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Inside look at high school and Oakland University sports from Oakland Press sports writer Dave Pemberton.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Summit League power rankings 1-12-09

1. North Dakota State (10-5, 5-1 Summit) — Senior Brett Winkelman scored the final seven points of the game to lift the Bison over IUPUI, 55-52. Ben Woodside scored 26 points in a season-low 25 minutes in NDSU’s 17-point win over Western Illinois. The first-place Bison can give themselves some cushion in the league race and answer questions about their road toughness with games at Southern Utah and UMKC this week.
2. Oral Roberts (6-11, 4-1) — The Golden Eagles won their 30th straight conference home game with an overtime victory over Oakland Saturday. Oral Roberts has won three straight to double its win total on the season. Marcus Lewis picked up his fourth double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds against Oakland, while Kevin Ford missed getting his fourth straight double-double finishing with seven points and seven rebounds. The Golden Eagles have a pair of road games this week, at IUPUI Thursday and at Western Illinois Saturday
3. Oakland (10-9, 3-3) — The Golden Grizzlies responded to an embarrassing 20-point loss at Centenary by nearly ending Oral Roberts’ conference home game winning streak before falling in overtime. Oakland has dug itself in a bit of a hole in the league race and will have to run off some wins to get back in it. The Grizzlies can start at IPFW Saturday. Oakland is playing short-handed with just eight scholarship players and three (freshmen Blake Cushingbery, Drew Maynard and Matt Samuels) failed to score against Oral Roberts.
4. Western Illinois (6-10, 3-2) — The Leathernecks suffered their first two league losses last week, falling at SDSU and NDSU. David DuBois had 24 points against the Bison and 21 against the Jacks, while Josh Rivers had 16 against NDSU and 15 against SDSU. No other Western Illinois player scored in double figures in either game. Western Illinois hosts Centenary and Oral Roberts this week.
5. IUPUI (9-7, 2-3) — The Jaguars nearly upset North Dakota State on the road, but then got embarrassed at South Dakota State. IUPUI is experiencing the ups and downs of a young team. Freshman Alex Young entered the week averaging 15 points a game, but scored just three against NDSU, which was just the second time all season he failed to reach double figures. Young then came off the bench for the first time all season against SDSU and had 10 points in the 20-point loss.
6. Southern Utah (5-11, 3-2) — The Thunderbirds three league wins have all come by exactly 16 points. Davis Baker and Tyler Quinney each scored 24 points in the Thunderbirds win at UMKC. Baker (18 points per game this season, 6.7 last season) has nearly tripled his scoring averaging from last year and Quinney (15.3 this season, 6.4 last season) has more than doubled his. Quinney earned player of the week honors for his efforts.
7. South Dakota State (8-10, 3-3) — Figuring out what Jackrabbits team will show up on a nightly basis is like trying to predict the weather. SDSU responded from its 34-point loss at IPFW last week with two dominating home victories. The first over then first-place Western Illinois, 64-55, and then a 20-point win over IUPUI. Both wins were at home and the Jacks remain winless all-time in Summit League road games, but something tells me the Jacks end that streak this week.
8. IPFW (7-10, 2-4) — The Mastodons held on for a win at Centenary on Saturday, but didn’t have a field goal in the final three minutes. IPFW hit four free throws in the final 20 seconds to hold on for the win. Freshman Jeremy Mixon had a career-high 20 points in the win. The Mastodons scored just 46 points in their loss at Oral Roberts and had just 19 at halftime. IPFW hosts Oakland, which is swept last season, on Saturday.
9. UMKC (5-13, 1-4) — The Kangaroos have lost four-straight league games after topping IPFW in their conference opener. Senior Dane Brumagin had 20 of UMKC’s 50 points in its 16-point home loss to Southern Utah. No other player had more than seven. The Kangaroos have to start turning things around if they want to make the league tournament and can start with two home games this week.
10. Centenary (3-14, 1-4) — The Gents put on an offensive display in their first home game of the season, a 20-point win over Oakland. Nick Stallings scored 20 points in the first half, which Centenary dominated 45-24. Stallings finished with 26 points in the win. The Gents trailed IPFW, 63-49, with just over three minutes left and went on a 13-1 run to pull with two, 64-62, but the Mastodons were able to hold on.

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3 Comments:

Blogger The D Man said...

A good summary of where things are at right now. I think more teams will beat up on each other than years past.

I believe Southern Utah will prove to be better than Western Illinois. The T-Birds should have won that game on the road. And don't be surprised if the T-Birds give NDSU all they can handle on Thursday. Coach Reid may do more with less than any coach in the league.

January 12, 2009 at 3:19 PM 
Blogger Dave Pemberton said...

D-Man,

I'm really interested to see what happens in the Southern Utah-NDSU game Thursday. The Thunderbirds have been tough at home in the league this season and the Bison struggled on the road last season, they are 1-1 this year with their lone loss coming on a last second shot at Oakland. The game will show a lot about both teams.

As for Western Illinois, its 3-0 start in the league surprised me. We'll see how they respond this week after two straight losses.

January 14, 2009 at 12:25 PM 
Blogger The D Man said...

Agreed. This week will be big for several teams.

January 14, 2009 at 5:48 PM 

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