Basketball Season Opens, Earl Lloyd Conference Challenge Starts Friday

   The 4^th Annual Earl Lloyd Conference Challenge tips off Friday at 5:30 p.m. in the Walker Convocation Center at West Virginia State University.
   Elizabeth City State out of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association faces The University of Virginia at Wise from the Mountain East Conference in the opener.
   The Yellow Jackets take the court at 7:30 p.m. against Johnson C. Smith, also from the CIAA.
   The event began in 2014.
   That was the beginning of the first full basketball season played in recently completed Walker. It was also the first year for a then-new NCAA rule encouraging inter-conference play by allowing teams to start their season a weekend early if they were playing in an inter-conference event.
   WVSU was a member of the CIAA from 1942 until departing in 1955 to join the now defunct West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
   The event is named for Basketball Hall of Fame member Earl Lloyd, the first African-American player in play in the NBA. He played at West Virginia State from 1946-50, spending his college career as a member of the CIAA.
   He led the Yellow Jackets to two CIAA conference and tournament championships (1948-49) and earned all-conference honors three times (1948-50).
   A statue of Lloyd graces the lobby of the Convocation Center.
   The event wraps up Saturday with UVa-Wise playing Johnson C. Smith at 2:00 p.m. and the Yellow Jackets taking on Elizabeth City State at 4:00 p.m..

   Click here to see the game program with full rosters.

   Here is a quick look at the teams in this year's Earl Lloyd Conference Challenge.

   WVSU (7-21 overall last year) – The Yellow Jackets return three key starters in sophomores Ernest Jenkins and Jayson Hankins and 5-foot-8 junior Brent Bauer.
The 6 -2 Jenkins led the team with 16.9 points a game followed by the 6-5 Hankins at 12.6 and Bauer at 11.2
Due a knee injury Hankins will not be available for a few weeks.
Newcomers expected to contribute include 6-5 Pat Johnson, a former junior college All-American at Prince George's Community College in Maryland.
Also 6-3 shooting guard Langston Cooke from Columbus, Ohio, and North Country Community College along with 6-1 freshman guard Glen Abram from Illinois.
The Yellow Jackets averaged 76.9 points a game last season while hitting .426 of their shots from the field and .368 from 3-point range.
They pulled down 37.6 rebounds a game.

   Uva-Wise (9-20) – The Cavaliers return their entire starting five from last season.
They are led by their own big three composed of 6-7 senior Taiwo Badmus, 6-6 senior Dimitri Sousa, and 5-10 sophomore Michael Seals.
Badmus averaged a double-double last year with 21.7 points and 10.1 rebounds a game with Sousa second on the squad in scoring with 16.7 a game followed by Seals at 16.1.
Also back are Ricardo Hill, a 5-10 senior, and Chance Jeffrey, a 6-4 sophomore guard who round out the starting five from a year ago.
In all 10 letter winners return while none were lost.
Wise averaged 79.2 points a contest while shooting 45 percent overall and 35 percent from 3-point range. They averaged 35 rebounds.

   Elizabeth City State (2-23) – The Vikings were picked to finish last in the 12-team CIAA this coming season under new coach John Hill.
Hill spent three seasons as Head Coach at Lincoln (Pa.) where his squads posted a record of 53-30 overall.
The cupboard is not completely bare for Hill as he has 6-5 sophomore John Maynor back.
Maynor made the CIAA All-Rookie team last season after averaging 10.3 points per game and 2.6 rebounds.
ECSU did lose last year's leading scorer, 5-10 guard Elon Edwards, to graduation along with the squad's leading rebounder and two other starters.
Senior Shyeid Petteway, a 6-2 guard, returns after starting 10 games last season averaging 7.7 points and 2.6 rebounds.
WVSU won last year's meeting in this event 77-68 with Edwards leading the Vikings with 15 points.
They averaged 68 points and 32 rebounds a game while shooting .418 from the floor and .316 from beyond the arc.

   Johnson C. Smith (11-17) – The Golden Bulls were picked to finish seventh in the CIAA this season in the conference's pre-season coach's poll.
The team returns three starters, all seniors.
Those are 6-1 guard Robert Davis, 6-0 point guard Christian Kirchman, and 6-9 post player Malik Ford.
Davis averaged 17.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 3.1 steals a game.
Kirchman, averaged 11.5 points, 3.1 rebounds, and a team-leading 5.5 assists. Inside Ford averaged 4.7 points and 2.6 rebounds.
Davis and Kirchman were picked to the pre-season All-CIAA team by the league's coaches.
Head Coach Stephen Joyner is entering his 31^st season at the helm for the program.
JCSU averaged 71.5 points a game along with 38.8 rebounds last season.
The Golden Bulls shot 42 percent overall and 32.5 percent from 3-point range.

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