Tickets on sale for Savannah Invitational basketball tournament

SAVANNAH, Georgia -- Tickets on sale for Savannah Invitational

The Savannah Sports Council has announced that tickets are on sale for the Savannah Invitational, which features six women’s and eight men’s college basketball teams Nov. 22-26 at the Savannah Civic Center.

Participating women’s teams and conferences, which are scheduled to play Nov. 22-24, are Auburn (SEC), Ball State (MAC), East Carolina (AAC), Marist (MAAC), North Carolina A&T (MEAC) and West Virginia (Big 12).

Participating men’s teams and conferences, which are scheduled to play Nov. 25-26, are Akron (MAC), the U.S. Air Force Academy (MWC), East Carolina (AAC), , Georgia Southern (Sun Belt), Mercer (Southern), Radford (Big South) and Stetson (Atlantic Sun).
Florida A&M (MEAC)

Tickets may be purchased at SavannahInvitational.com or by calling the Savannah Civic Center box office at 912-651-6556.

CONTINUE READING

UMES women will face the Terps again in 2016-17

PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland -- For the second straight season, the University of Maryland's women's basketball team will face the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks.

The Terps released their non-conference slate for the 2016-17 season on Wednesday, July 20 and it includes a Nov. 16 meeting with Fred Batchelor's side in College Park. The time of the game has not been set. It is the second game on the Terps' schedule.

The Terps and the Hawks met last season in Princess Anne and Maryland handed UMES its largest margin of defeat in history, with Brenda Frese’s side winning by 76 points. This will be the fourth time that the Terps and Hawks have met in women’s basketball – Maryland has won every contest.

Maryland was 31-4 last season and won the Big Ten title before falling in the NCAA tournament to Washington. The Hawks took a six-game winning streak into the MEAC tournament, but fell in the first round.

UMES has not released its non-conference women’s basketball schedule. The men’s schedule hasn’t been released either, but George Washington and UTEP have released men’s basketball slates that include match-ups with the Hawks.

CONTINUE READING

Haynes repays Alcorn State for its trust

LORMAN, Mississippi -- On the day she graduated from Meridian Community College, Norianna Haynes learned of news that would drastically change her life for the foreseeable future.

Haynes was a standout basketball player at Northeast Lauderdale High School and later helped lead the Lady Eagles to an NJCAA Region 23 Championship in during the 2011-12 season. At the time of her graduation from MCC, Haynes held scholarship offers from a number of Division 1 women’s college basketball programs.

But on her graduation day, she found out she was six months pregnant.



“I didn’t have any symptoms,” Haynes, 24, recalled. “I played basketball, and I didn’t feel it. The doctor told me that with me playing a lot, I was at high risk. I had to let the schools know. When I told certain schools, they kind of fell back and told me basically I couldn’t give (them my all) because of me being pregnant.”

The pregnancy sidelined Haynes for a year, and also prompted a number of Division 1 programs to alter the conditions of their scholarships. The full-ride offers became partial offers. Haynes said the situation was difficult to accept at the time.

CONTINUE READING 

Texas Southern coach Mike Davis is shooting for more than just a SWAC championship

HOUSTON, Texas -- Texas Southern head coach Mike Davis is not afraid of a battle. You would think that after his team’s 1-11 start last year against a loaded non-conference schedule -- featuring losses to Syracuse, Baylor and Mississippi State -- that the Tigers would have folded up shop early last year.

But although his team got off to a rough start, it righted the ship against its SWAC conference foes, going 16-2 and ending within one game of the NCAA tournament.

You would think after faltering out of the blocks to start, that perhaps this year Davis would consider a different strategy moving forward for the Tigers. Not so.

Once again, Davis has his Tigers pitted against a formidable list of non-conference opponents to start 2016-17, including road games against Arizona, Louisville, Baylor, Cincinnati and TCU among others.

"I’m trying to build a team that has no relax time," Davis said. "My whole mindset is to go and play as many teams as we can on the road and never play a home game in non-conference."

