MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Hugenerd]

Caltech up again in the second half, 41-40, with 15 to play.

[John Gleich]

Do you have any live stats or a broadcast link?

[Hugenerd]

Nope, but caltech down 2 with 2 to play.

Now down 1 with 28 seconds to go.

Caltech was down 3 with 6 seconds to play but convert the triple to send it to OT. Could it be the night?

I guess not. Caltech loses by 4 in OT.

[cmsme]

Wow.  congratulations to caltech--loosing in ot is almost like winning.   

cms beat cal lutheran by 11 points--but it was a nail biter up to the very end.  and two more cms players got hurt.  shane davis lost a tooth and alex smith hurt his knee. 
everyone is getting a lot of playing time, and they seem to be developing as a team.  with their late start, maybe they will be peaking at the right time.

[WoostAr]

Check out vid link in article below for buzzer beater that sent it to overtime....On top of hitting that shot, cramer was an assist shy of a triple double.

http://gocaltech.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/releases/20110113b1209v

[David Collinge]

Cool -- a crowded, loud Braun Center.  I've never seen that before.

[Jack Parkman]

Cool -- a crowded, loud Braun Center.  I've never seen that before.

Were those Beaver groupies in the sports-bra's?  Pretty soon those Cal Tech guys will be seen driving around town in a new Benz.

[DIIIFan15]

In response to cmsme's nail biter for the Stags against the Kingsmen:

I wouldn't say it was a nail biter all the way. CMS led by 17 at halftime and CLU chipped away at the lead cutting it to four points. However it did get dicey down the stretch.

[cmsme]

Its true.  I am a pessimist.  And I think all the games played so far in the SCIAC could have gone either way.  It is going to be an exciting year; I just hope cms wins.

Basketball question if anyone knows about the psychology of these point runs where, for a short time, one team makes a bunch of points and the other team doesn't. 
Are there any common characteristics?  what causes them to start and end?  how many runs per game?  what kind of teams have runs?  Do the successful teams have runs, or are they more consistent scorers?

[stag44]

I was able to watch a little of the CMS - CLU game yesterday night. Great to see the Stags come out fast and furious in the 1st half and jump on the Kingsmen 38-21. In seemingly typical fashion of Stag teams in the past, CLU mounted a furious rally in the 2nd half, keeping the game in single digits for much of the second half, but timely shots by various stags kept them at arms distance.

This Stags team has been incredibly resilient this year. Even without Blees and Blue, they have responded well after a 6 game losing streak. They have more or less reinvented the offensive and defensive schemes to the more traditional old school Stag Motion and tough man-to-man defense.

[OxyBob]

Saturday's schedule, all games 7:00 p.m.:

Redlands (5-8, 2-0 SCIAC) @ Oxy (6-7, 0-2)
Cal Lutheran (6-7, 0-2) @ Pomona (6-7, 2-0)
Claremont (6-6, 2-0) @ Whittier (6-7, 1-1)
Caltech (4-9, 0-2) @ La Verne (6-7, 1-1)

Big home game for Oxy. On Wednesday the Tigers rallied against La Verne, but Jack Hanley's 3-point try at the buzzer missed and Oxy lost 52-49. Lousy free throw shooting (9-for-21) killed Oxy, though La Verne wasn't much better (12-for-24). CLU also doesn't want to go 0-3, but the Kingsmen have a tough road game at Pomona. Claremont should beat Whittier, but it's no cakewalk playing the Poets in the GAC. La Verne is coming off a good road win at Oxy. The Leopards have plenty of firepower with Trevor Woodland and Alex Wolpe, and will hand Caltech its 300th straight conference loss.

Claremont has the best record in the league at 6-6. Yikes.

OxyBob

[cmsme]

The live stats for the Whittier CMS game stopped with 6 minutes left and CMS up 66-58.  Hopefully it is just technical difficulties and not someone hurt again.

