Page 7
Lady Rams Basketball Update
By Kenneth Raymond
Sports Editor
Under the guidance of Head Coach Sten-
son Conley, the Lady Rams are about to
finish their season after having earned the
respect from the other teams in their con
ference’s.
VS, J.C SMITH
The Lady Rams were standing upon a
recording of 7-7 the night they hosted
Johnson C. Smith at the Winston-Salem
Memorial Coliseum. When the night was
over the Lady Rams had won their eighth
victory of the season.
The Lady Rams had a rough time keep
ing the inside game of the Bulls under con
trol. Coach Steve Joyner received a good
game his starting forward and center
Caryl Hardin and Cassandra Howell led
the way from the inside. Howell scored 14
points and pulled down 13 rebounds. Har
din, the other front court threat for the
Bulls, scored i:: points and ended up with
eight rebounds for the game.
Providing the outside game for Johnson
C. Smith was 5’3” Sandra McCraken and
5’6” Arlene Montgomery. McCraken and
Montgomery combined their shooting
skills against the Lady Rams, but their ef
forts were in vain. The Rams’ defense held
the Bulls to a 30% field goal percentage
and caused 16 turnovers late in the second
half,
Carolyn Huntley, Keenan Menefee, and
Nevayta Strother led the team in steals.
Huntley was successful in penetrating the
zone defense in the second half and was
also an outside threat. The rest of the out
side shooting was done by 5’10” Belinda
H., 5’8” Keenan Menefee and 5’10”
Nevayta Strother.
Menefee pulled down six rebounds and
poured in 19 points that evening. She was
not only an outside force for the Rams, but
an inside force as well. She also con
tributed to the Rams’ running game. She
made it a point to be on the receiving end
of the fastbreaks on several occasions.
But in order for a fastbreak to begin so
meone has to get the rebounds. Nevayta
Strother bore most of the burden in this
area of the game for the Rams. Strother
made her presence known by out reboun
ding everyone by snatching 17 rebounds
and adding 16 points on top of them.
Strother was in no way intimidated by the
presence of Carlyn Hardin and Cassandra
Howell and provided the inside game
necessary to help the Rams defeat the
Golden Bulls of Johnson C. Smith 67-56.
VS. NCCU
The Lady Rams had to fight to another
one at the C.E. Gaines Center where the
Rams hosted the Eagles of North Carolina
Central University. It was a battle from
start to finish, but the Lady Rams came up
with the win 87-80.
Bearing most of the burden for the
Eagles from the inside were forward Mona
McLauren and center Dee Solomon.
McLauren and Solomon combined for 45 of
the 80 points of the Eagles that evening.
McLauren and Solomon, also giving the
Eagles a good outside game, took advan
tage of the Rams’ inability to keep them
off the boards; many of their points were
the result of going for the offensive re
bounds and following their own shots. Both
McLauren and Solomon pulled down 12 re
bounds each. The Eagles outrebounded the
Lady Rams in the game, as a team, 61 to
33.
Also contributing from the outside for
the Eagles were Robin Brooks and Jackie
Pinnik. Brooks scored 10 points for the
evening and Pinnik scored 12 points.
The Lady Rams played a zone defense
throughout most of the game to force the
Eagles into taking the outside shots while
the Eagles favored the ma'n-to-man
defense. Although the Rams did cause the
Eagles to take the outside shots, it did not
stop their inside game; however, the
defense of the Rams did cause 22 turnovers
for the Eagles.
Both teams played carelessly on offense
from the inside. With 7:52 left in the first
half. Strother went down with an injury but
did not stay down. She got up and con
tinued to play. Strother ended up with 14
points and eight rebounds.
Contributing to the running game of the
Rams was Belinda Howard. Howard prov
ed that she is more than an inside player
by getting free on the fastbreak whenever
the Eagles would use their full court press.
Howard scored 17 points and had four re
bounds
With 10:35 to go in the first half, Carolyn
Huntley went down with an injury. After
being carried off the floor, she was replac
ed by Monica Roberts. The Rams did not
suffer because of the loss of their starting
Belinda Howard demonstrates the “perfect form”
for Robin Brooks of NCCU.
as the Rams and the Eagles were engaged
in a series of turnovers early in the second
half.
No one person had to uphold the inside
game of the Rams. Heach Coach Stenson
Conley received, somewhat, balanced
scoring from his inside people Keenan
Menefee, Nevayta Strother and Belinda
Howard. Menefee, always good from the
outside as well as inside, scored 18 points
and pulled down 5 rebounds. The Eagles
had a hard time stopping her from
penetrating their defense for layups.
Nevayta Strother, always a force to be
reckoned with, leaned upon her outside
shooting whenever she could not convert
Women's
CIAA
Basketball
Tournament
Feb. 15 - 19
point guard. Roberts came off the bench
and led the Lady Rams in scoring with 20
points and four rebounds. Roberts,
shooting well from the outside, also helped
the inside game of the Rams as well by
penetrating the Eagles defense and
dishing off the ball or taking it in herself.
Taking up the slack from the outside for
the Lady Rams was Annette Huntley.
Huntley finished the night with 11 points
and six rebounds to give the Lady Rams
the performance needed to defeat the
“Eagles of North Carolina Central 87-80.
Hayes
constantly
recruiting
continued from page 6
could feed them a lot better, ana we couia
entertain them a lot better,” he stated.
10 reach players that live m areas that
wouldn’t allow him to travel to or allow the
individual to visit the campus due to the
lack of money. Coach Hayes would bring
the campus to the individual by sending
him pictures and slides of the school to his
home or his high school.
This year the money that has been
available has allowed him to travel as far
as New York to the north. South Carolina
to the south, and Michigan to the mid-west.
Coach Hayes is very grateful towards
those students here at Winston-Salem
State University who have helped him to
recruit. “Every year I usually send ques-
tionaires and polls to a lot of our freshmen
for the best talent in their high schools," he
said. “I get a lot of names of outstanding
players from our students.”
However, there are some students who
would make negative comments about the
school’s faculty, the food, or the school in
general towards one of the coaches
recruits and it would cause him to change
his mind about attending Winston-Salem
State University. These students would
make these comments with very little
regard, if any at all, to how much time, ef
fort, and money that has been spent to just
get that person to visit the campus. “I
could visit a young man at his home, I
could talk to his parents, and I could have
him 90% sold on Winston-Salem State.”
said Hayes. “Everything could be in mo
tion for him to come to Winston-Salem
State and he could hear one thing from a
student, and that would destroy all of the
hard work, travel and money that was
spent.” ~
Coach Hayes would prefer to have the
help of the students to recruit, but if
anyone does not want to help he would
rather they would not hurt the recruiting
process by influencing the prospects into
not attending Winston-Salem State.
Football seasons, basketball seasons
and baseball seasons may come and go;
but the one season that does not draw a
great number of people into the stadiums,
coliseums and parks-the recruiting
season-never ends for the football staff of
Winston-Salme State University.