MBB: Little East

[ECSUalum]

Thanks amh63,
If the LJs stay healthy and play the way they are playing, you could have a repeat of a National Championship!!
I watched the second half of the game, (much bigger crowd tonight), and even though Toomey had a bit of an off night shooting, he does soo many other things that it didn't matter.  What if Aaron made a few more 3s? , the LJ would have won by 20+!!  Just too mush fire power and good smart defense.

48,32,70 % FG, 3PT, FT are still very good numbers

[amh63]

ECSU...thanks for the interest and warm comments.  LeFrak was full even with the additional bench seats on the curtain side.  Still it was quieter than usual...purple and white curtain down...unusual.   For tournament, the end side bench seating is increased.  There were not the usual large student crowd that has two deep floor seating/standing students challenging the Williams crowd.  Seems there was a hockey game going on and Williams/Amherst swinming contests next door.  Needless to say, I had a hard time finding close by parking on a rainy day.  My host mentioned that my posting of parking spaces on the board was the cause...in truth it was the many contests going on.  Large number of town police around to give directions and even standing around inside....not crowd control, I believe, but to see good games and enforce fire codes.

[7express]

Tuesday schedule:

Eastern 68 @ Dartmouth 72.
Best game on the slate.  Eastern is leading the pack at 3-0 with wins over Boston, RIC and Plymouth.  This is Dartmouth's first home LEC game (the only team that hasn't had a home conference game yet) and after starting with a loss @ Plymouth, they have rebounded to get wins @ Western and @ USM to be bunched in a tie for second at 2-1 with Western & RIC.  Dartmouth with the win at home.
USM 64 @ RIC 79.
USM is 1-2 starting with a win over Keene state and then losing to Western & Dartmouth.  RIC is 2-1 opening with a loss to Eastern before rebounding with wins over Boston & most recently Keene.  USM has lost 6 of their last 7 games.
Western 83 @ Keene 69.
Western is 2-1 winning on the road @ USM and @ Plymouth, but losing at home to Dartmouth.  Keene is at 1-2 with a win @ Boston and losses to RIC & USM.
Plymouth 74 @ Boston 71.
Boston is the lone winless losing to RIC, Keene & Eastern.  Plymouth started with a win over Dartmouth, but have dropped 2 straight at home to Eastern & Western.  This is Plymouth's first road conference game as they were the last school to play a road game.

[7express]

Here's what Massey predicts for the games on Tuesday.  I'll trade to add these when I can.

Eastern 78-71 over Dartmouth.  Eastern has a 76% winning percentage.
RIC over USM 73-62.  RIC at a 85% winning percentage.
Western 84-79 over Keene.  Colonials with a 67% winning percentage.
Plymouth over Boston 67-65 with a 55% winning percentage.

So, it looks like we agree on 3/4 with Eastern/Dartmouth the only difference in opinions.

[7express]

Eastern leads Dartmouth by 17 39-22 at halftime.  Hugh Lindo (Eastern) and Tucker Bouchard are your high scorers with 8 apiece.  I'm impressed with Eastern, Dartmouth definitely ain't a bad team by any means and Eastern is completely blowing them out.  If not for a Bouchard 3 at the buzzer, Eastern would be up 20.
USM leads RIC 33-28 at halftime.  Conor Sullivan has 9 for USM; Austin Cilley, Eric Alleyne, and Victor Smith all have 8 for RIC.  Weird end to the half as Cole Libby rand into a planted Terrance Tribble launching a 3 to end the half, but Libby got the foul call and hit 2/3 free throws.
Boston leads Plymouth 30-29.  Petey Skevas has 12 for Plymouth; Gregory Young has a game high 17 for the Beacons.
Keene leads Western 33-29.  Ronnie Underwood (Western-11 points) and Tom Doyle (Keene 8 points) are your current game high scorers.

[warriorcat]

Eastern hung on for a 78-69 win over UMass Dartmouth.  Five Eastern players in double figures were too much for Tucker Bouchard's 30 point performance.  A 21-5 run late in the first half gave the Warriors their league leading fourth victory without a loss, 10-4 overall.  Eastern looked a bit complacent in the second half.  Very much unlike a Geitner coached team. 

[ECSUalum]

Eastern hung on for a 78-69 win over UMass Dartmouth.  Five Eastern players in double figures were too much for Tucker Bouchard's 30 point performance.  A 21-5 run late in the first half gave the Warriors their league leading fourth victory without a loss, 10-4 overall.  Eastern looked a bit complacent in the second half.  Very much unlike a Geitner coached team.

warrior
Very much agree with your last comment!!  Would have been up by 20 at half if it wasn't for a Bouchard last second 3.  Where is the killer instinct?!!! They better find it before LEConference play ends
Good ECSU D in first half, crappy the 2nd!!

Freshman Huge Lindo, Jr. Leroy Haye and So. Tre Preston were outstanding, the former 2 off the bench.

[warriorcat]

ECSU  I agree that although Sazillo, Garrow, and Preston led the Warriors in scoring, it was the play of Leroy Haye and Hugh Lindo that impressed me the most tonight. 

[ECSUalum]

ECSU  I agree that although Sazillo, Garrow, and Preston led the Warriors in scoring, it was the play of Leroy Haye and Hugh Lindo that impressed me the most tonight.

