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The Pilot Wednesday, March 19, 2008 Page A5 k ■m Lady Bulldogs fall in Atlantic Sun semifinals Sports By Lanny Newton Pilot sports writer Gardner-Webb women’s basketball team defeated No. 6 Campbell in the quarter finals for the third straight year, this time in a 57-56 nail-biter. With the victory they advanced to face No.2 Jack sonville, but were unable to carry on their success, losing 68-57. “We finished with 12 [turnovers] and that’s pretty good. Our team goal is no more than 15,” said Head Coach Rick Reeves after the Campbell game. After averaging around 21 turnovers a game on the season, the Lady Bulldogs performed with stellar ef ficiency to achieve the win against Campbell. This was especially important as Gardner-Webb went cold in the second half, but was able to limit itself to three -turn overs in the last 20 minutes of play. Leading the way of offen sively for the Bulldogs was Laura Povilonyte with 13 points, while Monique Hud son and Margaret Roundtree both contributed 11. Roundtree had a game- high nine rebounds, while lone senior Latoya Carter and Povilonyte both chipped in five boards for the Lady Dawgs. Dominique Hudson, Mo nique Hudson and Meranda Burnett dished out three as sists apiece while only turn ing it over one time each. “We got stagnant on of fense [in the second half,] and our offense has a lot Lady Dawgs getting on track By Blake DuDonis Pilot sports writer Gardner-Webb’s wom en’s tennis team won Friday 7-0 against North Greenville, after losing to Kennesaw State 3-4 on March 8. In the 7-0 sweep of North Greenville, the Lady Bull dogs outclassed their oppo nents, with the most games given up by one Bulldog be ing 3. Number one seed Laura Kriett won 6-1, 6-2, with two and three seeds Jenny Go mez and Rita Gouveia win ning 6-0, 6-1 and 6-0, 6-0, respectively. Monica Walser, Amy Bea ver and Allie Mills rounded Men’s basketball team bounced in A- Sun semis By Jacob Conley Pilot sports editor There is an old saying about the month of March; It comes in tike a lion and goes out like a lamb. On March’s opening weekend Gardner- Webb’s Atlantic-Sun tourna ment experience mirrored the old adage. The Bulldogs came roar ing back from a halftime deficit to defeat Stetson 82- 63 before losing a contested game to the Dolphins of Jacksonville 89-80. “You have to bring your ‘A’ game every night in the tournament,” said GWU Head Coach Rick Scruggs. “Jacksonville had a great game plan and we got what we deserved.” The Dolphin’s game plan proved effective as the Bull dogs fell behind from the opening tip and never could recover. “We dug our own hole,” said senior Thomas Sanders. “We did not come out strong or fast enough and they took advantage of it.” Two stats were prominent in the sluggish start: turn overs and frigid shooting. GWU had 10 turnovers in the first half while hitting only two 3-point field goals. Bulldogs send two wrestlers to the NCAAs By Lanny Newton Pilot sports writer of movement to it,” said Reeves. “We made a lot of young mistakes ... the best thing about freshmen is they turn into sophomores.” Gardner-Webb put up an excellent fight against Jack sonville, shooting 40.4 per cent from the field for the game, and was perfect from the foul line in the second half The Bulldogs did com mit 21 turnovers, however, and allowed 17 points off of those. Once again Povilo nyte led the team in scoring, with 17 points, as Roundtree added 10. Roundtree and Burnett each finished with 6 boards to lead the team and Burnett served up a game- high six assists as well. The Lady Bulldogs got off to a quick start as they hit three of their first six shots to take an early 8-6 lead off of a converted old-fashioned 3- point play by Povilonyte. The teams then proceed ed to trade baskets until two free throws by Burnett tied the game, for the final time, at 12 apiece with 14:06 left in the first half. Jacksonville .stretched the lead out as wide as 29- 20 with 2:55 left to play in the first half, but GWU went on a 12-2 run over the next 4:34 to take a 1-point lead at the 18:21 mark in the second half With the next possession the Dolphins took the lead for the final time, responding to every attempt Gardner-Webb made to retake the lead. The team returns 12 play ers next year as it moves into its new home in the Big South Conference. Gardner-Webb battled hard at the East regional championships and was able to place two wrestlers in the NCAA championships, which will be held this weekend in St. Louis. Dustin Porter won the 197-lb. weight class and Edward McCray was selected as the region’s wildcard berth to the tourna ment. Overall the team placed second with 67.5 team points, despite not competing at the 133-lb. class. “We had hoped to qualify a few more guys than what we did,” said Head Coach Scott Shipman. “Dustin’s done a real good job ... [Eddie McCray] has had 12 matches, and he has been able to put his opponent on their back in every one of those matches.” Tommy Bennett started things off with a 8-0 major decision in the semifi nals of the 125-lb. weight class. He was unable to continue the success, though, as he was pinned at tlu^09 