Sports
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Thursday, March 10, 2016
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Domond’s hard work pays off
CANDICE DIXSON
GSU Sports Media
Head women’s basketball
coach Nadine Domond works
tirelessly day in and day out
with her team of Lady Tigers
at Grambling State University,
and her hard work is paying
off.
Domond has been recognized by the Southwestern
Athletic Conference as Coach
of the Year for her outstanding leadership and coaching
skills during the 2015-2016
basketball season.
“It is a huge understatement to say that I am grateful
for this experience. I am truly
humbled by this honor. This
is only the beginning,” said
Domond, a former WNBA
player in her second year as
head coach at GSU.
At Grambling State, people
are excited about the women’s
basketball team’s success, and
thrilled that Domond has
been recognized for all she’s
done since arriving.
“This is much deserving
for Coach Domond, who has
been building her team since
last year,” said Wanda Currie,
GSU’s senior women’s athletics administrator. “It’s rewarding for her.” Obadiah Simmons, the interim athletics
director at the school, noted
that
Domond’s recognition is
based on the work she does
with her staff and team.
“The athletic department
was thrilled to learn of Coach
Domond’s selection as Coach
of the Year in the SWAC.
Coach Domond and her staff
have developed a young talented squad that improved as
the season progressed playing
at a high level each week,” he
said.
“Their brand of basketball
was exciting to watch all year
long during the regular sea-
Grambling State women’s basketball coach Nadine Domond has been named SWAC Coach of the Year.
son.”
A high school All-American, Domond is a former
professional basketball player,
chosen in the second round
of the 1998 WNBA draft by
the New York Liberty and she
played with the Sacramento
Monarchs.
Domond arrived at Grambling State in 2014 with one
mission: “The Rebirth of a
Legacy.” “I want to restore
the championships we used
to have, bring everything back
home to Grambling, something that former coaches
(David “Rusty”) Ponton and
File photo
(Patricia Cage) Bibbs were doing while they were coaches,”
said Domond, referencing
two of her more successful
predecessors.
With a young team of play-
ers, including SWAC Freshman of the Year Jazmin Boyd
and second team player Shakyla Hill, Domond strategically works on basketball fundamentals during practices as
she runs the team as hard as
she wants them to play during
games. “We want to be able to
provide a brand a basketball
that people will enjoy to see,”
she said.
Though some regular season games were closer than
others, and in some games the
GSU Lady Tigers fought to
come back to win, Domond
aims for balanced, high scoring along with strong defense
and limiting fouls.
In a Feb. 27 matchup between the Lady Tigers and
Lady Golden Lions of the
University of Arkansas Pine
Bluff, the team burned the
court with a 69-47 victory -and eight of her 11 players
scored.
Domond and her team
were successful during conference play with 13 wins this
season. They went on a fivegame winning streak in the
closing days of the season
until the streak was ended by
Alabama State University Saturday (March 5).
The Lady Tigers enter the
2016 Toyota SWAC Basketball Tournament in Houston
as the #4 seed, playing Prairie View A&M University on
Thursday (March 10) at 8:30
p.m.
The team plans to run
hard, play hard, stay focused,
trust the Domond system
and win, in part to show why
Domond is the coach of the
year. “She turned a losing
program into a winning program within two years,” said
Boyd. “She knew what pieces
to the puzzle she was missing,
and found them. Since day
one she knew we were going
to be a special team.”
G-Men heading home after first round in Houston
CANDICE DIXSON
GSU Sports Media
HOUSTON — It’s time
to look ahead. The Tigers are
done this year.
Grambling State University’s men’s basketball team
lost to the Mississippi Valley
State University Devils 87-73
in the first round of the 2016
Toyota Southwestern Athletic
Conference Basketball Tournament. GSU’s Ervin Mitchell put up 19 points, and he
had three assists, two blocks
and two steals, but it was not
enough.
The Tigers put up a fight
with a good defensive game,
but missed shots, turnovers
and foul trouble did them in.
“This is the largest deficit
my team has lost by this season
(14 points),” said head basketball coach Shawn Walker. We
have to address the issue of
being able to shoot the ball.”
Both teams had slows starts
in the Toyota Center. In the
first half, the Tigers shot field
goals under the 50 percentile
range and they were in foul
trouble early. Deonte Hearns
had three of the team’s 12
fouls before the half.
At halftime, Hearns and
teammate Nigel Ribeiro had
only put up five points apiece
while Marcus Romain of Mississippi Valley had 14 points
and eight rebounds.
In the second half the
Tigers worked hard in an attempt to make a return from
a nine-point deficit. A 3-point
bucket by Michael Bethea Jr,
a stolen ball by Hearns and a
two-shot by Chase Cormier
helped the Tigers narrow the
deficit to five points with
17:22 remaining.
With 8:42 left in the game,
Hearns nailed a 2-pointer, he
drew a foul and made his extra
shot at the line, bringing the
score to 55-54, and the Tigers
were only a single point behind.
Ten of 11 of Walker’s players scored, but the Tigers were
unable to get the lead in the
last two minutes of the game
as the Delta Devils started
breaking away to win.
Hearns put up 15 points
and pulled down seven rebounds. Romain of Mississippi
Valley finished with 32 points,
11 rebounds and one assist.
Walker now looks ahead to
next season.
“