FINAL: 71-68 St. Louis
St. Louis pulled ahead late on a big Hasahn French dunk and five Javon Bess free throws. Richmond’s season ends in disappointment – they were up ten to open the half and up eight at the under 8 timeout. This one was there for the taking, but Richmond couldn’t get stops down the stretch.
Hasahn French was a beast, scoring 22 on 11-16 shooting and grabbing 12 rebounds, most of them offensive. They play Dayton tomorrow – I know I can’t wait for the third installment of the ArchBaron Cup.
64-64, 4:00 second half
Richmond’s defense has totally disappeared. Saint Louis is up to 1.42 points per possession this half, and they continues to dominate the boards. They have 13 offensive rebounds in the second, with five from French and four from Goodwin. Saint Louis ball out of the break. The Billikens have a small but loud contingent here in Brooklyn.
Richmond is scoring, but Gilyard and Golden are only a combined 2-9 this half.
59-52 Richmond, 7:26 second half
St. Louis has 7 offensive rebounds this half, but they’re 0-4 from three and 2-7 from the free throw line. They haven’t gotten closer than two points despite how it felt like they dominated about an eight-minute stretch.
Soulemayne Kouressi of Richmond got a bucket, drew the foul on Tramaine Isabell, then looked like he stepped on Isabell’s face accidentally as they went to the ground. Isabell was slow to get up. Kouressi goes to the line for one when we come back, and it feels like it might be slipping away for St. Louis here.
49-47 Richmond, 11:37 second half
St. Louis is still trapping, but it’s getting beaten on the backside. Richmond’s ball movement is quick enough to make them pay for the doubles.
Noah Yates from Richmond saved a ball directly to Hasahn French under his own basket for some reason – French took it up, scored and drew the foul. He shoots one coming out of the break. St. Louis looks a lot better when they’re playing with urgency. They’re stepping on the gas and Richmond has trouble when they can’t set their defense.
45-38 Richmond, 14:37 second half
Interesting moment as Tramaine Isabell got beat and had to foul Gustavson at the rim – he started yelling at DJ Foreman. They’re okay now but it looked tense for a moment.
St. Louis started trapping in the halfcourt. Richmond’s smaller, less athletic guards look a little flustered by it, but it hasn’t forced any turnovers. Ford’s probably going to empty his bag of tricks here – Richmond keeps getting good looks despite the traps and mixing zone and man. He’s running out of ideas.
40-30 Richmond, 19:00 second half
Richmond comes out of the half and continues to torture St. Louis with the high pick ‘n roll. Gustavson got an easy two to open the scoring, then Gilyard got to the rim for another layup off a fast break. Travis Ford thought a charge should have been called and was very close to getting a T – it would have been deserved.
Credit to the St. Louis fans for a GREAT Bronx cheer after Jordan Goodwin gets a foul called. Unfortunately, he missed both.
HALFTIME: 36-30 Richmond
Richmond used a 6-0 run at one point to take a 30-25 lead. Tramaine Isabell banked a 3 and got to the rim for a layup to tie it back up, but then Gilyard nailed an NBA three. Grant Golden was fouled as the halftime buzzer sounded and hit both free throws to put the Spiders up six.
Richmond is getting good shots and they look like they belong in this game. DJ Foreman played through foul trouble to get 15 minutes that half, but Hasahn French only got 10. He should see a lot more in the second, but it might be at the expense of Foreman. The Spiders shot 50% from the field, including 4-8 from three. St. Louis tried some zone but nothing looked particularly effective.
Golden has 16 and Gilyard has 8 for the Spiders. For the Billikens, Isabell has 10 and French has 8.
25-24 St Louis, 6:14 first half
Richmond’s ball movement gives St Louis fits. The Billikens have a lot of quality on-ball defenders but the team defense isn’t always there, if that makes sense. Grant Golden has taken 10 shots already, has 13 points, and will shoot to complete an and-one when we come out of the break. French and Foreman have both picked up two fouls trying to guard him.
