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

[Ron Boerger]

Scores after the first weekend of conference play:

Centre 66 @Sewanee 72
Millsaps 81 @Rhodes 70
Southwestern 74 @Trinity 94

Prior conference game:
Berry 78 @Oglethorpe 83 (Dec 4!)

This week's games - Friday:

• Berry @Southwestern
• Rhodes @Sewanee
• Oglethorpe @Trinity
• Millsaps @Centre

Sunday:

• Berry @Trinity
• Millsaps @Sewanee
• Oglethorpe @Southwestern
• Rhodes @Centre

Rhodes' loss to Millsaps was their first home loss of the season (now 8-1).  The Lynx' schedule has been very home-centric so far and their upcoming games will be the first time they've been on the road for two since the WashU tournament where they picked up their other two losses.  Of their 12 games they've only been away for three (including one neutral site). 

Trinity is still without the services of Dylan Walker, who led the team in scoring early in the season before suffering some sort of lower body injury.  He was ambulatory last night and hopefully can return before Millsaps comes to town early next month. 

The SAA closed out its non-conference schedule at 50-37, .575.

Team	SAA	Record	Pct	Home	Away	Neutral	NPI	Prior NPI
Millsaps	1-0	10-2	0.833	5-0	4-2	1-0	77	108
Trinity	1-0	9-3	0.750	4-1	2-2	3-0	12	13
Sewanee	1-0	5-7	0.417	2-4	1-3	2-0	295	390
Oglethorpe	1-0	4-8	0.333	2-5	2-2	0-1	377	324
Rhodes	0-1	9-3	0.750	8-1	1-1	0-1	116	201
Centre	0-1	7-4	0.636	2-2	3-1	2-1	151	160
Southwestern	0-1	6-6	0.500	2-2	4-4	0-0	171	191
Berry	0-1	4-8	0.333	2-3	2-5	0-0	298	286