Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Jan. 19, 2006, edition 1 / Page 23
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The Pendulum SPORTS Thursday, January 19, 2006 • Page 23 This is week one of "The Pendulum" sports predic tions. Each week the panel will test out their sports expertise against each other. The winner will be named at the end of the semester. NCAA Basketball Nathan Rode Editor in Chief 0-0 Mike Vivenzio Columnist 0-0 Justiii Hite Sports Editor 0-0 James Schlucter Reporter 0-0 Brian Paglia Reporter 0-0 Bryan Jones WSOE Sports 0-0 Syracuse vs. Villanova Connecticut vs. Louisville West Virginia vs. UCLA Florida vs. Tennessee Duke vs. Georgetown Virginia Tech vs. Maryland Wake Forest vs. NC State Villanova Connecticut West Virginia Florida Duke Maryland NC State Villanova Connecticut UCLA Tennessee Duke Maryland NC State Villanova Connecticut West Virginia Florida Duke Virginia Tech NC State Villanova Connecticut West Virginia Florida Duke Virginia Tech NC State Villanova Connecticut West Virginia Florida Duke Maryland NC State Villanova Connecticut West Virginia Florida Duke Maryland NC State mmimi iii^iiiiiimiii iiiimiimiiii imiiniifi ||||||||H[||[||||| Carolina vs. Seattle Seattle Carolina Seattle Carolina Seattle Carolina Pittsburgh vs. Denver Pittsburgh Denver Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Denver Men’s Basketball vs. Furman Women’s Basketball vs. Furman Elon Elon Elon Elon Elon Elon Elon Elon Elon Elon Elon Elon Lady Phoenix look to climb, men’s team at the top rung Mike Deye and James Schlucter Reporters Women’s The Phoenix got off to a slow start in Southern Conference play by losing three of their first four games against divisional foes. However, with back-to-back wins against Wofford and the College of Charleston, the Phoenix are proving them selves in a conference with much parity. Last year, the Phoenix struggled as they stumbled to a second to last place finish in the Southern Conference, The Phoenix are off to a 3-3 start in the conference. Already matching last year’s win total in the confer ence, they are hoping to recover from last season’s woes. Red-shirt sophomore forward Kitara McMoore has been a major part of the team’s success throughout the first five con ference games, leading the team with 17.6 points and 11 rebounds per game. Perhaps more impressively, McMoore is second on the team in assists in conference play, trail ing only point-guard Tierra Bumbrey. “(McMoore) is our go to player,” coach Brenda Paul said. McMoore understands that the team feeds off of her success in the post. Her abil ity to score, rebound and pass makes her a unique all-around threat from the paint. This season is a change from last year. The next three conference games will cer tainly test the Phoenix as they look to improve on their 3-3 conference record. “(This year) we’re in the games and we have chances to win,” Paul said. The Phoenix will host Furman and UNC- Greensboro, then travel to Chattanooga for one of their toughest match ups of the year. Furman is among the top teams in the SoCon, ranked second in the standings. Chattanooga has won every regular season SoCon championship this decade. UNC-G is traditionally a hard fought rivalry game; however, that game should be the least chal lenging game of the upcoming conference schedule. Men’s After starting the season out 2-9 in their first 11 games, it looked like the Elon men’s basketball team might be headed for a year similar to their 8-23 campaign in 2004-2005. During their nine losses, Elon was outscored by an average of 16.8 points per game. Since then. Coach Emie Nestor has turned things around for his basketball team, who currently sits atop the Southem Conference in sole possession of first place with a 4-0 record. It all started when Elon got an impressive out of conference win at Clemson, 74-69, on Dec. 30. In that game, Elon had five players notch double digits in scoring and held Qemson to just 35 percent shooting from the field. “We aren’t the type of team that can come Laura Hals/ Photographer Brian Waters and the Phoenix dispatched the UNC-G Spartans in "The Nest" during their most recent win, knocking off the Spartans 62-56 in front of a sellout crowd. out and impose our will on people,” Nestor said. “We have certain things we do and we have to do those things to be good.” Elon needed their big win against an ACC team to provide momentum as they headed into their first chunk of the Southem Conference schedule. With the help of two juniors, Montell Watson and Chris Chalko, Elon won their first four conference games by an average of eight points or more. Watson, who only averaged 4.6 points and less than two assists per game last year, has poured in 53 points and dished out 16 assists in confer ence play. Chalko leads the team in scoring and has netted 62 points and pulled down 21 rebounds in his four conference games. The Phoenix will play ten straight confer ence games to finish out the season before the Southem Conference Toumament in March. The players are happy to get off to such a strong start in conference play. In their next four games, they play one undefeated team and three teams all with a record of 3-1. “It’s such a good thing to start 4-0,” Watson said. “There are so many good teams in our conference and every night is a big game.” Contact Mike Deye and James Schlucter at pendulum@elon.edu or 278-7247.
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