The second half of the season has begun in college hoops with teams now involved in all important conference play.

14,400 spectators were on hand to see Jack Salt and University of Virginia Cavaliers take down the defending NCAA champions, North Carolina 61-49. Salt (4pts/3rebs/1block) was at the heart of the Cavs defensive effort described by NCU head coach Roy Williams as, “About as good a defensive game as we’ve had anybody play against us.”

Virginia are now ranked No 3 nationally, six places ahead of Oklahoma Sooners.

Matt Freeman landed both of his three point attempts, as the Sooners accounted for Oklahoma State with the former Westlake swingman finishing with 6 points and a pair of rebounds. That was followed by a loss at West Virginia – Sooners 2-1 in the Big 12 Conference.

In NCAA Division 2 Ella Fotu and Hawaii Pacific Sharks are travelling nicely in the PacWest Conference play after three wins in five days. Over the three games Fotu averaged 11 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists as the Sharks improved to 5-1 to sit second on the conference standings.

Also playing in the PacWest are Denhym Brooke and Alex Talma.

Unfortunately, despite two double point efforts from Talma, Biola Eagles are still searching for there first conference win. He had 15 points and 5 rebounds in a heart braking 70-69 loss at Dixie State and 11 points in the 82-76 defeat to Azusa Pacific.

Hawaii at Hilo are 3-2 after a 73-65 win against Notre Dame De Namur and a 74 -64 loss to Academy of Art. Brooke came close to a double-double in the ten-point loss registering 11 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks.

Back in Division 1 play Brooke Blair has had back-to-back 14 points outings for Idaho State Bengals. The Bengals are 2-1 in Big Sky Conference play after a 76-70 defeat at the hands of Southern Utah and a bounce back 75-55 win at Northern Arizona.

Zara Jillings has enjoyed a lot of court time for Fordham University recently as the Rams have begun Atlantic 10 Conference play 3-0, the latest victory a narrow 66-63 win against St Louis. She has started all three conference games averaging 32 minutes, 7.7 points, 4 rebounds and three assists. Her shooting has also been impressive connecting with 10 of 16 shots at 63%.

Also in the Atlantic 10 Virginia Commonwealth Rams slipped to 0-3 after going down to Duquesne 70-51. Tera Reed was the only Rams player in double figures scoring 13 points to add to 4 rebounds.

 Reed and VCU entertain Jillings and Fordham next Sunday.

Tiarna Clarke and Northern Colorado Bears are also in the Big Sky Conference and they are in fine form beating Montana 68-50 for a fourth straight win. Clarke, after a couple of very productive games was quiet in this one with just a couple of assists and a steal

In Junior College action Georgia Perrott-Hunt and Olivia Bell scored six points apiece as North Dakota State eased away from Anoka-Ramsey to win 77-48 and improve their overall record to 13-2. Perrott-Hunt also produced a team high 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

Last but certainly not least is Katie Diakhaby who is averaging a double- double for Northeastern Junior College. She enhanced those numbers with a monster 25 points, 19 rebounds (including 11 offensive boards) and 3 blocks in NJC’s 80-57 win against Lamar to move to 3-3 in conference action.