Monday Morning Shootaround

Some good basketball was played on Sunday, including the first round of games in the MVC. Only five ranked teams took the floor, however, with each of them winning their games:

• UNC 97, Rutgers 75: Hansbrough finished with 26 and 10 in the rout. Lawson added 19 and 6 dimes without a turnover.
• UCLA 78, Louisiana Tech 55: Josh Shipp returned from a sprained thumb to score 16 points and Jrue Holiday added 12 and 10 boards as UCLA cruised to their sixth straight win.
• Purdue 59, Valpo 45: Playing without Chris Kramer, the Boilermakers got 14 from E'Twaun Moore, 9 and 14 from Robbie Hummel, and 9 points from Bobby Riddell, a former walk-on who started in Kramer's place.
• Minnesota 82, High Point 56: The Gophers may be the ultimate "team". Five guys scored in double figures, they shot 53% from the floor (11-24 from deep), they had 24 assists on 32 field goals, and seven different guys had two or more assists while seven different guys had three or more rebounds.
• Marquette 84, Presbyterian 45: Lazar Hayward had 22 and 11 in the rout.

The MVC had an exciting start to their regular season, as it once again looks like it will be one of the toughest conferences top-to-bottom in the country:

• Indiana State 85, Northern Iowa 84 2OT: The Sycamores took a 17 point lead into halftime, but Northern Iowa came all the way back to tie it on a Travis Brown three with 1 second left in regulation. ISU was again ahead in the first overtime, but a lay-up by Kwadzo Ahelegbe sent the game to another overtime. In the second OT, NIU got up four early, but Aaron Carter hit back-to-back threes, one of which was a four-point play, to give the Sycamores a lead they wouldn't reliquish. Harry Marshall led ISU with 23 points, while Ahelegbe had 28 for NIU.
• Illinois State 72, Missouri State 69 OT: The Redbirds managed to stay undefeated with a come from behind win. Down 15 early in the second half, ISU went on a 22-2 run over the next 13 minutes. Missouri State was down three on their last possession of regulation, but Will Creekmore, who finished with 19 and 11, hit a three at the buzzer to force OT. The Redbirds built up a five point lead in the OT, but the Bears cut it to 61-60. After Spencer Laurie grabbed a defensive rebound, he was stripped and the ball ended up in Osiris Eldridge's hands, who threw down an and-one dunk to give ISU a four-point lead. The Redbirds hit their free throws down the stretch to seal it up.
  
• Bradley 79, Southern Illinois 63: If Southern Illinois has an off game defensively, they are in trouble. See tonight, as Bradley shot 55% from the field and 7-13 from deep in the win.
• Evansville 76, Drake 65: Jason Holsinger and Shy Ely (yes, that is his real name) both scored 16 points as the Aces knocked off the defending MVC champs. It looks like Evansville will be right up there with Illinois State and Creighton (see below) as the favorites to win the conference.
• Creighton 68, Wichita State 56: You have to throw the Blue Jays into the conversation in the MVC as well as they improved to 11-2 with a win over a hot Shockers team. Booker Woodfox (the MVC is just full of awesome names) led the Blue Jays with 16 points.
  

The rest of the day's action:

• Illinois 62, Eastern Michigan 53: Mike Tisdale led the Illini with 25.
  
• Florida State 82, Western Kentucky 69: Toney Douglas had 27, 5 boards, and 5 dimes and Chris Singleton added 18 and 6 rebounds in the win.
• USC 66, Oral Roberts 56: Another ho-hum win for the Trojans. Demar Derozan had 18.
• Virginia 88, Georgia Tech 84 OT: Calvin Baker scored with 10 seconds left to give the Cavs the win. Gani Lawal had just tied it up five seconds earlier with a steal and a lay-up. Sylvan Landesberg had 26 on the night, while Gani Lawal led the Jackets with 21 and 9.
• Florida 74, Winthrop 45: Is Winthrop really 1-10? The Gators led this one 53-11 at the half.
• Siena 75, St. Joe's 74: Ryan Rossiter hit two free throws with 2.4 seconds left to give the Saints the win.
  
• Alabama 66, Yale 63: Really? Yup.
• Texas A&M 60, Sam Houston State 50
• Stanford 111, Texas Tech 66: The Cardinal remain undefeated after beating Tech in a game that was never really close.