Saturday survival in men's basketball

Feb 19, 2022
Conner Delaney's Senior Day was one to remember.
Johns Hopkins athletics photo
 

No. 1 Randolph-Macon finished a 16-0 run in the ODAC, No. 4 Christopher Newport survived a challenge on the road, No. 12 Johns Hopkins wrapped up the top seed in the Centennial Conference tournament. Will Crumly reached the 2,000-point milestone and did some in an important win. That and more in Saturday’s Division III men’s basketball action. 

Christopher Newport took the lead with five minutes in the first half and took it the rest of the way as the No. 4-ranked Captains survived at Mary Washington 68-67. CNU led by multiple possessions most of the way, with only Riley Welch's 3-pointer at the buzzer cutting the lead to a single point. Adrian Beasley scored 19 points, shooting 8-for-13 off the bench to lift the Captains to the win, CNU's 22nd of the season and 19th in a row.

Randolph-Macon won at Guilford for the first time since 2008, defeating the Quakers 72-66 behind 16 from Josh Talbert and 15 from Miles Mallory. Talbert went 4-for-4 from the line in the final 13 seconds to secure the win. Macon has won 18 games in a row and 41 of its past 42, with its only loss, a one-point defeat at Christopher Newport this past November. The Yellow Jackets turned the ball over just five times.

Ursinus whittled a 46-37 halftime deficit to three at 46-43 with a six-point run to open the second half, but Johns Hopkins responded with a 25-11 run to grab a 71-54 lead with nine minutes remaining and the Bears were never closer than 14 the rest of the way as JHU secured the No. 1 seed in the Centennial Conference tournament and hosting rights for the weekend's semifinals and championship. Conner Delaney hit a 3-pointer to start the Blue Jays' surge, as part of his game-high 26 points. Johns Hopkins improved to 20-3, the third time the Blue Jays have won 20 games under coach Josh Loeffler.

Will Crumly celenrated Senior Day with his 2,000th point, scoring 20, and helping Covenant run away with a 73-52 home win against No. 14 Maryville. The win gives the Scots (16-6, 10-2 USA South) the top seed in the USA South's West Division, ahead of the Scots of Maryville (20-3, 10-2). Crumly is actually the fourth person to reach 2,000 points for Covenant, but the first since the school joined NCAA Division III a decade ago.

No. 16 WPI clinched the outright NEWMAC regular season title and the top seed in the upcoming NEWMAC tournament, defeating Clark 77-69. The loss dropped Clark to 18-7, 7-7 in the NEWMAC, after the Cougars' 12-0 start. The regular season title is the first for WPI since 2014. All five WPI starters finished in double figures in scoring, led by a season-high tying 23 points from Colin McNamara, who also added eight rebounds and four assists. John Adams notched his 13th double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 boards with four assists and two blocks.

Lancaster Bible entered Saturday heading into a head-to-head battle for the top seed in the United East Conference tournament, and the Chargers pulled through with a win, rolling past Penn State-Harrisburg 72-57. Lancaster Bible limited Donyae Baylor-Carroll to 19 points, including just 2-for-9 shooting from 3-point range, in the win. Jordan Shewbridge scored a game-high 26 points, going 8-for-18 from beyond the arc.

With nine teams within two games of each other in the standings in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, the conference's tournament should prove to be an exciting affair. While three teams received a first-round by into the conference's quarterfinal round, the 8-9 game was an epic battle and the tournament's 5-12 game went into overtime. Charles Burnell hit a three-quarters court shot at the halftime buzzer for ninth-seeded Rockford, cutting Edgewood's lead at the break to 42-41. But Jake Schroeckenthaler had 35 points, 17 in the first half and 18 in the second half, along with 12 rebounds in the Eagles' 92-86 win. The victory improved the Eagles to 11-13 on the season. Schroeckenthaler was 15-for-22 from the floor. The Eagles were credited with 26 assists on 31 made baskets. Edgewood advances to play at top seed Concordia-Chicago. And Marian, the NACC five-seed, got 26 from David Britton and 16 from Tyler Gouin and Delvin Barnstable in a 76-75 overtime win against 12-seeded Aurora. The Spartans, who started the season under coach Matt Airy and ended it under interim coach Tyler Jones, lost nine of their final 10 games and finished 5-18.