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| Jair Knight scored a game-high 23 points to lift Emory past John Carroll at the Great Lakes Invitational. Calvin athletics photo |
The final big day of games before the first regular season D3hoops.com Top 25 poll saw a number of big games involving teams ranked in our two preseason polls.
Four Eagles scored in double figures as Emory left the Great Lakes Invitational with a 2-0 mark after a 90-75 win against John Carroll, handing the Blue Streaks their second loss in five outings in the early going. The Eagles opened the contest the same way they've done all season, as Logan Shanahan, Ben Pearce and AJ Harris each knocked down threes to get Emory off to a strong start. Jair Knight led the way with 23, while Pearce added 18 points along with four assists while Shanahan recorded 16 points and nine rebounds. The Eagles simply outpaced the Blue Streaks, playing a dynamic brand of basketball that led to Emory scoring 20 points off fast breaks whereas John Carroll had just one off the fast break.
Calvin, which came into the season at No. 9 and has faced four ranked teams in the first six games, finally got itself into the win column for the season as the Knights handed No. 12 St. John's its first loss, 71-67. The Johnnies were in control throughout the first half, holding the Knights to 25.9 percent shooting from the field (including 2-11 from beyond the arc) and took a 32-24 lead into halftime. The Knights went 21-30 from the charity stripe in the second half and 29-40 for the game, while also shooting 45.8 percent from the field and going 4-7 from downtown in the second while holding the Johnnies to 31.0 percent from the floor and 2-for-15 from beyond the arc in the second half. Owen Varnado led the way with 23 points for Calvin.
"We desperately needed a win," Calvin coach Bill Sall said. "It wasn't beautiful at all times, but I thought it was pretty gritty. That's a pretty good team to hold to 33 percent (shooting), and we've been preaching that we've got to be better defensively and I think these last two games we've been a better defensive team. That's really good to see. Owen had a great game and we had a lot of plays step up so we're super excited."
UW-Platteville, one of those ranked teams to defeat Calvin, got 24 points, 10 rebounds and five assists from preseason All-American Logan Pearson as the Pioneers got past North Central (Ill.) 76-69 in overtime. UWP shot just 5-for-23 from beyond the arc, but outrebounded the Cardinals 43-34 as they improved to 3-1 overall.
Gettysburg put in a balanced effort to knock off Hampden-Sydney 81-78 in a battle of unbeatens. Carl Schaller led the way for the Bullets with 24 points. His HSC counterpart, Adam Brazil, scored a game-high 30, including the final 12 for the tigers, but his half court heave to send the game to overtime just missed and sent the home fans home disappoinred. Gettysburg is now 7-0 to start the year. Hampden-Sydney begins ODAC play in its next game.
Grayson Goetz tied a career high with 30 points and 15th-ranked Wisconsin Lutheran came away with an 83-75 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference-opening win over Benedictine on Saturday at Dan and Ada Rice Center. The Warriors (5-0, 1-0 NACC), who won their first game in Lisle since the 2008-2009 season, started conference play 1-0 for the seventh straight season.
Saturday women's action
No. 21 Carroll notched a big non-conference victory on the road at No. 12 Hope, defeating the Dutch in overtime 80-75. Hope took its largest lead with two minutes left in regulation on a Leah Richards layup to put the Dutch up by eight. But Emlile Wizner connected on a pair of 3-pointers on consecutive possession, followed by another Hope turnover and a pair of Olivia Rangel free throws to erase that eight-point deficit and send the game to overtime. In the extra period, the Pios fell behind by four with three minutes to play. They answered with a basket from Natalie Gricius, which cut that lead in half. After a Hope free throw pushed their lead back to three, Gricius scored the next seven points in the game to give Carroll a 77-73 lead with 19 seconds remaining. Gricius iced the game by sinking three of four free throws in the final 12 seconds.
No. 6 Johns Hopkins played on its opponents floor for the first time on the season and homestanding Randolph-Macon got the win, 75-74 in overtime. Trailing for the majority of the extra period, it was a timely Elisabeth Peebles triple that gave the Blue Jays a 74-73 lead with just 40 seconds on the clock. On the ensuing possession, however, it was Cathering Kagey making up for a miss in regulation with a layup in the paint that gave the Yellow Jackets the lead for good. A pair of missed free throws from the hosts gave Hopkins a chance to win the game, but the Blue Jays were unable to get a shot off, turning the ball over as the game clock expired to suffer their second loss of the year.
No. 23 Trine was able to hold off Ohio Northern, 68-63. Jada Rhonehouse scored a game-high 16 points as the only player in double figures for the Thunder. Trine led by as many as 18 in the fourth quarter before ONU went on a 19-4 run to cut it all the way down to 66-63 with 1:35 on the second of two 3-pointers by Kristen Luersman in the course of 33 seconds. The Polar Bears, however, were not able to get a shot off in the final 95 seconds and Sidney Wagner iced it with two foul shots with 0:03 left.
Maryville's women's basketball team was unable to follow the path blazed by its football team earlier in the day as the Scots fell to Berry 88-59. Elly Callihan, Jeryn Jarrett and Karlee Armstrong each scored 13 to lift visiting Berry. Maryville was the visitor earlier in the day as the Scots football team won at Berry in a first-round NCAA playoff game.