MBB: Little East

[7express]

Tuesday results:
Springfield all over Keene 82-65.  Nate Howard had 17 for the Owls, while Simon Kildy lead 4 Springfield players in double figures with 17.
Vassar over Western 78-70.  Now I know Vassar is greatly improving, but still losing to them is pretty terrible, especially when we've had good results up to that point.  Spud Gates & Bobby Bynum each had 16 for Western, who shot only 32.8%.  Erikson Wasyl had a game high 26 for Vassar who shot 42.4%.
RIC over Bridgewater 76-68.  Brandon Monteiro lead Bridgewater with 17 points while Michael Lofton had 15 points and 13 boards.  Nyheem Sanders had 25 off the bench on 9-11 shooting to lead RIC.
Eastern over Conn College 69-45.  Matt Vadas and Zuri pavlin each had 10 for the Camels (when's the last time Connecticut saw a camel outside of a camel's head on a cigarette carton??  I didn't even think Beardsley Zoo had a camel).  Trachone Preston and Mike Garrow each had 22 for Eastern.  Nice opponent for Brian Salzillo to have an off night (really don't need to run up the score on them anyways, so him scoring "only" 8 was probably both good for the Camels and good for Eastern) who had more personal fouls (4) than field goals made (3).
Plymouth over Castleton 83-80.  Carnelius Green had 18 points and 14 rebounds for Castleton.  Curtis Arsenault got back on track with 17 for the Panthers, with Alex Burt (14), Shomari Morgan (10) and Uche Nwokeki (19) joing Arsenault in double figures.  Nwokeji also grabbed a game high 16 rebounds.  After Logan White hit a 3 with 44 seconds to play, Alex Homkey blocked a Morgan jumper with 12 seconds to go, but he got the rebound and hit another jumper to account for the final 83-80 margin.
Bates wins @ USM 78-69.  Comor Sullivan lead the Huskies with 16 points and 14 rebounds.  Graham Safford had a game high 18 for the Wildcats who lead 41-29 at halftime, and never trailed after the 18:00 mark of the first half.
Boston over Suffolk 79-68.  Carl Joseph lead the Beacons with 17, Sam Nwadike was 1 of 4 Suffolk players in double digits with 16.  The Beacons bench outscored the Rams bench 30-11.

22-14 LEC, 25-11 me

Next game Friday:

St. Joseph's (VT) @ Boston 4:00 PM in the Beacons annual Thanksgiving tournament.

Allstar, Warriorcat, Warriors, ECSUalum, and everyone else have a good and safe holiday!

[7express]

Friday's lone game:

St. Joseph's (VT) 65 @ Boston 80.
I see after 2 years St. Joes still has next to nothing on their "athletic" website as you have to really search just to find stories and schedules, stats, and rosters are unavailable.  St. Joes was 0-2 the last 2 years against the LEC: getting blown out @ Keene last year, and losing by 1 to Keene at home the year earlier.  St. Joes is out of the USCAA Yankee conference and play the likes of: Hampshire College (2 years ago lost I believe at least 3 games by 80 or more points), Eastern Maine Community College, Southern Maine Community College (don't confuse them with the USM Huskies), New Hampshire Tech (where Plymouth played Rivier earlier this month), and Paul Smiths a forestry school up in upstate New York in the Adirondack's.  I think St. Joes was in the USCAA national tournament last year, but I think either EMCC or SMCC are usually the top teams in the conference.

[7express]

Friday's result:

Boston over St. Joseph's 84-68.  BJ Rosary the third had 16 points on 6-10 shooting in 19 minutes off the bench for the Beacons.  Rraheim Smalls registered a double double with 16 points and 14 rebounds for St. Joseph's.  Boston plays the winner of Wesleyan Emerson in the finals, St. Joseph's gets the loser which Wesleyan currently leads 24-14 with 7:05 left in the first.

23-14 LEC; 26-11 me

Saturday schedule:
Wesleyan @ Boston 3:00
RIC @ MIT 1:00 PM.  I'll make predictions later tonight when I find out Boston's opponent.

