La-Force Mann names Codio, Wancel as assistants

Northeastern University women’s basketball head coach Daynia La-Force Mann has appointed Monge Codio Jr. and Vicki Wancel as assistant women’s basketball coaches. Codio brings six seasons of collegiate coaching experience to the Huskies, while Wancel served as an assistant to La-Force Mann at the University of New Haven after a standout collegiate playing career.
“I am fortunate to have experienced, young and talented coaches to aid the program in rising to the top of the Colonial Athletic Association,” said La-Force Mann. “They each represent the core values of Northeastern University.”
Codio comes to Northeastern from Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., where he served two seasons as an assistant coach. Codio was instrumental in recruiting and player development at Iona, as well as scouting, community relations and monitoring academic performance. This past season, the Gaels surpassed the school record for wins as a Division I program with a record of 17-12 and set multiple other school records, while demonstrating the third-best improvement in total wins in the country. Prior to his stint at Iona, Codio was the head coach at Concordia College in Bronxville, N.Y., for four seasons, inheriting a team that had won just one game the previous season and taking them to the cusp of playoff contention. Codio has also coached at Sacred Heart High School in West Hempstead, N.Y., and for the Long Island Lightning AAU team. He played professional basketball in the United States Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association in 1996 and 1998. Codio holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University-Southampton Campus and a Master’s Degree in Administration from Metropolitan College of New York (formerly Audrey Cohen College).
Wancel comes to the Huskies from the University of New Haven in Connecticut where she spent two seasons as an assistant coach, one under Mimi Walters in 2004-05 and last season under La-Force Mann. In Wancel’s two seasons at New Haven, the Chargers won 42 games and captured a New York Collegiate Athletic Conference title, earning a berth to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Prior to beginning her collegiate coaching career, Wancel enjoyed a collegiate basketball career at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. As a senior in 2003-04, Wancel helped the Red Foxes to their first-ever Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament championships and a trip to the NCAA Division I Tournament, capping a career in which she was named to the MAAC All-Academic Team every season. She graduated from Marist in 2004 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications.

Brickley fills in SNHU backcourt

A convergence of circumstances has led Chris Brickley back home to Manchester.
The former Trinity High basketball standout announced he is leaving Northeastern University after one year and will transfer to Southern New Hampshire University in the fall. Brickley's father, Bill Brickley, confirmed the decision last night.
Brickley grew up within a mile of the SNHU campus and frequently attended games at the Penmen Fieldhouse. He may now be starring in them.The Penmen lose their starting backcourt of John Baiano and Miguel Gonzalez, and Brickley fills a glaring need as a 6-foot-3 point guard.
"He'll come in and, I think, he'll be an impact player right away," SNHU coach Stan Spirou said.
Brickley appeared in seven games for the Huskies this year, averaging 5.1 minutes. He was stuck behind senior Jose Juan Barea, the player of the year in the Colonial Athletic Conference and a prospect in the upcoming NBA draft.
In a one game Barea did not play, Brickley scored 10 points in 19 minutes during an 80-44 exhibition win over Puerto Rico Mayaguez.
Brickley is the second Division I transfer that should immediately help one of the state's Division II teams. UNH sophomore guard Chris Vetrano announced last month that he was transferring to St. Anselm College.
Chris Brickley was not available for comment, but his father said he made the decision to transfer after Northeastern coach Ron Everhart left to coach Duquesne. Bill Coen, a former assistant coach at Boston College, was named the new NU coach 11 days ago.
"New coaches to want their own players," Bill Brickley said, "and the players already in the program tend to get marginalized."
The elder Brickley said his son was going to transfer to UMass — where former Trinity teammate Luke Bonner is after he transferred in from West Virginia last year — but began to change his mind after playing with the SNHU players this week.
"Chris has been going to SNHU games since he was a little kid," Bill Brickley said. "It's a great fit."
Chris Brickley will be eligible to play in the fall at SNHU on scholarship. He would have had to sit out a year at UMass, and his father said he would not have had a scholarship there next year.
Spirou said Brickley impressed him during his final two years at Trinity by displaying the ability to be more of a playmaker as a junior — when the team had three other players who ended up in Division I programs – and switch over to a scorer's role as a senior when the others had left.
Spirou managed to land two high-profile players from within the state with the scholarships he had available. Paul Chergey, a 6-5 swingman from Bow High, announced he was going to SNHU in the fall.
Spirou said he was in no hurry to award the second scholarship. Spirou said he wanted to make sure he was going to get someone who could instantly help the program because of the losses of Gonzalez, Baiano and all-conference forward P.J. Young.
"We're losing a lot, so I wanted to make sure we got the right help," Spirou said.
As it turns out, he didn't have to look far to find it.

NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL REGIONALS Interviews: March 25: Practice Day in D. C.: UConn Huskies

Well, to state the obvious, we're happy to be here today. We survived an incredible basketball game last night between two incredibly competitive teams, and I think the game could go up as Exhibition A of what this tournament has been. If you watched the Villanova/BC game or so many other games within this tournament where games have been decided in so many different fashions and the parity amongst the teams has started to really, really show, I think that Washington certainly gave us everything that we could possibly ever imagine to handle. We're able to withstand that and advance, and that's what you want to do. And then tomorrow, we face a team to some degree in my opinion defensively where they are really, really good, can do some of the same things Washington can do. They run their -- I guess Jimmy has called it his new scramble that he put in right before the tournament. You know, we face a very difficult game.

