The Aerie, Yearbook of North Texas State University, 1986 Page: 252

                                
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wins

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stretch

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Lady Eagles hold on to first place in Southland Conference

NTSU's womens basket-
ball team had two last con-
ference home games to pro-
tect their conference lead.
The first was against
McNeese State University,
a team that had beaten
NTSU in their first meet-
ing.
The homecourt advan-
tage seemed to give the
Lady Eagles the advantage
they needed as they
squeaked by McNeese 65-
64. McNeese was the se-
condplace team in the con-
ference and really the only
team who threatened to
challenge NTSU for the
SLC title.
The next conference
home game against Lamar

University wasn't supposed
to be a tough game for
NTSU, considering that
Lamar hadn't won a confer-
ence game all year. Howev-
er, Lamar looked like they
might get that first confer-
ence victory at the expense
of the Lady Eagles, as they
kept the game close and
forced it into overtime.
NTSU came up with the
victory, thanks to juniors
Clara Campbell with her
usual 24 points and Joy
Roberts coming off the
bench to hit several clutch
baskets down the stretch.
The Lady Eagles then
had a two-game break from
the conference race, playing
West Texas State Universi-

ty and the University of Ar-
kansas at Little Rock. West
Texas appeared to have
NTSU's number, defeating
the Lady Eagles for the sec-
ond time in the year, 60-52
at the Super Pit.
NTSU got back on track
the following week on the
road by whipping Arkansas
Little Rock, 84-55. The
Lady Eagles continued a
road swing through Arkan-
sas, taking on SLC oppo-
nent Arkansas State Uni-
versity two days later.
An NTSU victory over
ASU would assure the Lady
Eagles at least a tie for the
Southland Conference
championship. NTSU had
routed Arkansas State earli-

er in the year, however, this
time it wasn't to be as easy.
Arkansas State led by one
point in the second half of
what had been a close con-
test the entire evening.
Again, NTSU had a good
stretch drive and took a 73-
67 victory over Arkansas
State. This victory meant
that all NTSU had to do
was win one of the remain-
ing three games to be the
1986 Southland Conference
Champions.
This was a team who last
year, was in last place in the
conference. "We've come a
long way, and now we con-
trol our own destiny," said
coach Judy Nelson.

Junior Joy Roberts run the fast break for NT. Roberts averaged
8 points off the bench for the Lady Eagles (above). Transfer
Lindy French pressures a Sam Houston State opponent (right).

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