My beloved fellow A-10 fanatics,
It’s been a long and exciting day of basketball here in Brooklyn. Fans have travelled from all over to root for their teams and engage in merriment. Fans from the Commonwealth of Virginia and upstate New York were particularly well represented and loud today, though those from Rhode Island and George Mason held their own as well. Rhode Island bested VCU in a battle of the Rams, winning 75-70, despite Marcus Santos-Silva’s 26 point, 22 rebound performance. Marcus Evans looked to have suffered a devastating injury, but while bad, there’s no ligament damage. God smiles upon the A-10. St. Bonaventure defeated the Patriots of George Mason 68-57. I have enclosed below some takeaways from these two exhiliarating games.
Faithfully yours,
Jack Godar
The Takeaways:
Rhode Island could win it all: Rhode Island had a very rocky season after losing so many great players. However, the Rams have picked the right time to round into form. Jeff Dowtin was unstoppable today, scoring 22 points and freshmen Dana Tate and Tyrese Martin had great games as well. URI-St. Bona is going to be a really exciting game tomorrow.
St. Bonaventure’s freshmen are legit: Dominik Welch, Kyle Lofton and Osun Osunniyi all had great games against George Mason. Welch and Lofton each scored 20 points. Lofton added 5 assists, and Welch had 3 blocks. Osunniyi added 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. They’re not very experienced but they are legit. A-10 teams have to be sweating about facing these guys for three more years.
George Mason is in good hands with Justin Kier: The Otis Livingston era is now over, and while it’s difficult to replace a player like him, who’s probably an all-time great Patriot, Justin Kier looks like he’s up to the job. He carried George Mason in their two games here and singlehandedly kept them in the game in the second half. He’s the MIP this year for a reason, and he made a big splash in Brooklyn.
