mbb 2023 Game #16: 1/6/24 - 2PM @ NJIT

[cwdickens]

Saturday, January 6, 2024 Men's Basketball

	Away	Home	Result	Location	Links
	UMass Lowell82	New Hampshire75	Final	Durham, NH (Conf.)	Box Score Live Event
	Bryant81	UMBC67	Final	Baltimore, MD (Conf.)	Box Score Full Game Archive
	Maine58	Vermont65	Final	Burlington, VT (Conf.)	Box Score
	UAlbany79	NJIT73	Final	Newark, NJ (Conf.)	Box Score

[cwdickens]

Nice job by KIllings yesterday, keeping everyone's emotion in check ... there were at least two or three situations when the staff and/or teammates kept things from escalating.  Killings has demonstrated high awareness to the emotional levels on the court. 

[cwdickens]

UALBANY 79, NJIT 73

 

Beagle’s big second half propels Danes

Sophomore scores 17 points over the final 20 minutes as UAlbany takes league opener

 

By Pete Dougherty

Lori Van Buren/Times Union

UAlbany guard Sebastian Thomas, shown earlier this season, led the Danes with 22 points at NJIT on Saturday.

Lori Van Buren/TU archive

Jonathan Beagle, right, shown earlier this season, had 19 points and 16 rebounds against NJIT on Saturday.

Sophomore jinx? Not yet, at least, for University at Albany second-year player Jonathan Beagle.

Beagle, the reigning America East basketball Rookie of the Year, turned on the afterburners in the second half Saturday afternoon in the conference opener against New Jersey Institute of Technology. He scored 17 of his 19 points after halftime to go with a career-best 16 rebounds to lift UAlbany to a 79-73 victory in Newark, N.J.

 

“It’s a gutsy effort by him,” UAlbany coach Dwayne Killings said of Beagle, who played 36 minutes despite turning his ankle with five minutes remaining. “He’s OK. He turned it, but he’s fine. It’s good that we get some rest and don’t play till Saturday.”

The Great Danes (9-7, 1-0) topped their overall victory total of last season (8-23), when NJIT pushed UAlbany out of the America East Tournament for the first time ever.

The Highlanders (4-9, 0-1) escaped the first half with a 35-34 advantage, holding Beagle, a 6-foot-10 forward, to a pair of free throws and blocking three of his five field-goal attempts.

Beagle, whose scoring is up 12 percent and rebounding ahead 30 percent over his stellar freshman year, didn’t get his first field goal until 14:55 remained, but at that point dominated inside. He had six second-half buckets, all dunks or layups, and went 7-for-7 on free throws.

“The one thing that holds Jonathan back is he gets in his head a little bit,” said UAlbany guard Sebastian Thomas, who led the team with 22 points. “In the first half, he wasn’t getting calls and things like that, so going into halftime, we told him just focus on what you can control. In the second half, he showed us what he can do.”

“Going into the second half, everyone’s giving me confidence,” Beagle said. “I know the type of player I can be. I just went out there with a lot of confidence. I knew that they could get me shots and that we have some talented players that can help me out.”

It was far from a one-man show. Thomas fired in four 3-pointers, all at critical junctures. His first tied the game, the second gave the Danes a lead, the third doubled their lead, and the final with 59.4 seconds to go rattled in to put UAlbany ahead 74-67.

Aaron Reddish got his fifth start of the season — the first since Dec. 16 at Drexel — and answered with 16 points and nine rebounds. Marcus Jackson added 10 points and eight rebounds.

“I was really impressed with Aaron Reddish, the way he came out,” Killings said. “We challenged him about rebounding. The two areas that we have to improve at, just to have an impactful level of improvement in league play, is ball security — we had 15 turnovers; obviously we want to cut that down — but rebounding the ball, and Aaron was great there.”

UAlbany held a 41-36 advantage on the boards, 23-15 in the second half.

The Danes are now set up with three straight home games, although all are against teams that are over .500: Binghamton (8-5), UMass Lowell (10-4) and Bryant (9-7).

“We’ve got to take them one game at a time, one possession at a time,” Killings said. “It’s going to be hard, but I’m excited to get going and start league play. I told our guys, when I woke up, it felt like Christmas morning because we’re going to go after this thing.”

[dslyank]

19 hours ago, jimbo said:

Very good high energy scrappy win. Chippy game. NJIT has some good athletes. 

4 technicals called 2 on each side. Ist on Jackson was a sell job by nit [not even a common foul called until jt player sat under the basket for several minute refusing to get up, all of a sudden turned into a flagrant 1??]   NJIT beating on UA ALL night; especially beating on Beagle in first half NO calls. Homie officiating IMHO; evened out a little in second half.

[Dane96]

12 hours ago, BestDaneSinceHamlet said:

His name was "Slice"

 

It's Barry "Slice" Rohrssen.

Edited January 7 by Dane96