Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Jan. 17, 2002, edition 1 / Page 13
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The Choice for African-American Sen's The Chronicle SportsWeek ?^>pp" Photo by Bruce Chapman Shaun Alexander leads Winston-Salem State with a 20 point scoring average. Rams rebound with wins, facing tough CIAA slate From The Press Box ^ Sam Davis SALISBURY - Two key divisional victories last week helped coach Philip Stitt gel his Win ston-Salem State basketball team hack in line for a run at the C1AA Western Division title and No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. The Rams knocked St. Augustine's from the unbeat en ranks last Tuesday night and then came through with an 81-65 victory over home-stand ing Livingstone last Saturday night. WSSU's victory over St. Augustine's at the Gaines Center sent a message to conference foes that wins in the Rams' house will be hard to come by again this season and that WSSU is still the team to beat in the division. The Rams had their eight-game winning streak snapped in their previous game, against Lincoln University, but went back to their staple of strong defense to capture consecutive wins in.jheir divisional bat tles. Last week's schedule was the beginning of an important stretch for the Rams if they expect to reach their goal of making the NCAA Divi sion H's Elite Eight this season. This week the Rams travel to Shaw on Thursday night and will play host to St. Paul's on Saturday night before squaring off against J.C. Smith in Charlotte on Sunday. Thursday night's game will be perhaps the most important of the season for the Rams. Shaw is the league's only team ranked in Division II's top 25. The Bears are expected to be WSSU's chief competition for a tournament title and will likely go in as the No. I seed from the Eastern Division heading into the conference See Press Box on B3 Shellby sparks Lady Rams to victory over Livingstone BY SAM DAVIS THF. CHRONin .F. SALISBURY - Lori Shellby gave Winston-Salem State's, women a big boost in her first action of the season, and the Rams held on for a key divi sional victory over Livingstone last Saturday night. Shellby, a point guard, from Joliel, III., dished out nine assists, scored II points, had four steals and made four clutch free throws in the final minutes to boost WSSU to a 91 -8Jy victory. Shellby's penetration into the heart of Livingstone's defense set up her team mates for open shots. Tiffany Whitted was the benefici ary of most of Shellby's assists. Whit ted scored a game-high 24 points on 10 of 19 shooting from the field and also added a team-high 16 rebounds. Fresh man LaShonda Horton also did dam age inside. She scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds. When Shellby wasn't passing off to teammates inside the paint, she dished off to teammates waiting along the perimeter. One of those was Aleltha Corpening, who came off the bench to score 20 points. Corpening was'eight of 15 from the field, including fopr of eight from beyond the 3-point arc. WSSU started slowly but picked up stearfPin the first half. The Lady Rams took a little while to get acclimated to the play of Shellby, who saw many of her passes either dropped or mishan dled by her teammates in the first half. WSSU made only 14 of 38 shots from the field but still managed to stay close and trailed by only 1, 37-36, at the half. In the second half. Shellby picked up her game and scored nine of her 11 points. WSSU also saw its field goal percentage increase dramatically. The See Lady Rams on B2 Tiffany Whitted of Win ston-Salem State scored a team-high 24 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in a 91-81 victory over Living stone. Mustangs' 'Tower of Power' Parkland''s McCandies quietly, but steadily, polishing his game BY SAM DAVIS Till: CHRONICLE , ? The diamond in the rough that fell into the lap of the Parkland basketball program is developing into a polished gem for the Mus tangs as they get into the meat of their basket ball schedule. Phillip McCandies, the Mustangs' 6-8 piv otman. is displaying the types of skills that coach Mike Pennington recognized in McCan dies when he moved into the Parkland district before his sophomore season. McCandies has been the team's most con sistent player on the court through the early pan of the season. He is averaging 17 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots per game. Those averages have helped Parkland start the season with a 7-4 overall record and 3-0 mark in the Piedmont Triad 3-A Conference. "He's playing really well for upright now," Pennington said. "His defense has always been good and he's done some things on his own to make himself a better offensive player. Right now that is really the difference in his game." Always a self-motivated and bright student, McCandies put in some extra work during the summer to put his game on the top level of high school players. That work, which included adding 25 pounds of muscle to his frame, working on his ball handling and. perimeter shooting, has paid off. During the early signing period. McCandies signed a scholarship to play for Virginia Tech next season. Pepnington believes that McCandies' work ethic will allow him to play in the top-level Division I program. 'The thing about Phillip is that he has worked really hard to play at the Big Hast level," Pennington said. "They're going to expect him to play the 3 or 4 position, and he's got the skills to do that. Right now he does a lot of those things, but we don't have the size to let him play outside. He's able to put the ball on the floor, and his range goes out to about 17-18 So Parkland B2 mm - *?' # * Phqto by Bruce Chapman Phillip McCandies has improved in each of his three seasons with Parkland and recently signed a scholarship to play at Virginia Tech next season. New Livingstone coach putting pieces of program back together BY SAM DAVIS THE CHRONICLE SALISBURY - With the signing date for high school seniors less than a month away, coach George Johnson of Livingstone College real izes that he and his staff have much to do between now and then. Johnson, the former defen sive coordinator at Tuskegee University, said the Blue Bears have some major work to do to get the program back to its sta tus as one of the CIAA's best. But in time he believes he can get the Livingstone program to the level where it was during its back-to-back conference championship seasons of 1997 and 1998. To do that, Johnson said the Blue Bears have to make inroads with coaches in North Carolina, South Carolina and Yirginia. Since assuming his position on Jan. 7, Johnson has hit the ground running. "We have some friends in this area, but we know the key for our success is getting in with the players in this area," said Johnson, an Alabama A&M graduate. "We could have worked with some of the kids that we had contacted down in the area where we came from, but we want the parents *to be able to be involved in the program. To do that we need to concentrate on getting kids from this area." See Livingstone on B3 f'M Tonia Brown; shown here in on earlier game this season, scored a career-high 28 points last Thursday to lead Wake Forest over Florida State. Tonia Brown s 28 points leads Lady Deacs to win ' BY SAM DAVIS THE CHRONICLE Tonia Brown had the biggest game of her career at Wake Forest, scoring 28 points, but it was her defense that helped give the Lady Deacons their first ACC victory of the season. Brown came through with two big defensive plays down the stretch to help boost Wake Forest to a 77-73 victory over Florida State last Thurs day night at Lawrence Joel Coliseum. Brown did most of her damage in the first "Rait when she connected on five of eight , 3-pointers and scored 21 points to boost Wake to a 34-27 half time lead. She made only one 3-pointer in the second half. but her teammates supplied ehough support to help the Deacons maintain control of the game. Brown's best play came after Florida State made a run to tie the game at 68-68. After holding Wake without a score, the Seminoles had the ball on the break with an opportunity to take the lead for the first time in the second half. But Brown stole the ball, went the length of the court and scored on a layup to give Wake a 70 68 leaB that it never relin quished. Later. Florida State cut the gap to 72-69 with 2:23 remaining and had the chance to cut further into the lead. Brown forced a held ball. A,., Lady Deacons im B2 ^ 1?l_j mbffkps bea* ? mastercard, visa and amimummxpress accbptseggjg^
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Jan. 17, 2002, edition 1
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