Live from Gardner-Webb at Charlotte

About eight minutes from tipoff as GWU will take on Charlotte at Halton Arena. I'll post updates as often as possible.

Starters
GWU - Grayson Flittner; Thomas Sanders; Aaron Linn; Nate Blank; Samba Fall
Charlotte - Michael Gerrity; Charlie Coley; Leemire Goldwire; Lamont Mack; An'Juan Wilderness

The 49ers are in their home white uniforms with green letters and black trim; The Runnin' Bulldogs are in their road reds with white letters and black trim.

Game is tipped off
1st half
GWU has jumped out to a 10-4 lead at 16:12 after a pair of makes at the line by Nate Blank. Thomas Sanders has 6 of GWU's first 10 points and has one assist.
Charlotte is 2-of-7 from the floor in the first four minutes with three turnovers.
GWU continues to lead 12-8 with 11:40 left in the first. With just one turnover, the Dogs have done a solid job against Charlotte's pressure defense in the early going. The 49ers lead the rebounding edge 11-5 and have six offensive boards.
GWU has gone cold and has suffered a few turnovers over the last several minutes. Charlotte is in the middle of a 16-4 run over the last eight minutes and now leads 20-14 after a 3-pointer by Michael Gerrity with 8 minutes left in the first.
Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz just given a technical foul with 6 minutes left in the half. Grayson Flittner hits both technical foul shots and GWU cuts the deficit to 27-21. Sanders nails 2-of-2 on the next possession to make it 27-23 at 5:09.
Charlotte now leads 33-27 at 3:03 after a pair of 3's by Leemire Goldwire. Goldwire has 14 points and has hit 4, 3-pointers in the first half.
The 49ers go on their second 16-4 run on the half over the final 3-plus minutes and will take a 43-29 lead into the half.
Leading scorers - GWU: Sanders 12; Blank 8. Charlotte: Goldwire 14; Dewhurst 10.

Quick take - Rebounds (26-15 edge) and second chance points (15-0 edge), along with the 3-point shooting of Goldwire (4-for-9), have been the big keys to the 49ers ability to get out to a 14-point lead at the half. GWU closed the gap to 27-25 with just over three minutes left and looked poised to keep it close the rest of the half, but Charlotte turned up the pressure defense down the stretch and steadily built its lead.

2nd half
Charltotte leads 51-33 with 15:32 left. Thomas Sanders picked up his fourth foul early in the half and will have to sit for a while. Aaron Linn also has three fouls and it looks as if Samba Fall will not return as he hobbled off the court late in the first half with an apparent ankle injury and was still walking lightly on the ankle when the team broke the huddle after the timeout.
Backcourt pressure has caused GWU to use three timeouts in the game, including one with 15:28 left in the second.
Goldmire makes 2 more 3's, now 6-of-11 from long range and 7-of-13 from the floor, as Charlotte now has a 59-38 lead with 11:30 left.
Charlie Coley with a couple of big second half dunks for Charlotte. Sanders and Linn back out on the floor for GWU with just under eight minutes left in the game. The 49ers lead 67-42.
With just under four minutes left, Charlotte leads 76-47.

Final score - Charlotte 83, Gardner-Webb 51

2007 AP All-State team

The coach of the year will be named on Thursday, Dec. 20. The player of the year will be named Friday, Dec. 21.

2007 AP All-State prep football team for N.C.
The voting breakdown for the 2007 Associated Press All-State prep football team for North Carolina, as cast by a statewide panel of 20 media members. Number of votes are in parentheses.
OFFENSE
QB—Darius Thomas, West Charlotte (15)
RB—Terrence “Buggy” Kincaid, McDowell County (13)
RB—Eric Breitenstein, Watauga County (9)
WR—Levon Curtis, Western Alamance (18)
WR—Jarrett Boykin, Matthews Butler (7)
TE—Dwayne Allen, Fayetteville Sanford (11)
OL—Jonathan Cooper, Wilmington Hoggard (19)
OL—Michael Via, Northeast Guilford (15)
OL—Nick Becton, New Hanover County (14)
OL—Josh Clark, North Gaston (14)
OL—Casey Augustine, Watauga County (7)
OL—Xavier Nixon, Fayetteville Britt (7)
DEFENSE
DL—Lanston Tanyi, Shelby (16)
DL—Terry Vaughan, New Bern (16)
DL—Allen Crowder, Eastern Alamance (11)
DL—Jarvis Pierce, Charlotte Independence (9)
LB—Austin Johnson, Hickory (15)
LB—Kevin Reddick, New Bern (10)
LB—Dwayne Maddox, Crest (8)
DB—Robert Blanton, Matthews Butler (16)
DB—Ed Gainey, Winston-Salem Mt. Tabor (10)
DB—Josh Gossett, Asheville Roberson (9)
DB—Justin Avery, West Rowan (8)
SPECIAL TEAMS
PK—Casey Barth, Wilmington Hoggard (18)
P—Matt Milisor, Greensboro Page (9)
KR—Jameze Massey, Monroe (14)
ATH—E.J. Abrams-Ward, Thomasville (4)
ATH—A.J. Blue, North Gaston (4)

Live from Raleigh - Shelby vs. Reidsville

Pre-game

About 45 minutes before kickoff here at N.C. State's Carter-Finley Stadium. The pressbox here in Vaughn Towers is plush and the pre-game lasagna hit the spot after the ride from Shelby!

