Saturday, January 17, 2009

Saturday college roundup

Going into today's game against Syracuse, Connecticut's Maya Moore needed 40 points to reach a career 1000.

She got that. And now Moore is the first-fastest Husky to reach that milestone. Oh, and Connecticut whupped Syracuse, 107-53.

No other surprises today. Even in the Pac-10, the victories were predictable: Oregon State over Washington; Oregon over Washington State; Arizona State over USC; and UCLA over Arizona.

The basketball highlight of my day was listening to Umpqua CC and Mount Hood CC battle it out. Apparently online game broadcasts are a relatively new thing in Roseburg, and they're a boon for out-of-town fans like me.

The two teams traded runs all game long. Umpqua, ranked first in the Northwest Association of Community Colleges (all of the Pacific Northwest) with only one loss, was having trouble with the 9-7 Saints. The Riverhawks climbed to a seven-point lead once or twice, but Mount Hood never gave up. They kept coming back, and then they'd take the lead. This precarious lead exchange kept going on and on. It was pacing time for me.

Fortunately, Umpqua point guard Mykiea Russell had a break-out second half, scoring 13 of her team-high 18 points in the period. Her two most important shots were a long-bomb three in the last minute, to put her team ahead again, and a crucial bucket within the last five seconds, just when it looked like the game would go into overtime. Final score: 70-68. I love games like that, even though they're hard on the system.

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