A number of Harbour athletes have begun 2021 in good form in American College basketball.

Akienne-Tera Reed and Virginia Commonwealth University played two overtime games in three days and prevailed in both Atlantic-10 contests. They beat Duquesne 68-63 and Bonaventure 69-67 with Reed totaling 16 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists a block and a steal against Duquesne followed by 15 points and 7 rebounds in the second success. 

VCU are now 3-0 in the Atlantic-10 Conference. 

Also in the Atlantic-10 Sam Mennenga was within a rebound of his first double-double for Davidson College as the Wildcats defeated St Joseph’s 80-66.

Mennenga finished with 9 rebounds to accompany 15 points, knocking down 3 from 5 from beyond the three-point arc as Davidson moved to 2-2 in conference play.

James Moors scored 8 points (3/5FG) as Colorado State kept rolling with a narrow 83-80 win against UNLV. Colorado State are off to an impressive 4-0 start in the Mountain West Conference.

Kruz Perrott-Hunt (6 points and 3 rebounds) made 2 from 3 from long range as South Dakota got the better of Kansas City winning 68-62.

St Mary’s College, California went down 66-64 to Santa Clara with Dan Fotu scoring 6 points for the Gaels. The Gaels face BYU and #1 Gonzaga later this week with both West Coast Conference games being shown on the ESPN channel on Sky Sport.

In NCAA Division II action Marvin Williams-Dunn recorded 5 assists in his collegiate debut for Ouachita Baptist University in their season opener at Harding University. The former Rosmini College point guard also scored a couple of points as Ouachita went down 84-77.

Will Heather scored 13 points on 6 from 7 shooting but couldn’t prevent Dallas Baptist losing their first game of the season, 84-71 against West Texas A&M ranked #3 in NCAA Division II basketball.

DBU, ranked #21 themselves turned the tables in the second game of the weekend with Heather getting 6 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks.

In the pro ranks Matt Freeman has begun to make a mark for Trier in the German ProA League. In his last two outings he has scored 24 and 16 making 7 from 12 threes in the process – Trier 5-5 for the season.

Closer to home Yanni Wetzell will make his much awaited professional debut this coming weekend for South East Melbourne. SEM visit Adelaide 36ers in the first round of the Australian NBL on Sunday.

As reported previously the former Rangitoto College duo of Brayden Inger and Denhym Brooke have signed for the Southland Sharks and Franklin Bulls respectively for the 2021 NBL.

Jack Salt has already committed to the Canterbury Rams and we can look forward to a number of other former Harbour reps being named to NBL teams in the coming weeks.