Duncan-Clark, Sagay Rewarded with All-American Selections

Duncan-Clark, Sagay Rewarded with All-American Selections
By Paul Ofria
Manchester CC Sports Information

For two basketball seasons, Shenielle Duncan-Clarke and Ericka Sagay filled baskets and made headlines. From Manchester to Minnesota, Shorty and Big E helped Manchester CC rack up a 47-6 record and two consecutive trips to the New England championship game.
The National Junior College Athletic Association recently recognized the former Bloomfield High teammates as All-Americans. Duncan-Clarke was a third team selection while Sagay was named Honorable Mention.

“They made a lot of things easy,” head coach Robert Turner said of the tandem. “We were able to do a lot of different things on the court that we haven’t done in the past. We were able to press a whole lot more with Ericka’s height and Shorty’s ability to anticipate and get steals. And we were able to get up and down the floor and get easy baskets because Shorty sees the floor so well.”

Duncan-Clarke, who was an NJCAA Division III All-New England first team selection, led all Division III players with 8.9 assists and 5.7 steals per game in 2010-11. Shorty broke her own school assist record with 25 in a Region 21 victory over Bunker Hill on January 25th and led the nation with eight assists per game as a freshman as well. Over 48 career games, she had 571 points, 407 assists, 271 rebounds and 244 steals while converting 71% of her free throws.

Sagay led her team in scoring (17.0 per game), rebounds (12.5) and blocks (68/3.1) for a second consecutive year in 2010-11 and turned in three consecutive 20-rebound games in January ’11 – including a 28 board effort on January 6th for the Cougars.

Sagay, who was named NJCAA Division III Player of the Week on 11/24/10, was a two-time NJCAA Division III All-New England selection and NJCAA All-American nominee after her freshman year. She was second among all NJCAA D III players with 109 blocked shots (3.9 per) while playing in all 28 Cougar as a freshman resulting in a program best 24-4 record and fourth place finish at national tournament in Rochester, MN in March 2010.

Duncan-Clarke and Sagay were key components of Turner’s 23-2 team finished the 2010-11 season ranked no. 10 in the final NJCAA DIII poll. Both losses were to Roxbury CC, who played in the 2011 National Championship game, losing to Anoka-Ramsey (MN) 60-55 on March 12. Both players are being recruited by four-year schools and will continue their educations and basketball careers in the fall.

“We have been pretty fortunate the past four years,” Turner said of the teams that collectively won 83 of 95 games. “We have always had a really great point guard and a really great center, which allowed us to do a lot of different things. I won’t say they are the two best players that we have had, but they definitely were a huge part of carrying on the tradition of winning here.”