[CMSfan]

Stags win!  Improve to 3-0 in SCIAC.  Report from Whittier's website: http://www.wcpoets.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/releases/20110116s99f4b

[stag44]

Current SCIAC Standings

CMS         3-0
Redlands 3-0
P-P          2-1
ULV         2-1
CLU         1-2
Whittier   1-2
OXY         0-3
Caltech   0-3


Initial Reactions:

The Stags continue to impress by winning @CLU and @Whittier, both tough places to play in conference. It seems like each game, a new Stag steps up to the challenge and contributes in a big way. @Whittier Beaumont Heidrich came up huge with 15 first half points to give the Stags some breathing room, while the second half used a steady does of Lacey, and free throws from Mivshek to seal the game

Redlands is an interesting 3-0 team. I was able to catch a bit of their game vs Oxy yesterday online, and was pleasantly surprised. They seem to play very aggressive and physical on the glass. They are long upfront with Sanvictores and Mills with Dietrich playing 3. From the little tape I saw, they were content with pummeling Oxy inside with either 24 or 55, of an pro-type offense. To get into it, they would use a little high low action with a weak side post duck in, and if there was nothing easy, they would reverse the ball and because Oxy was not fronting the post, they would enter and play of their bigs. The guards to a great job of post entry and moving without the ball. It will be interesting to see how other teams defend the post and how Redlands will respond

Pomona as usual has come out tough in conference even after losing their top 3 players. They have gotten increased production from Greg Wright and Donald Okpalugo, and spark from freshman Xavyr Moss. Moss seems to have taken over the reins from Liss as their lead guard scorer and creater and has been playing very well and taking a good amount of shots from 3 and getting to the lane and creating. I havent gotten to see them, but im sure they are still running their 2-3 sagging type zone, a 2-2-1 soft press, and an offense predicated on spacing, 3-point shots.

ULV looks to be the surprise team at 2-1. They beat OXY and Caltech, while losing to Whittier @home. Again this year their team looks to be Trevor Woodland on the perimeter and the physical Napolitano and Wolpe down low. They have the difficult part of their schedule upcoming though with PP, CMS, Redlands and CLU to come.

This CLU start seems awful similar to the last couple of years where they have come out flat only to charge into the 2nd half of conference and sneak into the tourney. Obviously this year they dont have Kyle or Andy, but still have Grimm, Fisher and Van Klaveren as well as Nettles and Walton. They have also played PP, CMS and @Redlands, so their load eases up for the first half.

Whittier as usual has the most talent and seems to be in most games, but cant pull out the win. I'm sure they will cause a stir down the stretch with an upset or two and shake up the standings, and who knows they may challenge for that 4th spot.

Oxy has been the biggest surprise this year. 0-3 with losses at home to La Verne and Redlands. It's very difficult to be competitive in conference if you lose 1 time at home let alone twice. Versus Redlands, once Montoya went down, it seemed like Oxy was in dissarray offensively and defensively. They were shooting early and contested jumpshots and also getting beaten back in transition D by Redlands bigs, and then defensively it seemed like they were content playing behind the Redlands bigs who had 25 of the 59 pts. I'm sure Newhall will rally his troops and get them competitive, but they are struggling right now at 0-3/

Caltech has been competitive in all 3 games. While its latest game vs ULV was alot worse than final score, they continue to show they are no long an afterthough of a game. In the past, teams looked at it almost as a game to regather, test out new things in conference and it wouldn't be uncommon to see an assistant coach at another SCIAC game scouting. But now, you need to be all hands on deck especially if playing at Braun, where officials are friendly, rims are tight and now looking at the video fans are loud. I'm excited to see them get a SCIAC win, but just not against CMS.

These are just my thoughts of the first bit of conference.

[OxyBob]

Versus Redlands, once Montoya went down, it seemed like Oxy was in dissarray offensively and defensively. They were shooting early and contested jumpshots and also getting beaten back in transition D by Redlands bigs, and then defensively it seemed like they were content playing behind the Redlands bigs who had 25 of the 59 pts.

3-pointers: Redlands 6-for-16, Oxy 0-for-11.

OxyBob