In womens' college hoops the St. Michael's Purple Knights hadn't won a game on the road at Franklin Pierce since 2001, but they snapped that 16-year skid at just the right time, pulling away in the final minutes last night for a 60-53 that pulls them into a three-way tie for second place in the Northeast division.
Emily Ferreri led all scorers with 21 points on the night and Samantha Delaney put together a double-double with ten points and ten rebounds. It was a tight, one-point game before the Purple Knights went on a 7-0 run in the last few minutes for the victory, which now has them tied with St. Anselm and Assumption for second place in the division with four games left to play in the regular season.
Elsewhere in the womens' game Colby-Sawyer ran over Johnson State 71-38, and Lyndon State topped New England College 63-55. Huge game for Gabrielle Foy who led all scorers with 28 points to lead the Hornets to the win.
The St. Michael's men were also in action against Franklin Pierce and turned a blowout into a close contest before ultimately falling to the Ravens 86-74 in New Hampshire. The Purple Knights trailed by as many as 23 before knocking that lead down to single digits. Levi Holmes had a team high 19 points and Matt Bonds turned in his 16th double double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds but it wasn't enough to overcome that big initial deficit.
Great game between the host Johnson State Badgers and Colby Sawyer Chargers last night that went to double overtime before the Badgers won it 93-91 on a game-winning three-pointer by Marqwon Wynn, who finished the night with 18 points. Johnson's Kawaun Chavis led all scorers with 28 on the night, and Demetrius Slade entered the Badger record books, pulling down 19 rebounds, the most for a single game in the school's history.
Next up for the Badgers is a date Saturday with the Lyndon State Hornets, who also picked up a win last night, beating New England college 80-72 behind Darnay Gray's game high 22 points. The win pushed the Hornets over .500 in North Atlantic Conference play, now 8-7 against opponents in the conference and 9-12 overall.
And tonight all eyes will be on the UVM Catamounts as they host UNH in a big America East showdown. So big in fact that ESPN-U will be broadcasting the game nationally with a later than usual tip off time of 9pm. If the Catamounts win they will move to 22-5 on the season and will break the school record for best regular season record to this point, surpassing the famed 2004-2005 squad that shocked Syracuse in the NCAA tournament. UVM has also won 13 games in a row, the fourth longest current winning streak in the nation.
There was one regional game in womens' college hockey last night and Plattsburgh continues its dominance over basically, everyone, shutting out Middlebury 4-0.
In the hardcourt pro game, the Boston Celtics went into Sacramento last night on a 7-game winning streak, and the Kings were playing without their star center DeMarcus Cousins, who's taking a league-mandated time-out suspension for repeated technical foul issues. Still, the Kings came away with a 108-92 behind 25 points from Darren Collison.
In the NHL the Bruce Cassidy era officially begins in Boston tonight, at least on an interim basis. The assistant coach and former head coach of the Providence Bruins AHL club was moved into the head position after the firing of Claude Julien earlier this week, an announcement the Bruins timed to coincide with the beginning of the New England Patriots championship duck boat parade celebration, public relations never being a Bruins front office strong point. The Bruins are currently outside the playoff bubble as they take on the San Jose Sharks tonight, a team that's been led for nearly two decades now by superstar Joe Thornton, a reminder of yet another player originally drafted by the Bruins before being traded away for players whose names you'd be hard pressed to remember, unless, like me, you have trouble letting these sorts of things go.
