Monday, November 18, 2013

Player of the Day November 15-21, 2013

Thurs., Nov. 21--Minnesota Gopher men 79 Wofford 57

A blowout from the get-go, as it should be, Minnesota led 13-0 and 20-2 early, and 50-24 at the half. Austin Hollins led the way with 18 points, but Elliot Eliason probably had the best night with 11 plus 11 boards and 7 blocks. Osieniks added 14 and appears to be getting comfortable out there. Mathieu continued his outstanding play. The Gophers had 20 assists on 30 buckets, with just 8 turnovers, and shot 51 percent.

Player of the Day--Elliott Eliason, Minnesota Gopher men 11 points, 11 boards, 7 blocks.
Coach of the Day--Paul Grove, Minnesota-Morris men, with just one assistant, knocked off St. John's 96-87 at Morris as R.J. Dean scored 12 points and added 6 boards, 6 assists and 3 steals for Morris.

Wed., Nov. 20--Minnesota Gopher women 70 Kansas Jayhawks 59

The women came back from a 32-30 halftime deficit with a whopping 40-27 2nd half margin. Rachel Banham scored 13 points in each half, but Amanda Zahui was also instrumental in the win. She got into foul trouble--again-- and sat out much of the 1st half. In the 2nd she roared back with 8 points and 7 rebounds, and finished with a triple double--11 points, 11 rebounds and a school record 10 blocks. Micaella Riche added 20 points and 6 rebounds and Shayne Mullaney 11 points and 5 boards. The Gophers lost the possession game--Kansas had 12 more offensive rebounds and 3 fewer turnovers. But Minnesota shot well over 50 percent, Kansas closer to 33.

Player of the Day--Amanda Zahui, Minnesota Gopher women. Amanda, pls avoid those early fouls and stay on the floor. 30-32 in the 1st, 40-27 in the 2nd.

Coach of the Day--Pam Borton, Minnesota Gopher women

Tues., Nov. 19--Minnesota Gopher men 82 Coastal Carolina 72

It was a "sluggish" performance according to the Gophers own Web site. But Player of the Day DeAndre Mathieu continued his stellar play with 17 points, 6 assists and 3 steals. Coach of the Day is Matt Marganthaler of Minnesota State Mankato, who clobbers Clark 117-56.

Mon., Nov. 18--South Dakota State men 83 Southwest Minnesota State 62

The most intriguing plot here was the performance of Jackrabbits freshman Anders Broman from Duluth Lakeview Christian, Minnesota's all-time top boys high school scorer. He came off the bench to score 10 points in 26 minutes, his first career double-figure scoring night. Over four games he has played 22 minutes (with 1 start for 33 minutes), he has scored 5 points per game on 6-of-18 (33 percent) shooting.

Player of the Day--Mitch Weg, Southwest State freshman from Worthington, who scored 8 points with 7 rebounds. Coach of the Day--Brad Bigler, Southwest State. His men didn't have a great night in Brookings, but Bigler is a great coach.

Sun., Nov, 17--St. John's 93 St. Scholastica 83

The Johnnies ran out to a 51-29 half-time lead and coasted to the finish line. Alex Schmitt came off the bench to score 22 while Mitch Kuck had 19 and 4 assists. Trevor Morlock was a one-man gang for St. Scholastica with 27 points and 13 rebounds.

Player of the Day--Trevor Morlock, St. Scholastics 27 points 13 rebounds. Coach of the Day--Jim Smith, St. John's, now in his 50th season at the Collegeville school.

Sat., Nov. 16--Minnesota Gopher men 74 Richmond 59

With 7 minutes remaining, Minnesota trailed at Richmond 59-55, but a 19-0 run to finish the game made the Gophers the winners.

Player of the Day--Andre Hollins, Minnesota Gopher men 26 points. Coach of the Day--Richard Pitino, Minnesota Gopher men.

Meanwhile, at the half, the Minnesota Gopher women were shooting 44 percent, Creighton 42 (for the game it was 45.5 percent to 39 percent), and the Gophers led in the rebounding 18-16. Oh, and the Gophers trailed 38-22. How is that possible? Turnovers. By game's end the turnovers were 23-7 and the points off turnovers 23-11. The final was 63-52. And most of the turnovers were not made by Minnesota's ball-handlers but by Sari Noga (5), Amanda Zahui (4), Micaella Riche (3) and Jackie Johnson (3 in 3 minutes). If the bigs can't hold on to the ball, the Gophers are in trouble.

Fri., Nov. 15--Pomona-Pitzer men 80 St. Thomas 77, and Whitman women 77 St. Thomas 76

#15 St. Thomas, 30-2 with a trip to the D3 Final Four last year, lost their opener this year at Pomona-Pitzer. The Tommies trailed the whole way but used a late 15-6 run to get within 79-77, but could not get another score on their final possession.

The Tommies women are also favored by MIAC coaches to win the conference title this year, but they too lost their opener on the west coast, at Whitman in Spokane (WA), as the hosts shot 58 percent from the field. On the brighter side, center Maggie Weiers, who missed all of last season with injuries, returned with 13 points, 7 boards and 3 assists.

Player of the Day--Zach Monaghan, Minnesota State-Mankato men, 22 points, 7 assists, 3 steals, and Coach of the Day--Matt Marganthaler, Minnesota State-Mankato men, who won their opener over Waldorf (IA) 94-50.

No comments:

Post a Comment