MBB: Liberty League

magicman · January 30, 2009, 11:59:56 PM

Clarkson loses at home to Hobart 72-63, as the Statesmen outscore the Knights 27-7 over the final 7 minutes of the game.

G. Koduah scored a career-high 18 points, shooting 8-for-11 from the floor. E. Pickering added 14 points and 7 rebounds, and K. Murray finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds.

Hobart was led by M. Pebole who had a game-high 23 points, going 7-for-10 from the field and 9-for-11 from the free throw line. R. Estep added 18.

magicman · January 31, 2009, 12:05:32 AM

Vassar travels to Union and comes away with the upset win 87-80.

Skidmore breaks in the win column at RPI's expense shooting down the visiting Red Hawks in OT 63-62.

organizingmom · January 31, 2009, 09:02:11 PM

Congrats to the All-Academic Team!
http://www.libertyleaguesports.org/academic/mbasketball

magicman · January 31, 2009, 10:55:40 PM

Hamilton takes down host Clarkson 61-44. Continentals grab early lead and never headed. Continentals next at RPI on Feb 6th. Knights host SLU on Tues Feb 3rd hoping to avenge 31 pt pasting 2 weeks ago.

Visiting RPI defeats Union 61-50 to grab sole possession of 3rd place. Dutchmen to host Skidmore on Tues.

St. Lawrence beats visiting Hobart 88-73 as 5 Saints reach double figures. Remains tied with Hamilton for 1st place with 6-1 mark. Hobart next at Vassar on the 6th.

Skidmore at home wins 2nd straight downing Vassar 64-45.

buck1053 · February 02, 2009, 05:57:24 PM

An update about a couple games this weekend — both at Union. Point Guard Drew Goldstein went down with a broken nose early in the second half of the game against Vassar, which definitely made an impact in both games. Not sure if both would have been won, but firmly believe there would have been a different outcome in the Vassar game if there hadn't been a backup in there, especially during the OT.

RPI's Sam Simmons was a big part of their win Saturday, he was hard to stop inside.

magicman · February 03, 2009, 11:25:14 PM

St. Lawrence invades Clarkson and comes away with an 82-75 win. SLU gains lead 4 mins into game and maintains it throughout the 1st half. Knights within 4, 36-32 with 2:45 to go and Saints close out the half with 7-2 spurt to go into the break up by 9 at 43-34. Knights fall behind by 13 early in the 2nd but hang tough and finally come back and tie it up at 62 on a jumper by Brad Linton with 8:44 remaining. Teams trade 3 pointers before Saints go up by 5, 75-70 on 3 pt play by Richard Williams with 2:45 left. Foul and technical foul on Knights Elson Pickering at 2:34 mark and that pretty much sealed it for the Saints, who extend lead to 78-70. Knights had no answer for Tom Wopperer tonight as he goes 10x15 fg, 4x4 3's, 7x7 ft, for 31 pts. Also in double figures is Williams with 12 pts and 7 boards, Ralph Temgoua with 12 pts and 6 boards, and Bela Vonnak with good all around play has 8 pts, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. Knights place 4 players in double figs led by Brian Salanger with 14, and Linton with 11. Pickering and Jon Hood added 10 each.

buck1053 · February 06, 2009, 02:17:24 PM

Any thoughts on the weekend? Here are mine:

Tonight
Hamilton   (12-5 overall, 6-1 LL) over RPI (10-8, 4-3 LL)
Clarkson (11-8, 2-6 LL) over Skidmore (7-12, 2-6 LL)
Vassar (7-11, 2-5 LL) over Hobart (6-12, 3-4 LL)
St. Lawrence (14-4, 7-1 LL) over Union (11-7, 4-4 LL)

Saturday
Hamilton over Vassar
Clarkson over Union
RPI over Hobart
St. Lawrence over Skidmore

That would give Hamilton, St. Lawrence and Clarkson 2-0 slates, Vassar and RPI 1-1 marks, and Skidmore, Union and Hobart 0-2 weekends.

If that happens, conference standings would look like this:
St. Lawrence 9-1
Hamilton 8-1
RPI 5-4
Union 4-6
Clarkson 4-6
Vassar 3-6
Hobart 3-6
Skidmore 2-8

If that all played out it would continue to give credence to my belief that Hamilton and St. Lawrence are head and shoulders above the others. I know prior to conference play (or maybe after the first weekend) I thought Clarkson was at the top, but clearly they are not.

magicman · February 06, 2009, 11:27:48 PM

St. Lawrence places 7 players in double figures as they defeat visiting Union 99-80. Saints up 46-43 at the break. Still up 48-47 at the 18 min mark of the 2nd SLU goes on a 22-6 run to put the game away.

Hamilton travels to RPI and comes away with a 73-68 victory. Down by 6 at the half the Continentals grab the lead for good, 56-55 with 9:41 left to play and hold off the Red Hawks.

Clarkson downs visiting Skidmore 67-58 as 4 Knights reach double figures. Knights outscore the Thoroughbreds 16-7 over game's final 4 minutes.

