FOURTH-PLACE FINISH FOR SHAVER
* Former Tar Heel Tony Shaver's great run in the 2003 Division III Men's Basketball Tournament came to an end last Friday in Hampden-Sydney's 79-68 semifinal loss to Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.).
"Sports is a very humbling arena sometimes," coach Shaver told the Roanoke Times after the game. "That may be the first time in a long time we really haven't been able to stop an opponent. We were really on our heels all night long." Hampden-Sydney College (Va.) ranked seventh in scoring defense this season, allowing only 59.9 points per game.
After dropping the consolation game to Wooster on Saturday, 78-74, the Tigers of H-SC ended the 2002-03 season with a record of 28-4. That brings Shaver's career mark in 17 years at Hampden-Sydney College to 358-121 (74.7%) with seven consecutive seasons of at least 21 wins.
CALABRIA RETURNS HOME FROM ITALY
* Dante Calabria told his team in Italy, Benetton Treviso (23-4), that he had to leave the team to return home due to personal reasons regarding his family, according to Euroleague.net.
Calabria played 26 games for Benetton Treviso, the first-place team in the Italian League and one of the top teams in Euroleague competition.
In 15 Italian League games, Calabria came off the bench and averaged 20.8 minutes, 9.5 points and 3.2 rebounds per game while making 53.8% (28-52) of his 3-point field goal attempts and 100% (18-18) of his free throws.
CAPEL TOP FREE-THROWER AT 88.506%
* Former Tar Heel Jason Capel of the Fayetteville Patriots did not play in the Patriots' final three NBDL regular-season games in order to give him some extra time to recover from a nagging hip injury.
Capel is expected to be available for the postseason when the Patriots (32-18), the D-League's regular-season champion, begin a best-of-three semifinal playoff series with fourth-place Roanoke (26-24) on Tuesday at home. That game will be shown on tape-delay by ESPN2 at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Capel ended his rookie season in the NBDL making 154-of-174 free throws for a league-best 88.506%. Tierre Brown of North Charleston went 10-for-13 from the free-throw line during the week to go from 89.3% to 88.50% (177-200). The league's official website, NBDL.com, lists Capel and Brown in a first-place tie for the Free Throw Percentage title.
JASON CAPEL'S FINAL 2002-03 NBDL STATS-
42 GAMES | 42 STARTS | 25.2 MPG | 48.1 FG% (151-314) | 36.4 3-Pt. FG% (28-77) | 88.5 FT% | 3.7 RPG | 2 APG | 11.5 PPG
Season-highs: 30 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists and 43 minutes
TAR HEEL NBA PROS ADVANCE, 90.7 - 9.3
* UNC's NBA Pros scored another lopsided victory in NBA.com's "Big Men on Campus" basketball tournament, getting 90.7% of the votes versus Michigan State, to move ahead to the semifinals.
The Duke vs. Connecticut (March 27-31) quarterfinal survivor is up next for the Tar Heels (March 31-April 3). Visit
www.nba.com/features/bmoc_bracket.html for more details, and to support the Tar Heel NBA Pros.