Mike Potter ·
20 Nov 2009, 11:01 PM ·
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N.C. State coach Kellie Harper, with husband and assistant coach Jon Harper and Marissa Kastanek, #23, in the background, directs traffic during her 100th win on Friday night against Davidson. (Photo by Jeremy Lange).
REYNOLDS COLISEUM/RALEIGH Kellie Harper is quickly into her fourth home game in her short tenure as head coach at N.C. State, and tonight she has an opportunity to reach an early milestone.
The 32-year-old former Western Carolina coach, who comes into the game with a 2-1 record this season, can get her 100th career victory. Not in the realm of the 1,000-plus wins her mentor Pat Summitt has at Tennessee, but how many people have started careers as college or even high school coaches and never gotten to triple figures?
Tonight she’ll be facing an old foe, at least for her. Harper was 6-5 in her tenure at WCU against Southern Conference rival Davidson, which oddly hasn’t played the Wolfpack since 1976. The Wildcats, under former Wolfpack assistant Annette Watts, are 0-2.
And it’s a mismatch from the start, en route to a 79-54 Wolfpack victory.
The Wolfpack leads 3-0, then 10-2, then 41-15 at halftime.
Everything the home team does seems to work pretty well, as State outrebounds the Wildcats 30-11 at the break and shoots 47.1 percent to Davidson’s 24.1. Bonae Holston and Tia Bell are already in double figures at the break. Continue reading »
ACC, Basketball, N.C. State, Women's Basketball Alex Thompson, Annette Watts, Ashley Lax, Bonae Holston, Brittany Strachan, Davidson, Jon Harper, Marissa Kastanek, Old Dominion, Southern Conference, Tennessee Lady Vols, Tia Bell, Western Carolina, William & Mary
Mike Potter ·
9 Oct 2009, 4:18 PM ·
Comment
NCCU’s Geovonie Irvine may be one of several players who would need to have a big game for the Eagles to upset Appalachian. (File photo by Rob Rowe)
N.C. Central knew this kind of game was coming when the Eagles decided to move to Division I (Football Championship Subdivision).
And while it might be a little early, it’s here.
Mose Rison’s Eagles will be massive underdogs on Saturday at 3:30, when they take their 0-5 record to Appalachian State (2-2), which has had the best program in the FCS since the turn of the millennium under veteran mentor Jerry Moore.
It’s at the end of a three-week segment in the schedule the likes of which the Eagles have never played before and probably will never play again.
Two weeks ago they went to Duke for the inaugural Bull City Gridiron Classic, and then last week they traveled to ancient rival North Carolina A&T. Now they play the measuring stick game against the Mountaineers, who have one of the best quarterbacks in the country, period, in Armanti Edwards. The guy even has his own weekly teleconference.
“We’ve had a lot of highs and a lot of lows this football season,” Rison said. “The good thing is that nobody has just lined up and dominated us. We’re in every ball game. I’ve watched (Appalachian) on tape and they’re no doubt an explosive football team on offense. They’re not complicated. We’ve got to make sure we do everything we can to possess the football, and we’ve got to score more points than we have. We’ve got to play an outstanding football game to beat this football team.”
It’s homecoming for Appalachian, which has a 25-game winning streak against in-state opposition in Boone. Continue reading »
ACC, Duke, Football, N.C. Central Appalachian State, Armanti Edwards, Brian Quick, CoCo Hillary, D.J. Smith, Demery Brewer, Devon Moore, Donald Laster, Geo Irvine, Ingram Bell, Jabari Fletcher, Jacque Roman, Jerry Moore, Mario Acitelli, Mark Blakeney, Mark LeGree, Matt Cline, Michael Johnson, Mose Rison, North Carolina A&T, Southern Conference, Teryl White, Tim Shankle, Will Scott
