February 28, 2009 | AP Press

DAYTON, Ohio — Mickey Perry, Marcus Johnson and Charles Little each hit two foul shots in the final 41 seconds to help Dayton hang on for a 70-65 victory over Temple on Saturday.

Temple (17-11, 9-5 Atlantic 10) had trailed by 16 points with less than 6 minutes left before putting together a furious comeback that drew the Owls to 64-59 with just under a minute remaining.

But Perry hit two foul shots with 41 seconds left. After Dionte Christmas, who matched Ryan Brooks with 20 points for the Owls, hit a 3-pointer, Johnson hit two more free throws with 16 seconds remaining. Christmas hit another 3 with 9 seconds left before Little made both of his foul shots with 5 seconds remaining to close the scoring.

Chris Wright scored 20 points, Johnson had 14 and Perry 10 for the Flyers (24-5, 10-4). London Warren added nine rebounds, eight assists and four points.

February 28, 2009

Jordan Keyser | A10CollegeHoops

CHARLOTTE, NC - The 49ers dominated the Fordham Rams from buzzer to buzzer, hammering out a 73-55 victory at home.

The game showcased two of the A-10’s premiere point guards in Fordham’s Jio Fontan and Charlotte’s DiJuan Harris, although the duel was rather one-sided. Harris once again dictated the pace for the 49ers and outplayed Fontan on both sides of the ball.

Charlotte (11-17, 5-9 A 10) was led by Harris’ 14 point and 11 assist effort. It was Harris’ 6th points/assists double-double of the season, and the 11th time he reached double-digit assists this year. Harris is the A-10 assist leader, and ranks 4th nationally with 7.1 apg. Fontan came in averaging 15.3 ppg, but managed to net just 9 points and 4 assists.

Harris humbly credited his success to the performance of his teammates.

“You can’t reall focus in on one player when six people score double digits. It really frees everyone up on the court and lets me do my job.”

Among Harris’ 11 assists, he had three alley-oops, which have become a regular occurrence, and almost a staple in the 49ers arsenal. RaShad Coleman caught one such alley-oop with 7 minutes left and threw down a ferocious reverse two-handed jam that put Charlotte up 67-44, and put the hometown crowd into a frenzy.

DiJuan Harris wasn’t as easily as impressed.

“It doesn’t really surprise me,” joked Harris. “We practice that play all the time in practice. He loves throwing down reverses. As soon as the ball left my hands I knew that he was gonna do it.”

Outside of Harris’ stellar performance, Charlotte was led by a very balanced attack, with 6 players scoring in double figures. Among them was crowd favorite Lamont Mack, who had 13 points and 7 boards.

Fordham, (3-23, 1-13 A 10) was led by Mike Moore with 20 points and 7 rebounds, while Alberto Estwick added 12 points on just 4-for-15 shooting.

“Charlotte killed us off turnovers,” said Fordham Head Coach Derrick Whittenburg. “They had something like 25 points off of turnovers, and that’s just not the way you win basketball games. Our margin of error is so slim with our top two scorers out. 16 turnovers? We just can’t afford to do that.”

The win was 49er head coach Bobby Lutz’s 199th victory at Charlotte. In another bit of Charlotte history, DiJuan Harris became just the 3rd player in Charlotte history to have over 200 assists in a season.

Charlotte hosts Richmond Tuesday night in their final home game of the season. Fordham heads to Philadelphia to face La Salle Wednesday night.

AP Photo

February 26, 2009

John Lamb | A10CollegeHoops

PHILADELPHIA – Before tipoff, it was not too hard to imagine tonight’s game against La Salle as a trap game for Temple with Dayton, a game with NCAA and A-10 implications, on the schedule for Saturday.

Temple Head Coach Fran Dunphy stated that his staff has not spoken one word about Dayton this week. Senior Dionte Christmas said that the players were focused on La Salle and La Salle only.

It sure did not look that way as the Explorers (15-12, 6-7 A-10, 3-1 Big 5) were able to defeat the Owls (17-10, 9-4, 1-2) 70-63 at the Liacouras Center on Thursday night. The Explorers had never won a game in the Liacouras Center in seven previous attempts.

La Salle was led by junior Rodney Green who scored 22 points off the bench and dished out a game-high eight assists. This was the first game in close to two seasons that Green was not in the starting lineup for the Explorers. La Salle’s head coach Dr. John Giannini said that the shakeup was due, in part, to a change in philosophy after his team lost at home to Duquesne this past Sunday.