majl|j^ Duquesne’s Jonathan IBinger i^PPe championship. At the 141 weight class Chas Franz had a roller-coaster ride, being pinned in the opening round before bouncing back to pin his opponent in the consola tion bracket, after which he was pinned in the third-place match. The 149 event saw McCray repre sent Gardner-Webb as an unseeded en trant. He started things off right as he pinned Liberty’s Colon Lewis in a min ute before facing off against No.l Matt Cathell in the semifinals. Cathell won 16-6, sending McCray into the consola tion bracket. McCray finished out the tournament with a 9-1 victory over Patrick Larkin of Wagner and pinning Lewis at the 5:45 mark for third place. He was given the wild card berth from the region by the coaches of the various teams. After an 8-3 opening-round loss, Austin Reece won the decision over Sean Quinn of Wagner to move on to the third-place game at 157. In a hard- fought battle, Reece lost 2-0. At 165, Brendan Couture dominated his first round match, pinning his oppo nent in 3:51 to move on to face Liber ty’s Chad Porter, who sent him to the consolation bracket via a 13-5 major decision. Couture tore through the consola tion bracket, pinning Wagner’s Lau rence Peotter at the 2:33 mark before taking a 5-1 decision over Dave Morey of Millersville for third place. Chad Davis took out Kyle Skinner of Delaware State in the opening round at 174 via a pin at the 4:52 mark. Mill- ersville’s Jeremy Brooks scraped out a 4-3 victory over Davis, though, send ing the GWU senior to the consolation bracket. Davis took up his displeasure over this by pinning Peter Morano of Wagner in 3:34, before winning the third-place match 2-0 over Skinner. Matthias Piasecki opened up against the No.l seed Christopher Daggett of Liberty at 184, who sent him to the con solation bracket via a fall. Piasecki was forced to forfeit the third-place match for medical reasons. Dustin Porter earned the other NCAA bid for Gardner-Webb by domi nating at the 197 weight class for the second consecutive year. His first victim was Shawn Nowrey of Delaware State, whom he defeated 4- 0. Next up was Liberty’s Nick Knowles who Porter gained a major decision over 8-0. In the final Raymond Bennet of Millersville was unable to stop Porter as he took a 10-7 victory for the Bulldogs. Evan Rhodes lost to Joseph D’orsie 7-4 in the first round of the heavy weight division. Rhodes then defeated John Graeffe of Wagner with a pin in the consolation bracket before facing D’orsie again for the third-place match, which he lost 10-4. “[Chad Davis and Brendan Couture] are going to be missed. They both have made tremendous commitments to this program over the years,” said Ship- man. Gardner-Webb loses only two start ers to graduation as Couture and Davis finished out their careers. Davis finished 31-14 in his senior campaign and 74-68 for his career. Couture finished his injury-ridden se nior season with 13 wins and had 28 in his career. Mac to battle for national mascot title out the top six with decisive wins from all three. The ladies also won all of their double matches, finish ing out a great win for the team. Beavers is now on an eight-match win streak, the longest on the team. She kept that alive with the win Fri day, but she also won against Kennesaw State. Unfortu nately, the team could not get the overall win that day. Gouveia and Kriett were the only other two Bulldogs who joined Beavers in the win column in the competi tion against Kennesaw State. The team also defeated Mercer March 6 by a score of 5-2. "We dug our own hole. We did not come out strong or fast enough and they took advantage of it.” Thomas Sanders By Rebecca Clark Pilot editor Mac the Bulldog, Gard ner-Webb University’s mas cot, will travel to Daytona, Fla., this spring to compete in the Mascot Nationals, a part of National Cheerleader Association events. Fred Adkins, the guy who brings the mascot tojfr'e, has already qualified ^Hte April 10 competition wUh a winning video entry. The video, “Mac Travels Through Time,” is based on the premise that Mac discov ers the ability to time travel by touching a magic bone, Adkins said. Mac travels back in time to 1882 and beats the Ken tucky Wildcats 68-84. He then goes to 1977 and beats Buzz from Georgia Tech at disco danciiig. His fin^^p takes him into 2008, flve the story continues at~Na- tionals when he’ll perform a skit live on stage. Adkins said the entire video production cost about $300. He built his own props at his home in Virginia, and had help filming it. This will be GWU’s first national championship bid. Not only will Adkins rep resent the university, but he will also fulfill a personal goal. “This event coming up on April 10 has been 12 years in the making for me,” he said. mmm Photo by Kate Gazaway MacLpovorts with the cheerleaders in Paul Porter Arena. competition is an other thing Adkins can add to his resume. A mascot since 1996, he plans to continue his career after graduating from GWU. He plans to teach the “rules of the road” of being a mascot at high school sum mer camps this year. Adkins said that the best part of being Mac is that “I get to find a very specific skill in every