For St. Louis, Hasahn French has 8 and three other Billikens have 5. The Billikens defense simply doesn’t work without one of French or Foreman on the floor, so I’m expecting they either play through it or Richmond goes on a run.
16-13 St. Louis, 10:39 first half
St. Louis has a tremendous advantage in the paint but has run a couple possessions where the ball never gets inside. They’re scoring 1.33 points per possession on 7/13 shooting because they’ve got three offensive rebounds. Goodwin and Isabell have each hit a 3 and have 5 apiece.
On defense they’ve run a 2-3 zone to no avail on the last couple possessions. Cayo shoots two when we come out of the break.
9-7 St Louis, 15:16 first half
Grant Golden opened the scoring with a 3. He shot 28% from deep this season. Richmond has gotten to the rim a couple times due to their ability to spread the floor – it’s tough for St. Louis to play French and DJ Foreman at the same time when the other team puts five shooters on the floor.
Hasahn French has gotten a couple good looks at the rim, including a sweet alley-oop, and Jordan Goodwin hit a three. They’ve got a big advantage inside.
Richmond-SLU preview
Our 6-11 matchup tonight is Richmond vs St Louis. Richmond won the only matchup these two played this season, going into Chaifetz and pulling out an 84-81 win. Jacob Gilyard, Grant Golden, and Nathan Cayo combined for 68. They’ll need an effort like that again tonight to stay close.
For St Louis, Tramaine Isabell has been hot over the last six games, averaging 23 points. That includes a 39 point game against Duquesne. If he can stay hot and St. Louis can knock down threes they are a major threat in this tournament.
FUN SUBPLOT: Is tonight Chris Mooney’s last game as the Spider’s coach?
FINAL: 92-86 St. Joe’s
Eric Williams had a Jordan-esque sequence where he made Charlie Brown fall down on a closeout, then took it to the rim for a reverse layup. Duquesne has the highlight plays but St. Joe’s has the victory. Charlie Brown, Jared Bynum, and Chris Clover were great, combining for 59 points. Not much defense in this one as Duquesne scored 1.16 points per possession and St. Joe’s scored 1.23.
St. Joe’s gets a rematch with Davidson tomorrow. The teams split the season series, with St. Joe’s winning at home by 1 and Davidson winning at home by 8. Should be fun.
Duquesne’s season is over, but they will be very, very good next year. Hats off to Keith Dambrot for getting a team of guys who had never played together before to be this solid in a single season.
82-74 St. Joe’s, 3:59 second half
Longpre to shoot free throws coming out of the break. Charlie Brown leads all scorers with 24. For all I’ve been talking about Hughes, Eric Williams Jr. leads Duquesne with 18 and Marcus Weathers is right behind him with 17. This game is not slowing down – we had leakout breakaway dunks on consecutive possessions.
Duquesne cut the lead to one but the Hawks had a 7-0 run to get us where we are – a Charlie Brown dunk, a Chris Clover layup, and a Taylor Funk 3 point play. It’s danger time for the Dukes.
I don’t mean to pick on Tavian Dunn-Martin (I love him), but he’s either a bad matchup or he doesn’t have it tonight, or both. 0-5 from the field and -20.
72-68 St Joe’s, 7:55 second half
Hughes picked up his fourth foul on a scary play where he might have landed on his head. He’s been sitting for a few minutes.
St. Joe’s had an 8-0 run to make it 69-61, but Duquesne came right back to tighten it up at 69-68. A Charlie Brown 3 makes it 72-68. He’s been awesome – 22 points on 9-13 from the field with 8 rebounds and 4 assists.
Tavian Dunn-Martin is really struggling tonight – 0-4 from the field, but he has 3 assists. He’s been running in the backcourt with Sincere Carry, so the Dukes are really small right now.
