LACEY LOWDOWN

In the latest NCAA Division I roundup we celebrate Ben Gold playing his 100^th game and Aniwaniwa Tait Jones scoring his 1,000^th point whilst in women’s action Emme Shearer played game number 150.

NB Bracketed numbers indicate conference win/loss records.

Ben Gold became the 18^th Kiwi to play 100 Men’s NCAA Division I games when Marquette 11-5) visited Villanova.

On the floor it wasn’t such a good night with the Golden Eagles beaten 81-66 and Gold finishing with 3 points.

Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones posted a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds as UC San Diego (13-2) defeated Cal Poly 81-67.

He then repeated the 19-point output as UCSD proved way too strong for Tom Beattie (2 points) and Hawaii with a crushing 83-44 win.

Against Hawaii AT-J became just the 7^th Kiwi to score 1,000 points in Men’s NCAA Division I basketball.

In case you are wondering the others are;

Kirk Penney – 1,454pts

Callum McRae – 1,263pts

Tai Webster – 1,116pts

Craig Bradshaw 1,114pts

Kruz Perrott-Hunt 1,104pts

Flynn Cameron 1,028pts

Remarkably Tait-Jones has scored his 1,000 points in just two seasons with those above needing four years to pass the mark.

A couple of Kiwis went head to head in the Atlantic 10 Conference with Hunter Adam’s (8 points and 4 rebounds) Davidson College defeating Zach Riley’s (3 points and 3 rebounds) Fordham University 80-69.

Sophomore Hunter Adam scored a season high 11 points – which doubles as a career high – as Davidson (5-8) went down 77-69 to Loyola Chicago. Adam, who added 5 rebounds, was an efficient 3 from 4 from both the floor and the foul line.

On his Senior Day Mason Whittaker scored with his only attempt from the field and added three rebounds and a steal as American (12-4) edged Boston in the Patriot League.

Playing her 150^th game in a Portland uniform Emme Shearer scored a team high 21 points in an 81-65 defeat of San Diego. She followed that with 12 points as Portland moved to joint first on the West Coast Conference ladder with a 15-3 record after downing Santa Clara 73-66.

Dani Bayes matched her season high with 21 points as Boise State (6-9) beat Wyoming 78-73.The junior guard shot 8 of 13 from the floor including 2 out of 4 from beyond the arc. Defensively she again matched her season best with 3 steals.

Leah Mafua top scored for Central Arkansas with 17 points but the Sugar Bears (13-2) lost just their second Atlantic Sun Conference game of the season going down 95-71 to Florida Gulf Coast.

Maia Jones, on 6 from 10 shooting, scored 15 points as St Mary’s College (9-9) went down 60-53 to West Coast Conference joint-leaders Gonzaga for whom Tayla Dalton scored 6 points.

Lilly Parke scored 12 points as unbeaten Fairleigh Dickinson (13-0) clinched the Northeast Conference regular season title with a 60-33 demolition of Saint Francis.

Waiata Jennings played a season high 26 minutes and scored 7 points as Baylor (13-2) beat Colorado 84-62.

Missed from last week’s roundup is acknowledgement that Ritorya Tamilo now owns the University of Hawaii’s women’s record for blocked shots in a season by a freshman. She has 34 and counting with Hawaii (14-2) atop the Big West Conference standings.

Mackenzie Chatfield had a team high 5 assists to accompany 4 points as Western Kentucky (9-4) beat Sam Houston 57-45.

Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, Emme Shearer Leah Mafua, Maia Jones and Lilly Parke each ticked off milestone numbers as their respective teams continued their winning ways.

NB Bracketed numbers indicate conference win/loss record.

Tait-Jones scored 20 points to pace UC San Diego (12-2) to a 73-54 win against CSU Bakersfield. That was followed by 16 points in an equally comfortable 85-60 victory over UC Davis.

With 971 career points Tait-Jones passes Mark Dickel (945) and Izayah Le’afa (941) to jump from 10^th to 8^th on the all-time career scoring by Kiwis in Men’s NCAA Division I hoops.

Emme Shearer and Maia Jones were outstanding in the Portland against St Mary’s tussle. Portland recovered from a 14-point deficit to pip the Gaels 71-69. Jones had 11 points, 4 assists and 2 steals for the Gaels as she brought up 500 career points.

