Before I begin, just wanted to let you all know my friend Tony Bozzella's Iona Lady Gaels team lost to MAAC defending champion Marist 86-78 on Friday night, despite a career high 28 points by Tiara Headen. Marist used a 12-0 run to pull away and never looked back. Marist is now 16-2 on the year while Iona falls to 10-7.
Sometimes you do learn from a tough loss. After their double overtime loss to George Mason, Hofstra went to Philly to play the Drexel Dragons in an always tough conference road game. Though the Dragons are not very good this year, the Drexel Gym is always noisy as the fans are basically right on the court. Never a fun place to play on the road. Once again, a team keyed on Antoine Agudio (only 6 points) and forced Hofstra to look for scoring elsewhere. Again, Hofstra found it in in Charles Jenkins (career high 21 points), Dane Johnson (career high 17) and an unlikely source, Greg Johnson (career high 15 points). But this time down the stretch, Hofstra continued with the balanced scoring and left Agudio mostly as a bystander. The results were much better as Hofstra (4-12, 2-5 CAA) defeated Drexel (8-9, 2-5 CAA) 67-58. Hofstra shot 50 percent as a team and outrebounded Drexel 40-33. Frank Elegar led the Dragons with 23 points and 13 rebounds but he received little or no help in the second half.
Elsewhere in the CAA, VCU (12-4, 6-1 CAA) took over sole possession of first place in the CAA by scoring an impressive road win 78-68 over ODU (9-10, 4-3 CAA). The Rams jumped out to a 21-7 lead and never looked back as ODU could only get as close as 5 points the rest of the way. Eric Maynor and Jamal Shuler led the way with 26 points. Gerald Lee had 15 for the Monarchs. George Mason's Dre Smith went TEN for TEN from the three point arc scoring a career high 34 points as the Patriots (13-5, 5-2 CAA) pounded James Madison(10-7,3-4 CAA) in Harrisonburg 96-75. Terrance Carter had 23 for the Dukes. William and Mary (9-8,5-2 CAA) won its fifth straight CAA conference game as they downed Towson (6-11, 2-5 CAA) 61-51. Laimis Kisielius had 17 points and 9 rebounds to lead the tribe. Tim Crossin led the Tigers with 14 points off the bench. Finally, Delaware learned as everybody usually learns that playing Northeastern on the Huskies' home court is a very daunting task. Fighting as only Fightin Blue Hens do, Delaware (9-9, 5-2 CAA) took Northeastern (10-7,3-4 CAA) to overtime only to bow to the Huskies 73-69. Matt Janning led the Huskies with 20 points while Alphonso Dawson led the Blue Hens with 19 points. The Huskies 3 CAA wins are all at home.
In the Missouri Valley, despite not having leading scorer Josh Young due to a sprained ankle, the Drake Bulldogs (16-1,7-0 MVC) came back from a thirteen point second half deficit to defeat Illinois State 79-73 and take sole possesion of first place in the MVC from the Redbirds (14-4, 6-1 MVC). Former walk on Adam Emmenecker led the Bulldogs with 19 points while Osiris Eldridge led the Redbirds with 21 points. Drake faces third place Creighton (14-3, 5-2 MVC) in Omaha Tuesday night. After struggling to start the season with a brutal non-conference schedule, Davidson(10-6, 7-0 Southern) seems to have it righted itself in the Southern Conference winning handily over Chattanooga (12-7, 5-2 Southern) 85-58 as Stephen Curry scored 37 points on 8 of 14 from the three point arc. Bet a lot of teams in the ACC wish they had recruited Curry, the son of former NBA player Dell Curry, who averages 23.8 points per game on 47 percent shooting from the field. Oops.
Now time for this week's Mid Majors Baker's Dozen
1) Drake (16-1, 7-0 MVC). Win over former co-conference leader Illinois State without leading scorer Josh Young and 7-0 record in possibly the toughest mid major conference in the country gives the Bulldogs the #1 spot. Game on Tuesday at Creighton is huge. No idea if Young will be back by then.
