Got to see/hear a lot of good mid major college basketball on Saturday. First I watched a game Gonzaga hang in but eventually lose to Memphis (talk about a team with bad free throw shooting - . Then I was listening to Hofstra win at Northeastern for the first time in over a decade. For some reason, Huskies coach Billy Coen didn’t watch the game tapes from Hofstra playing Drexel, VCU and George Mason where they consistently double teamed Pride leading scorer Antoine Agudio. The Huskies played a basic straight up zone and Agudio made them pay for it with 32 points with five three pointers (the Pride shot 9 of 19 from three) in a 70-65 win. Then I watched some of the Utah State – New Mexico State game. I thought I was going to be putting the Aggies in my Mid Majors Baker’s Dozen after going up 31-22 midway thru the first half with Tyler Newbold and Jaycee Carroll draining threes. Then New Mexico State Aggies outscored the Aggies (how often do you see two teams in the same conference with the same Mascot name) 78-39 the rest of the way to win 100-70. Eek.
Then it was on to three great evening mid major games as I first watched Drake hold on at home to defeat Northern Iowa 68-64 thanks to 23 points on seven 3 pointers by Bulldog Klayton Korver. During this time the George Mason – UNC Wilmington game was going on. Mason went out to a 35-30 halftime lead but thanks to a balanced Seahawk attack in which all five starters for UNCW scored in double digits led by Chad Tomko’s 16 points, the Seahawks came back and won at a noisy Trask Coliseum 61-58. The Seahawks also did a great job holding Patriots leading scorer Will Thomas to 6 points on 3 of 9 from the field as Seahawks big men Vladimir Kuljanin and Todd Hendley often double teamed Thomas forcing him to pass it out.
Finally, I got to watch Southern Illinois come back from a 10 point second half deficit at home to down Creighton 48-44 in front of a ESPN2 national TV audience. It was the first time in Dana Altman’s tenure as Creighton coach where the Bluejays lost when holding their opponent under 50 points (previously was 42-0 – by the way you knew that Creighton was going to get the kiss of death when ESPN flashed that stat on the screen). Matt Shaw scored 12 of his game high 16 points in the second half.
Later tonight I will post a review of the first half of the CAA conference play. Also, a big note, VCU plays at George Mason tomorrow night at 7pm on ESPN2. Huge game for the Patriots after the loss at UNCW.
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