Northeastern's Scott Eatherton
Men's Basketball Weekly Honors - Nov. 24
Rob Washburn
CAA MEN'S BASKETBALL WEEKLY REPORT - NOV. 24 (PDF format)
PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Scott Eatherton • Northeastern
Sr., F, 6-8, 234 - Hershey, Pa./Hershey
Eatherton averaged 19.0 points and 6.7 rebounds in Northeastern’s 3-0 week which included a road victory at ACC foe Florida State (76-73) and wins over Navy (68-44) and defending MAAC champion Manhattan (65-51) to capture the Hall of Fame Tipoff Tournament. The senior forward scored 16 points at FSU, tallied a team-high 19 points and eight boards vs. Navy and finished with a season-best 22 points, eight rebounds and three blocks against Manhattan. He was named tournament MVP for his efforts. For the week, Eatherton shot 60.6% from the floor and hit 17-of-20 from the free throw line.
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK:
Elijah Bryant • Elon
Fr., G, 6-4, 225 - Gwinnett, Ga./New Hampton School (N.H.)
Bryant scored a career-high 16 points and grabbed six rebounds in Elon’s narrow 68-67 overtime loss at unbeaten Northwestern. The freshman guard, who has scored double digits in all three games, was 7-of-15 from the floor and also made two steals against the Big Ten foe.
CONFERENCE NOTES:
IMPRESSIVE WEEK IN NON-CONFERENCE PLAY: CAA teams combined for an impressive 18-11 record against non-conference competition last week, with Towson (4-0), Northeastern (3-0), William & Mary (3-0), James Madison (2-0) and UNCW (2-0) all going undefeated. For the season, the CAA improved to 22-17 (.564) in non-conference play. Nine of the 17 losses have come against teams from the Power 5 conferences (#8 Virginia, #17 Miami, #18 Florida, Colorado, Alabama, N.C. State, Texas A&M, USC and Northwestern) and another was against defending national champ and #24 UConn.
HOT STARTS: Northeastern is off to a 4-0 start for just the fourth time in its Division I history and the first time since 2005-06. The Huskies, who received one vote in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll, won 76-73 at Florida State on Nov. 18, which was the program’s first victory ever over an ACC school. NU also captured its first in-season tournament since 2009 when it beat Navy (68-44) and Manhattan (65-51) to take the Hall of Fame Tipoff title. Towson (4-1) is off to its best start since 1989-90. The Tigers held three straight opponents (Morgan State, Central Connecticut and Bethune-Cookman) under 50 points for the first time in school history. Hofstra’s 3-1 start is its best since the 2008-09 squad began 7-1, while William & Mary is 3-1 for the second time in the last three years.
RECORD-SETTING WEEK FOR UNCW: It was a record-setting offensive week for UNCW in its back-to-back road wins over UNCG (84-72) and VMI (110-93). The Seahawks shot a school-record 65.3% from the floor at UNCG, including a 10-of-16 effort from three-point range. At VMI, UNCW scored its most points since 2009, including a school-record 84 points in the paint. The Seahawks had three players score more than 20 points - Freddie Jackson (26), Cedrick Williams (23), Addison Spruill (20) - for the first time since March 5, 1994.
HOFSTRA’S GREEN FILLS THE STAT SHEET: Hofstra junior guard Juan’ya Green averaged 21.7 points, 5.7 assists and 4.0 rebounds in the Pride’s 2-1 week. The highly touted Niagara transfer scored a season-best 24 points and tied a career-high with 11 assists in a 93-71 win over Wagner on Sunday and also netted 22 points in a victory over Long Island rival Stony Brook. For the season, Green ranks second in the CAA in scoring (19.8 ppg) and first in assists (6.5 apg). He has committed just four turnovers in 140 minutes of action.
ALL-TOURNAMENT HONORS FOR DREXEL’S LEE: Drexel’s Damion Lee was named to the All-Tournament team at the Charleston Classic. The junior guard, who averaged 23.0 ppg over the three contests, hit 8-of-11 threes and scored 32 points in a two-point loss to USC and tallied 24 of his team-high 28 points in the second half as the Dragons rallied past Cornell. Lee also became the 29th player in school history to reach 1,000 career points.
ELON’S SAMSON SHINES AT NORTHWESTERN: Elon junior guard Tanner Samson scored a career-high 24 points as Elon dropped a 68-67 overtime decision at unbeaten Northwestern last Saturday. Samson drained 8-of-13 from 3-point range, which tied for the second-most treys in the program’s Division I history. Samson is averaging a team-high 15.0 ppg for the season and all 13 of his made field goals (13-26) have come from beyond the arc.
For more CAA men's basketball news and notes, click on the PDF above for the full report or
check out the Men's Basketball Notebook on our blog, Hoop Scoop.