The Morgan State University women’s basketball team will be making a swing through St. Louis for two games this weekend. The Lady Bears will visit SIU-Edwardsville on Friday night, then head over to face Saint Louis University on Sunday afternoon at the Chaifetz Arena. Morgan State is a historically black college located in Baltimore.
There will be a large contingent of fans wearing Morgan State’s colors during these two games. That is because the team is full of young ladies from the St. Louis area. The grand total is five, makes up nearly half of the team’s roster. This weekend will be a special homecoming for the St. Louis girls, who all enjoyed very successful prep careers in the area.
The five players are seniors Theresa Davis (Incarnate Word Academy), Brittany Dodson (Metro) and Brittany Noel (Jennings), junior Dekeisha Mathis (Metro) and sophomore Moneshia Davis (Edwardsville). Theresa Davis, Dodson, Mathis and Moneshia Davis were all part of state championships teams in high school while Noel was a scholar-athlete award winner at Jennings.
Last season, Morgan State finished 17-13 and second place in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Theresa Davis, rugged post player, was second on the team in scoring and rebounding at 8.6 points and 5.6 rebounds a game. The 5’6” Dodson averaged 6.3 points and shot 37 percent from 3-point range. The 5’10” Noel averaged four points a game in 15 minutes of action per game while the 5’6” Mathis is an excellent 3-point shooter.
The reason for Morgan State’s success in recruiting St. Louis athletes is assistant coach Christopher Lewis. A native of St. Louis, Lewis enjoyed very successful run as the head coach at Harris-Stowe State University. He guided the Hornets to two consecutive berths in the NAIA National Tournament in 2007 and 2008.
The Lady Bears’ recruiting success in St. Louis continued this year with the verbal commitments of local senior standouts Kelsey Jones of Fort Zumwalt South and Amarah Brooks-Williams of Belleville Althoff. The 5’8” Jones and 6’2” Williams are two of the area’s top players at their respective positions.
McNutt bound for NFL
Former Hazelwood Central football standout Marvin McNutt turned in a big performance last weekend in Iowa’s 18-13 victory over Indiana in a Big Ten Conference game in Iowa City. McNutt scored on a 52-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ricky Stanzi with less than three minutes left in the game for the winning touchdown. He finished the game with six receptions for a season-high 126 yards and the touchdown. For the season, McNutt has 34 receptions for 588 yards and five touchdowns. At 6’4” and 215 pounds with a 42-inch vertical leap and a 4.5-second time in the 40-yard dash, McNutt could have a nice future on Sundays. A redshirt junior, he will probably be looking at a decision as to whether he will stat in school for one more year of enter his name in the NFL Draft.
Powell leads SEMO
Former Vashon High basketball standout Leon Powell enjoyed quite a collegiate Division I debut last Saturday for Southeast Missouri State University. The 6’7” Powell had 36 points and 10 rebounds to lead SEMO past Ouchita Baptist in a preseason game in Cape Girardeau. Powell signed with SEMO last year after two stellar years at national junior college power Indian Hills (Iowa) Junior College. However, his career was put on hold for a year when he suffered a knee injury and was forced to sit out the 2010 season as a medical redshirt. Powell’s opening night performance is a good indication that he is indeed back and ready to make a positive impact at SEMO.
Warm-up hoops
The basketballs were taken out of storage on Monday afternoon as high school basketball practice began in the state of Missouri. It should be a most interesting year of high school basketball in the St. Louis metro area in 2011.
(You can follow Earl Austin Jr. daily on has basketball website, www.earlaustinjr.com. You can also follow Earl on Facebook and Twitter. His new book, “You Might Need a Jacket II: More Hilarious Stories of Wacky Sports Parents is available at Amazon and Prioritybooks.com).