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 10th position of New Zealand all-time scorers in Men’s NCAA Division I basketball. His points per game sees him ranked 18th 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 146th 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 10th 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.
LACEY LOWDOWN 