MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[sciacguru]

Eyewitness report from Thousand Oaks:

Cal Lutheran 51, Claremont 49

Yet another brutal loss for Claremont. Tough nut first half; CLU led at the break, 24-23. Claremont led, 47-42, with 7:16 to go in the game, but didn't score another basket the rest of the way. CMS's free throw shooting was abysmal (3-for-10, 2-for-8 in the 2nd half), which kept CLU in the game. With the game tied at 49, Claremont had the ball out of bounds at midcourt with 16.8 seconds left. The ball was inbounded to Craig Borengasser in the front court, and he passed it to Coury Clemens. Unfortunately, Clemens had retreated to the backcourt, so CMS turned it over on a bizarre over-and-back with 14.9 seconds to go. CLU got the ball to Deshion Innis, the only Kingsmen guard who can and/or will drive to the basket. He worked his way in, put up a nice, soft floater and it bounced in with 2.6 seconds left. CMS threw long to Mani Maceria, who had a good look but his shot at the buzzer was wide left.

CLU will take the win, but the Kingsmen were hardly impressive, and struggled to score against CMS's matchup zone. As for Claremont, their defense is not the problem. Dan Winterbottom didn't play, and aside from Maceira the Stags had little offense. Maceira is pretty much alone out there. He had to shoot, rebound, and guard Zach Miller. He can't do everything.

The Gilbert Arena is a beautiful facility, but they must be joking calling it the Purple Pit. There were more CLU cheerleaders than CLU students in the stands.

OxyBob

Eyewitness Report from Thousand Oaks cont........

For the most part, OxyBob is correct.  But I think a few additions/corrections need to be made.
Maceira wasnt the lone soldier, in fact, #15 for CMS was the "scorer" of the game for both teams.  In fact he was the player of the game, in my observation.  Maceira didnt guard Miller...he guarded Meier...it was Miller who guarded Maceira.  #44 and #25 guarded Miller most of the game.  Maceira had his hands full with Miller...granted he made some hellacious shots, all in the 2nd half, but I thought Miller did a nice job on the best player in the SCIAC.  I havent seen a boxscore, but Maceira was no where near his 20+ pts.

**Edited....Clemons (#15) had 16 pts on 7-10 shooting.
http://www.clusports.com/mens_basketball/news/3392/

The missed FT's by CMS did keep CLU in the game, but I think an earlier post mentioning the CMS-TFS game touched on CMS' lack of FT shooting.  So is it really a shock?

And lastly, the Gilbert Arena is not referred to as the "Purple Pit" just as Rush Gym is not referred to as "The Black Hole."  But I too was disappointed in the lack of attendance by the student body.  I  look forward to reading the next few posts when I return from my trip.  Make it good OxyBob....like you normally do.

[scandihoovian]

Guru and Bob-

Thanks for the posts on the CLU-CMS game last night.  I'm sorry I missed it - but very glad that CLU pulled out the victory.  Thus far this group of Kingsmen seems to know how to find a way to win.   I enjoyed your somewhat contrasting descriptions of events - sort of like reading the sports pages from two different cities.  Bob, you wouldn't have maybe been pulling for a CMS victory to help your Tigers, would you?

I'm impressed that this young CLU team made it through the first half of conference play 6-1.  They do have Oxy, PP and CMS on the road the next time through which will certainly be a challenge.  Should be a fun second half of the conference season.

As for the CLU students lack of attendance, well it's too bad but ultimately their loss.  I'm pretty sure I don't need to make any arguments on this board for how much fun it is to take in a D3 basketball game on a Wednesday night...

[Browneagle64]

Great eyewitness reports from the "land of the Who" fellas. Congrats to both Cal Lu and the Men in Orange and Black for their big Victories.  The meeting between both schools on Feb 14 sounds like it should be the SCIAC "game of the week", brought to us by Tigersports and Co.
From the sounds of it, the Kingsmen have a decent Defense that has been able to hold their opposing units to low double digits. If so, do the kingsmens have a similar defense to what Chapam runs?? When will their offense come alive?

[Browneagle64]

It will Absolutely be a massacre for the Kingsmen of the round Purple Pit come Feb. 14. I hope to catch that game at Rush gym after work. So i hope that any of you Cal Lu, Diehardfans,and Oxy posters will be on hand to witness the Tigers breaking hearts of so many CAl lu faithful.

[Tom Brady]

Here is my thought on that Bob & Eagle.....
If Cal Lu has that tough of a time with the other SCIAC teams (CMS, P-P, and obviously OXY) at home, I have a bad feeling they will get stomped in the up-coming games at those schools.  They will only hang their hats on the team that beat Redlands twice.............maybe

[Ralph Turner]

with the Peligro! Piso Mojado pylons doubling as megaphones, the students from CMS aren't going to be chanting "Safety School!" at the CLU students anytime soon.

