southcarolina

MEAC Announces All-Sports Award Winners

Thu, 25 May 2006 01:34:25 GMT

Coppin State finished seventh in the Layman Hill Award and 11th in the Mary McLeod Bethune Award as the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference announced its annual all-sports winners.
Hampton won its fifth consecutive women's title with 60.5 points, while the Norfolk State men won for the second straight year with 67.5 points.
The CSU men earned 36.5 points with its highest point totals coming from basketball (10 points) and baseball (9 points).
The Eagles' women's programs received 35.5 points highlighted by the 12 points from the conference champion basketball team. The CSU volleyball team earned six points.
Points are awarded on a descending basis beginning with 12 points for a championship or first place finish. The second place team receives 10 points, and tied teams split the point total.
The Mary McLeod Bethune Award, named after the founder of Bethune-Cookman College, awards the top overall women's athletic program during the course of one full academic year. The first Mary McLeod Bethune Award was given in 1987 to Delaware State University. Florida A&M leads all MEAC schools with nine women's awards from 1993-2000. The men's all-sports award is named after the late Talmadge Layman Hill, a former player and coach at Morgan State, and former Chairman of the MEAC Steering and Planning Committee, as well as the league's first President. Howard University was the recipient of the first award in 1972. South Carolina State holds the men's record with 11 awards from 1973-84.

Denson's resiliency, Glover's consistency earn them top T&D honors - College Basketball

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 18:51:00 GMT

Just call Melaney Denson "The Comeback Kid."

Making a full return from one torn ACL injury is tough enough for most basketball players. In the South Carolina State University senior forward's case, the challenge of coming back was made even tougher by the fact that she was recovering from her second such injury in as many seasons.

Add a painful shoulder injury and the odds were stacked against the Florida native returning to the form which made her an All-Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Freshman and first-team selection during her first two seasons with the basketball team Lady Bulldogs.

Not only did Denson miss just one game, she had a career year statistically and led the Lady Bulldogs to their highest finish in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Championship and most victories in four years.

This year's unofficial "Comeback Player of the Year" is also the 2005-06 All-T&D Region Women's Player of the Year.

Denson averaged a team-high 15.1 points per game and was tied for the team lead in rebounds at 6.2 boards per game. In 27 of the 28 games she played this season for the Lady Bulldogs, Denson was the leading scorer 13 times and the top rebounder six times in earning All-MEAC tournament second-team honors.

She scored a season-high 29 points against Savannah State and ended her college career with a double-double (24 points, 10 rebounds) in a first-round MEAC tournament loss to Howard. The loss did not diminish Denson's accomplishment in overcoming physical adversity to earn top local honors.

"Melaney was a huge asset to the team," SCSU head coach Tonya Mackey said. "Very consistent. She would give you at least those 14-15 points a night. Of course, she's always been a kid that I've rant and raved about as far as giving everything that she has whenever she's on the court.

College basketball - 2006 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament Preview

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 00:40:00 GMT

About the basketball college teams South Carolina State and Florida A&M. Both schools earned a pass into the quarterfinal round, but are set to square off against each other on March 9th, while the other three schools with a bye into the quarters have to wait to see who they will play. As mentioned before, the Bulldogs finished the ncaa season tied for third place with Bethune-Cookman, but because of two setbacks to the Wildcats, South Carolina State took the fourth seed. The Bulldogs closed out the regular season with a solid run, winning five of their last six contests, including three straight. As for the Rattlers, they ended the year with a 10-8 mark in the MEAC, but they struggled down the stretch, losing five of their last seven games. Florida A&M is 26-20 in postseason action and is one of three current MEAC championship tournament members with three tourney titles -- the latest coming in 2004.

Betts ousts 3 assistants - Basketball NCAA

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 19:17:00 GMT

Tim Gates heard the whispers for almost two months about his future as a South Carolina State men’s basketball assistant coach.

Once the Bulldogs team completed their first sub-500 season in four years, Gates learned the “talk” was true. On Wednesday, SCSU men’s basketball coach Benjamin Betts confirmed assistant coaches Gates, Travis Williams and volunteer assistant Cecil Green would not return to the bench next season.

“Ben Betts said it was his decision,” Gates said. “He didn’t give us any reason other than to say that he just decided to go in another direction.”

The decision was something, Betts said, was based on his final evaluation following a 14-16 campaign. Picked in the preseason to win the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular season title, the Bulldogs finished tied for third with Bethune-Cookman and saw their bid for an NCAA tournament bid end for the third consecutive year they didn't won the semifinal in the tournament.

Rattlers fall to S.C. State Bulldogs

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 22:51:00 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. - The short-handed Florida A&M men's basketball team played tough, but just didn't have enough to get past South Carolina State, which pulled out a 60-52 victory in the quarterfinals of the MEAC tournament on Thursday night at the RBC Center.

