MBB: Southern Athletic Association

[Ron Boerger]

The "vagabonds" get past La Roche 90-77 after trailing by 11 early, led by big man Will Bronson who had 24 points and ten boards (and 4 fouls) in 26 minutes to lead all players in both categories.  Trinity also becomes the first SAA team to be ranked in the D3hoops.com Top 25 since Berry in '22-'23, coming in at 16th in the Week 1 poll released today.

[Ron Boerger]

Updating where the SAA stands before Thanksgiving:

Overall 26-14
Home 9-7
Away 12-6
Neutral 5-1

School Rec'd Home/Away/Neutral NPI
Rhodes 5-0 (4-0/1-0/0-0) 190th
Millsaps 5-0 (3-0/1-0/1-0) 92nd
Trinity 5-1 (0-0/2-1/3-0) 15th
Centre 4-1 (0-1/3-0/1-0) 147th
Southwestern 3-1 (0-0/3-1/0-0) 165th
Berry 3-3 (2-2/1-1/0-0) 289th
Oglethorpe 1-4 (0-1/1-2/0-1) 353rd
Sewanee 0-4 (0-3/0-1/0-0) 402nd

[Ron Boerger]

A light weekend overall for the SAA.  Trinity moves to 6-1 with a closer-than-it-needed-to-be home win against HSU; after trailing by 19 at the break, the Cowboys closed to 3 after shutting down the Tigers' three-point shooting before two techs on the HSU bench helped the Tigers escape, 81-73.  Leading scorer Dylan Walker was on crutches and did not play for Trinity.

Millsaps (5-1) surprsingly suffered their first loss of the season at formerly winless University of the Ozarks (1-6), 78-76.  After the Eagles took the lead with 1:18 to play, the Majors had no fewer than three chances to tie the game; the first was blocked, the second (after a steal with 27 seconds left) was missed, and after Ozarks missed the front half of a 1-and-1, Millsaps missed a layup with one second left.  The Majors also missed nearly half (12) of their 28 free throws.

Rhodes (5-2) also suffered its first losses of the season at the WashU tournament, to #7 Chicago (5-1) 84-70 and homestanding #4 WashU (6-0) 94-78.

Centre moved to 5-1 with a 69-66 home win against Spalding (3-2).  The visitors closed to within one with just over a minute to play, but despite forcing two Colonel turnovers and benefiting from a missed one-and-one, Spalding was unable to close the gap.

Southwestern (4-1) matched their win total of the last two seasons combined after a 71-63 win at home over struggling ETBU (2-6) in which the Tigers could not get closer than six in the last ten minutes.

Oglethorpe - who I incorrectly credited with on one win last week - lost 104-96 at home to Greensboro (2-3), moving to 2-4.  Sewanee's season from hell (where they join the equally winless Trinity women) continued with a 80-69 home loss to Berea (3-3), dropping them to 0-6.

Big games coming up the week include Trinity at their nemesis (RV, "#26") St. Thomas (5-1) and Berry at #9 Emory (3-1).

[D3Navy]

A light weekend overall for the SAA.  Trinity moves to 6-1 with a closer-than-it-needed-to-be home win against HSU; after trailing by 19 at the break, the Cowboys closed to 3 after shutting down the Tigers' three-point shooting before two techs on the HSU bench helped the Tigers escape, 81-73.  Leading scorer Dylan Walker was on crutches and did not play for Trinity.

Millsaps (5-1) surprsingly suffered their first loss of the season at formerly winless University of the Ozarks (1-6), 78-76.  After the Eagles took the lead with 1:18 to play, the Majors had no fewer than three chances to tie the game; the first was blocked, the second (after a steal with 27 seconds left) was missed, and after Ozarks missed the front half of a 1-and-1, Millsaps missed a layup with one second left.  The Majors also missed nearly half (12) of their 28 free throws.

Rhodes (5-2) also suffered its first losses of the season at the WashU tournament, to #7 Chicago (5-1) 84-70 and homestanding #4 WashU (6-0) 94-78.