He feels that having his players compete in those hostile environments would help reap some long-term benefits for his players, not to mention the checks that pour in from playing so many guarantees.

CONTINUE READING

Walter Payton remembered on his 62nd birthday

CHICAGO, Illinois -- Sneak away from the monotony of your work day today and do a Google video search for Walter Payton. You won’t be disappointed.

Monday would have been his 62nd birthday, after all, and you deserve some “you” time.

The Walter Payton-style running back — bruising, durable, workhorse — is indeed a thing of the past. It’s why we loved Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch, whose style most resembled that of “Sweetness” — a back who punished defenders, who initiated contact and who perfected the shoulder dip.



Mike Ditka, who coached the former Jackson State University star during the last half of an illustrious 13-year NFL career, called him “’the very best football player I’ve ever seen, period, at any position.”

Payton’s son, Jarrett, admitted in 2011 that it’s not always easy to be the son of a famous person — particularly in sports. But he embraces the legacy his father left behind. “It’s truly an honor,” said Jarrett Payton, who proudly champions the two awards in his dad’s honor: the Walter Payton Achievement Award, which is affiliated with the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, and the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, given annually by the NFL honoring a player’s volunteer and charity work, as well as his excellence on the field.

CONTINUE READING

XULA Gold Nuggets introduce three new distance runners

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana announced Thursday the addition of three student-athletes to its women's cross country program for the 2016-17 academic year. Signed to scholarships were:

• Alexis McDaniel of Biloxi, Miss., and Biloxi High School.
• Taylor Price of Missouri City, Texas, and Ridge Point High School.
• Imani Walker of St. Louis and Parkway North High School.

All will be freshmen and also will compete in outdoor track and field during the spring.
McDaniel was Biloxi's fastest finisher at the 2015 Class 6A state meet. She finished 38th overall and helped her team finish 17th in the team standings. As a junior in 2014, McDaniel placed 56th at the state meet and helped Biloxi finish 12th. She will be a pre-pharmacy major at Xavier.

Price was a national champion at the 2014 USATF Junior Olympics, winning the 3,000-meter run in the 15-16 age group for her club team, the Houston Visions. At Ridge Point she was sixth in the 1,600 at the 5A state outdoor track meet this year, and this past fall she was the Region III-5A individual champion in cross country. Price's best 5K time is 18 minutes, 8.72 seconds, a school record she set while winning the 2014 district meet. Price's XU major will be biomedical science.

Walker was a four-time conference outdoor track champion in the 800 and holds the school record at 2:19.97. She has produced a pair of top-six finishes at the AAU Junior Olympics, including fifth place in 2012. Walker will major in kinesiology
.

Also joining the cross country roster will be sophomore Maliya Vaughan, who competed in track this past season. There will be three returning letterwinners: Chinyere Jones, Dionysia Love and Brianna Pace. The Gold Nuggets will run their first meet of the season in late August. Xavier will release the 2016 schedule soon.

Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
twitter.com/xulagold
www.facebook.com/xulagold 

Larry Smith set to represent Alcorn in MS Sports Hall of Fame

JACKSON, Mississippi -- Larry Smith wasn’t gifted with natural-born scoring ability, so he knew there were other things he had to do in order to stay on the basketball court.

“It was a situation where if I wanted to get playing time, I needed to find a way to acquire playing time,” Smith said. “I felt if I pound the glass, rebound the ball and play great defense and did those little things, the playing time will come.”

Those little things added up to a stellar career, which stretched from Simmons High School to Alcorn State and a 13-year career in the NBA for the Rolling Fork native.

The next stop for Smith is the BancorpSouth Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame where he’ll be inducted Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Jackson Convention Center.

“I think he’s one of Mississippi’s all-time basketball greats,” Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame historian Rick Cleveland said. “By any definition he should be in there. He was a great basketball player in college, and was a really solid player in the pros.”

CONTINUE READING