Spring Break
Young and Terry form dynamic duo
Hart Holloman
Issue date: 2/3/09 Section: Sports
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No one can dispute what their presence has produced. Both were standout freshmen, with Young earning the Conference-USA Freshman of the Year award as well as an All-Conference Second Team selection and Terry averaging over 20 minutes a game. They followed up their freshmen campaigns by leading the Lady Pirates to a conference tournament championship and an NCAA tournament berth in their sophomore seasons.
Young again earned C-USA Second Team honors while Terry was named the C-USA Tournament MVP. And last year, both earned C-USA Second Team honors in a season where a few close losses prevented them from obtaining a second successive postseason trip.
But it's their teamwork and leadership that has been so vital to the Lady Pirates since their arrival together. Head Coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener believes that their experience playing together is one of the reasons why they make such a formidable guard tandem.
"They've been playing together so long," said Baldwin-Tener. "They both came in as freshmen and started and they've played a lot of minutes together. On the court they know what the other one is going to do."
And both can do quite a bit on the court. Young has led the team in assists and steals every season since her arrival and Terry has been one of the team's top-three scorers in each of her years on campus. Baldwin-Tener points out that it's the differences in their styles of play that makes them so effective.
"They can play off of each other both offensively and defensively," Baldwin-Tener said. "Jasmine is an energizer bunny. She pushes the ball down the floor really quick, and since LaCoya is one of the fastest players in the league, she can get down the floor quickly enough on the break to make it hard for other teams to deal with that kind of speed."
They also have a great deal of respect for one another both on and off the court. They share the leadership roles of the team and are focused on winning as the primary goal.
"Winning the [conference tournament] championship sophomore year really gave us a lot of confidence in each other," said Terry. "We bond on and off the court which is a big help."
Young echoed those sentiments.
"Our experience together is a big help," said Young. "We've been playing together since freshman year and we know each other's game and we're able to read each other on the court."
They also have great respect for each other's abilities on the court.
"We can depend on her when we need to score," Young said of Terry. "I know that when we need a bucket I can get her the ball and she can take over the game and score for us. She makes the easy buckets and it's hard to guard her one-on-one. And in crunch time, we can always count on her to make the shot."
Terry heaped just as much praise on her point guard.
"Dribbling, shooting, she's just an all around player," said Terry. "She does it all and I admire someone who can shoot and drive to the basket like her."
While Baldwin-Tener admits she is sad to be losing the pair at the end of the season, she is optimistic about the future and credits the two for setting such an excellent example for the younger players.
"We'll definitely miss them, but hopefully we won't drop off too far," Baldwin-Tener said. "We have some good young guards who have played some good minutes so we'll be looking for them to step up and I think they can."
This writer can be contacted at sports@theeastcarolinian.com.
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