MBB: Little East

[ECSUalum]

From Buffalo/ECSU box score, Buffalo dominated the boards, Eastern shot better 3pt%. Everything else pretty even. Brian Salzillo back after 3 game suspention but was cold hitting 1 out of 6 threes. If he hits close to his avg., (50%), on threes it most likely goes OT or a win for ECSU.  Anyway... Congrats to Buffalo for winning the Miami Slam Tournament and good luck for the rest of the year!!

[7express]

Sat results:

Eastern loses in overtime to Messiah 72-71.  No boxscore of it yet.
28-30 OOC record heading into the Christmas holiday.
Next LEC game is Friday, December 28, Keene vs. Mary Washington (@ Montclair state).

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to ECSU, Warrior, LECfan, Magic and everyone else reading this board!!

[ECSUalum]

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU 7 AND THANKS FOR ALL YOUR INSIGHT INTO THE TEAMS THAT PLAY D-lll BASKETBALL!!!!!!
ALSO MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANNUKAH, ETC, TO ALL THE PEOPLE THAT BRING US THE D3BOARDS AND TO THE ALL POSTERS THAT MAKE FOR SUCH INTERESTING AND ENTERTAINING READING AND WHICH PROVIDES SOO MUCH ENJOYMENT!!!  ALSO, AN HEALTHY, HAPPY, SUCCESSFUL 2013

[amh63]

Second ECSU greetings and best wishes this Holiday Season!

[magicman]

Happy Holidays to 7express, LECFAN32, ECSUalum, Warrior, and amh63. Plus K to all of you.  Keep up the good conversation. I read this board daily and post occasionally. Hopefully the LEC and SUNYAC will continue to schedule games with each other. Hope 2013 is a great year for everyone, both on and off the court.    

[Bengalsrule]

From Buffalo/ECSU box score, Buffalo dominated the boards, Eastern shot better 3pt%. Everything else pretty even. Brian Salzillo back after 3 game suspention but was cold hitting 1 out of 6 threes. If he hits close to his avg., (50%), on threes it most likely goes OT or a win for ECSU.  Anyway... Congrats to Buffalo for winning the Miami Slam Tournament and good luck for the rest of the year!!

I was at the game Sat. ECSU and it was a classic. Class act on your part! Happy Holidays to all!

[warrior]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my LEC Blog Family! 
Although my attention is now often 'across the pond' in England, Jamie and I still 'bleed' blue and maroon and we'll be LEC guys forever! 
Hope to see you guys at Eastern's home games in 2013! 
PS Don't worry ECSUAlum - the boys will get back on the winning track in 2013!

[7express]

Merry Christmas Amh63, Magic, LECFan, Warrior and ECSUAlum and everyone else who reads this board.

[AllStar]

Merry Christmas everyone!

[7express]

Westerns second half roster updates.  JR Barnes is on the roster as expected and Russ Payton is back on.  Still no sign of Mike Jensen however.

[7express]

Hope everyone had a good holiday, but now it's back to work.  1 game on the docket for this evening:

Keene state 78 vs. Mary Washington 52 (@ Montclair state in New Jersey).
Mary Washington is located in Fredricksburg, VA and plays in the CAC conference.  On the year they are 3-5 beating York (NY), Maryland Bible College (who the hell are they??) and Gaullaudet.  As long as they Owls don't play down to their opponents level, I don't think they'll have much trouble winning.  Of all the teams here, Keene is the only team at or above .500 as the other 3 are sub .500 foes, so this should be Keene's to lose.  They have the best record and best talent of the 4 teams.  Bridgewater state vs. Montclair state is the other semifinal.

[7express]

Mary Washington beats Keene 82-81.

This program reminds me of the San Diego Chargers of the NFL.  Great talent, great resources (I don't know how Keene does it but they get A LOT of students from Connecticut, not just athletes, but a lot of the student body as well), and a coach who can't motivate his players, so their teams take naps during the season.  No way this Keene team should be losing to a 3-5 Mary Washington team, especially 1 that came up from the Richmond, Virginia area.  Time for Keene players to set the alarm, nap time is over.  Easily the most dissapointing team in the Northeast and quite possibly the whole country.  Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much talent up there in Keene to be 6-4/5-5 heading into the New Year, and it starts at the top with Colbert.  Unless Keene goes on 1 of those runs like they did last year and don't choke at the end again and makes the NCAA tournament, its time for a coaching change next year.
28-31 OOC record

