2008

ECCC

From Page 81

The Lady Falcons are making their sixth straight national tournament appear– ance. They came in fifth in 2006 and fourth last year. Franqua Bedell is in his first year as head coach of SIC after moving up from the assistant ranks after Mississippi State hired former head coach Greg Franklin as an assistant with the Lady Bulldogs. · In their last six seasons, the Lady Falcons have com– piled a 185-27 record. Win or lose today, EC will face Shelton State Com– munity College of Tuscaloosa, Ala., or Barton County (Kan.) Community College in second-round action on Thursday. Shelton (28-4) and Barton (32-2) met in Tuesday night's late game. An opening-round loss today would have EC playing at 2 p.m., while a win over SIC would have them returning to action at 8p.m.

much, much bigg.:k than we arc so we'll just have to do a lot of pressing and hopefully running up and down the floor," said EC coach Bill Smith. Wl1ile Southeastern Illi– nois has just one player from Illinois on its roster, four other states and one foreign country are repre– sented. In winning the Region 24 Tournament, SIC defeated Olney Central (79-45), Lin– coln Trail (59-25), and Southwestern Illinois (62- 52) . Although it scored 120 points in a 120-39 blowout of Olive-Harvey, SIC held six of its last eight oppo– nents to 45 points or less. For the year, the Lady Fal– cons have averaged 74.8 points and given up only 50.2. "They're just so big and it's hard for people to shoot over them," Smith said.