Langville

EMMITSBURG -- Freshman forward Megan Gardiner scored a game-high 30 points to lead Mount St. Mary's to a 75-56 victory over Long Island in a Northeast Conference women's tournament quarterfinal last night at Knott Arena.The Mountaineers, two wins away from a third straight trip to the NCAA tournament, face Monmouth tomorrow at home in the semifinals.Gardiner scored 16 in the first half as the Mountaineers (20-7, 15-3) opened a 41-27 lead, ending the half with a 6-0 run.In the second half, the Blackbirds (11-16, 7-11)

Young teams with talent tend to do some unpredictable things, good and bad. Towson State's men's basketball team, ** the youngest ever under coach Terry Truax, is a perfect example.The Tigers (9-10, 3-7), who feature one senior in center Jason Crump, are the last-place team in the Big South, but are the only team to beat first-place UNC-Greensboro. They lost to Maryland and Virginia by a combined 75 points, but made it look easy while pulling away to an 81-69 victory over Louisville, the biggest victory in the program's history.

Maryland sophomore Pierre Vendetti was reprimanded yesterday by the Division I men's soccer subcommittee for striking a William and Mary player in the face during a second-round game of the 1996 NCAA tournament.Vendetti will be ineligible to play in the Terps' next NCAA tournament game.GYMNASTICS: Towson State senior Erin Shanley concluded her college career Thursday night by becoming the first Tiger to earn Division I All-America status. She finished 12th on bars to earn second-team All-America honors at the NCAA championship meet in Gainesville, Fla.Also Thursday night, Navy's Matt Tucker qualified for last night's men's finals in the vault by tying two other gymnasts for the second-highest preliminary score (9.775)

ON WEDNESDAY, more than 75 employees of Verizon Wireless at the North Laurel office gave up their lunch breaks to help those in need. They spent the time assembling personal-care kits for women sheltered by the Domestic Violence Center of Howard County. Like many great ideas, this one was sparked by a casual conversation. Sandra Langville of the Verizon human resources department had been speaking with Sarah Tucker, director of community education at the center in Columbia. The two women keep in touch because Verizon has supported drives for winter coats, canned goods and school supplies for the center.

Senior forward Bernard Hopkins (Overlea), who had 16 double doubles in 29 games for Virginia Commonwealth, was voted Colonial Athletic Association men's basketball Player of the Year, the league announced yesterday.Hopkins is first in the conference in rebounding (10.3 a game), third in field-goal accuracy (.566) and fourth in scoring (16.3 points a game). He is the first CAA player to get 400 points (473), 300 rebounds (300), 50 assists (64) and shooting 50 percent from the field in a season.

It's smorgasbrowse day, with a bunch of "Q's" without "A's" plus some fun facts.If I forgot anything, please give me a call on the 24-hour Sportsline, (410) 647-2499.* How about congratulations to Archbishop Spalding's Amy Langville for signing a national letter of intent and accepting a full basketball scholarship to NCAA Division I Mount St. Mary's?"Amy had agreed verbally a couple weeks ago, but made it official Sunday night," said Spalding coach Paul Leimkuhler.* Do you realize that the state Class 4A football playoffs started with four Prince George's County teams and now the final four has only one, unbeaten Crossland (11-0)

Amy Langville's driving jumper with two seconds remaining broke a 59-59 tie and gave Mount St. Mary's (7-6, 4-2) a 62-59 victory over Robert Morris (3-11, 3-3) yesterday at Knott Arena.Langville was fouled on the play, making her free throw, and the Colonials were unable to get a shot off in the final two seconds.* UMBC 64, UNC-Asheville 52: Kendra Damann scored a career-high 27 points, leading host UMBC (7-7, 4-0 Big South) to its fifth straight win, over visiting UNC-Asheville (3-12, 1-3)

The Archbishop Spalding girls basketball team seems to have put last season behind it. The Cavaliers, 8-17 last season, are off to a 2-0 start after upsetting 10th-ranked Mercy, 60-47, yesterday.The victory gives Spalding reason for optimism this year."Our goal is to win the Catholic League," said Spalding coach Paul Leimkuhler, whose team registered seven consecutive winning seasons before last year."And with this team, it may be our best chance in recent years. I have nine returning players, including five starters."

The UMBC women's basketball team became part of an exclusive club yesterday, one it had no interest in joining.Mount St. Mary's added UMBC to the short list of schools it has beaten 20 times, getting 18 points from senior guard Amy Langville and 17 from sophomore forward Megan Gardiner in a 63-52 victory over the host Retrievers.Before yesterday, only Loyola College had gone down that many times to the Mount, which improved its series record against UMBC to 20-3.Gardiner scored 13 of her points in the first half, and finished with eight rebounds.

Dennis Thiele has proved that the first time was no fluke.His first time around as girls basketball coach at Chesapeake, Thiele inherited a team that went 1-21 in 1983 and led it to five, 10 and 13 victories over the next three seasons -- the last two extending into the playoffs.Theile departed following the 1985-86 season, which ended with a loss to South River in the Region IV finals, and Chesapeake didn't have a winning record or make the playoffs again. It was a dry spell during which the Cougars won as few as three games in 1988-89 and no more than eight.