MBB: Little East

[7express]

Sat results:

USM over SJLI 82-65.  When you take SJLI's 2-17 from 3 and add that to the dreadful 3-20 they had yesterday, SJLI is shooting a cool 13.5% (5-37) from 3 in the early going.  Conor Sullivan paced 4 Huskies in double figures with 28.
RIC over Thomas 76-67.  I know they usually struggle in the early season, but only beating a team by 9 that lost about 16 hours earlier by 49 doesn't inspire confidence.  I'm sure they'll be fine like they always are, but not a good start.  Definitely should've won by more than 9.  Thomas is not a very good team out of a very bad conference.
Purchase over Eastern 68-62.  I came in at 16:30, Eastern was up 41-39 I think.  About 8 minutes later, Purchase was up by 17 and I thought it was going to be a rout.  Eastern cut it down to 3 (or 4 one of the other I forgot which and I wasn't keeping track), but the deficit was just too much to overcome
Westfield over Plymouth 69-60. A carbon copy of the USM game.  Plymouth had 7 more turnovers than the Owls (19 to 12) which equaled 7 more possessions that Westfield had.  Plymouth also pulled a USM and left 7 points on the board at the free throw line.  Another game with botched free throws.  Missing them in key spots the opening weekend is even worse than in February.  I can give some guys a break in February because you've been through the grind for 2 months, you get weared out, but missing 7 on November 16 when you played 2 games is absolutely terrible. 
Western over Fitchburg 95-82.  Score 55 1 day, score 95 the next.  Jerry Washington with 18, Spud Gates with 15 off the bench.  Would be nice to cut down the opposistion's points allowed (currently at 81 through 2 games) because I don't think we'll be scoring 90 many nights unless DaQuan Brooks & Michael Jensen can find loopholes in the NCAAs eligibility rules.
Dartmouth over Colby 79-74.  Raise your hand if you had Dartmouth (5-21 last year, last conference team to get a win last year) and the last remaining conference unbeaten??  I know everyone is lying, so put your hands down.  Technically Boston is still undefeated, but since they don't play until Tuesday, I have excluded them from that list.

Conference off until Tuesday, and the schedule includes:
Elms @ Keene (7 PM), Brandeis @ Dartmouth (7 PM), USM @ UNE in a southern Maine battle (730 PM), and Rivier vs. Plymouth in Concord (8 PM).

7-6 LEC, 7-5 me (forgot to include the Eastern/Purchase game which is my record is a half game worse then the league record)

[AllStar]

Tuesday's games:
Elms at Keene State, 7:00 pm
Brandeis at UMass-Dartmouth, 7:00 pm
Southern Maine at University of New England, 7:30 pm
Plymouth State vs. Rivier (at NHTI), 8:00 pm

Not to steal 7express' thunder, but I'll try some predictions:
Keene St. 86, Elms 74
Elms shot just 28.6% while losing to Anna Maria 79-68 last Saturday while allowing the Amcats to shoot 51.7%.  The Blazers also allowed UMass-Dartmouth to score 60 points in the second half of a 100-88 loss last Friday.  Keene struggled shooting free throws vs. Husson otherwise they probably would have won that game.  I say they have a better offensive game this time around.

Brandeis 87, UMass-Dartmouth 74
Brandeis drubbed Curry by 52 last Saturday (111-59) in a game that was never competitive.  The Corsairs are 2-0 but Brandeis is probably better than their first two opponents (Elms and Colby).  This will most likely be a better gauge of who the Corsairs really are.

Southern Maine 85, UNE 58
UNE struggled mightily in their tip-off tournament, getting blown out by Daniel Webster 89-61 and losing to Medgar Evers 80-70.  If Daniel Webster can breeze past UNE, I think Southern Maine can too.

Plymouth 82, Rivier 63
Plymouth has basically done the same thing as Southern Maine so far (beating St. Joseph's-LI and losing to Westfield State).  They struggled shooting free throws vs. Westfield just as Southern Maine did, and easily beat St. Joseph's-LI.  Rivier lost 79-75 in overtime vs. Daniel Webster in a game that started at midnight last Friday.  I think Plymouth wins by quite a bit.

[7express]

Perfect!  Nice to get some help with the schedules Allstar!  And your not stealing my thunder at all.  I do the stuff for the women's site too (even though no one reads it), tough work for me, lol.

