MBB: Little East

[LEC Fan]

Keene State 77
Middlebury   76

KSC takes down #1 in the country!

[7express]

Anyone know what, if anything, the LEC does with a player who picks up 2 technical fouls in a game??  J.R. Barnes stupidly picked up 2 Tech's against Conn College today.  With about 5:30 left in the game Barnes is driving to the basket, Camels defender goes down (looked like he flopped, so probably should have been a defensive foul), and Barnes loses the ball out of bounds.  He goes to pick it up and throws it back the referee, harder then most people would and the ref gave him a tech.  Now I can see why he did, but it's not like Barnes threw it at his head, or threw it out of play.  He did throw it hard, but he threw it at the guy's stomach, so I'm not sure what the big deal was, I've seen things worse that weren't called tech's, but whatever.  Then as he was walking back down the court, he must've said something because he picked up another.  Hopefully, we don't lose him for Dartmouth Saturday.

[7express]

Also DaQuan Brooks scores his 2,000th career point late in the 2nd half.  He could shatter the school scoring record by a good 700 to 800 points.  He got it @ Plymouth on the 14th and he keeps adding to it.

[7express]

Tuesday results:
Keene 77-76.
Down 10 with 6:21 to play, Keene ended the game on a 15-4 run, and held the Panthers to only 3 field goal attempts the final 6 minutes.  Ryan Martin lead Keene with 15, including the winner with 1:12 to play.
Tufts survives Dartmouth 84-82.
Reading the NESCAC board, it sounds like Tufts committed a bunch of fouls and back court turnovers late in the game which allowed Dartmouth to force overtime.  With 1 second left, Paul Rose made 1 of 2 free throws to force overtime.
RIC loses to Amherst 79-69.
RIC was up by 14 early, and still up 3 at halftime, but Amherst out muscled them and was more phsyical than RIC the 2nd half.
Western 78-62.
Wasn't 40, but they did play well for about 30.  As usual, they have lapses where it seemd like they don't care; Conn College turned a 18 point deficit into a 11 point deficit in a matter of minutes because the Colonials were lost on transition defense, and were launching off-balance 3's from the corner with 30 seconds left on the shot-clock, which resulted in long rebounds and those fast-break points for the Camels.  I've never seen Bob Campbell more frusterated then in that timeout after the Camels trimmed the lead to 11; he threw off his coat and could hear him on the other side of the arena.  Brooks had 47 to lead the way and the game, number 43 which put him over 2,000.  The team shot a ridiculous 37 three pointers, 20 in the first half.  We made as many 3's (14 of 37) as Conn College even attempted.  Everyone played, and everyone except Olivier Sathoud played at least 1 minute in the first half.
USM 56-44 over Colby. 
Jeremey Jackson had 14 points and 9 rebounds to lead the way for the Huskies.  The Huskies held Colby to 23.7% for the game and 15.6% in the 2nd half.
Lesley 69-67 over Plymouth.
After opening the game down 22-4, 2 free throw's by Kyle Walker tied the game at 67 with 17 seconds left; John Sanchez hit the game winner for Lesley with 2 seconds to play

Wednesday schedule:
Eastern @ Wesleyan (prediction in next post). 
With 1 game to play LEC leads 3-2, at least the worst that can happen is finish .500.

[PressBreaker]

Heck of a night in Keene tonight. Could see why Spaulding Gym is known as one of the best homecourts tonight. Few things from the game. One, even though the Game came down to the final possession, Keene could have won by 7 or 8 if they could have converted better at the free throw line. They must have missed 15 free throws or so, as well as having one of the nations best free throw shooter miss on the front end of a 1 & 1 to make it a 3 point game late.

Two, Rashad Wright was arguably the best player on the court for both teams. He had 3 monster jams inside, one in traffic. He was able to neutralize Ryan Sharry, and outplayed him in the post. Since his return to the lineup Keene has been a different team.

Unfortunate that RIC couldn't take down Amherst after leading early, and Dartmouth fell to Tufts in OT. Would have been a great night for the conference. Hopefully Eastern can take care of business tomorrow night.

Finally, I think it may be time to stop saying Keene may be a team to watch out for, and start calling them the best team in the conference, right now. We all know a lot can change come LEC tournament time. But over the past month, it's tough to say any team has played better.

