Over the week of Thanksgiving, the American University men’s basketball team (6-4) won three of their four home games. The Eagles defeated the Division III Marywood Pacers (4-1) 113-53 on Nov. 24 ahead of the inaugural Capital Thanksgiving Classic hosted by American. During the tournament, American beat the Maine Black Bears (0-10) 74-61 on Nov. 28, lost to the Siena Saints (7-2) 59-55 on Nov. 29 and beat the Longwood Lancers (5-5) 92-66 on Nov. 30.
The Eagles entered the week off a tight 80-71 loss while away in Piscataway, New Jersey, against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Nov. 18.
At the top of the match against Marywood, junior forward Matt Mayock won the tip-off and came out firing, cashing in a 3-pointer from the wing to put the Eagles up 3-0 early in the half.
After Mayock’s shot, the Pacers immediately showed some resistance, playing strong defense and generating good shots to go on a 6-0 scoring run.
This would be the Pacers’ first and only lead of the game as freshman guards Kade Sebastian and Madden Collins took over.
With over 16 minutes remaining on the clock, Sebastian fought for an offensive rebound and put the ball back up for an easy lay to cut the Marywood lead 6-5. After a Pacers made free throw, Sebastian drove into the lane for another layup that tied the game at 7 a piece.
All in consecutive possessions, Sebastian used his length to pick up a steal and dished it out to Collins, who drove to the basket through traffic, picked up the layup and got fouled on the play. Collins followed that up with a difficult turnaround midrange shot and Sebastian hit a wide-open 3-pointer to put American up 15-7 with 14 and a half minutes left in the half.
After the two freshmen went on a 12-1 run by themselves, American had all the momentum and veteran Eagles including junior forward Greg Jones, sophomore forward Julen Iturbe and Mayock jumped into the action, hitting shot after shot and the Eagles closed out the half leading 54-28.
After halftime, the Eagles came out of the locker room ready to add to their 26-point lead and did just that. Jones jumpstarted the Eagles in the second after pump-faking his defender and getting a nice layup. Sophomore guard Wyatt Nausadis backed that up by hitting two back-to-back 3-pointers and Mayock joined the action with a top-of-the-key 3-pointer of his own.
Jones proceeded to grab a steal and get a fast break layup, forcing the Pacers to call a timeout down 67-28 with 17 and a half minutes left to play after a 13-0 run from the Eagles.
There was no slowing down Eagles head coach Duane Simpkins’ team on offense, and an Iturbe putback poster dunk that sent Bender Arena fans on their feet yelling iced the game. American won 113-53.
The Eagles terrorized the Pacers on defense, picking up 12 steals and forcing 15 turnovers. It also rained 3-pointers for American, who hit 14 of them to shoot 50 percent from behind the arc.
Sebastian and Collins led the way, scoring 20 points each. Sebastian added 3 steals and a game-high 6 assists. Iturbe recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Postgame, Simpkins emphasized the importance for a young team like his to have a balance of harder and weaker competition during the non-conference schedule.
“We got four buy games. For every Rutgers and UVA, VCU and games like that, we’re going to balance them out with games like this,” Simpkins said. “Some people may say ‘hey, it’s a practice game’ or whatever, but nonetheless it’s a game, and we come out here and compete as hard as we possibly can.”
Simpkins also praised Sebastian’s big impact efforts that didn’t translate into the box score.
“There [are] so many things that he does that don’t show up on a stat sheet. Tonight he made shots and things like that. But where he’s extra valuable is those things that don’t show up, the deflections, the extra pass, the diving on the floor for a loose ball,” Simpkins said.
Sebastian prides himself on playing an impactful role and making simple plays.
“It all starts on defense, getting steals and getting easy buckets,” Sebastian said.
The Capital Thanksgiving Classic kicked off on Nov. 8, and the Eagles’ first opponent of the tournament was the Maine Black Bears. While American was riding with high momentum after the Marywood win, Maine came into the game in a slump, having lost all of their previous games.
