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Friday, January 30, 2004

l LOCAL SPORTS East Central women get national notice with No. 17 ranking By Marty Stamper I EMG sports assistant

Jan. 29 , 2004

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DECATUR - The NJCAA basketball poll is an inexact science at best.

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Case in point: The East Central Community College Lady Warriors were ranked 16th a week ago, but dropped to 17th in the Jan. 27 poll despite going 3-0 last week. Apparently, none of those wins were reported as the ECCC record still stood at 11-2 according to the latest poll.

In fact, the Lady Warriors enter tonight's home game with Pearl River Community College sporting a 16-2 mark. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.

"It's good to get recognized," said ECCC women's head coach Brad Hodge, 45-24 in his third year with the Lady Warriors . "It rewards the kids for the work they've put in this year and in the fall and the additional year for the sophomores. "But the only thing that really matters is the division record which is 6-1 . The one good thing about junior college basketball is there is no BCS rating. It's who can win in the end and everybody that gets to the playoff has an equal chance." The top four teams from each division qualifies for the state tournament, Feb . 23-26. Eight teams advance to the Region 23 Tournament, March 1-4. Only the region winner advances to the national tournament at Salina, Kan. "There's depth, there's balance, but there's also experience," Hodge said. "We've got eight sophomores that have been through it. The old saying in the league is that you'd rather have sophomores that have ridden the bus than freshmen with talent." The sophomores are 6-foot forward Kimyatta Viverette (9.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg), 5-foot-11 forward Ebone'e Leverette (4.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg ), 6-foot post Lenore Gray (12.9 ppg, 8.7 rpg), 5-foot- 11 guard/forward Monique Overstreet (3.6 ppg, 2.2 rpg), 5-foot-7 guard Britney Burks (3.4 ppg , 1.2 rpg), Several factors have been a part of ECCC's success.

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5-foot-9 guard Rita Birden (9.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg), 5-foot-9 forward Hope Murray (1.6 ppg, 0.9 rpg), and 5-foot-10 forward Miranda Rosar (2.4 ppg, 1.8 rpg).

"Bringing back eight experienced players has helped," Hodge said. "And we've brought in a great freshman class. We've been pleasantly surprised, maybe even overwhelmed, with the

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