SportsTalk: ACC Tournament & Championship Venues
Scout Hughes and George Hoyle talk about the venues over the years that have hosted the ACC Football Championship Game and the ACC Basketball Tournament. That and much more on SportsTalk!
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SportsTalk: Louisburg College Men’s Basketball Update
Bryan Bagwell, Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Louisburg College, joins SportsTalk to discuss his team as they are 10 games into the season. Scout Hughes and Steve Lewis also talk about Jeff Kent and how we was the only player to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2026.
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SportsTalk: Duke Football Takes The 2025 ACC Title
Saturday’s ACC Football Championship game featured a couple of teams that probably would have been considered longshots – at best – to be playing at the season’s end for bragging rights in a conference that includes perennial powerhouses like Clemson and Florida State.
But the matchup between the Duke Blue Devils and the Virginia Cavaliers turned out to be a pretty good game, with Duke knocking off UVA in overtime and avenging a 34-17 thumping during the regular season.
This is Duke’s first football ACC conference title since 1989 and their first outright title since 1962, according to WIZS’s Scout Hughes, who reviewed some of the highlights during Monday’s SportsTalk with Doc Ayscue.
“From start to finish, it was a great game,” Ayscue said. He binged championship college football all weekend, and Hughes drove to Charlotte to see the game in person.
Ayscue said Duke’s lackluster time management let the ‘Hoos get back into the game.
With his team down by 10 late in the game, Head Coach Tony Elliott watched his team work the clock, kick a field goal and then, with 22 seconds left in regulation, score a touchdown and PAT to tie the game.
“All of a sudden, we’re in overtime,” Hughes recalled.
Duke got the ball first in the overtime period and scored. It was up to the Cavaliers to answer that score, but the Blue Devils defense had other plans. A quick interception and, just like that, the game was over.
In a post-game press conference Duke Head Coach Manny Diaz, with QB Darien Mensah at his side, said he was proud of his team, “proud to be an ACC champion – the pride we have at doing things at Duke that haven’t been done in a long time.”
Mensah followed up by saying “Theres no better feeling. That’s exactly why I’m at Duke.” The Tulane transfer said he and Coach Diaz had talked about what it would mean to bring home a championship to a school that’s so well-known for its winning basketball program.
“I think that’s a statement that me and the seniors on this team really have tried to make. I’ve been saying this: I’m just a piece of this puzzle. Duke is extremely special and I’m just glad to be a part of it.”
The Duke win spoiled UVA’s hopes to get added to the list of 12 teams playing for the college football championship. Cavaliers Coach Elliott, though disappointed after the game, put a positive spin on the outcome.
“I don’t like the outcome, but at the end of the day, our guys fought – they fought all the way to the end. They believed that we were going to win the game and we came up a few plays short,” Elliott said in the post-game press conference.
He said his players have “the heart of a champion…the football team that lost tonight came up a touchdown short,” but added that everybody in the locker room wants the opportunity to get an 11th win – a hint at post-season play.
“We’ll learn from tonight. We’ll grow…we’re going to grow and we’re going to bounce back…set our sights forward, learn from our mistakes and go back to work.”
UVA will face Missouri in the Gator Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 27 in Jacksonville, FL.
The Blue Devils will head to El Paso, TX to face the Arizona State Sun Devils in the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
For the record, UVA is a 7-point underdog. Duke’s favored by 1.5 points.
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SportsTalk: Vance County Football 2025 Season Recap and All-Conference Team Announced
Vance County Head Football Coach Aaron Elliott joins SportsTalk with Scout Hughes and George Hoyle, as Coach recaps the 2025 season. The guys also talk about the Northern Six All-Conference Team. As well as a fundraiser for Vance County Athletics.
Northern 6 All-Conference:
- Harry Cheek
- Charles Doyle
- Semajah Kearney
- Tyler Wheeler
- Sy’Mahj Chavis
- Deandre Glover
- Ayden Foster
Kicker of the Year
- Aidan Labra
Honorable Mention
- Jermaine Whitaker
- Montrell Ragland
919/252 All-Star Game Showcase Bowl
- Charles Doyle
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Who: Vance County High School Vipers Booster Club
What: Fish Plate Fundraiser
When: Monday, December 8th from 4-7pm
Where: 220 Seafood Restaurant, 1812 N. Garnett St. Henderson, NC
Why: Come and grab a delicious meal and help support our amazing students and school programs. Your support truly makes a difference.
Additional Details: Plates are $10 which includes trout, fries, slaw and hush puppies. Contact Michelle Elliott at (919) 691-4947 or sheryl.hope@yahoo.com for more information or for tickets
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SportsTalk: New CPL Team Coming to Five County Stadium
Scout Hughes and George Hoyle talk about the new Coastal Plain League team coming to Five County Stadium starting in May of 2026 and the trickle-down effect of this move.
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SportsTalk: Dennis Gaskins and the Lady Canes Ready for the Task at Hand
Dennis Gaskins, Head Coach of the Louisburg College Women’s Basketball Team, joins SportsTalk with Scout Hughes and Steve Lewis to discuss the rest of the games in December as the Lady Canes are ready for a strong finish to 2025.
