The Summit League as a whole has struggled out of the gate this season. Conference teams are a combined 4-24 against Division I opponents so far this season and 9-24 overall. IUPUI (2-2) is the only team not currently below .500 and both of its wins are against non-Division I opponents. Most teams have faced tough competition, but things won’t get any easier. Here is a quick rundown of this past weekend’s action.
Idaho 78, North Dakota State 69The Bison really struggled down the stretch in this road loss to Idaho. A Ben Woodside layup tied the game, 66-66, with seven minutes left, but NDSU scored just three points of the way.
“The last seven minutes we scored three points,” North Dakota State coach Saul Phillips told The Forum. “I thought we had some decent looks, but weren’t able to convert on them.”
Brett Winkelman and Mike Nelson each scored 17 points for the Bison (1-1). Michael Tveidt added 14 points and Ben Woodside finished with nine points, seven rebounds and eight assists.
Kashif Watson led four Vandals in double figures with 19 points.
“It’s a frustrating loss, it’s a disappointing loss, but at the same time it’s only tragic if we don’t take it and learn from it and get better,” Phillips told The Forum. “We’ve got a game on Tuesday against Northern Arizona. … We’re still convinced we’ve got some special things to do. We just got beat by a team that knocked down some shots tonight.”
Creighton 87, Oral Roberts 65Oral Roberts did not get its five-game road trip off to a good start. The Golden Eagles led 35-33 at halftime, but were outscored 54-30 in the second half.
“We lost our composure,” Oral Roberts coach Scott Sutton told the Tulsa World. “I would expect that out of some of our guys, but we had some upperclassmen that once things started going bad, we weren't tough enough to fight through it. You expect that with some of the newcomers that played, but we're a bit frustrated and disappointed with some of our guys that have been through these type of games on the road before.”
Creighton (3-0) shot 30 percent (9-for-30) from the field in the first half, but then shot 65.4 percent (17-for-26) in the second half.
Freshman Dominique Morrison led Oral Roberts (1-2) with 20 points. Marcus Lewis added 14 points and six rebounds and Robert Jarvis finished with 13 points on 4-for-15 shooting, including 1-for-8 in the second half.
IPFW 81, Eastern Illinois 77 (OT)The Mastodons picked up their first win of the season in overtime after suffering losses to Xavier and No. 5 Michigan State to start the season.
A pair of David Carson free throws with 25 second left in the second half forced overtime. The Mastodons never trailed in the overtime period.
“Our defense has to improve,” IPFW coach Dane Fife told The Journal Gazette.. “I think our defense was pretty good down the stretch, but it’s still way too easy to score baskets on us.”
Carson finished with 21 points. Sophomore Ben Botts added 15 points and sophomore Zach Plackemeier had 12 points and nine assiss, and also came up big defensively, shutting down Eastern Illinois’ Romain Martin in the final four minutes of the second half and overtime. Martin scored 28 points in the first 36 minutes, including six 3-pointers.
“I walked into the locker room after the game and told the team they owed Zach a debt of gratitude for saving their hind end,” Fife told The Journal Gazette.
Tennessee Tech 69, Southern Utah 68Southern Utah lost a heartbreaker on the road. Senior Tyler Quinney split a pair of free throws with 34 seconds left to the tie the game at 68, but Tech’s Will Barnes then split a pair of free throws with six seconds left to give his team the one-point win.
“It’s a close game, but you should win a ball game like this,” Southern Utah coach Roger Reid told KSUU announcer Art Challis. “We got to improve from here.”
Quinney led the Thunderbirds (1-2) with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and he played all 40 minutes despite being in the hospital with an eye injury earlier in the week.
“I didn't think Tyler was going to play today,” Reid said. “He had a gutsy performance since a lot of guys wouldn’t have played tonight. I give him credit because of his tenancy and heart.”
Junior Eules Thompson added 18 points and five rebounds and junior Davis Baker had 16 points and six rebounds for Southern Utah.
Daniel Northern led Tech (3-0) with 15 points and seven rebounds.
Florida Atlantic 77, UMKC 59UMKC shot 22.6 percent in the first half and couldn’t dig itself out of an early hole in the road loss.
Sophomore Reggie Hamilton led the Kangaroos with 22 points, six rebounds and five assists. Freshman Latreze Mushatt (Saginaw Arthur Hill) added 13 points and senior Dane Brumagin finished with six points.
Shavar Richardson led Florida Atlantic (3-1) with 18 points.
UMKC will play three games in three days starting Monday night as part of the CBE Classic.
Cincinnati 74, Western Illinois 46Cincinnati began the game on a 12-0 run and never looked back in a Global Sports Classic first round game.
Senior Josh Rivers scored 14 points and senior David DuBois had 13 points and five rebounds for the Leathernecks (1-3).
Alvin Mitchell led the Bearcats (3-0) with 19 points.
IUPUI 92, IU East 55Junior Robert Glenn led IUPUI (2-2) with 16 points and five rebounds, junior Jon Avery added 14 points and four rebounds and sophomore Leroy Nobles had 12 points and five rebounds.
"We wanted to win this game on the defensive end," IUPUI Head Coach Ron Hunter told IUPUI Athletics. "We got after them and got some easy buckets. I knew if we pressed them defensively, the offense would come to us and we set the tone early."
Tyler Rigby and Cory Sitton each scored 13 points for IU East, which is a NAIA level team.
Northwestern State 69, Centenary 66Centenary came close to winning its first two games in the LSU Invitational, but fell short. Chase Adams hit a 3-pointer to pull the Gents within one, 67-66, with four seconds left, but Charles Clark’s layup sealed the win for Northwestern State.
Adams finished with 20 points, six rebounds and five assists, sophomore Gary Redus added 17 points and senior Nick Stallings finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds for Centenary (1-3).
“Centenary made it very, very difficult for us. Stallings, Adams and Redus are just as good as any players we'll see this year, and they are well-coached,” Northwestern State coach Mike McConathy told the Shreveport Times. “We earned the win, but we were fortunate to get it.”
Michael McConathy led the Demons (2-1) with 17 points
Drake 75, South Dakota State 65Garrett Callahan had 21 points and five assists, Kai Williams added 13 points and eight rebounds and Clint Sargent scored 14 points for South Dakota State (1-3)
Jonathan Cox led Drake (2-1) with 15 points.
Summit League scheduleMonday, Nov. 24Centenary at Wichita State
Western Illinois at Florida State
UMKC vs. Bradley at Fort Meyers, Fla.
Tuesday, Nov. 25Oakland at Kansas State
North Dakota State at Northern Arizona
Oral Roberts at Louisiana-Lafayette
IUPUI vs. Eastern Illinois at Conseco Fieldhouse
IU East at IPFW
Seattle Pacific at Southern Utah
UMKC vs. Richmond at Fort Meyers, Fla.
Upper Iowa at South Dakota State
Wednesday, Nov. 26UMKC vs. Florida Gulf Coast at Fort Meyers, Fla.
Labels: Summit League