Yesterday’s Action
Pennsylvania traveled to Rhode Island ready to play Friday night and were neck and neck with Brown all evening. While Brown dominated the glass, out-rebounding Penn 39-23, a swarming Quakers’ defense forced 25 turnovers to keep them in the game. In the end, the Quakers clamped down on defense down the stretch, not allowing Brown to score in the last two minutes of the game, turning a 6-point deficit into a 66-64 victory.
Miles Cartwright had another top-notch performance against Brown, as he was the Quakers’ offense in the evening, finishing with a game-high 25 points on 8-12 shooting, including a perfect 4-4 from downtown. Also contributing was sophomore Patrick Lucas-Perry, who came off the bench to tie a career-high with 15 points. The win moved the Quakers back to .500 in Ivy League play with two games remaining this season.
Today’s Action
1:30 PM: La Salle (21-7, 11-4 A-10) @ Saint Louis (23-6, 12-3 A-10) – NBC Sports Network
The Explorers’ regular season comes to end in a marquee match-up with A-10 title implications. Believe it or not, La Salle will earn the A-10 regular season title with a win and some help from their Philadelphia brethren Temple in defeating VCU. The Explorers have done an outstanding job putting themselves in this position after starting off the conference schedule 4-3. La Salle can drop no lower than the 4th seed with a loss so a bye to the quarterfinal round of the A-10 tournament is secured regardless of this outcome. Of course, Saint Louis earns the top seed with a win or a loss by VCU so they will come in with equal motivation.
The Billikens enter play following an overtime loss to Xavier Wednesday night, but had an 11-game winning streak prior to that game. Saint Louis sports a top 25 defense this season and feature a balanced offensive attack with 5 players averaging at least 9.7 points per game. Dwayne Evans does the bulk of the work inside for the Billikens, leading the team with 12.8 points on 51.2% shooting and 7.2 rebounds. They’re not a team with any significant weaknesses and with the home court advantage in this match-up, I don’t expect La Salle to come out on top without one of their best efforts of the season.
3:30 PM: Drexel (13-17, 9-9 CAA) @ George Mason (17-13, 10-8 CAA) [CAA quarterfinal game in Richmond, VA]
Following a disappoint 2012-13 campaign, the Drexel Dragons’ last chance at redemption begins today in the CAA conference tournament. They’ll be facing George Mason, a team with whom they split the regular season series, with both teams winning on the road. Unsurprisingly, leading scorer Damion Lee led the Dragons in both games, dropping a game-high 29 points in the victory at Fairfax, and a team-high 16 points in defeat two weeks later.
The Patriots are led by Junior Sherrod Wright, who leads the team at 16.5 ppg with very respectable shooting numbers of 46.2% from the field and 35.8% from behind the arc. The Dragons have done a good job containing him this season, as he’s averaged only 13 points across the teams’ two meetings. There’s nothing particularly intimidating about this Patriots bunch; if Drexel continues to contain Wright and plays up to their capabilities, they should keep their Cinderella hopes going another day.
7:00 PM: Pennsylvania (9-20, 6-6 Ivy) @ Yale (13-17, 7-6 Ivy)
Riding a modest two-game winning streak, the Quakers travel to New Haven to take on the Bulldogs. While one of the biggest questions on the evening remains whether the Gilmore clan will be in attendance, both teams are looking to finish the regular season on a high note after falling behind the rest of the Ivy League pack early on.
Yale won the team’s first meeting in early February 68-59 by controlling the boards (a 41-31 advantage), and consistently getting to the free throw line, making twice as many shots from the charity stripe as the Quakers (24-31 as compared to 12-20). The Bulldogs toppled then-conference leader Princeton last evening and will certainly be playing with confidence in what is their last game of the season against a Penn team they’ve previously defeated. With Penn facing those same Tigers Tuesday night, winning this game is their best bet to finishing their season at least .500 in conference play.
7:00 PM: Saint Joseph’s (17-11, 8-7 A-10) @ Charlotte (19-10, 7-8 A-10)
Having clinched a spot in the A-10 tournament, the Hawks look to finish the regular season strong against a struggling Charlotte squad looking to secure its spot in the A-10 tournament field as well. The 49ers come into play having needed overtime to best last-place Duquesne in order to break a 4-game losing streak. If you think they were lucky to win that one, you might be right as Charlotte rates as the luckiest team in college basketball this season. The 49ers play at a much faster rate than St. Joe’s (at about 5 extra possessions per game than the Hawks) and shoot the ball fairly well at 44.6%. The Hawks will look to slow the game down and control the tempo in this contest. Given the recent play of both squads, I like the Hawks to emerge victorious.
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