Written by: Ryan Cunningham

Twitter: @R_Cunningham04

Twitter: @wingspansports (follow for all your sports information; we follow back)

Saint Louis (4-0)

11/13- vs. Northern Alabama (W 69-58)

11/17- @ Seton Hall (W 66-64)

Defense was the key to the Billikens’ 2 wins this week. They held Northern Alabama to 35.7% shooting and held Seton Hall to 33.3% shooting. A key to their win over Seton Hall was rebounding. They out-rebounded them 40-28. A stat that stood out to me was Saint Louis committed 24 turnovers against Seton Hall and still pulled out the road win. The Billikens attempted 8 threes, making 5 of them. Seton Hall’s Sandro Mamukelashvili missed a wide open 3 to win the game for the Pirates but couldn’t convert giving Saint Louis an impressive road victory.

Up Next:

11/21- vs. Pittsburgh @ Barclays Center Brooklyn, NY

11/24- vs. Central Arkansas

Dayton (3-0)

11/16- vs. Purdue Fort Wayne (W 91-80)

Dayton continued their undefeated season with a win over Purdue Fort Wayne. PFW had a 5 point lead at half, but the Flyers were on fire in the second half behind an impressive performance by Josh Cunningham with 20 points and 8 rebounds. Dayton shot 60.7%. Dayton will travel to The Bahamas and take on Butler in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Up Next:

11/21- vs. Butler @ Battle 4 Atlantis Nassau, Bahamas

11/22- Virginia/Middle Tennessee State

11/23- TBD

VCU (4-0)

11/19- vs. Temple (W 57-51)

VCU jumped out to an early 17-2 lead over Temple, but the lead vanished into the second half. Marcus Evans hit a 3 with roughly 30 seconds left to put the Rams up by 4, sealing the deal for VCU. VCU’s havoc defense held Temple to just 33% shooting. They made every pass and shot difficult for the Owls.

Up Next:

11/24- vs. Hofstra

Duquesne (3-0)

11/17- vs. Radford (W 69-64)

In what was a very entertaining game, Duquesne squeaked out a victory over Radford in the Gotham Classic. Eric Williams Jr. had 11 of his 14 points in the second half leading the Dukes to their victory.

Up Next:

11/20- @ Notre Dame

11/25- vs. UMass Lowell

Davidson (4-1)

11/15- vs. Wichita State (W 57-53)

11/16- vs. 23 Purdue (L 79-58)

11/18- vs. Northeastern (W 71-59)

Davidson traveled down to the Charleston Classic and left with a 2-1 record. The Wildcats opened up with Wichita State and was led by Jon Axel Gudmundsson with 33 points. They lost to Purdue the next night where Carsen Edwards led the Boilermakers with 29 points. To take 3rd place in the tournament, Davidson beat a very good Northeastern team where they were led by freshman Luka Brajkovic with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Up Next:

11/24- vs. Northeastern

Fordham (4-1)

11/16- Florida International (W 83-77)

11/17- Youngstown State (W 67-61)

11/18- Columbia (W 70-69)

Fordham took 3 in a row in the Johnny Bach Classic. The most dramatic win came against Columbia where they were down 4 with 14 seconds left. Ivan Raut hit a 3 in the corner to bring it down to a 1 point game. Fordham stole the ball in the backcourt and Jalen Cobb hit a mini floater at the buzzer to win their 3rd straight game.

Up Next:

11/25- vs. Alabama A&M

Rhode Island (2-1)

11/16- vs. Harvard (W 76-74)

Fatts Russell hit a 3-pointer with 4 seconds left to lift the Rams over Harvard at home. Jeff Dowtin led URI with a career-high 31 points. The Dowtin/Russell backcourt is one of the best guard combos in the conference.

Up Next:

11/24- vs. Stony Brook

UMass (3-2)

11/13- vs. Harvard (L 74-71)

11/16- vs. Howard (L 68-63)

11/19- vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (W 92-60)

UMass lost a nail-biter to Harvard in what always seems to be a close game every year. Howard was up on UMass by 13 at the half, but the Minutemen didn’t give up. They brought it down to 3 with 2 minutes left, but couldn’t get over the hump. Despite the home loss, UMass bounced back with a nice 32 point win over Arkansas- Pine Bluff. The Minutemen had 4 double-digit scorers in the win.

Up Next:

11/22- vs. Southern Illinois in Las Vegas, NV

11/23- vs. Nevada/Tulsa in Las Vegas, NV

Richmond (2-2)

11/14- vs. St. Francis Brooklyn (W 88-66)

11/16- vs. IUPUI (W 78-70)

11/19- vs. Loyola-Chicago (L 82-66)

Nick Sherod led Richmond to an easy win over St. Francis BKN with 22 points. Jacob Gilyard led the Spiders to a win over IUPUI with a career-high 31 points. Richmond coach Chris Mooney tied the program record for most wins with the win. The Spiders were up by 3 at the half over Loyola-Chicago, but then got outscored by 22 in the second giving Loyola the victory.

Up Next:

11/21- vs. Wyoming/Boston College

11/25- vs. Hampton

Saint Joseph’s (3-2)

11/15- vs. Wake Forest (W 89-69)

11/16- vs. UCF (L 77-57)

11/18- vs. West Virginia (L 97-90)

St. Joe’s traveled down to Myrtle Beach for the Myrtle Beach Invitational at Coastal Carolina University. They started off with a blowout win over Wake. Charlie Brown had 26 points. They took a blowout loss to UCF and then a close loss to West Virginia. In 5 games this season, Brown is 17-30 from the 3 point line. When he’s on the court and he’s hot, they’ll be hard to beat.

Up Next:

11/24- @ William & Mary

George Mason (1-3)

11/13- @ Georgia Southern (L 98-89)

11/17- vs. Southern (W 69-65)

George Mason had a heartbreaking loss to Georgia Southern. The Patriots had a 20 point lead at the half, but ended up losing by 11. Mason had very high expectations coming into this year. They lost their previous 2 games by a combined 4 points, one of them in overtime to American and the other by 1 to Penn. They pulled out a tough win over Southern. Hopefully this will get them going.

Up Next:

11/20- vs. North Carolina Central

11/23 vs. Cincinnati

St. Bonaventure (1-3)

11/19- vs. Georgia State (L 75-65)

Without Courtney Stockard and LaDarien Griffin, the Bonnies had to start 3 freshmen. UNLV transfer Jalen Poyser put up 23 points, including 5 threes. He has a very bright future and will be a guy teams will have to worry about in conference play.

Up Next:

No games this week

La Salle (0-4)

11/14- @ Florida (L 82-69)

11/17- vs. Drexel (L 89-84)

La Salle hung around with Florida for the first half, only going down 8 at the break. The Gators brought their lead up to 24 in the second half leading to an Explorers loss. Drexel hit 34/40 free throws in a high-scoring victory over La Salle.

Up Next:

11/22- vs. Miami

George Washington (0-5)

11/17- vs. 18 Michigan (L 84-61)

11/18- vs. South Carolina (L 90-55)

George Washington traveled to Mohegan Sun in Connecticut and played some high-level competition. Michigan only had a 9 point lead over the Colonials, but pulled away in the second half for a blowout win. South Carolina had a 56-18 lead at the half leading to their win. GW is looking like a bottom half of the league team thus far.

Up Next:

11/24- vs. Manhattan

Check back next Tuesday for this upcoming week’s recaps.