High School Basketball Finals from the Dillard Athletic Center/”The DAC” on the Greensboro Day School campus…
Games are playing back now on GreensboroSports Radio…All the action, the postgame interviews from the boys game, and MORE at GreensboroSports Radio…
Greensboro Day School boys 61, Caldwell Academy 53
Greensboro Day(27-5)/Caldwell(22-9)
End of First Quarter:GDS 12, Caldwell 10…Halftime:Caldwell 27, GDS 25…End of Third Quarter:GDS 40, Caldwell 39…Final:GDS 61, Caldwell 53
GDS Scoring:Addison Newkirk 20 points to lead the Bengals…Micah Gunter 11, Ace Flagg 8, Mason Robinson 8, Jaden Palmore 3, Trace Moffit 3, JJ Short 2…
Caldwell Scoring:Ayden Johnson 18 points, Neal Swindell 11, Jaylen Cross 7, King Kendrick 7, Cole Cloer 5…
All numbers unofficial but pretty close…
Very solid performance by the Greensboro Day School Bengals…Going to be hard to beat this team on their home, “The DAC”/Dillard Athletic Center…The Day School defense was primed and on time in this contest, as the Bengals win it by eight points…
The defense from Addison Newkirk was exceptional, and Newkirk seems to learn more and more about how he needs to play his team-ball type basketball each year/season…Some kids slow down and reach a leveling off point in their overall game improvement, but Newkirk seems to keep on learning and getting better…Two occasions sort of tell the story of his basketball makeup from this Bengal win over Caldwell Academy…
On two different defensive series, Newkirk stood in and took charges from Caldwell’s top scorer, Cole Cloer…Newkirk did not allow Cloer to get closer to the basket…He/Newkirk stood in and held his ground, drew the charges, and kept Cloer away from the basket, and Addison limited Cloer’s chances to score…
Addison Newkirk told us in the postgame interview on GreensboroSports Radio, that this was the first time in about three games, that a GDS Bengal had stood in and drawn a charge…Newkirk took not one, but two big plays drawing solid contact, from Cole Cloer…Newkirk also had another huge play that stood out to me…
Very late in the game, and GDS got a huge stop on defense, and Newkirk leaked out up court and he caught the pass from possibly Ace Flagg, and Newkirk proceeded to blow the lid off “The DAC”, with his “Monster Jam/Dunk” that put the true Exclaimation Point, on this Greensboro Day School Bengals victory…
Also spoke to Ace Flagg in the postgame interview session, and I just told him right up front, that I liked what did on offense, but it wasn’t his scoring that caught my attention, it was his passing…Flagg had THREE pin-point passes that set up Mason Robinson for GDS inside baskets…Tight defense from the Caldwell Academy Eagles, but Robinson made a nice cut to the basket, and Flagg sent him the perfect passes, and all Robinson had to do was finish, and that is exactly what Mason did…This Robinson kid is no brick mason, he puts up nice smooth shot, and his shots find the mark…
Flagg is the brother of the Duke Blue Devils freshman star Copper Flagg(we all sort of knew that going in), and I think they are twins…But, I bet you didn’t know this…Ace Flagg is called Ace for a reason, his passes are near perfect, and when it comes to passing, Ace is an Ace…And he might just be a better passer than his brother Cooper…
They might be the next edition of the Manning Brothers, Peyton and Eli, we will just have to wait and see…But, I say that to say this, Ace Flagg is a more than just a scorer, he does multiple things well on the basketball court, and he has a lot of appreciation for the things he has learned from Coach Freddy Johnson and Bengals’ assistant coach Jeff Smith…
One more note on the Bengals passing, and this is just another one of those passing thoughts…Flagg was making those perfect passes to Mason Robinson, who was playing a little bit like former GDS Bengal Wayne Robinson, but in the end, before it was all said and done, Robinson made one of those nice passes and he set Flagg up for bucket too…
Young Bengal guard Micah Gunter continues to shine for GDS, and this kid can break down a defense and get to the hole, but he runs the court well, and gets to the basket in a hurry, while under control…Gunter and Jaden Palmore are a very good point guard compliment for GDS…Sharp night for Caldwell’s Ayden Johnson, and his three-shooting was on-cue…Four 3s for Johnson in the game, and a couple of his treys were from extra long distance…
For some reason, when I am at a GDS-Caldwell game, Johnson always seems to be playing well…He has some of his better game performances vs. Greensboro Day, if you ask me…Kind of like the point guard skills from King Kendrick from Caldwell also…Showed very good court savy out there amongst the Bengal defenders…
Excellent ball game, and for my money, and this is just me thinking out loud…Greensboro Day vs. Caldwell Academy boys, has replaced GDS vs. Wesleyan Christian Academy, as the prime time private school game in the Gate City…No dis toward WES, that is just me, myself and I, the three of us thinking out loud…Enjoyed it, and already looking forward to GDS-Caldwell, whenever they meet again…The Next Time…
