Seton Hall Wins a Tough Battle Against #15 St. John's

Seton Hall's Sterling Gibbs Celebrates
After Hitting a Late Game Three Pointer

Coming into today no one expected Seton Hall to beat #15 St. John's.  They had just lost their freshman star Isaiah Whitehead to a stress fracture in his foot.  He was averaging 11.9 PPG and was playing spectacular.  Now they had to find a new team identity, as  they will be playing without him for a few weeks, and that they did.

Heading into halftime everything indicated that whoever would win was going to have to fight for it.  At the half Seton Hall was up 40-35 and they never skipped a beat in the 1st half.

Coming out of the half, Seton Hall impressed many again.  They had stretched their lead out a little, and with about 10 minutes left they led the 15th ranked team in the country by 9 points.  But once again St. John's fought their way right back into the game.  All of a sudden, they went on an 11-2 run to make it a 2 point game with Seton Hall still leading 65-63.  Although Seton Hall let them hang they finally stepped on St. John's throats and closed out the game to capture a 78-67 win.

Sterling Gibbs played a huge game for the Pirates of Seton Hall.  He finished with 25 points and 8 assists.  With the game hanging in the balance for either team to grab, Gibbs hit a clutch three pointer to spark his team into winning the game.

On the other hand, D'Angelo Harrison also scored 25 points, he also grabbed 4 rebounds for St. John's.  He proved once again how great he truly is.  The Red Storm's point guard was constantly battling for rebounds and hounding opponents on the defensive end.  Harrison also controlled St. John's offense and was able to produce clutch buckets down the stretch.

Today's game exposed both teams' true colors.  Seton Hall is definitely a top 25 team, they are 11-2 and have played great all season.  They are playing good as a whole team right now and when Whitehead comes back they will be one of the top teams in the Big East, if not the best.  But for St. John's they once again proved that they are inconsistent.  Some nights they come in ready to slaughter openents, but days like today they looked flat.  Although they have some troubles they are also 11-2 and have been playing great.  The battle between these two teams was a classic Big East game.  Both St. John's and Seton Hall were scrapping for buckets all the way until the final buzzer sounded.

Jalek Felton Commits to UNC

The #7 player in the Sophomore class has already committed to UNC.  Jalek Felton, the nephew of
former UNC guard and NBA player Raymond Felton, is looking to follow in his uncles footsteps.

The 6 foot 3 guard has always dreamed of going to UNC and decided to make that dream come true not even halfway through his high school career.

Felton is a combo guard who plays great on and off the ball.  He is known more for his slashing and finishing at the hoop rather than his jumpshot.  The jumpshot is there when he needs it though.

Felton was also being recruited by Kansas, South Carolina, Witchita State, and Louisville.

It will be interesting to see where the UNC basketball program is in a few years.  They currently have scandals surrounding the program that may haunt their future.  But on the brighter side, they have a future star in their hands in Felton.

Florida Beat Florida at the Buzzer

Yes, you read the title right.  The Florida Gators beat the Florida Gators last night.  Well, they didn't beat themselves literally, but they did beat themselves at the buzzer.  They were tied at 63 against Florida State with about 2 seconds left and Florida State was inbounding the ball. The Seminoles ended up missing their shot, but then this happened.

Yes, Jacob Kurtz of Florida tipped the ball in to win the game for Florida State.  He had the right idea, just for the wrong team.  

Kasey Hill led the Gators with 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Montay Brandon helped lead Florida State to victory with this 17 points and 5 rebounds.  

The 65-63 loss is probably going to be the worst ending to a game for the Gators all season.  Hopefully this won't hurt them in the long run, but all in all it is a pretty funny ending to a game.

Bradley Beal Nets a Season High 33 Points in Win Over Rockets

Last night the Washington Wizards defeated the Houston Rockets 104-103.

Heading into the fourth quarter the Wizards were up 78-67, after a dismal third quarter by the Rockets who were outscored 32-22.  The fourth was a whole new game though.  The Rockets outscored the Wizards 36-26 and closed the game back up.