Maine won the opening tip-off. On American’s first possession of the game, Mayock drove into the lane for a layup and got blocked, but the officials ruled the play a goaltending violation and put the Eagles up 2-0. After a Maine free throw, Mayock took a turnaround jumper and hit it to go up 4-1 with just over 17 minutes left in the half.
The Black Bears hit a 3-pointer to tie the game, but an American offensive barrage including a layup and a 3-pointer from Sebastian, and 3-pointers from Collins and Nausadis created a 14-0 Eagles run, forcing Maine to call a timeout with just under 12 minutes left in the half, trailing 18-4. In this stretch, their offense generated good looks, but couldn’t buy a shot.
Coming out of the timeout, Maine was able to generate more offense and for the rest of the half, each team was exchanging baskets and Maine was slowly chipping away at the American lead. At the end of the half, Maine hit a buzzer-beating midrange shot, while American was still leading 39-28.
After halftime, Maine struck first, sinking one free throw, which was answered with a Nausadis layup. After exchanging two more baskets, senior guard Geoff Sprouse swished a transition 3-pointer to maintain a 46-31 point lead with over 17 minutes left to play.
Maine immediately answered with a 3-pointer of its own, but the Eagles put up a big scoring run from a layup and 3-pointer from Sebastian and layups from Jones and Collins.
Nausadis closed out the run by grabbing a steal and pushing it all the way for a layup plus the foul call. That gave American a 23-point lead with over 12 minutes left in regulation. The Eagles were up 59-36.
Though Maine was still generating some offense, the only thing that kept Maine competitively in the game was free throws. American, which Simpkins said ranks 12th among Division I basketball programs in the country for personal fouls, picked up a lot of calls in the second.
The Eagles, who finished the game with 24 personal fouls, gave up 18 free throws in the second half, and 29 in the whole game. The Black Bears struggled to make their free throws. They managed to cut the lead to 66-58 off a free throw with 3:37 left to play, but they missed 10 of their 18 free throws and couldn’t secure a comeback.
American went on to win 74-61. Sebastian was the squad’s leading scorer with 15 points and Nausadis was behind him with 13 points, 3 assists and 3 steals. The Eagles showcased their speed, recording 20 fast break points compared to just 2 Maine fast break points.
“We got a bunch of guys that can really get out and run. They’ve done a really good job at conditioning themselves and recovering and that’s one of our strengths,” Simpkins said. “If we can play really good defense and get stops, get clean rebounds, we can be a really tough team to have to defend in the transition.”
Nausadis is shooting 41.7 percent from beyond the arc and attributes his shooting improvements to his increased confidence.
“I have a lot more confidence this year, and it’s allowed me to get downhill and feel confident in my ability to shoot the ball,” Nausadis said.
In the second game of a back-to-back, the Eagles played the Siena Saints, who came off a win against the Longwood Lancers, on Nov. 28.
The game was a low-scoring affair, scrappy and defensive-oriented.
The Saints struck first to kick off the game with a quick layup and got a putback layup to put Siena up 4-0 with over 17 minutes left to play.
After missing their first few shots, Mayock got things rolling for the Eagles, getting a putback layup to cut the lead down 4-2 with over 16 minutes left in the half. A few possessions later, Collins grabbed a steal and ran in transition for the dunk to tie the game. Iturbe followed that with a 3-pointer and American took a 9-6 lead with 13 and a half minutes left in the half.
Both teams were struggling offensively and couldn’t manage to spark a run, but what put Siena over the Eagles this half were free throws. With just under five minutes remaining, Siena tied the game off two free throws and took a 20-16 lead with just under four minutes left. Siena went into the half leading 21-20.
The second half shared a similar fate to the first. Neither team could create much separation on the scoreboard and occasionally exchanged baskets.
