Survive & Advance

La Salle 76 – Massachusetts 69

The Explorers used a 28 point outpouring from Jordan Price, and production off the bench, to outlast the Minutemen down the stretch.  La Salle spent much of the game juggling the minutes of senior, Jerrell Wright who was forced to the bench with foul trouble.  Explorers head coach, John Giannini was able to mitigate the 6’8” 255lbs power forward’s absence by mixing up defensive looks – keeping UMASS from getting in a rhythm offensively.

La Salle will face Davidson on Friday at noon

STARS OF THE GAME:

LAS:  Jordan Price – 28p, 6r, 2a, 2s, 0t/o | Steve Zack – 12p, 13r, 3b | Cleon Roberts – 16p, 3r, 2a, 1b, 2s

UMASS:  Cady Lalanne – 17p, 16r | Donte Clark – 23p, 6r

VCU 63 – Fordham 57

VCU’s stalled half court offense continued to struggle much of Thursday afternoon against Fordham.  VCU made eight 3s, but converted on only 29.4% of 2PA.  Fordham stayed close with ten 3s of their own, converting on 47.6% of 3PA.  Neither team was particularly good on 2PA as only Treveon Graham and Fordham’s Mandell Thomas had more than one 2pM for the entire game.  Fordham deserves a ton of credit.  Having just played Wednesday night (with three players seeing 39 minutes of action), was without A-10 ROY Eric Paschall (injury) and yet managed to keep VCU at arm’s length throughout.

VCU will face Richmond on Friday at 2:30

STARS OF THE GAME:

VCU:  Treveon Graham – 22p, 9r(8off.), | Melvin Johnson – 16p, 6r | Terry Larrier – 10p, 7r

FOR:  Mandell Thomas – 12p, 5r | Manny Suarez – 13p, 8r, 2b | Bryan Smith – 11p, 6r

St. Bonaventure 60 – Saint Joseph’s 49

Thursday’s zone defense theme continued into the evening.  Saint Joseph’s sat in a zone defense to begin the game and held St.Bonaventure to just nine points through the first quarter of the game.  The Bonnies hung around however, and eventually dictated the pace of the game – particularly during the stretch right out of half time, outscoring the Hawks  18-9 in the first ten minutes of the second half.  A-10 POY candidate and First-Teamer, DeAndre Bembry couldn’t get going for the Hawks offensively and ended the game just 3-14 from the field.  St. Bonaventure collected 48 rebounds including 15 from Denzel Gregg.

St. Bonaventure will face Dayton on Friday at 6:30

STARS OF THE GAME:

SBON:  Dion Wright – 15p, 9r, 2b, 1s | Marcus Posley – 13p, 4r, 6a | Youssou Ndoye – 18p, 8r

JOES:  DeAndre Bembry – 12p, 6r, 3a, 1b, 2s | Isaiah Miles – 19p, 3r, 1b, 2s

George Washington 73 – Duquesne 55

George Washington doesn’t always shoot 3s, but when they do – well at least Thursday night – they go in.  This season, only 28.8% of all FGAs for the Colonials are 3s (34.3% is D1 avg) – that ranks them at 296 of 351 D1 schools.  But when faced with Duquesne’s 2-3 zone, 35.7% of their attempts were 3s, and they converted an exceptional 50.0% of them.  One of the most dangerous things about the Colonials is that from night to night you don’t know who is going to hurt you – Thursday GW had four players finish in double figures.  George Washington has now won four of their last five games, with the only loss coming to number one-seeded Davidson.

George Washington will face Rhode Island on Friday at 9:00

STARS OF THE GAME:

GWU:  Joe McDonald – 12p, 5r, 3a, 3s | Kevin Larsen – 1op, 15r | Patricio Garino & Yuta Watanabe – 12p, 6r each

DUQ:  Micah Mason – 22p, 2r, 2a, 2s | Derrick Colter – 11p, 5a | Jeremiah Jones – 9p, 6r, 5a