2004

WEEK OF fvl {lt('e)n <"*&

a es tall tas

East Ce t

By Marty Stamper EMG sports assistant

Friday's win over Vincennes. She had to be carried from the court and did not return. Her status for today's game h unknown. Big time program You can't accuse Trinity Valley ( fexas) of not doing it up right in the NJCM Di>i– sion I Women's National Basketball Cham– pionship. Not only did the Athens, Texas, school send a 3~-0 and top-seeded team to the tournament. but there's also a 27-person chccrleading squad and a pep band to sup– port the Lady Cardinals in their qul'st for a possible ftfth national championship. Trinity previously won litles in 1991, 1996, 1997, and 1999. Two of the Lady Cardinals are from Mis– s issippi - LaCourtney Ratliff of Canton, who originally s igned with Ole Miss. and LaKeisha Carter of Jackson Provine. Black and Gold In addition to East Central and fhrec Rivers, olher teams wearing black and gold at this year's tournament are Weatlu ..rford (l'exas) and the College of Southern Idaho Blue and gold arc popular rolors too as tl1ey ~e worn by three teams here- Gulf Coast (Fla.), Western Nebraska, and Vin– cennes (Ind.). It really happened . .. twice Mississippi junior colleges hav\. cap– tured two national championships since 1975. Northwest 1\Jississippi won m 1983 with Northeast Mississippi bringing home all the marbles in 1987. l'exas teams have won 1·1 ol the 2'J tour– naments from 1975-2003. In addition to

Trinity \ .. all~ y's four crowns, Kilgore has won three times, Panola and Odessa twice each. "nd Temple and Tyler onct.: each. Striking resembl~nce Margaret DeCiman. the 6-foot-7 standout from Seward County (Kan.) by \\ ay of Regina, Canada, is the niece of the ultnt slender Manute Bol. There'::. a ::.tr ng "imilarity, both facially and in their bUJld. Thanks for the help ' East Central Community College·~ offi.. e~al host for the 2004 tournament has bwn Archie Riggs of Salina. He has sho\vn the Lady Warriors lots of hospitality and hi wife has made them several batches of cookies. She's really a princess Lake Region (N.D.) State college freshman Babette Noah Ndjandjo is actu– ally a princess m her home country of Cameroon. See ya In Booneville Three Rivers (Mo.) basketball coach Jack Childress is also a softball coach at the school. The Lady Raiders will be playing in a softball tournament al North– east Mississippi Community College next week. Among the par ticipating teams will be East Central. The Lady Raiders have a pair of ace freshman hurlers, including a lefty that has eight pitches, according to Megan Brown, who plays forward on Ute basket– ball team and second base and right field on the softball squad.

SALINA. Kan. - If it's Saturday and you're ~till playing ball in Salina, you've done good. The East Ct r\lral Community College Ladv Wan ion; have indeed done well as they bounced back from a 76-64 first-ro und loss to '1 hree Rivers (Mo.) Commu nity College on 'I uesday to beat Lake Region (N.D.) State Colleg(• 74-66 on Thursday and Weatherford (lcxas) College 63-52 on Friday. Today':; action finds the 31-3 Lady War– rior:-> taki11g on the 28· 7 College of Southern Idaho Golckn Eagles in lhe sev– enth·place 1:an1t "Southern Idaho has to be the biggest ll'am in the tournament." ECCC head coach Brad Hodge said. WWhen you've got two 6-fool-li or 6·foot-7 kids out Utere, that's a lot ol :->ize to balance and they're sitting in that zone. "That group woulcl let us take advan– tage ol our press more and not get in a half– court game. We've got a little more speed ;.md quickness. We definitely don't want this It' am in a halfcourt game." CSIIost its first game to Seward (Kan.) 78-:;7, but bounced back with wins over Southeastern lllino1~ (73-46) and Vin– cennes (Ind.) University (60-58). The Golrlen Lagle-, have committt.:d 67 turnovers in their thn·t• games, but have 23 mort· rebounds tl an their opponents. Leading CSI e~re twin towers Lenka Zimova aud Dcmsa Svarova, both from Slo– v.tkin . CSI did lose 5-foot-6 starting guard Delicia ]l-rnigan to an injury late in

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