NCAA Division II
Hawaii at Hilo small forward Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones was named to the All-PacWest First Team ahead of the Hawaii at Hilo (#7) Conference Tournament clash with #2 Azusa Pacific.
Impressively, this season Tait-Jones has led Hilo in points (17.4ppg), rebounds (8.1rpg), steals (1.6spg) and blocked shots, his achievements also earning him PacWest Freshman of the Year honours.
Unfortunately the former St Pat’s Town standout couldn’t get going against Azusa finishing with 5 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.
“Very special for our programme to be here. We are going to get back to it and we will be here again, commented Tait-Jones on Hilo’s very first appearance at PacWest Tournament.
In Women’s Division II play-off action Chanel Brodeur-Muir had a tidy double of 6 points and 6 rebounds as St Thomas Aquinas College pulled away from District Columbia to win their East Coast Conference Tournament First Round tie 63-49.
NCAA Division I
Miami University strengthened its hold on an Atlantic Coast Conference top-4 spot with an 81-70 win at Boston College. Sam Waardenburg was in fine form with 16 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 pair of steals. The former Rangitoto College standout went 3 from 5 from beyond the arc and 3 from 3 from the charity stripe.
Zach Riley, playing just his tenth game for the Fordham University Rams since joining them mid-season, scored a season high 8 points (3/4FG) as the Rams were tipped 81-73 by Massachusetts in Atlantic-10 play.
Also in the Atlantic-10 Sam Mennenga tallied 9 points and 6 rebounds as Davidson maintained top spot on the conference ladder with a 73-62 win against George Mason – Davidson with a 15-2 record.
The outstanding Division I career of Tera Reed has come to an end after the University of Southern California were bundled out of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament in the first round by UCLA (73-60). Reed finishes her outstanding collegiate career with 1,623 points from 135 games and a remarkable 131 starts.
Number 14 ranked Virginia University Cavaliers fell at the first hurdle at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament beaten 61-53 by #11 Wake Forest. McKenna Dale had a strong game for Virginia, the former Junior Tall Fern filled the stats line with 7 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.
At the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Tsubasa Nisbett and Georgia Southern booked a spot in the next round with an 88-79 victory.
The games below are regular season results.
Grace Hunter scored in double figures for the 11th time in the last 14 games as Florida International beat Florida Atlantic 73-55 in a Conference-USA local derby. The Wellingtonian finished with 11 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.
Amiee Book and Fresno State rounded out Mountain West Conference regular season play with a 96-90 overtime loss at Utah State. Book finished with 8 points, 4 rebounds and a steal in the loss.
Houston Baptist 56 (Lauryn Mapusua 5 points) New Orleans 47
Houston remain top of the Southland Conference with an 11-2 record.
LACEY LOWDOWN 