Peligro!  Piso Mojado   

A friend of mine attended a lecture at Harvard last fall with the discussion of a bilingual United States of America.

The distinguished speaker to the hoity-toity assembled disparaged any thought of any language other than English being the dominant language in the US.  After all, the US was where "languages came to die."

I just had to laugh at his ignorace.  They don't have a half-billion speakers of Spanish on the other side of the Rio Grande, walking across, one hyperfecund family at a time. 

I say give it about another 10 years and they will be crossing the River Charles!   

[David Collinge]

Repetición después de mí con gusto:

Parquee el coche en la Yarda de Harvard.

OxyBob

Pahquee el cahche en la Yahda de Hahvahd.

[Ralph Turner]

Repetición después de mí con gusto:

Parquee el coche en la Yarda de Harvard.

OxyBob

Pahquee el cahche en la Yahda de Hahvahd.

el LOL!  (  Where is that upside-down exclamation point?  I am defeated!  +1 David!)

[Gray Fox]

  Where is that upside-down exclamation point?  I am defeated!  +1 David!)

That will be standard on the keyboards in ten years also.

[Gregory Sager]

Donde esta el "bubbla"?

Que significado de "wicked pissah"?

Viva Calcetins Rojo!

[diehardfan]

I'm really looking forward to the Redlands-Pomona game tonight, it will be an interesting way to gauge Redland's Top 25 worthiness, as Pomona lost earlier this year to Wash U, who currently has a #1 vote and a very high ranking (which is soon about to come back to earth after their loss to NYU). If Pomona wins tonight, home game and all, I would expect Redlands to drop off of people's radars nationally. I think this would be the case even though they would still be very much in the hunt for the SCIAC auto bid.

[diehardfan]

well... redlands blew a 4 pt halftime lead and is currently down 17 at pomona with 2 to go... this is one ugly game... lots of bad passes and missed fts and sloppy boards... there have been a lot of fouls and deadtime... no time for redlands to wear pomona down... redlands actually looks more tired and complete panic is seriously taking them out of their game

[CalCat]

well... redlands blew a 4 pt halftime lead and is currently down 17 at pomona with 2 to go... this is one ugly game... lots of bad passes and missed fts and sloppy boards... there have been a lot of fouls and deadtime... no time for redlands to wear pomona down... redlands actually looks more tired and complete panic is seriously taking them out of their game

Knowels clutch 3's in the second half was the difference and gave Pomona the separation needed .  Pomona very patient early on willing to work inside for 2's.  It was a sloppy game but for a first timer seeing Redlands was entertaining.

[diehardfan]

well... redlands blew a 4 pt halftime lead and is currently down 17 at pomona with 2 to go... this is one ugly game... lots of bad passes and missed fts and sloppy boards... there have been a lot of fouls and deadtime... no time for redlands to wear pomona down... redlands actually looks more tired and complete panic is seriously taking them out of their game

Knowels clutch 3's in the second half was the difference and gave Pomona the separation needed .  Pomona very patient early on willing to work inside for 2's.  It was a sloppy game but for a first timer seeing Redlands was entertaining.

Ugh, you should see them when they are playing well! It makes you think that this system of basketball is genius and that it totally works when these guys are having a decent night shooting.

I actually think the turning point was the flagrant foul on the made basket. Pomona gets 2 pts, then two fts, and then the ball on a possession they score on? At that point Pomona was already a little ahead, but after that, Redlands found themselves down a lot, and flat out came unglued. They started throwing stuff up that wasn't wise (and yes, for all the systemesqe haters out there, much more bad shot selection than normal ) and it just started to look, well, ugly. In what was probably the ultimate "never give up" that I have ever witnessed, Amir Mazarei found his game threw up three consecutive beautiful long treys to make the score more respectable... but it was too little too late for the Redlands squad.

I still very much believe that Redlands is a good squad, but they need more poise than that in games when they get down. Obviously they proved that they're capable of that, the game @ Oxy was evidence enough.... but they didn't have that poise last night.... and the Pomona crowd was much less hostile than the Oxy one. They will need to refind that poise for their game @ CLU on Wednesday or they will see themselves on the outside looking in all the important ways.

As a random aside to the game, when I walked into the gym right before half time was about to end (darn LA traffic) I walked right by the Pomona guys in huddle. Their rallying cry was basically "F--- that half" (in reference to their first half). Apparently they did. Soo funny!

[RFB]

Redlands lost to a good team yesterday. Hopefully, if the Dawgs do it right then they will be in the playoffs. Right now though they need to win out. It would be a fitting way to send out Gary Smith. As much as I have hated his coaching over the years I do recognize his service to the University as both a player and a coach. Go Dawgs!!