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Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
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By Brian Bailey |
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Lady Pirates sprint out of
the gates
©2005 Bonesville.net
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Replay Monday
night's Brian Bailey Show, featuring guest
Sharon Baldwin-Tener. |
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Select audio clip |
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East Carolina’s women opened
with a tough loss to Duquesne. Since then, Sharon Baldwin-Tener and crew
have reeled off five straight wins, including Sunday’s victory over Drexel
to win the Ativola/CPW’s Lady Pirate Invitational.
It’s the best start for the
women in 18 years.
“I thought we played very
well, especially defensively, until the final four minutes,” said Baldwin-Tener.
Former Ayden-Grifton prep star
Cherie Mills was named the tournament’s MVP. Mills provides a dominating
presence inside. She came to East Carolina after earning All-America honors
at Louisburg.
“Cherie has worked real hard,”
said Baldwin-Tener. “She is really good around the basket and is playing
well.”
Mills scored a career-high 35
points in East Carolina’s 74-71 win over North Carolina A&T.
Mills had 21 points and 14
rebounds in ECU's tournament opener, a tough 59-55 win over Southern. She
came back and scored 13 points in the championship win over Drexel.
Drexel did on defense what
many others are sure to do this season against East Carolina.
“They did a really good job of
sagging in on her and we were having a little bit harder time trying to get
her the ball," said Baldwin-Tener. "That is something that we have to get
better at and we have got to get her more touches against a zone.”
Mills inside play and the
team’s talented reserves have combined to play major roles in the good
start.
“We have a lot of balance and
depth and I knew that we were going to have to play a lot of people today,”
said Coach Baldwin-Tener. “We had a tough game yesterday, which was
different from last year because we had three guard and didn’t have many
subs. But now, we have different players that will step up and are capable
of making plays. It is good when you can have people playing 10-12 minutes,
be able to help and be productive on the floor.”
The Lady Pirates host Virginia
Commonwealth on Wednesday night before breaking for exams. They open
Conference USA play on December 16th at Marshall.
Football on solid footing for
2006
Pirate coach Skip Holtz hosted
the media to close out the 2005 football season this past Friday.
I can’t remember any other ECU
football coach closing out the season in such a fashion. Holtz, though,
really wants to continue to get the word out about his program.
"When you look back on the
season, it was a memorable and frustrating year in a lot of ways,” Holtz
said. “It was a year of `what ifs' because early in the season, if we could
have gotten over the hump, we might have found a way to win one or two of
those close games."
One more win would have put
East Carolina in a bowl game. Still, looking back, East Carolina AD Terry
Holland got just what he wanted in Skip Holtz.
The Pirates are respected
again. This team was competitive in every game and the future is bright.
"With where we are right now,
the big thing for us is where we finished and where we are going from here,”
Holtz said. “We are extremely excited to be where we are and to make the
progress that we have made, but we are certainly not satisfied with where
are as a football program. We still have a long way to go but we did take a
step to where we can be competitive in Conference USA.
"When we first came in and met
with Terry Holland and Chancellor (Steve) Ballard, the expectations of where
we want to go with the schedule that we are playing, the insinuation was
that we are going to have to step it up. We are a long way away from where
we need to be, because it will only get harder as we go.”
The future is bright, but the
competition will be stiff. Next year the Pirates play eight bowl teams.
Watch the bowls this season with great interest, because the Pirates will be
playing a great schedule next season.
According to the Web site
NationalChamps.net, ECU's season
will begin with a Labor Day match-up versus Navy in Annapolis. After
watching the Army-Navy game, the Pirates might want to work on stopping the
fullback early in summer camp.
Football season goes by much
too quickly. Here’s looking forward to a quick offseason, and a football
season to remember in 2006.
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Brian Bailey.
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02/23/2007 01:32:20 AM |