61-61, 11:47 second half
Jared Bynum is 8-8 from the free throw line. Somehow I haven’t mentioned Fresh Kimble yet, but he finally got on the board with a three. He’s 1-9 from the field.
Fun with plus/minus: Chris Clover is a -15, Taylor Funk is a +18. For the Dukes, Tavian Dunn-Martin is a -12 and Sincere Carry is a +7.
At the risk of oversimplifying things, this game is going to come down to how long Michael Hughes can stay on the court.
54-52 St. Joe’s, 15:48 second half
Duquesne tied this up at 52. Charlie Brown will go to the line to complete a three-point play coming out of the timeout.
Michael Hughes remained on the bench to start the half and the small lineup started. It was a disaster in the first, but with Carry at the point instead of Dunn-Martin it’s been effective. Hughes checked back in at around the 17 minute mark. Gotta think he gets normal minutes as long as he doesn’t pick up his 4th.
HALFTIME: 49-43 St. Joe’s
That half turned on Michael Hughes picking up his third foul. St Joe’s hit 6 of their last 8 and Duquesne didn’t have a field goal in the final 3:26.
Duquesne has no control over the paint with Michael Hughes on the bench. Duquesne played a smaller lineup with an Eric Williams-Marcus Weathers frontcourt, and it hasn’t been doing them any favors. An 11-1 run included six free throws from Jared Bynum, who keeps getting fouled at the rim, and two more layups. Taylor Funk has been hitting threes which helps open up the paint. Michael Hughes changes the complexion of this Duquesne team and they need him to play big minutes in the second half.
Michael Hughes is a +1 for Duquesne, while the captains of the small lineup, Tavian Dunn-Martin and Frankie Hughes, are -12 and -11. I think Dambrot kept Hughes in with two because he didn’t want to have to go small, and now we know why.
38-34 Duquesne, 3:39 first half
Michael Hughes’ is doing good things and bad things. He’s drawn two fouls on Longpre and just drew one on Lorenzo Edwards. He’s only got five points but the Hawks are having trouble with him down low. Now, he’s also got four turnovers and just picked up his third foul, so we won’t see him again this half.
St. Joe’s cut this lead to 35-34 before an Eric Williams three. The Hawks are 5-13 from three and have only turned the ball over twice. Jared Bynum comes to the line to shoot two out of the break – this last 3:39 will be crucial for the Hawks.
32-26 Duquesne, 7:20 first half
Anthony Longpre of St. Joe’s picked up his second earlier. Both were defending Michael Hughes in the post, both looked like they didn’t need to be called. Martelli kept him in for a couple possessions – they don’t have a lot of beef in the frontcourt with Pierfrancesco Oliva and Markell Lodge done for the season.
Random thought – Duquesne’s Gavin Bizeau might have a shot at most improved next year. He’s a legit 7-footer and he’s got some skill too.
This game is fun. Lots of pace, lots of shooting, lots of plays at the rim.
27-21 Duquesne, 11:09 first half
Lamar Norman Jr. is on fire and has thirteen with three 3s already. Marcus Weathers has multiple three-point plays. St. Joe’s looks smaller and less athletic, giving up 3 offensive rebounds.. Charlie Brown is keeping them in this with 12 points on 5-7 shooting, but they don’t look like they have many good matchups elsewhere. They did pick on #Hey10 favorite Tavian Dunn-Martin for a corner three.
Lamar Norman will cool off, but Charlie Brown likely will too.
16-8 Duquesne, 15:50 first half
Duquesne is getting to the rim at will. They’re 5-6 from 2 and 2-2 from 3. Lamar Norman Jr. hit both deep balls and leads all scorers with 8. Michael Hughes already has 2 points, 2 assists, a rebound and a block. Marcus Weathers will try to complete a three-point play coming out of the timeout.
