I I VII I 4 I 111
CIAA WOMEN
Cinderella
By ROBERT ELLER
Staff Writer
Upstart North Carolina Central, a
team that finished dead lasr in The
CIAA Southern Division, completed
its Cinderella story in the CIAA tournament,
proving that the glass slipper
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Virginia State for the school's firstever
women's tournament title.
NCCU, which entered the event with
a 9-17 regular-season record, knocked
off Hampton, the second-seeded team,
in the first round, 8CK76, followed by a
94-89 win over Winston-Salem State,
the South's third seed and a victory
over Shaw , the South's top seed, 74-61,
in the semifinals.
Virginia State was the third-seeded
team in the North.
Even jubiliant Coach Yvonne Edwards,
in her second season at Central
after leaving Fayetteville State, admitted
she was surprised by her team's
performance.
"When we entered the tournament,
realistically, I didn't think we had a
chance to go all the way," she said,
"but after we beat Hampton, I was
confident we would reach the finals.
Tonight I just told the girls that 1 felt
that, if we played as hard as we could
for 40 minutes, we would win, and that
is just what they did."
With defending national champion
Virginia Union bumped off in the
semifinals by Virginia State, 65-63, the
Trojans were heavy favorites to claim
the title for the first time since 1980,
when Leon Bay was at the helm.
The Lady Eagles jumped to an early
15-9 lead, but Virginia State countered
with six unanswered points to go up by
one. The lead then changed hands five
times ana tne teams were tiea on six
other occasions before the Lady Trojans
scored the first, half's last seven
points to take a 44-37 lead at intermission.
Virginia State held a slim lead until a
three-point play by Central's Jackie
Pinnix tied the score at 68 with 7:36 remaining,
then took the lead for good,
74-72, at the 4:47 mark on a basket by
Priscilla Herring. Central went on to
win 92-87.
"I feel super," said Edwards in a
post-game interview. "This is my first
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but never made the finals. When we
came on the floor for tonight's game
and 1 realized I'd never been here
before, it made me extremely nervous
and that usually.doesn't happen to me
before a game."
The Lady Eagles, 13-17 after the
win, earned an automatic berth to the
NCAA Division I! playoffs with the title
and were scheduled to take on Radford
College in regional action in West
Page 16-March, 1984
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Central's Deidra Solomon fires a j
Virginia.
Edwards said her team would be
ready to play despite being decided
underdogs again.
"This team didn't have any tourney
experience coming into this and we
won't let the fact that we don't have
NCAA experience bother us going into
that tournament," she said. "The key
to our success in the tournament has
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umper over Virginia State (photo by
been defense and execution of our offense."
Edwards also defended her team
against those who would call it lucky.
"We have average players who worked
extra hard," she said. "We would have
been ready to play any team in the
league, and we weren't lucky. We just
played good basketball and jelled at
the end."
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Virginia Union Coach Lou Hearn
said he hoped his team would receive
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tourney. "I don't see how they can
keep us out," he said. "We're the
defending champs, won our division
and only lost three games this season.
It's not our fault that we didn't play a
large number of games. Other teams
were just afraid to schedule us."