Saturday men: Back for seconds
| Mason Barnes had just five points off the bench for DeSales on Saturday, but two of them were the biggest two of the game. DeSales athletics file photo by Stephanie Griffin |
Marietta won its second consecutive game against a ranked conference opponent, top-ranked Randolph-Macon pulled away in the second half and DeSales won with under two seconds to play. And, in an era of constant postponments and reschedules, Emory and Chicago pushed their game up a day, not to beat COVID, but the weather. That and more happened on a Saturday in Division III men’s basketball, Jan. 15, 2022.
Mason Barnes hit a running floater off the glass with 1.2 seconds left lifting the DeSales men’s basketball team past Lycoming 54-53 on Saturday afternoon. The win, which came against a 10-5 Lycoming squad, makes the Bulldogs 14-1 overall and leaves them at least two games ahead of everyone else in the MAC Freedom in the loss column.
DeSales went on a 14-0 run to take a 22-18 lead late in the first half and the game remained close the rest of the way. Timmy Edwards hit a layup with just under two minutes left to break a tie and give DeSales a 52-50 lead, byt Matt Ilodigwe responded 28 seconds later with a 3-pointer to give Lycoming a 53-52 lead. And the game remained that way until Lyco turned the ball over with 17 seconds left. Following two fouls by Lycoming, Barnes threw the ball in out of a timeout to Elijah Eberly, who gave it right back to Barnes driving to the hoop and tossing up a running one-hander off the glass and in. A last second full court attempt from the Warriors was broken up as time expired.
When the teams went into the locker room for the break, No. 8 Marietta trailed No. 19 Heidelberg by 12 points. But the Pioneers scored 70 in the second half, including a 22-4 run to pull away from the Student Princes for a 100-84 victory. That second half included 25 points and two assists from Lukas Isaly, including a two-minute stretch where he hit three 3-pointers and hit all three foul shots after being fouled attempting a fourth from beyond the arc.
Isaly finished with 27 points, including 14-for-15 from the foul line, while Jason Ellis added 19 and Tim Kreeger, Sahmi Willoughby and Cooper Parrott each added 12. The loss was the first setback in conference play for Heidelberg, and after the OAC rescinded its COVID forfeit policy for the season, Marietta leads OAC play at 7-0, followed by Heidelberg at 6-1, Mount Union at 5-2 and Baldwin Wallace at 4-2.
Buzz Anthony led all scorers with 26 points, and junior Miles Mallory had his sixth double-double of the season with 19 points and 10 rebounds, as top-ranked Randolph-Macon outscored Lynchburg 45-25 in the second half of an 84-65 win. The Yellow Jackets (12-1, 4-0 Old Dominion Athletic Conference) jumped out to a 10-0 lead before Lynchburg (8-4, 2-1) responded with a 22-4 run. R-MC shot 53% from the floor in the second half and held the Hornets to 30% from the floor after halftime, 0-for-8 from 3-point range. The 65 points is the lowest total of the season for Lynchburg.
In a season where it seems no game is certain to be played, the University of Chicago and Emory University did all they could to get their contest in, with Chicago flying into Atlanta on Saturday and playing that very afternoon, but falling to No. 25 Emory 83-68. The Maroons (5-8, 0-2 University Athletic Association) started the day in Rochester, New York, where Chicago had lost to Rochester on Friday night. Typically the UAA teams would have played their game on Sunday, but with winter storms bearing down on the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, they pushed the game up. Matthew Schner led all scorers with 22 for Emory (9-4, 2-1).
A pair of 20-plus point efforts on the backs of John Adams and John Lowther boosted No. 23 WPI to a 79-68 victory over Emerson, one game after Emerson (8-4, 1-2 NEWMAC) had handed Clark its first loss of the season. The Lions did not have an answer for Adams, who scored a team-high 23 points, including shooting 11-for-15 from the floor, and added 10 rebounds. The Engineers improved to 12-1, 2-1 in conference play. Nate Martin scored 24 to lead the Lions.
UW-Platteville turned a back-and-forth game with WIAC cellar-dweller UW-Stevens Point into a win going away, as the No. 2 Pioneers shot a blistering 15-for-22 from the floor and 6-for-9 from 3-point range, not to mention 16-for-17 from the foul line in the second half of an 89-78 victory. Logan Pearson scored a game-high 20 points, while Kyle Tuma added 17 and Ben Probst 16 off the bench, 11 of them in the second half. Platteville remained unbeaten at 16-0, 5-0 WIAC, while Stevens Point fell to 3-8, 0-4.
Howard Payne rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit and led 83-80 with 1.3 seconds left before Elias Garcia hit a half-court buzzer beater to force overtime, and McMurry finally pulled away in the third extra session to win 125-112. The War Hawks had just eight players, and each of them played at least 20 minutes and all of them scored to bring McMurry (6-8, 4-5 American Southwest Conference) the win. CJ LeBlanc poured in a game-high 42 points, adding 11 rebounds and eight assists in the win, while Garcia had a career-best 27 points and added 16 boards and five steals. Fredrick Watts, Jaylan Ballou and Myler Brown each scored 20-plus for HPU (4-12, 3-8).
St. John’s rallied from a 17-point deficit in the first half to take a lead with 6:12 to play, but a huge game from Joe Palmer helped Augsburg survive and get past the Johnnies 67-66 in a battle of MIAC unbeatens. Palmer finished with a game-high 30 points and added 10 rebounds as the Auggies improved to 12-2 and 9-0 in the MIAC. SJU fell to 11-3, 8-1.
The two top scoring teams in the Centennial Conference put on a scoring clinic on Saturday, finishing with No. 12 Johns Hopkins defeating Ursinus 99-90. The Blue Jays (11-2, 7-1) went 13-for-17 from the foul line in the final 2:28 to put the win away. Conner Delaney led all scorers with a career-best 39 points, which is tied for the second most points in school single-game history. He also grabbed five rebounds and handed out a pair of assists. Ursinus fell to 8-4, 5-2.
Patrick Mahoney scored a game-high 16 points and No. 24 RPI scored 30 points off turnovers in defeating St. Lawrence 59-41. The Engineers took advantage of 22 turnovers by the Saints (8-5, 3-4 Liberty League) to score more than half of their points. Senior Dom Black had seven steals, while Mason Memmelaar and Avery Eugster had two apiece. Black, Memmelaar and Mahoney all had a block in helping RPI (11-1, 5-0) hold St. Lawrence to just 35.6% (16 of 45) shooting in the game.
The 123rd meeting of rivals Wooster and Wittenberg saw the homestanding Scots have a huge second half en route to an 83-80 win. Wooster took a 63-60 lead in the series. Elijah Meredith scored 25 points, 15 of them in the second half — a period in which the Scots shot 59.4% from the floor and Meredith was 6-for-10. His jumper with 15:51 to play gave Wooster (10-4, 6-1 North Coast Athletic Conference) the lead for good, as part of an 11-0 run. Wittenberg fell to 5-7, 3-2.