Hello Mason Nation and A10 fans, we’re going to be keeping tabs on the A10 Tournament right here in this post. Check back for game insights, commentary, analysis, and dumb jokes from each and every game in the entire tournament.
Note on formatting: I’m going to float updates to the top so you don’t have to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the latest. We’ll see if it works.
Day 1 Game 2: Fordham vs George Washington
Entry seven: Final: GW 78, Fordham 72. Maurice Joseph rides the big lineup down the stretch and GW pulls away despite missing the front end of two one-and-ones. GW needed an 8-13 performance from Jair Bolden, including 4-8 from three, and a 7-8 night from Bo Zeigler to stay afloat here. They also got a little lucky that Prokop Slanina missed some time after the half and Perris Hicks went down. GW has to play a lot better if they’re going to beat Saint Louis tomorrow.
Entry six: I’ve never been the biggest Chartouny fan but he is slicing and dicing GW right now. He had a fantastic take on Yuta Watanabe to get him to the rim, then utilized multiple fakes to create room for an easy finish. On the next possession, Yuta and Patrick Steeves chased him off a ball screen and he whipped a pass to the big that Steeves vacated, but Pekarek couldn’t finish. Fordham is basically working the ball to the one between Chartouny or Slanina that isn’t being guarded by Yuta. They’re getting a ton of open looks from three when the help comes. Chartouny also missed a heat-check three and had a shot at the rim blocked by Yuta as Fordham came up empty in their last couple possessions.
Bo Zeigler is going bananas for GW right now. He’s got 15, all in the second half, as GW’s big lineup of Toro-Zeigler-Yuta stakes GW to a 71-68 lead at the U4. GW is getting whatever they want at the rim.
Entry five: GW moved Yuta Watanabe onto Prokop Slanina for a few possessions, but Chartouny scored (if you’re new to the A10, no I didn’t make those names up). GW went back to zone and Chartouny is still cooking them. He looks ready to take this game over. On GW’s side, they’re making up for a lackluster game from Watanabe with big contributions from Jair Bolden (18 points) and Bo Zeigler (7 points, all in the second half). Yuta only has 6 points, 1 block, and doesn’t have a rebound, assist, or steal. GW needs more out of him or they could well lose this one.
Entry four: Scary scene as Perris Hicks of Fordham went down hard and could be heard yelling in pain. It looked like he hurt his elbow or wrist pretty badly and won’t come back. Slanina came back in shortly after, but Fordham is still deeper into their bench than they’d like to be. Chartouny is playing really well and already has 7 points in the second half. GW leads 55-53 with 11:24 left, but Fordham is still firing away from 3 and could steal this one.
Entry three: GW came storming back to take a 39-38 lead into halftime. Prokop Slanina was on the bench for a lot of it and came back into the game in the final minute with a gigantic bandage on his chin. That’s bad news for Fordham since he’s got 15 of their 38 points.
GW switched to zone about halfway through the first half and Fordham went cold from three. Fordham is now 4-16 from deep and 14-30 overall. They’re still chucking, as evidenced by one 28-footer that Chartouny attempted.
Both teams have thin benches – GW usually goes about 8 deep and Fordham only 7. We should have our second straight fun one here.
Entry two: Fordham is running and gunning and Prokop Slanina is having his way with Arnoldo Toro in the post. Joseph Chartouny also coming up big for Fordham with 5 assists and 2 steals. GW’s jumpers are falling but they’re having trouble getting anything going in the paint, and they have eight turnovers already. They were down 12 but now trail 36-30.
Entry one: Fordham’s gameplan looks like it’s to shoot way more threes than usual. 9 of their 12 field goal attempts and 3 of 4 field goals are from deep. Meanwhile, Justin Mazzulla from GW already has three assists, but Yuta Watanabe has one missed shot, one turnover, and nothing else in the box score. It’s 17-16 Fordham at the U12 in the last game of the pillow-fight round.
Day 1 Game 1: Massachusetts vs La Salle
Entry five: Final: UMass 69, La Salle 67. UMass Coach Matt McCall notes in the postgame presser that they had a much different team the first two times they played Mason. In the first game they still had Rashaan Holloway and Chris Baldwin, and in the second game they didn’t have Luwane Pipkins. He doesn’t think those games will have an impact on tomorrow’s tilt, but he did note that they did a good job of getting the ball out of Otis Livingston’s hands the second time around, including on the play where Goanar Mar was fouled shooting a three and made all three free-throws tos end the game to overtime. Look for denying Otis Livingston the ball to be a point of emphasis for UMass tomorrow.
By the way, here’s the look that Pookie Powell got to win it:
Entry four: Brutal sequence for La Salle as Tony Washington missed a game-tying dunk, got his own rebound, got fouled, and only hit one of two free throws. The teams traded buckets to make it 68-67 UMass before UMass got a shot-clock violation with 14 seconds left in the game. They inbounded the ball with one second left on the shot clock; on the first go round, they ran Unique McClean to the rim off a curl screen but BJ Johnson was prepared for it and cut it off. UMass coach Matt McCall loves running lobs out of out-of-bounds plays and UMass was ready.
Pookie Powell missed a shot in the paint to take the lead, UMass got the rebound, and Luwane Pipkins hit 1 of 2 free throws. Pookie Powell took the inbounds pass with four seconds left, sped up the court and got a REALLY good look from three that didn’t go down. UMass wins 69-67 and will play Mason tomorrow at 2:30pm.
Entry three: Luwane Pipkins still hasn’t checked back in for UMass, who leads 63-62. CJ Anderson and Carl Pierre helped put them out to a 7 point lead at 52-45, but they gave it all back. Tony Washington, BJ Johnson, and Pookie Powell are scoring all the points for La Salle in the second half. Looks like we’re headed toward a strong finish. Pipkins will be checking in out of the U4 timeout with 3:17 left.
Entry two: Quick second half update – Luwane Pipkins picked up his 4th but UMass is still battling, down one and going to the line. As a Mason fan I don’t know who I would rather face next. La Salle puts a lot of talent on the floor but is prone to long lapses of really bad basketball. They’re beatable, but BJ Johnson and Tony Washington would be real problems. UMass isn’t the most talented team, and they only field six scholarship players, but they ugly up the game and fight like hell. They’re also fine with taking a bunch of threes so they’ll be competitive with most teams if they get hot.
Entry one: The first half was a rockfight as UMass shot 10-30 and La Salle shot 7-24. UMass takes a 30-28 lead into half but they’ve got a couple reasons to be nervous:
- Luwane Pipkins was heating up but he picked up 3 first half fouls. He’s the sun, moon, and stars of this UMass team.
- La Salle was 0-9 from three. BJ Johnson and Pookie Powell combined to shoot 3-13 from the floor.
If La Salle gets anything from their two best players UMass will be in trouble. Some other quick thoughts:
- BJ Johnson picked up two first half fouls and Coach Giannini did an unusual offense-defense substitution with him for the rest of the half. Can’t recall seeing that done before.
- La Salle big man Tony Washington was 3-3 from the floor and it looks like UMass is going to have trouble handling him.
Second half coming up!
