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Mike Dixon and the Redhawks have flown near the top of the first
regional rankings.When the first regional rankings were released on Wednesday afternoon, several Mid-Atlantic fans probably asked themselves who La Roche is. The Redhawks are making a name for themselves by winning, including a 65-60 victory at Penn State-Altoona.
Based in Pittsburgh, La Roche plays in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference which splits its teams across three regions. The Redhawks haven't played a team from the other Mid-Atlantic conferences yet. But, with a 16-2 regional record entering the day, La Roche is ranked second in the that region. Nate Wojciechowski celebrated the occasion by scoring 25 points and leading La Roche past Penn State-Altoona.
The Redhawks entered Wednesday tied for first in the AMCC with Penn State-Behrend. The Nittany Lions beat La Roche on Saturday but got tonight off because of the winter weather. Their game against D'Youville was one of many across the country that have to be rescheduled after the mammoth snow storm.
No. 9 UW-River Falls held off UW-Eau Claire 76-70 to push its winning streak to 15 games. No. 10 UW-Stevens Point blew its game win open with a 38-1 run in the first half to crus UW-Stout 101-50. No. 16 St. Mary's (Md.) picked up a big road victory at York (Pa.) 82-75 behind Sam Burum's 30 points. Despite being ranked in the Top 25, No. 18 Eastern Mennonite did not place in the first South region rankings. So the Runnin Royals made need to win the ODAC tournament to make the NCAA tournament. They responded with an 88-79 win at Lynchburg.
No. 22 Franklin and Marshall kept rolling along without the program's all-time scoring leader James McNally. Mike Baker paced the Diplomats with 21 points and 16 rebounds as they beat Ursinus 69-61. The Diplomats also got some help in the Centennial Conference standings. They have a three game lead with five to play after Gettysburg stumbled at Johns Hopkins 65-46 and Dickinson edged McDaniel 62-61. Brian Gerney scored the game winner for the Red Devils with three seconds left.
Caltech was within six seconds of its first SCIAC win in more than 300 tries before La Verne's Trevor Woodland gave the Leopards one final lead and a 61-60 victory. Caltech had trailed the entire game before going on a 11-2 run to take a 58-57 lead with 1:03 left. Greensboro outlasted Emory and Henry 106-104 in triple overtime. Ted Fiore picked up his 200th win at Montclair State as the Red Hawks edged William Paterson 50-47. Fiore has another 151 wins from his nine seasons at Division I St. Peter's.