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VOLUME 97 - NUMBER 17
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2018
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENT!
NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY
NCCU Eagles
Win Second
Consecutive
MEAC Basketball
Tournament
Championship
NORFOLK, Va. - North Carolina Central University is
heading back to the NCAA To.urnament after knocking off' top-
seeded Hampton, 71-63 in a hard-fought MEAC Championship
game at Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.
• This is NCCU’s (19-15) third MEAC Tournament
Championship in the past five years, and the Eagles are now 3-0
in MEAC Championship games.
The Eagles and Hampton (17-15) went back-and-forth in
the first half, and NCCU was propelled by Pablo Rivas (Colon,
Panama) who put in 11 points. However, Malique Trent-Street
(Portsmouth, Va.) hit a long-range three-pointer right before the
end of the half to give the Pirates a 28-27 advantage at the half.
NCCU started the second half on an 11-2 run, and pulled
ahead of Hampton 38-30 on some big treys from John Guerra
(Cary, N.C.) and Rivas. Hampton immediately shrunk the lead,
and eventually went on an 8-0 run to take a one-point lead at 53-
52 with 7:30 remaining.
The game stayed locked together for the next three minutes,
but then the Eagles ripped off an 11-0 run in the last minute-and-
a-halfto create enough space to seal the victory.
Rivas chipped in a game-high 22 points with five rebounds,
and Guerra provided a big spark with 12 points and five rebounds.
Jordan Perkins (Greensboro, N.C.) dished out a game-high nine
assists with 13 points.
Hampton was led by Trent-Street (Portsmouth, Va.) who put
in 15 points, and both Kalin Fisher (Chicago, Ill.) and Akim
Mitchell (Charlotte, N.C.) put in 11.
Raasean Davis (Chicago, Ill.) and Rivas were both named
to the All-Tournament team, and Rivas was named Most
Outstanding Performer. NCCU head coach LeVelle Moton was
also named Most Outstanding Coach.
The No. 16-seeded Eagles will play fellow No. 16-seeded
Texas Southern, from Houston, at the First Four in Dayton,
Ohio, March 14.
Tennis coach suspended
over player’s comment
resigns
BOONE (AP) - A college men’s tennis coach who was suspended
after one of his players made a racially charged comment to an
opposing player has resigned.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports Appalachian State University
announced on March 9 that coach Bob Lake has stepped down,
effective immediately. He had been the men’s tennis coach at
Appalachian State since 2000.
Appalachian State player Spencer Brown was suspended after a
black opponent tweeted that Brown told him “at least I know my dad”
during a match in late January. Brown, who is white, was suspended
indefinitely after the match with John Wilson of North Carolina A&T
State University, a historically black college.
Volunteer assistant coach Jack Maddocks will act as head coach
for the rest of the season.
Another explosion rocks Texas
capital and injures woman
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Investigators believe a package bomb
that killed a teenager and wounded a woman in Austin on March
12 is linked to a similar bombing that killed a man elsewhere in the
city this month, and they’re considering whether race was a factor
because all of the victims were black.
Shortly after police Chief Brian Manley held a news conference in
which he linked the Monday morning attack that killed a 17-year-old
boy- and injured a woman with a March 2 attack that killed a 39-year-
old man, authorities rushed to the scene of another blast that badly
injured a woman.
Authorities haven’t said whether the most recent blast was also
caused by a package bomb or if the victim, like those killed or injured
in the two confirmed bombings, is black. Austin-Travis County EMS
tweeted that the woman is in her 70s and was taken to Dell Seton
Medical Center with potentially life-threatening injuries.
The latest explosions happened during the South by . Southwest
music, film and technology festival, which brings about 400,000
visitors to Austin each year, and authorities have urged the public
to call the police if they receive any unexpected packages. The
explosions happened far from the main events of the festival, which
runs through Sunday, and there was no immediate word from
organizers about additional safety precautions being taken.
Four years ago, a driver plowed through a barricade and into
festival-goers, killing four people and injuring many others.
Additional security measures were taken in the aftermath, including
additional policing, tougher security checks and brighter street
lighting, among others.
The three explosions occurred in different parts of east Austin.
Monday’s first explosion happened at a home near the city’s Windsor
Park neighborhood and about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the
home where the March 2 package bomb killed 39-year-old Anthony
Stephan House. The March 2 blast was initially investigated as a
suspicious death, but is now viewed as a homicide.
Monday’s second explosion - the cause of which was still being
investigated - happened in the Montopolis neighborhood, near the
airport and about five miles south of the day’s first blast.
Manley said investigators believe the March 2 and Monday’s first
attack are related. In both cases, the packages were left overnight
on the victims’ doorsteps and were not mailed or sent by a delivery
service. He said the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t have a record of
delivering the package to the home where Monday’s explosion
occurred, and that private carriers like UPS and FedEx also indicated
that they had none, either.
“There are similarities that we cannot rule out that these two items
are, in fact, related,” Manley said.
Manley said investigators haven’t determined a motive for the
attacks, but it is possible that the victims could have been targeted
because they are black.
“We don’t know what the motive behind these may be,” Manley
said. “We do know that both of the homes that were the recipients of
these packages belong to African-Americans, so we cannot rule out
that hate crime is at the core of this. But we’re not saying that that’s
the cause as well.”
Special Agent Michelle Lee, a San Antonio-based spokesman for
the FBI, said the agency “responded to both events” and was assisting
Austin police, who were taking the lead on investigating. She said the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was taking the
lead on the federal investigation.
Manley said that a second package was discovered near the site
of the initial Monday explosion and that some residents and media
members were evacuated or pushed farther from the blast site as
authorities determined whether it was a bomb.
Police didn’t immediately identify the teenager killed Monday.
Manley said the woman who was injured in that attack is a 40-year-
old woman who remains hospitalized.
Black congress woman:
Trump racist for j oking
about her IQ
WASHINGTON (AP) - A black congresswoman says
President Donald Trump is racist for joking about her
intelligence and again called for his impeachment.
Democrat Maxine Waters of California fired back
after Trump referred to Waters’ previous calls for his
impeachment at the Gridiron Dinner this weekend in
Washington.
Trump said at the dinner: “Maxine Waters, 'He must be
impeached! ’ That’s all she knows how to say.”
He added, “She has to immediately take an IQ test.”
Waters said March 11 on MSNBC: “He has been
name-calling. He’s been saying all kinds of things. And
I certainly expected him to come out with some racist
remarks about me. So, he did exactly what I expected him
do.”
The White House did not immediately respond March
11 to a request for comment on Waters’ allegation.