There were good performances by several kiwi men last week, including a Freshman of the Week Award for Thomas Webley.
Webley was named American East Conference Freshman of the Week for the second time this season. The Cantabrian received the distinction for posting a season-best 10 points and eight rebounds in the University of Hartford’s 75-61 win against New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Hartford next play on Saturday 27 Februaryin the opening round of the American East Conference play-offs, where seeded #4 they take on #9 Binghampton.
The odds were stacked against St Mary’s, California last Friday in their West Coast Conference fixture. Not only were St Mary’s playing just their second game back after a three-week COVID enforced break, but they were also facing unbeaten Gonzaga, the #1 ranked team in the country.
Predictably, the victory went the way of Gonzaga (87-65) although Dan Fotu had the satisfaction of snaring a team-high six rebounds to accompany seven points.
Fotu and St Mary’s bounced back in style a few days later, beating Pepperdine 66-61. The 2018 Tall Black had 14 points (5/10FG) and seven rebounds in 37 minutes.
University of California Riverside played a double-header against UC San Diego over the weekend and shared the spoils with the series split 1-1. Flynn Cameron scored nine points in each game as well as snatching 14 rebounds across the two fixtures. Riverside are 5-3 in the Big West Conference.
In NCAA Division II play, former St Pat’s Town standout Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones pulled down a monstrous career-high 18 rebounds to go with 17 points as Hawaii at Hilo improved to 7-1 with a tight 71-67 win against Chaminade. In those eight games, Tait-Jones has scored 21,20,9,19,15,16,15,17 to average 16.5 points per game, which is 9th best on the PacWest scoring list.
Wilfred Dickson put together an almost flawless shooting display despite South Dakota Mines going down 63-60 to Chadron State. In his second-straight 20-point game, Dickson was eight from nine from the field, three from three from three-point range and one from one from the foul line.
Matt Brien scored 12 points, the sixth double-figure outing of the season for the former St Kevin’s guard, but Nebraska at Kearney were pipped 68-65 by Lincoln.
Mac Stodart and Concordia Irvine will be much relieved after securing their first win of the season; 74-63 against Azusa Pacific. The 2020 Canterbury Ram played his part with nine points on four from seven shooting in his sixth start in eleven games.
In a high scoring NAIA encounter Milligan University (10-8) defeated Montreat 98-91. Finn McClure had a fine all-court game making 10 points as well as acquiring five rebounds, seven assists and five steals. The freshman from Wellington leads the team in the assists and steals columns, averaging 4.5 and 1.8 per game. Milligan now move on to the Appalachian Conference play-offs.
In Junior College, Taranaki guard Nico Hill compiled 18 points in Missouri State-West Plains high-scoring 100-90 victory at Three Rivers. In his best shooting performance of the season Hill was seven from nine from the field and three from four from beyond the arc.