aspect of what I do.” He twirls the flag with the marching band, dances, does cheerleading moves and can even play the piano in char acter. “I get to do one thing re ally cool in every aspect of what I do,” he said. “It makes a mascot look like he can do anything.” An un pleasant part of be ing a mascot, particularly in summer, is the heat. Adkins said the rule is that it’s 35o hotter inside the character than the outside temperature. “Even 60o is still 95o in character," he said. And be sure to get the mascot terminology correct. Character is the official term for the mascot. “A suit is something you wear to church, and a cos tume is something you wear for Halloween,” he said. He said it is a basic rule that he attend all basketball and football games. “Everything else is kind of left up to me,” he said, though he does make ev ery effort to attend as many events as possible, including Dawg Days, outside events and charity work. “It’s publicity for the school,” he said. “The mas cot is the cartoon version of the school.” Softball Bulldogs disappointed in Adidas tournament However, Sanders’ 17 first-half points kept GWU in the game before a bizarre sequence of plays. Trailing by 14 in the clos ing minutes of the first half, Brandon Jackson drove the lane and was hammered by a JU player. An intentional foul was whistled but then Jackson was called for a technical foul. Jackson missed the ensu ing foul shots while JU made both of its attempts. The Dol phins then hit a half-court shot to push the lead to 19 at halftime. In the second half, Jack sonville continued to build the lead, which grew to as much as 21 before the Bull dogs cut it down. “Obviously you’re hoping for a miracle at that point,” said Scruggs. “We did every thing we could at the end. We just ran out of time.” By Lanny Newton Pilot sports writer Gardner-Webb’s softball team had a tough weekend at the Winthrop Univer sity Adidas Invitational T^namen^^ The Bulldogs dropnwll foi^^’ their games against Memphis Univer sity, Providence College, Furman Uni versity and UNC Charlotte. “We were very disappointed with the entire tournament, from the stand point that we felt going in that it was a tournament we could very easily win,” said Head Coach Tom Cole. In its second Big East game of the season the softball team didn’t fare as well, falling 4-1 against Providence on Saturday. It started off the tournament against Memphis losing 2-1 in a heart- breaker, before taking on Furman in af ternoon. The game against Charlotte dropped the team’s record to 9-15 on the year. Although they took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, UNC Charlotte ral lied to a 3-2 decision. Kelly Linsley led off the bottom of the first with a single, but UNC Char lotte was able to get the next two batters out. Into this situation Mandy Ward launched a two-run jack over the fence to. give Gardner-Webb an early lead. UNC Charlotte was able to come back, off a solo home run of their own, in the fourth and took the lead in the sixth. “Mandy Ward’s been playing great the whole year. She’s been doing an ex ceptional job behind the plate and with her stick she’s a big hitter, a clutch hit ter, hitting for percentage,” said Cole. “Lindsay Cox finally got on base a couple times. She’s been struggling the whole season and 1 give her credit because she has a positive outlook, she keeps fighting, she keeps persevering and she got a couple hits against UNC Charlotte.” Cox went two-for-three with two singles. Ward went two-for-two with a single and a home run. She also drew a walk and had two RBIs. Cindy Boomhower took the loss de spite giving up only three runs and only one of them being earned. She also pitched a complete game with a strike out as her ERA improved to 2.27. “Cindy Boomhower’s big for us from the standpoint that she’s been sick virtually the entire year. She came out yesterday and it was the first game she, started and she did an exceptional job,” said Cole. The Lady Bulldogs start conference play at ETSU Friday before coming home to play a doubleheader against Lipscomb on Saturday. That starts at 1 p.m. and continues at 3 p.m. Men’s tennis has busy week facing 3 opponents on road By Blake DuDonis Pilot sports writer The team is on a three- game road trip, playing Asheville Tuesday, Erskine Thursday and Longw^|l Friday, after a 3-4 defea^F Jacksonville Saturday. Gardner-Webb’s men ten nis team pulled out a close one March 6 against Mercer, winning 4-3. The Bulldogs fell behind early, losing all three doubles ma^^s, but when it came to singBfthe team turned it on. Evgeny Slesarev won at the Number One spot, a thing almost expected for the Rus sian-born player. The same rang true for Andrew Veeder, who de feated his opponent 6-4. 6-3. Rafael Altmayer had to battle back after falling in the first set, and battle he did, win ning two straight sets for the victory from the Number Four spot. Carlos Quijano and Grant Van Rensburg both fell in hard-fought battles, so senior Taylor F errier finished off the Bears in a thrilling victory by a score of 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.
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