ALL-AMERICAN When Frani Washington, Ohio State’S First All-American, Played 39-Point Explosion Against Tennessee on Dec
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OHIO STATE BUCKEYES OHIO STATE BUCKEYES OHIO STATE BUCKEYES OHIO STATE BUCKEYES OHIO STATE BUCKEYES OHIO STATE BUCKEYES FRANI WASHINGTON 1979 ALL-AMERICAN When Frani Washington, Ohio State’s first All-American, played 39-point explosion against Tennessee on Dec. 12, 1978 stood atop women’s basketball teams were not playing for Big Ten championships the single game records for 16 years. Washington scored 30 or and berths in the NCAA tournament. There was a Big Ten tournament more points in five contests and 20 or more in 21 of the Buckeyes’ in 1979, but the conference did not sponsor a championship in the 30 games, averaging 23.7 points per game. sport. Instead, the postseason consisted of the Ohio Association of The statistics show Washington was an all-around player. In addi- Intercollegiate Sports for Women (OAISW) and the Midwest Associa- tion to her scoring talent, the 5-foot-6 forward led the team in steals tion of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (MAIAW) tournaments. (81) and ranked second in assists (98) and rebounds (212) during the Washington was the standout of the 1978-79 Ohio State squad 1978-79 season. She was named an All-American in 1979. that finished with a 19-11 record and advanced to the MAIAW tournament under head coach Mary Wilson. During that season, the Toledo, Ohio, native scored 711 points, an Ohio State single-season record she held until the 1995-96 season. Moreover, Washington’s CAREER STATISTICS GP-GS FG-FGA Pct. FT-FTA Pct. REB Avg. HI PF-D PTS Avg. HI A S BL 1977-78 30-25 161-308 .523 71-108 .657 217 7.2 17 68-0 393 13.1 28 NA NA NA 1978-79 30-30 309-573 .539 93-119 .782 212 7.1 17 90-0 711 23.7 39 98 81 7 1979-80 3-3 28-49 .571 13-16 .812 11 3.6 6 9-0 69 23.0 25 4 8 0 Totals 63-58 498-930 .535 177-243 .728 440 7.0 17 167-0 1173 18.6 39 102 89 7 154 2010-11 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2010-11 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2010-11 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2010-11 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2010-11 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2010-11 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TRACEY HALL 1987/88 ALL-AMERICAN Tracey Hall, Ohio State’s second basketball All-American, to collect more than 300 rebounds in a season. etched an impressive line of records during the first decade of On the way to amassing these records, Hall started every women’s NCAA intercollegiate competition. game of her collegiate career, scored double figures in 101 The Big Ten’s first two-time Kodak All-American (1987, 1988), games, notched double-digit rebounding efforts in 50 contests Hall’s impact on the conference was immediate. The talented and combined scoring and rebounding for 39 double-double forward captured Big Ten freshman of the year and second team performances from 1985-88. All-Big Ten laurels in 1985. She went on to claim the conference’s With Hall’s talent and leadership, the Buckeyes compiled three top honor, player of the year, in 1986 and ’87, while being selected consecutive Big Ten championships (1985-87) and a four-year first team All-Big Ten in 1986, ’87 and ’88. conference record of 67-5. OSU’s overall mark during the Hall era To gain a true sense of Hall’s dominance, however, take a look was 102-20 (.836), which included four trips to the NCAA tourna- in OSU’s record book, where her impact has been long-lasting. The ment and just one step away from the Final Four with berths in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, native ranks second on both the school’s the regional finals in 1985 and ’87. all-time scoring ledger with 1,912 points and the career field-goal In international competition, Hall competed for the ABA/USA WHERE IS SHE NOW? percentage list (.600). She continues to own the all-time school Select team in 1986 and the World University Games team in 1987. records for rebounds (1,115) and ranks second in field goals made She was also invited to the U.S. Olympic Team tryouts in 1988. Tracey (Hall) Yarbrough began (807), fourth for games played (122), third in career steals (259) Hall graduated in 1988 with a degree in communications. She her professional playing career after and fourth in blocks (109). was inducted into the Ohio State Sports Hall of Fame in September graduating