Norfolk State Holds Off EKU, 70-63

NORFOLK, Va. – Host Norfolk State shot 65.7 percent from the field on its way to a 70-63 win over the Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team Sunday afternoon in Echols Hall.

Norfolk State improved to 4-2 overall, its best start since the 1995-96 season. The Colonels now stand at 3-4. Spartan center Kyle O’Quinn, the MEAC Preseason Player of the Year, posted his fifth straight double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds. The 6-10 senior also added five blocked shots.

Four players posted double-figure points for Eastern Kentucky led by senior guard Joshua Jones with 13 tallies. Fellow senior Jaron Jones added 10 points and a team-high four rebounds.

Norfolk State ran off seven straight points midway through the first half to take the lead for good, 16-9. The Spartans went ahead by 11 points following a Marcos Tamares three-point play, 28-17. However, the Colonels chipped away at the deficit and trailed by just four points at the break, 38-34, thanks to a Jaron Jones jumper right before the halftime buzzer.

Box Score

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NFL's Saints to honor XU alum, journalist Champ Clark

Peter W. "Champ" Clark

NEW ORLEANS — Two-time Xavier University of Louisiana graduate Peter W. "Champ" Clark is one of 10 New Orleans sports journalists and publicists honored by the New Orleans Saints with press-box plaques in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Saints spokesman Justin Macione said the plaques will be displayed on the third row of the press box in time for the Saints' Monday home game against the New York Giants.

Clark, who died in 2006 at age 92, received bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Xavier. He was a pioneering and award-winning African-American journalist, writing for a variety of publications and doing play-by-play of XU basketball games on radio.

The Saints Hall of Fame awarded Clark in 2001 with its Joe Gemelli Fleur De Lis Award for contributions to the franchise.

"My dad was the whole nine yards," Clark's son Mark said. "He was gumbo, he was French bread, he was a snowball, and he was a neighbor sitting on your front porch. He never stopped trying to figure out ways to improve our city."

Bill Curl, Buddy Diliberto, Peter Finney, Hap Glaudi, Wayne Mack, Bruce Miller, Bob Roesler, Jerry Romig and Frank Wilson are the Saints' other honorees.


By Ed Cassiere, SID
VISIT: XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS

Nic Cooper's three touchdowns lead Winston-Salem State over California (Pa.) 35-14 in Division II playoffs

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Clinton native Nic Cooper scored three touchdowns to help Winston-Salem State defeat California (Pa.) 35-28 on Saturday in the NCAA Division II playoffs. The 12-0 Rams built a 35-14 lead early in the second half. Neither team scored in the fourth quarter.

Cooper scored on a 6-yard run in the first quarter and on 1-yard runs in the second and third quarters. He carried the ball 20 times for 118 yards.

California quarterback Peter Lalich threw two touchdown passes to Lamont Smith in the third quarter after the Rams had taken the 35-14 lead. Lalich threw for 387 yards but also was intercepted three times.

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One down, three to go

Third-ranked Winston-Salem State was very comfortable in the Division II playoffs Saturday afternoon.  WSSU did what it needed to in a second-round game against 17th-ranked California (Pa.) and won 35-28 in front of nearly 8,000 at Bowman Gray Stadium. WSSU improved to 12-0 and advanced to a home quarterfinal next Saturday against New Haven.

"We're not finished," said running back Nic Cooper, who rushed for 118 yards on 20 carries and scored three touchdowns. "We've got three more games to play."

The 12 wins are a school record for victories in a season, and the quarterfinal playoff berth is the first for a CIAA program. The Rams also snapped the CIAA's nine-game losing streak in the playoffs. Coach Connell Maynor's team had not faced much adversity in a season in which it set the school scoring record, but that changed Saturday.

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Cal comeback falls short

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Division II playoff run for California, Pa., ended Saturday as third-ranked Winston-Salem State held on for a 35-28 victory in the second round. The Vulcans finish their season 10-3 thanks to too many turnovers and not enough offense when it mattered most.

The Rams (12-0) were making their first playoff appearance in 20 years and carved out a 35-14 lead early in the third quarter. However, the Vulcans came roaring back behind quarterback Peter Lalich with two touchdowns in a span of three minutes.

"The biggest thing we are proud of is how hard we fought in the second half," said Cal offensive coordinator Mike Kellar. "We looked like we wouldn't be able to be stopped there in the third quarter, but in the fourth quarter we had some fluke things happen."

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Black colleges' survival hinges on unity and collaboration

CNN's Soledad O'Brien

New Orleans -- If historically black colleges are going to survive, they're going to have to step up their collaboration, not only with schools and communities but also with one another, a panel of educators and policymakers said Friday in New Orleans. Three of the four speakers emphasized the importance of working with high schools and community colleges to prepare students academically and to ease the transition to four-year colleges and universities.

While Grambling State University President Frank Pogue didn't disagree, he said that, in a climate of dwindling public appropriations and skepticism about the continuing value of historically black institutions of higher learning, no school can afford to be alone.

"We have to come together," he said. "That is our responsibility to our students and to our future students -- to keep them engaged."