2) St Mary's (14-2, 1-0 WCC). Yes they did beat Drake (but barely at home) and have done nothing wrong to warrant not being put in the top spot, but they haven’t played the other top team in their conference and won. Drake did. Check back with me when they play the Zags.
3) Butler (17-2 overall, 6-2 Horizon League). Starting to worry about AJ Graves, who is in a major funk. Only had 9 points on 3 of 11 shooting vs. Youngstown State which follows his 5 point performance on 2 of 11 shooting in Bulldogs loss to Cleveland State. Still their strong non conference wins give them the third spot.
4) VCU (13-4, 6-1 CAA). Jump several spots after first dismantling then conference co leader Delaware by 21 points at home, then following that up with perhaps an even more impressive 10 point win against third place Old Dominion, in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score.
5) Gonzaga (14-4,3-0 WCC). Incredibly impressive win at Pepperdine followed by win at San Diego. Zags appear to be on a roll. Forget Super Tuesday. Super Monday is February 4 when the Zags are at Saint Mary's.
6) South Alabama (15-3, 7-0 Sunbelt). Two conference wins, the most recent a nice win at UALR, a team that was tied for second in the conference going into the game. The country will get to see the Jaguars February 2nd at 4:00 PM on ESPN2.
7) Illinois State (14-4, 6-1 MVC). Had Drake down 12 points with 13 minutes left but couldn’t close the deal on the Bulldogs. Still a good showing in a tough conference to play on the road. Redbirds will still have lots to say about who wins the MVC.
8) Creighton (14-3, 5-2 MVC). Won road game at always tough Northern Iowa, then dismantled Indiana State who the Bluejays were tied for third with. Big game on Tuesday at home vs. Drake.
9) Davidson (10-6, 7-0 Southern). From honorable mention all the way to ninth in the rankings. Well, beating the then co conference leader and former #13 Mid Major Hoops Baker’s Dozen Chattanooga by 27 got our attention. The Wildcats are back (told you they would be back here soon).
10) George Mason (12-5, 5-2 CAA). Patriots should have lost at Hofstra if it wasn’t for previously mentioned bad coaching decisions by Pride coach Tom Pecora. Their play in the double overtime period though propelled Mason to a very impressive road win over once conference darling James Madison by 21, 96-75. If Patriots continue to get solid outside shooting (of course Dre Smith won't go 10 for 10 again), they may get back into at large consideration. Next 3 games (ODU, at UNCW, VCU) are huge.
11) Cleveland State (13-5, 7-0 Horizon) - How great a story is this. Team that hasn’t had a winning season in seven years, hadn’t beat a ranked opponent in 21 years, had a coach, Gary Waters that was basically run out of Rutgers three years ago and in the span of a week, they knock off #12 Butler and then beat a solid Valparaiso team. Vikings, welcome to the Mid Major Hoops Baker’s Dozen.
12) Siena (11-6,6-1 MAAC). After watching Niagara play poorly and lose to Canisius Friday night on ESPNU reinforces to me how good Siena is (Siena won five days before at Canisius by 28). Alas, the competition the Saints play in the MAAC is not as good as the other top 12 teams in this ranking.
13) Tie Akron (13 -3, 3-0 in the MAC) and Kent State (14-4, 3-1 MAC). The conference co-leaders in the MAC tie for the last spot in the Baker’s Dozen. Watched Akron on ESPNU beat Ohio on last second shot. Very competitive game. Also watched Kent State take on Ohio. Dug themselves an early hole and never could recover. Now have watched the Golden Flashes twice on TV (first time against UNC) and have not been impressed by either game. They play each other on January 23 and will break this tie.
Honorable Mentions - Ohio (tough tough road loss at Akron but rebounded with big win at home vs. Kent State), Western Kentucky (still second best Sun Belt team), Oral Roberts (welcome back Summit Conference leader after disposing of IUPUI), Appalachian State (wins over Georgia Southern and Chattanooga put the Mountaineers back in the hunt in the Southern). Utah State - have to give the WAC leader some love, but I question their so far soft schedule.
Dropped Out - Sam Houston State and Chattanooga.
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