BCSP Notes . . .
All-CIAA Basketball Team named
Virginia Union's talented swingman
Darius Hargrove and Shaw point guard
Nastassia Boucicault were named Tuesday as the top men's and women's players as the
Central Intercollegiate Athletic
Association announced its 2006 all-conference honorees. (See STAT
CORNER).
Hargrove, a 6-4 senior from Warfield, Va., averaged 16.4 points per game in leading the two-time defending CIAA champion and defending NCAA Div. II champion Panthers to a 20-3 overall record, a top ten national ranking and first-place finish in the conference's East Division. Hargrove, who's scoring average is sixth among league players, shoots 41.4% from the field and 84.7% from the line.
Two other members of the Panthers' squad, senior
forward Duan Crockett and sophomore center
Brad Byerson were also named to the 12-man men's team.
St. Augustine's also had three players named to the squad in guard
Antonio Fitzgerald, power forward Claude Neeley
and swingman Nicholas King.
Six-six (6-6) Johnson C. Smith senior forward John Fulton, who finished third in the conference in rebounds (8.0 rpg.), leads the conference in defensive rebounding and is eighth in steals (1.8 spg.), claimed the 2005-2006 defensive player of the year award.
Boucicault, a 5-6 senior guard from Brooklyn, NY, averaged 16.1 points, 5.2 assists and 3.3 steals in pacing the dominant Lady Bears who have won 72 straight CIAA games. The Lady Bears won the East Division title and have 19 straight overall wins this season. Of the 12 players named to the team, Boucicault was the only member of the Lady Bears named. Elizabeth City State placed three players on the 12-person squad. The Lady Vikings' 5-7 junior guard Deanna Price was named defensive player of the year.
The all-CIAA teams and players of the year will be honored at the Women's and Men's Tip-Off Banquets which will be held respectively at The Westin Hotel in Charlotte on Sunday, February 26 and Tuesday, February 28 at 6:30 p.m.
Hampton women, Norfolk State men
take MEAC Indoor Track titles
Hampton's women and Norfolk
State's men captured the crowns at the 2006
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Indoor Track and Field Championships at Prince
George's Sports & Learning Complex.
The Lady Pirates earned 44 points on day one and finished with a new MEAC Indoor Championship record 168 points. The 1986 Delaware State team held the previous record (155). Hampton finished 82 points ahead of second place Norfolk State (86), while Morgan State finished third with 61 team points.
Hampton's Yvette Lewis earned Outstanding Performer honors for the second consecutive year with 48 points, breaking her own previous record of 46 points at last year's indoor championship.
Hampton head coach Maurice Pierce reflected on his team's vision of a perfect championship run.
"We had three goals coming in: to win our fourth consecutive title, to break the team points record and to have Yvette Lewis win the individual points title again. We were able to do all those things."
Norfolk State compiled 133 points to earn its first men's MEAC Indoor Title since 2001. The Spartans also captured this season's MEAC Cross Country Championships. Hampton finished with 86 points and North Carolina A&T had 74 to round out the top three.
"We exceeded our expectations," explained NSU head coach Kenneth Giles. "This win is for the seniors, we have a good group of student-athletes who have helped build this program. Giles earned Outstanding Coach honors on the men's side.
North Carolina A&T's Justin Byron earned Outstanding Performer honors, the senior earned 20 points and won the 200m with a MEAC indoor championship record time of 21.35. The previous record was held by current NFL player Jerome Mathis of Hampton in 2003.
St. Aug's sweeps
CIAA Indoor Track Championships
Saint Augustine's College dominated the field in
winning both CIAA men's and women's indoor track
championships Sunday at Christopher Newport University.
Led by MVPs Joe Kindred and Edgar Bermudez, the Falcons scored 209 points to outdistance North Carolina Central, which finished second with 93 points. The Falcons' women, behind MVPs Kimberly Moore and Johnsie Liles, scored 149 points to finish ahead of Bowie State (92 points) and North Carolina Central (83 points).
Kindred earned MVP honors in the men's field events after winning the triple jump, finishing second in the high jump and placing fourth in the long jump. Bermudez of the Falcons won the one-mile run and 800-meter run to win the MVP award in track events. He also was a member of the winning men's distance medley relay team.
In the women's events, the Falcons' Moore finished second in the long jump, and third in both the triple jump and high jump to garner MVP honors in the field events. Liles was named MVP of the track events after winning both the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes.
Walter Payton Center opens at Jackson State
The $12.3 million Walter Payton Recreation and
Wellness Center opened Thursday at Jackson State
University as the centerpiece of a $25 million complex named after the
school's most famous alumnus.
The native of Columbia, Miss., starred at Jackson State in the early 1970s and played 13 years with the Chicago Bears, retiring after the 1987 season with 16,726 yards rushing. The Hall of Fame running back died of cancer in 1999 at age 45.
"[The center] is a tribute to a life that meant so much to this community and this university," said Eddie Payton, Walter's older brother and the golf coach at Jackson State.
A gold bust of Payton greets visitors as they enter the center. School officials said a walk of fame is planned for the main hallway to honor the career of the player nicknamed "Sweetness." "We, the Payton family, are very humbled and very appreciative of Walter to be honored in this way," said his sister, Pamela Payton-Curry.
The building houses three basketball courts, three racquetball courts, three aerobics studios, a squash court, plus dozens of exercise bikes and weight benches. School officials said Jackson State is the first historically black college or university to open such a center.
© 2006 Azeez Communications, Inc.