UMD Freshman Tucker Bouchard is going to be some player by the time he is a senior!! WOW

[warriorcat]

I would describe it as a "Sazillo-like" performance.

[7express]

Finals:
Plymouth over Boston 63-54.  Gregory Young lead the Beacons with 23 points, but only 6 in the second, while Carl Joseph had a relatively quiet game with 11 points.  Petey Skevas lead Plymouth with 19 who won by 9 despite turning the ball over 26!!!!!!! times.  Nice drive back to Plymouth for the team as the women's team picked up their first LEC win since February of 2012.
Eastern beats Dartmouth 78-69.  After leading by 17 at halftime, Dartmouth got it to within 7 or 8 a couple times I think, but couldn't quite make a full comeback.  I said this after Eastern finished up that murders row January schedule with Amherst, no disrespect to RIC, Western, Dartmouth, the rest of the LEC, but Eastern wasn't going to face any teams as good of the 3 they faced in a 4 game stretch: North Central, Carthage & Amherst, until the second or 3rd weekend of March if they get that far.  They definitely look like the team to beat this year, and really outside of the game @ RIC in a few weeks, they should be favored in every conference game they play the rest of the season, and if they win that game??  An undefeated season is definitely possible.  I think a couple teams might trip them up this year, but they are definitely capable of finishing 14-0 in league play.   Eastern placed 5 in double figures lead by Brian Salzillo's 14; Tucker Bouchard finished with 30 for Dartmouth (22 in the second), but Wale Abraham (12 points) was the only other in double figures.
RIC comes from behind to defeat USM 80-68.  RIC outscored them 52-35 in the second after trailing 33-28 at halftime.   Conor Sullivan finished with 20 points and Cole Libby 15 for USM while Victor Smith lead RIC with 19 and Austin Cilley had 18.
Western loses to Keene 70-75.  1 step forward, 1 step backwards.  I didn't watch the whole game as I was going back and forth between the 4, but the parts I did watch they didn't look very good.   Western finished with 80 field goal attempts, but only connected on 22 of those shots.  Spud Gates with 23 points, Tom Doyle finished with a game high 24 for Keene.

2-2 on the day.  41-32 LEC; 59-28 me

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

Schedule:
Thursday, January 16:
Fitchburg @ Keene 7 PM
Dartmouth @ Curry 7 PM
Boston @ Bridgewater 7:30 PM
Conn College @ Western 7:30 PM

Saturday, January 18:
Western @ Boston 3 PM
RIC @ Plymouth 3 PM
USM @ Eastern 3 PM
Keene @ Dartmouth 3 PM

[pjunito]

Hey 7, I think you meant to type RIC instead of 9-5 in the standings under the second place spot.

How young is Western? I heard that the coach was making his rounds around the Naugatuck Valley last spring. Wondering how young is the core..

[7express]

Hey 7, I think you meant to type RIC instead of 9-5 in the standings under the second place spot.

How young is Western? I heard that the coach was making his rounds around the Naugatuck Valley last spring. Wondering how young is the core..

Thanks for that note Pjunito, fixed that. 

Not a young team, we just brought in a whole lot of new players.  Have a bunch of transfers we brought in from CC's in the area, got a bunch from a CC up in Worcester.  Of the 13 players now on the roster, I think only 4 or 5 were with the team last season, and only 2 are freshmen, the other 7 or 8 new guys are all transfers.
Actually scratch that: 5 returners that played last year; 2 freshmen, 2 that have played previously, but not last season (Spud Gates & Ronnie Underwood).  Gates was the rookie of the year in 2010-11 but has trouble since then.  He played in only 8 games the following season (all in January), so outside of the 8 games we played that season in January he didn't play at all in 201-12, and last year (12-13) he sat out all season.  Underwood played in 8 games in 2010-11 (all the first half of the season) and sat out the next 2 years.  And then we have 2 freshmen (Bobby Bynum & Kendall Marquez).  The other 4 are the transfer guys.

[7express]

Thursday schedule:

Fitchburg 65 @ Keene 76.
Fitchburg snapped an 11 game losing streak to begin the season with a 77-75 win @ MCLA Tuesday evening.  Keene had a nice showing Tuesday vs. Western, can they keep it up against a 1-11 team??  I think they do.
Dartmouth 75 @ Curry 67.
Curry is 2-9 overall and is 0-5 at home this year.
Boston 65 @ Bridgewater 78.
Bridgewater is 8-7 overall, and is a half game up on Salem State in the MASCAC with a 3-0 conference record. 
Conn College 62 @ Western 77.
Conn College doesn't look so terrible this year.  They are a surprising 7-5 and their 1 NESCAC win @ Colby this past weekend has matched their NESCAC total wins.....from the last 2 years combined.  And usually losses to Vassar & Bard (both at home no less) would automatically make me pick the opposing team by a large margin, but Bard is 5-5 and Vassar is 9-2 with a win over Western to boot.  However, after getting embarrassed at Conn College last year, Western's not losing at home.

[pjunito]

Thanks for the update 7.. Since Albertus didn't play West Conn this year, I didn't get to see them play. I was curious about the new faces on the team. Usually transfers can handle conference games better than a bunch of freshmen. However, it still takes a few weeks sometimes months to gell and know what kind of team you have. Hope West Conn can play well within the conference this year. And build on that.