Wednesday night recap: Elon played Duke tough but no one noticed

Duke, one of the best teams in the country, if not THE best, struggled to beat Elon last night. The Phoenix led by one at halftime and stayed within striking distance for much of the second half before finally falling, 72-61.

Of course no one cares or remembers the basketball stuff that happened in the game because, well, Grayson Allen happened. Again.

Here’s the play, where the Texas senator and owner of the Chicago Cubs tripped an opponent for the third time in his career:

And here’s his totally rational reaction after Steven Santa Ana so rudely got in the way of his swinging leg.

Duke announced Thursday morning that Allen has been suspended indefinitely. He also apologized in-person to Santa Ana and Elon head coach Matt Matheny.

Here’s everything else that happened in the non-Grayson mid-major basketball world:

North Carolina 85 Northern Iowa 42: Ouch

Oh, Northern Iowa. Harry wrote a great piece last week about UNI’s struggles from the lens of their recent loss to Iowa. This one was even worse.

Harry said that against Iowa, the Panthers didn’t rebound well enough. On Wednesday, the Tar Heels out-rebounded them 42-20.

Harry said that outside of Jeremy Morgan, Northern Iowa does not have a reliable offensive threat. Morgan was held to just six points against North Carolina and really, no one else stepped up.

There’s no good way to slice this one, so let’s move on...

Fairfield 89 Boston College 83: LOL

Listen, I’m not going to take anything away from Fairfield. The Stags played a solid game, led by 20 points off the bench from Curtis Cobb. They also shot 8-11 from three in the first half and held off the Eagles as they attempted to come back late and avoid embarrassment.

That said, hahahahahaha. Oh, Boston College is bad. The Eagles have now lost to Nicholls State, Hartford, and Fairfield, and, oh yes, play in the mighty Atlantic Coast Conference.

Fairfield, meanwhile, snapped a three-game skid with its win and visits Penn a week from Friday before conference play picks up again.

Dayton 68 Vanderbilt 63: Phewwww

While this wouldn’t have been the worst loss in the world for the Flyers to endure, back-to-back defeats at the hands of Northwestern and Vanderbilt would have been less-than-ideal from an NCAA Tournament resume perspective.

Thankfully for Dayton, it came out of the locker room with an 8-0 run to erase a halftime deficit and take the lead for good. Charles Cooke had 19 points and seven rebounds to lead the way, but perhaps his biggest contribution came in the postgame media scrum.

Well played, Charles.

Georgia State 64 Middle Tennessee 56: Giddy :(

As President of the Giddy Potts Fan Club, I was saddened by the Blue Raiders’ home loss Wednesday night to Georgia State. After taking VCU to the wire on the road, this was a letdown, though by no means devastating. The Fightin’ Ron Hunters are a solid squad and played Purdue tough on the road earlier in the year.

Potts had 19 in the loss but was just 2-11 from three. That wasn’t nearly enough to offset 20 points from the Panthers’ Jeremy Hollowell and 15 more from Jeff Thomas, who shot a perfect 5-5 from distance.

Georgia State hosts UMass next, while the Blue Raiders get UAB at home.

Oregon State 69 Kent State 50: Nice

Congrats to Oregon State on finally beating a mid-major.

Other scores of note:

Gonzaga 102 South Dakota 65
Butler 81 Vermont 69
Chattanooga 73 Jacksonville State 57
Nevada 81 Towson 72
New Hampshire 89 Daniel Webster 26 WHAT?!
Michigan State 77 Oakland 65
Florida 94 Little Rock 71
Texas 96 UAB 60
Alabama 67 Arkansas State 52
Weber State 77 Utah State 71
Western Kentucky 67 Ohio 66