NCAA notes: Cheerleader’s tumble stuns, quiets crowd at The Ted

NORFOLK

The Constant Center was silent for nearly 10 minutes Sunday when Georgia cheerleader Christine Conley lost her balance standing atop a male cheerleader during a timeout with 14:18 remaining in the second half of the Lady Bulldogs’ game with Iowa.

Conley fell over and landed flat on her back in the center of the Old Dominion logo at midcourt, her head hitting the hardwood with a thud. Conley, who had some movement in her legs, was wheeled off the court on a stretcher with her head in an immobilizer.

Georgia officials said she was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where she spent the night for observation.

Going out like a champion

Bucknell senior Kesha Champion felt a pang when she was subbed out in the final seconds of the Bison’s 85-50 loss to North Carolina. The Indian River graduate thought about her basketball career coming to a close.

“There’s always going to be pickup (games), but it’s never going to be like this,” said Champion, who scored her 1,000th point this season .

If her best buddy, Kelli Darden, has anything to do with it, Champion’s career will continue. Darden, a former Indian River teammate who had a stellar career at Radford, wants Champion to join her overseas.

“My No. 1 goal is to be an engineer and work with defense systems,” said Champion, who has made the dean’s list three of her four years at Bucknell. “Kelli is my best friend, though, and she can do some fancy talking.”

Priorities

If it’s Sunday, it’s a time of worship for the Liberty basketball team.

If it’s Easter , even the biggest game of the season doesn’t deter the Flames.

While North Carolina and Bucknell were tipping off, Liberty’s players and coaches gathered for a church service in a conference room at the team hotel. They didn’t bring any hymn books, but the Flames didn’t need any. They knew the words to every song.

Star turns

- Georgia’s Tasha Humphrey drilled a spinning, fadeaway jumper with 58 seconds left to give Georgia the lead for good against Iowa.

“I’m quite fond of the fadeway,” Humphrey said.

“Sometimes I think she likes the fadeaway more than her coach,” Georgia coach Andy Landers quipped.

- North Carolina’s LaToya Pringle blocked five shots to overtake Dawn Royster atop the school’s all-time list with 329.

“(The record) hadn’t been broken in like 20-something years,” Pringle said. “I didn’t think I could do it. I’m excited. I worked hard to get it and I have to celebrate and shop.”

- Georgia’s Ashley Houts played all 40 minutes (for the 15th time this season), dished out a career-high 12 assists and went 8 of 8 from the free-throw line in the final 41 seconds.

“She’s on the floor for a reason,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said.

Grading fan support

Bucknell: Small but enthusiastic and knowledgeable – “Hey, that was three seconds!” – and mostly color coordinated in blue and orange. Extra credit for maintaining a positive vibe despite the scoreboard. Grade: B+

North Carolina: Sprawling contingent that peppered Tar Heel blue throughout one side of the arena. Made themselves heard at the start, then settled into wine-and-cheese mode the rest of the way. Perhaps they were saving their throats for Georgia. Grade: C

Iowa: The Hawkeye backers were led by a 50-person chunk of the team’s booster club. The leading lung was Cindy Solverson, mother of Iowa star Johanna, whose screams of encouragement could be heard around the arena. Solverson’s husband, Pete, played for George Allen’s Washington Redskins during the 1970s. Grade: B

Georgia: Small but passionate. Highlighted by Linda Frett, mother of former Phoebus and Georgia star and current Lady Bulldogs assistant La’Keshia Frett, and her friend Gretchen Benz. Both came wearing bunny ears. “You should have seen the Easter basket we tried to bring in,” Frett said. Grade: B- but an A for the ears.

Old Dominion: Massive, coordinated and intense. But hey, it’s their gym. What else would you expect? Grade: A

Liberty: Diehard followers bought out the school’s allotment of 150 tickets and appeared to have at least that many additional supporters on hand. They couldn’t shout down Lady Monarchs fans, but they did create a strong surge of support for the visitors. Grade: A-

Quotable

“I always say it’s the second-greatest miracle that happened on Easter Sunday.” – North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell, reminiscing about Charlotte Smith’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer that clinched the national title for the Tar Heels on Easter in 1994.