There was a big mid major game Tuesday night as Southern Illinois hosted then undefeated #24 ranked Saint Mary’s. The Salukis trademark defense stymied the Gaels into a season low scoring total as Southern Illinois won 71-56. The Salukis had fifteen more field goal attempts than the Gaels as Southern Illinois out rebounded Saint Mary’s 35-23 with Randall Falker collecting 12 of the rebounds. Brian Mullins led the Salukis with 24 points shooting 7 of 10 from the field (including 3 of 4 from three point range) and 7 of 7 from the line. Gaels’ season leading scorer Patrick Mills was held to 11 points, 5 under his season average. It was a very big win for the Salukis who had started the season 3-0 before losing three straight games to USC, Indiana, and Charlotte.
It was a revenge win for the Missouri Valley Conference over the West Coast Conference. Earlier in the year, Saint Mary’s handed Drake their only loss of the season as the Gaels won at home 72-66. Saint Mary’s has defeated Oregon, San Diego State and Seton Hall as well this season. A very telling game for the Gaels will be on January 5th when they travel to Austin to face #5 Texas (game will be shown on ESPN Full Court). However if Saint Mary’s can basically dominate the West Coast Conference along with fellow ranked power Gonzaga, the West Coast Conference could be a multiple bid conference this year.
Speaking of Drake, the Bulldogs won at Iowa 56-51 to stake a claim for bragging basketball rights to the entire state of Iowa (though fellow MVC foe Northern Iowa will have a say in that). Drake had won earlier in the year over Iowa State by 35 points. Yes, that was not a typo...35 points. In their win over Iowa, which was snapped a 20 game losing streak at Iowa, the Bulldogs did not allow Iowa a single free throw attempt. That’s right, for the first time I can ever remember, a team did not even get one single free throw attempt in a game. Drake had four scorers in double figures as Josh Young, the Bulldogs leading scorer on the season had 14 points. The Bulldogs have now swept Iowa and Iowa State for the second year in a row. Drake looks like a serious contender for a NCAA tournament bid along with Creighton and Southern Illinois in the Missouri Valley conference.
I was at Hofstra Wednesday night for what might have been the worst first half of college basketball by one team I have ever seen in my 41 years on this earth as Hofstra played Stony Brook. Hofstra had almost as many turnovers (15) as points (17) in the first half as the Pride fell behind by 16 to a team that hadn’t at that point won a road game this season. The Pride shot 5 of 25 in the first half and the bad play continued into the second half as Hofstra was down by 22 points on three separate occasions. The Pride would come back and cut the lead to one, 74-73 and missed a game tying three pointer at the end of the game. The only good news was for the Pride, the nation’s leading scorer Antoine Agudio had 24 points and freshman guard Nathaniel Lester had a career high 20 points. Stony Brook is now 3-7 on the season while Hofstra falls to 1-5. And Hofstra’s reward is playing today against a 6-2 Charlotte team that has wins over Southern Illinois and Davidson, two previously ranked teams that are favored to win their conferences. The 49ers also have a over Wake Forest. Uh Oh.
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