars played a lot of minutes on Wednesday night, and we will see if that is a factor vs. Greensboro Day, on Thursday night…..
Northwest Guilford vs. Greensboro Day on Thursday and Page vs. Ragsdale, in the girls bracket and those semifinals get under way at 2:30pm on Thursday….
Later on in the boys semis, which will begin at around 6pm, it will be (12-3) Greensboro Day vs. Page(5-4) in the boys Game One and then we will see Northwest Guilford’s boys(7-2) vs. Smith(7-2) in Game Two…
By all our observations, the NWG-Smith boys game, should be the “Game of the Day”, on Thursday….Now get out there and prove us wrong again, be sure to have fun doing it and again, we hope one of the top players in our state, Cayla King, from Northwest Guilford HS, will be back in action soon and recovered from her sprained ankle…As the doctor and team trainers often say, “Tape it Tight”, and bring on the pre-wrap……
********And for us, that is a wrap tonight, and we hope you enjoyed our observations from Day One, of the HAECO Invitational Basketball Tournament, at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center…..**********
Thursday December 27, 2018 Schedule
All games played at Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center
Girls’ Semifinals (Court 1)
#1 Northwest Guilford vs. #5 Greensboro Day, 2:30 pm
#2 Ragsdale vs. #6 Page, 4:00 pm
Boys’ Semifinals (Court 1)
#1 Greensboro Day vs. #4 Page, 6:00 pm
#2 Northwest Guilford vs. #3 Smith, 7:30 pm
Girls’ Consolation Round (Court 2)
#8 Smith vs. #4 Dudley, 1:30 pm
#7 Grimsley vs. #3 Northern Guilford, 3:00 pm
Boys’ Consolation Round (Court 2)
#8 Northern Guilford vs. #5 Dudley, 5:00 pm
#7 Grimsley vs. #6 Ragsdale, 6:30 pm