Tuesday night’s loss tosses VUU from tourney
Fred Jeter | 2/26/2015, 8:09 a.m.
Charlotte’s Time Warner Cable Arena has become the house of horrors for Virginia Union University’s basketball team.
For the sixth straight year, the Panthers have failed to advance in the CIAA tournament — an event they dominated for decades.
A 77-70 loss to Shaw University during Tuesday night’s play-in game ended VUU’s season with a 9-18 record.
Shaw University, with a 12-15 record, advanced to meet Winston-Salem State University in Wednesday night’s quarterfinals.
The early-round defeats at the CIAA tournament have taken some getting used to for VUU’s loyal and long fan base.
Between 1979 and 2006, VUU won the CIAA 14 times, and went on to claim three NCAA Division II titles.
It has been tough sledding in Charlotte, first under Coach Willard Coker, then Luqman Jabber and currently Tony Sheals.
VUU lost its first tournament game in each of Coker’s final two seasons. It dropped its opener all three years under Jabber. The downward trend continued this year under Sheals.
Sophomore Ray Anderson led VUU with 22 points, hitting 9-of-15 from the floor. The Panthers were a poor 1-for-16 from behind the arc and committed 31 fouls, many in desperation catch-mode late in the game.
