MBB: Southern Athletic Association

[pbrooks3]

Rhodes overcame a 10 pt deficit in the final 5 minutes to knot it @ 60. Lynn just went up 2 in the OT.

[pbrooks3]

All square at 65 with 12.5 seconds left. Rhodes ball.

[pbrooks3]

Double OT about to begin. 65-65.

[pbrooks3]

Oglethorpe got the win this afternoon on a late basket in double-OT 73-72. They move to 3-0 in conference play & 13-1 overall.  Coach Ponder has a solid squad that plays his zone defense as scripted. OU made Rhodes work extremely hard offensively and they forced a large # of turnovers.

Centre got its 3rd straight conference win today @ home against Birmingham-Southern 85-71. 

[pbrooks3]

Centre is drilling Sewanee on the mountain at the half 43-13.  Lopez leads the Colonels with 13.

[awadelewis]

Centre's performance on the Mountain surprised me given how tight we played them up in Danville at the start of the season.   They just blew by the Tigers around the middle of the first half and never let up on our guys. 

[Ralph Turner]

Centre's performance on the Mountain surprised me given how tight we played them up in Danville at the start of the season.   They just blew by the Tigers around the middle of the first half and never let up on our guys.

Welcome to 200 posts awadelewis! +1!

[pbrooks3]

Greg Mason's Centre squad picked up a quality conference road win tonight in Atlanta against Oglethorpe 52-47.  OU came into the night D3-ranked and undefeated in league play and a lone loss on the season. The win catapults Centre into sole position of 1st place in conference play at 5-0 going into Sunday's road tilt against Berry up the road in Rome. A lot of league & road action yet to be played but a great start for the Colonels coming out of the SAA gate.

[pbrooks3]

Finally witnessed Centre's play tonight at Hendrix where they won by 16 against a young Warrior team.  Centre has depth and balance in their lineup.  Defense was as strong as ever with the Colonels holding Hendrix to 35% FG shooting.  No one player in Centre's lineup sticks out; they all seem to contribute when the team plays well.  Whiteside and Karsner were the point producers tonight, but balance was definitely the theme.  The Colonel bigs did not particularly shine offensively but they produced rebounds, stellar defense and quite a few blocked or altered shots.  This team has a chance to be really good and perhaps some difficult early season games will have readied them for some post season excitement. 

[pbrooks3]

Wow!!  The Centre Colonels put on a true road show today at Rhodes.  The boys shot 67% from the field and performed nearly as well from behind the arc knocking down 16-26 triples.  But honestly it was defense that keyed the attack as the Colonels held Rhodes to 23 points in the opening half.  Leading by 20, Centre quickly went on a 10-0 run to start the final stanza which catapulted them to a huge win.  This team's defense is what impresses me the most even though today's offensive explosion is what garners the headlines.  With an Oglethorpe loss today to Birmingham Southern, the Colonels now own a 2 game lead in the SAA.  Centre gets 4 of their final 6 conference games at home as they host Oglethorpe and Berry next weekend.  This is a very good basketball team that is playing outstanding at this juncture in the season.

[pbrooks3]

Centre defeats Oglethorpe tonight 78-67 on the strength of 17-34 shooting behind the arc.  Colin Lopez scored 25 including 7 3's.  Colonels go to 9-0 in league play.

[pbrooks3]

Rhodes was a kind host tonight as Millsaps came away with a scrappy 54-51 win at Mallory Gym to gain its 2nd conference victory.  The Lynx seemed not to have fully recovered from the thrashing they took the previous game against Centre.  The Majors played superior interior defense and Rhodes never found the groove from the perimeter all night.  It was an exciting finish despite the limited scoring as Rhodes almost drained a last second 3 from 35 feet to force OT. 

Berry College notched its 1st conference win at Sewanee this evening and Hendrix held off Birmingham Southern on its home court for a win.  Centre based on its win tonight over Oglethorpe now has a 3-game lead in the standings with 5 to play.

[pbrooks3]

Birmingham Southern got a big home win tonight knocking off #22 Centre 53-50.  I did not see the game but it appears BSU was willing to slug it out with Centre & manage the pace of play at a slower rate than normal.  The Panthers held Centre to less than 35% shooting. SAA leading scorer Larry Thomas paced the home team with 18 points and 10 rebounds; Donavan Whiteside and Josh Karsner each tallied 12 for Centre.  For the Colonels this was their 1st league loss after running off 10 SAA consecutive wins prior to tonight.  Probably not an awful loss at this point in the season if the Colonels can bounce back with a win at Millsaps Sunday, and pull out two more wins on the homecourt next weekend.   

[pbrooks3]

Centre Colonels have made the best of their only league loss three games ago against Birmingham Southern.  The team easily dispatched Millsaps after the loss in in Birmingham, and followed up that win with two solid home victories against Hendrix and Rhodes to finish the regular season 20-4 and 13-1 in the SAA.  The Colonels now host the SAA tournament next weekend in Danville as they try to earn their way into the D3 tournament by winning out.  Greg Mason's team has tremendous balance and a good bench that has some contributing freshmen making an impact.  Centre certainly must win the league tournament to advance.  However, if they do succeed, I think the Colonels are better positioned this season to get through a 1st round & possibly a 2nd round game.  Go Centre!

[pbrooks3]

Centre benefitted from its 2 weekend home wins by moving up 2 slots in the D3 Top 25 Poll as they check in #21 this week.  The Colonels will host the SAA tournament beginning this Friday.