Wesleyan 75 @ Boston 67.
Wesleyan beat Emerson 74-59, and Boston beat St. Joes 84-68 for Charlie Titus's 300th career win.  Wesleyan lost a bunch of scorers from last season, and was picked near the bottom of the NESCAC standings, however with the win on Friday improved their record to 4-2.  Much like the Beacons, the Cardinals haven't really played anyone which inflates their record a bet: They have losses to Williams (the best team they've currently played) and Dickinson (4-2, with their only loss by 2 points).  The Cardinals 4 wins (Coast Guard, Elms, Emerson, & Emmanuel) have a combined record of 6-14.  Of Boston's 3 wins, 1 is against a USCAA opponent and their 2 D-3 wins (Newbury & Suffolk) have a combined record of 1-8.  Wesleyan is out of a better conference and I think are a tad better overall, so even on the road they'll get the win.
RIC 67 @ MIT 69.
RIC might have played their best game of the season last time out @ Bridgewater.  MIT also played Bridgewater, at home, and lost by 12.  Last year MIT went into the Murray Center as the #1 ranked team in the country and got crushed, losing by 24 in a game that was never in doubt.  Coin flip in my mind.  Giving the edge to MIT: at home, want to avenge last year's whuppin, and this RIC isn't there......yet.  They will be, but right now they are still a work in process.

[AllStar]

MIT stuffs RIC 54-38.  RIC shot 26.9%.  Anchormen never were down by less than double figures in the second half.

[7express]

Saturday results:

MIT over RIC 54-38.  Chris Burton was the only double figure scorer for RIC who shot only 26.9% from the floor and 35.7% from the free throw line.  Matt Redfield lead MIT with 14 points and 17 rebounds while Andrew Acker added 11 points and 12 rebounds.  MIT shot 45.5% from the floor.
Wesleyan leads Boston 18-16 with 13:22 left in the first.
Wesleyan hangs on to beat Boston 75-64.  Harry Rafferty lead Wesleyan with 14 points.  Carl Joseph had a game high 26 on 9-18 shooting in a losing cause for the Beacons.

23-16 LEC; 28-11 me

Sunday schedule:
USM @ St. Joseph's (ME) 7:30

USM 65 @ St. Joseph's (ME) 72.
SJME is 1-3 but has played a pretty tough schedule.  They have close losses to Husson (3-0) by 4 points, on the road to Bowdoin (3-0) by 4 points, and a 9 point loss @ Maine-Farmington (2-2).  They beat Bates @ Bates, something USM couldn't do at Gorham.  SJME gets back in the win column.

[ECSUalum]

Congrats to Brian Salzillo for being named to the first D3Hoops.com men's basketball Team-of-the-Week for 2013-14.

http://gowarriorathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2013-14/releases/mbb-salzillod3hoops-113013

[7express]

Sunday result:

USM over SJME 65-60.  The boxscore only has first half totals, but from the recap it sounds like Conor Sullivan lead the Huskies with 19 points, Tyler Perry had 17 and James Odneal added 11.  USM shot 10-14 in the second half, never trailed, and lead by as much as 18.  Nick Jobin had a game high 23 points.  The Huskies take home the Costello cup for the first time in 6 seasons.  The cup is awarded to the winner of these 2 Maine area rivals (right up US 202 from each other I believe), and is named after Richard "Doc" Costello, USM's longtime AD and basketball coach.  SJME now leads the overall series 15-10 after losing to the Huskies for the first time since the 07-08 season.

24-16 LEC; 28-12 me

Tuesday schedule:
Keene @ Plattsburgh State 7:00
Framingham state @ Western 7:00
Worcester state vs. Dartmouth (@ Anna Maria) 7:00
New Paltz @ Eastern 7:30
Plymouth @ Colby-Sawyer 7:30
Bowdoin @ USM 7:30
MIT @ Boston 7:30

[7express]

Tuesday predictions: Last day with more than 4 games until February 4, so let's enjoy almost a full slate of games:

