Friday night have a number of blowouts on the schedule, including some early conference games. Among ranked teams, three games were decided by 40 or more points, and the closest one was Texas Tech’s 25-point handling of UT Rio Grand Valley. There was, however, one early conference game that was far from that. In fact, it ended with a little mini-game of “Can you top this?” between the two teams.
And the stage for the ending was set much earlier to boot.
UIC got a corner three-pointer by Travell Washington as time expired in overtime to take home a 75-72 win. Just seconds earlier, Wright State guard Cole Gentry hit a three-pointer to tie it at 72 with 7.7 seconds left. Gentry capped a game-high 24-point effort with that shot, with eight coming in overtime, and he handed out five assists as well in the losing effort.
As UIC took the ball out, with that much time left you figured a three-pointer was the last shot they should take. A two-point shot wins and a miss means double overtime. They didn’t appear to make much of an attempt to penetrate or otherwise work the ball inside, and the ball worked its way to Washington in the corner with time about to expire. The shot went down to give the Flames a win in the Horizon League opener for both.
Marcus Ottey, who had 23 points on 8-14 shooting including 3-4 from deep, would have seemed the obvious option. But Washington was wide open in the corner as the ball made its way around. His shot broke the fourth tie of the extra session.
Before the halfway point of the second half, a scuffle ensued that saw three Flames ejected for leaving the bench. The Flames led 45-41 at the time, but Wright State stayed within striking distance and had chances to win at the end of regulation. Wright State could be in a very different place if they could pull out close games, as the Raiders are now 6-8 overall, but 0-6 in games decided by seven points or less.
No Horizon League team distinguished itself from the pack greatly in non-conference play. Northern Kentucky, who also won their opener on Friday night, has a nice record, but not against the same kind of schedule that Wright State and UIC faced. That means this should be the start of another fun couple of months of play in the league, with no overwhelming favorite and a lot of good basketball games sure to come.
Side Dishes
TCU stayed in Oahu after the Diamond Head Classic with plans to play Hawaii Pacific in Honolulu. However, Emil Isovic of Hawaii Pacific collapsed on the bench during a game nearly two weeks ago and passed away on Wednesday. A cause of death has not been released, and TCU issued a statement saying it was not appropriate to play the game.
UConn has asked a judge to dismiss the complaint of a racial motivation filed by former coach Kevin Ollie. The school contends that the federal court does not have jurisdiction, that Ollie did not make a specific claim under federal law and that he never notified the school that he intended to bring the complaint at any time, even in a conference call between the sides a short time before the complaint was filed. This is all part of the two sides playing the game where the school hopes to avoid paying Ollie any part of the approximately $10 million that remained on his contract at the time of his firing and Ollie hoping to collect at least some of that money.
Two more games that were scheduled for Friday night were moved to Saturday afternoon due to travel conditions. South Dakota will visit North Dakota State for a game that will now tip at noon Central time (1 p.m. Eastern) on Saturday, and at the same time, Purdue Fort Wayne will visit North Dakota.
One game that was not postponed, unlike last season, is any Air Force athletic contest such as Friday night’s 72-60 win over UC Riverside or even last Thursday’s at Michigan. While the partial federal government shutdown continues, the Department of Defense – which includes Air Force, as well as Army and Navy – was fully funded for the entire fiscal year, which goes through the end of September 2019. That was not the case last January, when the federal government shutdown forced both the men’s and women’s team to each postpone a Mountain West Conference game.
Tonight’s Menu
Game action had come back slowly for a couple of days, but it’s back in full swing today with some early conference games mixed in between a number of non-conference games.
- A couple of good early games on tap are Davidson at North Carolina and BYU at Mississippi State (noon)
- The big rivalry game of the day is also a key one for Kentucky as they travel to Louisville (2 p.m.)
- Nevada travels to Salt Lake City to take on Utah, while a nice mid-major matchup east of there has Penn going to Toledo (both at 2 p.m.)
- In the final non-conference game for both, St. Bonaventure travels to Syracuse (2 p.m.)
- In Big East play, Xavier goes to DePaul (2 p.m.) and St. John’s heads across the Hudson to visit Seton Hall (8:30 p.m.)
- In a key non-conference game, Dayton hosts Sun Belt contender Georgia Southern (3:30 p.m.)
- NJIT has had good success on the road, but they get a tough test as they travel to Houston (4 p.m.)
- Florida could use a quality non-conference win, and they get just such an opportunity as they host Butler (4 p.m.)
- Southern Conference play is in full swing, with the best matchup among a busy slate being Furman’s visit to East Tennessee State (4 p.m.)
- They have already knocked off UCLA, and now Belmont travels to Purdue (4:30 p.m.)
- Conference USA play gets going, and among the interesting openers are Southern Miss traveling to Louisiana Tech (5 p.m.)
- A non-conference game of note with a Conference USA school is Western Kentucky hosting Wisconsin (5:30 p.m.)
- Radford broke a four-game losing streak in their last game, and now they have another big test as they travel to Maryland (6 p.m.)
- UCLA tries to get back on track as they host Atlantic Sun contender Liberty (6 p.m.)
- In a local rivalry game, Canisius hosts Buffalo as the Bulls try to bounce back from their first loss of the season (7 p.m.)
- Seattle is off and running at 11-3, and they head south to visit Cal (8 p.m.)
- A nice game out west is UC Santa Barbara hosting San Francisco (10 p.m.)
- A rivalry game at a late hour is Idaho State visiting Idaho (10 p.m.)