Greensboro Day School girls 73, Caldwell Academy 36
GDS(19-9)/Caldwell(9-5)
End of First Quarter:GDS 18, Caldwell 4…Halftime:GDS 34, Caldwell 16…End of Third Quarter:GDS 56, Caldwell 25…Final:GDS 73, Caldwell 36
GDS Scoring:Samantha Collins 20 points, Candice Williams 11, Eloise White 10, Liz Wyrick 9, Hannah Headen 7, Azaria Scott 5, Kadyn Joseph 5, Isabella Snipes 2
Caldwell Scoring:#10 for the Eagles whose number was not listed on MaxPreps for the team with 10 points to lead the way for Caldwell….Carolina Kelly 9, Naomi Roland 6, Kaylie Kocher 5…Steall Streng 3, Summer Hitchcock 2…
MORE coming on the girls game, but maybe my favorite part was the Bengals’ Azaris Scott, getting the two to start the game, and seeing her slide onto the court late in the game, and after a few attempts, seeing her hit the three-point shot from the left side of the court, that led to a team and GDS Bengal fan eruption…
She has been out for almost the entire season, and even with the injury, to see her come in and get a chance to still shine on this night, that was uttterly amazing…Good stuff there…My favorite part of the game for sure…
Coach Tamera’s Thorpe’ Bengals were dominant in their win over Caldwell Academy on Wednesday night…I was especially impressed with the job Candice Williams did rebounding in the lane and giving herself and her teammates second and third cracks/chances at the basket, and you usually think of Williams as a guard who waits to receive the rebound after a miss, with her other Lady Bengals getting the ball back to her, but in this game she was in there in the lane, and mixing it with the blue collar ladies that hang out in the post…Williams has smoothed any rough edges that might have been cluttering up her game back in December, heading into the HAECO…
Liz Wyrick did not have her best-of-best nights in the lane, but the GDS key post player was still able to let the opposition know that she is in charge of where the paint meets the basketball goal…This is her territory, Liz Wyrick has put her stamp on the lane, and nobody is going to take it away from her…Liz and Caroline Wyrick, two of the best Wyricks to ever play the sport of girls basketball in the city of Greensboro…
Big mention for Samantha Collins, the senior guard for the GDS Bengals, she is a true pure shooter…Layups, or three’s, she has a radar that reads, MAKE…Take them, and make them, and if you have to fake them, use that head fake and get to hole, let it roll, and watch it/the basketball go in….Collins always sending out positive vibes, and she eases up to the top flight, she hits the steps running into the Dillard Athletic Center, and she never slows down…Four three-pointers made in the game for Collins, and as a team, the GDS Bengal girls hit a total of eight(8) three-point shots..Not bad at all, for the Bengals…
And maybe I saved the best for last…Anybody remember Tyler Lewis back in the day??? He used to be starter for the Forsyth Country Day Furies boys team, back when he was in 7th grade…As an eighth-grader he was on the list of several DI schools…For Eloise White, and eighth-grader for the GDS Bengals girls, this kid might the second coming of Tyler Lewis, but in a female body…This kid Eloise White has a motor that runs all night…And she has started some games for the GDS Bengals this season…She goes to basket with confidence, and she attacks that rack/basket/rim with a hard-drive…The kid is doing some very good things, while she is in there for the Bengals…
I had her with 10 points and she didn’t even start in this game…The kid hit a three, and she was driving to the cup, and laying in reverse layups…She put up one layup that just laid there on the rim, and it did not want to go in…White might have some Jo Jo White blood in her…He is a former Boston Celtics guard who could run the floor…Eloise White can run it, and go from baseline to baseline, in no time at all…This kid is going to fun to watch, over the next three years…As she gets more minutes, she will be posting even bigger and better numbers…
One more brief note, and then I need to go post some key Middle School Basketball games for Thursday…Nice effort inside by reserve post player Kadyn Joseph…She had five points, but I was liking her rebounding and her ability to box out, and get the girl in Caldwell Academy uniform out of the lane area…Joseph is probably no relation to Yvon Joseph, and that is a man, yes Yvon Joseph was a very strong post player for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, with their Coach Bobby Cremins back in the day….Put all three of them in the same box, Kadyn, Yvon, and Bobby, and they all would make you a better basketball player and team, for just being around them….
I digress from high school basketball analyst world now, and I need to head back over to the Middle School Courts…Time to get back on the Middle School trail/courts…
Middle School Ball:
Lincoln boys 47, Penn Griffin 32
LINC(9-2/6-1)
Lincoln girls 28, Penn Griffin 17
LINC(8-3/6-1)
Kiser girls 26, NWG 16
Kiser(11-0)/NWG(10-1)
Northwest boys 51, Kiser 24
NWG(7-4)/Kiser(2-9)
Jamestown boys 64, Southeast Guilford 54
JMS(7-4)