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2005-06 Season Preview
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The 2005-06 season will be a rebuilding one
for the Stillman Lady Tiger basketball team. Gone are five senior players,
led by center Tameika Crimbley. Crimbley helped rejuvenate the women’s
program during her two seasons at Stillman. The Lady Tigers finished the
2004-05 season with a seven game winning streak and the Stillman women’s
program first winning season since the 1997-98 season under Anita Walsh.
That season Stillman won 19 games and lost only six.
Sherri M. Harris is entering her third year, second full season, as Stillman’s head coach. For the first time during her tenure at Stillman the entire team is made up of athletes recruited by Harris. The previous two seasons, her team was predominantly made up of players that were recruited by the Linda Burgess. The Lady Tigers will have only one starter from last year’s team in sophomore Bianca Burton. Burton led the Lady Tigers in scoring (13.3 points/game) and was second in rebounding (7.5 rebs./game). Two other Lady Tigers returning this season saw significant action in last year. Saquindra Pugh, from Fairfield, AL, started 14 games and Aisha Brown, a native of Tuscaloosa, played behind Crimbley. Sybrena Johnson, a red-shirt freshman from Tuskegee, AL should get a lot of game time. Two junior college transfers, Vancherricka Mitchell and Chanta Mansfield, are also expected to make an immediate impact. Mitchell played for coach Burnadette McDonald at Mississippi Delta Community College, where she helped lead the Lady Trojans to a Junior College State Championship and a co-MVP honor in 2004-05. Nichole Cook, a guard from Ramsey High School in Birmingham, AL and Adrienne Freeman, a guard/forward from Troup High School in LaGrange, GA are two true freshmen will also get significant playing time this season. Cook helped lead her high school to a state 5A championship in 2004-05. Coach Harris has very high expectations for this year’s Lady Tiger team; the players will have more to play for this season, since Stillman in now a full member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Coming off of last year’s 14-13 record the Lady Tigers are excited about to Birmingham, AL to play in their first conference tournament. "We have a lot of work to do between now and the conference tournament in March," Harris said. "One thing for sure the team will come to play every night and be highly competitive. I’m hoping that we will come together and grow as a team." For the first time in four years the Lady Tigers have a good mix of veterans and young players. "One reason I brought in a number of junior college players and first time freshmen was so that our upperclassmen could help lead and teach them how to win this year and in the future. We’re going to have a lot of defensive intensity. We are going to be able to get up and down the court extremely well." Stillman fans can expect an exciting style of play from the Lady Tigers and a SIAC championship. |
