Down to five undefeated teams and also five teams with the unwanted kind of perfect record. One of the undefeated teams is a sim while two of the later category are sims.
Last Night
#22 Rivier 67 #3 Johnson and Wales 69
A hard fought game throughout, this one came down to the last thirty-four seconds with the game tied at 67. Johnson and Wales held the ball for a last shot and got off a floater from the right side that rattled out but J-Dub's Michael Juergens set off celebrations in the home crowd by tipping the ball back in for a 2 point lead with three seconds left. The halfcourt prayer from Rivier went unanswered and the Spider Monkeys escaped with their perfect conference record intact. J-Dub and spasticity kept their one game lead in the standings with the win while Rivier and jack_duck are now in a three-way tie for first in their division.
Also considered: #1 Trinity bounced back from their first loss with a clutch road victory over Dallas 69-61, Emmanuel scored the home upset over #6 S. Vermont 65-59, #16 Stillman pulled away from Rhodes 69-56, #19 Millsaps cruised past Southwestern 86-66, and #21 John Carroll handled Muskingum 76-53.
Sim blowout watch: Nazareth gave #10 Vassar a scare by easily covering 72-83 while Mary Hardin-Baylor not only lost any hope of Hardin-superiority but they became this season's first official blowout victim by getting crushed by #8 Hardin-Simmons 52-126. No Hardin-love lost there.
ITaLRbHAGotN: Wisconsin La Crosse took care of business and coasted past simmed Wisconsin Oshkosh 75-51 to stake the early claim on the division lead.
GotN
#7 Wooster (15-2)(pseudochamp) at Allegheny (15-2)(ezekialstarr)
Time for a big cross-divisional battle in the North Coast conference as defending champs Wooster (haven't typed that in a while) pay a visit to east division co-leading Allegheny. Wooster is a game behind first place in their division so they need to keep notching wins to keep pace while Allegheny hasn't played their two games against their co-leaders yet so a win here puts them in good position for those later games. pseudo has won all the meetings between these two and his team is favored by 4 on the road.
Also considered: #1 Trinity at #16 Stillman, #18 Ozarks at #5 Emory, #6 S. Vermont at W. New England, Ohio Wesleyan at #11 Wittenberg, Virginia Wesleyan at #15 Lynchburg, Hendrix at #19 Millsaps, and Suffolk at #22 Rivier
Sim blowout watch: Winless Methodist is getting a massive 75 points as they host #14 Piedmont.
ITaLRbHAGotN
#23 Transylvania (15-3)(tooslim) at Manchester (9-8)(goldenboy00)
We drop in on the Heartland conference for a big cross-divisional battle. Transylvania is off to a 7-1 start in conference play and go on the road to visit division co-leaders 5-2 Manchester. The visitors are looking to defend their national ranking and standings lead while home-team Manchester needs a win to stay atop their division. It's the Pioneers at the Spartans in a... wait, Pioneers? With a name like Transylvania University? No vampires (the smart but emotionally aloof kind or otherwise)? I feel like that's a real waste of a mascot naming opportunity. Anyway, the not-at-all-undead Pioneers are favored by 10. Jeez, they're not even favored by 6-5000. So lame.
2/7/2014 3:23 PM (edited)