MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[CrashDavisD3]

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  

Oxy has been the biggest surprise this year. 0-3 with losses at home

Caltech has been competitive in all 3 games.

[etule]

Maybe Cal Tech's first SCIAC victory will come at OXY! YIKES

[CrashDavisD3]

Maybe Cal Tech's first SCIAC victory will come at OXY! YIKES

If that happens I would be very concerned for OxyBob's health....It could be a very big shock to his system....

[breakfromcoaching]

Maybe Cal Tech's first SCIAC victory will come at OXY! YIKES

If Caltech plays like they did against Redlands (or the last half of their game against LaVerne), the streak is over Wednesday night. 

If Paluchniak and Edwards can contiue their hot shooting from downtown (16-31 combined 3's last 2 games) it may give Elmquist the room he needs inside to carry his team to victory.  His scoring average has dipped from 18.3 (through 11 non-conference games) to 11.6 (3 conference games only).  Oh how they could use those extra 7 points... I think Cal Lu will have to pick their poision matching up. 

I say Caltech wins 51-50 and the next Nobel Prize nominee out of the school is Oliver Eslinger,

[OxyBob]

Maybe Cal Tech's first SCIAC victory will come at OXY! YIKES

Oxy better step up its game or you might be right.

Wednesday's schedule, all games 7:30 p.m.:

Cal Lutheran (7-7, 1-2 SCIAC) @ Caltech (4-10, 0-3)
La Verne (7-7, 2-1) @ Redlands (6-8, 3-0)
Pomona (6-8, 2-1) @ Claremont (7-6, 3-0)
Oxy (6-8, 0-3) @ Whittier (6-8, 1-2)

Claremont has been resilient. The Stags lost Chris Blees and Greyson Blue, but CMS is not ready to give up the top spot in the SCIAC just yet. Pomona v. Claremont is always a treat to watch. This one will go to the Stags. Like Claremont, Redlands is sitting pretty at 3-0. La Verne has to make the long trek to Currier. Advantage, Redlands. Oxy has gotten itself into deep doo-doo by losing 2 at home to ULV and UR. Whittier came back on Claremont but lost it down the stretch. The GAC has not been kind to Oxy no matter how good they've been. Advantage, Whittier. CLU will get its 2nd straight road win, and Caltech will get its 301st straight conference loss.

OxyBob

[stag44]

Pomona (6-8, 2-1) @ Claremont (7-6, 3-0)

Claremont has been resilient. The Stags lost Chris Blees and Greyson Blue, but CMS is not ready to give up the top spot in the SCIAC just yet. Pomona v. Claremont is always a treat to watch. This one will go to the Stags.
OxyBob

Even 3 years out, I still get excited and giddy when during the week of this matchup. As OxyBob said, its a treat of a game, and the traditions continue but with a relatively new cast of characters. Gone are Blees, Toney, Faught, Bagby, and Blue from CMS, as well as Sexton, Liss, Chaimowitz, Kael, and Colin from PP. Thats got to be around 75-80% of the total offense from the 3 games last year. And loads of experience from both sides.

The question remains who will be the ex-factor in that has a game no one expected. In 05-06, Mani Maciera burst onto the scene with his performance in both games supporting Parsons and Taylor and fending off Llyod, Wexler-Barron, Flagg, Knowles, etc. In 06-07 Chaimowitz hit a buzzerbeater infront of his bench to put the game into overtime after a Maciera slip on the always moist Ducey floor during this game. In 07-08, for the SCAIC auto-bid, Faught hit a 3 in front of his fans to send the game into overtime where Winterbottom had a 3 from the top rim out to give PP the bid. Behind all that though, was Mr CMS-PP in my mind or David Brown from PP. He was on no CMS scouts, yet in all 3 games that year he high timely 3 after timely three. And looking at his stats from that year, he averaged something like 3ppg outside the rivalry and 13ppg in the 3 games. In 08-09, CMS finally got the monkey off their back with their first win in 6 attempts, with a big time game from Connor Faught, and then in the playoff got games from Soldner and Gala in their last game at home. in 09-10 Joey Anderson burst onto the scene with his athleticsm and rebounding, while again Connor Faught wrote his 3rd and final chapter on the series with clutch 3s.

The usual suspects from the past 3 years are no longer characters in this game, but the game always has contributions down the bench and will be hard faught.

