BEST WIN | Spring Arbor defeated Grace, 76-61.
There were a lot of good wins this past week, but Spring Arbor knocking off No. 14 Grace was big for them as they headed into a road game with No. 13 Indiana Wesleyan (which they ended up losing). The Grace win though was the first over a Top 25 this season and possibly gets them inside the Top 25 in the new polls this week. At the time of the win, it also had them in a tie for 1st place in the Crossroads League standings.
UPSET | Huston-Tillotson upset No. 20 Our Lady of the Lake (TX), 75-66.
Huston-Tillotson came into the game with just 1 win on the season. Our Lady of the Lake came in with zero losses. HT shocked the RRAC and the NAIA with the huge upset and knocking OLLU from the land of the unbeatens. Jackson Byas came off the bench to score 19pts in the win. Charles Hallmon chipped in a 14pt/14reb double-double.
OFFFENSE | William Woods (MO)
William Woods put up back-to-back games of 100+ points in earn two AMC wins this week. While there wasn’t a lot of resistance, they also were very efficient in their output. Combining to shoot nearly 51% from the field on the week and 42% from 3.
vs UHSP | 101pts on 41-78 (52.6%) and 16-36 from 3 (44.4%).
vs Harris-Stowe | 100pts on 41-78 (52.6%) and 16-40 from 3 (40%). 31 assists in this one as well.
DEFENSE | UC Merced (CA)
UC Merced is great at controlling the tempo of games. They have used that to their advantage as of late as they have won four straight including two wins over NCAA D2 opponents and then this past week knocking off No. 7 The Master’s in a rematch from earlier in the season. UC Merced held Master’s to just 60pts (23pts under their season average) on 31.3% from the field and 30% from 3. They then held non-member Lincoln to 39% from the field and 26.5% from 3.
COACH OF THE WEEK | Chris Wright, Langston
Langston moved to 8-2 on the season with two THRILLING road SAC wins this week. The Lions, who are basically running with a seven-man rotation now, knocked off UNT Dallas in OT, after a Mario Mckinney bucket forced OT and then turned around and beat Nelson on a Joshua Smith tip in at the buzzer. Langston
STOCK UP | Dalton State
Dalton State moved to 7-2 on the season and now have won five straight games as they took down No. 9 Cumberlands (KY) this past week. The Roadrunners are the only undefeated team left in SSAC play and currently sit atop the SSAC East Standings.
STOCK UP | Xavier (LA)
Only one win this past week, a road RRAC win at LSU-Shreveport, but Xavier is a team to take note of as they haven’t lost since November 14th against Our Lady of the Lake. XULA has knocked off D1 Alcorn State and handed LSU Alexandria their only loss of the season. They seemed to have found their stride and going to The Dock this week to get a big road win has their stock climbing back up!
STOCK FALLING | Mobile (AL)
The Rams are still 8-3, so it’s not like they fell off completely. However, they lost two of three games last week. Headed into a ranking’s week, that will end up dropping them a bit. Still like this group, led by All-American Ezra McKenna.
GAME OF THE WEEK | Park (MO) @ RV Peru State (NE)
Park and Peru State played to a 93-91 OT thriller on Saturday. The game featured 18 ties and 19 lead changes. Jasigha Barnes (Park) hit a jumper to tie the game up and send it to OT. Then Peru State’s Carlos Hines made a layup with 8 seconds left in OT to take the lead and a missed jumper by Tristan McRoberts, sealed the win for Peru State! Really great back and forth game!
ONIONS | Kaeden Bonner, Saint Mary (KS)
Kaeden hit this one on Wednesday and it seemed like nearly every other game winner this week came with time still on the clock. So his shot holds on for this week’s Onions Play of the week as he hits the big 3 to lift USM to an 84-83 road KCAC win over Evangel.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK | Collin Parker, Columbia (MO)
The All-American had another big week to add to his resume and it resulted in three wins for the Cougars. Collin has pushed his season averages now to 24.2ppg, 8.7rpg, 2.1apg and is shooting 51% from the field to go with 42% from 3.
vs Missouri Valley | 29pts (2-6 from 3), 8rebs, 5 assts, 3blks
vs Crowley’s Ridge | 23pts (5-11 from 3) 13rebs, 2 assts, 2blks, 2stls
vs Williams Baptist | 24pts (4-10 from 3) 12rebs, 1asst
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK | Anton Webb, Taylor
Anton Webb currently ranks 2nd in Defensive Reb/G (9.3) and is also inside the Top 50 players in both steals and blocks per game as well. He had another strong outing this week totaling 29 defensive rebounds, 9stls and five blocks for the Taylor Trojans earning himself our Defensive Player of the Week.
vs Marian | 17rebs (11 defensive) 2stls and 1blk
vs Moody Bible | 11rebs (11 defensive) 4stls, 3blks
vs Grace (IN) | 8rebs (7 defensive) 3stls, 1blk
RODMAN PLAYER OF THE WEEK | Zach Hidalgo, Southwestern (KS)
Again, this weekly award is designed to honor a former NAIA player Dennis Rodman and puts an emphasis on REBOUNDING over points. Zach Hidalgo, vs Avila this past week had a 4pt, 10 rebound game earning himself our Rodman Player of the Week. Zach is currently Top 5 in the NAIA in rebounding. He only has one game below double-digit rebounding numbers and earlier this year grabbed 23 in a game against Haskell.
SOPHOMORE OF THE WEEK | EJ McQuillan, LSU Alexandria
EJ has been a real force in the LSU Alexandria lineup as he averages 14.1ppg as a sophomore. This past week, in three LSUA wins, the sharpshooter shot 11-19 from 3 (58%)!
vs Louisiana Christian | 15pts (5-7 from 3)
vs Southwest (NM) | 24pts (4-7 from 3), 3rebs, 3stls
vs Paul Quinn | 13pts (2-5 from 3) 2 assts, 3stls
FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK | James Langsy, Northwestern (IA)
James only had one game this week, but the Freshman had yet another big outing as he is averaging 18.4ppg, 3.5rpg, 2.5apg and 1.1spg. This week vs Waldorf, James had 28pts, 5rebs, 4assts as he went 5-6 from deep and 9-12 from the field!
DUNK OF THE WEEK | Geovonni Floyd, Missouri Valley
We had a LOT of people sending in dunks this week. Plenty of great ones that could have won it. We have gone with a lot of posters, but Geovonni Floyd’s reverse tip dunk takes it home this week. Impressive play, in traffic and to reverse slam that just adds to the difficulty level!
