MBB: Little East

7express · December 12, 2013, 10:08:41 PM

Thursday results:

Salem in overtime over Plymouth 80-75. Petey Skevas had 20 points to lead the Panthers while Curtis Arsenault had 11 and Logan Kesty had 12 off the bench for the Panthers. Nicholas Grassa had 24 to lead Salem while his backcourt mate Hamed Akanni put in 21 as well. Those 2 outputs contributed to the Salem starting 5 outscoring the Panther starting 5 66-49. Plymouth outscored Salem 10-1 the final 4:59 of regulation, culminating in an Alex Burt layup to force overtime.

35-21 LEC: 46-14 me

Saturday schedule:
Keene @ WPI 1 PM
USM @ Salem 3 PM
Boston @ RIC (conference game) 3 PM

7express · December 13, 2013, 08:32:49 PM

Saturday schedule:

Keene 56 @ WPI 82.
Keene has rebounded from an 0-5, but Colby-Sawyer and Boston are completely different animals then WPI will be. WPI is 8-1 on the season, and is one of the better teams in the country. The engineers won by 17 at Spaulding gym last year.

Boston 49 @ RIC 63.
When's the last time Boston beat RIC?? Has to have been a while ago, right?? Boston will have to wait. Both teams are 0-1 in the conference: RIC lost a close one @ Eastern, Boston got blown out at home vs. Keene. RIC gets the first conference win and drops Boston to 0-2 in conference. RIC went 2-0 against them last year and held the Beacons to 49.5 points in 2 meetings.

USM 75 @ Salem 82.
This is Salem's third and final game against an LEC team this season. They are 2-0 in the previous 2 games creaming Dartmouth and just finished a 5 point win @ Plymouth Thursday night. USM broke a mini 2 game losing streak with a 10 point, double overtime victory at in-state rival Maine-Farmington last time out. This is the second straight year USM has to travel down 95 to Salem, MA as the Huskies played the Vikings in the Vikings Christmas tournament last December in Salem. Salem won that matchup 93-83.

Charles · December 14, 2013, 10:19:37 AM

Quote from: 7express on December 13, 2013, 08:32:49 PM
Saturday schedule:

Keene 56 @ WPI 82.
Keene has rebounded from an 0-5, but Colby-Sawyer and Boston are completely different animals then WPI will be. WPI is 8-1 on the season, and is one of the better teams in the country. The engineers won by 17 at Spaulding gym last year.

Really one of the better teams in the country? 6 of their wins are against teams with a 4-40 record, they beat a 4-4 Salem State team, and a short handed Tufts team.
They are a nice team, but play a pretty weak schedule. When your toughest game is Springfield on the road? Why not play some of the top level NESCAC teams? Or Eastern CT or even Albertus?

7express · December 14, 2013, 01:12:51 PM

I don't know. I don't follow WPI or the NEWMAC, why don't you ask that question over there??

7express · December 14, 2013, 01:14:01 PM

Sat games, Once again I'll have updates throughout the day:

WPI leads 24-11 12:28 in first
Halftime WPI leads 49-35
78-62 WPI 5:06 left.
WPI wins 88-69
RIC up 21-6 11:07
RIC 28-8 7:42
RIC won 76-50
No score on Salem/USM
Salem 20-13 7:14 in first
Both games are blowouts at the half: Salem leads by 16 (36-20), RIC leads by 24 (37-13).

7express · December 14, 2013, 09:07:43 PM

Sat results:

WPI over Keene 88-69. Sam Longwell had a game high 22 for WPI. Tre Tipton had 20 for Keene, and Nate Howard had 9 points and 12 rebounds. WPI shot 50% from the floor and assisted on 21 of 32 made field goals.
RIC over Boston 76-50. Carl Joseph had a game high 24 for the Beacons. Austin Ciley lead RIC with 16 points off the bench. Nice to see Bob Walsh back on the sidelines for RIC today. This game was over at halftime when RIC lead 37-13 and held Boston to 3-21 shooting.
Salem over USM 70-63. Tyler Penney lead the Huskies with 25 points, and Darius Bradford was the other Husky in double figures with 17 off the bench. Bryan Ortiz lead Salem with 13 points, and Andrew White did it all for the Vikings: Tied for second on the team with points (11), and lead the team in all other categories offensive rebounds (2), total rebounds (15), steals (6) and assists (6). About the only thing he failed to do was block shots: Salem only had 2 and Chris Parenteau had both of them. Salem turned what was a close game into a rout at the end of the first. At 2:25, a Conor Sullivan jumper made this a 29-20 Salem lead. Salem would score the halves final 7 points to go up 16, and would score 9 of the first 11 points of the second half to hit their high water mark of 22, and that was it. A late USM run made the score appear closer then it really was, but after Salem finished up that 15-4 run between the first and second half, they were never seriously threatened again.

35-23 LEC: 49-14 me

Standings:
1) Eastern 7-1 (1-0)
1) Western 7-2 (1-0)
1) Plymouth 6-3 (1-0)
4) RIC 6-4 (1-1)
4) USM 5-5 (1-1)
4) Keene 2-6 (1-1)
7) Dartmouth 5-3 (0-1)
8) Boston 3-5 (0-2)

Conference schedule:
Eastern @ Plymouth 3 PM
Dartmouth @ Western 7:30 PM

Only 2 more games before the Christmas break, and that sees Eastern in Orlando playing some Illinois schools out of the CCIW: North Central on Friday the 20 at 4 PM, and Carthage Saturday the 21 at 2 PM.

magicman · December 15, 2013, 03:37:15 AM

Quote from: 7express on December 14, 2013, 09:07:43 PM
Only 2 more games before the Christmas break, and that sees Eastern in Orlando playing some Illinois schools out of the CCIW: North Central on Friday the 20 at 4 PM, and Carthage Saturday the 21 at 2 PM.

Hey 7,

Those 2 games in Florida will give you a better idea of where Eastern Connecticut may stand in the overall national picture. The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin is usually one of the top conferences in the country and this year is no exception. North Central (Final Four participant last year) is from Naperville, Illinois and Carthage is from Kenosha, Wisconsin. These 2 teams will probably be fighting it out to make their conference tournament. One of them probably won't make it. Right now Illinois Wesleyan ranked #3 in D3hoops Top 25, Augustana, ranked #15 and Wheaton ranked #22 are looking like the top 3 places in that league. Of course anything can happen in conference play and those 3 ranked teams may find out that Carthage and North Central are better than them.

I watched Carthage play tonight against Univ. Wisconsin-Plattville and saw a double overtime barnburner with Carthage prevailing finally 112-104. UW-Plattville is a half game ahead of UW-Stevens Point, the #1 team in the country, in the WIAC conference.

Carthage welcomed back tonight, for his first game of the season, Malcom Kelly. Kelly a 6'0" guard, was a 1st team all conference performer 2 years ago for Carthage but left school and joined the army reserves. He didn't attend college at all last year. He came back to college this fall and had to get his academics in order and didn't play the first semester. He was the leading scorer in the conference in 2011-2012 averaging over 19 ppg and ranking in the top 10 in numerous other categories. Carthage will certainly be a better team with him and could very well be 8-1 if they had him in the lineup for the first 9 games of the season. Tonight he didn't start and only played 12 minutes off the bench but still managed double figures with 11 points.

Eastern will have a tough time against both of these teams and so will the 4th team in the tournament, Buffalo State. The tournament, which is called The Orlando Holiday Classic is hosted by Buffalo State.

Buffalo State and Eastern met in Florida last year in a game that the Bengals won 89-85. They won't meet this year which is too bad, but both get to play the same two teams so we'll get some comparisons from the results. None of these games will be on a webcast but I do know there will be an audio broadcast for both of the Carthage games, as the Carthage announcer said during the game tonight that they would be on the road, broadcasting the Carthage-Buffalo State game on Friday the 20th, at 6:00 PM and the Carthage-Eastern Connecticut game Saturday the 21st, at 2:00 PM.

PS: The Banana Slugs lost to Caltech on Saturday night. You might want to change your pick to Cal Lutheran.

