American Christian 73, Hope Christian 66

Michael Glover has resumed his dunking exhibition and has 18 first half points. It was a two point game with 30 seconds left in the second quarter. Then Kareen Ellis hit a long two and then stole the ball, which Tyreke Evans laid in as the clock ran out on the first half for a six point lead. LaRon Dendy has 11 for Hope as JT Thompson picked up three first half fouls.

Glover kept up the scoring and mugging, totalling a whopping 32 points (14-22 shooting). Tyreke Evans had 10 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Hope was led by Dendy with 17, Thompson and Gabriel with 14 points and five rebounds each.

Notes from Michelle III

• With both State and UNC having home games, tonight was Coach K's turn to come over with his Duke contingent. That's 3-3 on the big local head coaches visiting the tournament. We've had more college coaches again tonight, Virginia Tech, Wingate and some other new names arrived today in their customary coaching garb.
  

• No overtime battles so far in the tournament. Once the back support got yanked out of balance and delayed a game. Sheesh, I spoke too soon. I jinxed it and the St. Benedict-St. Raymond's game just went into OT.
  

• Highest single scoring game by a player this tournament so far - Apex's Yorel Hawkins with 29 the first night. He tossed in 25 tonight, so his two day total is 54. The tournament records have a category for tournament scoring and the minimum for addition to the list is 60, Hawkins needs four more tomorrow to be added.

• The later the game, the more dunks. It always works out that way.

• Lowest scoring quarter so far - six points in the 2nd quarter by Riverside against Taft tonight, I wrote that too soon as St. Raymonds scored four points in the third quarter against St. Benedict tonight. Highest scoring quarter was 28 by Durham Mount Zion Wednesday night in a losing effort against American Christian.

• No one measured but St. Raymonds' Gerald Colds hit the longest three I've seen so far this tournament in this evening nightcap going on right now.

• Twice I said things in here that were changed by the final game. I'm not going to type anymore here - it is bad mojo!
  

Wednesday final scores, Thursday schedule

Wednesday, December 27, 2006:
11:00 a.m.: Game 1- Wake Forest-Rolesville 73, Smoky Mountain 45 (Girls)
12:40 p.m.: Game 2 - Riverside 67, Kinston 64 (8-Team Boys)
2:20 p.m.: Game 3 - St. Raymond 62, Middle Creek 52 (8-Team Boys)
4:00 p.m.: Game 4 - Wakefield 57, Apex 48 (Girls)
5:40 p.m.: Game 5 - Taft 68, Apex 41 (Eight-Team Boys)
7:20 p.m.: Game 6 - St. Benedict 74, Broughton 48 (8-Team Boys)
9:00 p.m.: Game 7 - American Chr. 81, Durham Mtn Zion 70 (Showcase #1)

Thursday, December 28, 2006:
11:00 a.m.: Game 8 - Smoky Mountain vs. Apex (Girls)
12:40 p.m.: Game 9 - Middle Creek vs. Broughton (8-Team Boys)
2:20 p.m.: Game 10 - Kinston vs. Apex (8-Team Boys)
4:00 p.m.: Game 11 - Southern Durham vs. Goldsboro (4-Team Boys)
5:40 p.m.: Game 12 - Knightdale vs. Starmount (4-Team Boys)
7:20 p.m.: Game 13 - Riverside vs. Taft (8-Team Boys)
9:00 p.m.: Game 14 - St. Raymond vs. St. Benedict (8-Team Boys)

American Chr. 81, Durham Mtn Zion 70

The start of the second quarter of this exhibition game has American Christian leading Durham Mount Zion by seven. The score could be much higher but there have been a lot of missed layups. The pace picks up some but it is still a lot of up and down action. Tyreke Evans is in foul trouble and American Christian's offense doesn't run as well without him. Still at the half, the Eagles lead by five and Michael Glover has 10 points. DMZ is lead by Tracy Smith with 13.

Evan's presence back on the court has energized American Christian who open the third on a 13-2 run and lead by 16. A huge dunk by Glover pushes the score up to 52-33 with just three minutes gone in the third quarter. Glover has two more monster dunks (the third one to the right).

With 1:41 to go, the lead is down to nine but Michael Truitt makes a great off balance bucket falling to the ground to push the lead back to double digits. Mount Zion starts fouling to stretch out the game but it isn't enough as American Christian wins by 11.

Durham Mount Zion 10 18 14 28 - 70
American Christian 19 14 23 25 - 81

Durham Mount Zion - T. Smith 26, M. Foster 16, L. Daniels 9, B. Rhodes 5, G. Robinson 5, N. Alleyne 3, L. McCoy 3, A. Talley 3. Leading rebounder - T. Smith 5. Assist leader - L. McCoy 2.

American Christian - M. Glover 28, T. Evans 14, A. Tarver 12, M. Relphorde 10, O. Griffin 5, K. Ellis 4, M. Truitt 4, J. Spivey 2, H. Rahman 2. Leading rebounder - two with three . Assist leader - T. Evans 3.