By Paul Casey Gotham
Harper and Galloway earn weekly honors
Justin Harper led the Richmond Spiders to a pair of conference triumphs and earned himself conference Player-of-the-Week honors. The senior averaged 21 points and 9 rebounds as the Spiders opened with a 69-65 victory over George Washington and finished the week beating St. Louis 64-52. Harper scored 22 against the Billikens on 7-of-9 shooting and finished the week hitting 66.7 percent (14-of-21) from the field.
St. Joseph’s Langston Galloway tied a career high in the Hawks only outing of the week to garner Rookie of the Week. Galloway scored 25 points on 7-13 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 from behind the arc. The freshman guard grabbed four rebounds, handed out three assists and made two steals all while not committing a turnover as the Hawks defeated Fordham 76-70. This is the third time Galloway has earned the award.
McConnell is Duquesne’s Mr. Efficient
Duquesne’s T.J. McConnell knows how to take care of the ball.The Dukes rank number one in the country with 18.7 assists per game and have maintained an assist to turnover ratio at 1.41 – good for 13th in the land. At the focus of all this execution is McConnell. The freshman guard has a 2.55 assist to turnover ratio. At the same time, McConnell creates more possessions getting 2.9 steals per game. That is not to mention the turnovers created by his pressure on the ball. McConnell is tireless on the defensive and allows his teammates the opportunity to step into passing lanes at the rate of 9.8 steals per game. McConnell hits 51.9 percent (97-187) from the field including 41.4 percent (29-70) from behind the arc. Duquesne’s 80 points per game is 13th in the nation.
St. Bonaventure 82 La Salle 61
Andrew Nicholson had a game-high 24 points, and Marquise Simmons chipped in a career-high 18 off the bench as the Bonnies pounded the La Salle Explorers 82-61 at the Reilly Center.
Nicholson and Simmons combined for 22 points and nine rebounds as the Bonnies took a 37-27 lead at half.
Richmond 64 St. Louis 52
Justin Harper scores 22 with nine boards. Dan Geriot and Kevin Smith combine for 22 points and eight boards.
Xavier 71 Duquesne 63
Tu Holloway scored 20, and Dante Jackson tied a career-high with 19 as the Musketeers took sole possession of first place. Xavier outrebounded Duquesne 38-26. The Muskies hit 22-of-30 from the free throw line while the Dukes seemed disinterested in accepting charitable donations going 13-of-27 from the line. It was an opportunity lost – not a season – for the Dukes.
George Washington 59 UMass 51
The Colonials improved to 6-5 and moved into sixth place for now. Nemanja Mikic accounted for 20 points and Dwayne Smith got the double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. GW scored 17 straight in the second half for the win.
Temple 77 Fordham 66
Ramone Moore led five Owls in double figures with 22 points. Scootie Randall and Michael Eric chipped in 12 apiece with Juan Fernandez getting 10, and Rahlir Jefferson scoring 10 off the bench.
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Dayton’s Coach Gregory recalls his first concert and more.
2010 – 11 STANDINGS
| Conference | Overall | |||||
| W | L | PCT. | W | L | PCT. | |
| Xavier | 9 | 1 | .900 | 18 | 6 | .750 |
| Temple | 9 | 2 | .818 | 19 | 5 | .792 |
| Richmond | 9 | 2 | .818 | 20 | 6 | .769 |
| Duquesne | 8 | 2 | .800 | 16 | 7 | .696 |
| Rhode Island | 7 | 4 | .636 | 16 | 9 | .640 |
| George Washington | 6 | 5 | .545 | 13 | 12 | .520 |
| Massachusetts | 5 | 5 | .500 | 13 | 10 | .565 |
| St. Bonaventure | 5 | 5 | .500 | 13 | 10 | .565 |
| Dayton | 5 | 6 | .455 | 17 | 9 | .654 |
| La Salle | 4 | 7 | .364 | 12 | 14 | .462 |
| Saint Louis | 3 | 8 | .273 | 8 | 16 | .333 |
| Charlotte | 2 | 8 | .200 | 10 | 14 | .417 |
| Saint Joseph’s | 2 | 8 | .200 | 7 | 17 | .292 |
| Fordham | 0 | 11 | .000 | 6 | 17 | .261 |
Xavier, Temple, Richmond and Duquesne are all in place for a first-round bye in the upcoming conference tournament. Rhode Island, George Washington, UMass and St. Bonaventure have the inside track for hosting an opening round game on March 8th.