Anyways, I'll say:
Keene 79-65.  Elms went 0-2 @ Dartmouth over the weekend, and as I stated Friday night if Keene goes even 70% from the free throw line instead of 54.5% they probably win that game.  Keene won by 5 @ Elms last year, but so far that Elms team looked better last year. 
Brandeis 88-77.  I think Dartmouth can stay with them for a half, but Brandeis is better than both Colby & Elms.
USM 78-54.  Won't be much of a game, but the women's game should be pretty good.
Plymouth 83-65.  Probably around the same margin as USM/UNE

[7express]

Brandeis over Dartmouth 96-90.  Keene losing by 2 under 60 seconds.  USM losing at halftime.  Plymouth up over Rivier.  Full recap to come later

[7express]

Tuesday results:

Elms over Keene 80-77.  FREE THROW SHOOTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Work on it!!!!!!!!!!!  If I'm Colbert, we're not ending the next practice until each person on the team can hit 3 free throws in a row, and if I'm him, the next practice I conduct is free throw shooting.  4 nights after hitting only 17-31 in a 5 point loss to Husson, tonight Keene hit on only 17-29 from the line in a 3 point loss.  As I said, inexcusable to lose games, leaving that many points on the board.  Keene should EASILY be 2-0.
Brandeis over Dartmouth 96-90.  Both teams were over 54% from the field (Dartmouth 54.0%, Brandeis 56.9%), both teams had a 30 point scorer in the game (Gabriel Moton with 33 for Brandeis, Jake Laga with a game high 34 to lead Dartmouth).  Dartmouth had more balanced scoring, but the Brandeis starters outscored the Dartmouth starters 84-67 which was the difference in the game.
USM comes back to beat UNE 70-58.  Conor Sullivan had a game high 19 for the Huskies, who outscored UNE 45-24 in the second half to avoid the embarrassing loss.
Plymouth over Rivier 73-61.  Curtis Arsenault with 22 to lead the way for Plymouth, who through the first 4 days of the season looks like a pretty good bet for the all-rookie team, if not rookie of the year.  If not for some bad free throw shooting, this team could very well be 3-0.

9-8 LEC, 10-6 me

Wednesday schedule:
Eastern @ Nichols 7:00
Western @ TCNJ 8:00

Eastern 87 @ Nichols 82.
Eastern is 1-1 beating Worcester and losing to Purchase in their tip-off tournament, Nichols is 1-0 defeating Lasell in their opener Friday night.  In that game, the Bisons star Ryan Sheehan scored 37 points on 15-26 shooting, and could cause some problems for the Warriors in the front court.  However, outside of Sheehan they aren't that good.  Double or even triple team Sheehan in the low block and make someone else on the team beat you.  I don't think Nichols has that answer.  Last year Eastern won 95-86 and Sheehan only scored 18 on 8-20 shooting, however they did hit over 50% from the field, and vs. Lasell they hit on 54% of their shots from the field.
Western 67 @ TCNJ 54.
Western is 1-1 getting killed by Bowdoin and beating Fitchburg.  TCNJ opened their season by losing to perennial CUNYAC cellar dweller CCNY 76-73 in their opener, which definitely doesn't look good.  TCNJ won by 4 in Danbury last season.

[AllStar]

There was an unfortunate injury in the Keene State game to Tom Doyle about midway through the second half and he had to be taken off on a stretcher.  Hopefully he is OK and gets better soon! 

3-1 record for me so far (only predicted Tuesday)

Wednesday predictions:

Eastern Connecticut 90, Nichols 81
Warriors after struggling to score for most of the game vs. Purchase should have a much easier time scoring vs. Nichols.  The Bison won 91-83 at Lasell in their first game, but are most certainly not known for their defense.  I think this will likely be a high-scoring game just as the Nichols/ECSU game in Willimantic was last year with ECSU winning on the road.

Western Connecticut 78, TCNJ 56
TCNJ won just five games last year and opened with a brutal loss to City College of New York.  I think Western wins this one by a pretty wide margin, even though it is on the road in New Jersey.

[AllStar]

Eastern leads 32-29 at halftime.
Eastern leads 66-60 with 6:28 to go.  Salzillo and Garrow leading the Warriors in scoring.
Eastern has broken the game wide open, leads 83-63 now with 1:41 to go.
Eastern wins 83-68.  19-3 run late in the second half broke the game completely open.  Warriors shot 51.8% overall and 50% from three.  They obviously had a much easier time scoring vs. Nichols.  Salzillo scored 24 and Garrow 17.  Langadas for Nichols scored 16 but was just 5-14 from the floor.

TCNJ leads Western 21-16 with about 10 minutes left in the first.  TCNJ has not trailed.
TCNJ continues to lead 31-21 with 5:59 left in the first half. 
Western has used and 11-4 run to get within 35-32 with about 2 minutes left in the first half.
37-36 Western at halftime.  Jengodji Gates has 11 points.  Bracket has 13 points on 6-8 shooting for the Lions.
56-55 TCNJ with 10:34 to go.
Western has used another spurt to go ahead 69-64 with about 5 minutes left.
Western 73-68 with 2:18 left.
Western 77-74 with 23 seconds left.  TCNJ called a full timeout.  Looks like it is Western ball.
Western holds on to beat TCNJ 83-80.  Balanced scoring for the Colonials, 6 in double figures.  Bracket had 27 on 11-16 shooting from the floor for New Jersey.

