By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
TMU MEN SPLIT IN MISSOURI: By the end of college basketball’s first weekend, both the Thomas More men’s and women’s basketball teams had earned their first NCAA Division II victories.
The TMU men did so Saturday with a 60-56 win over Southwest Baptist at the SBU Classic in Bolivar, Mo., getting the Saints to 1-1 after an opening tournament loss Friday to Drury as freshman Nathan Dudukovich led the way offensively with 14 points, thanks to four three-pointers, in just 22 minutes of action.
Grad student Reid Jolly added 13 points with a team-high eight rebounds. Point guard Jacob Jones scored 10 points with a team-leading eight assists and two steals. Also contributing were Casey George with six points and six rebounds in 35 minutes of action while Kyle Ross scored nine points with six rebounds in 30 minutes as TMU outrebounded Southwest Baptist 35-30.
Friday’s season-opener saw TMU fall, 73-70, to Drury in the SBU Classic despite the 16 points and six rebounds of point guard Jones. Jolly added 16 points with six rebounds while Ross gave TMU a trio of 16-point scorers. But TMU hit on just 44.1 percent (26 of 59) from the field and a dreadful 52.2 percent (12 of 23) from the free throw line.
UP NEXT: The Saints open at home Friday in the Connor Classic against UC-Clermont in a 7:30 tipoff at the Connor Convocation Center.
TMU WOMEN 1-1 IN WISCONSIN, INDIANA: Like the Saints men, the defending NAIA finalist TMU women split their first two NCAA Division II games away from home but did so in reverse order with an opening 75-68 win Friday at Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha.
Five returnees led Jeff Hans’ TMU team to the program’s first-ever NCAA Division II win with Alex Smith scoring a team-high 19 points. Sophomore Rylee Turner scored 10 points with a team-high nine rebounds. Maggie Jones had nine points and a team-high two assists, tying her with Kelly Brenner’s two assists as she added eight points while Rachel Martin scored nine points.
On Saturday, against No. 8 Minnesota-Duluth at Hammond, Ind., the Saints fell, 68-59, despite the 16 points of Jones and the 11 of Smith. The bright spot for TMU in this loss to UMD was hitting on 26 of 30 free throws. But that wasn’t enough to offset a poor-shooting first half (eight of 24) from the field that had the Saints down 10 – 32-22 – at halftime.
UP NEXT: The Saints stay on the road for a 5 p.m. Tuesday game in Wheeling, W. Va., at Wheeling University.
NKU MEN FALL AT WASHINGTON: In a game where the Norse were in it until the final minutes, the NKU men fell, 75-67, to the Pac-12’s Washington Huskies in front of a crowd of 6,026 at the Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle on a game telecast nationally on the Pac-12 Networks Thursday.
NKU, after a cross-country trip from Nashville after its Middle Tennessee opener, jumped out to its largest lead, 22-16, with 7:38 left in the first half before Washington finished the first half on a 23-11 run for a 41-35 intermission lead. But that was as close as NKU got – a six-point deficit six different times – in the final 20 minutes against a UW team led by the 50 points from a pair of UK transfers – Keion Brooks (32 points) and Sahvir Wheeler (18 points).
Sam Vinson and Marquette-transfer Keeyan Itejere led Darrin Horn’s NKU team with 14 points each while Vinson led NKU with eight rebounds and Itejere led with three blocked shots on a night when he was a perfect five for five from the field.
UP NEXT: The NKU men open at home Tuesday against an 0-2 DePauw team that’s lost to Anderson (79-63) and Rose-Hulman (73-55) in a 7 p.m. game at Truist Arena.
NKU WOMEN LOOK FOR THEIR FIRST WIN: Like the NKU men, the Norse women are looking for their first win this week after falling 85-82 in overtime against Indiana State at home and then 86-75 on the road Saturday at Eastern Kentucky. Do the math and the NKU women are giving up an average of 85.5 points a game.
After two games, NKU has balanced scoring with five players in double figures led by Khamari Mitchell-Steen’s 19.0 points a game. Macey Blevins is next with 14.0 ppg followed by Carter McCray’s 13.0. Kennedy Igo is at 12.5 ppg with Kalissa Lacy at 10.0.
In Saturday’s game at EKU, NKU fell behind 47-34 at halftime and could not catch up from despite Mitchell-Steen’s 22 points. A total of 19 turnovers did not help the catch-up effort for the Norse.
UP NEXT: NKU returns home Saturday to host an 0-1 Marshall team at 2 p.m. at Truist Arena.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.
Featured photo: Jeff Hans’ TMU women open 1-1 on the road.