Bradley Beal picked up 6 points from the charity stripe to help secure the Wizards' victory.  He ended the game with 33 points, a season high.

James Harden also scored 33 points, but his effort for the losing Rockets.

Paul Pierce added in 21 points for the Wizards.  Similarly, John Wall had a double-double with 13 points and 12 assists.

With their win the Wizards moved to 22-8.  This feat matches their franchise best start for the first 30 games in a season.  They will roll through the Eastern Conference if Bradley Beal and John Wall keep producing at a high level.

DeMarcus Cousins Demolished the Nets With This Slam Dunk

Last night the Brooklyn Nets and Sacramento Kings faced off in Brooklyn.  DeMarcus Cousins decided to give fans a little extra gift with only a few minutes left in the game.  This gift ended up being a huge dunk all over Nets big man Mason Plumlee.  Although Cousins got the best of Plumlee, the Nets got the best of the Kings 107-99.  Cousins finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds.  Plumlee ended up leading the Nets in scoring with 22 points and got dunked on once.

Jahlil Okafor Scores a Season High 27 Points In Duke's Win

Jahlil Okafor Soars
in for an Easy Two

The nation's best player, best freshman, and best big man dominated in #2 Duke's win over Toledo last night.  Okafor scored 27 points in the Blue Devils' 86-69 win.

In the early minutes of the game, Duke jumped out to an 18-4 lead.  Okafor had Duke's first 6 points and right away you could already tell it was going to be a special night for him.

After falling behind early, Toledo ended up shooting their way back into the game.  They were only down 41-37 at the half against an amazing Duke team.

In the second half, Duke showed why they are ranked #2 in the country though.  They outscored Toledo 45-32 and pulled away on their way to victory.

Okafor absolutely dominated and was the one who started Duke's 21-9 run in the second half.  He started off this run with 7 straight points which was enough momentum for the team to carry.  This is Okafor's fourth time scoring 20 points in his last six games.  The nation's best player is tearing up defenses all across the country.

Quinn Cook added a season high 20 points and Tyus Jones had 15 points.

For Toledo, Julius Brown scored 19 points an
d helped keep them in the game for as long as possible.

With their win, Duke moves to 11-0 and only has one more non-conference game.  They play Wofford on New Years Eve, then the Blue Devils start the mighty task of playing the ACC.  Time will tell us how good they really are, after they play teams like Virginia, UNC, Louisville, St. John's, Notre Dame, and Syracuse.

Thunder Lifted to Victory With Westbrook's Stellar Performance

In the second game of the Christmas day marathon, the OKC Thunder defeated the San Antonio Spurs 114-106.

Russell Westbrook flat out dominated the game once again for the Thunder.  He started of very slow shooting 1-8 on his first shots, but after that was a whole new story.  Westbrook started to blow past defenders and finish at the rim, or pass it off for easy assists.  His performance was one of the funnest to watch in any of the past Christmas day games.  If the NBA had Christmas day MVP, Westbrook would have won it.  The Thunder point guard finished with 34 points, 11 assists, and 5 steals.  At halftime, Spurs coach Greg Popovich said he needed his players to start playing like Russell Westbrook, that's how well he played.

Without MVP forward Kevin Durant, Westbrook has held his own.  Over the past 10 games he is averaging 31.5 PPG, 7.9 APG, and 6.0 RPG.  This is MVP worthy on its own level.

OKC also received major contribution from second year big man Steven Adams.  He finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds.  This season his role has been increased a lot.  Not only has he met expectations, he has exceeded them and played amazing.  He also dunked all over multiple Spurs players during the Thunder's victory.

The Spurs kept this game tight throughout the late stages though.  They were led by Matt Bonner who finished with 17 points and a DUNK.  Yes, Matt Bonner dunked.

The Spurs also received great games from their surrounding core, they had 6 other players scoring in double figures.

Although the Spurs kept the game close late, the Thunder closed out strong.  Anthony Morrow hit multiple clutch shots in the final minutes, along with a Russell Westbrook surge, in order to close the game up.  All in all, Russell Westbrook was to much to handle on Christmas day and gifted us with a spectacular performance.