1994

WEEK OF 0- lady Warriorsface ~tough test in opener ~ j ..;

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BrLeeBaker Cl•rfon-l.~ger Sbttt Writ•

JUNIOR COLLEGES Cleon McKnight, coach since 1985, has six state and five Region 23 men's championships plus four state and region women's titles. After six trips to nationals by his Eagles and five by the LadyEagles, McKnight hopes those May trips to Texas come again -men toCorpus Christi, women to Plano. Top Hinds.players are Thomas Gonzales, a freshman fromCaracas, Venezuela, andBradyDay, a sopho– more from Jackson (W'mgfield) ••-ball: Hinds is ()ff to a good start. with 3-0 and 4-1 wins Tues– day over East Central in South openers leavingthe Eagles 6-4. Today Hinds hosts the Crowder Roughriders of Neosho, Mo., at 1 p.m., then steps aside while Crowd– er and Shelby State of Memphis meet at 3:30, weather permitting. "We've not had a rainout yet;" Hinds coach Rick Clarke said Wednesday. "It just rains here on our practice days. Like today." Hinds gets back to division play Saturdayat Mississippi GulfCoast. Juco polls: The final National Junior College Athletic Association Division I basketball polls show East Central 18th among the men and Pearl River 19th among the women. But Region 23 playoff losses left the ranked pair home, while Bossier Parish men of LOuisiana and East Central women advance to next week's national tourneys. The consolation is Northeast Mississippi's Dontae Jones is fifth nationally in men's scoring with a 24.7 average and Northwest's San– chez BlB.ke is eighth at 23.6. Best of all, Pearl River's Elaine Powell is second among women at 27.3. AIMitate women: Second-team basketball selections left offthe all– state women's list published earlier include:

TheEast Central women, Region 23 champions, open national juco basketball tourney playTuesdayat 4 p.m. in Tyler, Texas, against one ofthe country's strongest teams. Central Arizona, ranked ninth in the final national jucowomen's poll, comes in with a 30-3 record after ow tingOrem (Utah) in a playoff. EC coach Sammy Pace will load up 15 players, two trainers, two cha– paroneb and a managerplus himself Sunday morning for the long bus ride. He can spend the time ponder– 'ngCentral's record- 310wins and 22 losses since 1974 with 161 con- ecutive conferencewins since1985. The Lady Vaqueras from Coo- liU~ won the nationals in 1989. F:C's men reached the nationals in 1953 and 1955, but this is the wt~men's first trip to the top. The Lady Warriors missed a chance some years back afterqualify– ing for the regional playoff, but lacked funds for the trip to Tennessee. NJCAA Hall of Fame: Missis– sippi GulfCoast'sBobbyWeathers, the winningest active juco men's ba ketball coach in the nation at 731-253 over 34 seasons, joins the NJCAA Basketball Hall of Fame Monday in Hutchinson, Kan. Weathers organized andconduct– ed the state's first basketball camp for boys and was voted the state's juco basketball coach of the year 13 times. His 1991 and 1993 teams went to the nationals. Also being inducted are players LarryJohnson ofthe CharlotteHor– nets, Mitch Richmond ofthe Sacra– mento Kings and Ollie Taylor, for– merly with the New York Nets and San Diego Conquistadors. Softball: East Central debuted on its new diamond Tuesday, win– ning 11-9 over Copiah-Lincoln be– fore losing 10-5, to stand 6-3. After Wednesday's rainout, fol– lowed by spring break, the Lady Warriors next play at Northwest . Mississippi on March 22. The next day they return to Deca– tur to playJones, followedMarch 24 by a visit from Pearl River. Tennla: Hinds is off to a quick start in tennis. The men carry a 6-0 record into a match with East Cen– tral today on theUtica campus. The women are 4-0. ,/

North women: Angie Morelock and Chanda Cordova, Northeast; Wanda Tyson, Northwest; Sheri Moore, Delta; Gwen Smith, East. South women: Sacrenette Moore, Co-Lin; Roxanne Anderson, Gulf TIMES

APPEARED IN :

Coast; Kimberly Dent, Hinds; Kim- mieDucksworth andDeniseSmith, Jones County.

CARTHAGI~IAN NESHOBA DEMOCF NE\-JTON RECORD CLARION-LEDGER

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