A night after things got a little more interesting in the Ohio Valley Conference, the MAAC saw the same thing on a very light night of action.
Rider traveled up to Iona to take on the Gaels, who entered the night a game and a half behind them in conference play. Canisius won a night earlier to go to 5-2 and has won three striaght, while Rider entered the night as the only undefeated team at 5-0 and fresh off a non-conference schedule that challenged them ahead of this.
Iona got going early, running out to leads of 11-2 and 17-5 and being up by as many as 16 and by a dozen at halftime. Rider would run off ten straight early in the second half to get within two, then they took the lead later on as Jordan Allen got going. E.J. Crawford would then give Iona the lead for good with consecutive baskets, and they would stretch it back up as high as nine before hanging on.
Iona shot 48 percent from the field and held Rider to a little over 37 percent, so they did it at both ends. The Gaels are known for being a good offensive team with the way Tim Cluess coaches them, and he has the program to where the names and faces may change but the game (and often the outcome) remains the same. They average 81 points per game on over 46 percent shooting.
The MAAC is known as an intensely competitive conference, and this season is not a departure from that. Teams in this conference routinely play challenging non-conference slates, so they come in well-prepared to battle one another. Seven teams have between one and three losses right now, so this is already a tight race and can get even tighter.
Friday night was Round One between these two teams, with the rematch slated for the final regular season game for each team on March 1. For that game to have at least as much on the line as Friday night’s did, both teams will have to navigate a gauntlet the rest of the way as they aren’t running away from others.
Side Dishes
Indiana is not in a good place right now, as the Hoosiers were routed by Michigan on Friday night 69-46, their sixth straight loss. While the Hoosiers haven’t lost to a bunch of bad teams – two losses in this stretch have come against the Wolverines and the worst loss was at Northwestern – if they are going to be an NCAA Tournament team, they have to win some of these games. And if you haven’t noticed, the Big Ten is pretty good this year, so they will have opportunities, but it’s also a gauntlet.
Creighton may be getting back on track as they won their second straight, this one a 75-61 win over Butler. The Bluejays are now 3-4 in Big East play, but still need a good resume win or two as the Bulldogs are 3-5 and have a 12-9 mark overall, which means they look very much like a bubble team as well.
In other action, Buffalo bounced back from their loss at Northern Illinois to win at Kent State 88-79, while Quinnipiac went to Marist and handled the Red Foxes 92-78 in the other MAAC game of the night and Yale swept Brown with a 79-71 win in New Haven to join Princeton at 2-0 in the Ivy League ahead of the commencement of the FridaySaturday weekends that define Ivy League play.
Duke could get a nice boost when they take on Georgia Tech on Saturday, as Tre Jones is now considered probably for that game. Jones has missed the past two games after he suffered an AC join separation in their loss to Syracuse, and they will surely be happy to see him back in action.
The Missouri Valley Conference reprimanded Illinois State head coach Dan Muller on Friday after prior comments about officiating. Asked about a technical foul he was given after Wednesday night’s loss at Bradley, Muller said, “I didn’t deserve it at all. The most ridiculous call I’ve ever seen. I didn’t say one word. I waved my hand maybe twice and he T’s me up from 50 feet away. Completely undeserved and unprofessional. I could not believe it.”
Tonight’s Menu
A very busy day is highlighted by the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
- The SEC/Big 12 Challenge accounts for ten games on the slate, and gets going right away with Iowa State at Ole Miss, Florida at TCU and Alabama at Baylor all tipping at noon. Then Georgia hosts Texas, South Carolina travels to Oklahoma State and Texas A&M hosts Kansas State at 2 p.m. At 4 p.m., Tennessee hosts West Virginia and Oklahoma hosts Vanderbilt, and Kentucky hosts Kansas while Texas Tech hosts Arkansas with 6 p.m. tips.
- ACC play is highlighted by Notre Dame hosting Virginia (1 p.m.), Clemson at NC State and Pittsburgh at Louisville (2 p.m.) and Virginia Tech hosting Syracuse (8 p.m.)
- In America East, first place is on the line as Stony Brook hosts Vermont (7 p.m.)
- A couple of big games in the Atlantic 10 are on tap at the same time as Davidson visits Saint Louis and Duquesne hosts VCU (2 p.m.)
- The lone Big East game on tap has Xavier hosting Marquette (2 p.m.)
- The Big Sky has an important matchup as Weber State travels to Montana, with the Grizzlies just a game back (9 p.m.)
- In the Big Ten, Ohio State tries to get back on track at Nebraska (noon), then Wisconsin hosts Northwestern (2:15 p.m.)
- Pac-12 games of note are Washington at Oregon State (4 p.m.), Arizona State at USC (8 p.m.) and Arizona at UCLA (10 p.m.)
- Two SEC games are also on tap, with Missouri hosting LSU (6 p.m.) and Mississippi State hosting Auburn (8:30 p.m.)
- There’s an early showdown on tap between the co-leaders in the Summit League as Omaha travels to South Dakota State (5:15 p.m.)
- The Sun Belt slate includes a battle of two 5-2 teams as UT Arlington visits Georgia State (1 p.m.)
