THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9501050543
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
Ask the most prolific scorer in women's college basketball over the past two seasons where she learned to play the game, and she'll take you there.
``Neighborhood Facility,'' Shander Gary says as she hops into a reporter's car. ``Just pull out here and hit the interstate and it'll take us right downtown.''
We leave Gary's home in Westhaven and 10 minutes later pull onto Elm Avenue, where we stop in front of a fortress-like building with kids' bicycles parked out front.
Gary steps inside and takes a look around. A group of small boys are running around wildly, heaving up shots and scrambling for the rebounds. At another basket some teenagers are playing two-on-two. In a corner, another teen is shooting free throws.
``It's not changed a bit,'' Gary said. ``Been like this since I've been growing up. It's still the same.''
Gary, who was home on break from Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., grew up playing basketball in this gym, and she learned her craft well. Through 10 games, the 6-foot-2 senior from Wilson High is leading NCAA Division II in scoring and rebounding, averaging 30.8 points and 15.3 boards. The NCAA has not updated its leaders in two weeks, but as of Dec. 18, no one else in Divisions I, II or III was averaging better than 28.8.
Last year, Gary averaged 31.8 points, which would have led all NCAA divisions, had Lynn been an NCAA member. But Lynn was in a transition year, and wasn't eligible for NCAA statistics. So Gary had to settle for leading the NAIA in scoring and field goal percentage.
``I like kids who are slender and can run,'' Lynn coach Dan Olson said. ``She runs extremely well. She outruns guards.''
Outscores them, too. But then Gary has never been shy about putting the ball up.
``She was a natural shooter,'' said Michelle Eady, who has worked at Neighborhood Facility since Gary was in grade school. ``A little lazy on defense, but a natural shooter.''
Gary began coming to the city-run recreation center when she lived in the nearby Ida Barbaur housing project.
``They had little teams, recreation teams,'' she said. ``My sister and I played.''
Gary went on to play junior varsity ball at Wilson in the eighth grade. The following year, she was a varsity starter and was voted all-district.
By her junior year, Gary was a first-team all-state pick and the Tidewater player of the year. She repeated those honors her senior year, averaging 27.6 points and 16 rebounds.
Gary was nearly as dominant in track, breaking district records in the high, long and triple jumps.
She was an indifferent student, however, and finished her career at Wilson without graduating.
Even so, Connors State, a junior college in Warner, Okla., was willing to take a chance on Gary. She signed sight unseen and regretted it as soon as she set foot on campus.
``I didn't go and visit before I went, I just went,'' Gary said. ``I was just so glad somebody would take me.''
Gary lasted less than a year on The Plains. She was cold, homesick and, for the first time in her career, not playing well.
``I didn't like it so I didn't get into it,'' she said. ``I was just going along with the flow, I didn't give the effort.''
She returned home and signed with Okaloosa-Walton Community College in Niceville, Fla., where another local high school star, Michael Evans, was also playing. She found Florida much more to her liking.
``Shorts all year 'round,'' she said.
So when Oliver came calling, telling Gary that she could be the main man, so to speak, on Lynn's brand-new basketball team, Gary was receptive.
Even more so when she got a look at the place.
``Everybody calls it the country club,'' Gary said. ``It's the setting of it that puts you in mind of a country club.''
That makes it about as far removed from the starkly named Neighborhood Facility, housed in a former armory, as one could imagine.
But Gary has taken to life at Lynn. She needs just 14 hours to graduate and expects to get her degree in recreation and sports management in May.
``My mom, she always stays on me to do my school work,'' she said.
Defenders stay on Gary, too, to little avail. She frequently draws double-teams but has such smooth moves and a deft touch around the basket that it hardly matters.
``I'd like to play her more out on the wing,'' Olson said. ``She can step out and shoot it from 16, 17 feet.
``But she rebounds the hell out of that ball, and I can't afford to move her.''
Gary, who feels she was overlooked for All-American honors last year, figures that if she keeps playing the way she has, she won't be overlooked this season.
She said she's interested in playing professional basketball overseas, but isn't hanging all her hopes on that.
``When the crowds stop cheering, it's time to hang up the shoes. It's all over,'' she said.
When she hangs up the shoes, Gary may pick up a whistle. She hopes to coach somewhere, or maybe work with kids at a rec center.
Like Neighborhood Facility.
The thought of coming home to work interests Gary, but so does the idea of making a mark somewhere else.
``In college, I've got to go a lot of places,'' Gary said. ``I just want to keep exploring, see what's out there.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by D. Kevin Elliott, Staff
Shander Gary's 31.8 scoring average last year would have topped the
NCAA, but Lynn University was not yet an NCAA school.
by CNB