Day 4 Recap: A Huge Day for Alexi Puts Him on Top

An absolutely huge day for Alexi–with 42 points more than anyone else.  Ina had a nice day, with 124, but Alexi’s 148 blew even her out of the water.  Doogan really struggled with only 64.  On the court, it was a very exciting day, where there was plenty of “madness” and, more importantly, set the stage for a crazy Saturday.  We will try to start shortening the recaps because there are so many, but it might be hard considering how great this month is…

DAY 4:
Alexi -148
Ina-124
Waters-100
Bry-96
Stri-96
J-80
Lynch-80
Doogan-64

OVERALL:
Alexi-252
Ina-244
Bry-214
Waters-196
Stri-178
J-176
Lynch-146
Doogan-142

MISSOURI VALLEY QUARTERFINALS:
“Arch Madness” clearly went mad on Friday night.  A quadruple-header showed the best that the Valley had to give.

• #1 Northern Iowa 73 – #9 Indiana State 69.  The final score was a lot closer than it should have been, as UNI struggled mightily from the line at the end, but they did hold on to move to the semis.  J, Doogan, and Waters all lost points on this one, as they all had Drake winning this game.  Ina, Stri, Alexi, and Lynch gain the most with this win because they have UNI in the finals.
• #2 Creighton 63 – #7 Wichita State 62.  Absolute MADNESS!  Creighton had a 20-point lead in the second half.  The Shockers then whittled it down, but could not get closer than 8 points until less than 1:30 to go.  But, they hit a couple threes and forced turnovers, when all of a sudden Toure Murry hit a three with :09 seconds left to give WSU a 62-61 lead.  Creighton drew up a play for the MVC player of the year, Booker Woodfox, and he drained an off-balance, one-footer from about 20 feet, at the buzzer.  Creighton wins and moves on.  Everyone got this right, but I’m sure no one thought it would be this close.
• #3 Illinois State 78 – #6 Evansville 68.  With the game tied midway through the second half, the Redbirds went on a 15-3 run and never looked back.  A game Evansville team just did not have the fire power.  Illinois St. will move on the semis to face Creighton on Saturday.  J and Doogan got this wrong, but neither lost a finalist.
• #4 Bradley 67 – #5 Southern Illinois 55.  S. Illinois was up 8 after the first 12 minutes, but the Braves scored 13 straight and then went on a 25-8 run, making this game a pretty convincing showing for the #4-seed.  Bradley will move on to face #1 N. Iowa in the semis on Saturday.  Bry and Lynch both got this wrong.  Bry even lost a finalist in SIU.  J and Waters keep their finalist pick of Bradley still alive.

COLONIAL OPENING ROUND:
Richmond was hopping all day on Friday, as the CAA played its opening round tournament games.  The biggest upset of the conference tournaments so far occurred, as well as a championship pick going down in this first round.  Alexi came up huge, sweeping the opening round in this 3x tournament.

• #5 Hofstra 79 – #12 UNC-Wilmington 66.  27 points and 9 assists for Charles Jenkins led the Pride into the quarterfinals, where ODU awaits them on Saturday.  Only Doogan missed this pick.
• #11 Towson 73 – #6 Drexel 62.  Towson scored the first 15 points of the game and led 39-14 at halftime.  Drexel mounted a comeback with a 48-point second half, but it wasn’t enough, as this month’s biggest upset goes to the Towson Tigers.  This was a huge upset pick for Alexi–the only one to pick this–netting him 36 points (2 plus the 10 upset points times 3 for the mid-major conference).  This game was the difference for him today.
• #7 James Madison 70 – #10 William & Mary 48.  After a relatively close first 15 minutes, JMU went on to rout W&M of the rest of the night, setting up their meeting with #2 George Mason on Saturday.  Only Lynch missed this pick.
• #8 Georgia State 54 – #9 Delaware 41.  In a very ugly game, Georgia St. came out on top with a more spirited second-half, ending the Blue Hens season at a disappointing 13-19.  This also was a big blow to Lynch, who picked Delaware to win this whole tournament.  J, Stri, and Waters also missed this pick, but they didn’t have UDel going any further.

