Atlantic 10 Tournament: Opening Round Recap

By: Ian Nolan and Chris DiSano

The first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament opened with a bang on Tuesday night as No. 11 seed UMass stole the night with a road upset of No. 6 seed Charlotte. Below are brief recaps from each of the four opening round games played in on-campus arenas Tuesday night. Check back with CCT on Thursday morning as we publish full in-depth previews of each game for Quarterfinal Friday in Atlantic City.

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#8 St. Bonaventure 83, #9 Duquesne 71

Playing for the second time in a week, the Bonnies downed the Dukes at the Reilly Center, earning Mark Schmidt's team a second straight trip to Atlantic City and a match-up against league regular season champion Temple. Chris Matthews paced the Bonnies with 28 points (6-8 from three-point range) and sophomore Andrew Nicholson added 25 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks as the Bonnies shot a blistering 51% from the floor and 75% from deep. The Brown and White dished out 18 assists in the win against 11 turnovers and also shot 24-31 from the line, good for 77%. They now face a Temple team that already defeated them by a score of 73-55 earlier this season. Temple will begin their quest Friday afternoon for a third straight Atlantic 10 Tournament title, attempting to become the first team to win three straight tournament titles since UMass won five straight titles between 1992 and 1996.

# 7 Dayton 70, #10 George Washington 60
Photo Credit: Erik Schelkun 

Despite receiving just seven points and two rebounds from First Team All-League forward Chris Wright, Dayton used 26 points from the foul line on 34 attempts to down a young but dangerous GW team at UD Arena. Senior Marcus Johnson doubled his yearly scoring average by scoring 16 points for the Flyers who also received 11 points from both Rob Lowery and Chris Johnson. UD now earns a date with arch rival Xavier at 6:30 on Friday, a team they have already beaten once this year, by 25 points on February 6th. Xavier has won at least a share of the regular season league title in each of the last four seasons but has not won the Tournament title since 2006 when they turned the trick as a 10 seed; the lowest seed to ever take home the hardware. Dayton last won the A-10 Tournament crown back in 2003 when the site was UD Arena.

#11 UMass 59, #6 Charlotte 56

The Minutemen from Amherst scored the only first round upset, but it was a big one.  UMass knocked off a reeling Charlotte team at Halton Arena in the Queen City, behind 24 points from senior Ricky Harris, who connected on 11 of 12 free throw attempts.  UMass was also aided by a key block from freshman Terrell Vinson on a Derrio Green dunk attempt while UMass clung to a three-point lead late... and also an untimely technical foul on Charlotte for sending six men on the court with just over 50 seconds remaining.  "Sometimes you feel like it might be fate," said UMass coach Derek Kellogg after the game.  Fate aside, youthful UMass will be playing with house money in Atlantic City, and is confident heading into a matchup with No. 3 seeded Richmond which needed overtime to defeat Ricky Harris & Co. earlier this year (70-63 UR was the final).  An'Juan Wilderness (11 points) and Ian Andersen (10 points) led Charlotte in the losing effort, as the 'Niners now sit back and see if they'll be NIT or CBI participants.

#5 Rhode Island 87, #12 Saint Joseph's 76 

It was a bit of a ho-hum game, but Rhode Island prevailed over Saint Joseph's in Kingston.  After finding himself in early foul trouble, Ram senior Keith Cothran awakened in the second half and was able to stay on the floor en route to netting a team-high (tie) 15 points.  Fellow senior Lamonte Ulmer also scored 15 for the Rams and grabbed six boards, while Delroy James chipped in 11 in the scoring column.  Rhode Island capitalized on second-chance points in this one, and also shared the basketball well for the first game in some time - registering 20 assists to 11 turnovers.  For Joe's, a trying season comes to an end at 11-20, 5-11.  Senior Darrin Govens paced the Hawks with 27 points in his final game... while Garrett Williamson filled the stat sheet with eight points, seven assists and 10 rebounds.  Rhode Island advances to face Rick Majerus and his No. 4 seed Saint Louis Billikens Friday in Atlantic City.

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