hard feelings among students that could make her sons l

Defending champions Surrey Storm will meet 2014 champions Manchester Thunder in the Vitality Superleague Grand Final after Saturdays semi-finals.After Thunder had booked their place in the Copper Box showpiece with victory over Team Bath 53-46 earlier on Saturday, it was left to rivals Storm and Hertfordshire Mavericks to play out a thriller.Coming down to the final seconds, it was Storm who held on with Rachel Dunns nerve holding to nail the all-important goal that ensured a two-goal deficit would not be hauled back with little time remaining in a 53-51 victory. It means the defending champions Storm will get the chance to keep their trophy when they face a Thunder side that finished top of the regular season standings and keen to make amends for missing out in the semi-finals last year. Player of the Season Your chance to vote on the seasons star turn Dan Ryans team will be equally keen to avenge their only defeat of the regular season, when they were beaten by Storm in Manchester in February.In front of a lively crowd at the Surrey Sports Village, a thrilling first quarter ebbed and flowed with Mavericks recovering from a nervy opening few minutes to edge into a two-goal lead after the first 15 minutes.The second quarter was a cracker with the radars of shooters Rachel Dunn of Storm and Sammy Wallace of Mavericks very much on - Wallace taking Mavericks into a seven-point lead before Dunn and Pamela Cookey led the Surrey fightback. Superleague semi-finals A recap of the semi-finals as they happened With just two points in it at half-time the third quarter was equally as thrilling with Dunn and Cookey finding their range to turn the deficit into a one-point advantage ahead of the final 15 minutes.And there was no let up in the drama as the game ebbed and flowed with brilliance under the posts from both teams and fantastic turnover defence.However it was a turnover and crucial score from Dunn that proved to be crucial, Dunns goal in the final ten second of the game enough to secure a return to the Copper Box for the champions. Reaction from both camps after Manchester Thunder beat Team Bath to progress to the Vitality Superleague Grand Final Manchester was the venue for the opening semi-final of the day and a blistering start from them set the tone for an opening quarter that was to prove crucial against Team Bath.With the visitors slow out of the traps and freezing in the semi-final spotlight, Thunder wasted no time in forging an 8-2 advantage and by the end of the opening 15 minutes they were a huge 11 goals clear - a deficit that was to prove too much for Bath to make up.The visitors rallied throughout the remaining three quarters, and were just edged out by a point in quarters two and three before a stirring fightback in the final quarter set nerves jangling at the Thunderdome.Anna Stembridges team were busy from the outset and as they ebbed away at the lead, their confidence grew.Having pulled the deficit back to seven points with three minutes remaining Baths efforts to set up a grandstand finish were hindered by some understandably desperate attempts to win the ball back or find the goal.In the end Thunder closed out the win and remain on course for their third Superleague title in Ryans first season as head coach. We look back to 2014s Superleague final between Manchester Thunder and Surrey Storm as Helen Housby won the game for her side in the final second You can follow all the build-up to the Grand Final on www.skysports.com/netball this week and watch the game on Sky Sports 1 next Saturday from 6pm.By purchasing a Sky Sports Day Pass for £6.99 or Sky Sports Week Pass for £10.99, you can enjoy access to all seven Sky Sports channels and watch on a TV with a NOW TV Box or on a range of devices.Also See:Semi-finals - as it happenedVote for your Player of the SeasonTableLive on SkyAir Max Cheap Shoes . Thats not a comment on the suspension that banished the Portland Winterhawks general manager and coach from his Western Hockey League teams bench for most of the 2012-13 season. Cheap Air Max Shoes Sale . After Martin Skrtel put the Reds in front from close range at Stamford Bridge after only four minutes, Hazard hit back in the 17th with a superb strike. Etoo gave Jose Mourinhos team a decisive lead from Oscars back pass in the 34th. http://www.airmaxcheapoutlet.com/ . A knee to the thigh might have stung him the most, but his sixth straight double-double made up for the brief burst of pain. Air Max Cheap China . Numbers Game looks into the Canadiens securing the services of Thomas Vanek in a trade with the New York Islanders. The Canadiens Get: LW Thomas Vanek and a conditional fifth-round pick. Air Max Wholesale .C. -- Al