College Report: Nevaeh Zavala helps High Point win Big South basketball tournament
Nevaeh Zavala, a 6-0 sophomore from Royse City, scored a team-high 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to help High Point’s women win the Big South basketball tournament.
High Point, which is in North Carolina, beat Longwood of Virginia 59-53 in the tournament finals. The win sends the 21-11 Panthers to the NCAA tournament and gives them their second Big South championship in school history.
Zavala was 6-of-11 from the field and 4-of-5 from the free throw line. She also recorded one assist, two steals and one blocked shot. It was Zavala’s third double-double of the season.
High Point head coach Chelsea Banbury praised the play of Zavala and teammate Jaleesa Lawrence, who was named the most valuable player of the tournament.
“What can I say, I’m just so proud of our girls. With the injury that we had yesterday (to Nakyah Terrell), it was an emotional moment in that game. To then show up today and come together as a group and fight from behind, we got down and we weren’t out,” said Banbury.
“I think a lot of that was to these two sitting next to me (Lawrence and Zavala). They kept us steady and were very vocal about we’re still in this game, especially Zavala. I heard her a ton in timeouts saying this thing’s not over, let’s go, this is our time.”
Zavala also scored four points and recorded four rebounds during High Point’s 64-49 win over Winthrop in the tournament semifinals.
Zavala leads the Panthers for the season in scoring (10.6) and rebounding (5.7). She’s also recorded 24 assists, 23 steals and a team-high 23 blocked shots.
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Kaydee Bennett, a junior from Caddo Mills, slugged her first home run of the season for the No. 1-ranked Texas Longhorns in their 10-1 softball victory over Merrimack.
Bennett batted 5-for-11 with the home run, a double and three runs during the Longhorns’ five victories in the Ohio State tournament. Texas also beat Oakland 13-0, Kent State 15-1, Dayton 6-1 and host Ohio State 4-2.
Texas, now 26-1 for the season, faces a tough challenge this weekend at No. 3 ranked Florida. The scheduled game times are at 1 p.m. (CDT) on Saturday, noon on Sunday and 6 p.m. on Monday. All three games are to be televised on the SEC Network.
Bennett, who has played second base and right field for Texas, is batting. .373 for the season with four doubles, one triple and one home run. She’s scored 15 runs and driven in seven. She’s 8-of-8 on stolen base attempts.
She has a .923 fielding percentage with 16 putouts, 32 assists and four errors in 52 chances.
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Jett Fifield, a freshman left-hander from Greenville, has pitched in seven games this baseball season for Paris Junior College.
Fifeld has a 2-1 season record with a 2.70 earned run average. He’s allowed 16 hits and five walks with 13 strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings.
Paris Junior College is 20-9 for the season heading into a Saturday doubleheader in Paris against Panola.
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Brandt Downing, a freshman from Greenville, has pitched in two games this season for Amarillo College. He’s allowed six hits, two walks and five earned runs with one strikeout in 2 1/3 innings.
Amarillo is 11-13 for the season after beating Frank Phillips College 22-12 on Monday.
The Badgers are to play three games this weekend in Snyder against Western Texas College.
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Connie Hughes, a redshirt freshman guard from Bland, played in Southeastern Oklahoma State University’s 69-52 loss to Harding University in the championship game of the Great American Conference’s women’s basketball tournament.
Hughes recorded an assist and a rebound during the Savage Storm’s 71-70 win over Southern Nazarene in the tournament semifinals.
The Savage Storm completed the regular season with a 20-11 record.
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Maddie Nichol, a freshman from Lone Oak, went 3-3 in women’s singles and doubles for LeTourneau University in tennis matches against players from John Carroll, Penn State Behrend, Gordon, Carroll and Millersville.
LeTourneau competed in the spring tennis fest at Hilton Head, South Carolina.
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