Page B2-The Chronicle, Thursday, Jam
sportswc
V
^HMME^^>?<>li>,**Vv-N
MJ
jfcr-?
Battle of The* Titans
? A&T defenders clog the middle again
(photo by Joe Daniels).
j CIAA Basketball
Rams Take 1
Another Bie
. . *
By ROBERT ELLER
Sports Editor
The Winston-Salem State Rams got back into
action after a long Christmas layoff last week
and won two of three contests to up their record
to 8-3 for the season.
The Rams claimed non-conference wins over
Morehouse College 89-80 on Jan. 11 and 69-66
over Bowie State on Jan. 14. But it was the one
that got away on Jan. 12 that Rams Coach
"Bighouse" Gaines really wanted.
"Any time you win you have to be happy,
but the Shaw game (a 64-57 Southern Division
loss) was the one we needed badly," Gaines
said.
The Rams had not played since Dec. 16,
when they entertained Morehouse at the Gaines
Complex, and the layoff showed. The Rams,
leading 84-73 with 2:37 left, looked to have the
win sewed up, but four straight turnovers
allowed Morehouse to close to within 84-80 in
h little more than a minute.
The Rams shook off the errors and scored
the game's last six points to ice the win. A Troy
Russell dunk put the game away but Russell
was knocked down on the shot and slightly injured.
He led all scorers in the game with 25
points, but the knee injury he buffered on the
play came back to haunt the Rams the following
nipht aoaintt tho rv.
O O' -e-Livn HIV. JVUII1V.I II UA1V1SIVJI1 S
hottest team.
With Russell scoring only six points (he
.-v
~ How Televi
By BARRY COOPER
Syndicated Columnist
This is a column about compassion and
If it sounds militant, then that's OK, tc
smaller colleges get stepped on re
somebody's got to stand up for them.
Today's crusade concerns those televi
works -- particularly the cable outfits -- t\
black colleges when it comes to programmii
ball games.
A case in point: ESPN, whose full name
tainment and Sports Programming Ne
nary 19, 1984
>ek
c
Bfci^.. ^ t.^'
mum m
x$x?.
$
st Alabama State all-America candidate L
rwo But Big Oi
One's Ahead Ir
entered the game averaging 25 per game), Shaw
overcame a 10-point deficit five minutes into
the final half and defeated the Rams 64-57.
"Russell was only about half-speed," said
Gaines, referring to the the twisted knee that
slowed down his star in the game, "and without
his scoring we are in trouble."
Russell's lack of scoring wasn't the only problem
the Rams faced against the Bears, who
won their third straight contest and raised their
division-leadingyecord to 2-0. Guards Dave
"Russell was about half-speed, and
without his scoring we are in trouble. "
- "Bighouse" Gaines
Lacy and Andre Sheppard combined for 41
points, including the Bears' last 26 in the win.
"We couldn't stop their guards near the end.
They just were too quick for us," moaned
Gaines. "You have to have an intimidator to
defense a guy like Sheppard and they didn't
throw the ball away."
Shaw Coach Warren Reynolds said the
Bears' strategy was to allow Sheppard and Lacy
to go one-on-one once the Rams went to a manto-man
defense. "We wanted them to play
man-to-man and, once they did," he said, "we
just isolated Sheppard or Lacy and let them go
one-on-one."
The ploy worked to perfection as Shaw, trailing
50-43 with 7:55 left, scored the game's next
sion Blacks Ou
_ i?
broadcasts more college basketball
network in the country.
I mean, there are times when yoi
jfair play. games in a single day on ESPN!
)o. When But while nearly all of the top t<
peatedly, ESPN, and even a lot of not-so-top t
leges do not. It ought not be that w
ision net- ESPN boldly claims that it has t!
tat ignore basketball schedule ever," but
ig basket- Carolina A&T? How about Alcorn S
pened to Howard University?
! is Enter- Household names those are not.
:twork -- basketball teams those are not. But
r\
I
olumns, Scores, Profiles, Predictions
*
PBB Aggies Demolish
In A Surprisingly
By ROBER T ELLER
North Carolina A&T turned what many thought would e
be a nail-biter into a rout last week at Corbett Arena,
clobbering Division I rival Alabama State 100-73. ?
Im *** Leading only 39-35 at the half, the Aggies steadily pull- t
ed away in the first 10 minutes of the second half, then (
K JSgSS
staged an imitation of Hnusmn'c Phi Qiamo
w a ill MIW1IIK J Ulllltia 111
the final seven minutes, getting seven dunks and turning a
the game into a runaway. f
Aggie Coach Don Corbett, who saw his team win its r
fourth straight game and up its record to 7-3, credited the
defense of Jimmy Brown on Alabama State star Lewis 4
Jackson for the second-half blitz. t
"We played defense in the second half," said Corbett. .
"We changed to a box-in-one on Jackson and Jimmy ,
(Brown) did a super job on him. He was their outside offense
and, once we stopped him, the game was ours." *
The margin of victory was extremely surprising, con- (
sidering the fact that the Hornets entered the game wjth a /
, 10-2 record, their only losses coming by six points each
on the road against nationally-ranked Tulsa and Arkansas.