Keene 78 @ Plattsburgh 85.
Plattsburgh is 2-1 with wins over Bridgewater and St. Lawrence and a loss to Richard Stockton, but hasn't played since November 19.  Keene is 0-4, but have been in 3 of those 4 games.  Last year Plattsburgh won 70-64 in Keene.
Framingham 81 @ Western 99.
Framingham is 4-1, but haven't really played any good teams.  Only 2 of their 5 opponents are over .500 (Emerson & Brandeis) with Brandeis being the best opponent to date and Framingham lost that Brandeis game by 38 points.  Western is 4-2, but had a disappointing game vs. Vassar last time out which snapped a 4 game winning streak.  They score a lot of points, but also give up a lot as well.  Last meeting between the 2 was in December of 2011 when Western picked up a 78-73 road win @ Framingham.
Dartmouth 68 vs. Worcester 65.
This isn't a true road game for the Corsairs.  Even though it'll be in the Worcester it'll be taking place @ Anna Maria college in Paxton, a suburb west of Worcester as I guess the new Worcester gym isn't quite ready yet.  Of their 8 "home" contest, they have 5 of the 8 listed at a site tba, but they play most of their games either @ Assumption or @ WPI.  Worcester is 0-4 and has lost 3 of their 4 games by double figures.  Worcester won 68-67 last year @ Dartmouth on a shot at the buzzer.
New Paltz 55 @ Eastern 75.
Eastern is playing the best ball of anyone in the country, and are probably on the fringes of getting into the top 25.  After opening with 2 wins out in California against Whittier & Redlands, New Paltz have lost 3 straight since coming back East, including back-to-back losses to their 2 rivals: Vassar at home by 12 and their last time out to Mount St. Mary by 14.  Eastern won at home 78-74 last season.
Plymouth 72 @ Colby-Sawyer 65.
Colby-Sawyer has only played 2 games this year: a 7 point loss @ 4-1 Framingham and a 24 point home win vs. 1-3 Norwich.  Plymouth won by 12 at home last season.
Bowdoin 67 @ USM 63.
Bowdoin is 4-0 on the year, and their last time out on Sunday knocked of previously unbeaten Babson 66-54.  A small sample size, but USM is better in road/neutral games (3-1) than at home (1-1) so far.  Bowdoin has games against NESCAC rivals Bates & Colby coming up this weekend, so they maybe caught looking ahead a little.  Bowdoin won by 37 last season, and have won 5 of the last 8 meetings, but USM has gotten 2/3 of the last 3 in the series however.
MIT 68 @ Boston 43. 
MIT is only giving up 54.3 ppg this season, and held RIC to 38 points on Saturday, and RIC is a lot better than Boston is.  The Beacons had a modest 3 game winning streak snapped last time out in their tournament championship game against Wesleyan.  Last year the Engineers won by 10.

[AllStar]

Tuesday:
Plattsburgh State 81, Keene State 73
Keene's problem has been their lack of offense.  They haven't scored more than 77 points in a game yet.  They have generally kept teams in the 70's or low 80's.  This is a very young team that might improve as the season goes along, but I'm not sure they win this game.  Plattsburgh might be rusty, but it is also a long trip from Keene to Plattsburgh in New York.

Western Connecticut 92, Framingham State 78
Framingham's 4-1 record is somewhat deceiving.  Western lost to what appears to be an improving team in Vassar, but is the better team in my view and should win this game.  The Rams lost by nearly 40 at Brandeis, and none of their other wins are overly impressive.

UMass-Dartmouth 79, Worcester State 75
The Lancers are 0-4 but have played a pretty tough schedule, losing at Eastern, vs. Becker on a neutral court, at Gordon, and at WPI.  UMD is 2-2, and was handled pretty easily at Salem State in their last game.  I think this will be a close game.  I'll give UMass-Dartmouth the win, but I wouldn't be very surprised if Worcester won.

Eastern Connecticut 74, New Paltz 57
This matchup was a close game last year in New York, but Eastern is playing far better than New Paltz and is at home, I think they win by double figures.

Plymouth State 74, Colby-Sawyer 68
Plymouth is coming off a nice win over Castleton after struggling to beat Lyndon State.  The Chargers blew out Norwich at home and lost at Framingham...nothing much to take out of that.  Plymouth wins a close game on the road.

Bowdoin 77, Southern Maine 68
USM is coming off a win at St. Joseph's (ME).  Bowdoin hasn't lost yet and beat previously undefeated Babson 66-54 at home in their last game.  Bowdoin routed Southern Maine last year.  I think this game is closer but Bowdoin still wins.

MIT 68, UMass-Boston 47
MIT has been somewhat hard to figure this year.  They lost at home to Bridgewater and were beaten by 16 at Tufts.  However, last time out they stuffed RIC, holding them to 38 points in a 54-38 win.  MIT also only won by 7 at a Curry team that has lost every other game by at least 22, and one by 52.  Regardless, UMass-Boston is one of MIT's poorest oppositions so far and I think the Engineers win easily.

