MBB: Little East

[mass_d3fan]

"and after being thoroughly beaten by two good lec teams"

Beaten yes, but hardly throughly yesterday.  WPI was up a point at 3:07 when Robinson scored and then the Engineers misplayed a couple of possesions and the Conolials made buckets.  After that it was the lets send DaQuan to the line show.

Against RIC the whole team played poorly, no excuses - just a bad game.  RIC was the better team, then again they lost to a good Eastern Conn team.   The same Eastern Team that lost by 24 to Trinity.  There are a lot of good teams in our region a loss by any of them to another is not going to make or break the season.

I hope the  Engineers make their defensive adjustments to staying at home on guys who good 3pt shooters.  St. joes will test them in that regard on Sat.

[warrior]

"The same Eastern Team that lost by 24 to Trinity."

Mass d3fan - I understand, and don't disagree that even great teams have off nights and lose games, but, for the record, Eastern beat Trinity by 24, not the other way around.   Consequently, I would think that there are good arguments for the pollsters ranking RIC, Western AND Eastern above WPI.  Wouldn't you agree?  As for Eastern, we are facing a 6'10" center tomorrow and then, if we win, we'll probably be facing a tough Springfield team in their gym on Sunday.  Considering we have three players playing sick, it definitely will not be an easy weekend! Hopefully we'll be healthy for the return to the LEC schedule with Plymouth and UMass Dartmouth the following Saturday and Tuesday!  Needless to say, if we can keep winning, the Western game on the 17th looms LARGE!  The last time we played, we finally found a way to come out on top, but they have been very impressive offensively of late.  Hopefully, good defense and balanced offense can overcome the league's hottest offensive weapon.  Either way, it should be a great game!

[mass_d3fan]

My Bad, I was in a hurry when I wrote that and I only glanced at the results on the D3Hoops page for Eastern & misread it

My only point was that in the game Vs WCSU, the Engineers were NOT throughly beaten.  Even in the Game against RIC, which may have been the worst WPI performance in 2 or 3 years, they only lost the game by 10 and held them to their lowest point total of the year.

Also, as far as "powder puff" schedule goes, it was discussed at length on the NEWMAC board that coming into the season WPI & Springfield had by far the tougher non-conference schedules in the NEWMAC.  WPI had 5/6 games out of conference who won 20 or more last year.  Husson & Elms were indeed expected to be better and Salem St has had a let down since their big win. Right now, because of thier very weak non-conf. schedule & being set as high as 10th inthe preseason poll, there is a very good chance MIT will end up #1 and not beyond the realm of possibility they may go undefeated into the NCAAs.  Realistically, WPI is their only challenge left. Unless the engineers tighten up the perimeter D, MIT will handle them with ease.  Karraker may put up 33+ from beyond the arc.

[7express]

Mass d_3fan, I think MIT handles them easily in Cambridge.  Depending on what defensive adjustments WPI makes, they MAY be able to beat then in Worcester.  With the way Clark played, I wouldn't count them out either, they got a scrappy ball club, who, with Vayda is a lot better then without.

[7express]

Results from the last few days:

December 29:
Boston 62 Eastern 61.  Quadray Allan hit 1 of 2 free throws for the Beacons with 7 seconds left to give them the 1 point victory
Birmingham Southern 85 USM 73.  As expected.  USM played them tough in first half, but BSC pulled away in the 2nd

Dec 30:
Colorado College 64 Boston 56.  Isaac jenkins lead the Beacons with 16 points, Quadray Allan finished with 14.  Col College had 2 players record 20+ points.

