We are at the business end of the American college season with conference titles up for grabs and individual honours recognised. This week Jack Salt, Ella Fotu, Olivia Bell and Georgia Perrott-Hunt have been rewarded with conference titles and Matt Freeman acknowledged for achievement both on and off the court.

Firstly congratulations to Oklahoma Sooners sophmore forward Freeman on being named to the 2018 Academic All-Big 12 team. To qualify, student-athletes must maintain a 3.00 GPA or higher and must have participated in 60 percent of their team’s scheduled contests.

More good news for Matt was that the Sooners broke a six game losing streak to down Kansas State 86-77 and now have a 7-9 record in the Big 12 Conference.

Salt made 6 points and had the same number of rebounds as Virginia Cavaliers defeated Georgia Tech 65-54. A couple of day’s later Virginia clinched their fourth Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title (third under coach Tony Bennett in the last five years) with a 66-37 drubbing of Pittsburgh.

The number one ranked NCAA Division I clinched the title with two conference games remaining.

Fotu scored 13 points as Hawaii Pacific Sharks beat Hawaii Hilo 66-50 to claim a share of the PacWest Conference Championship. The Sharks are ranked No 21 in NCAA Division II women’s basketball and finished with the same record (18-2) as Azusa Pacific. The Sharks will carry the No 2 seeding into the PacWest Conference Tournament later this week.

Also heading for post regular season play as conference champions are North Dakota State College Wildcats. Perrott-Hunt had 7 points and 6 rebounds as the Wildcats beat Dakota 64-59 to claim their second successive title. Bell chipped in with 4 points, 3 rebounds and a couple of steals.

The Wildcats will now host the NJCAA Region XIII Tournament beginning March 3^rd.

Back to the Atlantic Conference and Sam Waardenburg and Miami Hurricanes had a last gasp 79-78 win against Boston College. For once Waardenburg didn’t make a three - he is 10 from 18 (56%) from deep in February – he finished with 4 points and 6 rebounds. The Hurricanes are now 9-7 in conference play.

Dartmouth Big Green suffered a hefty defeat at the hands of Ivy League rivals Princeton going down 64-47. Isaac Letoa chipped in with 5 points for Dartmouth who conclude their season next weekend with a pair of home games.

The season has come to an end for Alex Talma and the Biola University Eagles. Talma finished on a high registering a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds as the Eagles swooped on Dixie State winning 82-57 to finish 5-15 in the PacWest Conference, their record not good enough to carry them to the play-offs. Tama finished his junior year averaging 10.6 points per game – third best on the team and second best rebounding averaging 6.9 boards.

In Junior college Joel Coffey equaled his season best scoring with 15 points for State College of Florida although the Manatees lost a high scoring encounter 108-93 to Florida Southwestern. Coffey was a perfect 7 from 7 from the floor and also added 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. The Manatees are 2-10 in the Suncoast Conference.

With two games remaining, both at home, Idaho State Bengals are 10-6 in the Big Sky Conference after a narrow 66-64 loss at Eastern Washington. Brooke Blair scored a game high 19 points (7/10FG) for the Bengals who hold joint third spot on the Big Sky Conference ladder.

Northern Colorado Bears (13-3) are top of the table and need just one win from their final two games to clinch the regular season title. Tiarna Clarke couldn’t repeat her heroics of last week when she scored 39 pints across two games – the former Westlake guard had to settle for just 5 points.

Tera Reed posted her fourth 20+ points tally of the season as Virginia Commonwealth Rams beat St Louis 84-74 in overtime. On a perfect 6 from 6 at the foul line and 9-of-14 from the floor Reed finished with 24 points and 6 rebounds. On Saturday VCU lost their last regular season game going down 69-63 at Davidson – 17 points for Reed in that one. VCU, seeded 11^th, take on 6^th seed St Joseph’s in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Championship on Tuesday.

The fifteenth double- double of the season from Katie Diakhaby ensured Northeastern Junior College finished their regular season with a win. Northeastern beat Northwest Kansas Technical College 86-73 but must now wait for results of other games to find out their opponents in the Region IX play-offs.