The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

RADSHAD Davis’ late-game heroics and coach Yolette McPhee-McCuin leading her team to a major upset win highlighted a weekend of performances from Bahamians in NCAA Division I basketball.

Davis made the game winning three pointer from the right corner to lift the Texas-Arlington Mavericks to a 61-58 win on the road over the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.

The win was the second consecutive for the Mavericks as they improved to 6-11 overall on the season, 2-2 in Sun Belt Conference play.

Coming out of the timeout with under 20 seconds left to play, the Mavericks’ TiAndre Johnson, who was 5-6 from beyond the arc for the game, made the extra pass in the corner to a wide open Davis who capitalised with the go ahead three. “Coach drew up the play with TiAndre being the first option, but TiAndre’s defender closed out quickly on him so he made the extra pass and I just shot it. I knew it was going in the moment it left my hand,” Davis said. “We were in a bit of a slump, but these two road wins are very big for us. We’ve really bought into the system and we’re starting to trust each other more every day.”

The junior guard finished with 11 points and six rebounds. The Mavericks also finished with a season high 11 three pointers.

The back-and-forth affair saw UTA lead for 16 minutes and CCU for 18 minutes. The contest was tied nine times, and the lead exchanged hands an incredible 15 times – 12 of which came in the 2nd half.

In that 2nd half, neither team led by more than four. UTA trailed by two (58-56) with 1 minute remaining before a pair of free throws tied it at 58.

Coach Yo and her Ole Miss Rebels scored the first “signature win” of her tenure with their 55-49 win on the road over the No.16 Kentucky Wildcats yesterday.

“I’m really happy for the team,” McPhee-McCuin said. “My message to them after the LSU game was: ladies, there will come a time, and I don’t know if it will be Sunday, where we will beat the team that nobody expects us to beat. And in order to do that, we will need everybody. And as the game was going on, in the huddles I kept saying there will come a time. And today was our time.”

Ole Miss outscored the Wildcats 23-13 in the fourth quarter, taking the lead for good with a 6-0 run, capped by La’Karis Salter’s tip-in that made it 48-44 with 2:03 to play. Kentucky made just two of its last 10 shots, went 5 of 17 with four turnovers in the fourth quarter and shot 26.6 per cent (17 of 64) overall.

“Kentucky is a great team,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I don’t think one game in the SEC should sway your thoughts when they beat Tennessee. This is the SEC. You have to come to play every night. It just happened to be our night. I am extremely proud of my team.

The weekend featured a pair of heartbreaking losses for Travis Munnings and his Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks.

Following a 79-78 loss to the Georgia Southern Eagles, they suffered a second consecutive one-point loss Saturday night, 74-73 to the Georgia State Panthers.

Munnings had just seven points and three rebounds against the Eagles. “We’ve got to find a way to get Travis (Munnings) going. It’s just tough to win on the road without him contributing enough offensively,” Warhawks head coach Keith Richard said following the loss to the Eagles. “Travis is struggling, and we’re struggling to find him within our offence. We need to find a way to get him going within our offence. It’s a big thing for us to have four guys in double figures, instead of two or three.”

The senior wing responded with his first double double of the season - 11 points and 13 rebounds - in the loss to the Panthers.

Jaron Cornish and the Stony Brook Seawolves continue to be one of the surprise teams of the America East conference with their fifth consecutive win.

Stony Brook’s 18-point win is the highest margin of victory against a Division I opponent this season. This is the first time since the 2012-13 season that the Seawolves have kept back-to-back opponents under 50 points. They held Manhattan to 44 and New Hampshire to 49 on January 1 and 5, 2013.

After winning eight of the team’s first 12 games by single digits, Stony Brook has won its last four games by an average of 13.3 points.

Charles Bain and the Robert Morris Colonials had a four-game winning streak snapped with an 80-73 loss to LIU Brooklyn. It was also their first loss in Northeasteern Conference play this season.

Bain finished with 17 points on 7-10 shooting (3-5 from three) and four rebounds in 25 minutes. The sophomore forward has scored at least nine in eight of his last 10 games.