LACEY LOWDOWN

In the latest news from college hoops the performance of the week belongs to Cantabrian Tessa Boagni and the stat of the week to Brooke Blair.

Boagni posted a career high 36 points as California State Northridge Matadors edged Cal State Fullerton 70-68 in their Big West Conference opener. She completed her ninth career double-double with 10 rebounds in a performance labeled by Matadors head coach Jason Flowers as “Big time – the numbers speak for themselves.”

Those numbers included 11 from 21 shooting from the field and 14 made free throws from 16 attempts.

Blair had back-to-back 14 points outings for Idaho State Bengals. The Bengals are 2-1 in Big Sky Conference play after a 76-70 defeat at the hands of Southern Utah and a bounce back 75-55 win at Northern Arizona.

Blair’s 5 from 9 shooting from beyond the arc across the two games has propelled her to the top of the NCAA Division 1 three-point shooting percentage chart.

This season the former Rangitoto College guard has made 34 from 67 attempts (50.7%).

Put into context, with 349 Women’s NCAA Division 1 basketball programmes, Blair is ahead of over 3,500 players on the shooting chart she heads. Blair has connected with at least one triple in every game and is leading the Bengals scoring in this campaign averaging 14 points per outing.

Stella Beck was also in good form scoring a season high 24 points as St Mary’s Gaels beat San Diego 75-53 to improve to 3-1 in West Coast Conference play. The former Hutt Valley guard had a shooting night to remember missing just once from 11 attempts.

Penina Davidson made 7 points and garnered 9 rebounds as Cal Berkeley Golden Bears improved to 2-2 in the highly competitive Pac 12 Conference – the Bears won at Arizona but only just (53-51).

Zara Jillings has enjoyed plenty of court time for Fordham University recently as the Rams have begun Atlantic 10 Conference play with three wins on the bounce, the latest victory a narrow 66-63 win against St Louis. Jillings has started all three conference games averaging 32 minutes, 7.7 points, 4 rebounds and three assists. Her shooting has also been impressive in the three game swing connecting with 10 of 16 shots at 63%.

Also in the Atlantic 10 Virginia Commonwealth Rams slipped to 0-3 after going down to Duquesne 70-51. On a positive note Tera Reed was the only Rams player in double figures scoring 13 points to add to 4 rebounds.

It was almost all the five’s for Krystal Leger-Walker as Northern Colorado Bears clawed Montana 68-50 for a fourth straight Big Sky Conference victory. Leger-Walker had four assists and a quintet of points, rebounds and steals.

14,400 spectators were on hand to see Jack Salt and University of Virginia Cavaliers take down the defending NCAA champions, North Carolina 61-49. Salt (4pts/3rebs/1block) was at the heart of the Cavs defensive effort described by NCU head coach Roy Williams as, “About as good a defensive game as we’ve had anybody play against us.”

As we near Xmas the American College basketball season is still in full swing and a number of Kiwi internationals have produced impressive numbers of late.

Virginia Cavaliers are ranked a lofty 13^th in the nation after a conclusive 78-47 win against Savannah State. Jack Salt was perfect from the field converting all four scoring attempts and added two from four from the charity stripe – eventually finishing with 10 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks as Virginia now boast a 10-1 record.

Sam Timmins, but for missing 6 of 9 free throws, would have had a double-double in Washington Huskies narrow 80-70 win at Loyola Marymount. The Tall Blacks centre came up with 9 points and 11 rebounds. This was followed a couple of days later by a 106-55 frying of Bethune-Cookman with Timmins registering game high blocks (3) and rebounds (7) in the rout.

Matt Freeman and the Oklahoma Sooners are 9-1 for the season after defeating Northwestern State 105-68. Freeman had 6 points (2/3 3PG), 3 rebounds and 2 blocks in a game in which the Sooners outstanding Freshman guard Trae Young dished a record 22 assists.

It’s rather unusual to find a point guard leading the rebounding count but that’s what Izayah Le’afa accomplished as Sacramento State Hornets beat CSUN 66-61. Le’afa finished just shy of a double-double registering 9 boards and 10 points as the Hornets registered their fourth win of the year.

It’s been a tough schedule recently for Isaac Letoa and his Dartmouth teammates. Playing their fifth consecutive game on the road the Big Green were defeated 97-87 at Notre Dame – Letoa played 8 minutes dishing a brace of assists and grabbing a rebound.

And the Tall Ferns …………..

Stella Beck scored 16 points as St Mary’s Gaels beat Eastern Washington. The former Hutt Valley guard also snared 6 rebounds as the Gaels improve their record this season to 7-3.

Jacinta Beckley came up with a game high 4 steals in addition to 9 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists but Seattle Redhawks slipped up against Pacific going down 85-73.

Brooke Blair scored 7 points and snared a couple of steals as Idaho State Bengals beat Utah Valley 70-58 on the road for their seventh win of the season.

The Bengals have a ten day break before they open Big Sky Conference play on December 28^th and Blair will take the opportunity to return to Auckland for a few days ahead of an intense second half of the season.

Tessa Boagni accumulated a game high 21 points even though, due to foul trouble, she only played 19 minutes as California State Northridge Matadors defeated Northern Arizona. The Matadors centre was a perfect 3 from 3 from beyond the arc.

Penina Davidson had 9 points and 8 rebounds as Cal Berkeley Golden Bears defeated BYU 70-45 on Saturday.

For BYU 2016 NZ Select representative Shalae Salmon scored 8 points (4/5FG) and captured 6 rebounds.

Krystal Leger-Walker dished 8 assists and chipped in with 5 points as Northern Colorado Bears bit Missouri-Kansas 88-73.

