MBB: University Athletic Association

[Gregory Sager]

Chicago breezed past Monmouth at the Rhodes tourney down in Memphis, 93-77. Six different Maroons scored in double figures, as Noah Karras continued his torrid pace from downtown (5-9 today) en route to 19 points, Waller Perez and Blaine Crawford had double-doubles of 16 and 11 for the former and 15 and 10 for the latter, Tyler Howard came off of the bench to score 14 (and added eight assists, to boot), Jake Fenlon scored a dozen, and Collin Barthel chipped in 11 and 6.

[WUPHF]

#Gameday as Washington University gets ready to play Ohio Wesleyan at the College of Wooster.  The Battling Bishops are ranked No. 89 in Massey and are 6-3 on the season with four consecutive wins.  The teams share two common opponents in DePauw and Illinois Wesleyan.

Game is at 4:00 pm CST.
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/wooster/

[Mr. Ypsi]

#Gameday as Washington University gets ready to play Ohio Wesleyan at the College of Wooster.  The Battling Bishops are ranked No. 89 in Massey and are 6-3 on the season with four consecutive wins.  The teams share two common opponents in DePauw and Illinois Wesleyan.

Game is at 4:00 pm CST.
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/wooster/

FWIW, both beat DePauw (WashU by 7, OWU by 13); both lost to IWU (WashU by 1, OWU by 18).

[WUPHF]

Washington University leads Ohio Wesleyan at the half, 39-33.

The Bears are beating the Battling Bishops at their own game hitting 4-8 from three point range.  That may be the season best for a first half, but I'll have to confirm.  Ohio Wesleyan is just 3-20 (15%) from the perimeter.

Washington University led by 10 or more, but Ohio Wesleyan had their runs including a stretch in which David Schmelter missed an open dunk giving Ohio Wesleyan a chance to score their second straight layup in transition.

The Bears did play great defense overall and that defense forced a turnover with 0:05 left and Kucera was able to push the ball up the court to Highsmith who finished with a buzzer beater.

Highsmith entered the game earlier than usual as Andrew Sanders picked up two fouls.  Highsmith went to work, going 5-7 en route to 11 points.  Highsmith is missing just 40% of the time.  He is 0-0 from three point range, but I have long how he might shoot from downtown if asked to do so on a regular basis.

Bears are +10 on rebounds, but just 42% from the line going just 3-7.

[WUPHF]

Washington University defeats Ohio Wesleyan, 82-66.

The Bears shot 33-73 (45%) from the field and registered 23 assists (second highest of the season) along with a 6-16 (37.5%) performance from the perimeter.  The Bears also outrebounded the Battling Bishops 55-35.

Matt Highsmith scored 17 points on 8-11 shooting in just 24 minutes while Clinton Hooks and Andrew Sanders both scored 16.

The Bears shot 10-19 (52%) from the line.  The season average drops to 66%.  This is a team that shot 70% from the line last season, but the average was less if do not include the work of sharpshooter Luke Silverman-Lloyd.

[WUPHF]

Emory gets the home court win over Berry, 91-80

Adam Gigax has a career game tonight, scoring 36 on 11-23 shooting from the field including a 6-12 performance from the perimeter.  Gigax is averaging 20 points per game and is shooting 43% from three point range to go along with everything else the 6'7 forward does so well.

Senior Jim Gordon, who played barely played in his first three seasons as an Eagle, is scoring 14 points per game.  Gordon finished with 12 tonight while Christopher Avant had 13.

Emory improves to 6-3 on the season with two more games to go before they kick off the season at Rochester.
__________

At this point, we are just over a week away from the start of conference play and with four teams clearly in the race for the title, we will start the season as follows:

1/7 Emory vs. Rochester
Washington University vs. Chicago

1/13 Washington University vs. Emory
Chicago vs. Rochester

1/15 Washington University vs. Rochester
Chicago vs. Emory

Rochester has played all but four games at home this season and only one has required more than a 15 minute commute.  Rochester starts with an opportunity to build on their non-conference momentum and potentially let the other teams sweat it out until the last two weeks of the season.

