Knights rolling into Greenfield Christmas Tournament
By Andrew Schnittker
aschnittker@wilsontimes.com | 265-7807 | Twitter: @aschnitt53
While some might have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads already as the countdown to Christmas hits under a week, for eight high school boys teams that will gather at Greenfield School Wednesday through Friday, it’ll be visions of basketballs and trophies.
The Knights are set to host the annual Greenfield Christmas Tournament, entering its 15th year in the current format. Fayetteville Academy, Grace Christian of Sanford, Northwood Temple, Trinity Academy of Raleigh, Grace Christian of Raleigh, Crossroads Christian and New Life Christian will make up this year’s field, as head coach Rob Salter once again looks forward to welcoming a talented slate of teams to Greenfield’s gym.
“We love this time of year,” Salter said. “We feel like we’ve got one of the best pre-Christmas tournaments in the state. Every year, we’ve got really, really talented teams and coaches coming in. So this is just great preparation for what we could see later on. It’s three great days of basketball. As the history shows, it’s very hard to win this thing. That’s what you want, so we know we’ve got our work cut out for us to have a chance to win it.”
Salter explained that holiday tournaments allow student athletes to have a time where they can completely focus on basketball over Christmas break, and often allow for them to have former teammates and family in town to watch them play.
For the Knights, it’s also yet another opportunity to test themselves in nonconference play and get ready for the sort of competition they might see down the line in the NCISAA 2-A state playoffs.
“I always tell our guys, we kind of split our season up into three different seasons: the regular season, holiday season and postseason,” Salter said. “We kind of treat it as a different part of the year. It’s fun. You play in front of great crowds, great environments and you’re playing different teams. That’s what we like. We like playing different teams and not playing the same people all the time. There’s a lot of turnover in our tournament, because there’s a lot of different teams that want to come. It’s great preparation for the end goal, which is the state tournament.”
The Knights are off to an excellent start to the season, as they sit at 11-3 overall and 1-0 in NCISAA 2-A/3-A Coastal Plain Independents Conference play.
The Knights have already played in multiple preseason showcases, including the Wilson Prep Hoop State Showcase, and the Good Guys vs. Cancer Showcase in Kill Devil Hills. The Knights’ losses have all been tight games against top opponents, with two of those coming against schools from Virginia.
“I love my team,” Salter said. “We’ve been battle tested already. We’ve had a great schedule. We’re seven points from being undefeated. We’ve lost two games by one. I feel good about us. We’re pretty healthy, as much as you can be at this time of the year. I just love coaching this group. This group competes. This group loves each other. So it’s just a fun team to be around. They’re very, very hungry and focused.”
While Salter still sees room for improvement, there’s a whole lot to like for the Knights heading into the holiday season.
Depth is the name of the game, as the Knights have six players averaging at or near double figures scoring. Hampton Evans is leading the Knights with 17 points per game to go with six rebounds, followed by Matt Kirby with 16 points and four assists per game, Kyshon Atkinson with 14 points (and 41% shooting from 3-point range), Kobe Edwards with 11 points and seven assists, Micah Sherod with about 11 points per game , and Nik Edwards with nine points and a team-leading eight rebounds per game.
The Knights are also getting strong contributions off the bench from players such as Cole Evans and Bryson Wall.
“We’ve got to get better defensively still,” Salter said. “We’re good at times, but we need to be more consistent. Our depth has really been great for us. Our cohesiveness and playing well together has gone well for us. We know it can be somebody different every night that helps us, and it has been at this point. When we’ve had somebody get hurt, the next man has stepped up and played well. But I think we’ve got to get better defensively and keep maintaining our tempo that we want to play.”
After falling in the tournament championship game against Wayne Country Day last year, the Knights will look to get back to victory and win the event for the first time since 2019 (it wasn’t held in 2020).
They know they’ll have their work cut out for them, however. The Knights will start off with a New Life Christian team that enters the tournament at 14-7. The Monarchs have been led by Ja’Kwon Moore, a 6-6 senior who averages a double-double with 19.2 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, and have four more players scoring in double figures.
The tournament will also include Trinity Academy, last year’s NCISAA 2-A runner up, and Northwood Temple, a team that Salter says boasts a great deal of size throughout its lineup.
“There’s a lot of really good teams,” Salter said. “You’ve got some of the top 1-A, 2-A and 3-A teams in this bracket. … You can go down the list. Every team there is going to present a challenge for anybody. It’s just a really good field.”
The tournament will start Wednesday with a showdown between Fayetteville Academy and Grace Christian of Sanford at 3 p.m. The Knights will play their first game at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday against New Life Christian.
2022 Greenfield Christmas Tournament
Date Time Game
Dec. 21 3 p.m. 1. Fayetteville Academy vs. Grace Christian (Sanford)
Dec. 21 4:30 p.m. 2. Northwood Temple vs. Trinity Academy
Dec. 21 6 p.m. 3. Grace Christian Raleigh vs. Crossroads Christian
Dec. 21 7:30 p.m. 4. Greenfield vs. New Life Christian
Dec. 22 3 p.m. 5. Loser 1 vs. Loser 2
Dec. 22 4:30 p.m. 6. Loser 3 vs. Loser 4
Dec. 22 6 p.m. 7. Winner 1 vs. Winner 2
Dec. 22 7:30 p.m. 8. Winner 3 vs. Winner 4
Dec. 23 1 p.m. Third-place game
Dec. 23 3 p.m. Seventh-place game
Dec. 23 4:30 p.m. Fifth-place game
Dec. 23 7:30 p.m. Championship game
By Andrew Schnittker
aschnittker@wilsontimes.com | 265-7807 | Twitter: @aschnitt53
While some might have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads already as the countdown to Christmas hits under a week, for eight high school boys teams that will gather at Greenfield School Wednesday through Friday, it’ll be visions of basketballs and trophies.
