ABL’s StingRays Making News
The American Basketball League’s Long Beach StingRays unveiled their coach and a new logo, then bid farewell to one of their premier players Wednesday.
In a news conference at the Pyramid, Coach Maura McHugh, 44, said her new team would play “tough-inside, high-scoring and pressure-defense basketball.”
But she’ll have to achieve that without Cindy Brown. The 11-year pro out of Long Beach State has decided to play next season in Europe.
Last season, she was the ABL’s No. 4 scorer (17.5) and No. 3 rebounder (8.3) for Seattle.
The ABL also announced the league’s first draft pick, 6-4 Yolanda Griffith, has signed a two-year contract with Long Beach. Griffith, from Florida Atlantic University, played three pro seasons in Germany.
Other frontcourt StingRay players are 1996 Olympian Venus Lacy (6-4), Ingrid Dixson (6-3), Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil (6-1), Trisha Stafford (6-1), Jenni Ruff (5-11) and Nadine Malcolm (6-1).
Guards are Nicky McCrimmon (5-8), Michelle Marciniak (5-9), Dena Evans (5-5), Beverly Williams (5-9) and Necole Tunsil (6-1).
McHugh employed a fiery sideline style in building winners at both Oklahoma and Arizona State, where she was 226-154 in 13 seasons.
Unhappy with ASU administrative support of her program, McHugh resigned in 1993 to become executive director of The Business Council for Alcohol Education in Phoenix.