[7express]

One game on the schedule today, and that's Eastern vs. Hunter.
Hunter has 2 players that are 6"10 or taller, so will be interesting to see what coach Geitner does against them.  I don't want to say Eastern should win this easily, but this would qualify as a bad conference loss, and a bad loss for the Warriors should they drop this game; Hunter hasn't beaten a team with a record above .500 this year.
My prediction: Eastern 72 Hunter 64

[7express]

Eastern up 33-15 at halftime over Hunter.  Chris Robitaile (12 points) and Nick Nedwick (8 points) are outscoring Hunter at the moment.
Eastern 75-35.  I'd expect the game against more than likely Springfield tomorrow will be a bit more of a challenge for the Warriors.  Hopefully Springfield loses.

[ECSUalum]

ECSU 75, Hunter 35  Nedwick 17, Robitaille 16, Quinn 10.
44.1% 25.0% 58.8% ECSU FG, 3PT, FT. resp.
ECSU caused 21 Hunter TOs
6'10" players one didnt play, other had no impact in game except with final dunk.
Hopefully Eastern can improve their FG and FT shooting vs Springfield.  Defense was excellent

BTW Live stats @ Springfiled College Athletics home page, (not the mens BB page or "SC schedule" page)

[ECSUalum]

Springfield 37 UNE 32 @ Half

[7express]

Springfield 37 UNE 32 @ Half

I'm counting on you to keep me updated on this game, lol.  I'm following the Babson USM womens game.

[ECSUalum]

Springfield 37 UNE 32 @ Half

I'm counting on you to keep me updated on this game, lol.  I'm following the Babson USM womens game.

Springfield 72  UNE 49 Final

                       UNE                 SPR
Field goals   16-60 26.7%     32-60 53.3%
3-point FGs 12-38 31.6%       3-15 20.0%
Free throws 5-11 45.5%        5-12 41.7%
Reb (O-D)   28 (8-20)          54 (13-41)
Turnovers   16                        23
Last FG      2nd-02:40         2nd-02:52
Large lead  1 (1st-12:50)      26 (2nd-02:52

[ECSUalum]

NICE JOB BY ECSU on this stat:

TURNOVER MARGIN          G Team Avg.      Opp. Avg. Margin
1. Eastern Connecticut     7  93 13.3         118 16.9 +3.57
2. UMass Dartmouth        10 170 17.0       205 20.5 +3.50
3. Rhode Island College    10 158 15.8       170 17.0 +1.20
4. Keene State College    10 178 17.8        184 18.4 +0.60
5. Western Connecticut   12 179 14.9        179 14.9 +0.00
Southern Maine             10 161 16.1        161 16.1 +0.00
7. Plymouth State           8 150 18.8          134 16.8 -2.00
8. UMass Boston            11 215 19.5         191 17.4 -2.18

[7express]

Springfield 72  UNE 49 Final

                       UNE                 SPR
Field goals   16-60 26.7%     32-60 53.3%
3-point FGs 12-38 31.6%       3-15 20.0%
Free throws 5-11 45.5%        5-12 41.7%
Reb (O-D)   28 (8-20)          54 (13-41)
Turnovers   16                        23
Last FG      2nd-02:40         2nd-02:52
Large lead  1 (1st-12:50)      26 (2nd-02:52

Sounds like Springfield really put the clamps down in the 2nd half holding UNE to only 17 points.

[7express]

I hate when I posted something really long, i hit reply, my internet connection dies, and the whole thing dissapears before I was able to post it

Eastern 65 Springfield 59
Cliff notes version: Both teams are good, both played good defense yesterday.  LEC has been great in OOC play this year, and if Eastern wants to compete for the LEC title, they'll find a way to win this, and I think they will.

[magicman]

I hate when I posted something really long, i hit reply, my internet connection dies, and the whole thing dissapears before I was able to post it

I had that happen to me twice last week when I was posting the weekly results and summaries for our pick em league. And you know how long last week's post was. (This week's is equally as long because of you. ) I was so ticked off that I had to retype everything 3 times. Good thing I still have a great memory because so much of that post was off the top of my head. I've learned a lesson though. Now when I have a long post, before I hit reply or post I copy everything and save it so I can paste it, if need be.