The Rambler (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 7, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 10, 2004 Page: 6 of 8
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The Rambler
Lady Rams' winning streak, national hopes broken in RRAC tourney
Marc Nettles
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
With 1.8 seconds left in the semifinals of
the Red River Athletic Conference
Tournament, Langston's Cynthia Hogg broke
the hearts of the Lady Rams and their fans at
Sid Richardson Gymnasium March 6.
Her putback beneath the basket ended
the Lady Rams' conference tourney run early
and snapped Wesleyan's 11-game winning
streak.
Their road to heartbreak first went
through UT-Permian Basin at home two
nights prior.
Freshman Nastassia Brown had 13 points
and a team-high 12 rebounds off the bench to
lead Texas Wesleyan past UTPB, 66-58, in
the first round.
Down by two points, with 2:10 remain-
ing in the game, junior Kashae Townsend
produced a three-point play to put the Lady
Rams up by one, with 1:58 left in the con-
test. After a Shayla Coleman block,
Townsend scored again in the paint to
increase the lead to three. Junior Johnna
Flemmons came up with a huge steal at the
other end and found Brown for the fast-break
lay-up at the other end to increase the lead to
five, with 56 seconds remaining in the game.
Texas Wesleyan iced the game, making 3-of-
4 free throws and a layup by Brown to
advance to the semifinals of the conference
tournament.
"We had trouble controlling the ball all
game and they got hot in the second half,"
head coach Stacy Francis said. "However,
our upperclassmen stepped up at the end
when we needed them to."
Texas Wesleyan started the game on a
16-3 run, keyed by four points each by sen-
ior Ashley Walker and junior LaRhonda
Hunter.
The Lady Rams would increase their
lead to 32-14, at the 4:19
mark of the first half.
UTPB fought back
outscoring the Lady Rams
13-2, down the stretch
in the first half to cut the
lead to 34-27 at the break.
The Lady Falcons
opened the second half on a
22-15 run, knotted the score
at 49-49, with 6:36 remain-
ing.
Texas Wesleyan shot 44
percent (24-for-54) from the
floor and 75 percent from
the charity stripe.
UT-Permian Basin shot
33 percent (23-for-70) from the field, includ-
ing 28 percent from behind the arc. The
Lady Falcons also shot 71 percent from the
free-throw line.
The Lady Rams turned the ball over 23
times compared to 16 for UTPB. The Lady
Rams, however, outrebounded the Lady
Falcons, 46-36.
Townsend led Texas Wesleyan with 15
points and also totaled nine rebounds.
Walker chipped in with 10 points and seven
rebounds in only 19 minutes of play.
Photo by Whitney Fowler
Freshman Nastassia Brown
played a huge part in
Wesleyan's tourney success.
and five steals. The shooting guard made
five treys and also tallied five rebounds.
Teresa Jourdan chipped in with 13 points and
a team-high 11 rebounds.
"We have a tough opponent on
Saturday," Francis said after the victory over
UTPB. "It is definitely the biggest game of
the season."
That "biggest game of the
season" proved to be a definite
test for the youthful Lady Rams
squad.
Wesleyan was down, 44-36
with 5:04 remaining in the sec-
ond half, but fought back
outscoring Langston 10-2 down
the stretch. The run was capped
off by a Brown layup with 26
seconds remaining. In the ensu-
ing possession, Langston's
Natosha Rouse's jumper in the
lane fell short with five seconds
ticking slowly off the clock but
Hogg was there for the rebound
and heartbreaking putback.
Langston, which improved their RRAC
record to 17-14, opened the game on a 7-0
run, sparked by a Veronica Austin trey.
The Lady Rams fought back with a 10-3
run over the next five minutes to take a 13-
10 lead with 10:32 remaining in the first
half. They received six points from freshman
guard Stephanie Sewell and four points from
Brown.
Both teams traded baskets the rest of the
first half and Wesleyan took a 25-23 lead
In the second half, Austin's layup with
12:13 remaining in the game tied the score,
32-32. Austin led the Lady Lions with six
second-half points.
Texas Wesleyan shot 28 percent (14-for-
51) from the floor and a season-high 89 per-
cent (16-for-18) from the charity stripe. The
Lady Rams also shot an icy 17 percent from
behind the arc.
Langston shot 30 percent from the field
and 50 percent from the free-throw line. The
Lady Lions also shot 67 percent from the
three-point line.
Langston outrebounded Texas Wesleyan,
43-40, while both teams turned the ball over
23 times.
Walker led the Lady Rams with 12
points and 10 rebounds, while Brown fin-
ished with 11 points and nine rebounds off of
the bench.
Austin led Langston with nine points
while Hogg led the Lady Liorts with 10
rebounds.
The Lady Rams season is likely over,
finishing an extremely impressive 22-9. They
do, however, have an outside shot of receiv-
ing an at-large bid to the NAIA National
Tournament in Jackson, Tenn. The announce-
ment will be made sometime next week.
Check the athletic department's Website,
www.ramsports.net, for further information.
Jessica Hearn led UTPB with 20 points heading into the break.
Be sure to check out the next issue o/TheJ
Rambler to see which of your favorite
Lady Rams were selected for All-RRAC
teams and awards.
