Previous Evening MAC Review: X-Raided

Last night in MACsketball:

Miami 75, Xavier 64 — Quality, quality win at home against the Atlantic 10's jewel program. Miami's schedule has been borderline-satanic this year, but a wire-to-wire victory over the Musketeers brings them to 3-4. The performance of the night was Julian Mavunga, who had 24 points and eight rebounds, while Nick Winbush brought 17 of his own points to the table. This was an important game to win; if Xavier can be beat in Millett, they can beat anybody in the MAC there. Miami's next game: Saturday, 12/4 at Dayton

Temple 65, Central Michigan 53 — Aw, c'mon Half Brother Temple. Why can't you play nicer? We understand losing the Top 25 ranking is difficult and stuff, but at don't come all storming back in the second-half like you have something to prove. CMU's home debut was ruined by a squandered eight-point halftime lead. Those are useful to have when used properly. Jalin Thomas led the way for the Chips with 26 points fueled by six three-pointers. Everyone else is probably tuckered out from the start to the season. Central Michigan's next game: Sunday, 12/5 at DePaul

Buffalo 56, Army 54 — Probably not the comfy score one would like, but UB finally wins one away from the Buffalo city limits. Byron Mulkey hit the game-winner with about 12 seconds left to finish with 10 points and Zach Filzen registered 14. The Bulls of Blue are supposed to be one of the weaker teams this year ... but hey, they've had a pretty snazzy start to their nonconference table. It could be fool's gold, but maybe we need to further revisit their standing in the MAC East. Buffalo's next game: Saturday, 12/4 at St. Bonaventure

Akron 77, Detroit 69 — And then there are the Zips, who keep going back and forth by alternating wins and losses. Following their defeat to Cleveland State, they turned around and took down the Titans in Detroit. (You may not have even known Detroit had a titan infestation. Shows how much you know.) The key slayer was Nikola Cvetinovic with 18 points, seven rebounds and four steals. UA was decidedly outrebounded but 13 steals helped balance the tide. Akron's next game, which according to the sequence will be a loss: Saturday, 12/4 at Illinois-Chicago

Towson 75, Western Michigan 73 — Here's yet another eight-point halftime loss blown to smithereens, although WMU frittered it away on the road. What luck: Nate Hutcheson and Juwan Howard Jr. each clocked in with 13 points, and Mike Douglas dished out 13 assists. As a result, Towson hit the game-winning shot with a fraction of a second left in the game. WMU is now 1-4 and this one probably will sting for a bit. Put some peroxide on it. Western Michigan's next game: Saturday, 12/4 vs. Alma

We also have one women's score to report, because we're nice that way: Bowling Green upset #23 Vanderbilt 79-68. This is the third time the Falcons have upset a ranked Vanderbilt team in the last five years. You may remember one of those wins was in the second round of the 2007 NCAA women's tournament. Well ... okay, I remember it. BGSU senior star Lauren Prochaska had 31 points. At 7-1, I'm thinking it might be time to start voting them into the Top 25 now, okay?

Today's basketball games:

7 p.m. — Louisiana-Monroe at Kent State
8:30 p.m. — Northern Illinois at DePaul (TV: ESPN3.com)