New leaders take on the A&T men’s basketball mantle

GREENBORO, North Carolina  --  Late in N.C. A&T’s 79-48 loss to Louisville in the NCAA tournament’s second round Thursday, after both teams had pulled their starters in favor of rarely used backups, Aggies coach Cy Alexander pulled guards Lamont Middleton and Jeremy Underwood together for a meeting by the bench.
 

This is your team now, he told them, and you’ve got some lofty expectations to uphold.

 

“They have to push all our incoming recruits very, very hard, because they know what it takes to win a championship,” Alexander said. “It’s going to be a plus what we’ve gone through. They understand the level of commitment.

 

“They’re champions, and they now understand what it takes.”

 

With seven seniors leaving, Middleton, Underwood and freshman forward Bruce Beckford are the only players returning next year who averaged more than 10 minutes a game for the Aggies this season.

 

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‘Ahead of the game,’ LeMay signs with N.C.A&T Aggies

FORT UNION, Virginia --  Shaq LeMay is bound for Greensboro after a season of prep football at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia.

The former four-sport Southern Vance athlete signed Wednesday to play at North Carolina A&T in the fall.

The Aggies finished third a season ago in the MEAC of the FCS, formerly Division I-AA, under head coach Rod Broadway.

LeMay said Broadway and Aggie assistant coach Trei Oliver were instrumental in his recruitment.
“It’s a dream,” said LeMay. “I always wanted to play Division I football. And it came true.”

LeMay expects to line up at either free safety or the athlete position on offense, playing both receiver and running back.

LeMay had plenty of competition at Fork Union, which finished the season 10-2 including a nationally-televised loss to Hermitage High School of Richmond, Va.

Fork Union routinely produces FBS (Division I-A) players. The team’s quarterback, Christian Hackenberg, is headed to Penn State next season and was offered scholarships by Alabama, Florida and South Carolina among other schools, according to ESPN.

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Duke Beats Talented Hampton Team in NCAA First Round

DURHAM, North Carolina -- Heading into Sunday’s first round NCAA matchup with Hampton University, Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie was well aware of the ability of the team she was about to face.

“Hampton is the greatest No. 15 seed I have ever seen in my life,” said McCallie. “They are absolutely terrific.”

In their 67-51 win the Duke players and fans also learned how good Hampton was and how the intensity of the game gets turned up in NCAA play.

“I’ve been a mid-major coach before and I am sorry for Hampton that they are a 15 seed,” said McCallie, who led her Blue Devils to their 31st win of the season against just two losses. “They are trying to get their first NCAA victory and they should have been a higher seed, they earned that by what they did over the season, they earned that by who they beat, they did everything right and they had to come play Duke at Duke. They are a fantastic team and some of those women can play on any team. They might be the most athletic team we played including some of our ACC teams.”

Those student-athletes from Hampton just happened to meet a Duke team that heralds some of the best women’s basketball players in the country.

This is a Duke team that lost just two games all season and captured the ACC Tournament title with a two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year in Elizabeth Williams, the ACC Tournament MVP in Alexis Jones and the third leading three-point shooter in the country in Tricia Liston.

That threesome proved to be the difference in the game as Liston led all scorers with 20 points, Williams poured in another 18 and Jones tallied 11 points while dishing out 10 assists. The Blue Devils needed everything these players and their teammates could offer in order to hold off a very athletic and hustling Hampton University team that captured 28 victories and went through the MEAC season with a perfect 16-0 record.

At the end of the first half, it looked like all the hustling and work by Hampton just would not be enough to overcome the No. 5 ranked Blue Devils. A 32-15 lead and a poor shooting performance by the Pirates of just 21.2 percent (7-of-33) made it look like the Pirates would be making a quick return trip home.

Postgame Press Conference l Interviews: Liston l Peters l Box Score l Photos

But after Hampton cut their early 19-point lead to six, the Blue Devils (31-2) needed a late 21-8 run to secure their 20th straight NCAA tournament-opening victory. They will play seventh-seeded Oklahoma State (22-10) on Tuesday night in the second round.

"The last thing you want is to get the impression that things are easy, because they're just not," McCallie said. "This is a winners' tournament. They've won their tournament. They've won their league. They've won big games. ... You just have to know that, as we talk to the team, there's a competitor's mentality that is very different than a fan's mentality."

Keiara Avant had 18 points for Hampton (28-6). Avant's jumper with just over 10 minutes left capped a furious 27-14 rally that pulled the Pirates to 46-40.

They clawed back because they made a determined effort to attack the rim and work the ball inside, instead of settling for lower-percentage shots.

"We said we were taking too many jump shots. It was important that we get to the hole, try to get them in foul trouble," Avant said. "We knew if we could get inside, get them in foul trouble, that we definitely had a shot at coming back."

