Cougars (22-1) Eye Rematch with Roxbury in Boston

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Contact: Paul Ofria, Assistant AD/SID
pofria@manchestercc.edu
860-512-3354 (office)

Cougars (22-1) Eye Rematch with Roxbury in Boston
Return Trip to National Championship at Stake at Region 21 Tournament

Essentially, the Manchester CC women’s basketball team played the second half of the season for one game: a rematch with Roxbury CC in the NJCAA Region 21 tournament.

The Cougars (22-1) put together a pair of 11-game win streaks in 2010-11, symmetrically sandwiching their lone loss – a 112-55 beat down at home to the #3 ranked Roxbury (26-2) just before the holiday break. #10 MCC regrouped and breezed through the rest of their schedule with one eye on the Tigers of Roxbury. MCC will defend their Region 21 title Feb 26-27 at Roxbury’s home court, the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

Under head coach Robert Turner Jr. and assistant Peter Harris, the Cougars are 46-5 over two seasons. Eight players returned from a team that won a program-best 24 games and finished fourth in the NJCAA Division III National Championship tournament a year ago. The Cougars are two wins away from a return trip to the nationals, but will need to beat Massasoit CC (10-14) in Saturday’s semi-final, and then solve Roxbury or Quinsigamond CC on Sunday. Roxbury and Quinsigamond (21-6) play in the other semi-final game at 6 PM Saturday.

“We know it is going to be a different game,” Harris said of the possible rematch. “I don’t expect us to play the same way we played on Decemeber 21st. The question is; can we handle Roxbury’s speed for the entire 40 minutes?”

The Cougars prepared for the fast pace by scrimmaging against a team of MCC male students over the past couple of weeks.

“Those five young fellows have helped out tremendously,” Harris said of Floyd Grier, Randy McKenzie, Donald McKim, Preston Miller and Jordan Wright. Cougar alum Amanda Colon has also been scrimmaging against her former teammates.

“They give us an idea of how fast they are going to be. We hope Roxbury won’t be as fast, but it kind of simulates that. We can’t simulate that in practice, so we will see that for four days and work on our execution.”

Turner and Harris, who will both step down from coaching the team after the season to concentrate on their full-time jobs at the college, have a core of battle tested sophomores ready for the weekend tournament. Turner comes into the two-game tournament with 98 careers victories in six seasons as a head coach and his teams have put up an impressive 83-11 record over the past four seasons.

MCC goes as two former Bloomfield High standouts go. Point guard Shenielle Duncan-Clarke leads all NJCAA DIII players with 9.0 assists and 5.7 steals per game while putting up 12.3 points and 6.6 rebounds. Ericka Sagay leads the team 16.8 ppg and 12.5 rebounds, had three consecutive games with 20 or more rebounds in January and has blocked 64 shots. The 6’2” center was named NJCAA Division III Player of the Week on November 24 and has scored 751 points and pulled down 598 rebounds in 49 career games at the college.

Callie Tambling, a Manchester High grad who played in all 50 games over a two-year career, is averaging 15.9 points and leading the team with 32 minutes played per game. Tambling has connected on 127 three-point baskets over two seasons and turned in a 3.0 GPA last semester.

Rounding out the starting five is Jazlynn Canino, who had her best game as a Cougar against Globe with 18 points and 17 rebounds; and Elise Chase, the team’s lone freshman who checks in with 7.5 ppg and 4.9 rpg.
Despite the impressive regular season numbers, the starters will have to step up their game in the tournament.

“Callie may have to play 37 or 38 minutes,” Harris pointed out. “Shorty (Duncan-Clarke) is going to have to play 37, 38 minutes and Ericka is going to have to stay on the floor and stay out of foul trouble.”
The starters have a strong supporting cast with sophomores Tyra Brooks, Kate Gazdzicki, Kasiana Goodman and Rebeca VanGuilder.

“I would say we are prepared,” Harris said. “We need to figure out how to slow the game up and hold our own in those three or four minute periods when we go up and down the court together. That’s probably going to happen four, five, maybe six times during the game.”

Manchester and Roxbury have the two strongest junior college women’s basketball programs in new England. One of them will move on the represent New England in the national tournament in Rochester, MN beginning March 11. The runner up will be a pretty good team as well.

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