2000

WEEK OF L\ - 3 - C\COC)

ECCC

from the floor.

"I saw a person who was willing to work, who was interested in learning, who had great j ump– ing ability and could run the floor and really didn't get tired," he said. "She will just do anything you ask her to do," Pace said. Moncrief said other schools contacted her, but she decided to go ahead and sign early. "I liked coach

Continued from page 1D run across some bigger players on the NCAA Division I level. "They can take and build on what we've done with her," said ECCC head coach Sammy Pace. "1 think she will continue to develop, because potentially, she has only scratched the surface." She said she learned a lot playing on the junior college level. · "It was tougher than I thought it was, I'll tell you that," Moncrief said. Pace said that Moncrief has had the potential to be a top-flight player since high school. "What I saw in high school was a person with a great shooting touch from maybe 15 feet in, and she demonstrated that here," Pace said. "Some games here she hit 70 and 80 percent

ECC<~ sta dout • enJoys new s~tage By Austin Bishop The Meridian Star DECATUR - Tonya Moncrief says she has always been interested in experiencing new things. Thanhs to her bas– ketball potential, she will be able to do that. The East Centrul Community College sophomore, who was a prep basketball standout at Newton High School. signed early to play for the University of Illinois-Chicago. "I thought it ·would be good for me to get out and experience more, to see diffewnt faces and meet new people," Moncnef said. "It was somewhere I had never been." While her college future doesn't rest on how she does in tonight's 23rd Annual MACJC Women's All-Star Basketball Game at Philadelphia's Choctaw Central High School, she Rays she still wants to do well. "I think it's going to be a lot

Paula Merritt/The Meridian Star READY TO GO - Tonya Moncrief, of ECCC, will play in tomght's MACJC All-Star Game at Choctaw Central. of fun, to pay with some of the besl players in the state," she said.

Moncrief said she has been looking forward to playing col– lege basketball for quite some tifne, but really didn't have any -----– certain school or level of pro- gram in mind.

APPEARED IN : LAKE MESSENGER__ SCOTT COUNTY TIMES_ UNION APPEAL _ _ _ WINSTON COUNTY JOUR SPIRIT OF MORTON__ NEWTON MESSENGER

"As long as I can play ball," Moncrief said. "I'm blessed to be able to play, and I'm thankful." The 5-foot-10 post player will

See ECCC, Page 30

---'- --