Gonzaga, Dayton, and San Diego State have been the mid-major darlings this year. All three teams have seemed untouchable at times in their respective leagues. That changed this past week. By far, the biggest result was San Diego State losing its first game of the season to UNLV. However, Gonzaga also lost its first WCC game this week. The final push for regular-season conference titles is upon us.
Mid-Major Week Sixteen Takeaways
Gonzaga Goes Down
Many circled Gonzaga’s trip to Provo, Utah as its biggest game of the season. BYU had emerged as the clear-cut second-best team in the WCC. When the final horn sounded, the Cougars upended the Bulldogs 91-78. BYU played lights out on Senior Night, snapping Gonzaga’s 40-game regular-season conference win streak and their 39-game conference road win streak. The Cougars shot 53.2 percent for the game and led for 30 minutes while never trailing by more than six. It is the first win over the second-ranked team in the country at home since 1965.
Yoeli Childs paced BYU, as he usually does, with 28 points and 10 rebounds. Jake Toolson added 17 points and six assists, while T.J. Haws dropped 16 points and a team-leading eight assists. The Cougars, who entered the AP Poll at 23 last week, are looking more and more like a dangerous mid-major opponent as March approaches.
Head coach Mark Pope, who won his 100th career game on Saturday, summed it up best.
“If you want to have a chance to play with the best team in America, which I think the Zags are, you better be dialed in on every possession. The guys really tried tonight.”
Great team win! So happy for these seniors! Atmosphere was electric! pic.twitter.com/gwWhaolfDc
— Cody Fueger (@Cody_Fueger) February 23, 2020
Cardiac Cats
Eastern Illinois head coach Jay Spoonhour may finally be getting his heart rate down. His Panthers erased two double-digit deficits against a pair of Ohio Valley leaders to shake up the race for the regular-season title.
On Thursday, Eastern Illinois found itself down 27 points to Murray State with 11:45 left in the game. It was all Panthers after that. They went on a 40-10 run the rest of the way to emerge with a 63-60 victory. Josiah Wallace scored all of his team-leading 20 points during that span, including the game-winning bucket with two seconds left.
Two days later, the Panthers found themselves down double-digits again around the 11-minute mark, this time to first place-holder Austin Peay. Once again, Eastern Illinois rallied to force an overtime period. When the bonus session was over, the Panthers were 83-80 victors. This included surviving the Governors’ dynamic duo of Jordyn Adams (31 points) and Terry Taylor (26 points). Wallace led Eastern Illinois again with 23 points.
Eastern Illinois’ victories this week created a three-way tie between Austin Peay, Belmont, and Murray State atop the Ohio Valley standings. With just one week of regular season play remaining, we are in for a fun finish.
Paladins Walk the Plank
East Tennessee State’s mid-major at-large hopes took a hit when they lost to Mercer a few weeks ago. However, the Buccaneers have not lost since then and took sole possession of first place in the Southern Conference with a 75-66 win over Furman on Wednesday. In front of a record crowd at Freedom Hall, East Tennessee State won its season-best sixth game in a row.
Four Buccaneers scored in double figures, with Isaiah Tisdale leading the way with 15 points and eight rebounds. Bo Hodges was right behind Tisdale with 14 points and seven rebounds. East Tennessee State never trailed in the second half and outrebounded Furman 42-24. Steve Forbes became the fifth head coach in Division I history to win 24 or more games in his first five seasons at a school. The Buccaneers are back on track to potentially landing inside the bubble should they falter in the conference tournament.
Check out some of the "Nuggets" from Wednesday's win over Furman #ETSUTough pic.twitter.com/3a2SpiU0lj
— ETSU Men's Basketball (@ETSU_MBB) February 20, 2020
Red Flash Mob
Robert Morris looked poised to take the top seed in the NEC conference tournament. That was until the Saint Francis Red Flash beat the Colonials soundly 86-71 on Tuesday. The win now puts Saint Francis in the driver’s seat with the season winding down. Isaiah Blackmon dropped a career-high 30 points, while Keith Braxton and Mark Flagg each had 19.
The Red Flash held a double-digit lead throughout the second half. They held Robert Morris to 27.8 percent shooting from behind the arc. This is the ninth straight win by the Red Flash over the Colonials. They have also won 18 games in a season for the third straight year, something the mid-major program had not done since 1949-1952. When the senior class is honored on Senior Night, they will be the winningest class since 1955. These two programs will meet again at the end of the season with the one seed potentially on the line.
Mid-Major Top Performers
Darius Quisenberry of Youngstown State scored a career-high 41 points in an upset win over Horizon League leader Wright State on Thursday. Quisenberry scored 25 of his points in the first half. He went a career-best 7-11 from the three-point stripe and was the first 40 point scorer for the Penguins in three years.
Western Illinois’ Kobe Webster scored a career-high 40 points in a loss to Omaha on Saturday. This set a new single-game Division I record for the Leathernecks, breaking the previous mark set by Joe Dykstra, the program’s all-time leading scorer, in 1983. This was the second-best scoring performance in the Summit League this season.
Sam Sessoms of Binghamton dropped 39 points in a win over Massachusetts-Lowell on Thursday. This was the most points scored by a Bearcat player in their DI era in regulation. Sessoms also has the record for points scored in an overtime game. The sophomore is roughly 300 points away from being Binghamton’s Division I all-time scoring leader.
Seneca Knight of San Jose State scored a career-high 37 points in a loss to Colorado State on Saturday. Knight scored 26 in the first half and went 14-15 from the free-throw line for the game.
Mike Smith of Columbia is back here for a second week in a row after scoring 37 points against Yale on Saturday. This was the 24th time Smith has led Columbia in scoring this season.
Main Photo
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