“I’ve been extremely loyal to great kids. Rodney’s recruiting class and Paul Johnson came to La Salle at a critical point in our program when it wasn’t a popular place to go,” said Giannini, who has guided the Explorers to their best Big 5 finish since the 4-0 Lionel Simmons team from 1989-90. “But, we feel at this point that we should be better than what we are and loyalty needs to be a two-way street.”

“What we’ve done is start guys who win in practice. Everyone played hard but we need to start to reward guys who win and that starts in practice. We had three October-type practices. We had practices were the winners got to start and guys who weren’t winning were not going to start. Every job is open. As much as I love Rodney, as much as I love all our guys we’re going to start to be more fair than loyal.”

Green did not seem too distraught about Giannini’s new approach: “You win in practice and you start. That’s how it should be. It’s good to see that it paid off today.”

Darryl Partin and Steve Weingarten were the surprise starters. Partin hit two three-pointers in the first half but missed all six of his shots in the second and finished the night with a 2-for-12 shooting line, including 2-of-8 from beyond the arc. Weingarten tied his career high with 2 points in 10 minutes on the court.

Kimmani Barret was also a big part of La Salle’s success. The junior guard scored 20 points with eight of them coming from the foul stripe. Temple repeatedly put the 74 percent free-throw shooter on the line down the stretch and he made them pay by going 5-of-7 in the second half.

Temple took a 34-31 lead into the half thanks to Ryan Brooks’ big shots. The Owls were down 28-27 with a little over three minutes left in the half when Christmas found Brooks alone in the corner on a fast break for a wide open three to regain the lead.

On the next Temple possession, Brooks was on the receiving end of a slick Juan Fernandez pass that led to an easy layup and pushed the Owls’ lead to four.

Both Brooks and Christmas finished the half with 11 points. Christmas went on to score a team-high 19 while  Brooks was held scoreless in the second half.

“Coach talked about it at halftime, we knew they got good shooters in Brooks and Christmas,” said Green. “We gave them some easy shots in the first half. We just had to stop them in the second half.”

The Owls could have taken a larger lead into the break but Semaj Inge picked up two costly fouls at once. He was hit with a technical foul after arguing with the referee on his original call of a reach-in on Barrett. He ended up hitting both technical free-throws and splitting the one-and-one.

Needless to say, Dunphy was not pleased with the way his senior captain reacted.

“Obviously Semaj said something that the official didn’t like,” said Dunphy. “It ruined the rhythm of where we were. It’s not something I was pleased about. You don’t ever want your guys to get technicals. I don’t get technicals so there is no need for the kids to get them.”

Both teams traded baskets and leads after the break. La Salle was able to build a five point lead with 8:44 remaining in the game. Inge hit a floating jumper to cut the lead to three and then Dionte Christmas stole the inbounds pass and hit a three to tie the game at 53 with 8:11.

Temple had all of the momentum at that point but, on the ensuing possession, Green hit a three-pointer from the top of the key to silence the crowd and put the Explorers on top for good.

“The biggest play of the game was when we tied it back up again and Rodney Green stepped up and made a huge three,” said Dunphy. “It was a terrific shot and they deserved to win the game. Their will was certainly greater than ours tonight.”

“[Rodney's] mindset was get it and run it right down our throat.”

The Owls had a chance to make things interesting at the end of the game as Green received an inbounds pass and then stepped on the baseline to give the ball back to Temple with 51 seconds left. Down only four points, Inge rushed a three-pointer that missed when he could have  driven to the basket. Green grabbed the rebound and the Explorers were able to hold on.

Christmas continued his recent trend poor shooting from behind the three-point line. He shot 3-of-11 for the game from three. As a team, the Owls shot just 29 percent (7-of-24).

The Owls received solid contributions from Sergio Olmos and Lavoy Allen. Olmos scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds. Allen nabbed 12 boards, to go along with eight points and three blocks.

Allen was a huge factor in Temple’s previous victory over La Salle at the Tom Gola Arena so it was a bit odd that he only took six shots. Dunphy said that it was a mixture of the Explorers’ defense and Temple’s perimeter players not looking for him enough.

The Explorers held a 42-34 rebounding advantage, including 16 offensive boards to Temple’s nine. La Salle was also able to get out in transition as they scored 22 fast break points to the Owls’ two.

Next up for the Owls is trip out to Dayton, Ohio for a showdown with the Flyers on Saturday afternoon. La Salle will welcome UMass to the Tom Gola Arena on Sunday afternoon.

POST GAME AUDIO: (right click and save as.. if you have trouble opening)
Dr. John Giannini and Rodney Green Press Conference
Fran Dunphy and Dionte Christmas Press Conference

John Lamb can be reached at johnlamb@a10collegehoops.com

AP Photo

February 26, 2009 | AP Press

PHILADELPHIA — Back on the road for the first time since its clunker of a loss at Charlotte, Derrick Brown noticed a change in Xavier’s attitude.

