Road games are tough to win. Road conference games get even tougher to win. Road conference games, as a ranked team, is even more difficult to win. When you are a ranked team, you get everyone’s best shot. On the road, you get the opponent’s best shot plus the opposing fans biggest attendance, plus for most, it’s usually also an unfavorable whistle. It is always why we don’t punish teams, in our own rankings, as much for road losses.
Top Headlines
Men
- The GSAC decided to have some fun on opening night of league play. Of the four games, two went to OT and the other two were highly competitive games that finished under a 10pt spread. One of the OT games saw Westmont take down No. 1 Arizona Christian, 85-72.
- With much of the slate being conference matchups, we were bound for some fun, competitive games and we saw plenty of those.
- In the AMC, Missouri Baptist got a game winner with 3 secs left to beat William Woods.
- In the AAC, Montreat missed a layup at the buzzer to force OT against Bryan.
- In the SAC, USAO got this tip in to beat the buzzer in a road SAC win over John Brown.
- In Sun Conf play, Keiser went on the road to get a nice win over RV St. Thomas.
Women
- The upset of the night was in the Sooner Athletic Conference as 2nd year NAIA program, UNT Dallas knocked off No.11 Wayland Baptist, 70-62.
- In SAC play, USAO wins the battle of unbeatens as they defeated John Brown, 76-71.
- In Sun Conf play, Southeastern (FL) was able to get a season-high 28pts from Raegan Linster as the Fire look to recover from a slow start to the season.
- It was another 30+pt outing for Grace Beyer of UHSP as she poured in 35pts/6rebs/5assts in UHSP’s AMC win over Central Baptist.
- Speaking of National Player of the Year candidates, Stefanie Berberabe (Westmont) had a triple-double last night of 11pts/13rebs/12assts and also had 5stls in Westmont’s win over OUAZ.
Games of the Day Recaps
Men
- With only six teams qualifying this year for the GSAC Tourney, every game is a big one! There will be a couple of good teams who won’t even make the conference tournament this season. Life on the road in the GSAC is always tough, as we saw throughout the league last night. OUAZ though, would prevail behind a 36pt outing from Alex Villi. They will now turn around and head to Westmont, who just knocked off No. 1 ACU, for a Saturday showdown.
No. 2 Thomas More 86 – RV Cumberlands (KY) 61
- Think it’s safe to say that Thomas More gets up for big games! Cumberlands, outside of last night, has looked really good in the early parts of this season. Last night though, it was Thomas More who put Cumberlands away early, jumping out to a big early lead. The Saints would lead in this one by as much as 33pts. Jacob Jones, who is one of the best PG’s in the NAIA, led the way with 21pts. The Thomas More defense really shut down Fitzgerald and Hinson in this one. Holding the dynamic scoring duo to just 14 combined points. TMU will now head to No. 8 Georgetown on Saturday. More on that matchup later today!
Women
Freed-Hardeman 67 – RV Pikeville 83 in OT
- FHU got a nice win at home to start Mid-South play. Pikeville jumped out to an early lead and was able to maintain it for most of the game. FHU though, would put together a big 4th quarter and tied it up with 25 secs left to force OT. In the OT period, FHU would take the lead for the first time in the game. The Lady Lions would go on to win the game to move to 1-0 in the MSC. Rachel Satterly led the way with 26pts. Mary Englert led Pikeville with 20/11/4 in the loss.
- The season didn’t start off for Bryan like they were expecting, but last night they were able to hit the road and hand Montreat their first loss of the season. The defending AAC Champions are actually playing without Gracee Dishman, but they did get a big outing from Samantha Russell who had 26pts and 11rebs. Virginia Edmondson came off the bench for Montreat to pace them with 21pts.
Other News & Notes
- Now that we are heavy into league games, we will have our Weekly League Review series coming out Sunday and Monday!
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