with a communications During the 1986-87 campaign she recorded a then-single- 1998 and had her No. 44 retired in 2009 in Value City Arena. degree from Ohio State. She played season mark for field goal percentage, connecting on 62 percent for six weeks in place of an injured of her attempts. Hall also is the first and only Ohio State player member on a professional squad in Parma, Italy. After the season, Yarbrough was offered a contract to play in the league for another year on a team based in Bari, Italy. Yarbrough turned down a second full year in the European league to concentrate on interests outside of basketball. The WNBA approached Yarbrough when the league was coming into existence, but Yarbrough declined the offer because of bad timing. Yarbrough is living and working in her home town of Cleveland, Ohio, in the insurance industry. She is married to Reese and the couple has two sons, Tyrese and Danté. CAREER STATISTICS GP-GS FG-FGA Pct. FT-FTA Pct. REB Avg. HI PF-D PTS Avg. HI A S BL 1984-85 31-31 178-296 .601 4-58 .690 257 8.3 15 61-1 396 12.8 27 64 58 23 1985-86 30-30 203-329 .617 92-125 .736 284 9.5 17 78-2 498 16.6 28 55 63 31 1986-87 31-31 220-355 .620 66-91 .725 305 9.8 19 77-0 506 16.3 26 89 59 32 1987-88 30-30 206-366 .563 100-128 .781 269 9.0 15 73-1 512 17.1 28 77 79 23 Totals 122-122 807-1346 .600 298-402 .741 1115 9.1 19 289-4 1912 15.7 28 285 259 109 OhioStateBuckeyes.com 155 OHIO STATE BUCKEYES OHIO STATE BUCKEYES OHIO STATE BUCKEYES OHIO STATE BUCKEYES OHIO STATE BUCKEYES OHIO STATE BUCKEYES NIKITA LOWRY 1989 ALL-AMERICAN Ohio State’s string of All-Americans continued on the heels and rebounding (14, two times at Cal-State Fullerton and Iowa) of Tracey Hall’s graduation in 1988 as Nikita Lowry, a Kodak and capped the campaign with a unanimous first team All-Big Ten All-Region selection in 1988, became the Buckeyes’ third All- pick and OSU’s most valuable player award. American in 1989. An off-season knee injury slowed Lowry’s progress at the start The 6-foot forward gave a preview of her future success as a of her senior season. The Buckeyes opened the 1988-89 campaign sophomore. Although she was not in the starting lineup, Lowry ranked in the polls, but lost three of their first five games. Lowry, ranked second on the team in scoring (13.6 ppg) and led the squad however, came back to lead the Big Ten in scoring for the second in free throw accuracy (.767). In fact, Lowry prevailed as the only straight year with an average of nearly 19 points per game. The non-starter among the Big Ten’s Top 15 scorers. A native of Detroit, team ended the season with an overall record of 24-6 and as co- Mich., her efforts did not go unnoticed, as she claimed second champions in the Big Ten with a 16-2 conference mark. In addition team All-Big Ten honors and OSU’s sixth player award. to earning All-America honors, Lowry was a unanimous first team Lowry dominated the Big Ten as a junior. She led the conference All-Big Ten selection and winner of the Chicago Tribune’s Silver in scoring (23.7 ppg), becoming the first OSU player to average Basketball award. WHERE IS SHE NOW? more than 20 points in a season since Frani Washington in 1978-79. Graduating in 1990 with a bachelor of science degree in eco- Lowry also paced the conference in field-goal percentage (.616) nomics, she has enjoyed coaching stops at Michigan, Ohio State, Nikita Lowry-Dawkins recently and steals (3.1 spg) and co-led in the rebounding column (8.4 Detroit and New Mexico State. Lowry was hired as an assistant returned for a second stint as an as- rpg). Lowry’s “break out” year included a 28-point, 12-rebound at Old Dominion University in the summer of 2002. sistant coach at Old Dominion Univer- performance to help OSU beat then-No. 1 Iowa (58-54) before In September 2000, Lowry was honored with an induction into sity. Lowry-Dawkins first coached at ODU from 2004-05 before accepting a sellout crowd of 13,320 in St. John Arena. Additionally, she the Ohio State Sports Hall of Fame. an assistant position at Texas Tech established career highs for scoring (36 points against Illinois) for the 2005-06 campaign. A 2000 Ohio State Hall of Fame inductee, Lowry-Dawkins began her coaching career at Michigan in 1991 before returning to her alma mater in 1993 for a three-year stint as an assistant coach for the Buckeyes. She left in 1996 to take over at Detroit, where her teams captured Midwestern Col- legiate Conference (MCC) titles and made the school’s first-ever NCAA appearance in 1997.