Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 12, 1993 TAG: 9303120067
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS BACHELDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SENIOR DUO HAS KEPT WASPS IN NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
THEY'VE BEEN friends and teammates for six years, and now Jimmy Allen and Derek Elmore hope for the chance to cap their sparking Emory & Henry careers with a shot at a national championship.\ It is fitting that Emory & Henry senior guards Derek Elmore and Jimmy Allen will play out their concurrent careers in an elite round of the NCAA Division III basketball tournament.
In the past four years, Allen and Elmore - Northside High School class of '89 - have seen 91 Wasps wins and four trips to the small-college ball. The longtime room- and running mates have played in all 116 games since joining coach Bob Johnson's hive.
Tonight, Emory & Henry (23-4) and defending champion Calvin, Mich., (22-4) tangle in a "Sweet 16" game at Emory's King Center. The Wasps defeated Maryville (Tenn.) 83-61 Saturday in a first-round game, and Calvin eliminated Otterbein (Ohio) 90-68.
"There's no other feeling like this," said Elmore, who has 90 career starts and 1,205 points. "The [four] 20-win seasons and national rankings are nice, but the tournament is most important. And getting to the Sweet 16 is a great feeling."
Allen and Elmore were friends and teammates for two years at Northside, but there was no college pact. Each chose E&H independently, and each prospered immediately in Johnson's no-nonsense, no-stars system.
"Here, playing time early depends on how well you adjust defensively," Johnson said. "They played a similar defensive system in high school, so the adjustment was not too much for them.
"When Jimmy came, we were in dire need of a point guard. He's maintained that role and gotten better. Derek was almost our stopper as a freshman, and his role has changed. He's become a scorer."
Elmore averaged a career-best 16.5 points per game this season and was selected to the All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference second team. Allen led the team in assists for the third straight season and is the school's all-time leader with 449.
"This was definitely the best place for me," said Allen, who has 78 career starts. "I'm the best basketball player I can be."
Because they have shared a court for six years and a room for four, people tend to regard Elmore and Allen as a package deal.
"A lot of people confuse us," Allen said. "One time they even mixed up the [player] introductions and called us Jimmy Elmore and Derek Allen."
Johnson added: "Some people think Elmore-Allen, that's a person. There's nothing farther from the truth. Each has a tremendous personality in his own right. Jimmy is smooth, glib, a communicator. Derek is like a bulldog in a meat plant. But they meld almost."
Elmore said Allen "analyzes everything on the court." Of himself, Elmore said, "I just want to throw the ball up and get going."
But Johnson said his backcourt stalwarts are similar in one very crucial way.
"They're really competitors," said Johnson, who is 135-37 in his past six years. "They have tremendous mental toughness. A lot of guys are willing to do what it takes physically, but they don't have it mentally. You have to be tough in tough situations and sometimes that means not fighting. These guys embody that characteristic that we think is so important here."
Emory's five seniors - Allen, Elmore, Teddy Gibson, DeWayne Moore and Brian Witcher - have had a stellar four-year run - a 91-25 record and a national top-20 ranking each season.
"They've taken the team and the institution to consistent heights," Johnson said. "It's not how high you climb, but how long you stay there. This special group has kept E&H in the national spotlight for a number years."