In State football championship action earlier today in Chapel Hill, North Gaston suffered a 62-36 setback to Western Alamance in the 3A ranks. The 98 combined points was an NCHSAA neutral site championship record dating back to 1989.

In the 2A title, Lincolnton defeated South Columbus, 28-14, to claim its second championship and first since 1993.

4A - Wilmington Hoggard 28, Mount Tabor 0
3AA - Greensboro Dudley 28, Charlotte Catholic 20
1A - Plymouth 20, North Duplin 13

Shelby and Reidsville are going through their pregame warmups. The Golden Lions are the home team and are in their black jerseys with black pants and gold helmets. The Rams are in their white tops with gold pants and gold helmets.

The two teams have taken the field, the National Anthem has been sung and we're almost set for kickoff.

Shelby won the toss and elected to defer to the second half.

First quarter
Reidsville takes first drive and moves all the way down the Shelby 20. Reidsville's James Scheer misses a 37-yarder wide left.
Shelby takes over at its own 20 and is now at the 45 after a pair of runs by Larry Raper and Marc Williams. 5:45 on the clock
Shelby's drive stalls as Reidsville stops the run. Lions forced to punt near midfield with 4:20 left
Reidsville just used its second timeout at the half with 4:13 left in the first quarter. They have the ball at their own 23 to start the possession.
Reidsville goes three-and-out and punts.
Shelby with the ball near midfield after a nice run by Williams with the clock at three minutes.

First quarter comes to a close with game scoreless. Reidsville has the ball at its own 38 with a 3rd and 2 when the second quarter starts.

Second quarter
Howard Thompson breaks loose for a 68-yard TD run on a QB keeper with 10:57 left to put Shelby on the board. Turner Almond's kick makes it 7-0.
Reidsville answers with a TD on a 20-yard pass from Ray Butchee to Kerry Hammock. Scheer's kick makes it 7-7. The scoring drive was keyed by a 52-yard catch-and-run from Butchee to Mike Brown. 8:03 left in the second.
Now 4:50 left in the second after Reidsville forces a punt.
The Rams have moved quickly down the field set up by a 36 yard pass from Butchee to Marlon Roach. Reidsville with 1st and 10 at the SHS 16 with 3:37 left.
Reidsville overcomes an intentional grounding call and on the next play Butchee hits Brown on a 30-yard TD pass over the middle. Butchee now with 161 yards passing in the first half.
Shelby fumbles deep in its own territory with 2:30 left and Reidsville now has a first and 10 at the SHS 8.
Tayon Graves carries it eight yards for TD as Scheer's kick makes it 21-7 with 2:26 left.
SHS goes three-and-out on next possession and is forced to punt. After the timeout, there will be 15 seconds left in the half as the Lions are about to punt.
First half ends with Reidsville leading 21-7. The halftime lasts 15 minutes ... be sure to check out WGWG-FM 88.3 for halftime analysis.

Third quarter
Shelby will start on its own 20 to begin the second half.
After forcing a punt on SHS first possession, Reidsville goes up 28-7 on a 1-yard blast by Graves. Scheer's kick was good at 7:27. The drive was keyed by a 32-yard reverse pass from Hammock to Niko McGirt.
With 6:30 left in the quarter, SHS has moved out to its own 40 thanks to a long run by Thompson.
The two teams trade fumbles with SHS' Lanston Tanyi recovering one by the Rams. SHS cashes in on the turnover on a 7-yard TD run by Donovan Gidney. The XP was blocked as Reidsville leads 28-13 with 2:48 left in the quarter.

Fourth quarter
SHS will get the ball back to start the fourth as the Rams are about to punt it away.
Thompson completes a 14-yard fade pass to Tim Gullatte with 7:50 for a TD. Almond's extra point makes it 28-20.
Reidsville has chewed over four minutes off the clock and now has a big 3rd and 15 with 2:51 left in the game. The ball is at the SHS 42.SHS picks up the first and the drive stays alive.
SHS forces a punt and will get at least one more shot at it with 2:40 on the clock and one timeout. Reidsville punts it away and SHS now has a 4th and 2 with 1:45 left.
After four incompletions, SHS turns it over on downs and Reidsville will run out the clock.

Final score - Reidsville 28, Shelby 20

Saturday's coverage

Figured I would post this a day early to let folks know the plan for Saturday's coverage of the 2AA State football championship between Shelby and Reidsville in Raleigh.

Making the trip with me to Carter-Finley Stadium will be Star photographer Brittany Randolph and interactive reporter Kristy McSwain.

I'll be blogging live updates from the game, while Brittany will have photo updates at halftime and after the game at http://starphotochampionship.blogspot.com and Kristy will have video highlights at www.shelbystar.com after the game.

Also, I'll be in the radio booth at halftime on WGWG-FM 88.3 with Andy Foster and Dennis Davis, who will be calling the game. We're hoping to video the halftime report and also post that to www.shelbystar.com.

The game can also be heard on WOHS-AM 730 and WADA-AM 1390 with David Allen and Brent Pasko.

If you're making the trip, have a safe trip to Raleigh!