2008

Lady Eagles roll in league showdown of two nationally– ranked squads

By Brandon Walker assistant sports ed1tor

In the mids t of his e igh th season in charge of the Me ridian Community College Lady Eagles, head coach Hilar y Allen was the fin;t to admit Monday night was a

special night. In his tenure with the Lady Eagles, Allen has won more than 100 games, a pair of conference championships and currently has the Lady Eagles at No. 25 in the latest l\]CAA national poll. Still, even Allen himself can't remember a better per formance from his Lady Eagles than Monday night's :>ho\\in •. Playing host to

MCC

~o. 16 East Central at Graham Gymnasium, the Lady Eagles roared out to a 44-25 halftime lead en route to a l'Onvincing 81-55 vic– tory owr the Lady Warriors. "It's tlw best game we've playC'd ~ince I've been at Meridian," Allen remarked after the 26-point win. "I thought we played well in all facets of the game against very good competi– tion, which is the most exciting thing to me." Aftt'r a back-and-forth start bet\\ een a pair of evenly-matched team:>, Meridian began to pull away at the midway point of the fir..,t haiL r t>ading 28-24 after 15 mmutes, Meridian followed the lead of ..,ophomore NaDosha ..,trickland, who scored 12

PAULA MERRITT I THE 1-tERIOIAtl STAR

ALL-OUT HUSTLE Merid1an Community College's Dana Parker saves an outgoing ball as she throws it against East Central Community College's Mystee Dale dunng Monday night act1on at MCC's Graham Gymnasium. straight points to spark a 16-1 run Stricklan4 didn't let up after at 59-34. over the final 4 minutes of the the break, ad ding 14 for a Rame- "Dana and Tiara both gave us first half. high 32 points on the night. great effort~ toniRht on offense." The scoring burst gave Strick· ~leridian's Tiara Parker also Allen said. "And defensively, the land a game-high 18 points at half- had a hot hand on the night with entire team was fantastic. Our ball time and stretched i\ICC's 20 points while guard Dana pressure was outstanding." cushion to 19 points. Parker added 14 on four-of-five MCC's defense forced the nor- "That's just what she does.'' shooting from 3-point range. mally sure-handed Lady Warriors Allen said of the former Bay The lead remaint•d at 19 into a season-high of 22 Springs standout. "She is a hed, 'through the first 5 minutt·:- of the turnovers. For Eas t Ce ntral"' ol a player who re ally hates to ...econd half until StrickInn