college basketball roundup | Monday’s games

MAC

Toledo 60, Miami (Ohio) 53

TOLEDO

Rian Pearson scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead Toledo in the first round of the Mid-American Conference tournament. Pearson was 8 of 14 from the field and the Rockets (17-15) shot 42.3 percent in the first half (11 of 26) to lead 32-24 at intermission. The RedHawks (9-21), who hadn’t led since 4 minutes left in the first half, pulled ahead 53-52 with 5:35 to go thanks to three consecutive 3-pointers. However, they then turned it over three times and missed all three of their 3-pointers the rest of the way. Toledo went on an 8-0 run during that time. Matt Smith added 12 points for the seventh-seeded Rockets. Toledo will face Central Michigan in the second round of the conference tournament on Wednesday night. Tenth-seeded Miami (9-21) was led by Drew McGhee with 16 points and Julian Mavunga with 12.

Central Michigan 54, Bowling Green 53

BOWLING GREEN

Austin McBroom scored 20 points for 11th-seeded Central Michigan (11-20) and Bowling Green missed some big chances late. Derek Jackson hit one of his four 3-pointers with 1:40 left in traffic to put Central Michigan up for good, but sixth-seeded Bowling Green (16-15) wouldn’t go away. While the Chippewas went 1 of 4 from the foul line in the final 35 seconds, the Falcons turned the ball over on an illegal screen, Jordon Crawford missed a foul shot that would have tied the game and Torian Oglesby couldn’t sink two chances to win it on the game’s final possession. The second of Oglesby’s shots came after the buzzer sounded, which officials determined after going to video replay.

Western Michigan 69, Ball State 63

KALAMAZOO, MICH.

Flenard Whitfield had 12 points to lead five Western Michigan players scoring in double figures. Demetrius Ward scored 11 points and Matt Stainbrook, Hayden Hoerdemann and Shayne Whittington 10 each for the eighth-seeded Broncos (12-19), who play No. 12 seed Northern Illinois in a second-round game in Cleveland on Wednesday. Jesse Berry had 19 points and Jauwan Sciafe 14 for the Cardinals (15-14). Western Michigan was up 33-30 at halftime and led by 10 on Stainbrook’s basket with 13:31 remaining. Jarrod Jones’ jumper got Ball State within 63-61 with 33 seconds left, but the Broncos made 6 of 8 free throws down the stretch to protect their lead. The win gave Western Michigan a 58-57 edge in the schools’ all-time series.

Northern Illinois 55, Eastern Michigan 52

YPSILANTI, MICH.

Tony Nixon scored 14 points to help Northern Illinois upset Eastern Michigan. Aksel Bolin added 13 points and Marquavese Ford had seven assists for the 12th-seeded Huskies (5-25). Darrell Lampley and Jamell Harris scored 13 points apiece for the fifth-seeded Eagles (14-18), who won the MAC West title but shot only 34 percent. Darrell Thompson scored 12, all on 3-pointers. It took Eastern Michigan 18:34 to crack double figures, trailing 15-10 with 1:26 left in the first half. But the Eagles used a 12-1 spurt to edge ahead 31-29 with 11:39 to go. The Huskies replied with a basket by Kevin Gray and a 3-pointer by Christian Antone and never trailed again, though the Eagles drew within one point twice.

CAA

Virginia Commonwealth 59, Drexel 56

RICHMOND, VA.

Darius Theus had a career-high 16 points and five steals and Troy Daniels made four huge free throws in the final 19 seconds, allowing VCU to hang on in the championship of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament. VCU (28-6) was the biggest story of last year’s NCAA tournament, when coach Shaka Smart’s team reached the Final Four after being one of the last teams picked for the field. The Rams won’t have to wait for an at-large bid this season, but Drexel made it interesting after falling behind by 16 at halftime. The Dragons (27-6), who had won a school-record 19 in a row and not lost since Jan. 2, got to within a point on Chris Fouch’s 3-pointer with 12.7 seconds to play. Daniels made a pair from the line with 18.9 seconds left and two more with 11.9 seconds to go, and Frantz Massenat’s 3-point try just before the buzzer was off the mark, leaving Drexel hoping for an at-large invitation into the field of 68.

MAAC

Loyola (Md) 48, Fairfield 44

SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

With his Loyola-Maryland team trailing by four points at halftime of the MAAC title game, coach Jimmy Patsos decided to give his players a history lesson with a halftime speech about Bobby Seale and the Black Panther Party. “I said there are levels; there’s Martin Luther King; there’s Malcolm X; and I saved Bobby Seale for the end,” Patsos said. “Sometimes you have to get militant, and we’re getting militant young men.” The Greyhounds responded with an 11-1 run to open the second half. The win gave the program its second berth in an NCAA tournament. The first came in 1994, coached by the late Skip Prosser. Erik Etherly had 10 points and seven rebounds to lead Loyola (24-8), which is having its best season as a Division I program. Loyola went into a pressing defense and held Fairfield without a point for almost 8 minutes to open the second half, then held on for its fifth win in six games. “I said, ‘We are going to take it up a notch and we are going to press on every make,”’ Patsos said. “We are going full force. It’s time. Not that there is anything wrong with pacifism or middle-of-the-road intellectualism, but I said, ‘It’s time for anger.”

Associated Press