A quick look around Atlantic 10 men's basketball, with seven games last night and a big intra-city rivalry between VCU and Richmond at the Robins Center tonight.
Don't forget to us Twitter hashtag #A10MBB when tweeting about tonight's game!
ON TAP FOR THURSDAY (1/24)
No. 19/16 VCU Rams (16-2, 3-0)
at RICHMOND Spiders (12-5, 2-2)
7:00 pm | Robins Center | CBS Sports Network
Series: VCU leads 41-25
Gamenote: This will be the first conference meeting since a CAA match-up in 2001. Richmond
has won 7 of the last 9 conference meetings between the two schools. The teams have played often as non-confernece foes since 2001, with VCU winning last year's matchup.
WEEKLIES
The 16 A-10 head coaches had their third weekly teleconference Monday. Listen to their thoughts on the first week of league play by clicking on the AUDIO ARCHIVE. The A-10 had a busy week with several thrilling finishes, catch the HIGHLIGHTS.
ON THE TUBE
Thursday, January 24
VCU at Richmond* | 7:00 pm | CBS Sports Network
Saturday, January 26
Rhode Island at Fordham* | 1:00 pm | YES Network
Charlotte at George Washington* | 2:00 pm | CSN Mid-Atlantic
Duquesne at Dayton* | 4:00 pm | TWCS (Ohio)/ROOT Sports
Saint Louis at St. Bonaventure* | 4:00 pm | TWCS (Upstate NY)/FOX MW+
Temple at Butler* | 6:00 pm | ESPN2
Xavier at Saint Joseph’s* | 6:00 pm | CBS Sports Network
La Salle at VCU* | 8:00 pm | CBS Sports Network
A-10 SCOOP
>>VCU puts its 13-game winning streak on the line Thursday at Richmond. The streak is the third-longest in school history and second longest active streak in the country. Wednesday was a steak-snapping night -- Butler lost its 13-game run to La Salle and Xavier dropped its first A-10 game, snapping a four-game run, in a loss to Charlotte.
>>The U.S. Basketball Writers Association selected Butler’s Roosevelt Jones as its Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week for games ending the week of Sunday, Jan. 20. Jones buzzer-beater gave the Bulldogs a 64-63 win over No. 8 Gonzaga on national TV with “College GameDay” on hand.
>>With the win over Duquesne on Saturday, VCU coach Shaka Smart became the second youngest coach in Division I history in terms of age (35) to win his 100th game. He became the 12th coach in Division I history to win 100 games in his first four seasons.
>>The Spiders improved to 10-1 at home and won 50 of the last 59 games in the Robins Center after an 81-61 win over Charlotte.
WEDNESDAY'S (1/23) RESULTS
LA SALLE 54, BUTLER 53 | HIGHLIGHTS
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Ramon Galloway went the length of the court for the winning basket with 2.7 seconds left to send La Salle to a 54-53 victory over No. 9 Butler on Wednesday night.
Fans stormed the court in a wild celebration for the biggest win for La Salle (13-5, 3-2 Atlantic 10) in 33 years. There was some confusion after Galloway's basket and fans were ordered off the court. Butler had attempted a last-second heave that was way off the mark. Officials huddled with both coaches and they decided the final score stood. It was mayhem again as fans rushed the court for the second time in minutes.
Let them celebrate twice: La Salle hadn't defeated a top 10 team since 1980.
Butler had lived on last-second victories this season, including a buzzer-beater Saturday against Gonzaga. Just not at La Salle.
ST. BONAVENTURE 73, SAINT JOSEPH'S 64 | SBU HIGHLIGHTS | SJU HIGHLIGHTS
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Demetrius Conger had 21 points and seven rebounds, and St. Bonaventure opened a 20-point lead at halftime and held off hard-charging St. Joseph's 73-64 on Wednesday in Atlantic 10 action.
Matthew Wright scored 18 points and Chris Johnson had 15 for the Bonnies (9-9, 2-3), who led 36-17 at halftime.
Halil Kanacevid had 16 points and six rebounds for St. Joseph's (10-7, 1-3), Ronald Roberts had 14 points and eight rebounds, C.J. Aikens had 13 points and Chris Wilson 12.
St. Bonaventure's Johnson made a 3-pointer for a 56-36 lead with 11:58 to go, but Wilson's trey capped a 16-2 run for St. Joseph's to close to 58-52 at 5:32, but six points was as close at the Hawks got the rest of the way.
St. Bonaventure scored the first 12 points and pushed the lead to 35-10 on Demetrius Conger's three-point play at the 4:32 mark.
CHARLOTTE 63, XAVIER 57 | HIGHLIGHTS | CHARLOTTE POSTGAME
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Willie Clayton scored 14 points as Charlotte held off Xavier 63-57 Wednesday night, snapping the Musketeers' winning streak and handing them their first Atlantic 10 Conference defeat.