WEST COAST CONFERENCE OPENING ROUND:
The WCC opened with their 2 opening round games on Friday night.  It was a relatively unremarkable night.

• #5 San Diego 62 – #8 Loyola Marymount 56.  Well, a bad season for LMU comes mercifully to a close Friday night, as they fall to San Diego by 6.  The Terreros were led by 18 points from Gyno Pomare and now move on to a quarterfinal showdown on Saturday night against #4 Santa Clara.  Only Doogan got this game wrong, and he, in fact, actually had LMU beating Santa Clara in the next round also, so this was a costly loss for Doogan.
• #6 Pepperdine 93 – #7 San Francisco 85.  The Waves got USF back for the loss last week, in the regular season finale, with an 8-point opening round win that puts Pepperdine in the quarters on Saturday against #3 Portland.  Bry, J, Doogan, and Stri all missed on the upset pick of USF.  Lynch is happy to see this result, as he has Pepperdine reaching the semis.

ATLANTIC SUN SEMIFINALS:
The semifinals in the A-Sun took place tonight, with the two winners getting to play on national TV on Saturday in the final.  It was all set up to be a pretty exciting double-header, as the top 4 teams all made it here, and the #4 seed, Lipscomb, was playing host and happened to be carrying a 9-game winning streak into competition.

• #1 Jacksonville 88 – #4 Lipscomb 72.  The #1 seed that nobody believes in, the Jacksonville Dolphins, took out the red-hot tournament hosts, Lipscomb, rather easily on Friday night.  The Dolphins are now one win away from a spot in the Big Dance.  Despite being the top-seed and getting a bye to the semis, only J, Alexi, and Waters had them reaching the final.  No one has them winning it.
• #2 E. Tennessee St. 88 – #3 Belmont 74.  In another game that was supposed to be exciting, the Buccanneers of ETSU knocked off the three-time defending conference champs rather easily–getting 30 from Courtney Pigram–and will face Jacksonville tomorrow for the right to go to the NCAA tournament.  Only Ina, J, and Lynch had the Bucs making the final.  J and Lynch both have them winning it.  In the race for the 2009 CTC A-Sun title, it will either be a 3-way tie between J, Lynch, and Ina (if Jacksonville wins) or a two-way tie between just J and Lynch (if ETSU wins).  Either way, J will retain at least a share of the A-Sun title, which he won outright last year.

OHIO VALLEY SEMIFINALS:
More conference semis were played on Friday to determine who gets to play on ESPN, with a shot at playing on CBS.  Both games had major CTC implications, including one big upset that, like the big CAA upset, only enabled Alexi to capitalize. 

• #4 Morehead State 63 – Tennessee-Martin 55.  Down 6 at halftime, TN-Martin turned to their future NBA’er, Lester Hudson, who led them roaring back, even taking a one-point lead in the second-half, but Morehead State was just too tough down the stretch and ended up pulling off a pretty big upset.  The big loser in this was Bry, who was the only one that took the top-seeds to win this tournament.  Stri, Doogan, J, and Ina also missed out, as they at least had the Skyhawks going to the finals.  The big winner, as was the case in the other big upset of the night, was Alexi.  He was the only one that took Morehead to reach the finals.
• #2 Austin Peay 67 – #3 Murray St. 50.  Everyone’s favorite OVC team, Murray St. just doesn’t show up for the semifinal match on Friday.  A wire-to-wire win for the Governors eliminates the title pick for 6 of the 8 CTC contestants.  In fact, no one will have their champion left standing when tomorrow’s championship tips off, so this conference is over.  We will still wait for the overall conference title to be awarded until tomorrow, out of principle.  Surprisingly, considering Austin Peay’s #2 seed, Bry was the only one that had the Governors reaching the final.

HORIZON QUARTERFINALS:
The Horizon tournament shifts to the campus of Butler University for two quarterfinal games on Friday and two semifinal games on Saturday.

