His Hampton Lady Pirates prevailed in a battle of first-place Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference teams on Saturday, surviving a last-second 3-point try to outlast Florida A&M 46-43 in Tallahassee, Fla.
But David Six wasn?t quite ready to talk about back-to-back regular-season league titles and top seeds in conference tournaments just yet.
?We?re going to wait and see,? said Six, whose team won the regular-season MEAC crown last year before winning its second consecutive MEAC tournament title. ?We have games Monday and Thursday. We?ll talk then. We don?t want to get ahead of ourselves.?
Spoken like a coach, and one who is still understandably cautious after losing his senior guard and her 10 points per game to a season-ending injury. Still, with games against Bethune-Cookman and (9-16, 6-7 MEAC) and North Carolina Central (1-12, 3-23) remaining, it?s difficult to imagine that Hampton, now 21-4 and 13-1, isn?t two wins away from another championship.
On Saturday, junior forward Keiara Avant led the way, scoring 18 points and pulling down 17 rebounds in a defensive struggle. The Lady Pirates shot just 28.6 percent (16-of-56) but held the Lady Rattlers to just 23.8 (15-of-63).
Antonia Bennett, leading the MEAC with 18.5 points per game, was held to eight on 3-of-15 shooting.
FAMU (19-7, 12-2 MEAC) led by as many as eight midway through the second half, but 8-0 HU run tied the game for the 10th time with 7:40 to play. Two more ties followed before Avant's free throw gave the Lady Pirates the lead for good with 3:11 to play. Avant's jumper made it 46-43 with 46 seconds left, and Tameka McKelton's 3-point try at the buzzer fell short.
?We did a great job defensively,? Six said. ?That?s really what it boils down to. This is a tough place to play. It was packed in here.
? ? We really did a good job of fighting.?
HU?s defensive effort and Avant?s performance encouraged Six, whose team will be likely be without Melanie Warner?s 10.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 42 percent shooting from 3-point range for the rest of the season after Warner broke her finger catching a ball in last Sunday?s practice.
?The further we go, the more practices we get without her, the better,? Six said.
After Monday?s game at Bethune-Cookman and at N.C. Central on March 1, the Lady Pirates will head into the MEAC tournament, to be held March 5-10 in Winston-Salem, N.C., looking for their third straight title and resulting NCAA tournament appearance.
HU got its money?s worth in last year?s Big Dance, taking Kentucky to overtime before losing 66-62.
Hampton is eager to see what it can do if it earns a return trip. But, as Six says, first things first.
?Avant did a good job tonight, but we?ve got to get the other kids going, and we?ll take it from there,? he said.
Source: http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt-huwomenmeacfirstplace-0225,0,2676961.story?track=rss
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