Charles · December 15, 2013, 07:08:27 AM

I think that if ECSU can win both games they certainly have a legitimate argument for top 15. Saw them play and their front line is big and strong, not terribly fundamental but can rebound and knock players around. Clean hard nosed players. However, I believe the team feeds off of Garrow. How he goes so goes the team. Saw him run wild against a small guard in the first half and then get shut down by a taller player in the second half. and oh yeah, Salzillo just doesn't seem to ever miss.

7express · December 16, 2013, 12:53:34 AM

Charles & Magic, I think they should beat Carthage by about 10 or so. Personally, I think they'll get run over by North Central, however. Now I'm not sure what, if anything, NCCU lost from last year, but they were pretty dominant the whole season, and as Magic said, the CCIW is one of the stronger conferences in the country (right up there with the NESCAC & WIAC among others). I'll take a 1-1 trip for the Warriors, but really wouldn't be surprised to see them come back 0-2. Carthage may not have a good win-loss record, but put them in the LEC and they're probably right near the top of the league.

ECSUalum · December 16, 2013, 08:57:05 AM

North Central College (Ill) latest stats

|---TOTAL---| |---3-PTS---| |----REBOUNDS----|
## Player GP-GS Min--Avg FG-FGA Pct 3FG-FGA Pct FT-FTA Pct Off Def Tot Avg PF FO A TO Blk Stl Pts Avg
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
52 Gamble, Landon..... 8-8 214 26.8 44-76 .579 0-0 .000 31-47 .660 12 31 43 5.4 23 0 8 23 2 9 119 14.9
24 Kmiec, Vince....... 8-8 263 32.9 40-93 .430 19-45 .422 13-18 .722 8 35 43 5.4 20 1 17 16 0 15 112 14.0
02 Sutton, Tyler...... 5-1 118 23.6 17-32 .531 16-29 .552 4-4 1.000 1 9 10 2.0 6 0 6 3 0 0 54 10.8
32 Burchett, Jack..... 8-8 204 25.5 32-58 .552 0-0 .000 22-40 .550 23 38 61 7.6 27 2 27 19 4 8 86 10.8
40 Honn, Kevin........ 8-7 162 20.3 23-48 .479 8-15 .533 8-12 .667 13 19 32 4.0 10 0 8 10 0 4 62 7.8
54 Reinke, Mike....... 2-0 14 7.0 6-8 .750 0-0 .000 1-2 .500 5 3 8 4.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 13 6.5
04 Williams, Brandon.. 8-2 187 23.4 17-32 .531 3-5 .600 12-16 .750 9 15 24 3.0 14 0 22 17 1 7 49 6.1
34 Robinson, David.... 8-0 92 11.5 16-25 .640 0-1 .000 9-13 .692 12 10 22 2.8 18 0 4 7 2 5 41 5.1
30 Fendley, Evan...... 7-0 78 11.1 12-27 .444 8-17 .471 3-5 .600 1 2 3 0.4 14 0 6 2 0 2 35 5.0
50 Every, Tyler....... 3-0 19 6.3 4-5 .800 0-0 .000 0-4 .000 1 0 1 0.3 2 0 3 2 1 1 8 2.7
12 Rourke, Pat........ 8-6 147 18.4 5-13 .385 2-7 .286 9-10 .900 0 7 7 0.9 8 0 14 7 1 4 21 2.6
10 Merrithey, Jack.... 5-0 56 11.2 4-12 .333 0-7 .000 1-2 .500 1 3 4 0.8 3 0 9 5 0 3 9 1.8
44 Agee, Marcus....... 1-0 10 10.0 0-2 .000 0-0 .000 1-3 .333 1 0 1 1.0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1.0
42 Gustafson, Alex.... 1-0 10 10.0 0-1 .000 0-0 .000 0-0 .000 1 0 1 1.0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0.0
11 Fuller, David...... 4-0 27 6.8 0-3 .000 0-1 .000 0-0 .000 0 3 3 0.8 1 0 3 2 0 1 0 0.0
TEAM............... 9 5 14 1.8 0 2 0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total.............. 8 1601 220-435 .506 56-127 .441 114-176 .648 97 180 277 34.6 148 3 129 116 12 59 610 76.2
Opponents.......... 8 1600 175-372 .470 49-127 .386 104-156 .667 44 157 201 25.1 163 - 83 136 17 59 503 62.9

