Rashida Suber and Shalamar Oakley have been backcourt mates at Coppin State for three years and scoring guards virtually all their lives.
Team harmony withstood that delicate dynamic - two scorers, one ball - and the result is the Eagles are poised to make a fourth straight postseason run when the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference women's tournament begins tomorrow in Raleigh, N.C.
Suber and Oakley, both seniors, will leave a legacy of unparalleled success at Coppin. Arriving one year apart, they teamed up for 66 wins, one MEAC championship and two postseason appearances. Throw in Suber's 23 wins and a MEAC championship in 2004-05 and it has been a golden era on the west Baltimore campus.
"When you have scorers, a lot of time they feel they can take a day off and not play as hard as you would like them to," coach Derek Brown said. "But we never got that from those two. They love to play basketball. That's what makes them so good. They're competitors."
Fortunately for him, Brown gets to enjoy them a little longer. The second-seeded Eagles (19-11) drew a bye into Wednesday's 12:30 p.m. quarterfinal against the winner of tomorrow's game between No. 7 South Carolina State and No. 10 Bethune-Cookman.
Oakley, a 5-foot-6 point guard from Camden, N.J., led the MEAC in scoring this season, averaging 17.4 points. Suber, a 5-8 shooting guard from Reading, Pa., averaged 16.6, fifth-best in the conference.
They rank as the nation's fourth-highest-scoring backcourt tandem.
Suber also became the school's all-time leading scorer this season and takes 1,762 points into the tournament. She holds the school's single-season scoring record with 623 points last season. Sharing the ball has never really been a problem for the two shooters.
"I'm OK with being second," said Oakley, who spent a year at Hofstra before transferring to Coppin. "I don't have to be the star of this team in order for us to win. I know that 'Shida has a tremendous game, and her offense is going to flourish.
"But I also know when it's time for me to shoot, or time to score. When she's not having a good night, I know I can step up and have her back. ... We don't fight about who's taking the most shots; we know we want to win."
Brown concurs.
"At this point in their careers, I think it's maturity and the will to win," he said of their ability to happily co-exist. "A couple years ago, we did win, but as coaches, you could see a little back and forth, `My turn, your turn.' It wasn't that prevalent, but there was a little of that. Now it's about winning."