[WUPHF]

Washington University vs. Wooster just 10 minutes or so in.  Worth watching.
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/wooster/portal.htm?eventId=314023&streamType=video

[WUPHF]

Scots lead at the half, 51-40.

The College of Wooster has three players in double figures and none of them are Dan Fanelly.  The Bears have 9 turnovers are being outrebounded.

[WUPHF]

Overtime in Wooster.

Washington University trailed by 17, before staging a comeback.

The Bears has a chance to finish out the game up 2, but an unfortunate travel allowed Fanelly to get the game tying layup.

[WUPHF]

Washington University defeats the College of Wooster in overtime, 94-91.

Wooster has one last shot from three to force a second overtime, but to no avail.

The Bears get the win despite the unforced turnovers in the final minute.  This was the win the Bears needed.  17 points down, but no loss of composure.  No let down after coming so close in regulation. 

The biggest difference in this game compared to the last two losses: 10-14 from the line, good for 71%...

Kevin Kucera is the man...26 points on 11-15 shooting to go along with 11 assists.

Jake Knupp had one of his best games on defense, including three steals.  He almost had two more.  He played 29 minutes tonight including most of the extra period.  Let's see more of that.  Knupp also had 10 points, including a key three in overtime.

Will Galik had the announcers looking for his name when he entered, but Galik made a name for himself tonight.  8 points in 9 minutes including 2-4 from three point range.

Matt Highsmith was a bit quieter on offense (8 points, but his defense was on the mark.

Marcus Meyer played a mere 8 minutes, but probably his best game since the exhibition with Illinois.

The Bears turned over the ball 18 times, but ending up finishing +2 on rebounds.  Wooster ended the game with 17 turnovers including a number in the last 10 minutes and overtime.

[jaybird44]

A good weekend for sure...a couple of losses could have pushed the Bears on the Pool C precipice.

Will Galik may be a very key player for Wash-U in UAA play.  Emory especially loves the 3, and if Galik can help the Bears stay even with opponents in made 3s, that will help them immensely.

Bears have road games in their first 3 UAA contests...need the first one to go well at Chicago.  Last UAA-opening visit to Chicago 2 years ago resulted in a 63-43 loss.

It will be fun to get the UAA slate started!

[WUPHF]

Emory loves the three for sure, but look at Chicago and Rochester.

Chicago has three guys shooting over 45% from the perimeter, with Jake Fenlon leading the way.  Averaging 42% as a team.

Rochester has taken just a few more, but is averaging 37%.  Even the starting forwards are shooting around 40%.  Zack Ayers is the new stretch five, shooting 7-17.

Statistically, our three point field goal defense is not particularly noteworthy, though I feel like we are doing better. 

Let's hope Will Galik continues to be a threat off the bench.
__________

Massey liked the win over Wooster enough to move them to No. 20 (No. 10 SOS) though the Central loss last night is not listed.

Matt Highsmith is second among the top UAA teams in scoring percentage at 64.6%.  This is just under the 65.% of Blaine Crawford.  I believe the only other play to come close to that in my 10 years was Chris Klimek, but I'll have to look. 

Highsmith is great in the low post, but most of his shots are mid-range jumpers.
__________

Definitely excited about No. 1 Babson vs. Chicago getting started here shortly: http://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/mbkb/2016-17/boxscores/20161231_7map.xml

[WUPHF]

I know that Chicago said no trigger warnings, but the teams are firing today.  This is a high scoring game that people should be watching.  Only 146 so far on the live feed.  Chicago leads 21-20 after 10 minutes.

[WUPHF]

Chicago leads Babson at the half, 43-40.

Bradley Jacks with 13 and Blaine Crawford with 12.

[WUPHF]

Babson over Chicago, 82-70.

I had to check out with 3:00 minutes left, but hopefully Gregory Sager has more to say.

I'll just say, Blaine Crawford was awesome today.  22 points and 11 rebounds.  Crawford is having a brilliant senior campaign, but this may have been one of his best games.