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Livingstone’s women’s basketball team had two starters out with sprained ankles, but it was Morris College that hobbled away from New Trent Gym on Saturday, victims of a 70-51 romp by the Blue Bears.
The second day of the fourth annual Ella Hargett Classic produced a dream game for coach Andrew Mitchell, who had the opportunity to employ everyone in uniform early and often. Eleven of the Bears (7-1) played double-figure minutes and 11 cracked the scoring column.
“The team we beat was not the greatest, but it was great to see how our bench players stepped in there,” said Mitchell. “We may be in that situation in a much tougher game someday and now we learned what our kids can do. We saw good things.”
Deneatrice Marsh and Martha Foye stepped into the starting lineup for injured Shonda Evans and Robyn Wright and did well. Alycia Garrison, Miriam Baltimore, Keneshia Jackson and Sabrina Sanders made big impressions off the bench.
Mitchell’s stars, shooting guard Erica Deas, and 6-foot-5 center Julie Tarrance, played barely half the game, but still combined for 33 points, including the Bears’ first dozen. But neither was Hargett MVP, an honor that fell to Bear point guard Angela Thomas, who didn’t have big stats, but set the tone for the rout with her defense and her knack for getting all her teammates involved on the offensive end.
“Angie’s a very humble human being and that’s why she looked so shocked when she won the award,” said Mitchell, who personally placed the plaque in Thomas’ happy hands. “But she’s the leader of this team.”
“Angie deserved MVP,” said Deas, “because of her defense.”
“I’m very proud,” said Thomas. “I was surprised, because I have the utmost respect for Erica and Julie. I don’t mind taking a backseat to them, because they are the superstars. They built this program.”
It was only 8-6 Bears when Deas and Tarrance built a lead. Deas converted a hanger in the lane, then led Tarrance to the rim perfectly with a soft lob to make it 12-6. Then Baltimore had two assists on Tarrance finishes and Sanders made a short jumper in the lane. Suddenly, the Bears were off on a 21-3 tear that blew away the visiting Hornets (0-11).
Meanwhile, Thomas was leading a suffocating Bear defense that held Morris without a field goal for 15 minutes, seven seconds.
“It was mostly intimidation,” said Morris assistant coach Rodney Johnson, who was filling in for head coach Gilbert Wilson, sidelined by high blood pressure. “Tarrance takes away the inside. Our girls just didn’t believe they could score in there.”
By the time Morris made its second field goal of the half, it was down 29-9 and the Blue Bear pep band may as well have been playing “Taps” instead of the energetic ESPN theme song it was belting out.
“That run was caused by defense,” said Mitchell. “Defense is always there for us even when we don’t shoot well. I’m a multiple zone coach, but this group likes to play man-to-man and has requested to play man.”
Saturday, the Bears gave Mitchell some pretty good reasons to keep right on playing it.
Still, Morris, which has serious injury problems of its own — three Hornets were on crutches — scrapped back against Bear reserves to make it a respectable 34-22 at halftime.
But Thomas, Deas and Tarrance returned to the floor to start the second half. Deas poured in nine in the first four minutes of the half, including her only 3-pointer of the game.
“Coach told me I’d better go out there and shoot some to keep my average up,” laughed Deas. “He said I wasn’t going to be out there long.”
Deas scored 15 in all to torment Morris, which is located in her hometown of Sumter, S.C.
“But I didn’t know but maybe two of their players,” said Deas.
Morris’ coaches knew all about her, however.
“Deas is very good,” said Johnson. “We wanted very much to keep Deas at home. Her high school had four fine players and we would liked to have had any of them. But she was the best.”
Both Deas and Tarrence, who finished with 18 points and 15 boards to make the All-Hargett team, called it a day shortly after Tarrence soared over the block-out attempt of Morris’ Shemeika Stokes for a putback which put the Bears on top 51-34 with 11 minutes left.
Bear reserves finished things off, with Garrison, a freshman just coming back from a hip injury, making spectacular passes to fifth-year senior Sanders for a pair of highlight-reel layups.
“That shows we have a lot of players on this team,” said Thomas. “This is not a team of five; it’s a team of 15. We’ve just got to play defense, stay focused and keep it going.”
MORRIS (51) — Jenkins 2, Hamilton 5, Connor 2, Stokes 7, Murcier 10, Reese 17, Hicks 2, Baker 5, Anderson 1.
LIVINGSTONE(70) — Deas 15, Marsh, Thomas 4, Tarrance 18, Foye 2, S.Brown 4, Garrison 5, Baltimore 3, Jackson 6, Linder 3, Sanders 8, McInnis 2, D. Brown.
Morris 22 29 — 51
Livingstone 34 36 — 70
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