[7express]

Finally, I think it may be time to stop saying Keene may be a team to watch out for, and start calling them the best team in the conference, right now. We all know a lot can change come LEC tournament time. But over the past month, it's tough to say any team has played better.

With the team West Conn has on the floor right now (with Mark Redding & Michael Jenson healthy and Rob Bentil reinstated), call me a homer but I'd take that squad over any team in the country.  Sure they have defense lapses, and times it seems they don't care (like Saturday) BUT imo their the most talented in the league.  REMEMBER, West Conn already beat the Owls earlier this year AT Keene, and that was with Jensen out with injury, no Bentil, and Jengodji Gates was just coming back to the team.  They still have to play us in Danbury in a few weeks.

[7express]

Wednesday prediction:

Eastern 67 @ Wesleyan 71.
Last year Wesleyan won by 1 in Willimantic.  This Wesleyan team is damn good (4th best in the NESCAC), and even better at home.  They've already beat Amherst & Williams at home, beat Tufts on a Shasha Brown buzzer beater, and only lost by 3 to Middlebury.  If Nedwick plays, I think this will be close, but have to take the home team.

[mass_d3fan]

Finally, I think it may be time to stop saying Keene may be a team to watch out for, and start calling them the best team in the conference, right now. We all know a lot can change come LEC tournament time. But over the past month, it's tough to say any team has played better.

With the team West Conn has on the floor right now (with Mark Redding & Michael Jenson healthy and Rob Bentil reinstated), call me a homer but I'd take that squad over any team in the country.  Sure they have defense lapses, and times it seems they don't care (like Saturday) BUT imo their the most talented in the league.  REMEMBER, West Conn already beat the Owls earlier this year AT Keene, and that was with Jensen out with injury, no Bentil, and Jengodji Gates was just coming back to the team.  They still have to play us in Danbury in a few weeks.

I can understand the homer mentality, BUT since that loss, Keene has gone 6-0 defeating 2 top 25 teams.  WCSU has gone 3-3 with 2 losses to to sub .500 teams.  Hardly something one would take to the bank against anyone in the country.  The Colonials depend one guy shooting at least 20 to 25 (somtimes 30) shots.  Even doing that, they could not beat USM or Plymouth. 

Also, when they beat Keene, it was during the upheaval up there with  Derek D'Amours & Hunter.  Hunter is back and has made huge plays in the clutch.  The team has come together after the situation (whatever it was) with D'Amours and with out question is playing the best ball of all the teams in the LEC right now. They shutdown a potential National POY in the 2nd half holding him to just 2 pts.

It is I have said though, this region is full of very good teams and when two of them meet anything can indeed happen.  The real question for Keene is how they handle things after this huge win.  In both the LEC and NEWMAC in the past few weeks teams have had big wins only to suffer letdowns soon after.

[Bucket]

Two, Rashad Wright was arguably the best player on the court for both teams. He had 3 monster jams inside, one in traffic. He was able to neutralize Ryan Sharry, and outplayed him in the post. Since his return to the lineup Keene has been a different team.

Congrats to Keene on what must have been a great and exciting win for them. Knocking off number #1 on your home court is something the Keene kids will remember for the rest of their lives. Hats off to 'em.

Rashad Wright is a fine, fine player, but I have to chuckle at the "neutralize" observation.First time I've ever heard 18 and 10 (Sharry's points and rebounds) being described as being neutralized. In my mind, "neutralizing" Sharry wasn't the story of the game, it was Keene forcing 20+ turnovers and attempting 18 more shots than its opponent. In a 1-point game, no stat is bigger.

[ECSUalum]

Just saw the Keene-Middlebury score!!!  WOW!!!  I heard it wasn't shown on LEC TV   Very unfortunate!!!!!!
Congrats to the Owls!! (I think the big difference with the Owls now is they are also playing lock-down D).   I bet the Keene play by play guys went BANANAS when the last shot missed!!!
I will be in Middletown tonight to watch the Warriors take on the Cardinals.  Hope Nick is back, however, if not, we need him healthy for LEC Tourney time.  Some good restaurants in Middletown so we will have dinner and hopefully see a good game!

Lot of chatter over on the "CAC" thread.  Some good interconference games last night.  Making for a VERY INTERESTING second half of the season and NCAA Tournament.  Good Luck to all the LEC/NESCAC teams and hope they all stay healthy.  Isn't D-III college baskeball great?

