Lady Pirates Announce JuCo Signee
April 29, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Cooper, a native of Shawnee, Okla., starred this past season at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, where she averaged 12.3 points, 2.5 assists, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 76 percent from the free throw line, 53 percent from the floor, and 37 percent from three-point range. She led her team to the 2003 NJCAA Region II Tournament Championship, earning tournament MVP honors as well as Bi-State All-Conference recognition along the way.
In her two years at NEO, Cooper helped her team finish as runner-up in the 2002 national junior college tournament and a sixth-place showing this past year. NEO compiled a 63-8 record during her two seasons.
"Viola completes our guard signings for the year," Baldwin-Tener said. "She is a combination guard that can score, pass and defend. She comes from a junior college at NEO that is considered one of the best programs in the country. She brings a very competitive attitude to ECU."
In high school, Cooper was part of two Oklahoma state championships in both basketball and softball while at Bethel High School in Shawnee, Okla.
"Vi has a complete game," said Darin Grover, head women's basketball coach at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. "She is a good defensive player and has very good offensive skills. She is the best mid-range scorer that I have ever coached."
Cooper will join a Lady Pirate squad that lost only one senior from its 2002-03 roster. In Baldwin-Tener's first season, ECU finished with a 12-16 overall record, an improvement of six wins from the previous year, and qualified for the Conference USA Tournament for the first time ever.