Visiting Hobart stops Vassar 51-48 tonight in defensive battle. Brewers up 48-43 with 3:08 to play never score another point as the Statesmen close out the game on an 8-0 run.

magicman · February 07, 2009, 08:58:41 PM

St. Lawrence defeats visiting Skidmore 83-68. Game of runs as Saints open game with 21-0 run and forge 49-30 halftime lead. Skidmore comes back with a 27-11 run of their own to close within 4 at 61-57 with 10:23 left to play, but Saints turn it on again with 17-0 run to go up 78-57 with 4:30 to go. SLU only has 5 players in double figures tonight led by 3 freshmen. Ralph Temgoua and Garrett Sharlow each had 17 pts, and Terry Parham had 15. The 3 rookies also combined for 19 rebounds. Tom Wopperer had 12 pts and Bela Vonnak added 10 pts and 9 boards. Skidmore was led by Gerard O'Shea with 11 pts.

Big road trip for the Saints next weekend as they travel to Hobart on Friday night and then over to Hamilton Sat. afternoon which will probably determine the regular season championship and home court for the LL playoffs. Must win for the Continentals to have any chance at the top seed.

Hamilton travels to Vassar and trips up the host Brewers 74-60. Continentals up 38-19 at the break, place 3 in double figures. Patrick Sullivan leads all scorers with 17 pts, followed by Jay Simpson with 16 and Dayne Harris with 11. Brewers were paced by Matt Nunn with 14 Brian Butterworth with 12 and Joe Davis with 10.
Hamilton has Clarkson coming to town on Friday night and can't afford to be looking ahead to that SLU match up on Sat. as the Golden Knights looking for revenge from earlier beating in Potsdam.

magicman · February 07, 2009, 09:49:54 PM

Clarkson takes care of visiting Union 79-61. Knights open game with 7-0 spurt and are never headed as they take a 37-30 lead at the break. Union get to within 1 at 44-43 with 12:39 left to play but a 10-0 Clarkson run slams the door. Knights stretch lead to 73-58 and coast. George Koduah topped the Knights with 17 pts and 10 rebounds. Brandon Linton had 16 pts, 7 assists, 4 rebounds ,and 3 blocks.
Keith Murray, Jonathan Hood, and Brian Salanger all have 13 points and Murray added 9 boards. Union's Joey Lokitis was the game's high scorer with 21 pts including 5 treys and Drew Desmarais added 17 for the Dutchman.

Knights move into a tie for the 5th spot with Union at 4-6 in league play and they travel to Hamilton on Fri. and Hobart on Sat.

Union also on the road next weekend traveling 1st to RPI Fri. night and then Vassar on Sat. afternoon

magicman · February 07, 2009, 10:31:37 PM

RPI solidifies their hold on 3rd place in the conference with a 65-61 win over visiting Hobart. Red Hawks grab early lead and maintain it through the end of the 1st period leading 31-26 at the halfway point. Hobart comes out of the break with a 13-4 spurt to lead for the 1st time at 34-33 and stretch it to 39-35 early on in the 2nd. RPI goes on a 16-2 run of its' own to go up 51-41 with 9:44 left to play.
Still up 10, 57-47 with just over 5 mins left the Red Hawks allow the Statesmen to close to within 1 before Sam Simmons nails a huge 3 pointer with 40 secs left to give the Red Hawks a 61-57 lead and 4 made foul shots account for the final margin. Simmons led RPI with 22 pts on 9x14 fgs 2x2 3's and 2x2 ft's. Mike Brion added 11 and Tim Rupp 10. For the Statesmen Robb Estep had 22 pts on 7x15 fgs 2x3 3's and 6x8 ft's. Matt Pebole added 20 pts and 5 boards. Hobart falls out of 3rd place tie with RPI into 4th place, a half game up on Clarkson and Union.

with age came? · February 09, 2009, 01:50:09 AM

Do or die time this weekend for the north country pair. St Lawrence needs to win to solidify top seed and home court advantage and Clarkson must win at Hobart to keep playoff hopes alive. Playoff picture is pretty murky right now but will probably clear up after the weekend.

Spanky Slazenger · February 10, 2009, 11:35:23 AM

I see that the idiots that work for this site have finally given SLU some votes... They deserve to be in the top 25 and you guys all know it. I find it hard to believe they wont make a deep run in the NCAA's. But then again what do I know....

Firts time post

buck1053 · February 10, 2009, 01:33:51 PM

Quote from: Spanky Slazenger on February 10, 2009, 11:35:23 AM
I see that the idiots that work for this site have finally given SLU some votes... They deserve to be in the top 25 and you guys all know it. I find it hard to believe they wont make a deep run in the NCAA's. But then again what do I know....

Firts time post

Spanky, they certainly seem to be tops in the LL, but Hamilton also has been cruising through their league games. A question I have about St. Law is their close games (moreso in the first part of the league schedule), but I suppose that shows they have character, being able to win the close one.

Also, I think they will have to win the conference tourney to make the big tourney. I don't think the LL can get an at-large bid.

Spanky Slazenger · February 10, 2009, 02:33:42 PM

Valid points Bucky... I do think they will win the conference tourney this year for a couple of reason...

1 - Lots of experience on the floor

2 - They havent had a group like this since the days of Keith Sullivan and we all know what he used to do to RPI, The only team to beat slu this year. Im just saying

3 - Three standout Freshmen in Sharlow, Parham, and Ralphy from france... Gives them energy off the bench.

4 - A 30 year old point guard... I mean how many teams have a guy that graduated in the 90's.... Not many

Truth be told they will only be held back by the lack of a consistent 8th man, no offense to Ben Arraya but I think we will all agree with Andy Hoercher healthy this is a top 20 team without question.

Anyway I guess i will talk with you clowns later because that was the best post I've read on here since 2002....

Spanky