Opening Weekend Surprises
(St. Louis, MO) – Ohio Valley Conference teams are winning on the road. Six of nine conference play opening weekend winners did it away from their own campuses. Sometimes opening league play at home is a disadvantage. The openers all take place while the students are on Christmas break.
Six OVC teams took advantage of largely student-less arenas to claim victories.
Undefeated Winning on the Road
High scoring UT Martin swept the opening weekend with wins at Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech. Six different Skyhawks reached double figures during the two victories. League leader Jordan Sears (19.9 ppg) added to his conference-best eighth 20-point game with 22 against Tennessee Tech.
Morehead State and Western Illinois went on the road and won their only OVC games so far. While Western (8-6) won its fifth straight game by knocking off Southern Illinois Edwardsville 78-70, defending league champion Morehead State (10-4) was taking care of business at Southeast Missouri.
WIU crushed the Cougars on the boards (34 to 22) Ryan Myers (21 points) and Jesiah West (15 points and ten rebounds) shined. During Morehead’s win in Cape Girardeau the league’s second leading scorer (Riley Minix) poured 34 points through the Show Me Center nets.
Stealing Road Wins
Little Rock and Southern Indiana claimed road wins and are both 1-1 in league play. Jamir Chaplin scored 25 points during the Trojans’ win at Tennessee Tech and A.J. Smith scored 27 during the Screaming Eagles’ win at Lindenwood. USI grabbed 43 rebounds in the road conquest.
All five of those road warriors return home for games on Thursday.
Those other five OVC squads need to learn the secret to winning on the road.
Do Good
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As we near the closing of the portal window, we've reached 1900. Some of them never to play college basketball again, earn a college degree and some to play at a much lower level than they did last season.
I guess we'll be seeing this in a @RacersHoops uniform this year. Glad AJ is staying in the @ValleyHoops.
