You would think a Flyer would hold the advantage over a Minuteman, since planes weren’t a thing in the 1700s. Though taking flight would have you tried for witchcraft then.
But it’s 2025, and the Minutemen overcame the technological and judicial advances as UMass defeated Dayton 76-72 for their first conference win. Dayton dropped their second consecutive conference game, the first being a 20-point loss to George Washington. Dayton coach Anthony Grant must really dislike colonial history.
Speaking of George Washington, the first President’s school picked up a big road win over Rhode Island, 75-67. The game itself was a slugfest from beyond the arc, as both teams shot a combined 6-for-42 from three. Dwayne Wade’s statue was a more alluring sight then watching both teams shoot threes.
But the Revolutionaries pulled through, with two massive conference wins under their belt ahead of their January 15th matchup with Duquesne, who picked up a big win of their own this past Wednesday. The Dukes downed St. Joseph’s 85-81 in overtime, thanks in part to Tre Dinkins’ 26 points and David Dixon adding 17 off the bench. Following a 0-6 start, the Dukes have gone 7-3 including 2-1 in conference play in an attempt to defend their conference title. Wait… a Pittsburgh team losing games to subpar competition and suddenly winning big games… where have I heard this story before?
Oddly similar correlations aside, Loyola-Chicago notched their first conference win over La Salle 79-68. Although La Salle are the Explorers, they couldn’t find Jayden Dawson on a map if he was marked by a big red X. The junior guard led the Ramblers in points, rebounds and assists with 20, 6 and 3 respectively. Fran Dunphy will have to channel his inner pirate and continue searching for La Salle’s first conference win.
Rounding out the starting slate of A-10 basketball, George Mason defeated Richmond 64-58 to hand the Spiders their first conference loss. How ironic that a wolf spider scared my mom half to death just a few days ago, and now Richmond suffered their first loss in conference. Poetic justice, in my opinion.
And, in a battle of the Rams, VCU downed Fordham 73-61, the latter of the teams now 0-3 in conference play. Max Shulga once again had a great game, scoring 16 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. I will never believe that Shulga is, in fact, not a Ukrainian super soldier experiment trying to clone Luka Doncic.
Also, in a game that determined the top spot in the A-10, Saint Louis downed red-hot St. Bonaventure 73-68. The Bonnies heavily relied on their starters, as coach Mark Schmidt subbed in three players off the bench for a whopping total of 16 minutes. Maybe Schmidt thought his starting five were the Avengers, and though it would be kind of cool if Noel Brown could Hulk up and smash his way through the paint, they assembled too little too late. But the Billikens’ Gibson Jimerson looked like Hawkeye out there, scoring 28 points on 9-15 shooting and 6-11 from three. Someone should tell Jeremy Renner he has competition.
I apologize for my nerd outburst, but standings-wise, Saint Louis sits atop the A-10 at 3-0, while the Bonnies fell to 2-1 with their eight-game win-streak snapped.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be crying in a corner after the Bonnies missed out on a potential top five spot in the Domination Rankings
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