Meanwhile Shearer equaled her career high with 26 points. Those 26 points pushed Shearer beyond the 1,500 career points mark – ahead of Megan Compain (1,497pts) – and up to 4^th on the all-time list for career scoring by Kiwis in Women’s NCAA Division I hoops.

Leah Mafua scored 15 points as Central Arkansas completed a convincing 73-51 win against North Alabama. Mafua added 6 rebounds, 3 assists, a block and a steal as she brought up 600 career points in her second season at Central Arkansas.

The former Hutt Valley High standout followed that with a team high 18 points as Central Arkansas (13-1) made it 12 straight wins with a 77-67 defeat of Austin Peay.

Meanwhile Lilly Parke scored her 500^th point in her 54^th game (all starts) for Fairleigh Dickinson (11-0). Parke had 11 points in FDU’s narrow 74-70 win against Chicago State.

Ritorya Tamilo scored a conference best 15 points, to accompany 7 rebounds and 2 blocks, as Hawaii made it 12 wins on the bounce by defeating Long Beach State 72-65.

Then in a battle between the top two teams in the Big West Conference Tamilo secured a game high 10 rebounds to go with 8 points and 2 bocks as Hawaii (13-2) saw off the challenge of UC Irvine (10-4) to win a low scoring contest 49-44. Olivia Williams with 5 points for UCI.

Helen Matthews scored 16 points as Wofford (7-3) survived a fourth quarter fight back from Western Carolina to squeeze home 70-68.

Dani Bayes scored 11 points as Boise State (5-8) went down 88-83 after overtime against New Mexico.

Shawnessy Nordstrom also scored 11 points, on 4 from 7 shooting, as California Baptist won 90-79 against Texas Arlington.

Back to men’s action and Hunter Adam added 6 rebounds to 10 points (one point shy of equaling his season best) as Davidson College (5-6) beat Massachusetts 77-68.

Will Shortt scored 9 points as Niagara led all the way to beat Canisius 71-60.

Tom Beattie scored 8 points as Hawaii (6-8) held on to beat Long Beach State 62-60.

Freshman Kaia Berridge equalled his season best with 6 points as Evansville (7-9) beat Valparaiso 79-69.

Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones and Emme Shearer continue advancing up New Zealand’s all-time lists while Leah Mafua produced a career best performance – details below.

Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones and UC San Diego are flying high after his 22 points helped seal a convincing 85-67 win at UC Irvine. The victory sees San Diego join Irvine at the top of the Big West Conference standings – both teams with 10-2 records.

A couple of days earlier Tait-Jones scored a team high 28 points to go with 7 rebounds, 4 assists a block and a steal as the Tritons inflicted a 91-71 defeat on UC Riverside.

The last six games have seen the former St Pat’s College wing tally 32, 25,32,16,28 and 22 points.

Averaging 20.0 points per game AT-J has passed 900 career points and move into 10^th position of New Zealand all-time scorers in Men’s NCAA Division I basketball. His points per game sees him ranked 18^th amongst all players in men’s Division I in that statistical category.

Emme Shearer made a pair free-throws with 18 seconds remaining to propel Portland to victory. Shearer finished with 12 points as Portland (10-3) eventually prevailed 66-64 against win-less San Diego.

Shearer was playing her 146^th game for Portland and passed Kendell Heremaia’s record of 145 games to now sit outright second on the all-time list of NCAA Division I appearances by a Kiwi. Barring injury Shearer will pass Tegan Graham’s record of 153 appearances in early March.

Leah Mafua tied her career high with 24 points as Central Arkansas (10-1) maintained its impressive start to the season with a 76-65 win at Jacksonville. Mafua followed that with 21 points (5/11FG, 11/14FT) as Central Arkansas continued its winning ways by downing North Florida 72-59.

Maia Jones shot an efficient 5 from 7 from the field and 4 from 5 from the charity stripe for 15 points as St Mary’s lost 69-58 to West Coast Conference leaders Gonzaga (11-2).

Against the team she played 4-years for Tayla Dalton had 4 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists for Gonzaga.

Jones then led St Mary’s (8-6) to a bounce back win against San Francisco, scoring 19 points in the 52-49 victory.