[7express]

Eastern loses to Wesleyan 66-65.
This was the same exact score as last seasons matchup.  Weird coincidence.  Nick Nedwick played and started for Eastern, however he was the only player in double figures.  Mike Callaghan had 20 to lead Wesleyan,

Thursday schedule:
Keene State @ St. Joseph's (VT)
Johnson state @ Plymouth state.  Preictions coming in next post

[7express]

Thursday predictions:
Keene 94 @ St. Joseph's 65.
St. Joseph's is a USCAA team out of the Yankee Small College conference and they compete against such powerhouses as Eastern Maine community college, Southern Maine community college (definitely not to be confused with Southern Maine University), Central Maine community college, Univesity of Maine at Machias (even more remote than Maine-Presque Isle), Vermont Tech, Nashua community college, Paul Smith's college (a forestry ish university in the middle of the Adirondack state park in upstate New York), Maine Augusta, New Hampshire Tech, and Hampshire college, a small college located in Amherst's shadow that's 0-13 and have lost games this year by 99 points, 68 (2x), 75, 56, 55, 66, and 132 points (not a typo).  St. Joseph's was the team that beat Hampshire by 132 points (153-21).  SJ is 4-3 against D-3 teams beating Endicott, Southern Vermont, Johnson state & Vassar, while losing to Middlebury, RPI & Clarkson.  SJ is 6-2 in the Yankees conference losing to first place Eastern Maine CC in overtime by 3, and Vermont Tech by 9.  This sounds like one of those games they'd lose (last year after beating West Conn who was ranked #14 at the time, Keene went home and preceded to give up 106 points to Dartmouth their next game), but really would be embarressing if they lost this.  SJ only lost @ Middlebury by 13, but that was 2 days after they had won the Ramapo tip off tournament, and was missing all-american Ryan Sherry.

Johnson state 56 @ Plymouth 73.
Johnson state sits at the bottom of the NorthAtlantic Conference where the 5 teams at the bottom have a combined 18-72 record on the year.  Johnson state has already lost to 2 USCAA teams this year (Vermont Tech and St. Joseph's [VT]) as well as Bard who's known to not have a very good athletic tradition.   The Badgers (great name btw, but really they have Badgers in Vermont??) have not played an LEC team yet this year and have lost 5 of their last 6 games.

[ECSUalum]

Actually a really well played game from both sides, low TO's even rebounding well executed plays. Chae Phillips played another great game scoring 3 key 3 pointers to keep the game close when Wesleyan tried to pull away.  Nick Nedwick looked back to normal, (22 pts) and had a chance to buzzerbeat the Cardinals with 6 seconds left but his 15 footer went in and out for the 66-65 loss. Sasha Brown was the buzzerbeater hero last year for the Cardinals in another 66-65 Cardinal win.   

Eastern contained Sasha Brown reasonably well last night keeping him below his 18 or so ppg season avg, with 14 pts, however, Mike Callahan was the difference netting 20 points and keeping Robitaille in check underneath.

Nice facilities at the Wesleyan sports complex and the Wesleyan fans were out and loud last night.

[amh63]

There are too many games between our conferences going down to the last shot.  Makes for stressful times.
ECSUAlumn...more interested in where you went to dinner.  When my host and I go to Middletown for football/BB games, we try to "live off the land" so to speak...meaning try to get free meals from the Cardinals.  My host doesn't know many in-town places....even though he attended a number of crew regattas based in Middletown when his kids rowed in HS.  Got a run down of the game on the NESCAC board....from a Wes. partisan.  Nice to get two viewpoints.
7Express....you are really keeping late hours.

[ECSUalum]

amh63,
Was nice time @ Wesleyan last night, even though the Warriors lost, met some nice Wesleyan fans and had a chit chat about D-III Basketball.
Middletown has number of very good restaurants.  The Typhoon Restauran, (thai cuisine), is highly rated, (not been there), if you like that style of food.
We dined at Amici's Italian Grill, (my favorite type of food), nice portions, pleasant atmosphere, reasonably priced.  see website below.
Nice in that most of the really good restaurants in Middletown are grouped right on Main St on either side of intersection of Washington St (Rt 66). We live in Newtown CT, so its not too far for us.  Let me know if your in Middtwn, and my wife and I will buy you dinner.  I am usually also in Middtwn for ECSU/Wesleyan, and in Hartford for Trinity/ECSU, BB, Soccer, Baseball events

Enjoy!!!

http://www.amiciitaliangrill.com/