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RRAC TOURNEY BRACKETS
2004 RRAC Men's Basketball Tournament
March 6-13, 2004
First Round
March 6
(Hosted by higher-seeded teams)
#1 Houston Baptist vs. #8 Texas Wesleyan, 101-96
#2 Bacone d. #7 SW Assemblies of God. 96-92
#3 Langston d. U6 Huston-Tillotson. 81-76 (ol)
#5 Texas College d. #4 Jarvis Christian, 61-58
Semifinals
March 12
Waxahachie, Texas
#1 Houston Baptist vs. #5 Texas College
#2 Bacone vs. #3 Langston
Championship Game
March 13
Waxahachie, Texas
2004 RRAC Women's Basketball Tournament
March 4-8, 2004
First Round
March 4
(Hosted by higher-seeded teams)
#1 Houston Baptist d. #8 Jarvis Christian, 79-62
#2 Texas Wesleyan d. 1t~) UT-Pcrmian Basin, 66-58
#3 Langston d. #6 Wiley, 71-40
U5 Texas A&M International d. #4 Huston-Tillotson, 95-89
Semifinals
March 6
#1 Houston Baptist d. #5 Texas A&M International. 102-38
#3 Langston d #2 Texas Wesleyan, 47-45
Championship Game
March 8
#1 Houston Baptist d. #3 Langston, 89-52
For any additional information on the RRAC tourney,
visit www.redriverconference.com.
Yll
Men's basketball enters tourney 8th seed, falls in first round to HBU
Patrick Johnson
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Texas Wesleyan Rams, coming into Houston as under-
dogs, and having lost their last two games against Houston
Baptist University, went into Sharp Gymnasium Saturday
night and trampled the six-time conference champion
Huskies for the majority of the contest.
It took a huge scoring effort from the Huskies' bench-
including a career-high 27 points from Elester Whitmore-for
the Huskies to stay alive.
The Rams took control of the game early jumping out to a
24-9 lead as the Huskies had no answer for the Rams' big
three, senior forwards David Johnson and Wesley Haynes
and junior forward Joey Gladney.
Johnson hit the Huskies hard going 6-for-7 for 14 points to
go along with four assists, two blocks and five rebounds in
the first half alone. He would finish with 24 points.
Gladney added 15 first half points going 6-for-8, including
3-for-4 from the three-point line, and finished the game with
18 points. Haynes threw in yet another 14 points (32 for the
game) as the Rams finished a dominating first half-shooting
55 percent from the floor.
"I think the whole team is anxious because we know our
potential. We feel like we're about to finally show it at the
best time. We're just going to lay it all out on the line," stat-
ed Brian Harston, senior guard, before the game.
In the second half, the Huskies offense roared to life. With
one minute expired, Whitmore hit a three-pointer to bring the
score to 49-52, in favor of the Rams. Two minutes later, he
hit another three-pointer to give the Huskies the lead. He
would go on to finish the night hitting seven of 10 attempts
from the three-point line.
According to Anthony Martin, point guard for the Rams,
his strategy for guarding Whitmore after he had made a cou-
ple of three-pointers was to "Just try to body him up and
make him dribble, but against the zone, he found the open
spots and hurt us."
After losing the lead, the Rams went to Johnson, who
would answer with a dunk followed by two more buckets
before having to leave the game after being blown for his
fourth foul.
The Rams felt Johnson's absence but managed to take the
lead back twice—once on a free throw by Martin to com-
plete a three-point play and again with a basket by Harston,
whose jump shot on the baseline brought the score to 67-
65,in favor of the Rams. With Johnson in foul trouble,
Martin playing through injury and the loss of big shooters,
Gladney and sophomore guard Brad Schilder, who both
fouled out, the Rams still led most of the second half.
Down the stretch however, the Huskies would take advan-
tage of a string of turnovers to take the lead back with five
minutes left to play, and the Rams came unraveled. They
stayed close with baskets from Haynes, Harston, Johnson
and freshman guard Aaron Smith, but would never regain the
lead. Gladney commented about the second half, "We came
out hot, I hit three three [pointers]. [We were] playing to win
and maintained the lead into the second half. Then a couple
of turnovers allowed them to get back into the game."
The Huskies scored 33 points due to the Rams' mistakes.
They went on to win 101-96— thanks to the extra help from
the Rams' 21 turnovers and their bench who outscored the
TWU bench 42-7.
Whitmore wasn't the only one of the Huskies to pour in
more than his fair share. Guards Ricky Bennett and Paul
Nelson and senior foiward Michael Holmquist all would
have to step up and score above their regular season averages
for the Huskies to fend off the Rams who, from the tip-off,
never were out of the game.
Furthermore, had the Huskies turned in their usual effort,
90 points, it would not have been enough. The Rams' 96-
point effort Saturday night would have been enough to beat
any team in their conference on an average night as the high-
est scoring average in the RRAC is 90 points per game by
Houston Baptist.
Check out the next issue o/The Rambler to see which
of your favorite Rams were selected for All-RRAC
teams and awards.
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Nettles, Marc. The Rambler (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 7, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 10, 2004, newspaper, March 10, 2004; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth253315/m1/6/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Wesleyan University.