An irate James Oliver, holder of the top winning f
percentage among active Division I coaches, blamed the n
officiating for the rout. "You don't worry about these
kinds of losses," Oliver said after the game. "The of- f
ficials in this game were a disgrace to basketball. They f
don't even know the rules." d
Despite Oliver's complaints, the fact is that the f
Hornets never led in the contest. They did forge ties at six
k. I /+ # and 22 during the opening half as forwards Jackson and n
K J?e Williams combined for 22 points. But the Aggies' u
tmM Mm Eric Boyd was on target from the outside and tallied 14 of si
his 24 points in the half. 7
4 TKa A ? 1
^1 l,v wamc uui nui in me eariy moments of the
second half and outscored the Hornets 10-4 over the first fl
HI- HBBUB three minutes to build a 49-39 lead. The closest Alabama 2i
State, which finished 22-6*?last year and played in the B
NIT, could get after that was 51-43 at the 15:37 mark. C
From that point on, the Aggies were in total control, si
.ewis Jackson even after star forward Joe Binion went to the bench with
his fourth foul at the 14:08 mark and his team up 55-43.
le Gets Away; Jpmh
i Tough A&T ?m0A
seven points, five by Sheppard, and a basket by
Lacy, to take the lead with 5:15 left.
After a Buck Mitchell basket gave the Rams
their last lead, Sheppard put the Bears back in ^^B IF?
the lead for good with Shaw's last field goal of ^^B
the ^^B ^HBB|j^H
Down the stretch the two combined to hit 11 B m I
of 12 free throws to assure the win. ^B
WSSU came back to nio Bowie State on
Playing without the services of Russell, the ^
Rams trailed 36-29 at the half and were down f
by as many as 15 in the final stanza before iJp
Rodger Mason and Eugene Pennick led the LJ|
comeback that produced the win.
-.Mason led the Rams with 19 points and Pen- J
nick added 15. Center Kevin Vaughn and sub
guard Larry Nance chipped in 10 points each.
As for next week's slate of games, WSSU
sandwiches its first of two meetings of the year
with archrival North Carolina A&T Wednesday,
Jan. 25, at Memorial (Coliseum with a road t
game at Fayetteville State Monday, a road ,,,:,
game at North Carolina Central Thursday and ....% m ffljj
a home game with Johnson C. Smith Saturday. &*"
in otner pivotal matchups involving CIAA V ^ ?
teams during the next week, Virginia Union **
plays at Hampton Institute and Shaw travels to Who Me?
N.C. Central Saturday. Hampton hosts the
still-struggling District of Columbia and Having been accused of a
Virginia Union entertains high-flying Norfolk seems to anticipate a stiff
State next Thursday. Kennedy beat Paisley 58-3
t Black Schools And Wh
games than any and Alcorn are members of Division I, which means
they are on the same official level with UCLA, North ot
i can waicn uve Carolina Mate and all the other hot-shot teams you E!
hear so much about. ? D
earns appear on We use the word "official," since there is no argueams,
black col- ing the fact that most of the lower-level Division I St
ay. basketball teams clearly are inferior to many of the tic
he "best college bigger schools. But that is not the point. wi
where's North _ While ESPN sees no harm in showing a North H
tate? What hap- Carolina-Dartmouth game, which is a lousy matchup,
it chooses to thumb its nose at a UCLA- so
Among the best Howard or'North Carolina State-North Carolina E5
Howard, A&T A&T.
^ /
"i
I
Alabama State,
Lopsided Affair
Alabama State shot better than 55 percent from the
'ield for the game while the Aggies hit only 46.5 percent.
Jut that was not enough to make up for A&T's 52-28
:dge in rebounding.
"The kind of shot selection they were taking put us in
;ood rebounding position," said Corbett of the huge
>oard ^advantage turned in by his smaller squad. But
31jyfer saw another reason for the rebounding disparity.
"A&T was allowed to push and shove under the basket
md we weren't allowed to get physical back with them,"
le said, still steaming. Oliver added that the Aggies are - lot
the caliber of team that Ark ancac nnH Tnlca ar*?
4 4 A&T is* now here close to those teams," he said.
4They have a good team and they may be the third-best
earn we have played this year but they aren't thirty
"We played defense in the second half. We
hanged to a box-in-one on Jackson and Jimmy
Brown) did a super job on him.: Once we stopfed
him, the game was ours. "
- A&T Coach Don Corbett
>oints better than we are. With the officials they used, I'll
lever come up here to play another game."
Corbett was a little more generous in his praise for the
lornets, since his club must visit Montgomery Feb. 6 to
ace the SWAC power at its place. "We played consistent
lefense and they may have gotten a little tired and
rustrated in the last eight minutes," he said.
The Hornets certainly looked tired in the final eight
linutes. Binion re-entered the contest at the 8:12 mark
dth the Aggies up 66-55. Brown's dunk, the second of
ix in the final seven and a half minutes, upped the lead to
6-55.
The Aggies went to their bench at that point but the
lood gates were already open. James Horace, who had
A - -
u points and 11 rebounds on the night, sub guard Brian
ooker and Binion added dunks before little-used guard
>uane Williams brought the house down with a driving
am for a 97-67 bulge with J: 15 left on the clock.
The Aggie fans then began calling for the century mark
Please see page B4
Jp ;^::
i personal foul, Paisley High's Rhonda Jones
sentence during a 9-10 girls basketball game.
>4 (photo by James Parker).
y It Shouldn Y 1
Can one lousy matchup be any worse than the
her? What this column would like to see is for
5PN to simply toss a bone in the direction of black
ivision I clubs. Just one or two a year.
Granted, Florida A&M against South Carolina
ate probably would not be a very good draw for na>nal
television. But Texas Southern-Kansas, which
as not televised, is no worse a draw than Seton
all-Fordham, which was.
All this column asks is that the networks show
me compassion, some fairness. Seeing as how
5PN will show more than 150 college games this
Please see page B4