City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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The opening night of the 2016-17 college basketball season was generally a good one for the City 6, which saw an entertaining Big 5 matchup, another crushing win from the defending national champions and an impressive start by Penn out in the western part of the state.

Here’s a look around Friday night’s local action, with a few other assorted thoughts:

Monmouth 78, Drexel 65
Drexel tipped off a new era under head coach Zach Spiker on Friday night against a Monmouth team that many feel was snubbed from last year’s NCAA tournament.

And although the Dragons failed to start the new season with a win, they were able to come away with some positives in a 78-65 road loss to the Hawks.

“I thought our tempo was good,” Spiker said. “I thought we had a couple plays we’d like to have back, but this is the first game for everybody this year. Our seniors aren’t really seniors, they’re freshman in this system and style.”

One of the biggest positives was the emergence of freshman guard Kurk Lee, who dropped 17 to lead his team in the loss.

Lee was matched up with talented Monmouth senior guard Justin Robinson, who scored 15 points; guard Micah Seaborn led the Hawks with 17.

Safe to say, he didn’t give into the usual “freshman jitters” in his debut.

“He’s been through a terrific program in a very tough league in Baltimore, he’s played in big games,” Spiker said. “To go ahead against Justin Robinson like he did, hopefully it’s a springboard for him...his competitiveness raises things, I thought he did a good job tonight.”

While Lee was a major positive for the Dragons, there were certainly some negatives. The Dragons only shot 31 percent from the field, turned the ball over 16 times and were outscored 40-16 in the paint.

But for a team going through such major transition, a solid performance in a losing effort against a talented squad like Monmouth was a respectable way to open the 2016-17 campaign.

“This is a group that works hard, they want to be good, and they want to get better,” Spiker said. “That’s all you can ask for as a coach.”

Drexel will close out its weekend in New Jersey on Sunday afternoon with a 4:00 PM road test at Rutgers.

Penn 67, Robert Morris 50
By the looks of things, the next four years of the Quakers’ program could be called the A.J. Brodeur era.

Of course, one game is far too early to begin christening any such multi-year period, but the freshman out of Northfield Mt. Hermon (Mass.) impressed mightily in his first real college game.

In leading his team to a 17-point road win to open the season, the 6-foot-8, 220-pound forward had 23 points and 11 rebounds to put up a double-double in his first career game.

It’s a standard he’s quickly establishing for himself.

“We’ve played three games -- a scrimmage, an exhibition and now this, and he’s had a double-double in each of those, with 20 points in each of those,” Penn coach Steve Donahue told CoBL over the phone. “I’ve known A.J. for a long time -- the thing about him, he’s always gotten better each and every year.”

Brodeur was mightily efficient going 11-for-14 from the floor, though just 1-of-5 from the foul line. Though he has the ability to stretch the floor to the 3-point arc, he didn’t attempt a long-range shot on the evening.

He also was credited with two blocks, though Donahue said the Quakers’ staff had him pegged for seven.

“He’s a great defender, I don’t know if that comes out all the time, whether we’re playing man, in the middle of the zone,” Donahue said. “He’s got some really good competitive instincts, nothing phases him, he moves onto the next play, he’s got all those intangibles besides being 6-8, long, athletic and talented, so he’s got the whole package.”

Senior wing Matt Howard chipped in 15 points for Penn (1-0), which shot 21-of-37 (.568) from inside the arc but just 5-of-18 (.278) from 3-point range. The Quakers locked down on Robert Morris, holding the Colonials to just 29.3 percent (17-of-58) from the floor, including 17.6 percent (3-of-17) from 3-point range.

Last year, the Quakers started off their season with a one-point victory over the same Colonials on their home floor; beating them by 17 on the road was a sign to Donahue that they’re making progress.

“I think we’re a much better defensive team, there's a lot more versatility,” he said. “And though we have three newer guys, one is a freshman and two are older, and these other guys all played last year. We’re just further along in all aspects of our game right now.”

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Full CoBL Coverage
Temple 97, La Salle 92 (OT)
-- Quick Report
-- Temple starts off season with a bang in win over La Salle
-- Enechionyia hits the boards in Temple's win

Villanova 88, Lafayette 48
-- Quick Report
-- Jenkins picks up where he left off as ‘Nova wins in romp

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Other Notes
-- Delaware snuck by D-II Goldey-Beacom, 64-56, in the first game of the Martin Ingelsby reign in Newark. The Blue Hens got 14 points and 15 rebounds from Eric Carter in the redshirt sophomore forward’s return from an ACL injury that cost him the entire 2015-16 season, plus 16 points from senior guard Cazmon Hayes and 13 from junior Darien Bryant in the George Washington transfer’s first game with his new program. Delaware crushed its opponent 48-25 on the glass, but suffered from 18 turnovers (against seven forced) to allow Goldey-Beacom to keep it close.

-- No. 7 Xavier got quite a scare from Lehigh, though the Musketeers held off the Mountain Hawks for an 84-81 win. Still, that’s quite an opening salvo for the team expected to win the Patriot League, with senior big man Tim Kempton leading the way as usual with 25 points and seven rebounds; junior point guard Kahron Ross only had six points but 12 assists against just one turnover. But that wasn’t quite enough to overcome the 1-2 punch of Trevon Bluiett and Edmond Sumner, who combined for 49 points by going for 25 and 24, respectively.

-- Former Conwell-Egan point guard Stevie Jordan had a successful college debut with 14 points in 31 minutes as his Rider Broncs beat the Hampton Pirates, 67-56. The 5-10 point guard, who spent his senior season at Advanced Prep International (Tex.), earned the start in his first college game and showed why, shooting 5-of-10 from the floor to tie for his team high in scoring, along with five assists. Another local product, former Abington guard Anthony Durham, added three points in 14 bench minutes.