Active career scoring leaders:
1. Kevin Anderson, UR ………….1,962
2. Bill Clark, DUQ ………………….1,506
3. Chris Wright, UD ………………1,470
4. Brenton Butler, FOR …………..1,443
5. Anthony Gurley, UMass ……..1,414
6. Damian Saunders, DUQ …….1,402
7. Andrew Nicholson, SBU …….1,338
8. Delroy James, URI ……………..1,304
9. Dan Geriot, UR ………………….1,301
10. Lavoy Allen, TU …………………1,284
11. Justin Harper, UR……………….1,263
12. Jerrell Williams, LAS ………….1,109
13. Tu Holloway, XU ………………..1,103
14. Ruben Guillandeaux, LAS ….1,077
Career Overall Victories
(Total reflects years in A-10)
1. John Chaney, Temple ………………………..516
2. Gale Catlett, West Virginia ……………….333
3. Jim Baron, St. Bonaventure/
Rhode Island …………………………..305
4. Phil Martelli, Saint Joseph’s …………..296
5. John Calipari, Massachusetts …………….193
6. Tom Young, Rutgers ………………………….168
7. Brian Gregory, Dayton ………………….167
8. Karl Hobbs, George Washington ……162
9. Mike Jarvis, George Washington ……….152
10. Oliver Purnell, Dayton ……………………..148
They said it:
Rick Majerus: “We’re kind of probing for someone (laughing) with just a little while left in the season to look to go to. Cody Ellis is now out for the season and has his surgery today or tomorrow, and I think the guys are doing the offense thing by committee, and that’s not the way to do it.”
Fran Dunphy: “When we’re in zone, sometimes it’s a crap shoot. We throw it out there, and hope it works. It’s certainly not where we’re going to hang our hat.”
Ron Everhart: “It’s kind of like in baseball. You know you can hit a lot of different pitches, but you want to hit the right one, and we have to make better decisions in that regard.”
Chris Mooney (on Richmond’s third consecutive 20-win season): “It’s a credit to our guys who have worked so hard. They didn’t come into a program that was already established.”
Click here for the complete weekly A10 tele-conference.
Coach Giannini goes barefoot
On tap
Wednesday
Saint Louis at St. Bonaventure
Duquesne at Massachusetts
Xavier at Saint Joseph’s
Dayton at Charlotte
Thursday
Richmond at Temple
Saturday
Duquesne at Dayton
Massachusetts at Rhode Island
George Washington at La Salle
Charlotte at Saint Louis
Fordham at Xavier
Sunday, February 20
St. Bonaventure at Richmond
Saint Joseph’s at Temple
Going streaking
La Salle’s Earl Pettis has hit his last 29 free throws – the longest such streak in the nation.
Richmond is 5-0 on the road in conference games.
Temple is 5-0 at home in conference games.
Atlantic 10 Men’s Press Release
Certainly one of the keys for Xavier’s win at Duquense was getting Saunders and Monteiro in foul trouble. How many minutes did Saunders end up playing?
Smitty – good points. Saunders played 24 minutes. He came into the game averaging 34. More importantly, he picked up his 4th with 16:00 remaining, and that influenced his aggressiveness on the defensive end.
Montiero picked up his 3rd and 4th within :15 at the 13:32 mark.
Bonaventure needs to beat Richmond on Sunday to go along with the win they had against Duquesne. Saint Louis and Fordham have to be gimmes!! They can’t let those slip past. Nicholson is finally getting some help from the bench.
Brother Beh – welcome to the Pine! Way to bring the Bonnie love.
I know it ain’t hoops, but this is relevant to Temple fans like Rey:
https://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2011/02/report-notre-dame-temple-set-football-series.html
Maybe some ND-Temple hoops games are not far behind??
Bonnies almost let the Billikens back in last night…but they were able to sneak it out. Ogo…Nicholson and Cook led the way.
The Billikens have a solid squad – no seniors. Rick Majerus can keep them in any game. The kids have to get a taste of winning, and they will be able to follow through in the future.
On the other hand – Nicholson makes plays.