MBB: Liberty League

[magicman]

Clarkson ups their record to 6-2 with a 68-60 overtime win on the road at City College of NY. Rey Jefferson led the Golden Knights with 24 points as he had 6 triples, 6 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 assists. Felix Llanos had 19 points, with 5 boards and 5 assists. Jonathan Hood almost had a double-double with 10 pts and 9 rebounds. The Knights struggled early from the outside hitting only 3 of 14 from beyond the arc in the 1st half, but they nailed 6 treys in the 2nd half and hit their 1st 3 shots in overtime from 3 point land to open a up lead that ultimately became the largest of the game.

Clarkson will next travel to Williamstown Mass. to take on Elms College at the Williams College Tournament on January 2nd at 7 PM. The next day they face Westfield State at 3 PM.

Rey Jefferson and Jonathan Hood were both chosen to the most recent Liberty League Team of the Week. Freshman Marques Charlton was chosen as the Rookie of the Week.   

[magicman]

Hobart flys to California and does what so many teams from the east do when they go west---lose. The Statesmen drop a 70-65 decision to Cal Lutheran in a game that really wasn't that close.

Hobart got out of the gate slowly and found themselves down by 11 at 16-5, 8 minutes into the game. The 1st half lead grew to 15 before Hobart narrowed it to 10 at the half 32-22. The 2nd half was more of the same as the Kingsmen built a 21 point lead with 9:25 left to play. The Statesmen went on a 21 to 9 spurt to cut the lead to single digits 61-52 with 2:10 remaining but Cal Lu scored 4 unanswered points to build it back to 13 and only some poor free throw shooting by the Kingsmen in the final minute allowed Hobart to close within 5. Stefan Thompson and Matt Pebole led Hobart with 17 and 15 points respectively.
The Kingsmen outshot the Statesmen in all categories, 50% to 37% from the field, 55%to 33% from beyond the arc, and 65% to 52% from the line.

Hobart drops to 6-3 overall and will now take on Gettysburg in the consolation game Thursday evening.     

[magicman]

Union travels to Florida for the Land of Magic Classic and defeats St. Scholastica in overtime 84-80 as they improve to 6-1 on the season.

On Thursday afternoon they play Berry College to try and make it 2 for 2 in Daytona Beach.

Union's Justin Gallo and Kevin Donohue were both named to the Liberty League's
most recent team of the week.   

[hopefan]

Magic...  my local D3 team Webster, beat Berry by 5 last week in a tourney at Sewanee.... Webster is one of the favorites to win the SLIAC (St Louis) conference, a conference justifiably considered to be 'low-level' D3...  a very rare opportunity for me to get a comparison with my old, old stomping grounds.....  Union... great coaches back then... Gary Walters, Bill Scanlon....  and of course Jimmy Tedisco

[magicman]

Magic...  my local D3 team Webster, beat Berry by 5 last week in a tourney at Sewanee.... Webster is one of the favorites to win the SLIAC (St Louis) conference, a conference justifiably considered to be 'low-level' D3...  a very rare opportunity for me to get a comparison with my old, old stomping grounds.....  Union... great coaches back then... Gary Walters, Bill Scanlon....  and of course Jimmy Tedisco

I saw the result of the Webster-Berry game. Webster still not showing a box score but went to Berry's website and got one. Berry has been competitive in all their games. Their worst loss was by only 6 points 80-74, to your new buddies at Rust University. You're right this will be a good game to make comparisons. I think Union has a chance to make the playoffs for the Liberty League tournament this year, but right now I would rank them as somewhere between 3rd and 5th in the league pecking order.

[magicman]

Union completes a successful trip to Florida as they defeat the Berry College Vikings this afternoon 83-62. The Dutchmen improve to 7-1 overall and they're back in action on January 3rd when they host Ramapo College from the New Jersey Athletic Conference in the first round of the Sig Makofski Invitational at 8 PM. UMASS-Dartmouth will play Trinity(Conn) in the other 1st round game at 6 PM. The consolation and championship games will take place on January 4th at 6 PM and 8 PM respectively.

[magicman]

Hobart earns a split on their west coast trip as they beat Gettysburg, another eastern team, 67-46. Gettysburg scored the 1st point of the game but Hobart quickly took control of the game with a 15-4 run to go up by double digits and were never headed. Hobart's Stefan Thompson was the leading scorer in the game with 20 points on 9x15 fg, 6 assists, 3 steals and just missed a double-double with 9 rebounds. Matt Pebole did manage a double-double with 16 points and 12 boards. The Statesmen improve to 7-3 overall and will host Potsdam State on January 4th at 7 PM in their final non-conference game of the season before taking on Hamilton to start Liberty League play on January 10th.   

