SPORTS TALK

 Cummings-Danson Athletic HOF
    University at Albany's Interim Director of Athletics Gail Cummings-Danson will be inducted into Temple University's Athletic Hall of Fame as announced today by the school's department of athletics. The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place Tuesday, Jan. 25, and the inductees will be recognized at halftime of the Temple-Xavier basketball game.
    Cummings-Danson was an All-America attack on Temple's 1988 Division I national championship lacrosse team.  She earned All-America honors three straight years, and was MVP of the '88 national championship and North-South All-Star Game
    A native of Huntsville, Ontario, Cummings-Danson was a member of the  1993 World Championship squad, and recently became the first woman to be enshrined in the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame.  She has competed in four World Championships, and played for the USA and Canadian national teams. 
    Cummings-Danson, who was also a member of Temple's field hockey team, was selected as a GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American and was a NCAA Top Six finalist. 
    The other Temple Athletic Hall of Fame inductees are Tim Perry, the 1988 Atlantic-10 player of the year in basketball; Jeff Manto, who played for seven Major League Baseball teams in the 1990s; Donna Kennedy (basketball); Pete Lorenc (baseball, soccer); and Paul Palmer (football).

Ford - AFCA President 
    University at Albany head football coach Bob Ford was named president of the American Football Coaches Association on Tuesday, Jan. 11.  Ford, who moves up from first vice-president, was elected by AFCA members attending the Association's 2000 national convention. 
    “I got in this business because people had a hand on me and pushed me in the right direction.  The great thing about the American Football Coaches Association is that it is not devoted to large names in Division I, but devoted to all coaches at every level,” said Ford, who has served on the AFCA Board of Trustees since 1994. “The fact that someone could come up from the Division III level and become president of the AFCA is a great honor, and I accept it with tremendous humility.” 
    Ford, 62, recently completed his 27th varsity season at Albany, where he led the Great Danes to a 7-2 record in the team’s inaugural NCAA Division I-AA campaign.  His record stands at 165-102 as the UA head coach.  Ford has a 174-124-1 overall mark in 31 seasons as a collegiate mentor. 
    The AFCA, founded in 1922 by Amos Alonzo Stagg, John Heisman and others, has more than 8,000 members from all levels of the profession.  Past AFCA presidents include Paul "Bear" Bryant (1972), Ben Schwartzwalder (1967), Woody Hayes (1963), Darrell Royal (1975), Bo Schembechler (1983), and Don Nehlen (1997).

Men's Basketball
    Kevin Wallace scored 20 points, and Maryland-Eastern Shore held off a late rally for a 55-52 non-conference victory over Albany on Wednesday, Jan. 12 at the Recreation and Convocation Center.  The Hawks, who also posted a 59-52 victory over Albany on November 23, snapped a six-game losing streak. 
    Maryland-Eastern Shore (4-10) led 36-32 early in the second half, but used a 9-2 run to build a double-figure cushion.  Wallace, a 6-foot-6 senior, scored eight points in that stretch, and hit a 14-foot jumper for a 45-34 advantage with 9:19 remaining.The Hawks pushed out to a commanding 52-37 lead with 4:05 to play, before Albany (3-12) made a dramatic comeback attempt.  Todd Cetnar scored nine of his 11 points in a 15-2 run, and buried a running one-hander in the lane to close the gap to 54-52 with 30 seconds left. 
    Adrian Pryce, who had 10 points, split a pair of free throws for the Hawks before Cetnar's three-pointer hit off the front rim with eight seconds remaining. 
    Sam Hopes had 11 points off the bench for the Great Danes, who dropped their fifth straight game.  Albany has five home games during the spring semester, including Southern Vermont (January 25), Dartmouth (January 29), Yale (January 31), Stony Brook (February 5) and Army (February 19).

Barnhill Transfers
    Head men's basketball coach Scott Hicks recently announced that former area high school star Alex Barnhill has transferred into the program.  Barnhill, who originally attended Canisius College, will be eligible to play at the end of the 2000 fall semester. Barnhill, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound forward, appeared in 25 games during the 1998-99 season for Canisius, a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. A native of Schenectady, Barnhill was a fifth-team Class A all-state choice and a first-team All-Area pick by the Albany Times Union and Daily Gazette. 

Field Hockey Academic Team
    The University at Albany placed three players on the 1999 National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division I National Academic Squad.  Mariah Martin, a junior tri-captain, leads the group with a 3.91 cumulative grade point average.  She has a major in business administration with a minor in economics.  Amy DiMicco (3.77, business administration) and Sonia Savino (3.72, psychology) were also selected. 
    Martin, who played on a defense which allowed 1.79 goals per game, led the Great Danes to an 11-4 record in their inaugural Division I campaign.  She was a regular in all 15 contests, and scored two goals. DiMicco, a sophomore forward, was third on the team with 26 points, including 11 goals and four assists.  She established the school's single-season freshman scoring record one year ago.  Savino, a sophomore, posted a 3.28 goals against average as a reserve goalkeeper.

Women’s Basketball
    Anne Tierney had 15 points and 17 rebounds, and scored the go-ahead basket in overtime to lift Lehigh past Albany, 75-72, on Saturday, Jan. 15 at Stabler Center.Tierney's jumper in the extra period gave the Mountain Hawks a  68-66 lead, and her club eventually pushed out to a 74-69 advantage.  Dawn DiMicco canned a three-point field goal to close the Great Danes within a basket with 2.9 seconds left.  However, Lehigh's Gina Zang split a pair of free throws, and Albany's final inbounds play was intercepted at halfcourt. Albany (5-10) forced overtime behind the efforts of senior forward Megan Buchanan, who scored 31 points, and set a UA single-game record with seven 3-pointers.  Buchanan's long-range jumper tied the contest at 62 apiece with 1:35 remaining.  Tierney missed a 17-footer from the top of the key on her team's last possession, before Albany's Liz Tucker hit the side of the rim with a mid-court shot at the buzzer.  Tucker finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
    “We made too many mental mistakes in the overtime, so this is very disappointing,” said Buchanan, whose team established a school record with 12 three-pointers, but shot just 6-of-15 from the free throw line.  “The whole game was about momentum, but if we had made our free throws it would never have gotten to overtime.”