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SportsTalk: Recap of the Weekend
Scout Hughes and Doc Ayscue recap the weekend that was with high school, college and NFL football action over the Thanksgiving Day Holiday.
4th Round Football Playoff Games:
- Warren County 40 John A. Holmes 14
Area College Football Scores for Week 14:
- NC State 42 North Carolina 19
- Duke 49 Wake Forest 32
- Virginia 27 Virginia Tech 7
- East Carolina 42 Florida Atlantic 3
- Tulane 27 Charlotte 0
- Arkansas State 30 App State 29
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The Local Skinny! Warren County Football to Play in Eastern Regional Final Friday Night
The Warren County Eagles are headed to the Eastern Regional finals of the 2A State Football Playoffs following a 40-14 victory the day after Thanksgiving over the Holmes Aces.
Head Coach Victor Hunt said it took a day or two to soak it all in, but the coaching staff and the team are getting ready for the next matchup, set for Friday, Dec. 5 against the Tarboro Vikings.
“To be able to step into that world of December football is absolutely amazing,” Hunt told WIZS’s Scout Hughes and Doc Ayscue on Monday’s segment of The Local Skinny!
Hunt said he’s pleased to see all the positive comments on social media, talking about the team’s accomplishments and hopes for another victory – or two.
If the Eagles- now 11-2 on the season – win Friday, they’ll play for the 2A state championship.
The Tarboro Vikings are 13-0 so far this season, having easily taken care of East Bladen last week by a score of 54-7.
Hunt has a healthy respect for Tarboro – they broke a record for most consecutive state championships, he said.
In fact, it was Tarboro that ended the Eagles’ playoff run last season, Hunt said.
He said he’d talked with the Tarboro coach and said “it shows that we’re growing as a program that I have to see you again,” he recalled. Last year’s contest was a one-sided win for Tarboro, but Hunt said he’s keeping that in the rear-view mirror.
“I always look at our losses as lessons,” he said. “And we’re back here a year later, just in a later round” to face a team with a long tradition of winning.
This week, practice is going to focus on mental preparation for Friday’s game.
Making sure the kids know their assignments is key to advancing.
Hunt said his team needs to be disciplined, especially on defense. “When you have the opportunity to make the play,” he said, “you gotta make it.”
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SportsTalk: History of Henderson High School Thanksgiving Day Games
The Thanksgiving Day Game for the Henderson High School Football Team used to be an annual tradition. According to research done by WIZS, the Bulldogs played in five Thanksgiving Day Games. Winning four of them and losing one. Scout Hughes and Doc Ayscue speak on the history of the Thanksgiving Day Games that Henderson High School played in. That and much more on SportsTalk!
“Amy Snyder, curator of collections & archivist, at the Museum of Regional History in Mount Airy told WIZS she received this picture from the Mount Airy football coach at the time, Coach Wally Shelton’s wife Christine.”
Below are the results of the Thanksgiving Day Games that the Bulldogs played in:
- 1945: Oxford 14 Henderson 6
- 1947: Henderson 25 Mount Airy 14
- 1948: Henderson 52 Whiteville 0
- 1949: Henderson 20 Reidsville 14
- 1950: Henderson 13 Rockingham 6
Reminder: No SportsTalk on Thanksgiving for the Holiday.
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SportsTalk: Warren County Football Headed to the 4th Round
Warren County High School’s Head Coach Victor Hunt is thankful for a lot of things this Thanksgiving, as he prepares the Eagles for the fourth round of the state 2A football playoffs.
For one thing, he’s thankful for the team’s two losses this season – one at the hands of the Vance County High Vipers.
For a second thing, he’s thankful that his team is in pretty good health for this point in the season.
“We do have some kids banged up a little bit, but for the most part, we are healthy,” he told WIZS’s Scout Hughes and Steve Lewis.
He’s also thankful he challenged his team midway the season to be prepared to be practicing on Thanksgiving morning. Family meals and plans will have to be sidelined on Thursday, because the team will be preparing to be a part of school history – the first time the school has made it this far in the state tourney.
The #2 seed Eagles face #6 seed John Holmes Aces at 7 p.m. on Friday in Warrenton. This is new territory for Hunt and the Eagles, who made it to the third round last year.
Most of all, Hunt is thankful for the character the players have shown this year.
“We have a group of tough young men that really take pride in being from Warren County – they love where they’re from.”
Now in his seventh year as head coach of the Eagles, Hunt said this group of young men is reaping the benefits of previous teams that have laid the foundation for this year’s success.
“They all kind of set the stage for this moment,” he said.
The community is getting behind the team, too.
“I think what we’ve been able to do is bring some hope back, some excitement back to this area,” Hunt said. Sure, it’s good to have local rivals like Vance County and J.F. Webb, he said, but when you get to this point in post-season play, his team is letting people know that this area plays some good football.
The social media posts that say folks are rooting for Warren County to win are encouraging to Hunt.
“I’m glad it’s us this year, but I’m pretty sure that if the tables were turned, we would be doing the same for those people as well.”
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