If you have to go out, you may as well go out big. Way to set an example, November.
North Carolina Holds Off Wisconsin And UNLV Survives Double OT Scare
The final evening of November was the best night of the college basketball season so far. A top ten clash and a pair of overtime thrillers highlighted the action.
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SCORES:
Top 25
No. 5 North Carolina 60, No. 9 Wisconsin 57
No. 15 Kansas 77, Florida Atlantic 54
No. 17 Pittsburgh 80, Duquesne 69
No. 18 UNLV 94, UC-Santa Barbara 88 (2 OT)
No. 19 Gonzaga , Notre Dame
Big Ten/ACC Challenge
No. 5 North Carolina 60, Wisconsin 57
Penn State 62, Boston College 54
Indiana 86, North Carolina St. 75
Michigan St. 65, Florida St. 49
Minnesota 58, Virginia Tech 55
Wake Forest 55, Nebraska 53
GAME OF THE NIGHT: UNLV 94, UC-Santa Barbara 88 (2 OT)
This game had everything. Except a national television audience.
Seen only on a shaky Big West Conference Internet stream that was made free near the end of the second overtime and heard only through the shouts of the excitable UCSB radio play-by-play guy, the Runnin’ Rebels and Gauchos played what has to be the best game of the season thus far.
After trailing by one at the break, UNLV appeared to be in complete control with a ten point lead and just two minutes to play. But some questionable Rebel decision-making paired with some clutch UCSB shooting left the Gauchos down three with the ball and just seconds to play. Faced with the most most high-profile coaching conundrum in the game, Dave Rice elected to have his team foul and send Santa-Barbara star Orlando Johnson to the line. Johnson stroked the first freebie, and his perfectly missed second attempt was put-back by Greg Somogyi just before the buzzer.
In the second extra period it was the home team that snatched defeat (or momentary tie, I guess) from the jaws of victory. With 13 seconds left and the game tied at 81, Chace Stanback inexplicably fouled UCSB's James Nunnally as he attempted a 3-point shot. Nunnally calmly sank all three free-throws. Stanback quickly made up for his transgression by tracking down an Anthony Marshall miss and burying an off-balance trey to send the game to a second overtime.
In the second extra period, the exhausted Gauchos could muster just one field goal.
In addition to featuring a pair of unbelievable finishes, UCSB's Johnson and UNLV's Mike Moser provided the best individual showdown of the season. Johnson played 47 minutes and dropped a game-high 36, while Moser missed just six shots and scored 34 before fouling out. More on his big night later.
On the surface this may look like a letdown performance by UNLV following their upset of then-No. 1 North Carolina, but Santa-Barbara is a legitimate tournament team and the environment at the Thunderdome was as hostile as any the Rebs will see this year. There’s a reason Vegas was only favored by 2.5. This was a big win for a program that has dropped several of these types of games in recent years.
GAME OF THE NIGHT PART II: Creighton 85, San Diego State 83
A second classic on November’s final evening that the vast majority of the college basketball world wasn’t able to see.
Creighton - ranked 22nd in the current coaches’ poll but unranked by the Associated Press - rallied from a 17-point first half deficit to shock the sell-out home crowd in San Diego and remain unbeaten.
The game wasn’t over until, with 5.4 seconds to play and Creighton holding a two-point advantage, the Bluejays’ Jahenns Manigat was able to secure the rebound of his own missed free-throw with just over two seconds left. The clock ran out before SDSU could foul after the inbound pass.
Doug McDermott led the 6-0 'Jays with 25 points, while Antoine Young added 18 and Ethan Wragge scored a season-high 19.
GAME OF THE NIGHT PART III: North Carolina 60, Wisconsin 57
Hard to believe that a three-point game featuring two top ten team could get third-billing here, but that’s precisely what’s happening. Deal with it, Roy.
Poor shooting and sloppy play left Carolina in a 36-31 second half hole before an 18-5 run put them in control for good. That run was spearheaded by the play of Harrison Barnes (whose ankle appeared just fine) who scored ten of his game-high 20 points during the decisive surge.
Wisconsin’s good, and you take wins over the Badgers however you can get them, but this was not the type of effort from UNC that will produce a victory over Kentucky on Saturday. The Tar Heels had some extremely obvious advantages over Wisconsin and they didn’t utilize them until they absolutely had to. It’s (or it was) November, but that’s still a bit disconcerting.
PLAYER OF THE NIGHT: Mike Moser, UNLV
Moser, the National Player of the Year of November (it’s a thing), rounded out his tremendous month by hitting 6-of-9 from beyond the arc, scoring 34 points and grabbing ten rebounds. Moser’s ridiculous stat line for the unbeaten Rebs now sits at 17.5 ppg, 13.3 rpg and 3.3 apg.