“We got our road nastiness back,” he said.

One thing that hasn’t changed for the Musketeers is having another Atlantic 10 title in sight.

Brown had 18 points and 10 rebounds and B.J Raymond scored 18 points to lead Xavier (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 19 AP) past skidding Saint Joseph’s 68-54 on Thursday night.

“We were just trying to get it back in time and I think we’re in the right direction,” Brown said.

The Musketeers (23-5, 11-3) led almost the entire game and pulled away from the mistake-prone Hawks over the last four minutes to strengthen their spot at the top of the A-10 standings.

La Salle’s upset over Temple (9-4) opens the door for Xavier to win its third straight regular-season conference title with two games left.

“It says a lot [of our players] and our program,” coach Sean Miller said.

Ahmad Nivins scored 24 points for the Hawks, who lost their fifth straight game. Saint Joseph’s (14-13, 7-6) played without point guard Tasheed Carr (13.0 ppg), who sat out because of a concussion suffered Tuesday in practice.

The Hawks are on their longest streak under coach Phil Martelli since they dropped nine straight in 1998-99.

“The flaws have been there all year long,” Martelli said.

The Musketeers appear to have put their stunning five-point loss at Charlotte behind them.

Miller laughed at Brown’s remark and explained there was a simple definition to playing “nasty.”

“What he means deeper into that, is just being ready,” Miller said. “Being the team that looks the same whether we play at home or on the road.”

Brown and Anderson found their touch in the second half to make up for some sloppy play that let the Hawks whittle a double-digit lead down to six.

Brown put away the Hawks with two huge dunks that shook the rim and silenced the Palestra. Brown, who went over the 1,000-point mark, helped give Xavier a 56-44 lead and it would go up to 20 with steady trips to the free-throw line.

Maybe Carr would have steadied the Hawks and cut down the careless possessions. When Raymond buried a 3-pointer with 11:25 left to give Xavier a 50-36 lead, the Hawks had more turnovers (13) than field goals (11).

The final numbers were just as ugly: 19 turnovers and 17-for-46 shooting from the field. Xavier grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, led by Brown’s five.

Still, the Hawks had a shot through the first 30 minutes.

Garrett Williamson and Darrin Govens scored consecutive baskets, only to watch that single-digit deficit go back to 10 on Brown’s fall-down jumper.

That was it for the Hawks.

“You either hit first, or you get the hell beat of you and we got the hell beat of us on the backboards,” Martelli said.

Saint Joseph’s bounced Xavier in last year’s A-10 tournament semifinals and will need another upset to return to the NCAA tournament.

The Hawks were in prime position to threaten for their second straight at-large bid and were even in the hunt the A-10 title, after a 7-0 January in which they outscored the opposition by an average of 10 points per game.

“We were winning in January, and when the situation came up and we had to make a winning play, we did,” Martelli said. “We haven’t made a winning play in a couple of weeks.”

That sizzling streak seems about as far as way as their early season trip to Maui. Saint Joseph’s went 2-7 in February and will need to double that win total at the conference tournament in Atlantic City, N.J., to have any shot at a bid.

The Hawks were fortunate to only trail by five at halftime. They were dreadful from every corner of the court and missed 12 of their first 15 shots.

They were in the game because of a sizable edge from the free-throw line (9-for-10 to Xavier’s 1-for-3).

From the Explorers’ Website:
PHILADELPHIA, PA – La Salle University men’s basketball junior Yves Mekongo Mbala (Elizabeth, NJ/St. Patrick’s) has been named to the ESPN the Magazine/CO-SIDA Academic All America Team.

Mekongo Mbala is just one of 15 players in America to be named to one of the three teams.  A second team selection, Mekongo Mbala boasts the highest grade point average of the five players on the second team and only four of the players on the first team have a higher GPA.

Until suffering a hand injury that has kept him out of the last five games Mekongo Mbala had posted a team high streak of 60 consecutive starts.  At the time of his injury he was, and remains, the team’s leading rebounder (6.4 rpg) as well as its third-leading scorer with 11.1 points per game.

Mekongo Mbala, a major in Integrated Science, Business & Technology, is one of just three underclassmen named on all three teams.

He becomes the fourth Explorer men’s basketball player to be named Academic All-American since Jack Hurd earned the nod in 1992.  The other Explorers to earn the honor are ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler (1988) and current Philadelphia 76′ers head coach Tony DiLeo (1977).

February 26, 2009 by Ryan Pohle

Updated Weekly Every Thursday

Based on Games Played Through Wednesday, February 25th.

