First, congratulations to Coach Tony Bozzella and the Iona Lady Gaels on their 74-69 win over Fairfield, completing a three game sweep of the Stags during the season. Anna McClean led the Lady Gaels with 17 points and 9 rebounds and Tiara Headen also had 17 points and 5 rebounds. The Lady Gaels take on #20 Marist, a 78-67 winner over St Peter’s, the third time in eleven days the Red Foxes defeated the Peahens. Marist is going for the perfect MAAC season, as they were undefeated in regular season 18-0 and 2-0 during the tournament.
Second, congrats to the Winthrop Eagles who downed UNC Asheville 66-48 to win their fourth consecutive Big South championship. Michael Jenkins led the way with 33 points for the Eagles as the Eagles outscored UNC Asheville 44-30 in the second half. Also, congrats to Austin Peay, as the # 1 seeded Governors easily handled Tennessee State 82-64. Led by Todd Babington’s 24 points, the Governors went out to a 15 point halftime lead and never looked pack
Third, we’ve got some dandy matchups in some mid major conference tournaments. #1 seed and #21 ranked Drake will take on #2 seed Illinois State as the Bulldogs downed Creighton 75-67 and the Redbirds easily defeated Northern Iowa 56-42. Adam Emmenecker had 20 points and 11 assists for the Bulldogs in their win. Osiris Eldridge had 13 points and 8 rebounds for the Redbirds in their win. The Redbirds are now 24-8 on the season and have improved their chances for an at large bid. But Illinois State would rather have the win today and have the automatic berth. Should be a great game.
Also, the MAAC is looking to have a very competitive semi final round as top seeds Siena, Rider, and Loyola Maryland all won. Only the #3 seeded Purple Eagles of Niagara lost, to #6 seeded Marist. Niagara was the defending MAAC champion. Senior Charron Fisher (my nickname for him is Charles Barkley Jr), one of the top scorers in the country, had 23 points and 16 rebounds in his final game for the Purple Eagles.
So now onto the CAA tournament, where the top seeds all held serve, sans one, #4 Old Dominion, who lost to #5 William and Mary on another late game three, this time the Tribe hero was Nathan Mann. First, the arena was still cold yesterday. In fact, the Richmond Times commented that the only thing colder than the arena was Hofstra’s first half shooting in their loss on Friday (OUCH!). Second, I had never seen a larger second round day session crowd as I did yesterday.
In the Tribe-Monarchs game, it looked like early on ODU was going to blow the Mary out of the building as they went on a 9-2 run to begin the game as Brian Henderson and Gerald Lee scored all the points for the Monarchs. But the Tribe answered with their own 20-4 run as Laimius Kiselius had 8 points for the Tribe during that stretch, to put the Mary up 22-13 with 3:14 left. But then the Monarchs answered with a 10-0 run to actually go up one, before the Tribe’s Nathan Mann hit two free throws to put the Mary back up 24-23 at halftime.
After shooting a cold 29 percent in the first half, The Tribe would go out and shoot 70% in the second half, which resulted in the Tribe extending their lead to 50-42 with 8:05 left. But the Monarchs chipped away at the led, going back to their bread and butter, Gerald Lee, who had 20 points in the game. The Monarchs would actually take the lead, 58-57 with 1:48 left on a Lee layup. However, the Tribe’s David Schneider nailed his ninth three pointer of the tournament to put the Mary back up 60-58. Brandon Johnson then tied the game at 60 with a layup with 37 seconds left. Mann then hit his three pointer with 7.5 seconds left as in rattled in and out, then kissed the glass and went back in and the place went nuts. It was an exciting game throughout and the crowd thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Tribe now face the #1 seed, VCU. The VCU fans, who made up at least 50 percent of the day session crowd yesterday, were treated to another episode of the Larry Sanders Show. The freshman All CAA defensive first team forward had 14 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks to lead the way for the Rams in their 57-46 win. The Rams who struggled mightily shooting the entire game (VCU shot 36.7 percent from the field), used an extremely tough second half press to pull away for the victory.
In the first half, the Tigers raced out to an 8-0 lead as Tony Durant (12 points) and Josh Thornton (13 points) did all the damage. The lead for Towson was 17-10 after a three by Thornton with 12:51 left in the first half. Then after a layup by Sanders made it 17-14 with 11:53 left, both teams would not score for the nearly next SEVEN MINUTES until Durant hit a jumper with 4:56 left to put the Tigers up five. VCU would go on a 11-3 run to end the first half as Eric Maynor hit the go ahead three with 13 seconds left to put the Rams up 25-22 at the half.
That was the ball game right there as the Rams went on a 9-0 run to start the second half, with VCU leading 34-22 with 15:18 left. The Tigers would get the lead as close as four, 38-34 on a Durant field goal (his first points of the second half) with 6:32 left. But the Tigers, who shot 29.8 percent for the game, including 25 percent in the second half, would get no closer.
Sorry for the next quick paragraph, but I have to check out of my hotel. In the night session, neither game was really close. #2 seed UNCW used a 25-7 first half run, went out to an early big lead and rolled to an 82-59 win over Delaware. The Seahawks shot 56.7 percent from the field for the game. Daniel Fountain led five double digit Seahawk scorers with 18 points. Chad Tomko had 17 points, Vladimir Kuljanin had 14 points shooting 7 of 8 from the field, Dominique Lacy had a career high 12 points and Todd Hendley had 10 points. What was most impressive was the Seahawks did this with first team All CAA TJ Carter on the bench for most of the game due to foul trouble. Carter only played 19 minutes in the game. Herb Courtney led the Blue Hens with 19 points, most of which came in the first half.
In the final game of the day, #3 seed George Mason played with an incredible defensive intensity, smothering Matt Janning and the Northeastern Huskies, as the Patriots won 63-52. GMU held Janning to 10 points on 2 of 13 shooting from the field. Folarin Campbell led George Mason with 20 points including 10 of 13 from the foul line. But it was the “Feed the Beast” philosophy of getting the ball into First Team All CAA Will Thomas, that spurred the Patriots to the victory. Thomas scored five points early on his way to scoring 18 points for the game and it forced the Huskies to collapse on Thomas which freed up Campbell among others. The Patriots shot 54.8 percent from the field. Also, the Patriots dominated on the boards, outreboundng the Huskies 28-15 as Thomas had 8 of the 28 Patriot rebounds. The Huskies, who shot 35 percent from the field were led by Chaisson Allen and Eugene Spates who each had 11 points. George Mason now faces UNCW, who won both games from the Patriots at beginning of the season.
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