Hawaii (11-2) recorded a 10^th straight win in downing Cal Poly 67-43 with Tall Fern Ritorya Tamilo posting 13 points and 7 rebounds.

In also scoring 13 points (4/8FG), Dani Bayes brought up 700 career points at Boise State (5-6) as the Broncos lost 69-61 to Nevada.

Despite St Bonaventure (1-12) having its struggles Hannah Richardson is making the most of her opportunities. The freshman, formerly of Westlake Girls High, improved her season high in successive games. She made 11 points in the 81-54 loss to Massachusetts and followed up with 13 in the 58-49 defeat against George Washington.

Returning after a two-month lay-off due to injury Shawnessy Nordstrom led the scoring for California Baptist (5-4) with 10 points in its 84-55 loss to Grand Canyon.

Lily Parke is sitting on 499 career points after making 7 points as Fairleigh Dickinson (9-0) maintained their position at the top of the Northeast Conference standings with a 54-41 road win at Wagner.

In other men’s news former Auckland Grammar standout Will Shortt scored a season high 10 points as Niagara (4-8) stunned Metro Athletic Conference leaders Quinnipiac to win 76-65.

This week we recognize the major milestones brought up by Helen Matthews and Emme Shearer and also have news of a career performance from Taine Murray.

In her 100^th appearance for Wofford College Helen Matthews scored 10 points in their narrow 57-54 win against Tennessee at Chattanooga. Matthews becomes the 32^nd Kiwi to play 100 games in NCAA Division I Women’s hoops.

The Cantabrian then made 15 points as Wofford (6-1) suffered their first conference defeat going down 63-50 to East Tennessee State.

Emme Shearer set a new record in Portland’s women’s programme history by playing her 144^th game for the Pilots in a 66-58 win against St Mary’s. At the same time she also set a new career mark of 10 assists as well as adding 7 points, 7 rebounds, 6 steals and 2 blocks. 

For St Mary’s, Maia Jones, in her 50^th appearance for the Gaels matched Shearer’s half-dozen steals haul and also posted 11 points and 3 assists.

Shearer then scored a game high 24 points as Portland (9-3) eased away from Pepperdine to win 76-52.

Making 4 from 9 from beyond the arc Danni Bayes scored 18 points – one point shy of equaling her season best – as Boise State (5-4) won 89-80 at New Mexico.

Leah Mafua contributed 14 points and 6 assists as Central Arkansas moved to 8-1 in Atlantic Sun Conference play after a narrow 67-64 win against West Georgia.

Emilee Tahata, with 13 points (6/10FG), 6 rebounds and 3 assists, played a big part in Rider (3-8) squeezing past Merrimack 65-63.

Olivia Williams scored 10 points to help UC Irvine (8-2) defeat Long Beach State 61-47.

Tayla Dalton had 9 points and 7 rebounds as Gonzaga (9-2) defeated San Diego 64-48 to make it eight wins on the bounce.

Izzy Pugh also tallied 9 points in Wisconsin Milwaukee’s 89-81 loss to Cleveland State.

Lilly Parke added 7 rebounds to 8 points as Fairleigh Dickinson made it 7-0 in conference play with a commanding 75-45 win against Mercyhurst.

Taine Murray scored a career high 20 points, to accompany 7 assists, as Virginia (3-8) recorded an 82-71 road win at Miami. Murray was an impressive 8 from 12 from the field including 4 from 6 from beyond the arc.

The former Harbour standout followed up with 10 points as Virginia were edged out by Virginia Tech 75-74.

In a game featuring two Kiwis UC San Diego saw off the challenge of Hawaii to win 74-63.

Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones had 16 points and 9 rebounds for UCSD while Tom Beattie, playing his 50th game for Hawaii tallied 6 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.

Tom Beattie, on 7 from 10 shooting, scored 14 points and dished 5 assists as Hawaii (5-6) snapped a three game losing streak in downing California State Fullerton 82-57.

Zach Riley was also highly efficient as Fordham (2-6) beat La Salle 88-72. Riley had 7 points, making 3 from 5 from the field, and also claimed 5 rebounds.

Finn Lally scored 10 points – his second double figure outing of the season – despite William & Mary getting pounded 96-55 by Campbell.