News from the States including a career night for Matt Freeman

There have been some ‘All-Star’ performances by Harbour players in the past seven days in the States.

Matt Freeman enjoyed a career best scoring game, Yanni Wetzell continues to carve out the numbers at unbeaten San Diego State, Tera Reed is doing the same at Virginia Commonwealth and Charlotte Armstrong shined after finally being given some decent minutes.

"I just did what I do in practice and hit open shots," Matt Freeman said after his stunning shooting performance in UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 87-62 win against Long Beach State. Matt nailed 6 from 7 three-point shots on his way to a career best 24 points.

"It's about sticking to it, not losing belief in each other, trusting each other. Like coach says, we have such a talented team, don't lose it just because we lost a couple of games”. 

The Gauchos had lost four of its last five games but with two home games later this week will be hoping to improve their 3-4 record in Big West Conference play.

On an historic night when San Diego State retired Kawhi Leonard’s number 15 jersey the Aztecs took their unbeaten record to 23-0 with an 80-68 come from behind victory against Utah State.

Yanni Wetzell played his part in the celebratory occasion with a double-double of 11 points (4/8 FG, 2/2FT), 10 rebounds (six offensive boards), 2 steals and a block.

 St Mary’s Gaels beat Portland 86-64 with Dan Fotu putting together a tidy 9 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a block for the Gaels. 

48 hours later St Mary’s were outscored 6-0 down the stretch at BYU losing a quality contest 81-79. Dan scored 10 points – the loss meaning the Gaels are now 6-3 in the West Coast Conference.

Miami University went down 62-57 at Pitt to slip to 3-8 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Sam Waardenburg finished with 5 points, 5 rebounds and a couple of assists.

Dallas Baptist are without the services of Will Heather at present. The former Rosmini standout suffered a bad ankle sprain in training a couple of weeks ago. The Patriots are 9-4 in the Lone Star Conference and hope to have Will back in action later this month.

Charlotte Armstrong played a season high 17 minutes for Barry University at the weekend when they went down 74-57 to Eckerd College. Relishing being afforded meaningful minutes Charlotte finished with 8 points (4/5FG), 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a block for the Buccaneers who are 3-10 in Sunshine State Conference play.

Last March Fordham University claimed the Atlantic 10 Conference title with a 62-47 win against Virginia Commonwealth University in the championship game. That result meant joy for Fordham’s New Zealand duo of Kendell Heremaia and  Zara Jillings. In contrast it was disappointment for VCU’s Akiene-Tera Reed.

On Thursday (NZT) the two teams met again and on this occasion it was Tera who could afford the smile as her 19 points (5/10FG, 9/10FT), 7 rebounds and 5 assists helped propel VCU to a 62-52 home win. Zara came away with 4 rebounds in 19 minutes for Fordham.

It wasn’t such good news at the weekend as VCU (1-7) dropped its first conference game despite 18 points from Reed. They went down 79-76 to Duquenese.




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