[ECSUalum]

Eastern Athletics Weekly today, interviews with Coaches Bierley and Geitner on their seasons so far:

http://www.littleeast.tv/play/index.cfm?fuseaction=embstay&id=401F488EE9

[warriorcat]

At the half

Eastern  Conn     40
New Paltz            22

53 % from the field for ECSU

[warriorcat]

Final from Willimantic CT

ECSU         77
New Paltz  53

Preston 18 pts
Garrow 12 pts

Eastern's starters played sparse minutes in the second half.

[7express]

Tuesday results:

Dartmouth in overtime over Worcester 88-77.  Worcester will look to have better success against Western Thursday evening.  Dane Jobst scored a game high 25 for Worcester; Dartmouth had 4 players with 15+ points; Abi Akanni (16), Tucker Bouchard with 21 which lead the team, Jake Laga (15), and Jacek Louisville with 17 off the bench.  Norris Cuevas-Nova hit a layup with 14 seconds left to tie the game which forced OT not after Dartmouth had 3 chances at the end to win it in regulation, but the Corsairs outscored the Lancers 19-8 in the extra session.
Western over Framingham 83-62.  George Jordan had 16 points in 16 minutes off the bench to lead Framingham, while Bobby Bynum lead Western with a game high 20 points, and Joseph Setaro got a rare start and chipped in 12 points to go along with 10 rebounds.  Only 9 players played for the Colonials, so not sure whether we had a couple kids out injured or if a bunch of people quit.  I'm planning to go to my first game Thursday night (finally don't have any other commitments like practice of my own), so I'll try to get an update then, but hopefully LECfan could chime in before then if he knows something.  Through 7 games this year, Western has already matched last season's win total.
Plattsburgh trounces Keene 109-76.  Plattsburgh had 5 players in double figures lead by Jordan Moody with a game high 23.  Nate Howard lead Keene with 19 points.  Keene shot 24.1% in the first half and saw them trail 59-17 at the break.  As I've said before tough to rebound when your down by that much at halftime.  Pretty much you have to play as well as Plattsburgh did in the first half, AND Plattsburgh has to play as worse as you did in the first half, and most of the time it's still not good enough.  But Keene can take out of it, is that they did win the second half 59-50.  You don't want this to be all negative.
Eastern over New Paltz 77-53.  Both me and All Star were pretty damn close to nailing the total.  Allstar had Eastern 74-57, I had Eastern 75-55.  Trachone Preston lead all scorers with 18 while Mike Garrow put in 12.  Andrew Seniuk and R.j. Rosa each had 16 for New Paltz, while Andrew Joseph pulled down 10 rebounds.  I'm sure Magicman will have a better summary of both this game and the Keene/Plattsburgh game over on the SUNYAC board in the East Region.
Plymouth over Colby-Sawyer 59-55.  Wol Majong had a game high 17 for the Chargers.  Uche Nwokeji paced the Panthers with 14 while Alex Burt and Logan Kesty joined him in double figures with 11 and 10 points respectively.
Bowdoin over USM 67-56.  Tyler Penney and Cole Libby lead USM with 17 and 14 points respectively.  John Swords had 25 points and 16 rebounds for the Polar Bears, who gave coach Tim Gilbride his 400th career victory with the win.
MIT hangs tough with MIT before falling 63-69.  Carl Joseph was one of 4 Beacons in double figures with 13 points.  Matt Redfield had another monster game for the Engineers with 27 points and 16 rebounds.
Recap: Pretty much the 3 teams I expected to lose (USM, Keene, and Boston did), but 2 of the 3 put up fights in their games.  Not a bad night, would've have liked to get a couple more W's, but at least most of the teams competed and stayed in the games.

28-19 LEC; 35-12 me.

Thursday schedule:

Elms @ RIC 7 PM
Worcester @ Western 7 PM
Colby-Sawyer @ Keene 7 PM
Bridgewater @ Dartmouth 7:30 PM

[AllStar]

7express:

That honestly may have been one of the worst results I have ever seen following Keene.  That is bad.  Yikes.

[7express]

I checked in at halftime as I was working on a project and saw it was 59-17 Plattsburgh.  I was actually quite shocked when I realized Keene actually made it to 70 points.