Expect PP to sag off the Stags. They usually fall into a 2-3 type zone on made shots off a soft 2-2-1 press so the Stags dont have as much time in the front court to execute. Off misses they will play a very soft sagging man to man, daring the Stags to shoot. For the first time in a while, the Stags will have 3 legit shooters on the court with Lacey and Anderson though. They key will be keeping their nerves calm in this game. PP will allow the stags and be happy if they shoot 20+ 3's and keep the ball away from Lacey. Against the zone or man they have to move PP's feet and get Okpalugo and Wright moving and test thier bigs feet vs Anderson. Lacey should screen and keep Okplaugo occupied leaving driving lanes open for Pinson/Davis/Anderson.

Offensively PP has one guard #2 Xavyr Moss and 2 bigs Greg Wright and Donald Okpalugo who seem to do all the heavy lifting for their offense. The Stags should be swarming and physical at home and really feeding off the crowd.

On another note - classes JUST started at CMS and PP today, meaning tomorrow night's game will be EXTREMELY rowdy as the students are excited to be back on campus and have no class/home work to worry about. Ducey should be electric!!! I expect the players to be nervous and giddy and there to be turnovers/airballs and unusual mistakes for the first 3-5 minutes of the game. Once everyone takes a deep breath and realizes its just another game, everyone will settle down and we should see a great matchup.

I'm going with the stags 58-51. 

[OxyBob]

In 08-09, CMS finally got the monkey off their back with their first win in 6 attempts, with a big time game from Connor Faught, and then in the playoff got games from Soldner and Gala in their last game at home.

Austin Soldner I remember. Never heard of Gala.

OxyBob

[cmsme]

Stag44-thank you for the background on the CMS-PP game.  It got me psyched up--wish I was going.  I just hope the audio and live stats work.   
I am going to go with the stags also.  I have been impressed that coach Scali has been flexible/knowledgible enough to continue winning with totally different pieces of the puzzle.

[cmsme]

The CMS-PP game is starting and there is no Live Stats or Audio.  I feel like banging my head against the wall.   

[cmsme]

it is ON. 
Thank you.

[CMSfan]

Stags 68, P-P 61

http://www.cmsathletics.org/sports/mbkb/2010-11/files/PP-CMS.HTM

Fun game at Ducey tonight.  The first half was a battle.  Pomona shot well from behind the arc and the Stags put together a couple nice runs, leading to a 28-28 halftime score.  CMS established a lead early in the second half, eventually extending it to double digits with a minute to play.  With the CMS fans already starting the "Walk Home Safely" chant, P-P hit three 3's (including a couple amazing shots from Moss)  to cut the lead to four with about 30 seconds to play.  Fortunately, the Stags shot well from the line and ended up sealing the victory.

With La Verne beating Redlands tonight, CMS sits atop SCIAC at 4-0 with Caltech, La Verne, and Redlands still to go in the first half of the SCIAC season.

A few other points of note:

• Xavyr/James Moss was impressive.  He was P-P's clear go-to guy, and he handled the pressure of the rivalry well.
• P-P shot a little better from the floor, but CMS out-rebounded them and had a big advantage from the line, going 22-27 compared to 10-16 for Pomona.  Especially nice to see Joey Anderson go 7-8 from the line.
• A funny sequence occurred midway through the second half.  Okpalugo was wide open underneath, tried to dunk it, and got rejected by the rim, leading to loud jeering from the CMS crowd.  Next time down, he basically bulled his way to the hoop and threw it down, effectively silencing the CMS fans and energizing his crowd.
• It was nice to see Greyson Blue at the game, and very cool when the CMS crowd chanted his name during a couple of the timeouts.

[OxyBob]

P-P shot a little better from the floor, but CMS out-rebounded them and had a big advantage from the line, going 22-27 compared to 10-16 for Pomona.  Especially nice to see Joey Anderson go 7-8 from the line.

Whittier 76, Oxy 67

Ugly loss for Oxy. The Tigers were up 10-0 after four minutes. The Poets then scored 16 straight and led 16-10 at 13:45, and another 11-1 run made it 27-11. Kris Montoya finally scored to break the spell. Whittier led 35-13 at 7:30 and 47-33 at halftime. In the second half Whittier led by as many as 20, and Oxy never seriously challenged.

Oxy had a big advantage in FTs, 21-for-24 to 6-for-17 for WC, but Oxy was 0-for-13 on 3-pointers, while Whittier was 6-for-18. In its last two games Oxy is 0-for-24 on 3-balls.