[magicman]

Former SLU guard Josh Sharlowe is off to a pretty good start playing for the London Leopards Division 1 Professional team in England. Through 9 games Josh is averaging 14.1 points per game. Twice he has scored 20 points in a game, 19 in a game and 17 in another game, leading the team in scoring in all 4 of those games. He's had double figures in 7 of the 9 games he's played in.

[magicman]

Union Dutchmen leading #20 Ramapo 45-36 at the half. Union's Justin Gallo with 18 points is the only player on either team in double figures at the break. 

[magicman]

Big win for the Union College Dutchmen tonight as they beat #20 Ramapo 97-88 to improve to 8-1 on the season. Ramapo managed to get the lead early on and slowly increase it to double figures at 27-17 with 10:37 left in the 1st half. Union powered by Justin Gallo's 18 1st half points outscored the Roadrunners 26-6 over the next 9 minutes to grab their own 10 point lead at 43-33. The Dutchmen went into the locker room with a 45-36 advantage. The Roadrunners came out of the break and slowly trimmed the lead until they tied the game at 58 with 10:20 left to play. Several lead changes and 4 more ties ensued before the Dutchmen down 69-67 went on a 13-3 spurt and Ramapo never came closer that 6 points after that.
Justin Gallo was the games high scorer and led 4 Union players in double figures with 34 points (9x18 fg, 6x12 3's, 10x12 ft). Gallo also had 7 rebounds. Joe Mason scored 21 points (7x15 fg, 1x5 3's, 6x7 ft) with 9 assists and 8 steals. Kevin Donohue had 14 points and Drew Goldstein added 13. Matt Covucci was a force inside collecting a game high 13 rebounds to go along with 6 points and 3 blocks.

Union will try and win their own Sig Makofski Invitational Tournament on Tuesday night at 8 PM as they take on Trinity College who defeated UMASS-Dartmouth earlier tonight 76-68. Ramapo will play UMD in the consolation game at 6 PM

Union will then travel to New York City this Saturday to take on Division I Columbia University at 4 PM in a final tune up before they open Liberty League play and host Skidmore on Tuesday January 11th at 8 PM.

Both Justin Gallo and Joe Mason were named to the Liberty League Performers of the Week team as Union went to Florida and defeated St. Scholastica and Berry College in the Land of Magic Classic at Daytona Beach. Gallo averaged 25.5 pts and 7 rebounds in the 2 games. This was Gallo 2nd time on the league's weekly honor roll this year. Mason averaged 15 pts, 8 assists and 4 steals in the Florida games. He had a then, career best, 6 steals against Berry College, but topped that effort tonight against Ramapo with 8 steals.

I think Union is serving notice to the rest of the Liberty League that they are a team that will certainly be in the mix for playoff consideration. That Skidmore-Union confrontation in 8 days will be interesting.   

   

[dlippiel]

dlip is very happy for the Dutchman's early season success. Justin Gallo is really playing well right now. dlip wishes the Dutch good luck tonight in the tourney championship and this weekend when they face off against Columbia.

[buck1053]

Saw Union came close against Columbia yesterday. Anyone know anything about the game other than the stats?

[magicman]

Results of Friday night's games.

All the home teams won. Thought Clarkson and Union might pick up road wins but that didn't happen. Surprised at how badly St. Lawrence got beat by RPI.

Hobart wins an important contest with Skidmore as these 2 look to be the early choices to win the regular season crown and host the playoffs.

Skidmore   71   Hobart   76     
   
Union   50   Hamilton   55     
   
Clarkson   54   Vassar   57   
   
St. Lawrence   52   RPI   85     
   

[hopefan]

Magic...  how bout dem Engineers??!!!!!

[buck1053]

Results of Friday night's games.

All the home teams won. Thought Clarkson and Union might pick up road wins but that didn't happen. Surprised at how badly St. Lawrence got beat by RPI.

Hobart wins an important contest with Skidmore as these 2 look to be the early choices to win the regular season crown and host the playoffs.

Skidmore   71   Hobart   76     
   
Union   50   Hamilton   55     
   
Clarkson   54   Vassar   57   
   
St. Lawrence   52   RPI   85     
   

I think I'll hold off judgment on Skidmore until after today's game against Hamilton, as far as them being in the top 2, though it's clear to see they should expect to be in the conference tourney this year. Hobart seems like they are ahead of everybody else and, if I had to guess, they will probably be hosting the tournament.

It is obvious, however, that teams from the north have taken a tumble from the league's elite. St. Lawrence got throttled by RPI and Clarkson lost to ... Vassar.

Meanwhile, Union, which got off to a hot start and played it close against D-I Columbia, has fallen hard to start the league season.

Hamilton might just get lucky and squeak into the fourth spot in the league in their final season as an LL member. I didn't think that would be the case, but they beat Union last night, and I'm not sure who might squeeze them out of the tourney.