Metro games tonight could be tight….

In the Metro 4-A action tonight at Dudley HS:

#2 SEG vs. #3 Page girls at 6pm….Regular season, Page goes to Southeast and loses on a last second shot by SEG’s freshman Kara Shutt….Final there at Southeast on a Saturday afternoon was SEG 40, Page 39….

At Page, the Pirates prevail, 47-42…..The two teams ended up splitting their games in the regular season at 1-1…..Both games right there in the 40’s…Both teams won at home and now they meet for the right to go to the finals, on a neutral court at Dudley…..

Southeast Guilford is (18-6) coming in and Page is (15-9)…..

On the boys side at tonight’s Metro Tournament it will be a meeting of #2 Smith and #3 Grimsley….Smith at (15-9) and Grimsley at (11-9)…..In the regular season meetings, Smith took both battles, claiming the 45-39 win at Ben L. Smith HS and the Golden Eagles picking up their 68-58 victory, at Grimsley…

Smith is almost always led by Tracy Gathings and Drew Williams and JT Williams has been stepping up for the Eagles in recent games…..Grimsley could be paced by a number of different players, such as Burrell Brown, Jake Mulvey, Travon Woods, Montrell Goldsten or DJ Reader….Goldsten has been a steady scorer for the Whirlies in many of their recent games……Mulvey can bury the three, especially from the corners and Woods is at his best, when he is attacking the basket….The key for Grimlsey is who plays defense on Gathings????? #1 can get the job done to the tune of 30 points a game, if you let him go, and if my upstairs notes are working on a Thursday afternoon, that is exactly the number he put up on Grimsley, at Grimsley……30 points for Gathings….If you let him run, it won’t be fun and if you don’t box out, Gathings has connections up there beside the rim and he is already leaning that way, even before the game begins…..

Gathings might be the biggest force for either team coming into this game, other than the Whirlie who’s job it will be, to man-up on TG-Tracy Gathings tonight….He may be the best athlete in the Metro…..He sure moves like it at times….Will he come ready to play? Nine times out of ten he does and you have to bet, on this stage, the Conference Tournament, Gathings will be ready for this one Tonight……..Who has #1 for Smith? You front him and I’ll give you some help on the back side……Who will try and slow down this guy? We will know for sure in about 2 hours……..

On the girls end, it will probably come down to Ayshia McNeil for SEG and Brittany Drew for Page…..You call on your seniors at Crunch Time, and this is it…..McNeil is #23 for the Falcons and Drew wears #15 for the Pirates….There will be other players that must step up, but your seniors have been here before and they should know the ropes by now and you will look to them to carry you on to the Finals, against Dudley……

Something tells me the lean is toward Page(girls) and Grimsley(boys) tonight, but who knows if the lean is what we mean, so let’s split the scene and get on over to Lincoln Street and the Bradley Gymnasium and let the games begin…..