Former Harbour representative Charlotte Armstrong has been waiting patiently to get her senior year at Barry University underway.

Covid has played havoc with all the college basketball programmes in the States but most began fixtures early in 2021. Barry University will finally got to play on Thursday when the Sunshine State Conference fixtures commenced. 

Barry enjoyed immediate success with Charlotte adding 4 rebounds to 8 points in a 68-54 win against Florida Tech. 

One player who has had plenty of basketball, and enjoyed a good degree of success, is Emme Shearer.

Emme scored 10 points (4/6FG) in Portland’s latest success, a narrow 69-67 home win against Pacific.

The former Westlake guard has started the last five games for Portland with the Pilots winning five of those games to improve to 7-4 in West Coast conference play.

Also with 10 points was James Moors as Colorado State edged Wyoming 74-72. The tally means James, in his freshman year, has passed 100 points for the season, with Colorado 10-3 in conference fixtures.

Meanwhile Kruz Perrott-Hunt made it four double digit contributions in a row as his 11 points (5/10FG) helped South Dakota past pre-season favourites South Dakota State 64-56. That’s 10 wins in a row for the Summit League leaders.

Will Heather didn’t miss a shot (9/9FG, 1/1FT) on his way to a career-best 19 points. Dallas Baptist beat Texas A&M Commerce 80-69 to improve to 12-2, and second on the ladder in the Lone Star Conference.

Another Rosmini College old boy Marvin Williams Dunn scored a season high 12 points (4/5 3PG) and also grabbed a couple of steals but it was insufficient to stop Ouachita Baptist falling 68-57 to Arkansas-Monticello.

Congratulations to Rashaan Smith on scoring her first collegiate point as Dawson College defeated Williston State 76-52 in Junior College basketball. Jazz Kailahi-Fulu recorded 8 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks for Dawson.

A couple of days earlier Jazz and Keeley Tini had been in splendid form despite Williston losing 79-63 to Miles College.  Both came close to double-doubles with Jazz totaling 19 points and 8 rebounds while Keeley slotted home 14 points and added 9 rebounds. 

In other news Matt Freeman, currently playing in Germany, will return to Auckland in April to suit up for the Franklin Bulls in the 2021 Sal’s NBL.