MBB: Little East

[7express]

I'll have Thursday and Sat results Saturday or Sunday.  Sat schedule:

Eastern 65 @ Boston 70.
Probably the best game of the day.  Eastern has won more high scoring games this year then they've won the last few years, but you don't want to be in fast paced, high scoring game with Boston.  After playing the first 4 LEC games on the road Boston FINALLY plays at home.  Both teams can score think the magic number is 65 for the Beacons.  Above it they win, below it I think they lose.
Keene 65 @ RIC 76.
I don't know the last time Keene won there (2006??  Help me out here LECFan) but if one team can slow down the Keene offensive machine, it's RIC at home in the Murray Center.  As long as the Keene bigs don't go off, RIC should win this.  As usual though, if Keene plays up to their potential (like the first 12 minutes of the second half Tuesday) there's not a team in the league that can beat them, so that's always in play.
Plymouth 64 @ Westerm 75.
A winless road team vs. a winless home team??  Take the home team!  Plymouth has played teams tough, but can't close them out.  As long as Payton & Mobilio don't take stupid shots or make stupid mistakes Western should pick up win #1 at home, but it more than likely won't be easy.
USM 78 @ Dartmouth 69.
You want to compete for the league title this year USM??  You win this game!!  Not much more needs to be said.

[7express]

Halftime scores:
USM 31-24 Eastern leads Boston 40-28 I believe, Western up 33-27.  18-5 run run by Colonials to end the half after trailing 22-15.  RIC leads Keene 19-18 with about 3:24 to go in first

[7express]

Thursday results:

Plymouth all over Suffolk 82-56.
Alex Burt, who's only a sophmore, is the future of Panthers basketball the next few years.  Very impressed with his play.  Plymouth had 4 in double figures lead by Burt's 24.
Boston survives Bridgewater 72-71.
Boston scored the final 10 points of the game after trailing 71-62 with 3:09 to play.  Dontreal hit the layup at the buzzer to win it.
35-37 OOC record.

Sat results:
Western over Plymouth 68-60.
The final 5:00 minutes for Western was absolutely atrocious.  I know they don't have many wins (and none at home coming in), but wtf are you doing??  The killer for me was Phil Starks shooting a 3 pointer up 13 with 32 on the shot clock and 47 on the game clock.  Starting from the 3:20 mark (up 14) we fouled on 6 straight defensive possessions.  Go straight up guys, who cares if they score were up 14, why are you giving them opportunities to score points with the clock stopped?!?!?  Also turned the ball over way to much, especially at the end.  The last 5 minutes played by Western is the opening chapter of "how not to close out a double digit lead."  Shouldn't have been that close, should've won by closer to 15 then by 8.  Alex Burt had a game high 21 points and had 61 for the week, a nice showing for a sophmore.
RIC 58-55 winner over Keene
Tom DeCiantis had the winner with 4 seconds left
USM a 72-68 winner of Dartmouth.
Avoided the loss and keeps pace with Eastern and RIC.  Turns out USM/Eastern is shaping up to be a very compelling matchup next week.  If my uncle didn't live in the Boston area and my cousin didn't go to school up there I might've just stayed in state and go to that game.  No boxscore availble.
Eastern 73070.
Eastern was up 40-28 at halftime and had to rally to defeat the Beacons who actually outscored Eastern 30-15 to begin the 2nd and took a brief 58-55 lead at 6:51.  Mike Garrow made 1/2 free throws which gave the Beacons a chance to force OT, but Vinny DeLucia's 3 was off the mark at the buzzer.

Standings:
1) RIC 12-2 (4-1)
1) Eastern 10-5 (4-1)
1) USM 9-6 (4-1)
4) Keene 8-6 (3-2)
5) Boston 8-6 (2-3)
5) Western 4-10 (2-3)
7) Plymouth 3-11 (1-4)
8) Dartmouth 2-11 (0-5)

No OOC games this week, so games on Tuesday & Saturday ONLY this coming week, both of which are LEC contets:

Schedule:
Tuesday, January 15:
Eastern @ Western 7:30
Keene @ Plymouth 7:30
Boston @ USM 7:30
RIC @ Dartmouth 7:30.  Boston/USM looks to be the best of the day.

