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As height goes, Northern Guilford looks as much like a chess club as a basketball team.

The Nighthawks' only player taller than 6-foot-3 is senior Jonathan Frye, and he spends much time on the perimeter at small forward.

Most of Northern's rotation hovers on the north tip of six feet, all the way down to listed-as-5-foot-9 sophomores Patrick Chandler and D.C. Arendas.

Yet the Nighthawks have been surprisingly unharmed by the giants of the world this season.

They held Greensboro Day's 6-7 Jordan Robertson to six points and Ragsdale's 6-6 Tyquan Roberts to 10 in the Pizza Hut Invitational; a month later, they kept Eastern Guilford post man Darius Dawkins to four in a 20-point win.

Fayetteville Byrd and Cameron Union Pines couldn't mount enough inside presence against Northern's matchup zone to threaten in the first two rounds of the playoffs, and the Nighthawks were able to corral Westover's 6-6, 260-pound Mike Jones to 17 points in Friday's sectional final win, holding him at bay on the final play for a 59-58 escape.

Now, with a trip to the state semifinals on the line at East Carolina's Minges Coliseum tonight, the Nighthawks must once more play bigger than their collective size.

Their opponent, Big East champion Rocky Mount, is powered by 6-6, 185-pound senior small forward Tashawn Mabry, who passed North Carolina legend Phil Ford this season to become Nash County's all-time leading scorer.

Mabry — whose recruiting suitors ballooned this season from mid-majors to the likes of Duke and N.C. State — is averaging 24 points, eight rebounds and 4.4 blocks while shooting 60 percent from the field and 44 percent from 3-point range.

"Everybody had high hopes for him and knew he could possibly carry us to the next level, and he has responded," Gryphons head coach Mike Gainey told the Rocky Mount Telegram last week. "We've been through a storm, but hopefully he can continue to carry the team."

Frye is the only player returning from last year's Nighthawks starting five, which carried the team to the 3-A state title before a Guilford County Schools investigation negated it. Despite bringing five players back in total, this team is 25-2 and will still finish with no more defeats than last season.

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com