2003

Foley's late-season surge gives East Central big bo By Marty Stamper Sports Journa Plus

DECATUR- For much of the 2002-03 bn~ketball sen>;on, East Central Community College :-opho– more Tamekia Foley wa~ content to go with the flow. Over the Lady Warriors' final seven games. however, she's been more like a raging river that no one can stop. Through 18 games, the 5-foot-10 guard from nearby Hickory was averaging 10.5 points per game. For the first five contests, Foley had yet to reach double figures and was averaging just 7.0 points. The Newton County High School grad was coming off her worst effort of the year, a scoreless outing in a 69-60 loss at Pearl River on Jan. 30 when Ladv \\"arriors head coach Brad Hodge decided it wa, ttme for a little chat. After that talk, Fole~ went on a tear a~ ,he a\era~ed 21 9 pomt:. down the home ,tretch a the Lady Warrior;, qualified for la eek, MACJC te 1i umam t \Ve:-;:,OD and !X.Xlll ~ m He d h " fun F e a d And that w needed me to ,tep up mce a 1BirdenJ wa::; out." Birden. a fresh~m''an""-"--.-w-·a_s_·;-le-a'd~in_g _ ,ea~on-endin~ kn~e inJury m a /6- 66 \;ctocy at Meridian on Jan. 16. Foley took her new I) expanded role -:eriou,ly. "I started commg in and working on my shots," she said Not that Foley wasn t a good shooter before. "Tamekia has always been a good athlete," Hodge said. She wa, a good high school scorer She came in here with a lot of offens1ve poten– tial as far as scoring goes. "She was a great shooter in high school, but she wasn't the greatest ballhandler. She's improved on that since she's been here. We've made an emphasis on that for her. "You knew that potential was there and she finally broke through that this year. After the Pearl River game was when we said we've got to have it from her. "Losing Rita, we needed some additional fire power out there and she's provided that for the last seven games. "She's been a person we can lean on to get an easy basket," Hodge said. At 5-foot-10 Foley can prove hard to defend as she can go inside or shoot from three-point range. For the year she has bit 18 treys, the team v.;th a 13.6 :-corm!! a\ ern!!e when "he ~ffered a

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DRIVING IN East Central Community College's Tame· ~ =<>jey (30), turned it on late for the Lady Warriors, leading them into the Reg XXIII Tournament.

including a season-high four in a 70-51 rout ofMeridian on Feb. 10 at Decatur. "Half of them I was open, but I can shoot," Foley said. "I just like jumpers. I'm not good at drib~l.ing the ball. I just like catching it, pulling up and shooting it.n "She's hard to guard for the simple fact that you've got to e-e~

t.t on her, because she's got pretty • d range," Hodge said. "She's got a S!Ood first step going to the hole and when she does go to the hole, h · s athletic enough that she can .::1p up and shoot over people. She causes some match up prob– ~,. If you need to, you can take her and let her post up inside if she guarded by a smaller girl. We've