Jefferson joked that he feels he can score from anywhere on the court.WIGGINS, Miss. -- The president of the Mississippi NAACP is demanding a federal hate crime investigation after the parents of a black high school student said as many as four white students put a noose around their sons neck at school.No child should be walking down the hall or in a locker room and be accosted with a noose around their neck, president Derrick Johnson said Monday during a news conference in Wiggins. This is 2016, not 1916. This is America. This is a place where children should go to school and feel safe in their environment.Johnson said the incident happened Oct. 13 near a locker room at Stone High School in Wiggins.Hollis and Stacey Payton, parents of the alleged victim, attended the news conference but did not speak. Their son, a sophomore football player, was not with them and they did not release his name.The NAACP said the incident happened during a break in football practice and that the noose was yanked backward while on the students neck.Johnson would not say whether noose left any marks on the black student. According to a statement from the students family, he returned to football practice after the incident, said Ayana Kinnel, a spokeswoman for the state NAACP.Stone High has about 800 students, about a quarter of whom are black according to state figures. Thats not a particularly high percentage in Mississippi, where half of nearly 500,000 public school students are African-American.Wiggins, 35 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, is a logging town. Many people commute from the 18,000-resident county to jobs in Gulfport and other coastal cities.Mississippi has struggled with a history of racial division. It is the last state that still incorporates the Confederate battle emblem on its state flag. In 2014, two out-of-state students at the University of Mississippi placed a noose on the campus statue of James Meredith, the black student who integrated Ole Miss in 1962. Both pleaded guilty to using a threat of force to intimidate African-American students and employees. Neither attends the school anymore.Names and ages of the other students allegedly involved in the Stone High School incident werent immediately released.The Stone County Sheriffs Department provides officers at local schools and typically is the first to respond to incidents. Sheriffs Capt. Ray Boggs said officials believe something close to what the Paytons described diid happen and said hes still investigating.dddddddddddd He said all the students involved are younger than 17 and he expects any charges would be filed in youth court, where records are closed to the public.Its probably one of the hardest cases Ill ever handle in my career, because of the nature of it, said Boggs, who is black. Have I ever had to deal with something like this? No, not from a high school.Johnson said he wants the teenagers charged as adults. Thats allowable in certain situations for people between ages 13 and 16 in Mississippi. He cited federal prosecutions of young people from Rankin County for hate crimes following the 2011 death of a man run down in the parking lot of Jackson motel as an example of what federal involvement could bring. Most of those people were charged as adults, although there was evidence of at least one unusual federal juvenile prosecution.There is absolutely a role for federal law enforcement, Johnson said.Johnson said Stacey Payton was advised against filing a police report because the father of one of the alleged assailants is a former law enforcement officer. Boggs said he talked to Stacey Payton and thats not true. He said he told her that pursuing criminal charges could result in hard feelings among students that could make her sons life harder at school.Stone High School Principal Adam Stone referred comment to Superintendent Inita Owen. She and school board attorney Sean Courtney didnt respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment. Johnson said the Paytons have received no official word about punishments from school officials. Johnson said school district policy calls for immediate expulsion of students who commit assault.Carissa Bolden of Wiggins, the mother of a middle school student, attended the NAACP news conference Monday and said white students have been flying the Mississippi flag from their vehicles. The upper left corner of the state flag used since 1894 has the Confederate battle emblem -- a red field topped by a blue X with 13 white stars. Bolden said she sees a connection between the flag and the noose incident.I feel like it escalated from them allowing kids to bring Confederate flags to school, Bolden said.----Emily Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi. ' ' '