MAC Basketball Review: Ugly But Effective

Recaps and notes from the day in MAC basketball:

Kent State 71, James Madison 51 — You'd look at the score and say "this is how it's done." Well … no it's not. You don't win games with 23 turnovers, 27 field goals, let alone with them by 20. They kept Humpty Hitchens, formerly of the Zips, to just 11 points on 16 shots and otherwise forced the Dukes into a ton of misses, finishing with an 38.1% eFG. Yet again a team effort was used to score points, having five players finish in double-figures. Chris Evans had 17 points, seven rebounds and three steals. The Golden Flashes remain near-flawless at 6-1.

Ball State 76, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 55 — The team they call SIUe is admittedly an excellent 3-point shooting team (39.7 percent on such tries) but doesn't have much in the way of size, and Ball State exploited this in the form of Jarrod Jones. The big man had 22 points (on just eight shots) and 13 rebounds. Jesse Berry also shot through the defense with ease to the tune of 25 points. And just like that, the Cardinals record looks mighty nice, winning five straight to put them at 5-2.

Women's games:

Duquesne 64, Miami 63 — MU led for most of the first half, but the Dukes led for all of the second half. They had the ball in the right lady's hands in the final seconds, but Courtney Osborn's shot was blocked with nine seconds remaining. She finished with 18 points, five assists and five steals. Kirsten Olowinski had 18 points and 11 rebounds.

BGSU 73, Youngstown State 61 — A tooth-and-nail game for much of the first half, the Falcons squirted away to a double-digit win thanks to a ton of free throw shooting. Alexis Rogers paced them with 23 points and 11 boards, while Chrissy Steffen also hit the 20-point mark, adding 21 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals. Poor, poor penguins.

Temple 68, Kent State 33 — Youch. Bob Lindsey clearly has his work cut out for him this season with this team. Having six freshmen and no seniors on the team really is like a toothache. http://twitter.com/#!/KSUCoachBob/statuses/143059097992953856 One of those frehmsn, Itziar Llobet, led the team with 13 points

Chicago State 70, WMU 65 — The Cougars of the Great West Conference earned their first victory, men's or women's hoops, on the heels of a poor and banged up Broncos squad. Corie Buchanan did well with 18 points, eight assists and five steals.

Today's men's games:

7:00 p.m. — Malone University (NCCAA) at BGSU
7:00 p.m. — Buffalo at Niagara
7:00 p.m. — OHIO at Oakland
7:00 p.m. — Temple at Toledo

Today's women's games:

7:00 p.m. — Canisius at Buffalo