1/9/09
Rio Grande Valley State (Clay Moser) (7-12) vs. Albuquerque
The Albuquerque Thunderbirds beat the Vipers 97-95 in a close game on Friday night. The Vipers were led by Alpha Bangura who scored 29 points and had 8 rebounds in the game. Trent Stickland had 19 points and 5 rebounds for the Vipers.
1/10/09
#15 Marquette (Scott Monarch) vs. #22 WVU
For a half, the matchup between Marquette (No. 15 ESPN/USA Today, No. 18 AP) and West Virginia (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 25 AP) looked more like rugby than basketball. At one point, a pair of Golden Eagles players ended up on the floor tangled in a scrum with a couple of Mountaineers as 3-on-3 play continued down the court without a whistle. But after going into halftime bruised, beaten up and trailing by two, the Golden Eagles’ high-octane offense recovered to take control down the stretch for a 75-53 victory over the Mountaineers on Saturday. Jerel McNeal led Marquette with 26 points. Dominic James added 17 points and Wesley Matthews scored all 13 of his points in the second half for the Golden Eagles (15-2, 4-0 Big East).
Louisiana-Lafayette (Robert Lee) (6-9) vs. Troy
Randell Daigle hit five of Louisiana-Lafayette’s school-record tying 15 3-pointers to lead the Ragin’ Cajuns to an 83-81 victory over Troy on Saturday night. It was the first road victory of the season for Louisiana-Lafayette (6-9, 3-2 Sun Belt Conference). Daigle, who had 17 points, hit Louisiana-Lafayette’s final 3-pointer to give the Ragin’ Cajuns a 74-69 lead with 4:33 remaining in the game. Travis Bureau, who scored 21 points, was fouled on a 3-point attempt and hit three free throws for a 77-71 advantage with 3:14 left. Troy (7-10, 2-3) cut the lead to 79-78 but the Louisiana-Lafayette sealed the game at the line.
SE Missouri State (Rodney Hamilton) (3-13) vs. Eastern Illinois
Eastern Illinois got an 83-63 win over Southeast Missouri on Saturday. Kenard Moore led Southeast Missouri (3-13, 0-5) with 20 points, Jaycen Herring had 14 and Calvin Williams added 10. Eastern Illinois outrebounded the Redhawks 41-29 and had a 19-8 advantage in second-chance points. The Panthers also had a 30-9 edge in points off the bench. Eastern Illinois led 36-28 at halftime and used a 29-13 run in the second half to open a 22-point lead, the largest of the game. Southeast Missouri never led.
Arkansas State (Elwyn McRoy) (11-5) vs. North Texas
North Texas beat Arkansas State 86-83 in triple overtime on Saturday night. North Texas guard Josh White, who earlier forced a second OT on a layup with 1 second remaining, sank two free throws with 10 seconds left in the final overtime to close out the victory.
It was the longest game in Denton for North Texas (9-7, 2-3 Sun Belt) since 1980.
Donald Boone led Arkansas State (11-5, 3-2) with 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including a game-tying jumper late in regulation to force overtime. Ifeanyi Koggu added 13 points for the Red Wolves.
UIC (Tracy Dildy) (8-7) vs. Cleveland State
Cleveland State grabbed an early lead and cruised to a 79-69 win over Illinois-Chicago Saturday night. Cleveland State (13-5, 4-2 Horizon League) rattled off 14 straight points early in the first half to take the lead for good. The Vikings led by double digits for most of the game, although Illinois-Chicago (8-7, 1-4) closed to within six in the final minute on Tori Boyd’s 3-pointer. Boyd scored 15 points, Jelani Poston added 14, Jeremy Buttell had 12 and Spencer Stewart 10 for Illinois-Chicago.
NCCU (Henry Dickerson) (0-18) vs. Chicago State
Chicago State got a 115-96 win over North Carolina Central on Saturday night. Jamar Briscoe led the Eagles (0-18) with 32 points, Bryan Ayala added 20 and Joshua Worthy had 15. Ayala was 4-for-8 on 3s for the Eagles, who hit 11 of 26 from long range. The teams were close in almost every category, but Chicago State made the difference by scoring 27 points off of turnovers compared to 10 for N.C. Central.
Rio Grande Valley Vipers (Clay Moser) (7-13) vs. Albuquerque
The Thunderbirds got their second win in as many days over the Vipers. The Vipers were again led by Trent Strickland and Alpha Bangura who had 22 and 21 points, respectively.
