GB Under-23 forward Will Neighbour was the top British player in college basketball this week as he put in two big performances for University of Arkansas – Little Rock.
Neighbour was one of four Trojans in double figures as UALR defeated Louisiana-Lafayette in overtime on Thursday. The 6-10 forward finished with 14 points, four rebounds and two steals.
The big game for the Trojans this week was against league leaders Middle Tennessee State. MTSU, who UALR will need to go through if they hope to make it to the NCAA Tournament, showed their quality by winning 68-60, but Neighbour put up a good fight. The Aldershot native finished with 22 points and five rebounds on 8-11 shooting, and made three of six from behind the arc.
Andrew Lawrence helped Charleston to one of their biggest wins of the season on Saturday as they knocked off the Southern Conference’s runaway leader Davidson. Lawrence scored 11 points and dished out five assists without any turnovers, but played only 22 minutes due to foul trouble.
Earlier in the week, Lawrence shot only 2-12 from the field but fortunately made seven of his eight free throws as Charleston defeated Western Carolina. Lawrence finished with 12 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Ben Mockford extended his double-figure scoring streak to six games, beginning with 20 points on 8-22 shooting at home to Long Island, followed by 14 points on 4-12 shooting in the return fixture four days later. St Francis lost both games and dropped to third place in the conference.
Alasdair Fraser continues to put the hurt on the rest of the America East conference as he dropped 21 points on Albany, but it wasn’t enough to give Maine a victory.
Ovie Soko scored six points and grabbed five rebounds in an upset win over Southern Mississippi, but his UAB team were taken down by league leaders Memphis in the following game. Soko registered two points and five boards against the Tigers.
Shane Walker had two quiet games for Loyola Maryland this week. The 6-10 forward had four points, four rebounds and four turnovers against Iona, and followed that up with a two-point, four-rebound effort against Fairfield.
Ashley Hamilton put up similar numbers for Loyola Marymount, with two points and five rebounds against Portland, and two points and three boards in a loss to a strong Gonzaga team.
Alex Marcotullio’s 13 points and six assists helped Northwestern to a win over Iowa on Thursday, but the Wildcats lost their next game with Marcotullio registering only three points and one assist in 30 minutes of action.
The British player who currently looks the safest bet to be playing in the NCAA Tournament, though, is Patrick Nyeko. Nyeko, a 6-6 defensive specialist averaging 1.7 points and 1.4 rebounds in 14 minutes per game, helped his Nevada team to two more wins last week, putting them at 10-1 in the Western Athletic Conference and 21-4 overall.
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