• #3 Cleveland State 67 – #7 Illinois-Chicago 64.  UIC, coming off an upset win over Youngstown St. almost pulled off another here in the quarters.  But, a couple big shots from Norris Cole (26 points) sparked Cleveland State’s 13-3 run that erased a 9-point deficit late in the second half.  The 3-seed, Cleveland St. will move on the face #2 UW-Green Bay on Saturday in the semifinals.  Waters fell just short on what would have been a pretty big upset pick.  Stri also lost points here, as he had Youngstown St. winning this game.  The other 6 of us correctly took Cleveland St.
• #4 Wright State 80 – #5 UW-Milwaukee 70.  Though tied at half, Wright St. had a big second-half to end UW-Milwaukee’s season and prolong their own.  Wright St. now gets the pleasure of playing #1 Butler, in their gym, on Saturday night in the semifinals.  Alexi and Lynch missed out on this upset pick.  Waters lost points, as he had Valpo in this spot.  The other 5 of us had Wright St.

SoCON OPENING ROUND:
The Davidson Conference started without their namesake tonight, as Stephen & Co. were given the night off.  There was a pretty big upset, though, here in the SoCon, so all was not lost.  Waters came through here in the SoCon, sweeping this first round.

• #3S College of Charleston 69 – #6N UNC-Greensboro 56.  Bobby Cremins squad came through on the defensive end on Friday night, as CofC moved on the quarters, with a 13-point victory over a bad UNC-Greensboro team.  Charleston moves on the play #2N Western Carolina on Saturday in the quarters.  Only Lynch took UNC-Greensboro, and he actually took them to win two games in this tournament.  Stri was the most glad to see CofC win tonight, as he has them in the finals.
• #3N Samford 57 – #6S Furman 52.  The Paladins of Furman made it a game, pulling within 2 points with 1:39 left in the game, but they could not get over that hump and their season ends.  Samford will move on to face #2S The Citadel on Saturday in the quarters.  Bry, Doogan, and Lynch all missed on this upset pick.  No one has Samford going any further.
• #5N Elon 62 – #4S Wofford 55.  A pretty big upset here in the SoCon send Wofford packing.  Elon’s upset was fueled by Monty Sanders, who hit a 3-pointer to take the lead with 1:30 to go, and then collected two offensive rebounds off missed free throws (don’t get me started about giving up offensive rebound on FTs) in the closing seconds to ice it for Elon.  Waters and Lynch both came through with this big upset pick.  The Wofford loss cost some more than others.  Alexi and Doogan both had Wofford in the finals, while Bry and J had them in the semis.
• #4N Appalachian State 86 – #5S Georgia-Southern 75.  The Mountaineers outplayed their opponents on Friday night, earning them a date with #1S Davidson on Saturday.  Only Alexi went with GA-Southern in the upset.

MAAC OPENING ROUND:
Four bad teams tipped off the MAAC tournament on Friday night.  At least there was some excitement, with a couple of upsets, both of which Stri and Ina actually got.  Most of us were 0-2.  No one lost any future games with the upsets on Friday

• #10 Marist 43 – #7 Iona 40.  In what must have been an absolutely abysmal game, the Red Foxes of Marist pulled off the upset of #7 Iona.  They move on the quarters on Saturday, where they will face #2 Niagara.  Bry, Stri, Ina, and Waters picked up the 6 upset points by correctly picking the Red Foxes.
• #9 Canisius 74 – #8 Loyola (MD) 68.  Hey, if 4-14 Marist can win a postseason game, why can’t 4-14 Canisius?  Well, it turns out that they can, as the MAAC opens its tournament with two upsets.  Doogan, Ina, and Stri all picked this Canisius win, garnering the 2 extra upset points that goes along with it.

AMERICA EAST OPENING ROUND:
After reviewing the results of the opening round in the MAAC, it appears as if I was too quick to call this Am-East game the worst postseason game of the year.  Regardless, it probably wasn’t aesthetically pleasing basketball between 9-21 Maine and 7-25 Hartford.

• #9 Hartford 65 – #8 Maine 56.  Dan Liebovitz can flat-out coach.  The former Temple assistant under John Chaney led his Hawks to a 9-point opening round victory over Maine on Friday night.  Hartford gets to take on #1 Binghamton on Saturday in the quarters.  Doogan, Stri, Ina, and Waters all picked Hartford in the mild upset.