St. Joe’s – Duquesne game preview
We’re here for 10 seed St Joe’s taking on 7 seed Duquesne in Barclay’s. These teams met once in the regular season, with Duquesne winning an 85-84 thriller in regulation after falling behind 27-14 early. That game was just one of Duquesne’s many double-digit comebacks this season.
Both teams look healthy, relatively speaking. Sincere Carry is starting and looks like a full go for Duquesne, and Fresh Kimble is starting for St. Joe’s.
FINAL – Mason 61, GW 57
Wild final two minutes – here’s what happened:
Mason stopped attempts at the rim on two consecutive GW possessions coming out of the last timeout, and Kier hit a mid-range jumper to give them a 57-54 lead. With a chance to extend the lead further, he missed a mid-range and Calixte had a good look at a tip-in but couldn’t finish it.
GW got the ball back with 32 seconds to play. Maceo Jack missed a deep but open three with about 15 seconds to go, and Otis Livingston got the rebound and went to the line for a 1 and 1. He MISSED the front end but GW didn’t get the rebound! Javon Greene came out of the traffic with the ball and hit both with 10 seconds to go to make it 59-54. After an out of bounds let GW inbound the ball under their own basket, Terry Nolan drilled a three from the corner with a lot of contact – looked like it could have been a four-point play.
With only two seconds left, Mason inbounded to Hartwell, who hit two to ice it.
Justin Kier is the MVP with 26 points on 10-14 shooting, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. In a day of uninspiring basketball he was unstoppable.
Mason plays St. Bonaventure tomorrow at 2:30.
55-54 Mason, 2:08 second half
HUGE three from Otis to give Mason a 55-54 lead. HUGE. He’s 4-16 from the field but 3-8 from 3. These next two minutes will give me a heart attack.
52-51 GW, 3:48 second half
Otis Livingston heads to the line for two when we come back from the timeout. Mason has looked really ugly today outside of Kier, who has 24 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. GW’s different zone looks continue to give them a lot of trouble – Mason is now 19-48 from the field and 5-18 from 3.
Mason fell down five, 52-47, before 4 quick points off a Kier alley-oop to AJ Wilson and two Kier free throws. He’s been an animal.
GW has a balanced attacked, with four guys between 9-12 points and a fifth with 7.
47-47, 7:59 second half
Ian Boyd checked in after the under 12 timeout, likely for defensive purposes. He’s been on Justin Williams, GW’s hot shooter.
GW tied this one on a corner 3 that somehow grazed the backboard and got redirected first. GW is 17-45 from the field and Mason is 18-45. GW only has 5 turnovers so far while Mason has 8 – both numbers are clean but Mason’s feel a lot worse somehow.
Maurice Joseph keeps mixing up defensive looks – I don’t have the best angle but it looks like we’ve seen a 3-2, a 1-2-2, and a 1-3-1 this half.
Justin Kier has 22 of Mason’s 47 points on 9-12 shooting. He’s been fantastic, everyone else has been forgettable.
42-42, 11:09 second half
Ref just yelled at the GW bench “We’re done!” No more magic words for them.
Otis Livingston is still struggling at 3-12 from the floor. Reuter has been hedging REALLY high on screens, and I’m not sure it’s helping. While he recovers his man is able to screen for the ballhandler and clear a path to the basket. It’s happened twice already.
Notable minutes for Mason: Goanar Mar has played 3, AJ Wilson 1, and Ian Boyd hasn’t checked in at all. Hartwell and Douglas-Stanley are getting the majority of the guard minutes off the bench.
35-35, 14:58 second half
Justin Williams opened the half with a 3 and one of two free throws to give GW a quick four-point lead. GW is packing the paint and sending hard doubles at the post. They’re also playing a goofy variation of a 3-2 zone that’s giving Mason all sorts of trouble in the halfcourt. Mason’s only bucket this half is a transition 3 from Hartwell, and Calixte added a free throw. Miller couldn’t finish a nice alley-oop from Kier – that’s been a recurring theme today. Getting good looks hasn’t been easy, and a lot of them haven’t gone down.
