Daily Wrap: November 14

RESULTS

Chattanooga 110, Hiwassee 53
VMI 66, The Citadel 65
Mississippi State 66, Western Carolina 56
Mercer 88, Piedmont 48
UNCG 76, Chowan 62
Purdue 80, Samford 40
Valparaiso 90, ETSU 76
College of Charleston 75, Furman 40
Stanford 74, Wofford 59

So, What Happened?

It was not a wildly successful day for the SoCon, which notched no out of conference wins against D1 competition outside of the conference. Western Carolina played Mississippi State closer than expected.

With Stephen Croone out, Furman couldn't come close to keeping up with College of Charleston. It wasn't too surprising. Croone is the heartbeat of that team. Samford was outclassed by Purdue. Wofford played Stanford close and Western Carolina went toe to toe with Mississippi State. ETSU could not keep up in the end with Valparaiso. UNCG did not look particularly good against Chowan.

It was not a disaster. The SoCon was the underdog in every game.  Like I said, wait until Tuesday and Wednesday to start judging the SoCon. That will be when they get games they are favored in at home against D1 teams. It's not time to panic yet.

Game of the Day- VMI 66, The Citadel 65

The Bulldogs were up by as much as eleven in the first half, but then blew it all. VMI seemed to be pulling away, but then The Citadel came back one more time and took the lead with about four minutes left. Then, Trey Champman drained a three with nineteen seconds left to give the Keydets the win.

Chapman had just two points prior to that three.

The Citadel shot 54% from the floor, but made just two threes and collected only four offensive rebounds. VMI shot 44%, but made eleven threes and got twelve offensive rebounds. That was the difference in the game. QJ Peterson scored 25 points, but Ashton Moore also scored 24 points. Moore was really the star of this game in a lot of ways. Yes, we knew The Citadel was going to rely on him. But he exceeded expectations. But Brian Brown also scored 16 points and that was huge for the Keydets. They are going to need him to step up in that way for them if they are going to have the success they hope to have this year.

Player of the Day- RJ White, UNCG

I hate to go with a player that played against a non-D1 team. But White scored 20 points and collected nine rebounds to go along with three steals and an assist. He shot 7 of 10 from the floor. White needs to have a breakout year for the Spartans to be SoCon contenders, and he showed the first sign that he is ready to do just that in this game against Chowan. He lead the Spartans in rebounds in a game where the Spartans were outrebounded by a non-D1 team. He may be even more important of a player than we thought he was.