I’m going to start with the women’s side…Pat and others will fill in the men’s
First from the games I was at…Congrats to Baruch for getting the first NCAA Tourney win for the CUNYAC, a league that takes its fair share of knocks, and doing so on the road, showing nice poise after Mount St. Mary rallied from 17 down to take the lead.
Kudos also to Bridgewater for rallying from some early nerves, than battling back in OT to get a nice upset of Bates…and happy 21st birthday to 5-foot-4 point guard Katy Herr, who finished a hair shy of a triple-double.
I know they don’t hear it often, but my fellow broadcaster Paul and I thought both games were well reffed. Officials let the players decide the games at the end, which was fair both ways.
Medaille got rave reviews for its performance. No jitters for a VERY young team, going up against a W&J squad that started 5 seniors. The #25 ranking in this week’s poll appears legit.
It took all of about 5 minutes for Mary Washington to get back on track as the Eagles buried TCNJ early, taking out some frustration from last week’s defeat.
The NESCAC went 2-2…had figured on them getting 3 Opening Round wins, but Muhlenberg and Bridgewater were tough on neutral courts…UAA went 3-1…sets up a nice showdown Saturday for Bowdoin and Brandeis. Bowdoin has won 69 in a row at home. Brandeis has 30 straight non-league wins. Something has to give.
VERY tough way for NYU to go out, losing 5 straight to end the year after a promising beginning.
Based on reactions from a few I spoke to, one of the bigger upsets was Greensboro over Moravian. Greensboro’s 93 points were the high for the night. People in this part of the country (northeast) were also surprised that UW-Stout downed Concordia-Moorhead with ease.
Thumbs up as well to the NWC, which won 2 from the SCIAC. We’ll get an NWC title game rematch on Saturday (Puget-PLU) and an ASC pairing as well (Howard Payne-Hardin-Simmons). Hope-Capital and Messiah-Williams also figure to be games that are among the most worth checking out.
On the men’s side a few thoughts…
– Messiah’s kids always seem to have so much fun playing the game. Quinn McCollough, who was clutch at the end of regulation and OT, said that the team has enjoyed this run and when it ends, so be it. I’m always impressed by the attitude of the Messiah players for both men and women.
– Myrick was great tonight (42 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists) but his teammates are what makes this year’s Lincoln team better than last. Bryant Leach hit big threes early in the second half to get the offense going.
– CNU will be solid next year. Selden, Lewis and Barton played well tonight.
– Break up Pool B! They go 3-1 tonight and are Bumblers no longer.
Anthony Fitzpatrick had 25 boards for Villa Julie. Baruch as a team had 28 all game. End of story. The Mustangs were tied with the Bearcats at 59, then went on a 27-12 run to end the game.
Paterson dominated Scranton in every facet. It didn’t even feel like Scranton played…they need to hope their women can make up for it.
Congrats to Villa Julie, and to a lesser extent, Maryville (Tenn.), who pulled off the biggest upsets of the night on the men’s side.
Senior-laden Illinois Wesleyan did what senior-laden teams have a way of doing in March, pulling out an important NCAA Tournament win. Not that any tourney win is not important, but the confidence boost can’t hurt.
Kudos to the conference Cinderellas who took it down to the wire today, Buena Vista and DePauw. Both got close to the ultimate upset. Wisconsin Lutheran and York (N.Y.) were not as successful, perhaps because the LMC and CUNYAC are not on the same level as the IIAC and SCAC.
Big night for Villa Julie, obviously. But the fans at Villa Julie and Baruch weren’t the only ones interested — there were a number of people at York (Pa.) crowded around my laptop listening to our Pat Cummings and Jody King call the end of the game. Brett Adams, the Villa Julie head coach, is a York alumnus.
Kyle Myrick put on a show for the cameras at Lincoln tonight, as he scored 42 points with lots of eyes (and lenses) watching. Lincoln pulled one out of the fire at the end with the 12-2 run to pull past Christopher Newport. CNU will be back, however, barring they don’t lose kids unexpectedly.
Kris Clarkson didn’t have his best night for Widener, shooting 10-for-23, but it was nice to see a player crash the board on his misses the way he did. Almost seems like that’s a lost art these days.
“Based on reactions from a few I spoke to, one of the bigger upsets was Greensboro over Moravian. Greensboro’s 93 points were the high for the night. People in this part of the country (northeast) were also surprised that UW-Stout downed Concordia-Moorhead with ease.”
From what I had seen of Concordia-Moorhead this year, tonight being the third time of the season, they simply lucked out in the MIAC tournament in playing Carleton instead of St Benedict. To my eyes, this was a long time coming. They did not play well against St Olaf in January and were so-so against St Thomas three weeks ago. They just had their first matchup against a real team (other than St. Benedict) all year and it showed.
But that’s my two bits on that.
Great games in Indianola tonight, looking like an even better matchup tomorrow night between Simpson and UW-Stout.
“and happy 21st birthday to 5-foot-4 point guard Katy Herr, who finished a hair shy of a triple-double.”
And Megan Silva of Randolph-Macon did have a triple double (22 points, 14 rebounds – she’s only 5′ 6″ – and 10 assists).
Maryville men were hot tonight in their win over Trinity! They seem to have re-established their chemistry after the loss of leading scorer Monte Calloway.
The Mississippi College Maryvile Men should be a great game. The Choctaws dispatched Fisk in January, so this ASC-GSAC matchup should be instructive and good basketball.
McMurry led the ASC in 3FG percentage this year but went 1-22 against HSU. In a game of runs, the early second half HSU run was the difference.
In the earlier game in the “Texas” bracket, Meia Daniels and Howard Payne completely dominated Trinity. In a conference of many very talented players, (McM’s P Tarra Richardson and PG Symbri Tuttle, HSU’s G Lyssa Dennard and C Sonya West, UMHB’s P Jessica Wurzbach, etc.) Meia seems to be the best single player in the conference this year. She can carry a team by herself. HPU and HSU are meeting on a neutral floor at McMurry. It should be a great game.