The highlight of the past week amongst Tall Ferns in Division 1 colleges was the performance of Jacinta Beckley. She posted a career high 22 points (9/13FG) as Seattle beat San Diego 80-73 making a highly respectable 9 from 13 shots.

Not far behind was the effort of Stella Beck – her double-double of 13 points and 10 assists helped St Mary’s Gaels to a fifth straight win as they came from behind to defeat Boise State 74-72. A couple of days later the Gaels went down 74-63 to Utah with Beck collecting 8 points and 3 steals in that one.

Tessa Boagni also produced a noteworthy double-double. The Cal State Northridge Matadors centre accumulated 12 points and 12 rebounds in the 76-59 win against San Diego State.

Idaho State Bengals slipped to a second successive defeat going down 61-53 at Wyoming. Brooke Blair was kept relatively quiet scoring 7 points and bagging 3 rebounds for the Bengals.

Penina Davidson knocked down 13 points (6/7FG) as Cal Berkeley Bears comfortably beat San Diego 89-64 to improve to 6-2 for the season.

Krystal Leger-Walker had a trio of four’s as Northern Colorado Bears improved to 6-2 with a commanding 80-55 victory against Pacific. The Waikato combo guard had 4 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds in the win.

On the men’s front there were also some handy performances from the Tall Blacks in college this week.

Starting centre Jack Salt was needed for just 20 minutes as Virginia Cavs dispatched Lehigh 75-54 for an eighth straight win. Salt scored 4 points and added block and a pair of rebounds.

A couple of days later Salt played just 9 minutes as the Cavs unbeaten run came to an end downed 68-61 by West Virginia.Sam Timmins stuffed the stats line as Washington Huskies beat Kennesaw State 85-71. The Tall Blacks centre produced 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks to a season high 13 points.

 The Huskies had a significant upset win three days later beating No 2 ranked Kansas 74-65. Timmins only scored 8 points but he was a major contributor at the heart of the Huskies zone defense.

 Sacramento State snapped a six game losing streak beating the attractively named Antelope Valley 97-74. Izayah Le’afa was once again a major facilitator dishing 9 assists to compliment 12 points and five rebounds.

Le’afa has totaled 30 assists in his last 4 outings whilst coughing up just 8 turnovers.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday period there was plenty of action involving our Tall Ferns and Tall Blacks playing college basketball in the States.

It was quite a weekend for former Hutt Valley standout Stella Beck as she passed the 1,000 career points mark with 18 points as St Mary’s Gaels beat USC Santa Barbara 89-59 in the Hilton Concord Classic. In the same game she also matched a career best 6 steals.

“I didn’t really think about (scoring 1,000 career points) until someone mentioned last game that I was three points away from reaching the 1,000-point record. It’s funny because it makes me think about being a senior, which is sad, but it’s also really exciting,” said Beck.

24 hours later Beck took her tally for the weekend to 40 points, nailing 22 to help St Mary’s to a narrow 88-82 win against Idaho and with it the Hilton Concord Classic – not surprisingly Beck was made MVP.

It was also a good time for Jacinta Beckley who scored a career high 20 points for Seattle in the Redhawks 91-77 win against Portland State. The Kapiti native added 8 rebounds for good measure then followed up with a 15 points haul against UC Davis – a game dropped 70-54 by Seattle after three straight wins.

Brooke Blair posted a team high in points (12) and rebounds (7) as Idaho State Bengals improved to 5-1 for the season with a convincing 64-44 victory against Utah State. Blair is leading the Bengals in scoring over the first six games averaging 15.9 points per outing.

Krystal Leger-Walker and Northern Colorado Bears had a night to forget at Fordham University where in a New Zealand first FIVE Kiwis were in action. The Bears made their second lowest score in programme history going down 48-33. The Bears were awful from the three point line making just one from 26 attempts – that single triple made was from Leger-Walker in the final two minutes of the game. That was Leger-Walker’s only score of the night with teammate Tiarna Clarke quiet with just a couple of rebounds to her name.

The hosts featured three Kiwis in their line up led by Cantabrian forward Mary Goulding (6pts/7rebs). They also have the freshman pair of Kendell Heremaia (2pts/7rebs) and Tall Fern Zara Jillings (5pts/2rebs) on their roster.

Penina Davidson led the Cal Berkeley rebounding with 9 boards (plus 7 points) as the Bears beat Manhattan 87-66 in the Cal Classic.

Tessa Boagni and Cal State Northridge are in the winner’s circle at the sixth attempt after downing Arizona 66-63. Boagni collected a game high 12 rebounds and also added 9 points, 3 assists and a block.

Fresno State Bulldogs are in something of a slump going down 76-59 to Texas State. Katelin Noyer scored two points and secured 4 rebounds but it was a fourth straight loss for the Dogs.

On the men’s front there were good performances from the Tall Blacks in college this week.

Sam Timmins produced a strong performance as Washington Huskies beat cross-town rival Seattle 89-84. Timmins was an efficient 9 points (4/5FG), 8 rebounds and 1 block.

Izayah Le’afa didn’t have the best of shooting night’s (1/9FG) in Sacramento State’s 68-63 loss to Cal State Fullerton but he did dish a career high 11 assists with zero turnovers in 34 minutes. The Hornets point guard followed that with 7 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists but it was a fifth straight loss for Sacramento going down 74-69 to Saint Joseph’s.

Virginia Cavaliers won a seventh straight game with centre Jack Salt contributing 8 rebounds (for the second straight game) along with 4 points (2/2FG) in the low scoring 49-37 win against Wisconsin.

Tai Wynyard saw a small amount of action as Kentucky defeated University of Illinois-Chicago 107-73. Wynyard was only given 5 minutes playing time but it was enough for him to register 4 points and 3 rebounds.