For reference, in his only season at UCLA, Moser averaged 4.3 minutes and 0.6 points.
No, they’re doing just fine without him though.
HONOR ROLL:
Orlando Johnson, UCSB - Scored a game-high 36 points in the double OT loss to Vegas.
Alfonzo Mckinnie, Eastern Illinois - Hit 9-of-12 shots on his way to dropping 24 and 14 in a five-point overtime win over Maine.
Zach Filzen, Buffalo - His six threes and scored 24 points to help bury host Dayton by a head-scratching sore of 84-55.
James Kinney, San Jose State - Scored a career-high 30 points, including the go-ahead basket, as San Jose State rallied from a 14-point first half deficit to beat Texas-San Antonio 72-66.
Keith Appling, Michigan St. - Scored 24 points and was the perimeter threat Sparty has been lacking in MSU's 16-point win over Florida St.
IMAGE OF THE NIGHT:
Michigan State cheerleaders watch as an injured teammate is tended to after she suffered a scary fall near midcourt during the Spartans' victory over Florida St. The cheerleader, 20-year-old Taylor Young, was taken to the hospital where she was reported to be in stable condition Wednesday night.
OK, that’s two days in a row where we’ve gone extremely depressing here. I promise something brighter tomorrow morning. Can we get a good dunk shot? Anybody? Terrence Jones? You reading?
NUMBER OF THE NIGHT: 657
That's the number of days it had been since Wake Forest had won a road game before last night's 55-53 win at Nebraska. C.J. Harris' uncontested lay-up with 3.4 seconds left is what did the trick.
VIDEO OF THE NIGHT:
Can’t find video of C.J. Leslie’s block against Indiana anywhere online (wake up, Wolfpack fans), so here’s the Stanback shot that sent UNLV/UCSB into double overtime:
That Orlando Johnson shot was awfully close to being the early play of the year.
TEN TO END:
1. The Big Ten is your 2011 ACC/Big Ten Challenge champion by a final count of 8-4.
2. It’s time to start talking about Denver. I’m serious. The Pioneers became the first team since Feb. of 2009 to go on the road and beat Utah State, and they did so in dominating fashion, leading by as many as 20 before the final score settled at 67-54. Denver, whose only loss of the season came at California last weekend, also beat Saint Mary’s by 12 earlier this year.
3. Dayton continued its tradition of being one of the most unpredictable teams in college basketball by following up their dominating performance at the Old Spice Classic with an 84-55 home loss to Buffalo. Much of the home crowd at UD Arena left before the final horn, and many of those who stayed voiced their disapproval. First-year head coach Archie Miller didn’t blame them.
“I wish I could apologize to everybody 1,000 times for not cashing in tonight,” Miller said. “I don’t blame the fans for leaving. If I was a fan I would have left at halftime.”
4. Ohio picked up a very impressive road win by going into Huntington and handing previously unbeaten Marshall a 70-68 loss. The Bobcats’ only defeat remains a five-point loss to Louisville in a game they led by six with three minutes to play .
5. It's a bad year for the Big Ten to be this up for Indiana, which improved to 7-0 after a solid road win at NC State. Cody Zeller is off to a great start, Will Sheehey has really stepped up and Victor Olapido is finally beginning to take full advantage of his athleticism. The Hoosiers will be competitive in conference play, but they're still probably a year away from dancing.
6. The folks over at The UConn Blog noticed center Alex Oriakhi calling out his head coach on Twitter and decided to write about it. Naturally, Oriakhi's family went berserk and his dad challenged the author to a fight.
7. Iowa State’s talented group of transfer players is still having a bit of a tough time gelling. Northern Iowa dropped the Cyclones to 5-2 with a 69-62 win Wednesday night. The Panthers, by the way, are 6-1.
8. Pittsburgh got what appears on the surface to be a solid 11-point win over Duquesne on Wednesday, but the Panthers turned the ball over a whopping 23 times. Jamie Dixon’s team made up for it by outrebounding the undersized Dukes 39-15.
9. Temple’s Michael Eric suffered a right patella injury during practice last week and is out six to eight weeks. Eric was leading the Atlantic-10 in rebounding at 11.3 rpg to go along with 10.5 ppg.
10. The turn of the calendar brings about the first in-conference action of the season as the Atlantic Sun, SoCon, NEC, MAAC and Horizon League all open league play Thursday night. I may or may not have just squealed like a little girl. I didn’t squeal like a little girl.
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