The New Zealand interest in the NCAA Division I Tournament has begun to dwindle after First Round ties were completed.
Patriot League champions Mason Whittaker and his American University team lost a First Four tie against Mount St Mary’s 83-72. Whittaker’s collegiate career has come to an end after 43 appearances for the Eagles.
First Round:
Ben Gold (9 points and 5 rebounds) and #7 ranked Marquette faced #10 New Mexico and came off second best going down 75-66.
Also from the Big 10 Conference Tafara Gapare and #4 Maryland easily accounted for #13 Grand Canyon winning 81-49. Next up for the Terps is a meeting with #12 Colorado State.
Big West Conference MVP Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones and #12 UC San Diego lost a heart breaker against #5 Michigan 68-65 (with Oscar Goodman a red shirt freshman on the bench for Michigan). Michigan next face Texas A&M.
Tait-Jones, restricted by referee trouble, fouled out in 24 minutes with 7 points and 4 rebounds to his name. He finished the season with a colossal 670 points – a UCSD programme record and also a record single season haul by a Kiwi in NCAA Division I hoops.
In the Women’s NCAA Tournament:
Lilly Taulelei and #11 Iowa State defeated Princeton in a First Four tie on Wednesday winning 68-63 to earn a First Round match up with Michigan which resulted in an 80-74 loss.
Making their first ever Tournament appearance Northeast Conference Champions #15 Fairleigh Dickinson with Lilly Parke (3 points and 4 rebounds) a starter were defeated 73-51 by #2 Texas Christian. Parke started all 33 games for FDU tallying 313 points.
Waiata Jennings and #4 Baylor were too good for Grand Canyon winning their First Round tie 73-60.
Unfortunately we won’t see Charlisse Leger-Walker in action as she continues her rehab from the ACL injury she suffered last year but her UCLA Bruins are the overall number one seed at the tournament and they made an impressive start with a commanding 84-46 win against Southern.
A number of New Zealander’s missed out on the Big Dance but are/were still be involved in tournament play.
The Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament (WBIT) is an invite only tournament for teams that were regular season champions plus others including the first four teams out of the NCAA Tournament.
All First round games were played on Thursday March 20:
West Coast Conference (WCC) regular season joint champs Gonzaga defeated Texas at San Antonio 67-51 with Tayla Dalton adding 4 assists, a block and a steal to 9 points in the win.
Emme Shearer matched her career high with 28 points (12/18FG) and hit the game winning free throw with 1.8 seconds left to carry fellow WCC regular season champs Portland to a 69-68 overtime win at Stanford University – a first ever win for Portland against the Cardinals in five attempts.
Hawaii were undone by UNLV 63-46 to bring the curtain down on the freshman seasons of Rebecca Moors and Ritorya Tamilo. Moors made 26 appearances and Tamilo 31 with 29 starts. The Big West Freshman of the Year now owns the Hawaii’s women’s record for blocked shots in a season by a freshman swatting away 41 shots.
There is also Kiwi interest at the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT).
In the First Round Saint Mary’s, minus Maia Jones, went down 54-50 to Texas Southern
while Zoe Richardson and Siena College bowed out against Howard 72-62
Leah Mafua and Central Arkansas received a bye to the second round and will entertain Abilene Christian on March 24.
At the Men’s NIT UC Irvine (redshirt Akiva McBirney-Griffin) had an 82-72 First Round win against Northern Colorado and will next face Jacksonville State.
Meanwhile at the inaugural College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas Georgetown (redshirt Julius Halaifonua) will take on Washington State on March 31.
LACEY LOWDOWN 