The discussion, led by CNN's Soledad O'Brien, was one of a daylong series of roundtable talks at the Hyatt Regency Hotel leading up to today's Bayou Classic pitting Southern University against Grambling in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Schools such as Southern and Grambling, which are commonly known as HBCUs, were founded when segregation was the norm.

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Grambling defeats Southern for fourth Bayou Classic win in row

New Orleans, Louisiana -- Southern Coach Stump Mitchell vowed to give Jaguars fans something to remember in Saturday’s State Farm Bayou Classic. However, it turned out to be more of what they have been accustomed to seeing lately, as Grambling State pummeled the Jaguars 36-12 for its fourth consecutive Classic victory before 40,715 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Mitchell said his team would be ready for Grambling after upsetting Alabama State two weeks ago on the road. However, the Jaguars’ (4-7, 4-5) margin of defeat to Grambling (7-4, 6-3) was second only to a 30-3 setback in 1986.

Grambling continued its recent domination of the series. The Tigers’ average margin of victory in its past four wins is 19.5 points, including last season’s 38-17 thrashing. “They took our running game away, and we weren’t able to establish a passing game,’’ Mitchell said.

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Cliff Exama leads the way for Grambling defense

Grambling linebacker Cliff Exama wanted his final game against rival Southern in the State Farm Bayou Classic to be special.

And he delivered.  Exama had an interception, a sack and led the Tigers with seven tackles in Grambling’s dominating 36-12 victory Saturday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Grambling’s defense held Southern to minus 31-yards rushing and forced seven sacks.

Exama, in his final year of eligibility and listed on Grambling’s roster as a graduate student, is a returning All-SWAC selection and has been vital in the Tigers’ six-game winning streak after they started the season at 1-4. With Saturday’s win, Grambling clinched a berth to the Dec. 10 SWAC championship game against Alabama A&M in Birmingham, Ala.



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In the end, Norfolk State faced a killer foe: Itself

NORFOLK, Virginia -- Chris Walley never saw it coming. Neither did Norfolk State. The end of the Spartans' season was sealed on their first possession of the second half.  Trailing by 14, Norfolk State moved to the ODU 24. The Spartans found a mix of runs and passes that had been elusive. Walley, the quarterback, found his groove. The Monarchs helped out with a roughing-the-passer penalty.

Walley recognized Old Dominion's defense, and audibled accordingly. As he went up and down the line to deliver the call, center Michael Kay didn't realize the quarterback had moved. He snapped the ball while Walley's eyes were focused downfield.

The first-down snap rolled 22 yards into the backfield, where running back Randy Maynes fell on it. A blocked field goal followed, then an ODU touchdown and - after another half of football - the end of Norfolk State's best Division I season.

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Photos | Old Dominion takes on Norfolk State at Foreman Field


Several on ODU and NSU football teams are old friends

NORFOLK, VA -- Norfolk State and Old Dominion are meeting for the first time. Marcus Cooperwood and Reid Evans aren't.  After meeting at a high school all-star game five years ago, Norfolk State's Cooperwood, a cornerback from Bethel, and ODU's Evans, a receiver from Phoebus, met often at a small field in front of a church near Darling Stadium.

They ran routes against and have continued working out together ever since.
This year, they brought their teammates along. No. 10 ODU and No. 19 NSU, first-round opponents in the FCS playoffs, spent the summer in 7-on-7 competition, focused on improving each other and moving impromptu games between the two campuses.

"Obviously, we didn't see this happening," Cooperwood said of Saturday's game. "Me and Reid work out in the summer and do one-on-ones to fine-tune our games. We brought it up to our teams and both guys were good with it. There ain't no drama between us. It's all mutual love."

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ODU's first playoff win sends penalty-laden Norfolk State home

NORFOLK, VA — Even as he watched the 98-yard touchdown happen, Ronnie Cameron was forgetting about it.

"We always have a mentality of, 'Play the next play,' " said Cameron, Old Dominion's senior defensive tackle and the Colonial Athletic Association defensive player of the year. "Things happen. Things have happened all year. We've just got to bounce back from it. That's what a resilient team does. That's what a mature team does.

"Don't let one play define the rest of the game."

ODU took those words to heart in a major way on Saturday as the Monarchs squared off against Norfolk State in the first meeting of the crosstown opponents, which also happened to be both teams' first appearance in the FCS playoffs.

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Roaring success for first-ever Crosstown Showdown

NORFOLK, Virginia -- Gene Thomas II and three fellow Norfolk State football fans intended to join a Spartans tailgate party on the west side of Old Dominion's Foreman Field early Saturday afternoon. They were detained as they walked on the east side, however, by the kindness of strangers - a gaggle of ODU fans offering pregame food, drinks and good-natured banter.

And so loyal Spartans stayed put among proud Monarchs as time ticked toward the so-called Crosstown Showdown, an NCAA playoff game at the Football Championship Subdivision level.

"Sportsmanship has arrived in Norfolk," said Thomas, a former NSU marching band member and a music teacher at Portsmouth's I.C. Norcom High.

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