But Duke locked down defensively - forcing Hampton to miss 12 of its next 15 shots - and scored on five straight trips to regain some separation and end the Pirates' 19-game winning streak.

Williams hit back-to-back layups before Liston's scoop shot made it 52-42 and put Duke up by double figures for good.

"It was really important to get paint shots, especially in a game like this," Williams said. "We want to create contact, try to get to the foul line and try to get the easiest shots we can get."Haley Peters finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds for Duke, which shot 50 percent in the second half and overcame some early struggles on the boards to outrebound Hampton by eight.

The Blue Devils stretched their home winning streak to 19 games and improved to 7-1 since losing Atlantic Coast Conference co-player of the year Chelsea Gray to a season-ending knee injury.

Olivia Allen finished with 15 points for the Pirates, but Nicole Hampton - who averages 12 points - had just two on 1-of-15 shooting while playing through what coach David Six said was a foot injury.

Hampton came in leading the nation by allowing an average of 47.2 points, and Duke became just the third opponent to score more than 60 against the Pirates.

"They had great ball pressure and we had to do some things that we hadn't done in the past couple of games," Liston said. "This will really help us grow and prepare us for our next game."

Neither team believed Hampton - which has wins over three opponents from major conferences - deserved such a poor seed, with McCallie saying afterward that the Pirates "should have been a higher seed" based on those non-conference victories.

"I said that nothing this weekend would make me think I was a 15 seed," Six said. "My mind still hasn't changed. We weren't a 15 seed."

The Pirates certainly showed how far they've come in the three years since their last visit to Duke - a 72-37 loss in the first round three years ago in which the teams had the same seeds as this year.

For a while, it looked as though that was going to happen to the Pirates again after the Blue Devils used a Williams-fueled 16-2 run to open a 19-point lead and seemingly break the game open.

The Virginia Beach, Va., native scored eight points during the burst before Liston's layup with just under 2 minutes left made it 32-13. Three of the Pirates' previous five opponents failed to crack 30 in an entire game.

"It's hard when you double down and you make a good play and they reverse it and they get a 3," Six said. "It deflates you a little bit. That being said, I thought that in the second half, we got after them defensively and forced them to turn the ball over - if they can be rattled. I thought that they showed that our defense was affecting them a little bit."

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Five-a-Side: Arkansas-Pine Bluff's Terron Armstead

TERRON  ARMSTEAD
(COURTESY UAPB ATHLETICS)

PINE BLUFF, Arkansas  --  He affectionately drew the nickname "Terronnosaurus Rex," but Arkansas-Pine Bluff senior Terron Armstead more resembled a raptor at the NFL Combine last month.

Armstead basically flew down the runway while he clocked 4.71 seconds in the 40-yard dash - a new Combine record for offensive linemen.

Add in Armstead's other measurables at the Combine, including 31 reps with the 225-pound bench press and a broad jump of 9 feet, 4 inches, plus his performances at the East-West Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl, and he has been one of the fastest risers across NFL draft boards in the last two months.

The 6-5, 306-pound Armstead has gone from being considered a late-round pick on the final day of the April 25-27 draft to a second- or third-round selection on the second day.

Armstead turned heads with the record run at the Combine, but it was equally important for the Southwestern Athletic Conference product to have a 1.64- second time in the first 10-yard split because offensive linemen generally don't have to run any farther down the field on a play. His fast split ranked second to Oklahoma's Lane Johnson among O-linemen.

Considered to have a high ceiling, Armstead has worked hard to polish his game since Arkansas-Pine Bluff ended its season in December with a win in the SWAC Championship Game. The Illinois native, who is represented by agent David Butz Jr. of SportsStars, Inc., in New York, has worked with UAPB offensive line coach Damon Nivens and at the highly regarded Athletes' Performance training institute in Florida.

Armstead is still trying to close the gap on the level of competition he faced in college, but NFL.com has compared Armstead to Houston Texans offensive tackle Duane Brown and CBSSports.com likens him to Joe Staley of the San Francisco 49ers.

In Five-a-Side - In the FCS Huddle's monthly feature of "five questions, five answers" with an influential person in the FCS - Armstead discusses his world- wind year and the upcoming draft.

Let's kick off:

TSN: Can you talk about your performance at the East-West Shrine Game, then the Senior Bowl and then the NFL Combine, and just how it's changed the NFL's perspective of you?

TA: Well, I really just went into the all-star games with sort of a chip on my shoulder being from a small school. I had to go and answer the question of level of competition. That really was my main focus, just to show everyone that I would be able to compete at a high level against the bigger-school guys.

TSN: How do view the importance of the Senior Bowl, the East-West Shrine Game and the Combine to what you accomplished during your career at Pine Bluff?

