The Potomac Highlands Dispatch
Phone: 301-264-3147
Email: [email protected]
P.O. Box 651
Mount Savage, MD 21545
Trojans win Region XX, advance to national tourney
Second time ever in team history
By PhDispatch.com
CUMBERLAND, March 6 - The Allegany College of Maryland women's basketball team might be considered a group risk-taker.
That's okay, though, because the Trojans continue to defy the odds.
On Sunday, Allegany earned its second berth into the NJCAA Division II national tournament in team history by defeating top-seeded Frederick Community College, 77-68 in the Region XX championship game.
Play begins March 15 at Illinois Central College in East Peoria, Ill., with the championship game slated for March 19. Allegany is seeded No. 14 in the tournament and is pitted against the third-seeded Kankakee Community College Cavaliers. The Cavaliers enter the tournament with a 30-1 record. The Trojans, coached by Garett Sherman, are 28-3.
As in the semifinal against Potomac State on Saturday, the Trojans trailed by seven at halftime. On Sunday, they faced a three-point deficit after the first half of play.
Didn't matter. Larae Allen, selected to the all-tournament team, scored 15 of her team-best 18 points in the second half and Allegany led by as many as 16 points.
Allen added 14 rebounds, Kirkston Mitchell had 16 points, Ashleigh Fossell had 13 points and tournament MVP Dakeea Marshall contributed 10 points. Tamara Nesmeth added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Trojans.
Related links:
* Tournament bracket
* Tournament website (watch live webcast!)
Angie Bosley photo
Early bird catches the worm
Trojans depart Cumberland at 6 a.m. for national tournament
* Allegany enters tourney play with No. 3 defense in country
By Kevin Spradlin
PhDispatch.com
CUMBERLAND, March 13 -- The hardest part of Garett Sherman's job over the next few days might already be successfully completed.
After all, he managed to get every member of his Allegany College of Maryland women's basketball team to the college on Sunday morning - on time - to depart for Peoria, Ill. The Trojans qualified for the NJCAA Women's Division II Championship tournament by winning the Region XX and District K titles last weekend.
This is the first time the team has qualified for the national championship tournament since 1993.
Complicating matters was the switch to Daylight Savings Time, which meant the planned 6 a.m. departure felt like 5 a.m. Players began arriving shortly before 5:30 and the school's custom bus was able to leave on time.
Everyone arrived well before 6 a.m. and Sherman was able to direct the team's bus driver to head out of the school parking lot, onto Willowbrook Road and Interstate 68 West two minutes early.
Before they left, Sherman talked about the difficulty of playing against third-seeded Kankakee Community College. The Cavaliers, Sherman said, spent much of the season in the top spot of the national rankings. They like to press, he said, but Allegany has beaten opponents like Frederick Community College and Potomac State College this season. Both of those teams like to pressure the other team into making mistakes, Sherman said.
Kankakee is currently No. 4 in the NJCAA Division II women's poll. The Cavaliers have averaged a little more than 97 points a game - second in the nation. The Trojans are ranked 11th nationally in the same category, scoring an average of 77.2 points per game.
Kankakee is ranked second among all Division II teams in field goal percentage (48 percent) while Allegany is fourth (46 percent). The Cavaliers also make 70 percent of their free throws - fifth best rate in the country.
"They're a very good team," Sherman said of Kankakee. "This is their sixth straight year going to the national tournament (but) we've proven we can win against that style of play."
Sherman has reason to believe the Trojans can play their game, a mix of shooting inside and outside.
"We have to be able to handle their pressure," he said. "Defensively, we've been strong all year. If we can rebound the ball and keep them to one shot, I think we're going to be okay."
Sherman's right. The Trojans are ranked third among all D-II schools in the country in defense, having allowed just 50.3 points per game. Kankakee has allowed an average of 60 points a game, but that rate does not get the team inside the top 25.
Sherman said he hopes first-time jitters don't get to the Trojans. The current set of players have never qualified for the national tournament.
"The first time out, you hope there's not a feeling-out process for the first five minutes or so of the game," Sherman said. "We've been really preaching all week we need to start the game with our foot on the gas and hitting all cylinders, and not wondering how good Kankakee is."
Ads for this page are only $25 each. Companies and individuals can submit text and/or a logo and be placed here through tournament play and beyond. Email [email protected] for more information.
Notes to know
* Tyesha Tharpe is 24th among all Division II players in field goal percentage (54 percent). She has made 50 of 93 shots taken from the field.
* Torie Bosley is ranked 23rd in the nation in 3-point shooting. The sophomore guard has made 62 of 149 attempts (42 percent). With Bosley's help, the Trojans are ranked third in the country among Division II teams in 3-point shooting (41 percent).
* Kiara Johnson is 17th in assists, having dished the ball to teammates for points 156 times in 31 games, an average of slightly more than 5 assists per game.
75 69
First-round tournament game
Trojans upset Cavaliers
* Allegany rallies behind Allen, Nesmith and Fossett
* Trojans collect eighth straight win
By Kevin Spradlin
PhDispatch.com
EAST PEORIA, Ill., March 15 -- Whew!
Allegany College of Maryland coach Garett Sherman and the Trojans women's basketball team couldn't have been breathing easy late in Tuesday's first-round NJCAA National Championship game.
They led Kankakee Community College by 16 points early. They led by 19 late. And yet, with 8.7 seconds left on the clock, Kankakee trailed only by five.
Momentum had gone against Allegany. The team's hot-shooting first 10 minutes seemed like ancient history. The Cavaliers' leading scorer, Britany Mathews, was held to just two points in the first half but had scored 16 in the second half.
Besides, Kankakee came in as the No. 3 seed in the tournament. Allegany, seeded 14th in the 16-team field, wasn't supposed to even have a chance. And the Trojans couldn't seem to sink their foul shots.
None of that mattered. The buzzer sounded and the Trojans walked off the court with a 75-69 victory over the Cavaliers inside the CougarPlex. PhDispatch.com reported the game via live webcast. Read the complete article