Hoopin' and hollerin'
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
No sooner does a team vault to the number one spot in the men's Black College Sports Page Top Ten than that same team slips.
Ask Hampton,
Bowie State or South Carolina State. They are the three
teams that have occupied the top spot in the rankings only to fall soon
after.
SC State is the latest. The Bulldogs were upset at home Saturday by Ron "Fang" Mitchell's young Coppin State Eagles, 74-72 in overtime. That's after Bowie State lost back-to-back games to Virginia Union and Shaw after reaching #1, and Hampton dropped three in a row after reaching the perch.
It's now Texas Southern's turn. The Tigers survived a barn-burner, double overtime shootout (104-100) before a crowd of nearly 10,000 Saturday against cross-Houston rival, Prairie View, to take over the SWAC lead. Conference scoring leader Rakeem Hollis (19.4 ppg.) threw in 40 points in the win, 14 of the Tigers' 16 in the second OT. PV guard Gregory Burks had 37 in the loss.
Hollis is by no means the only black college player stuffing the stat sheet.
Howard senior guard Ron Williamson is certainly ending his career with a bang. The slim (6-1, 185) sharpshooter, who already has the biggest scoring day in NCAA Div. I basketball this year with the 52 points (12 three-pointers) he laid on North Carolina A&T, averaged 34.5 points this weekend as the Bison swept the MEAC's Virginia Tidewater teams, Hampton and Norfolk State. Williamson scored 33 in an overtime win vs. NSU Saturday that saw him score 16 of his team's 19 points in the extra session. He came back to get 36 points (five three-pointers) Monday as the Bison knocked off Hampton. For the weekend he was 27 of 30 from the charity stripe including 13 straight vs. Hampton.
Not to be outdone, Florida A&M guard Terrance Woods, a Tennessee transfer, matched Williamson's 12 three-pointers in a 38-point effort against those same (winless, 0-19) Aggies of N.C. A&T on Feb. 2. Woods is currently second in the nation in three-point field goals per game (4.6). He added 34 points including seven three-pointers Saturday in a win over Delaware State.
Maryland-Eastern Shore point guard Thomas "Tee" Trotter had 42 on Jan. 30 against Howard. Trotter (21.4 ppg.) and Woods (20.7 ppg.) are 1-2 in MEAC scoring.
Jackson State's 6-3 swingman Tim Henderson matched Hollis' 40 points on Jan. 26 against Grambling. Henderson (18.5 ppg.) trails Hollis in SWAC scoring.
CIAA scoring leader (25.5 ppg.) Patrick Pope of St. Augustine's numbers include a 45-point effort against N. C. Central. The senior guard also leads the conference in steals (3.19 pg.) and free throw percentage (159-183, 86.9%).
On the women's side, Naomi Mobley, a 6-2 transfer from the University of Florida, not only has led Shaw to a top 20 ranking (13th) in the latest NCAA Div. II poll, but leads the CIAA in both scoring (25.1 ppg.) and rebounding (15.1 rpg.) The rebounding number is also the best in all of Div. II basketball. Mobley, who led the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in rebounding as a sophomore, also leads the CIAA in field goal percentage (.582) and blocked shots (2.95 bpg.)
Six-seven center Amie Williams of Jackson State leads the nation in blocked shots (5.47 bpg.) and has earned three straight SWAC Player of the Week awards. She scored 38 points and got 15 rebounds in a win over Southern Saturday. She is second in the conference in scoring (17.0 ppg.) and leads the SWAC in rebounding (10.6 rpg.).
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