2008 NCHSAA West and East Region Schedule

Cape Hatteras

Hatteras to meet East Bladen after defeating Manteo 51-35
BY DARYL LAW | SENTINEL SPORTS


The Cape Hatteras Hurricanes basketball team won two trophies this season as they swept both the Tideland Athletic Conference regular season and conference tournament this season. Standing in the front row, from left, is Kristin Head, Jackie Roller, Natalie Blackman, Kayla Whitehead, Jessica Bierlein, Jessie Midgett, Tori Newman and Caitlyn Gray. Standing in the back row, also from left, are assistant coach, Kelly Forsythe, Tori Ballance, Lauren Randall, Brianne Roselle, Paxton Gwin, Molly Oliver and coach Earl Fountain. (Daryl Law | Sentinel Sports)Cape Hatteras forward Caitlyn Gray overcame a shoulder injury and carried her Hurricanes team with 24 points in a big-time 51-35 victory over visiting Manteo Friday night in Buxton in the state 1A sectional finals.

Cape Hatteras, now with an overall record of 22-3, will next face East Bladen (26-3) in the Eastern Regionals tonight, Wednesday, March 5 at J. H. Rose High School in Greenville at 8:30 p.m.

On Friday night, the Hatteras fans showed up in force. They were dressed in red and were loud and proud. Both schools bands and cheer leading squads were there leading the two different fan sections in cheers.

The Redskins played Hatteras tight in the first quarter, which ended 8-8. But the Hurricanes exploded in the second period to out-score Manteo 17-6.

Five Hatteras players scored in the 17-6 run led by Paxton Gwin with two baskets and a 3-pointer. Hatteras had an 11-point lead at the half with the score 25-14.

Manteo came out in the third period fired up. Senior forward Hunter Spruill had six points, guard Amanda Daniels had a basket and a three. Sadie Daniels, playing with a broken nose, scored two of her four points in the game.

In the final period, Gray went five of six from the free throw line to ice the game. Also scoring in the fourth were Tori Ballance, Jessica Bierlein, Lauren Randall each with a basket. Gwin made a free throw.

It was a special win for Hatteras, who lost 58-54 to the Redskins on Nov. 27 in Manteo.

For Gray, who came out the locker room with a large bag of ice on her right shoulder and her arm in a sling after Friday's win, it was sweet revenge. When asked what made her come out and score the most points of her career, she answered with ease.

"For one, it's Manteo and I wanted to beat 'em," she said. "[Second], my shoulder's hurt and had some extra preparations today and they put in my mind to play my hardest and that's what I did.

"I think our team finally pulled it together," Gray said. "Our team is really excited."

Hatteras coach Earl Fountain also was pumped up, and he gave credit to the large crowd for helping out with the win.

"The [defensive] pressure got to them a little bit," he said. "Caitlyn Gray had 24 points, her highest of the year. And she went five of six [from the foul line] in the fourth."

As the team leader, Gray usually has solid games rebounding and playing tough defense, but she doesn't always score that much, Fountain said. But like in many other games where they won the regular season and Tideland Athletic Conference tournament titles season, she did what she had to do.

"The thing with us, when someone has to step up, they do," Fountain said. "They seem to do all year long."

And play they did. Cape Hatteras likes to use a full court press to create turnovers and break away baskets at the other end.

Manteo coach Dan Corbin admitted turnovers hurt his team.

"They [Hatteras] can play," he said. "They played great.

"We had more than I would have liked," he said. "And we couldn't buy a basket during a couple stretches.

"They got the loose balls and just played a great game," Corbin said. "We just couldn't get things to drop and couldn't make the stops."

Manteo had a great run this year as they won the regular season Albemarle Athletic Conference title and finished the year with an overall record of 20-8.

The Redskins Sadie Daniels had a super defensive effort before fouling out late in the game. Her face said it all as she went congratulate the Hatteras players after the game.

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First Flight

Elite 8: First Flight faces Graham
BY DARYL LAW | SENTINEL SPORTS


Coach Rex Sponhaltz

It may have taken four extra minutes, but First Flight defeated Croatan 51-48 in overtime Friday night in Newport near Beaufort. Croatan was the most talented team the 27-1 Nighthawks have faced all year long, according to coach Rex Sponhaltz.

Kristina Argiroff hit four clutch free throws and First Flight held on at the end to win the eastern sectionals final in front of a standing-room-only crowd, the coach said. With just 13 seconds remaining, Croatan had the ball at mid-court, but turned it over and the 'Hawks held on until the buzzer.

The girls will compete in the Eastern Regionals against Graham High School (29-1) at J. S. Rose High School in Greenville on Thursday, March 6, at 7 p.m. Graham lost to Smokey Mountain in the state 2A finals last year.

"Graham has a great program," Sponhaltz said. "[This week] we'll have to work on containing their running game and eliminating turnovers from pressure from their defense.

"We've got to be able to move the ball around on offense and reduce turnovers," he said.

In last Friday's game, the Nighthawk's top five players took care of business.

"Kristina Argiroff played extremely well," Sponhaltz said. "Paige Murray got some key rebounds as did Alisa Perry.

"Alisa and Carolyn O'Neill did great with inside scoring," he added. "[Point guard] Megan Gomez kept things under control at the end of the game.

