Big Numbers Away From the Bright Lights in Conference Tournaments

We showed some love to Montana’s Anthony Johnson on Thursday after his 42-point performance, but he wasn’t the only player to drop 40 that night. ↵↵Anatoly Bose scored 40 points on 15-of-23 shooting in a loss for Nicholls State against Sam Houston State. (Seriously, how angry must Bose be with his teammates, who shot a whopping 5-of-28 for the game?) Bose actually scored 20 of Nicholls States’ 27 first-half points in their first round game of the Southland Conference tourney.↵

↵↵So much of the focus has rightfully been on the craziness at Madison Square Garden with the Big East Tournament. (Watch the video of Da’Sean Butler’s crazy buzzer-beater against Cincinnati here.) But we got a few more epic offensive performances on Thursday night that didn’t get a lot of shine on the highlight shows.↵
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↵First, Jimmer Fredette of BYU, absolutely wins the night, putting up the highest number I’ve seen from anyone during these conference tournaments. How does a Mountain West Conference Tournament record 45 points sound? He had a pretty average night from the field (10-of-23) and was awful from 3-point range (2-of-10) but he made up for it at the free throw line going 23-of-34. (Read the full recap here.)
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Fredette is one of those guys some people might not know because you don’t see a lot of his games on ESPN, but after a game like this, there’s just no excuse to let him blindside you on Selection Sunday. Oh, and this wasn’t Fredette’s first 40-point game. He actually put 49 on Arizona earlier this season.↵↵While Fredette was the Anthony Johnson of the day, with his team winning, someone has to be our Anatoly Bose, dropping 40-plus in a loss. That unlucky man was Eastern Michigan’s Carlos Medlock on Thursday. Medlock scored 42 points, but did have the luxury of two overtime periods to help him along the way to his big number. Medlock, like Bose, was actually pretty efficient, hitting 13-of-26 from the field. His 3-point shooting (5-of-14) left something to be desired, but he made up for it with an 11-of-12 night from the line. ↵

↵↵The moral of this story kids: There are some great individual performances happening in conference tournaments that you’re completely unaware of at the moment. You just need to do a little scrolling in that channel guide to find them. ↵

↵↵*Honorable homer mention: Ex-Indiana guard/current Ohio Bobcat Armon Bassett dropped 38 points, including 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range and a MAC record 16-of-16 night form the free throw line.
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