Tuesday recap: VCU tops Princeton, Delaware State gets a rare win, Marcus Keene and more

Monday was quiet, so Tuesday went ahead and made up for it.

Valpo knocked off No. 21 Rhode Island for its first home win over a ranked team since beating Notre Dame in 1988. You can read all about Matt Lottich’s big win here.

Down in Austin, UT Arlington was finally able to hang on to a halftime lead. After letting road games slip away against Minnesota, FGCU and Arkansas, the Mavericks held on to beat Texas. Scott Cross didn’t hold anything back after the game.

Here are some of the other notable results from the mid-major world:

Delaware State downs St. John’s

The typical mid-major will bite a power conference team every once and a....

It’s worth keeping in perspective that this is a young St. John’s team coming off a 1-17 Big East season. Still, it’s an important win for Keith Walker and the Hornets, who had their best shooting night of the season and got 26 points, four rebounds and four assists from sophomore Devin Morgan.

Tough times in the Ivy League, courtesy of the A-10

Princeton couldn’t contain JeQuan Lewis (23 points, 6-9 FG, 12 assists) or get its offense going in a loss to VCU. The Tigers are 2-3, and while none of the losses are offensive, an at-large bid is almost certainly off the table. Hans Brase is still getting back into form after missing last season.

Things aren’t going any better at Harvard. The home loss to Holy Cross was a head-scratcher, and the Crimson followed it up with close losses to UMass and George Washington. They’ve struggled to score and have gotten inconsistent performances from talented freshmen Thomas Welsh and Bryce Aiken. Growing pains may explain much of the 1-4 start, as Tommy Amaker has the fifth youngest team in the country per KenPom.

On the flip side, the A-10 deserves some praise. VCU sits at 6-1 and has shot the ball better than many expected. George Washington ended a three-game skid on the road playing without Yuta Watanabe.

Belmont wins at the buzzer

Evan Bradds (24 points) returned after missing the Bruins’ loss to URI, but it was Dylan Windler who beat the buzzer to avoid a bad home defeat to Lipscomb.

Time to meet Marcus Keene

Central Michigan may not be the best team in the MAC, but the Chippewas sure are entertaining. In no small part because of junior guard Marcus Keene, who tied a career high with 36 points in last night’s win over a good William & Mary team. Take a look at Keene’s point totals and CMU’s results this season:

• 32 - 117-53 W
• 34 - 86-74 W
• 23 - 107-58 W
• 36 - 88-77 W
• 23 - 102-71 L
• 32 - 91-79 L
• 31 - 89-77 W
• 36 - 91-81 W

Also of note:

• Nevada overcame slow starts to both halves to down Pacific 77-67. The 6-2 Wolfpack leaned on Cameron Oliver (17 points, 8 rebounds) and Marcus Marshall (17 points, 9-11 FT, 6 assists) yet again.
• You didn’t really think Jack Gibbs would make it out of November without a 30-point night, did you? The Davidson star finally cracked that mark, scoring 33 points in the Wildcats’ 78-57 over Mercer.
• San Jose State is suddenly red-hot. The Spartans knocked off Idaho, winning back-to-back road games for the first time since 2012. Ryan Welage (15 points, 7 rebounds) had another strong effort.
• Murray State rallied from a five-point deficit with 13 seconds left to force overtime, but ultimately fell to Southern Illinois.
• Little Rock - which owns nice wins against Central Michigan and St. Bonaventure - needed overtime to beat Central Arkansas on the road.
• Idaho State picked up its first win of the year by dropping Lamar. Welcome to the party, Bill Evans.