Tall Black Dan Fotu, now in his senior year at St Mary’s College, California came up with a career high 19 points (5/10FG, 8/9FT) as the Gaels beat Texas Southern 67-58. The #42 also contributed 9 rebounds, with 4 of those at the offensive end.

Sam Waardenburg finished with 16 points (5/7FG, 4/4FT) and 4 rebounds but couldn’t prevent Miami going down 95-89 to Central Florida. 

Also playing for an Atlantic Coast Conference team is Taine Murray. He scored his first collegiate points as University of Virginia beat Radford 73-52, the freshman wing scored with his only shot – a corner three, and added a steal and a rebound.

Kruz Perrott-Hunt had two double digit outings top for South Dakota Coyotes. The third Tall Black to report on this week finished with 14 points (6/13FG) as the Coyotes flew over Air Force 59-53 and 10 points in a heavy loss to Drake (99-50).

Sam Mennenga came very close to his second double-double of the season as Davidson College went down narrowly at San Francisco 65-60.  Sam finished with 14 points and 9 rebounds.

James Moors scored 6 points as Colorado State made it 3 wins from 3 outings with an 86-62 win against Peru State. In those three victories the former Westlake and Harbour forward has made 9 from 10 from the field – not surprisingly he leads the Rams field goal percentage statistics category!

In Women’s Division I play Emme Shearer top scored for Portland (2-0) as they beat Weber State 67-46. Emme scored 16 points (5/8FG, 5/6FT) moving past 200 career points in the process. She added 5 steals, 3 assists and 2 rebounds.

Akienne-Tera Reed is now just 10 points shy of 1,500 NCAA Division I career points after a nice double. Her 11 points helped USC Trojans down Hawaii 90-50 and she followed that with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 assists in 35 minutes as USC posted a 65-48 win.

There are two career highs to report from NCAA Division II action.

William Heather scored a career best 21 points (9/14FG, 3/4 3PG) as #14 ranked Dallas Baptist University beat #4 Colorado Mesa 63-56 to open their 2021-22 campaign.

“He has the ability to be an All-American,” said Dallas Baptist Head Coach Blake Flickner when questioned on Heather’s performance after the game.

Chanel Brodeur-Muir snared a career high 10 rebounds to add to 6 points despite St Thomas Aquinas going down 54-48 to American International.

There was also a debut from Sean Murphy who earned a starting berth for Nebraska Kearney as the Lopers went one and one over the weekend. Sean tallied 2 points and 4 rebounds followed by 5 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 32 minutes second time out. 

Reihana Maxwell-Topia made 4 points to add to 4 rebounds as St Francis Illinois defeated Trinity International 94-86.

In Junior College play Rashaan Smith scored 8 points, for the second game running, and grabbed 6 rebounds in #14 ranked Western Nebraska’s 95-56 win against Central Wyoming.

Jordyn Maddix and Parehuia Delamere have experienced the highs and lows of overtime basketball in the past week.

Western Texas grabbed their first win of the season defeating Ranger College 71-66 after the extra five minutes with Jordyn was one of two Western Texas players in double figures scoring 11 points while Parehuia had 9 points, 4 rebounds and a brace of steals. The pair were also prominent in an agonising 68-65 additional time loss to Blinn College – Jordyn scoring 9 points and Parehuia a team high 16 points.

2021 Harbour U19 representative Leo Wenham scored his first points in collegiate basketball as Northeast CC got the better of Southeast (99-61). 2 points for Leo in this one.