[warriorcat]

Eastern Ct breaks away from Nichols with late run to win 83-68.  Brian Salzillo scored 24  6-11 from 3 pt.  Mike Garrow scored 17 and added 17 rebounds (17 def 0 off). 3 other Warriors in double figures. 

[ECSUalum]

Nichols pressed coming out of halftime and had 7 fouls within 4 minutes, quickly putting ECSU into the bonus, (however, Eastern did not particularly shoot well at the FT line ).  A lot of fouls on both sides in 2nd half, with Eastern allowing Nichols to stay close with some sloppy ball handling/TOs.  However, Hugh Lindo had an outstanding defensive game, including 6 blocked shots, also crashing the boards with 13 total rebounds, ECSU continued to control Sheehan, Salzillo smoked a bunch of 3s, and Nichols had 2-3 successive TO.s and that was it.

[7express]

Eastern over Nichols 83-68.  Brian Salzillo lead the Warriors with 24 points.  eastern placed 5 in double figures and hit on over 50% from the floor.  Eastern held Ryan Sheehan to only 9 points on 2-13 shooting and held the team to under 40% shooting from the floor.
Western over TCNJ 83-80.  Balanced scoring for the Colonials as they had 6 in double figures, and just missed adding a 7th (Tony Seldon finished with 9).  Even though Ronnie Underwood was the leading scorer with only 13 points, it's great when you can get 7 players with 9 points or more.  Bobby Bracket had a game high 27 to lead the Lions who have lost 2 games by a combined 6 points.

11-8 LEC, 12-6 me

Thursday schedule:
Lasell @ RIC 7:00

Lasell 67 @ RIC 85.
RIC has been average so far this year losing a close game to Skidmore, than surviving against a Thomas team that lost by 49 points to Babson.  This is the 4th straight year these 2 teams are playing and 2 of the previous years have been close affairs including a 3 point RIC win @ the Murray Center 2 seasons ago.  Through 2 games, the opponents are shooting 49.2% from the field, so maybe this is the game for the RIC offense to break out.

[AllStar]

5-1 on predictions so far.

Thursday:
Rhode Island College 75, Lasell 63
Lasell is 0-2 but has been in both of their games.  They lost their home opener to Nichols 91-83 and lost another close home game to Babson 72-68.  I think this game will be close for a while until RIC pulls away late in their first home game.  The Anchormen struggled in their first two games of the Tip-Off Tournament at Babson.

[AllStar]

Lasell leads 41-31 at halftime.  RIC shooting 24%.
62-52 Lasell with 10:02 to go.
RIC surged ahead 70-69 but two free throws for Lasell and it is 71-70 Lasers with 4:29 left.
79-79 with 58 seconds left.  Timeout Lasell.  Lasers ball.
Overtime tied at 79.  RIC missed front end of 1 and 1 that would have given them the lead with a couple seconds left.
2:14 left in overtime.  Lasell leads 87-83.
Lasell leads 94-89 with 34 seconds left.  Lasers call a timeout and have the ball.
Lasell knocks off RIC 98-94 in overtime.

[7express]

Lasell over RIC 98-94 in overtime.  I know they struggle early on, but losing at home to this team is pretty bad.  Lasell put all 5 starters in double figures lead by Brandon Gamesh with 32, Austin Cilley lead RIC with 19.

11-9 LEC, 12-7 me

Friday schedule:
Eastern vs Catholic (@ Manhattanville) 6:00 PM
Boston @ vs. Nichols (@ Amherst) 7:30 PM

Eastern 73 vs Catholic 69.  The marquee game of the Manhattanville tourney as the other game is Medgar Evers.  This is a pick on the national pick em league and I believe I'm the only person that pegged Eastern winning that game.  Catholoc is 2-0 beating Westminster and Thiel, nothing to brag about though.  Worcester, Nichols and Pirchase (even though they lost are better teams).
Boston 44 @ Amherst 85.  The last LEC team to start its season and it couldn't come against a worse opponent.  Boston is replacing 8 of its top 9 guys from last year and Amherst is a likely pick to make the final 4 or win the championship once again.
Edit to include the Boston Nichols game: Boston 56 vs. Nichols 79.  Boston will likely score more points, but the result remains the same.  Nichols is too powerful on the offensive end to be slowed down by the Beacons.

[AllStar]

5-2 on predictions.

Friday:
Catholic 79, Eastern Connecticut 77
Good game here.  Could go either way, but I'll take Catholic in a close game.

Nichols 88, UMass-Boston 74
Nichols hung with Eastern Connecticut for about 30 of the 40 minutes at home the other night.  UMass-Boston lost a lot for whatever reason off last years team which showed some flashes.  I'll take Nichols.  The other game in this tournament is Amherst and Newbury.

[AllStar]

Eastern holds off Catholic 76-70.
Nichols leads UMass-Boston 44-33 at halftime.
Nichols smokes UMass-Boston 94-74