"The crowd was extremely electric," Sponhaltz added. "You couldn't have gotten another person in the gym with a can opener."

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Posted on Wed, Mar. 05, 2008
OBSERVATIONS | LANGSTON WERTZ JR.
• Boy, it sure was hot in Atkins High's gym Tuesday in Winston-Salem. All I needed was a white towel to really feel like I was in the sauna.


• Amazing to see so many McDowell Titans fans out on a night with torrential rains and tornado warnings. They have big-time fans in Marion.

 

Tony, you should have posted all the observations Langston gave last night...there's one in particular where he (without straight out saying it) questioned the North Meck coach for not playing one of their better players in the interior.


Anyway...I got an observation from last night. The folks in Charlotte better be getting their stuff ready to host the regionals next year. I thought the folks at Atkins were, for a better term, "lost" in last night's regionals. I'm not saying this to start any problems but I think the four teams and their fans who were in attendance last night deserved better treatment than what they got.

First off when we got there, we entered a gym that had no atmosphere to it. And when I say that, I mean no banners, no ads, no anything. Infact I didn't even see a single NCHSAA banner which would tell me that this was a state sanctioned event. Heck if I was a neutral observer, I wouldn't know if this was a regional semifinal or a regular season game. They didn't even sale the regional game programs that has all the teams, rosters and bios. Thankfully the games itself took the focus away from all of that.

Then on top of that you had a group of people at the scoring table who were very unorganized. I'm not blaming them because they probably wasn't asked to work these games until the last minute, but they looked very unprofessional. Everybody was standing and ready to salute the flag when we had to go through a 10 minute lecture in which all the sponsers of the NCHSAA were acknowleged.


All in all, it was a night in which the NCHSAA wasn't painted as being a high class organization that organizes all the public high school sports in this state.

 

No doubt in my mind this is the swan song for Winston-Salem.

No game programs? First time I've ever seen that, including the Hickory years. You also have to figure W-S is losing all or most of the semifinals concession revenue along with the outrageous prices for parking.

When it became obvious that Wake Forest was going to continue playing home games the weekend of the tournament in a building that the city owns (they are again on Sat.), you got an insight into how badly W-S and Wake Forest want the tournament. It's been at least three or four years since a girls game was played in the Joel which also speaks volumes for gender equity.

No big loss, the convenience of the two facilities being next to one another was really the only thing myself and others enjoyed about W-S. But not Charlotte, bring the thing back to the Hickory area and make the Titans one of the hosts on championship Saturday. I'd love to see it happen.

 

I expected something like this to take place. Anytime you go from the status quo to something on the fly - alot of things are going to get lost in the shuffle. However, Im surprised the NCHSAA would have had some sort of decoration to at least show it to be an event they're in charge of.

But it seems that the NCHSAA thought the fans would bring the atmosphere that Atkins High lacked in having, which is wrong. They should have hyped up some atmosphere in the banners, programs, and in some years in Hickory - the sale of regional tournament items such as t-shirts, buttons, and other items of merchandise.

Andrew, I dont see the NCHSAA bringing the Western Regionals back to Hickory because of the overcrowding issues at the venues. When teams like McDowell, Mitchell, Avery County, or any mountain-area school brings a huge amount of fans, even the bigger Hickory venues like CVCC's Multipurpose Gym (Seats 2,600) and East Burke's gym (seats 2,800-3,300) will get very congested. While its great to have a packed house, its not great to get these venues so packed that the fire marshal order that no more people is admitted into the gym, which Ive seen happen at McDowell and Freedom/East Burke (gyms are the same design).

I see Charlotte as the front-runner to get the Regionals if they leave the Winston-Salem area, and most likely, would use Halton Arena and Cricket aka Independence Arena as their other site.

Greensboro, 27 miles down the road from W-S, could host the Regionals at Greensboro Coliseum (seats 23,500 for basketball but would most likely rope off the balcony seats and use the lower bowl) and also at UNC-Greensboro's Fleming Gymnasium which seats 2,000 or at High Point University's Mills Athletic/Convocation Center, which seats about 2,600.

Asheville is a thought to host the Regionls, too. Asheville Civic Center (seating 8,500) can host the main games but the problem is the games at another venue. The only place that I think could accomodate the big crowd is Asheville High's Griffin Athletics Center (seats about 2,000). Roberts Gym at A.C. Reynolds isnt big enough and Baldwin Gym at T.C. Roberson has some whacked seating and their gym's lighting would cause problems.

McDowell & Freedom HS' would be nice sites to host the regionals, but due to accomodations (Hotels, motels) issue with both towns, it might not fly. But they do have the facilities to host them (as we are accustomed to hosting big crowds for basketball).

Just some food for thought.

 

4A East Regional semifinals

Wakefield 44
Laney 30

Westover 65
Millbrook 58


4A Eastern Regional final at J.H. Rose HS, Greenville

Westover (28-2) vs Wakefield (30-0)

 

How Big was atkins gym.Did the Mcdowell fans out number north meck fans.Personally I would love to see the regionals move back over to Hickory,Only gym from what I heard they had over crowding in was the gym at Lenior Rhyne.Maybe the Gyms we could use are CVCC,Hickory,East Burke,Freedom or Mcdowell.

 

Concord defeats Franklin 73-54