Centre moved to 5-1 with a 69-66 home win against Spalding (3-2).  The visitors closed to within one with just over a minute to play, but despite forcing two Colonel turnovers and benefiting from a missed one-and-one, Spalding was unable to close the gap.

Southwestern (4-1) matched their win total of the last two seasons combined after a 71-63 win at home over struggling ETBU (2-6) in which the Tigers could not get closer than six in the last ten minutes.

Oglethorpe - who I incorrectly credited with on one win last week - lost 104-96 at home to Greensboro (2-3), moving to 2-4.  Sewanee's season from hell (where they join the equally winless Trinity women) continued with a 80-69 home loss to Berea (3-3), dropping them to 0-6.

Big games coming up the week include Trinity at their nemesis (RV, "#26") St. Thomas (5-1) and Berry at #9 Emory (3-1).

Terrific rundown, Ron!  Thanks.

[Ron Boerger]

Time to look at the standings with many schools in a break for finals and the like:

Millsaps (6-1) continued their strong run with an 88-80 win at Belhaven (3-7) on the 2nd.  They next run through Texas this week with games at SCAC members Austin (2-4) and LeTourneau (4-3).

Centre (5-1) has not seen action since my last post and play next at a tournament in Nashville against Randolph-Macon (6-0) and Ramapo (2-8) Friday and Saturday.

Trinity (7-2) had an uneven week as they are still without the services of leading scorer Dylan Walker.  On the 6th they lost at St. Thomas (TX) as the Celts (7-2) gradually pulled away late for a 66-53 win.  Three days later back at home they held off UMHB (6-4, with 2 losses to Trinity) 82-77 despite going the last 5:11 without a basket.  Next up at their enlarged Robinson tournament this weekend are St. John's (MN) (3-5) and UW-Stephens Point (7-1).  Word has it this tournament will be restructured next season and held after Christmas rather than before.

Rhodes (6-2) also continued their strong start to the season with a 89-57 laugher over Hendrix (0-8).  They will host a tournament this weekend against North Central (2-5) in the opener and, depending on results, either TLU (3-3) or MUW (4-4) the next day.

Southwestern (4-4) dropped two games in the first week of the month, losing first at Schreiner (4-3) 80-59, then at home to TLU (3-3) 75-73.  They play McMurry (5-4) at home Monday, visit the University of Dallas (3-5) on Friday.

Oglethorpe (4-4) got two welcome wins the first week of the month, 83-78 against visiting Berry (4-5) and 98-82 over NCCAA Baptist University of Florida (3-10).  They next get Caltech (2-6), who must be working on their frequent flyer miles, on Wednesday.

Berry, besides losing to the Stormy Petrels, lost 90-65 at Emory (5-1) and came back last week with a 66-63 win at LaGrange.  Belhaven comes to town on Wednesday.

Sewanee got off the schneid (Google it if you have to) with two wins, 106-91 over Asbury (0-9) on the Mountain and 81-65 at NCCAA Welch College (3-10).  They then took a 98-88 loss at Covenant (2-8).  The Tigers are off until the 29th when they will play Brevard (5-3) and Lagrange (4-3) at Oglethorpe's tournament.

[Ron Boerger]

SAA: 38-26 (.594)
- Home 17-10 / Away 16-14 / Neutral 5-2

Team	Record	Pct	Home	Away	Neutral	NPI
Millsaps	6-1	0.857	3-0	2-1	1-0	108
Centre	5-1	0.833	1-1	3-0	1-0	160
Trinity	7-2	0.778	2-0	2-2	3-0	13
Rhodes	6-2	0.750	5-0	1-1	0-1	201
Oglethorpe	4-4	0.500	2-1	2-2	0-1	324
Southwestern	4-4	0.500	1-2	3-2	0-0	191
Berry	4-5	0.444	2-2	2-3	0-0	286
Sewanee	2-7	0.222	1-4	1-3	0-0	390