Jack Hanley scored 27 and Deshun McCoy had 20 for Oxy. Nathan Easterman scored 15, Paul Davis had 13, and Damon Perry and Ricky Kamayatsu each scored 11 for Whittier.

Trevor Woodland scored 26 in La Verne's 75-63 win at Redlands.

Aaron Fisher scored 28 and had 10 rebounds in CLU's 80-45 rout at Caltech.

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

La Verne (8-7, 3-1 SCIAC) @ Cal Lutheran (8-7, 2-2)
Claremont (8-6, 4-0) @ Caltech (4-11, 0-4)
Whittier (7-8, 2-2) @ Redlands (6-9, 3-1)
Pomona (6-9, 2-2) @ Oxy (6-9, 0-4)

OxyBob

[stag44]

P-P shot a little better from the floor, but CMS out-rebounded them and had a big advantage from the line, going 22-27 compared to 10-16 for Pomona.  Especially nice to see Joey Anderson go 7-8 from the line.

Whittier 76, Oxy 67

Ugly loss for Oxy. The Tigers were up 10-0 after four minutes. The Poets then scored 16 straight and led 16-10 at 13:45, and another 11-1 run made it 27-11. Kris Montoya finally scored to break the spell. Whittier led 35-13 at 7:30 and 47-33 at halftime. In the second half Whittier led by as many as 20, and Oxy never seriously challenged.

Oxy had a big advantage in FTs, 21-for-24 to 6-for-17 for WC, but Oxy was 0-for-13 on 3-pointers, while Whittier was 6-for-18. In its last two games Oxy is 0-for-24 on 3-balls.

Jack Hanley scored 27 and Deshun McCoy had 20 for Oxy. Nathan Easterman scored 15, Paul Davis had 13, and Damon Perry and Ricky Kamayatsu each scored 11 for Whittier.

Trevor Woodland scored 26 in La Verne's 75-63 win at Redlands.

Aaron Fisher scored 28 and had 10 rebounds in CLU's 80-45 rout at Caltech.

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

La Verne (8-7, 3-1 SCIAC) @ Cal Lutheran (8-7, 2-2)
Claremont (8-6, 4-0) @ Caltech (4-11, 0-4)
Whittier (7-8, 2-2) @ Redlands (6-9, 3-1)
Pomona (6-9, 2-2) @ Oxy (6-9, 0-4)

OxyBob

Seems like the SCIAC is WIDE open this year. OxyBob, can you pinpoint any one thing thats causing the Oxy 0-4 start. Seems like their 3pt shooting has been poor, but this is very un-Oxy like. I can't think of the last 0-4 start they had.

As for CMS - very good win from them vs PP. Surprisingly though, they still have to face the top SCIAC competition at the end of the 1st half with Redlands and ULV, along with a test @ Caltech on Saturday. It could be a classic let down/look ahead game, where they come off a high of the CMS-PP game, and could be caught looking ahead to ULV and Redlands who are both 3-1. I think Scali will have the guys solely focused on Caltech, but Braun is always a difficult place to play, especially on Saturdays.

ULV has really surprised me. Coming out at 3-1 and winning @ Redlands has got to be a signature win for Reed this year. They seem to be playing well with Woodland, Napolitano and Wolpe carrying a decent amount of the load. They are always athletic, but from the looks of it, they have been buckling down defensively as well.

[OxyBob]

OxyBob, can you pinpoint any one thing thats causing the Oxy 0-4 start.

There must be more than one.

I can't think of the last 0-4 start they had.

I'm sure that Oxy's not started the conference season 0-4 since Brian Newhall's been the coach. Might have to go back into the early 1980s when Oxy wasn't very good to find an 0-4 start.

Next challenge for Oxy: Coach Kat and Pomona on Saturday.

OxyBob

[breakfromcoaching]

OxyBob, can you pinpoint any one thing thats causing the Oxy 0-4 start.

There must be more than one.

I can't think of the last 0-4 start they had.

I'm sure that Oxy's not started the conference season 0-4 since Brian Newhall's been the coach. Might have to go back into the early 1980s when Oxy wasn't very good to find an 0-4 start.

Next challenge for Oxy: Coach Kat and Pomona on Saturday.

OxyBob

Should Caltech and Oxy lose their next games, it'll provide quite the matchup for two 0-5 teams.  If that happens, betcha no one would have predicted that.

Only thing worse than 0-6 for Oxy would be 0-6 with a loss to Caltech. 

Keep in mind Cal Lu struggled the first round through conference and still made the SCIAC Tournament.