By Sean Kennedy
Yesterday’s Action
Louisville 82, Temple 58
It seemed only fitting that Temple’s matchup with Rick Pitino, 15-second master of love himself, was postponed until Valentine’s Day. The Owls probably wish the game could have been postponed even longer, maybe until next season when they’ll get some reinforcements. Instead, Temple faced the defending national champions who put through throat on the Owls right from the opening tip. Lousiville shot 63% from the field with 22 points in the paint in the first half, breaking open a huge lead that Temple could never come back from.
Montrezl Harrell led that onslaught down low for the Cardinals, recording 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Russ Smith was also able to get his shot at will, finishing with 15 points on 7-10 shooting in just 26 minutes. With the loss, the Owls slipped into a tie for last-place in the conference with UCF. Things don’t look much brighter on the horizon as Temple’s next 4 games are against ranked opponents, starting with an SMU team Sunday that already blew out the Owls a week and a half ago.
Yale 69, Pennsylvania 54
With an opportunity to propel themselves into the upper tier of the Ivy League, Penn stuck around for half a game against the first-place Bulldogs, before folding in the second half. With the Quakers down three at the half, Yale pulled away with an 18-4 run, sending Penn back to .500 in conference play. Penn lost the game both on the glass and through their inability to take care of the ball. The Quakers turned the ball over 20 times, and were out-rebounded 41-30.
Justin Sears was a monster on the interior on both ends of the floor, finishing with 25 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, and 4 blocks. Tony Hicks led the Quakers in scoring with 19 points but shot just 5-15 from the floor. Penn hit the road from Connecticut to Rhode Island for a game tonight against Brown; while they’re now likely out of the hunt for the Ivy title and a postseason berth, continuing to have a winning season in conference play would be a worthy goal for a team that struggled so much to begin the year.
Today’s Action
11:00 AM: Saint Joseph’s (16-7, 6-3 A-10) @ La Salle (12-11, 4-5 A-10) – ESPNU
Before many people will have even woken up from their nightly Valentine’s Day activities, the Hawks and Explorers hit the hardwood for a morning matinee. Now, this is not the game that counts toward the Big 5 standings (the meeting on Match 9 carries that distinction), although that’s largely irrelevant with Villanova already having locked up this year’s Big 5 title with a perfect 4-0 record. However, there’s still plenty on the line for this battle.
St. Joes find themselves among the First Four Out on current bracketology projections. The Hawks emerged from their difficult 3-game stretch relatively triumphant, having defeated UMass and VCU, while losing to Saint Louis. They can’t afford to lose any games the rest of the way to those opponents perceived as weaker, which, unfortunately for Explorers fans, includes La Salle. Having lost 5 of their past 6 games, the Explorers have extinguished any hope of an at-large tournament bid, and even a postseason berth is beginning to be placed on jeopardy. The two teams only had one meeting last year, with St. Joe’s winning by double digits, and if recent play is any indication, expect a similar result today.
6:00 PM: Pennsylvania (6-14, 3-3 Ivy) @ Brown (12-9, 4-3 Ivy)
Following their loss to Yale, the Quakers try to bounce back against a Bears team just ahead of them in the Ivy League standings. In a loss to Princeton last night, Brown pulled within one in the final minute, before the Tigers pulled away in the final seconds. Penn swept the season series against the Bears last season, including pulling out a 2-point victory in Rhode Island.
On this year’s Brown squad, senior Sean McGonagill leads the Bears at 18 points per game, shooting 42% from three. However, the real strength of the Bears is on the glass, as Brown is top-10 in the nation in rebounding. The tenacious attack on the boards is led by Rafael Maia, a junior from Brazil, averaging 10 points and 8.5 rebounds. We just saw Penn struggle in that facet of the game against Yale, and have been below-average in that area all season; if they don’t do a better job on the glass, the Quakers won’t have a repeat of last year’s season sweep over the Bears.
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