On The Horizon

Jim Squire

The Morning Dish – Friday, January 4, 2019--Hoops HD

Side Dishes:
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Antoine Davis of Detroit Mercy has been one of the most explosive freshmen in the country, and he erupted for 48 points in the Titans’ 79-58 win over Wright State. The son of coach Mike Davis canned 10 three-pointers, and UDM is now 3-0 in the Horizon League. Also with the same mark in the Horizon is the Titans’ rival Oakland, which tipped Northern Kentucky 76-74 as Xavier Hill-Mais scored 32.
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Tonight’s Menu:
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The only other game featuring D-I teams squaring off is IUPUI at Illinois-Chicago, and it’s also on TV (7 p.m., ESPNU). Important early season game in the Horizon League as the Jaguars try to avoid going 0-3 while UIC doesn’t want to lose a home game and fall to 1-2.

The Morning Dish – Saturday, January 5, 2019--Hoops HD

Side Dishes:
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IUPUI earned a big road win in the Horizon League, toppling Illinois-Chicago 66-64 behind Cameron Justice’s career-high 30 points. It’s not always pretty in this league, which is still recovering from some massive coaching turnover in recent years, but it’s sure looking like a fun season, with all sorts of close games early on.
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Today’s Menu: The first Saturday of January is predictably loaded with conference action.
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Horizon League unbeaten Detroit Mercy looks to move to 4-0 but to do so must beat league heavy Northern Kentucky, which already has one loss in league.

Justice scores career-high 30 in IUPUI's victory--CBS Sports
McDonald leads Northern Kentucky past Detroit Mercy--CBS Sports
Cohen hits bank shot at buzzer, Green Bay wins--CBS Sports
Gentry scores 22, Wright State knocks off Oakland--CBS Sports
Youngstown St. routs Milwaukee, 76-51 for Horizon League win--CBS Sports
College basketball live blog: Marquee conference matchups to start January--Mid-Major Madness

UPDATE: 5:37 p.m.

A tail of the Loyola narrative, as brought to you by us:

Preseason: Loyola is going to be really good again, top 2-3 team in the Valley.
November: They stink. Overrated. Sad!!!
December: ???? forgotten about
January: RAMBLER TIME BABBY!

That’s right, the Ramblers are 2-0 in the MVC with a win over newly ranked (in The Other Top 25) Drake on Saturday. How’d they do it?

By shooting the damn lights out.

Marques Townes had 28 points on 11-17 shooting. Clayton Custer had 26 on 9-12 shooting and was 6-8 from three.

Team stats: 63.3% from the field, 50% from three (12-24), 76% from two-point range, 1.31 points per possession.

It all added up to an 85-74 win on the road.

- Russell Steinberg

UPDATE: 4:03 p.m.

We mentioned Northern Kentucky’s bounce back win at Detroit below, a game in which Titans guard Antoine Davis continued the blistering start to his career. The freshman lit it up again, scoring 33 points on 13-24 shooting — doing most his damage within the three-point arc.

This notable since in the game Davis set the program’s all-time record for three-pointers made a by a freshman. As a reminder, it is only early January.

There is the Titan freshman 3-point record as Davis connects on his 80th 3 of the season. He then hits a jumper. He has 14 points and the Titans lead NKU 19-17 #DetroitsCollegeTeam #HLMBB pic.twitter.com/us4LyJHZH9
— Detroit Mercy MBB (@DetroitMBB) January 5, 2019

Buoyed by a 48-point midweek outing against Wright State, Davis is averaging well over 30 points per game during Horizon League play. The coach’s son is starting to generate some draft buzz, and seems worth the price of you, the college basketball fan’s, attention on a nightly basis.

- Greg Mitchell
UPDATE: 3:07 p.m.

It’s been a moderately quiet day so far with some of the bigger games tipping off later in the day, but the biggest thing come form the early slate comes out of the Atlantic 10. La Salle - who was just 2-10 on the year heading into today - comes out of Amherst with a 69-60 win over UMass. The up and down year for the Minutemen continues as they drop to 7-7 on the year.

Other notes and scores from the first slot of games:

Detroit’s hot start in Horizon League play came to an end against Northern Kentucky as the Norse cruised to a 95-73 win. Road teams as a whole have been a force early on in the Horizon League.

News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Friday, Jan 4th--Hoops HD

It was also a bad night for a lot of UTR teams
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-Wright State, who returned six of their top seven players, was blown out at Detroit. Now to be fair they’ve dealt with injuries, but still. They were blown out. At Detroit. And have been disappointing all year

-Northern Kentucky was the only Horizon League team that had looked even halfway decent during the OOC. They lost their conference opener at Oakland.

Vikings Drop Heartbreaker At Green Bay, 90-89--csuvikings.com

Miller & Crockett Double-Doubles Lead Vikings To 71-53 Victory Over UIC--csuvikings.com

Davis Nets 33 Points But Titans Fall to Northern Kentucky--detroittitans.com

Fourth-Quarter Rally Falls Short at Oakland, 74-67--detroittitans.com

OAKLAND SET FOR WINTERFEST TAILGATE--goldengrizzlies.com
OAKLAND FALLS TO WRIGHT STATE 89-73--goldengrizzlies.com

NEAR TRIPLE DOUBLE FROM JONES LEADS OAKLAND TO METRO SERIES WIN OVER ARCH-RIVAL DETROIT MERCY--goldengrizzlies.com

Flames Fall to Jaguars, 66-64--uicflames.com

Sluggish Second Half Defeats Flames in Cleveland--uicflames.com

The Morning After: Buffalo, Ball State and IUPUI all win on the road--Mid-Major Madness
JUSTICE'S 30 LEADS JAGUARS TO KEY HORIZON LEAGUE ROAD WIN--iupuijags.com

JAGS BITTEN BY COLD SHOOTING IN LOSS TO PENGUINS--iupuijags.com

UWGB men: Cohen III plays hero with buzzer-beating shot--Green Bay Press Gazette
Cohen's Buzzer Beater Caps Green Bay's Comeback Against Cleveland State--greenbayphoenix.com

UWGB women: Phoenix bounces [sic] back with win--Green Bay Press Gazette
Senior Trio Leads Green Bay to Victory at Northern Kentucky, 81-61--greenbayphoenix.com

Youngstown State 76, UW-Milwaukee 51: Poor shooting carries over to uninspired defense--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Penguins Cool Down Panthers With Big Second Half--mkepanthers.com

League-Leading WSU Squeaks Past MKE--mkepanthers.com