Women’s Basketball
Pack notches first ACC win
After a 0-2 start to 2007, the women’s basketball team earned its first win of the year and notched its first ACC victory of the season after a 58-40 win Thursday night at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
The win moved N.C. State to 12-5 overall and 1-1 in the ACC.
Interim coach Stephanie Glance played 11 players throughout the game; however, three of the freshmen — Chanita Jordan, Nikitta Gartrell and Sharnise Beal all played less than five minutes.
Sophomore guard Shayla Fields had a career-best 20 points while junior forward Khadijah Whittington scored 16 points and had 15 rebounds.
The 20 points by Fields marked the first time this season anyone from the Wolfpack reached the 20-point mark. It was Whittington’s third-straight triple-double and the 13th of her career.
Next up for State is Wake Forest on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Reynolds Coliseum.
-Nick Jeffreys
Men’s Basketball
Johnson’s transfer official
Marques Johnson, a 6-foot-5 guard hailing from Fort Wayne, Ind., officially joined N.C. State on Thursday.
Johnson started the year as a true freshman at Tennessee, seeing action in the team’s first four games, averaging 11.3 minutes and 2.0 points per game.
In compliance with NCAA rules, Johnson will be forced to sit out the remainder of this season as well as all games taking place during the fall ’07 semester — much like teammate Trevor Ferguson did this year.
As a high school senior, Scout.com ranked Johnson as a four-star, top-50 prospect. He averaged a little more than 15 points per game as a senior after posting 21 a game as a junior.
-J. Mike Blake
Swimming & Diving
Teams to face South Carolina on Senior Day
Saturday will mark senior day for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams. The men feature one senior — fifth-year senior Steve Cowling — and the women have five team members in their final season. The teams will face South Carolina in a noon contest at the Willis R. Casey Natatorium in Carmichael Gymnasium.
Coach Brooks Teal said the teams face a formidable opponent, but are certainly ready.
“They’re a very good team. We’re going to have our hands full, but we’re coming off of the best training trip that I’ve ever had with a team as far as the quality of work done, the amount of work done, the attitudes,” Teal said. “And if this team is ever ready to step it up, I think they are this weekend.”
-Clark Leonard
Gymnastics
Team opens season tonight at Auburn
The Wolfpack will kick off its 2007 campaign tonight at Auburn.
Auburn is ranked No. 20 in the preseason coaches poll.
It will be the start of a common theme for the year as it meets feature four top-10 teams.
There are also meets against four other top-25 programs on the schedule.
-J. Mike Blake
Men’s Basketball
Hodge traded to Milwaukee
In a deal announced on Thursday, the Denver Nuggets shipped former N.C. State player Julius Hodge along with Earl Boykins to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Going the other way to Denver for the pair is Hodge’s former nemesis, Steve Blake.
As a freshman at State, Hodge threw an elbow that connected with Blake’s head. Hodge served a one-game suspension for his actions.
-J. Mike Blake