Our kids haven't gone over the names of their team, just like we wouldn't have gone over the Washington team until the night before the game. That's just how we handle it. We handle the situation next in practice and we try to do what we do and then adjust to some of the things we want to adjust to. We have not really gone over --

NC-Wilmington vs. Northeastern

T.J. Carter scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half and UNC-Wilmington used a fast start to earn a shot at its fourth Colonial Athletic Association Tournament title in seven years with a 69-54 victory over Northeastern on Sunday.

The top-seeded Seahawks (24-7) won their seventh consecutive game and matched the school record for single-season victories.

UNC-Wilmington, appearing in the CAA semifinals for the 11th consecutive year, had a 50-34 rebounding advantage and scored 34 points in the paint. The Seahawks also got 14 points from Todd Hendley, 12 from Dejan Grkovic and 11 from Beckham Wyrick.

Northeastern (19-11) got 17 points and five assists from Jose Juan Barea, the CAA's player of the year. But Barea also had six turnovers and foul problems on an afternoon when the Huskies shot 30.4 percent, matching their season-low.

Shawn James added 13 points and eight blocks and Aaron Davis had 12 points for the fifth-seeded Huskies, who led the CAA in scoring during the regular season, averaging 76.2 points.

Barea was held to a career-low five points on 2-for-12 shooting in the teams' only previous meeting, a 46-44 victory by the Seahawks on Jan. 28 in Wilmington, N.C. Barea missed all eight of his 3-point attempts in that game.

This time, Barea had problems taking care of the ball. The Seahawks built a 42-29 lead after a first half in which they harassed Northeastern into seven turnovers, including four by Barea in the opening minutes, when North Carolina-Wilmington raced to a 14-point lead.

Tribe women's basketball defeats Northeastern

At Northeastern's Solomon Court this past Friday, Feb. 10th, the Tribe played an impressive game against Northeastern's Huskies to pull away with a 58-54 victory. The Tribe's record now stands at 11-10, 7-5 in the CAA, while the Huskies fall to 7-14, 3-9 in the conference.William and Mary sophomore forward Kyra Kaylor saw her 18th double-double of the season with 28 points and 18 rebounds. In addition, she shot a perfect 3-3 from 3-point range and made 13 of 14 free-throw attempts. Freshman guard Dani Kell also added 10 points and five assists.The start of the game saw the Tribe pull way ahead of the Huskies after a 16-2 scoring run. The Huskies fought back, cutting the lead to eight at one point. However a 5-0 run by the Tribe closed the half with the Huskies down by 13, 28-15.During the second half, the gap stayed about the same until, with 14:28 left, the Huskies went on a 16-2 scoring run. The run caused them to see their first lead of the night at 43-43 with less than six minutes left on the clock. However, seven unanswered points by the Tribe and four key free throws by Kaylor would be enough to seal the Tribe's victory.The Tribe will next travel to Richmond on Sunday, Feb. 12th to face the VCU Rams at 3:00 p.m.

George Mason & Northeastern

Shaleyse Smallwood scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead three Huskies in double figures, but the Northeastern women's basketball team fell to George Mason, 67-58, on Sunday at Solomon Court. Jody Burrows scored 15 points, shooting 5-for-10 from the field, and Ashlee Feldman added 10 points. Smallwood, Siggi Scherpiet and Lucia Pablos each dished three assists to lead the Huskies in that category.
Lateisha Wade scored 21 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the floor to lead the Patriots. Tracy Ann Holness recorded 12 points and eight rebounds and Nikkia Slade scored 11 points for Mason.
The first half was tightly contested with five ties and three lead changes. The Huskies jumped on the board early with a 7-4 run to open the game. The Patriots soon scored six unanswered points, taking the 12-10 lead on a three-pointer from Wade. The Huskies got back on top with 9:07 remaining in the first half on a three from Smallwood, part of her 3-for-5 performance from beyond the arc. Mason quickly answered as Slade hit a jumper to reclaim a one-point lead for the Patriots. GMU stretched its lead to as many as five in the first half, but the Huskies came back to tie the game with 2:14 on the clock on a three-pointer from Feldman. After Slade made two free throws for GMU, Burrows set up Stefanie Hodell who nailed a shot to tie the game at 34 with 52 seconds remaining. A layup at the buzzer from Wade gave the Patriots a two-point lead at halftime.
The Huskies tied the game again on their first possession of the second half when Feldman made a jumper. NU got a three-pointer from Burrows to take the lead. After a Wade layup, Erica Sheppard made two free throws to give the Huskies a 41-40 lead with 17:16 on the clock. Wade hit another jumper to take back the lead for Mason and the Patriots held on the lead for the remainder of the game, stretching the lead to as many as 10 points. The Huskies got back within four after a Burrows three with 1:13 remaining, but the Patriots scored five unanswered points to close out the contest.
The Huskies shot 19-for-56 (33.9 percent) from the floor, while the Patriots went 28-for-58 (48.3 percent). The Patriots outrebounded the Huskies, 39-32.
The loss drops the Huskies to 7-15 (3-10 CAA), while the Patriots improve to 9-13 (5-8 CAA).
The Huskies are in action again on Friday at 7 p.m. when they face Drexel at the Daskalakis Center in Philadelphia, Pa. The Huskies return to Solomon Court for their final home game of the 2005-06 season on Friday, Jan. 24, to host James Madison at 7 p.m.