1 Seeds

UNC, UConn, Pittsburgh, Memphis

2 Seeds

Duke, Oklahoma, Missouri, Michigan St.

3 Seeds

Louisville, Kansas, Arizona St., Villanova

4 Seeds

Clemson, Wake Forest, Purdue, Washington

5 Seeds

Marquette, West Virginia, Illinois, Xavier

6 Seeds

Utah, UCLA, Gonzaga, LSU

7 Seeds

BYU, Texas, Butler, Syracuse

8 Seeds

California, Utah St., Wisconsin, Arizona

9 Seeds

Florida St., Tennessee, Creighton, Ohio St.

10 Seeds

Florida, Kentucky, Temple, Miami Fl.

11 Seeds

Oklahoma St., Minnesota, UAB, Siena

12 Seeds

Dayton, South Carolina, UNLV, Texas A&M

13 Seeds

Davidson, George Mason, North Dakota St., Miami Oh.

14 Seeds

Vermont, American, Western Kentucky, Cornell

15 Seeds

Weber St., Stephen F. Austin, Belmont, Mount St. Mary’s

16 Seeds

Tennessee-Martin, Morgan St., Cal St. Fullerton Play-in Game: Radford vs. Alabama St.

Last Four In:

Dayton, South Carolina, UNLV, Texas A&M

First Four Out:

USC, Boston College, Michigan, San Diego St.

Multiple Conference Bids

Big East – 8,  ACC – 6, Big 12 – 6, Big Ten – 6, Pac 10 – 5, SEC – 4, A10 – 3, Mountain West – 3, Conference USA – 2.

Thoughts

Xavier – Xavier stays put as a five seed in this week’s edition, although if they had won @ Charlotte they would’ve probably bumped up to a 4 seed.  Xavier will be favored in its final three regular season games, but it’s likely that they’ll drop one of those games.

Dayton – Dayton played an excellent game last night nearly upsetting URI on the road, but it still goes down as a loss.  They have now dropped two straight and three of their last five.  The home game on Saturday against Temple could end up being a must win game for them, believe it or not.

Temple – Temple continues to gain love as they are now the 3rd team out in the bracket matrix (although I’ve had them in for a couple months now).  The Owls have won five straight and a win @ Temple would probably guarantee them a spot in the dance if they didn’t slip up anywhere else.

Texas A&M – Texas A&M joins as a newcomer this week.  They don’t seem to be in a ton of other people’s brackets just yet, but why not?  They’ve won three straight, have conference wins over Texas and Oklahoma St., and also beat Arizona and LSU in their non conference slate.

Missouri – I’ve had some comments about me having Missouri pretty high as a #2 seed.  Well, this team is sitting at 24-4 after winning seven straight games so why not?  Assuming they win one of their next two games (@ Kansas, vs. Oklahoma) a two seems pretty likely for them.

Penn St. – I must admit that I’m pretty surprised that over 80% of bracketologists have this team in their bracket.  Even if they do win two of their final three, their projected end of season RPI is still in the 70s.  They played a very soft non conference SOS and have no signature OOC wins.  They have a lot of work left to do.

February 25, 2009 | AP Press

AMHERST, Mass. – Bill Clark’s 22 points led five Duquesne players in double figures as the Dukes defeated Massachusetts 94-77 Wednesday night.

Duquesne (17-9, 8-5 Atlantic 10 Conference) finished the first half on a 15-4 run to take a 46-35 lead at the break. Massachusetts made a late surge and cut its deficit to 10 on a Gary Correia’s 3-pointer with just under six minutes left, but never got closer.

Damian Saunders added 18 points and seven rebounds for Duquesne, while Aaron Jackson had 17 points, nine assists and five rebounds. Eric Evans scored 14 points and Jason Duty had 10, rounding out double-digit scorers.

Anthony Gurley led Massachusetts (10-16, 5-8 A-10) with 18 points off the bench, Ricky Harris added 14 points and Matt Glass had 12.

The 94 points were the most Massachusetts surrendered this season. The Minutemen lost despite hitting 16 3-pointers, breaking their record for threes in a game.

AP Photo

February 25, 2009 | AP Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Damian Hollis scored seven of his 25 points in overtime and George Washington defeated Charlotte 92-88 on Wednesday night.

Hollis opened the overtime period with five straight points to give George Washington (9-16, 3-10 Atlantic 10 Conference) an 84-79 lead with 2:21 left in the game.

Hollis also sent the game into overtime, tying the game at 79 on two free throws with 21 seconds left in regulation. The 49ers (10-17, 4-9) led 78-72, before Hollis hit a 3-pointer to bring the Colonials’ deficit to 78-75 with 45 seconds to go in regulation.