[7express]

Sorry I'm doing this from my iPhone at the BWW a couple drinks down, so excuse any typos you may encounter.  With that said, Tuesday schedule:

Keene 64 @ Plymouth 67.
Road game, rivalry game.  Plymouthbis better then their record indicates and at home think they pull it out.  Can never count on Keene.
RIC 78 @ Dartmouth 51.
I think they lost the last 2 years at Dartmouth.  Ill be shocked if they lose this one.
Boston 76 @ USM 79.
Offense a premium, defense optional here between these 2 high powered, high octane, offenses.  My vote for best game of the day.
Eastern 74 @ Western 78.
Remember like last month I said Western was going to beat 1 of Eastern, Keene, and RIC at home.  We already lost to Keene, and I think we get killed my RIC in both meetings so I have to hold face.  Think we lose though.  Just talked to Shawn Mobilio and he said we lost Joe Groski due to grades, but not sure whether he'd be available.  Also, I may not be there (depends what my girlfriend is doing) so may not get an update, unless someone else is there.

[7express]

RIC back in the top 25, #25 in the latest poll.  Once again, only LEC team ranked.

D3hoops.com men's Top 25, Week 7



Through games of Sunday, Jan. 13:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

St. Thomas (18)

14-0

618

2



2

Rochester (3)

14-0

585

4



3

Middlebury (4)

13-0

583

3



4

Whitworth

14-1

533

5



5

North Central (Ill.)

14-1

519

1



6

WPI

16-0

501

8



7

UW-Stevens Point

14-2

475

10



8

Wooster

12-2

390

15



9

Ohio Wesleyan

13-1

379

16



10

Williams

14-1

343

18



11

Catholic

13-2

334

6



12

Ramapo

13-2

324

7



13

Washington U.

11-3

283

12



14

St. Mary's (Md.)

14-2

245

9



15

UW-Whitewater

12-3

241

11



16

Amherst

12-2

229

21



17

Christopher Newport

12-2

224

13



18

Illinois Wesleyan

12-3

221

22



19

Albertus Magnus

12-1

183

19



20

Wheaton (Ill.)

12-3

180

20



21

Calvin

13-2

85

--



22

Guilford

13-2

71

--



23

Augustana

12-3

68

17



24

Stevens

11-1

67

--



25

Rhode Island College

12-2

62

--


Dropped out: No. 14 Franklin and Marshall, No. 23 Rose-Hulman, No. 24 Randolph, No. 25 Adrian.

Others receiving votes: Franklin and Marshall 59; Brandeis 53; Hampden-Sydney 46; Rose-Hulman 42; Randolph 29; Transylvania 28; MIT 27; NYU 25; Virginia Wesleyan 19; UW-La Crosse 13; Adrian 10; Wesley 9; St. Norbert 7; Carroll 5; Concordia (Texas) 3; UW-Stout 3; Scranton 2; Wittenberg 1; Capital 1.

[amh63]

7 Express....Want to let you know that Walzy is back and has a spread on the Amh. vs. Wes. game.....get your "bet" down.

[7express]

Joe Groski not on the Western roster anymore.  Seemingly every week there's someone new either coming or going.  I told someone last month, one of the reasons for Western's inconsistency this year is because every week their adding/subtracting from the team.  Hard to get in a groove and play your best when the personnel around you are changing week after week.

I think Western has only played two three game stretches with the same personal all 3 games:
The first 3 days of the season vs AMC, Harrisburg and F&M, then the 4 day stretch to end the first semester after they dropped Russ Payton (Trinity, Boston, Mitchell, USM, Worcester and Clark).  Actually that's 6, but you get the idea I'm trying to say....hopefully.

[7express]

7 Express....Want to let you know that Walzy is back and has a spread on the Amh. vs. Wes. game.....get your "bet" down.

Thanks for the info Amh63.  Just placed my bet.

[7express]

Tuesday results:

Eastern a 69-56 winner over Western.
Don't be fooled into thinking this was somewhat close.  It was in the first, but like most Western games recently, they can only play well for 1 half as the second half was abysmal for the Colonials.  Eastern had lead by as much as 20 in the 2nd (65-45 at 3:07), before coach Geitner emptied the bench and Western hit a couple meaningless 3's to make the score appear closer then it actually was.  After a Luis Briddter jumper made it 41-36 at 12:32, Eastern went on a 10-1 run the next 5 minutes to stretch the lead for 14 and they were never threatened again after that.  Once again, Western at the short end of a ridiculous free throw descrepency at home: Eastern made 21 free throws (shot 28) while Western only attempted 10 free throws.  We weren't fouling at the end because we were down by so much and only attempted 1 more 3 pointer then Eastern did, so I have no clue how Eastern was able to get 18 more free throws.
Keene 83-62.
Ryan Martin had 20 on 8-11 shooting and Rashad Wright, Anthony Mariano and Eric Fazio chipped in 18, 17, and 15 respectively to lead Keene.  Adam Goodwin and Alex Burt had 12 each to lead the way for Plymouth.
USM with a comeback win over Boston 64-58.
The teams were a combined 7-41 (17.1%) from 3.  Boston finished the game 9-10 from the free throw line, which, for 1 game at least, will boost their free throw percentage for the season over 60%.
RIC 70-64 over Dartmouth.
RIC had 5 in double figures lead by Tahrike Carter with 13.  Interesting numbers for RIC.  Of the 5 starters, only Carter played more than 25 minutes, and Carter and Ethan Gaye were only starters that logged over 20+ minutes.  Of the 5 players Bob Walsh got off from the bench 3 of the 5 logged 20+ minutes.  And talk about a free throw discrepency!  RIC took 43 free throws compared to only 20 for the Corsairs.

Standings:
1) Eastern 11-5 (5-1)
1) RIC 13-2 (5-1)
1) USM 10-6 (5-1)
4) Keene 9-6 (4-2)
5) Boston 8-7 (2-4)
5) Western 4-11 (2-4)
7) Plymouth 3-12 (1-5)
8) Dartmouth 2-12 (0-6)
I hate to say it, but I think the race for first for Western is officially over.  The majority of the second half of our games are the road (3 home games 5 road games and 2 of the  3 home contests are against RIC & USM).

Schedule:
Saturday, January 19:
Dartmouth @ Keene 3:00
Western @ Boston 3:00
Plymouth @ RIC 3:00
USM @ Eastern.  Best game of the day by a mile.

[LECFAN32]

really a shame, joes a great kid, didnt look to do more then he was capable of, and seemed to understand that he could be one of the best forwards in the league from dominating the glass and finishing around the paint which he started to do. defensively ehhh, but this is a guy who didnt play last year due to injury. hope hes not done for good, there are oh so many loopholes within the wcsu eligibility  rules (see starks)

rooting for eastern to repeay at this point, although ric is very tough and gritty

[7express]

Boring up in here with no Thursday games.  Saturday schedule.

Dartmouth 56 @ Keene 70.
Dartmouth is flat out bad this year.  Keene usually plays to their opponents level, but ever since they gave up 90 and lost to USM a few weeks ago they've been playing very well, the lone loss being by 3 at the buzzer to RIC.
RIC 68 @ Plymouth 65.
Very tough to win up there, though RIC has had great success against the Panthers in recent seasons.  I think this comes down to the last 2 or 3 minutes.
Western 67 @ Boston 72.
Beacons won by 3 in December in Danbury.  That game we had no Payton but had Tre'Van Perry and Joe Groski, so in my opinion actually have gotten worse since that first meeting.  We are unlikely to have Groski back for this meeting.  We play better on the road, but since we lost at home earlier and got worse since then, I'm not expecting much.  Hopefully they prove me wrong.
USM 67 @ Eastern 76.
USM has road games left @ Eastern (today), @ Western (January 26), @ RIC (February 9) @ Boston (February 5) and home vs. Keene (February 2), so if they end up winning the conference they will have definitely earned it this year with that second half schedule.  They have been my most suprising team to date, but had a nice schedule with a lot of games the first half up in Gorham (5), so its evening out now.  If USM can somehow win this game they'll definitely be for real, while an eastern win sets up a showdown between them & RIC next Saturday in Willamantic for likely the league winner.

[wcsu91]

@7 is Groski out the rest of the year or just a few games?  Thought we lost him due to grades but he was in street clothes on the bench in Tuesdays game against Easter. Just wondering. Agree with what you said in an earlier post that Western has too many players in and out of the lineup. Seems this year is like a revolving door and they cant get into any kind of groove with each other. 

[7express]

@wcsu91, read LECfans message a few replies above.  There's soooooo many loopholes in Western's eligibility rules that its possible hes only out a few games.  I printer out the roster this afternoon (since I'm going to see my friend who plays @ Skidmore play at Vassar this evening) but Groski wasn't listed on there, so I doubt he's available tonight, but ill check when I get home tonight.

[AllStar]

7express:

Eastern also has to play at Keene State on Tuesday.

[7express]

Yup.  Tuesday sched: Eastern/Keene, USM/Plymouth, Dartmouth Boston and Western/RIC.

I know RIC, USM and Boston are at home.  Not sure where that Eastern/Keene game is, I think Keene but not sure.