The 49ers (16-3, 4-1), who lost 81-61 at league foe Richmond on Saturday, have won five of their past six games.
No. 19 Virginia Commonwealth (4-0) is the only remaining team undefeated in A-10 play.
Trailing 37-36 with 14:44 to go, Clayton made back-to-back layups to spark a 13-2 run. The Musketeers closed the gap to four points twice, but could get no closer. After Brad Redford's jumper made it 61-57 with 8 seconds left, Denzel Ingram hit a pair of free throws 2 seconds later to clinch it.
DeMario Mayfield added 13 points and Chris Braswell and Ingram chipped in 12 apiece for Charlotte.
Semaj Christon, who had 11 first-half points, and Travis Taylor finished with 18 apiece for Xavier (11-7, 4-1).
DAYTON 96, FORDHAM 51 | HIGHLIGHTS & POSTGAME
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - Kevin Dillard scored 22 points with eight assists as Dayton snapped a three-game losing streak, beating Fordham 96-51 Wednesday night.
The 45-point margin narrowly edged the Flyers' 88-44 win over Duquesne on Jan. 12, 2002 for the largest in Dayton's Atlantic 10 Conference history. The Flyers, who were averaging 20.7 turnovers during their three-game skid, had just eight giveaways Wednesday.
Dillard knocked down 5 of 6 3-pointers for Dayton (11-7, 1-3), which also got 19 points from Vee Sanford and 11 from Matt Derenbecker.
The Rams (5-14, 1-3) were without leading rebounder and second-leading scorer Chris Gaston, who had knee surgery in November. Gaston returned Dec. 15 and had played in the team's past nine games, but sat Wednesday due to the same injury, the team said.
Jeffrey Short netted 13 points for Fordham, which entered allowing 75.2 points per game, the most in the A-10.
GEORGE WASHINGTON 66, RHODE ISLAND 65
KINGSTON, R.I. (AP) - Isaiah Armwood scored 13 points and Joe McDonald hit all four of his shot attempts, including the game-winner, in George Washington's 66-65 win over Atlantic 10 Conference-foe Rhode Island on Wednesday.
McDonald finished with 12 points.
The game was close throughout, as neither team led by more than four until Andre Malone's jumper put Rhode Island (6-11, 1-3) up 61-56 at the 5-minute mark of the second half.
McDonald hit a 3 to tie it 61-all 2 minutes later, then gave George Washington (9-9, 3-2) a 64-63 edge with just under 1 minute left. Xavier Munford's layup with 37 seconds showing shifted the lead back into Rhode Island's favor but McDonald nailed a jump shot with 9 seconds left to play to seal it.
T.J. Buchanan's layup was blocked by Armwood with 4 seconds remaining and, after the Rams grabbed the offensive board, Munford missed a 3-pointer as time expired.
SAINT LOUIS 73, DUQUESNE 64 | POSTGAME
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Cody Ellis scored 16 points, hitting 11 of 12 free throws, and Saint Louis used a late spurt to defeat Duquesne 73-64 Wednesday night, ending a two-game skid.
After 17 lead changes, the game was tied for the 11th time at 55 with 4:26 left. Ellis hit a jumper to spark a 14-1 run, giving the Billikens (13-5, 2-2 Atlantic 10 Conference) a 69-56 advantage with 1:13 left. Duquesne closed to 71-64 on Derrick Colter's 3-pointer with 39 seconds remaining, but could get no closer.
Saint Louis shot 37.5 percent (21 of 56), hitting only 3 of 21 3-pointers, but made 28 of 39 from the free-throw line. The Dukes, who were 9 of 23 from long range, made just 9 of 19 foul shots.
Jerry Jones scored 18 points with a career-high 11 rebounds for his first career double-double for Duquesne (7-12, 0-5), which dropped its seventh straight game.
TEMPLE 76, PENN 69 | DUNPHY POSTGAME | PLAYERS POSTGAME | AL SHRIER RECEPTION | BANNER CEREMONY
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Khalif Wyatt posted 26 points, six rebounds, five assists and hit four 3-pointers to help Temple pull away and beat instate-rival Pennsylvania 76-69 Wednesday in a nonconference matchup.
Anthony Lee added 16 points and Jake O'Brien 14 for Temple, which has won six straight against Penn under coach Fran Dunphy, who coached the Quakers from 1989-2006.
Penn, which led the majority of the second half, broke a 61-all tie behind a 3-pointer from Miles Cartwright. But Temple reeled off 11 unanswered to take a 72-64 lead with 3:06 left to play. Wyatt had five points during the spurt and O'Brien added four.
The Quakers (3-15) never got any closer than five the rest of the way.
Temple (13-5) shot 51 percent (25 of 49) and improve to 83-16 with it scores 60 or more points since the start of the 2009-10 season.
Cartwright paced Penn with 21 points.