While American was only down by 2 points, Siena was awarded free throws with 6:24 left in the game. Jones was pushed around while trying to box out for a rebound and shoved a Siena player. After officials reviewed the replay, Jones was assessed with a technical foul. Bender Arena had two full sections of Siena fans, and they were booing him, with some even shouting profanities at Jones while the officials were reviewing the play.
In a 3-point game that was down to the wire, Simpkins decided to bench his team captain and Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Jones for the rest of the match.
Without Jones, the Eagles tried to hang on. With just over a minute left to play, Collins hit a midrange jumper to take a 53-52 lead, however the Saints responded with a layup to put them up 54-53, with only 56 seconds left in the game.
American was forced to foul, and weren’t able to recover when Siena made free throws. The Saints won 59-55.
Postgame, Simpkins explained his decision to bench his star player after picking up a technical foul.
“It was a selfish play at that time in the game. We can’t have it. We put somebody else in there that would’ve thought about the team first,” Simpkins said. “It’s a teachable moment for him.”
The following afternoon, on Nov. 29, the Eagles matched up against the Longwood University Lancers to close out the Capital Thanksgiving Classic.
The Lancers won the tip-off and began the afternoon with a made free throw. Sprouse immediately answered by hitting a deep 3-pointer. The Eagles were up 3-1 with over 19 minutes left in the half.
American started the half playing lackadaisical defense and sent Longwood to shoot free throws frequently, but after Sprouse hit a tough contested 3-pointer to regain a 25-22 lead with just over seven minutes remaining, the Eagles put their foot on the gas, tightening up on defense and generating strong looks on offense.
The Eagles were unguardable for the next five minutes, with 3-pointers from Mayock and Jones and layups from Mayock and Iturbe, forcing Longwood to call a timeout while down 38-28. The Eagles went into halftime leading 40-34.
Momentum was on American’s side in the second half as there was a 3-point barrage. Collins, Nausadis and Sprouse all hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to put American up 61-42 with just over 11 minutes left in the half.
That 9-0 scoring run iced the game, and the Lancers were unable to mount any comeback and proceeded to be blown out 92-66.
Jones led the team in scoring with 18 points, 2 steals and 2 assists. Mayock finished with 17 points, shooting 3-of-5 from behind the arc, and also pulled in 6 rebounds.
After being benched in the last game, Jones had a stellar bounce-back and said he had to put that lapse of judgment behind him to perform this well.
“It was kind of good, because I knew we had a game the next day, so it was short-term memory,” Jones said. “I kind of just got that technical because of my emotions, and things weren’t going my way and somebody pulled on me a little bit and I pushed them. Obviously I shouldn’t have done that, but having a short-term memory and knowing I get an opportunity to make it all up the next day was a perfect position that I was in.”
Mayock, who had a big scoring weekend, has transformed into a three-level scoring threat, and has specifically worked on his driving and layup skills to open up his 3-point game.
“The biggest part of it was getting stronger in the offseason. I put on some weight and put on some muscle, so I’m not getting pushed off spots when I’m driving to the basket now. Now people have to respect that more, so that makes them close out a little shorter,” Mayock said. “I’ve always been comfortable from 3, so just focus on knocking them down.”
The Saints were the winners of the Capital Thanksgiving Classic, finishing 3-0 on the weekend. The Eagles finished second, going 2-1 in the tournament, while the Lancers and Black Bears finished third and fourth in the tournament, going 1-2 and 0-3, respectively.
Simpkins said he was grateful for the support from AU Athletics, the University administration and participating schools for their role in making the Capital Thanksgiving Classic possible.
“This has some potential to be way bigger than it already is,” Simpkins said. “A number of people want to come to the nation’s capital during Thanksgiving break. It’s not Florida, but at the same time, we offer a lot of things in the nation’s capital for visiting teams.”
The Eagles defeated Drexel on Dec. 3 and defeated UMES at home on Dec. 6. American finished 5-1 in their 6 game homestand.
This article was edited by Connor Sturniolo, Penelope Jennings and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Sabine Kanter-Huchting, Avery Grossman, Ryan Sieve and Ava Stuzin.