Saturday schedule:
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 72 vs. Southern Maine 74 (@ Salem state)
CMS is 6-4 out of the SCIAC conference in Claremont, California.  Not sure where the Mudd-Scripps originates from however.  They have won or shared the last 4 SCIAC conference titles and have been to the NCAA tournament 3 of the last 4 years.  No clue why their coming out here, however.  Most teams from the East go West, you hardly ever see a Western team come East.  Ahh, CMS has a player from Rye and a player from New Canaan.  Still not sure why their going to Salem though.  I'm sure Clark/Wentworth would've subbed with CMS so 1 of them could go up to Salem, and CMS could go to NYU's tournament so at least the Rye & New Canaan parents and family and frineds have an easier trip.  CMS was actually my pick in the undefeated pool, and in the national pick em league I'm one of the few that has USM winning this game.  CMS started out the season 0-4 (3 against non NCAA division 3 teams) and has won their last 6.  A nice chance for USM to get a GREAT out of region win which will help them immensely in February should they hang around near the top of the LEC.
TCNJ 65 @ Western 72.
First game for JR Barnes this year and Russ Payton is back with the team, still no sign of Michael Jensen however.  TCNJ is a schizophrenic team: they started off 0-4, won 2 straight for their only 2 wins of the year, and their current streak is at L4, so TCNJ is due for 2 straight wins.  Western has won 2 of 3 after starting 0-6.  Not that it matters since its a non NJAC game (Western football is or actually was since their leaving this summer a member of the NJAC) but TCNJ has lost 31 of its last 36 NJAC conference games.
Keene 78 @ Montclair state 75.
Montclair blew a 39-27 halftime lead against Bridgewater and lost 78-75 to Bridgewater in a game that just went final.  This game shouldn't be close, but knowing Keene and the 2 hour nap time they'll have from 1-3 PM, they should be fortunate if they even win.

[wcsu91]

@7 Happy Holidays. Thanks for the WCSU roster update with Barnes and Payton back on the team. I went and looked at the roster myself and noticed Phil Starks is not listed on the roster anymore, ugh.  Any idea why? 1st semester Grades? He showed a lot of potential.

[7express]

@7 Happy Holidays. Thanks for the WCSU roster update with Barnes and Payton back on the team. I went and looked at the roster myself and noticed Phil Starks is not listed on the roster anymore, ugh.  Any idea why? 1st semester Grades? He showed a lot of potential.

I didn't even look for the people that left.  I'll let LECFan handle this the next time he logs on, but it's probably grades.  That's why Payton is probably back (LECFan thought he was done for the year and so did I); coach Campbell knew something was up with Starks, so he had to bring back Payton for that "scoring" guard.  I'm not that worried; Starks did have potential, but him & Payton fill the same role: the off guard that will take the most shots.  Starks seemed to do most of his damage and broke out after Payton got suspended/kick off following the Albertus loss.  It's a wash in my opinion.  I would've liked to have both though, but would've been tough to get minutes to both of them since they both play the same posistion.

[7express]

Sat resuts (I'll update this throughout the day).
Keene up 43-31 at halftime.  Looks like the team finally set the alarm today.  Hopefully they don't sleepwalk through the second half, because their more then capable of giving up 12 points in a very short amount of time.
Keene wins 89-80.  No boxscore yet
USM loses in OT to CMS 75-81.
Alex Kee, Conor Sullivan and Brandon Tomah took more then half of USM's 64 field goal attempts (36 attempts from those 3).   The last 4 field goals of regulation were all 3 pointers 2 from each team including 1 from Tomah with just over a second left to force the overtime.  Cody Mivshek lead CMS and was the game high scorer with 17.  USM plays hosts Salem state Sunday at 6:00, and CMS plays Maine-Presque Isle Sunday at 2 PM before flying back to LAX.
Western leads TCNJ 30-28 at the half.
TCNJ rallies to defeat Western 57-53.
1 step forward 1 step backwards, sigh.  Team we easily should have defeated.  Wasn't there I got snowed in at Trumbull, but JR Barnes had a quet return: 0-1 shooting, 1 rebound 2 points.  Payton had 7 points on 2 of 7 shooting.  Shawn Mobilio lead the Colonials with 11 points and was playing with a sprained ankle.   The 2 high scorers for Western were Mobilio (11) & Payton (7).  Nice to have a balance scoring load, but the balance needs to be 12,11,10 can't win when your second leading scorer has 7 points. And also the attendance is listed as 47 people which I find hard to believe.  Btw, how do they count attendance numbers at a place like Western that doesn't collect tickets??  The attendance for the women's game was 400, and even though they were doing a ceramony for the Sandy Hook elementary school, I find it hard to believe 353 people that were there for the women's game that weren't there for the men's game.  With 1:08 left, Briddter hit 1 of 2 free throws with Western down 54-52.  Western got the offensive rebound off the missed free throw, with the chance to take the lead, but Payton missed a jumper.  After Mark LaPorte forced a TCNJ steal, Shawn Mobilio turned it back over to TCNJ.  2 Golden Lion free throws made it 56-53 and after a Pyton missed 3, 1 of 2 TCNJ free throws accounted for the final margin.
29-33 OOC record.  Not a lot of OOC games left.  This is starting to look like a 1 bid league this year, which is good for teams in the NESCAC, NCAC, MASCAC and WIAC but certainly not good for the LEC.
Sunday schedule:
USM 65 @ Salem state 76.
Salem state is very good at home, very bad on the road.  Unfortunately for USM this a home game for the Vikings.  Salem state is 3-1 (4-1 after they beat UM-Presque Isle Saturday).  Their lone loss on the year at hom is by 4 against an undefeated WPI squad, and beat MIT.