The Rattlers had to play without senior guard Tony Tate, who didn't make the trip with the team to deal with personal issues in Tallahassee.Tate, an All-MEAC first-team selection, was the Rattlers' leading scorer in the regular season. Even without Tate, the Rattlers played the Bulldogs tough and had their chances down the stretch to pull out a victory.

''We had three freshman play as well as they could have,'' FAMU coach Mike Gillespie said. ''The 3-point shot is such a momentum changer. We just couldn't get one to fall for us.''

The Rattlers (14-17) trailed by as many as 16 points in the second half, but went on a 16-3 run to close the Bulldogs' lead to just three points.

The Rattlers came as close as 52-50 with 1:30 left in the game, but a couple of costly turnovers by sophomore Jon Mason halted the Rattlers' comeback.

They were Mason's only two turnovers of the game.

The Bulldogs capitalized off the mistakes and outscored the Rattlers 8-2 the rest of the way.

''It was very hard-fought ballgame. I'm proud of the way our kids played. They (South Carolina State) did a great job of preventing us from getting the ball to Sanders and Elliott,'' Gillespie said.

Mason and the other reserves did their part offensively, however, to make up for Tate's absence.

Mason scored nine points off the bench, while freshman Lamar Twitty added 11 points.

Junior forward Brian Greene led the Rattlers with 19 points.

The Bulldogs (14-15), also got a big lift from their bench, as reserve guard William Sago led his team with 16 points. Derrick Davis led S.C. State's starters with 13 points.

Outside shooting played a key factor in the game's outcome.

While the Bulldogs were able to find their range from the outside, particularly in the first half, the Rattlers struggled to find their range the entire game.

The Bulldogs shot 48.6 percent from the field, while the Rattlers shot just 35.6 percent.

From behind the arc, the Bulldogs made seven shots, while the Rattlers got just one each from Mason and Twitty.

South Carolina State Maryland-Eastern Shore

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 22:40:00 GMT

ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) - Derrick Davis scored 16 points as South Carolina State beat Maryland-Eastern Shore 73-60 Wednesday night.

Benjamin Washington's 3-pointer with just over two minutes in the first half gave the Bulldogs (12-15, 10-7 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) their first lead of the game and sparked a 9-0 run that gave South Carolina State a 35-28 halftime lead.

The Hawks (6-21, 3-14) stayed close to begin the second half, but a three-point play by Davis with just over 11 minutes to go pushed the Bulldogs lead into double-digits.

The Hawks would never get closer than nine the rest of the way.

The win keeps South Carolina State in fifth place in the MEAC. The top five teams in the league get a bye into the quarterfinals of next week's conference tournament.

Washington had 14 points and Thurman Zimmerman added 12 points and 10 rebounds for South Carolina State.

Troy Jackson scored 20 points and Tim Pargam had eight points and 12 rebounds for the Hawks

In the spotlight -- Bulldogs host Hornets on national television

Sat, 04 Feb 2006 00:54:00 GMT

National television has been very good to the South Carolina State football team under head coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough.

SCSU men’s basketball coach Ben Betts can only hope that winning karma rubs off on the Bulldogs tonight at 9 p.m. when they play host to defending Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion Delaware State. The game will be televised on ESPNU (Channel 609 on DirecTV and Channel 148 on The Dish Network) and carried on WSSB (90.3 FM).

The Hornets have won four straight meetings with SCSU, including a 66-60 victory in Dover on Jan. 7. While Delaware State (11-10, 9-0) has continued its winning ways with nine straight victories and is one of 10 national teams still undefeated in their respective conferences, the Bulldogs (6-13, 4-5) return to the Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center having dropped five of their last seven games.

SCSU did pull off a 56-44 road win over Norfolk State on Monday. It matched the lowest point total allowed this season by the Bulldogs, who also had All-Conference senior Thurman Zimmerman lead the team in scoring for just the second time this season.

Forward Brian Mason leads SCSU in scoring at 16.6 points and is averaging 6.7 rebounds per game. Meanwhile, Delaware State guard Jahsha Blunt is his team’s lone double-figure scorer with 14.5 points per game. In his previous visit to Orangeburg last January, Blunt nailed five 3-pointers to finish with 19 points in a 82-73 come-from-behind win.

The Hornets lead the MEAC in scoring defense, holding opponents to 58.2 points per game, three less than what the Bulldogs are averaging this season. Delaware State is also second in the conference in three-point shooting at 33 percent, but face an SCSU team that ranks third in three-point field goal defense.

While the SCSU men look to climb out of its low position in the standings, the Lady Bulldogs (7-10, 5-4) have a chance to move into a second-place tie with a victory over the Lady Hornets (12-6, 6-3).

Since a 55-48 loss to Delaware State, SCSU has won four of its last six games to surpass its conference-win total from last season. Senior forward Melaney Denson continues her push for unofficial “Conference Comeback Player of the Year” as she’s leading the team in scoring (13.8 points) and rebounding (5.5 boards per game).