2012-13 Stats (showing key losses from last year)
52 Gamble, Landon..32-30 776 24.3 176-304 .579 0-0 .000 111-167 .665 57 127 184 5.8 110 5 58 69 11 17 463 14.5
34 Raridon, Derek....32-32 1146 35.8 152-304 .500 37-81 .457 108-140 .771 27 88 115 3.6 68 1 83 48 7 23 449 14.0
24 Kmiec, Vince.......32-32 1132 35.4 114-266 .429 52-166 .313 66-77 .857 16 130 146 4.6 53 2 56 43 6 67 346 10.8
30 Tiknis, Aaron...... 29-28 861 29.7 88-225 .391 36-108 .333 65-97 .670 51 143 194 6.7 88 1 95 51 36 19 277 9.6

amh63 · December 16, 2013, 07:46:14 PM

ECSU...Seems your Warriors will have their hands full over the holidays before facing Amherst in early Jan. As you may already know, North Central (Ill.) met both Middlebury and Amherst in games last season in Salem, Va. They beat Middlebury by 12 and Amherst won in a low scoring game by 8. This year's team is without their 1st-team All American, Derek Raridon, the 6'6" forward that had down games agains both Midd. and Amherst. Kmeic, picked up the slack in the game against the Panthers by scoring 31 points. He returns anlong with their other All American Landon Gamble in the post position. North Central plays a physical style game and last season had no true PG. Saw the Cardinals play Bridgewaters (Va) in a game down in Virginia last Friday on-line. Gamble did not play well....seems to be adjusting his play a bit due to the emphasis of particular rules by the refs. He had a better game the next day. Rated in the top 5 in the pre-season, they have struggle so far this season for whatever reason. Maybe ready for your team to give them another lost

Hope you and yours the best this Holiday Season!

ECSUalum · December 16, 2013, 08:40:07 PM

amh63,

Thanks for your note

As Coach Geitner always says, playing quality teams from strong conferences like North Central/Cathage of CCIW and Amherst from NESCAC prepares the Warriors for LEC conference play, and if the team learns from the wins or losses vs these teams and gets better each and every game, we should have a good shot at a conference title and in turn make a strong showing in the NCAA's.

The next four games will be challenging, even vs Plymouth state, who are playing very well, but if we can get good offensive performances from Preston, Garrow and Salzillo, we will be in most games, as our defense is pretty good, we finally have an excellent FREE THROWS shooting team

, and we protect the ball reasonably well. These games will determine if we are a top 25 team or just a good team at this point in time

Looking forward to watching the Warrior/Lord Jeff game in a great venue like LeFrak, and staying in historic Amherst MA.

Also wishing you and your family Very Happy Holidays and a healthy, happy New Year!!!

Mr. Ypsi · December 16, 2013, 08:48:02 PM

amh63,

The graduated All-American is Derek Raridon, the coach's son. He was indeed a keeper!! Landon Gamble on his good days is even better, but he is less consistent.

magicman · December 17, 2013, 03:04:23 AM

Eastern Connecticut moves into the Top 25 poll as they come in 22nd place with 90 points. Just in time for the Florida Tournament. The Warriors will be the only one of the four teams in the tournament sporting a Top 25 ranking. North Central is in the others receiving votes category (10 points), while Carthage and Buffalo State get no mention at all. Here's the link to the complete poll:

http://d3hoops.com/top25/men/2013-14/week4

amh63 · December 17, 2013, 09:47:31 AM

Mr. Ypsi.....thanks for pointing out the error in the name. I have a long history of not spelling names correct..thus many editing on my posts. I have given up blaming my glasses/eyes. Family and friends just laugh when I also butcher words and expressions. Made the correction. Interesting that Derek is the son of the father. Can be hard on the player and coach.