Rob Diggs added 22 points, Wynton Witherspoon scored 14 and Tony Taylor had 10 for George Washington.

Charlotte was led by Rashad Coleman with 22 points. DiJuan Harris scored 15 points and had 10 rebounds, Phil Jones added 12 points and Ian Anderson and Lamont Mack tallied 10 each for the 49ers.

February 25, 2009 by Chris Frechette | A10CollegeHoops

KINGSTON, RI – URI was pretty in pink tonight at the annual “pink out” game as they defeated Dayton 93-91 in overtime on a last second driving layup by point guard Marquis Jones as time expired.  

After Dayton shooting guard Marcus Johnson tied the game at 91-91 on a 3 pointer with Rhody guard Jimmy Baron in his face with 12 seconds left, Jones brought the ball upcourt, worked off of a pick from forward Kahiem Seawright, drove the lane and put up a layup with his back to the basket that rattled around the rim and fell through as the buzzer went off sending the 7,218 Rhode Island fans into a frenzy.

“I got a screen from Kahiem and what happened, happened,” Jones said.  “I was trying to get fouled as I went up (for the shot)”.   The overtime win puts the Rams’ record at 3-1 in overtime games this year, 12-1 at home,  and brings their overall record to 21-8, 10-4 in the A-10 which is good for third place in the conference.

Kahiem Seawright puts the last play of the game in different perspective.  “I wanted the last shot so bad.  We did a pick and roll, they switched, I rolled and I had a little guy on me and I looked at him like you better give me the ball,” he said.  “Marquis made a move and I was still looking at him saying you better give me the ball, and he made the shot.  So he didn’t have to give me the ball.”

Rhode Island was led by a balanced scoring attack  where five players reached double figures.  Jimmy Baron, Kahiem Seawright, and Keith Cothran all had 19 points, while Delroy James chipped in 18 points and Marquis Jones added 13 points.

URI was on fire in the first half, shooting 17-29 from the floor (59%), and 8-11 from three point range (73%).  The Rams finished the last minute of the first half with a 7-0 run on two free throws from Delroy James, a three pointer from Jimmy Baron, and Delroy James dunk off of a steal from Marquis Jones which gave the Rams a 52-44 halftime lead.  URI’s 52 halftime points was just 7 shy of the 59 points per game the Flyers average on defense. 

“Our defense was just awful in the first half,” Dayton coach Brian Gregory said.  “With that being said, they’re (URI) the most efficient offensive team in the league.”  The Flyers tightened up their defense in the second half and allowed only half the points they allowed in the first half (26).  Led by a game high 21 points from Marcus Johnson, Dayton (23-5, 9-4 A-10) clawed back into the game to force overtime on a layup by point guard London Warren (6 points, 4 assists, and 3 steals).

“You saw a great indication on how good the (A-10) league is,” Gregory said.  “You saw a team with 21 wins and a team with 23 wins, and you saw why (they both have that many wins)”.  Gregory added, “You lose on the road in this league and you don’t have to apologize to anybody, and I don’t apologize for our effort tonight”.

“This is the greatest moment I’ve had at URI,” said Jimmy Baron.  “We didn’t win these types of games last year, or early this year.  We’re all on the same page now, setting ourselves up for success”.

Coach Baron agreed that URI’s recent success has to be attributed to its senior leadership.  “The senior leadership has been tremendous,” he said.  “I couldn’t be more proud of our kids, they played with great tenacity”.

Jimmy Baron was also named to the second team Academic All-American team by ESPN the Magazine.

The University of Rhode Island community raised over $19,000 dollars for the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation with their annual “Pink Out” game.

February 25, 2009 | AP Press

OLEAN, N.Y. — Jonathan Hall scored a career-high 31 points and had seven rebounds Wednesday to lead St. Bonaventure past Saint Louis, 72-55.

Maurice Thomas scored 14 points for the Bonnies (14-13, 5-9 Atlantic 10) and pulled down nine rebounds. Michael Davenport chipped in eight points for St. Bonaventure.

For the Billikens (17-11, 8-6 Atlantic 10), Kwamain Mitchell led the way with 15 points. Kevin Lisch scored 13 points, while Tommie Liddell III and Willie Reed each added seven.

The Bonnies controlled the game from tip-off, trailing only once, by 5-4, at 16:15 in the first half. After Thomas hit the game’s first basket, Hall set the tone for the Bonnies, scoring 10 points in a row and keying a 13-6 run.

Hall’s 31 points were the most scored by a St. Bonaventure player since Zaryon Fereti scored 32 in last season’s home opener against Binghamton.