The Knights are set to host the annual Greenfield Christmas Tournament, entering its 15th year in the current format. Fayetteville Academy, Grace Christian of Sanford, Northwood Temple, Trinity Academy of Raleigh, Grace Christian of Raleigh, Crossroads Christian and New Life Christian will make up this year’s field, as head coach Rob Salter once again looks forward to welcoming a talented slate of teams to Greenfield’s gym.
“We love this time of year,” Salter said. “We feel like we’ve got one of the best pre-Christmas tournaments in the state. Every year, we’ve got really, really talented teams and coaches coming in. So this is just great preparation for what we could see later on. It’s three great days of basketball. As the history shows, it’s very hard to win this thing. That’s what you want, so we know we’ve got our work cut out for us to have a chance to win it.”
Salter explained that holiday tournaments allow student athletes to have a time where they can completely focus on basketball over Christmas break, and often allow for them to have former teammates and family in town to watch them play.
For the Knights, it’s also yet another opportunity to test themselves in nonconference play and get ready for the sort of competition they might see down the line in the NCISAA 2-A state playoffs.
“I always tell our guys, we kind of split our season up into three different seasons: the regular season, holiday season and postseason,” Salter said. “We kind of treat it as a different part of the year. It’s fun. You play in front of great crowds, great environments and you’re playing different teams. That’s what we like. We like playing different teams and not playing the same people all the time. There’s a lot of turnover in our tournament, because there’s a lot of different teams that want to come. It’s great preparation for the end goal, which is the state tournament.”
The Knights are off to an excellent start to the season, as they sit at 11-3 overall and 1-0 in NCISAA 2-A/3-A Coastal Plain Independents Conference play.
The Knights have already played in multiple preseason showcases, including the Wilson Prep Hoop State Showcase, and the Good Guys vs. Cancer Showcase in Kill Devil Hills. The Knights’ losses have all been tight games against top opponents, with two of those coming against schools from Virginia.
“I love my team,” Salter said. “We’ve been battle tested already. We’ve had a great schedule. We’re seven points from being undefeated. We’ve lost two games by one. I feel good about us. We’re pretty healthy, as much as you can be at this time of the year. I just love coaching this group. This group competes. This group loves each other. So it’s just a fun team to be around. They’re very, very hungry and focused.”
While Salter still sees room for improvement, there’s a whole lot to like for the Knights heading into the holiday season.
Depth is the name of the game, as the Knights have six players averaging at or near double figures scoring. Hampton Evans is leading the Knights with 17 points per game to go with six rebounds, followed by Matt Kirby with 16 points and four assists per game, Kyshon Atkinson with 14 points (and 41% shooting from 3-point range), Kobe Edwards with 11 points and seven assists, Micah Sherod with about 11 points per game , and Nik Edwards with nine points and a team-leading eight rebounds per game.
The Knights are also getting strong contributions off the bench from players such as Cole Evans and Bryson Wall.
“We’ve got to get better defensively still,” Salter said. “We’re good at times, but we need to be more consistent. Our depth has really been great for us. Our cohesiveness and playing well together has gone well for us. We know it can be somebody different every night that helps us, and it has been at this point. When we’ve had somebody get hurt, the next man has stepped up and played well. But I think we’ve got to get better defensively and keep maintaining our tempo that we want to play.”
After falling in the tournament championship game against Wayne Country Day last year, the Knights will look to get back to victory and win the event for the first time since 2019 (it wasn’t held in 2020).
They know they’ll have their work cut out for them, however. The Knights will start off with a New Life Christian team that enters the tournament at 14-7. The Monarchs have been led by Ja’Kwon Moore, a 6-6 senior who averages a double-double with 19.2 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, and have four more players scoring in double figures.
The tournament will also include Trinity Academy, last year’s NCISAA 2-A runner up, and Northwood Temple, a team that Salter says boasts a great deal of size throughout its lineup.
“There’s a lot of really good teams,” Salter said. “You’ve got some of the top 1-A, 2-A and 3-A teams in this bracket. … You can go down the list. Every team there is going to present a challenge for anybody. It’s just a really good field.”
The tournament will start Wednesday with a showdown between Fayetteville Academy and Grace Christian of Sanford at 3 p.m. The Knights will play their first game at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday against New Life Christian.
2022 Greenfield Christmas Tournament
Date Time Game
Dec. 21 3 p.m. 1. Fayetteville Academy vs. Grace Christian (Sanford)
Dec. 21 4:30 p.m. 2. Northwood Temple vs. Trinity Academy
Dec. 21 6 p.m. 3. Grace Christian Raleigh vs. Crossroads Christian
Dec. 21 7:30 p.m. 4. Greenfield vs. New Life Christian
Dec. 22 3 p.m. 5. Loser 1 vs. Loser 2
Dec. 22 4:30 p.m. 6. Loser 3 vs. Loser 4
Dec. 22 6 p.m. 7. Winner 1 vs. Winner 2
Dec. 22 7:30 p.m. 8. Winner 3 vs. Winner 4
Dec. 23 1 p.m. Third-place game
Dec. 23 3 p.m. Seventh-place game
Dec. 23 4:30 p.m. Fifth-place game
Dec. 23 7:30 p.m. Championship game