The Daily Dive is your deep dive into the news and notes from around the NAIA Hoops World. Every day we will highlight some of the top headlines, conference updates, player accolades, coaching milestones and more. This used to be our Morning Bullet Points series. We went away from it this year, as others were doing similar things and we didn’t want to step on any toes. At the request of many, we have elected to bring it back for the second half of the season. Feel free to DM us on Twitter (@NAIAHoopsReport) or send an email to naiahoopsreport@gmail.com to recommend stories to be included into this segment.
It’s a big of a short Daily Dive segment today. Not a ton of big news around the NAIA world. One thing to watch for over the weekend is the weather. A blizzard and harsh weather conditions throughout the upper Midwest could cause for some games to be postponed. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but for the 2020-21 season, the window to be able to make up games is already so small. Hopefully the weather clears off today and teams are able to travel safely to games for Saturday. As always, be on the look out tomorrow morning for the newest NHR – The Podcast release!
Review of our Games of the Day from yesterday:
Southeastern 66 @ Warner 72 (Full Recap)
Warner keeps their two game lead in The Sun Conference standings with another win over Southeastern (FL). Warner was able to hold Southeastern to just 2pts over the final 3min of play to take home the win. Riley Matticks had a game high 23pts in the loss, while Warner was led by Rod Boogans 21pts. Rod was featured as one of our Five Players to Watch yesterday.
RV Jamestown 68 @ Dordt 87 (Full Recap)
The Dordt Defenders are playing some of their best basketball of the season right now. Last nights win over Jamestown marked their 7th straight win. It was the Defenders defense that sealed the win for them. They held Jamestown to just 48% from the field and kept Mason Walters away from a double-double. Cade Bleeker led the Dordt offensive attack with 18pts.
Thomas More 85 @ RV Freed Hardeman 71 (Full Recap)
It’s been the play of Sophomore Reid Jolly that has really taken this Thomas More team back to what they looked like last season. Jolly, who was another one of our Five Players to Watch from yesterday, finished with a game high 32pts and a team best 6rebs and 4assts. Now that this Thomas More team has figured things out again, they are going to be a real pain in the side to everyone in the Mid-South.
Other Notable Scores:
– Texas Wesleyan held an opponent under 50pts for the first time since 2014 as they won big over #22 John Brown by a score of 78-48.
– Southwestern Christian went on the road and got a 78-77 OT win over a hot Wayland Baptist team.
Quick Shoutout:
– Just want to hammer home and give credit to the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference for how they adapted to Covid restrictions to their conference scheduling by doing “Group Stage” Pods or bubbles to make sure they get their league games played. Talladega was the first to host this week, as they hosted 12 GCAC games Monday-Thursday. Xavier, Dillard and Dega all escaped the first week of GCAC Group Play undefeated. The entire league will meet up again February 1st-3rd for Stage 2 of Group Play.
– If you want more info into the GCAC read the GCAC Week 12 Notes. Looking forward to Stage 2!
