Last Night
#3 Trinity 74 #9 Ozarks 64
After a back-and-forth first half, the home team went into the break holding a slim 4 point lead, a gap that would be quickly closed by visiting Trinity early in the second half. The game remained close until Trinity pulled away with a few baskets in a row around the five minute mark. Ozarks couldn't make enough shots at the end to get back within striking distance and it ended up being a 10 point loss. Trinity and bobmeyer had three starters in double figure scoring and with the win they move up into the top three in the rankings. Ozarks and spike suffer their second loss of the season and slip down to #9.
Also considered: #10 Johnson and Wales pulled away from Newbury in the second half to win 82-67, #11 S. Vermont handled W. New England 60-45, #12 Palm Beach Atlantic made enough free throws at the end to secure a 74-71 win over Shenandoah, and back-in-the-rankings #18 Emory took out Southwestern 79-62.
Sim blowout watch: Albertus Magnus (no relation to Magnus ver Magnusson) had no trouble covering against #14 Rivier 53-70 and neither did California Santa Cruz vs Occidental 49-77.
GotN
#22 Rhodes (11-2)(reisel) at #18 Emory (11-2)(phalla)
After falling out of the rankings recently, defending champ Emory is back and on a three game winning streak to open conference play. Tonight the Eagles play host to the also-ranked Rhodes Lynx (Lynxes?). But first, a quick timeout for an interesting Wikipedia tidbit about Rhodes College: "With four national championships and eight national final round appearances, Rhodes's undergraduate mock trial program is one of the most prestigious in the country." That's right, it's a bunch of Lynxes who are absolute beasts in the trial court and on the basketball court. Emory and phalla are going to have their hands full tonight. reisel has never beaten phalla in ten tries but the visitors are favored by 1 in this one.
Also considered: #12 Palm Beach Atlantic at #15 Oglethorpe, #6 Wisconsin Superior at Concordia, #7 Piedmont at North Carolina Wesleyan, and #24 Penn St. Altoona at Elizabethtown
Sim blowout watch: Albertus Magnus goes for two in a row by getting 64 points at home to #10 Johnson and Wales and Wisconsin Lutheran is a 56 point road dog at #23 Northland.
And now, let's try a new addition to the daily writeup. I'm still trying to come up with a catchy name but it's basically another game of the night, but one that doesn't involve any ranked teams. It's an effort to spread the spotlight around a bit and feature some of the conferences that don't often pop up in the daily news. I'm open to suggestions on future games to feature as well as what to call this section. Right now I'm going with "It Took a Little Research but Here's Another Game of the Night". Like I said, it's a working title.
ITaLRbHAGotN
Wittenberg (9-5)(darnoc29099) at Denison (12-2)(dereksilcox)
We kick off this feature over in my neck of the woods with a cross-divisional battle in the North Coast. Both of these teams have lurked around in the others receiving votes section of the rankings and were the preseason favorites in their divisions. dereksilcox leads the head-to-head between these two by a slim 6-4 margin and he's a 1 point favorite tonight at home. Both teams have stumbled a little in the early going and need this one to keep pace for a division title.