TA: Those all-star games were more of a personal thing; my career at Pine Bluff was all team-oriented. We won a conference championship this (past) year, so that was by far the biggest accomplishment of my football career. But those all-star games were just a personal thing, an individual thing, just to show you can compete against a bunch of all-stars really.

TSN: Obviously, you've risen on the draft boards and are being projected for the second or third round. What does that mean to you?

TA: It means a lot to be in this situation, an opportunity to be looking to get drafted. It's all a blessing, a great thing, a great opportunity. Any college player would be aiming to be a first-round draft pick, so, of course, I'm aiming to go as high as I possibly can.

TSN: Coming from the FCS level, do you feel like you have to do more to attract the NFL's attention?

TA: Of course, you have to pop out on film, you have to separate yourself. There's a lot of great players in my conference, so there's good competition, good talent. But coming from a small school, you have to stick out like a sore thumb - that's what they call it.

TSN: Can you describe your style of play?

TA: I'm an agile offensive lineman, I like to move, get up to the second level. I understand angles, I like to get out in an open field on screens or sweeps or tosses, but I also can get down in the pile game. I like I call myself a well-balanced, well-rounded player.




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RB Tillery has big day in Southern scrimmage

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana  --  There may be more than five months until Southern opens its football season Aug. 30 at the University of Houston, but one running back has already begun to emerge as the clear frontrunner in the backfield.

Sophomore Lenard Tillery shined in Southern’s spring scrimmage finale Saturday, busting out for 111 yards on 18 carries to easily lead all rushers on the afternoon. Southern ranked last in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in 2012, averaging just 79.5 yards per game on the ground.

But behind a rejuvenated O-line and a new offensive system, first-year coach Dawson Odums thinks 2013 may be a different story.

“I think we ran the ball the best we’ve ran it since we’ve been here,” Odums said after Saturday’s scrimmage. “Lenard Tillery ran the ball really well, and he is going to be a great running back for us going into the fall.”

The rest of the running backs combined for just 60 yards, compared to Tillery’s 6.2 yard-per-carry average. The McKinley High alum called his outing Saturday “decent at best,” but his efforts clearly impressed Odums, who tabbed Tillery as the lead man for the starting job heading into the fall.

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TSU Has Strong Showing at Baskin Weems Relays

COLUMBIA, South Carolina – The Tennessee State men’s and women’s track teams competed against 29 opponents in Saturday’s Baskin Weems Relays and secured 12 top-five finishes.

 

In the field events, Ashontae Jackson won the women’s long jump with a leap of 5.52 meters, which was nearly half a meter farther than the competition.

 

The Tigerbelles also performed well in the triple jump as Ja’Lyn Burr and Felicia Oladakun placed second and fourth, respectively, with hops of 11.4 and 11.33 meters.

 

Angel Davis was another standout performer for TSU, as the freshman had the second-longest discus toss of the day at 38.99 meters.

For the Flying Tigers, Jason Griffin cracked the top-five in the 110-meter hurdles by placing fourth with a final time of 15.18 seconds.

In the men’s high jump, Tennessee State dominated the competition as Daryl Rice won the event with a leap of two meters and Sean Jenkins took second with a jump of 1.95 meters.

The Flying Tigers were nearly just as successful in the long jump as Tyler Anderson won the event with a final of 6.71 meters. Teammate Royce Dates leapt 6.46 meters, which was good enough for fifth place.

Anderson also finished fifth in the triple jump, skipping 13.53 meters.

In the track events, Quanisha Sales placed third in the women’s 200-meter dash with a time of 25.52 seconds. She then paired with Jackson, Clairwin Dameus and Diera Taylor to take home second in the 4x100 meter relay.

Oteia Prince also finished second in the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase, completing the event in 10:29.35.

 

TSU will take a weekend off of competitions to prepare for the Pepsi- Florida Relays in Gainesville, Fla. on April 5.

 

 

COURTESY TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

Defense dominates Southern’s spring game

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana  --  Southern closed spring football camp Saturday with a 121-play scrimmage at A.W. Mumford Stadium, and surprisingly the defense stole the show.

Ending its first preseason under first-year head coach Dawson Odums, who previously was defensive coordinator, the second-team defense kept the first-team offense out of the end zone.

The scrimmage began with the first-team offense backed up to its 3-yard-line against the second-team defense. Both units rotated starters and reserves for a couple of rounds before moving the ball to the 45 for the same drill.

The final period of the scrimmage was a red-zone drill, with the offense beginning just 20 yards from the end zone. Drives led by senior quarterback Dray Joseph and the rest of the starters never resulted in points; the only offensive scores came from the second-teamers, when quarterback Wynton Perro was at the helm.

Joseph ended the scrimmage 12-of-24 for 118 yards and an interception but was upbeat afterward.

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