Jordan Miller has been switched onto Justin Williams and Hartwell is on Mazzulla – that’s a height mismatch to watch in GW’s favor.
HALFTIME: 31-31
It looked like Mason was going to start tightening the screws when they took a 29-21 lead, but GW clawed back with a 10-2 run to end the half.
Mason is playing well with the exception of four sloppy turnovers. Justin Kier is 7-8 from the field with 15 points – he’s finding it too easy to get to the rim and that mid-range jumper is working. He’s also started dishing when help defenders collapse, picking up a nice assist to Calixte and hitting Jordan Miller for an open look from 3 (he missed). Kier scored his 1,00th career point on an and-one with 5:34 to go. Congrats Justin!
The rest of the Mason players are 6-20 from the field. Otis has been getting to the rim but missed a couple bunnies he usually hits. Jordan Miller dominated the last matchup with GW but has been quiet today. He finally got on the board with a nice putback in traffic, but otherwise he’s been held in check with two points and four rebounds.
Javier Langarica, Maceo Jack, and Armel Potter all have 7 points for the Colonials.
20-17 Mason, 6:54 first half
GW is trying things on defense – they’ve mixed in a few zone looks and thrown some hard doubles at the post. A couple turnovers led to a 7-0 run to give them a 17-16 lead. Mason is 8-17 from the field and GW is 6-18.
Otis is 2-4 from 3 and 2-6 overall, but he missed a finish at the rim he usually hits. He and Kier have 16 of Mason’s 20 points.
Goanar Mar checked in for the first time after the second media timeout, replacing Jordan Miller. Miller then came back in for Goanar. They’ve still never been on the court at the same time, which tilts me greatly.
11-8 Mason, first media timeout
Greg Calixte replaced Jarred Reuter in the starting lineup again today. Justin Kier got right to the bucket on the first possession, but GW hit open threes on consecutive possessions to take a 6-2 lead. I have a feeling they’ll be hoisting a lot of those today.
It’s 11-8 Mason at the first media timeout. Kier is 3-3 from the field and Otis Livingston nailed a 3. GW is 3-8 from the field, and five of those shots are 3s. They’re going to have trouble driving into the paint while Calixte is in the game.
Mason-GW game preview
A couple quick notes before we kick off here:
- GW did not have Terry Nolan Jr. in the last game against Mason. He played against UMass yesterday and earned himself a Kenpom MVP with 20 points on 6-8 shooting. He was 5-12 with 15 points against Mason the first time around.
- This is GW’s second game in about 24 hours. They beat UMass in overtime, 68-64. They have a short bench, so tired legs might be a factor in the second half.
- GW’s DJ Williams hasn’t been himself recently, shooting 13-55 from the field over the last five games. He figures to need a big game today if GW is going to stay competitive.
- EDIT: I missed the news that GW won’t have DJ Williams today due to a head injury. They’ll need a big effort from two or more of Terry Nolan, Maceo Jack, and Justin Mazzulla.
- Goanar Mar is ready to return from a foot injury suffered earlier in the season. He played two minutes of garbage time against GW on Saturday, but figures to be in line for a bigger role tonight if matchups call for it.
We’ll keep you updated throughout the game here. Go Mason!
Intro
Hello everyone and welcome to GiantKiller’s A10 Tournament liveblog! We’re courtside on press row today until I get kicked out of John Feinstein’s seat.
Rhody just finished a thorough pounding of La Salle. Rhody looks like they might give VCU a game tomorrow – the pieces are finally starting to fit together and Fatts’ shot is going down again. As for La Salle, gotta be happy with what we’ve seen from Ashley Howard so far. They’re probably middle of the pack again next year, but they have a coach and they have a plan.
Mason and GW are warming up. Keep it here for updates throughout the next 3 games!
