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Late Night Snacks: Trevor Mbakwe’s back, Siyani Chambers FTW!

Trevor Mbakwe,TrayVonn Wright

Minnesota’s Trevor Mbakwe, right, attempts to steal the ball from North Dakota State’s TrayVonn Wright, left, during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid)

AP

Game of the Night

Harvard 65, Boston U. 64: Siyani Chambers won the “Battle of the freshman point guards that should be on national TV every night”, scoring 17 of his 21 points in the second half -- and adding five assists -- as the Crimson knocked off the Terriers in Lavietes Pavilion. After DJ Irving scored with nine seconds left to give BU a 64-63 lead, Chambers answered with a short jumper of his own with four ticks left on the clock (end of the video):

The other point guard in that matchup was Maurice Watson, who finished with 12 points, four assists and four steals.

Important Outcomes

Duquesne 60, West Virginia 56: Fresh off of a win over previously undefeated Virginia Tech, West Virginia traveled up to Pittsburgh to take on Atlantic 10 also-ran Duquesne ... and lost? Making matters worse is that the ‘Eers blew a 13 point halftime lead, getting outscored 37-20 in the final 20 minutes as they shot just 28% from the floor. Bob Huggins has a number of pieces at his disposal, but it looks like he is still trying to figure out how to get all of those pieces to fit together. Juwan Staten led the way with 13 points, but he was just 5-16 from the floor. That’s a pretty good microcosm for the kind of night that WVU had.

Starred

Trevor Mbakwe, Minnesota: Each and every time Mbakwe steps on the floor, he looks like he’s getting closer to being back to 100% after he had surgery a year ago to repair a torn ACL. In a 70-57 win over North Dakota State, Mbakwe went for 14 points and 18 boards, completely dominating the paint on both ends of the floor in the second half. He also threw down a pair of tip-dunks, and while he’s still not jumping quite as high as he was before the ACL injury, that is a good sign.

Matthew Dellavedova, St. Mary’s: St. Mary’s put up a 120 points on Jackson State, so there were a lot of Gaels that had good nights, but Dellavedova led the way as he finished with 31 points, eight assists and six boards. As a team, SMC shot 61.9% from the floor and hit 13-23 from long range.

Struggled

Brandon Paul, Illinois: When Paul is good, Illinois is good. See: Gonzaga. He went for 35 points on 10-16 shooting and the Illini won in Spokane. When Paul’s not good, Illinois’ not all that good. See: Norfolk State. He went for 14 points on 3-12 shooting on Tuesday night, and the Illini only beat the Spartans 64-54 in a game that was within one possession in the final two minutes.

Halil Kanacevic, St. Joseph’s: Kanacevic hit a three with about eight minutes left against Villanova in the rivalry known as the Holy War, and made the excellent decision to flip off the crowd afterwards. The Wildcats would go on an 9-0 run to close out the game -- in large part due to a pair of turnovers from Kanacevic, a pair of missed free throws by Kanacevic, and a foul on Kanacevic -- as the Hawks lost a road game they had complete control of. He had four points, four boards and five turnovers on the night.

The Rest of the Top 25

No. 3 Michigan 67, Binghamton 39

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.