CIAA, SIAC hoop tournaments tip off
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
Black college basketball enters its second season this week as championship tournaments in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (Raleigh, N.C.) and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (Birmingham, Al.) get under way.
Also this week the Eastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference will crown its champions in Fayetteville, N.C.
CIAA
After a last-hour shake-up in the women's standings (See, UNDER
THE BANNER), the 58th CIAA tournament tipped off Monday.
Play began with women's
opening round games followed by quarterfinal action on Tuesday. The men
opened play on Wednesday with their quarterfinals scheduled Thursday.
Women's and men's semifinals are set for Friday followed by finals for
both men and women on Saturday evening.
Virginia Union (East) and Fayetteville State (West) won their respective women's divisions and along with second-place finishers Virginia State (E) and Winston-Salem State (W) received first round byes. VUU dropped its game in Tuesday's quarterfinals to Johnson C. Smith (83-70).
Shaw, which went from first to sixth in the East by virtue of the shake-up, has to be the favorite now that former player of the year Naomi Mobley has been re-instated. Mobley lost her player of the year award to Bowie State sophomore Alyson Hardy who had already been named women's defensive player of the year.
The Lady Bears defeated Livingstone 69-55 in the opening round and beat defending champion Virginia State 76-55 Tuesday to advance to Friday's semifinals where they will face FSU, a winner over St. Paul's (73-53) Tuesday.
J. C. Smith, who upset East top seed Virginia Union (83-70) will face St. Augustine's in the other semi.
Some surprising losses in the final weeks by the men's top teams means that competition begins with no clear favorite.
East Div. champion Virginia Union (16-9) dropped two of its final three games to Winston-Salem State (14-14) and Livingstone (7-20), the third and sixth seeded teams in the West. West Div. champ North Carolina Central (15-12) dropped three of its last five. The division champs get a bye into Thursday's quarterfinals along with St. Augustine's (17-8) and Bowie State (23-4).
SIAC
The 70th SIAC Tournament takes to the Fair Park Arena court in
Birmingham Wednesday Feb. 26 for games thru Saturday, March 1.
The three teams with the best conference records Morehouse (13-2), Miles (9-6) and Lane (9-6) get byes in the first round of the men's tournament which begins Wednesday (Feb. 26) along with the women.
LeMoyne-Owen (9-6) will face Benedict in one Thursday (Feb. 27) men's quarterfinal game.
Only Fort Valley State (24-3) and Clark Atlanta (19-6) get byes into Thursday's quarterfinals on the women's side.
EIAC
The 2003 EIAC Tournament is set for this Friday, Feb. 28 through
Sunday, March 2. The games will be held at the Cumberland County Coliseum
Complex-Arena. Opening round eliminations
begin on Friday and the championships are set for Sunday (3:00pm for the ladies
and 5:30pm for the men). On each day, a women's game will tip off action
followed by a men's game and the contests alternate accordingly. The number
one and number two seeded teams receive byes on Friday.
Edward Waters won both the men's and women's Tournament titles last year.
© 2003 Azeez Communications, Inc.