By Matt Clear
Top performer: Matthew Bryan-Amaning
Bryan-Amaning continues to impress, as he notched his first ever Pac-10 double-double in a win over Washington State. The Londoner was 8-11 from the field for 17 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks, although he did cough up five turnovers.
Turnovers aside, UW blogger Josh Anderson called it “MBA’s best game as a Husky”, and said: “Seeing him do it against DeAngelo Casto, the Pac-10’s most underrated player and a (future) legit pro prospect, was encouraging. MBA’s M.O. has so commonly been to play better against bad competition, so this was a true breakthrough for him.” The Seattle Times’ Percy Allen thinks Bryan-Amaning might be the best post player in the Pac-10 right now.
MBA’s streak of double-figure scoring games ended in a win over Oregon last night, but only just – the junior forward finished with eight points on 4-9 shooting, and almost had another double-double as he grabbed ten boards. Bryan-Amaning also had two blocks, a steal and three turnovers, and was limited to 22 minutes by foul trouble.
Explaining MBA’s upturn in form, Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said: “I thought about six weeks ago, Matthew put it upon himself to come out to practice and really be focused and really try to be dialled in to try to be the best that he can be. Maybe nothing (has changed) in terms of his play, but in terms of his approach and his focus, I think that’s different.”
Washington closes out the regular season with a winnable road game against Oregon State. They have a shot at finishing second in the Pac-10 if they can beat the Beavers.
How the other Brits fared:
• Eric Boateng scored a career-high 24 points against Stanford last Thursday, making all eleven of his field goals. Boateng also had six rebounds, three assists, a block and no turnovers in a career-best performance.
A win at Cal would have seen Arizona State go top of the Pac-10 but it was sadly beyond them, as the Sun Devils went down 62-46. Boateng again made all his field goals but he had only two attempts this time, finishing with four points as he missed all four of his free throw attempts. The senior centre had ten rebounds and two assists, but also four turnovers.
Boateng was solid in a win over USC last night, scoring five points on 2-3 shooting with nine rebounds and two blocks. One of the blocks came as ASU led 57-54 with six seconds to go, sealing the win for the Sun Devils.
ASU closes out the regular season with a home game against UCLA tomorrow. They’ll need to win and hope Cal slips up in order to take the Pac-10 title.
• Reaching the NCAA tournament this year was always going to be a tough ask for Rider, given that they’d have to go through defending MAAC champions Siena to do so. The Saints underlined their supremacy with an 82-64 victory back in December, and the Broncs could do no better this time on their own court, going down 80-54.
Justin Robinson wasn’t much of a factor for Rider, scoring only five points on 2-7 shooting. Robinson had three assists and two rebounds, but also turned the ball over four times.
Rider then faced Canisius on Sunday in what was a crucial final game of the regular season. With both teams tied on 8-9, the winner would be guaranteed a first-round bye in the MAAC tournament and an extra day off.
And it was Robinson who led the Broncs to victory, scoring a career-high 27 points in an astonishing shooting display. Robinson made all five of his three-pointers and all six free throws, missing just two of ten field goal attempts. The junior guard also had three rebounds and two assists. He finishes the season second in the MAAC in three-point percentage, with 45.3%.
The win means Rider will finish fifth in the MAAC with a 9-9 record. They will play fourth-placed Saint Peter’s in the MAAC tournament quarter-finals tomorrow.
• One MAAC team who have more genuine aspirations to knock off Siena are Ben Mockford‘s Iona. A win against Fairfield would have seen Iona move up to second place in the league behind the Saints – instead, they lost 71-54.
Iona, like Rider, then faced a team with an identical record on Sunday – Saint Peter’s at 11-6 – clinching third place with a 49-48 win.
Mockford, a freshman, has been used sparingly since conference play began, and there was little change in this week’s games as he played five and 13 minutes respectively, going scoreless in each.
Iona will play Niagara in the MAAC quarter-finals.
• Charleston wrapped up the regular season with a 69-66 victory over Furman. Andrew Lawrence had a good game, going 2-4 from the field for six points, two rebounds and an assist in 16 minutes.
With a first-round bye in the Southern Conference tournament locked up a week ago, the Cougars will play either Chattanooga or Georgia Southern in their quarter-final tomorrow.
• Davidson’s spot in the tournament was also fixed a week ago, but they went ahead and won their two games this week anyway.
Ben Allison’s offensive woes continued as he missed all three of his shots against Chattanooga and turned the ball over three times, but he did grab five rebounds.
Allison was much better against Elon, going 2-5 from the field to finish with eight points and seven rebounds, although he again picked up three turnovers. Davidson prevailed 99-96 in double overtime for a tough road win, which will give them a boost when they meet Elon again today in the first round of the SoCon tournament.
• Mike Williams continues to start for Duquesne, putting in a solid performance against Saint Louis with six points on 3-5 shooting and four rebounds in 20 minutes.
But Williams struggled mightily in the Dukes’ crucial game against St. Bonaventure on Wednesday. After the big man picked up his third foul and fourth turnover with 17 minutes to go in the game, coach Ron Everhart pulled Williams and he did not play again. The sophomore centre failed to register a points or a rebound in eight minutes on the court.
Duquesne dropped to 6-9 after losing both the games. Their final game of the season – hosting 0-15 Fordham tonight – is almost a guaranteed win, but the Dukes could finish eighth, ninth or tenth in the Atlantic-10 depending on results elsewhere.
• Flying somewhat higher in the A-10 are Rhode Island. Rhody are currently sixth in the league, but could finish fourth if results go their way this weekend.
A 80-58 thumping of fifth-placed Charlotte on Wednesday helped keep their hopes of an A-10 tournament first-round bye alive, though it might already be sewn up if they hadn’t slipped up to St. Bonaventure last weekend.
Ben Eaves continues to play only a minor role for the team, playing a total of ten minutes in their two games this week.
• Nevada won two of their three games this week to go to 10-5, and will take either second, third or fourth place in the Western Athletic Conference. Patrick Nyeko has averaged about a minute per game since the Wolfpack began conference play, and there was no change there this week.
• Both Jamie Vanderbeken and Iowa State will be counting the days till the season is over. Vanderbeken has been sidelined since January and won’t play again this year, while ISU are 11th in the Big 12 with a dismal 3-12 record.
With conference tournaments kicking off this weekend, we’ll be bringing you daily updates of how our NCAA-based Brits are faring in the postseason, starting tomorrow.
