MBB: Little East

[7express]

Thursday results:

Plymouth over Framingham 57-50.
Curtis Arsenault had 16 and Jack Preston added 14 to lead the Panthers, while Nathan Clarke added 10 rebounds.  Bertholyn Alexandre had 15 to lead the Rams, while Jacek Louisville had 13.  Rams (1-3) have the weekend off, and don't play again until Tuesday night when they play Trinity, while the Panthers (3-0) play their LEC opener at Dartmouth on Saturday.

Keene edges Lasell 93-91.
All 5 Lasers starters scored in double figures lead by Armin Ormanovic who had 19.  Dizel Wright lead the Owls with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Lucas Hammel added 17.  Lasers (0-2) play Saturday @ Nichols, while the Owls (3-0) head up to Maine to play UNE on Saturday.

Fitchburg over RIC 77-73.
Terrance Tribble had 17 points & 9 rebounds for the Anchormen, while Chris Green added 16 points.  Kwame Lee paced the Falcons with 21, who were down 8 with 7 minutes to play.  Bad loss for RIC.  Falcons even their record at 2-2 and will be playing @ Becker Saturday, while the Anchormen (1-1) head to Brandeis on Saturday afternoon.  Pretty good double header at Brandeis as the women's team is hosting a final 4 team from last year in Tufts in the first game.

11-7 LEC; 8-8 me (man I suck!)

Friday schedule:
Western (+4.5) vs. Bowdoin (@ Roger Williams) 7:30
USM (+8) vs. Colby-Sawyer (@ Rivier)  8:00

[7express]

Western leads Bowdoin 43-23 at half.  Colonials red hit from 3, Polar Bears ice cold from 3.  Gotta think if Bowdoin keeps shooting, they'd eventually fall.  Have to keep pressure on them in the second half.

[7express]

Western over Bowdoin 94-77.
Lucas Hausman had a game high 45 points to lead the Polar Bears, while the Colonials put 5 in double figures, lead by Luis Bridtter who had 17 points and 11 rebounds.  Ryan Belote added 13 points on three 3 pointers off the bench.  Colonials (1-0) play Roger Williams, a 68-66 win over Rivier while the P'Bears (0-1) play Rivier.

USM over Colby-Sawyer 98-89.
Peter Donato lead the Chargers with 29 points, while the Huskies placed 5 in double figures as well lead by Jose Nove's 21 and Aaron Toman added 11 off the bench in a perfect 5-5 shotting from the floor.  Huskies (2-1) get PIne Manor a 77-70 winner over Rivier while the Chargers (3-1) get Rivier.

13-7 LEC; 9-9 me (picked both on the LEC pick em board).

Sat schedule:
Southern Maine (-6) vs. Pine Minor (@ Rivier) 2 PM
Western Connecticut (-3.5) @ Roger Williams 3 PM
Plymouth (+8.5) @ Dartmouth 3 PM
Keene (-10) @ UNE 3 PM
RIC (+2) @ Brandeis 3 PM
Johnson & Wales (+3.5) vs. Eastern (@ Ramapo) 7:30 PM

[7express]

Haven't seen scores yet (@ the RIC/Brandeis game), and I'm taking Western & Pine Manor, other picks in the LEC pick em thread.

[7express]

USM clubs Pine Manor 101-75.
Jose Nove had 26 & Zach leal 26 to lead the way for the Huskies, while Johnathan Higganbothum lead the Gators with 14 points off the bench.  Gators (3-1) are off until Friday when they play @ Eastern Nazarene, Huskies (3-1) host Bates on Tuesday.

Western over Roger Williams 66-58.
Nick Marini lead the Hawks with 17 while Elias Rodriguez paced the Colonials with 12.  Colonials only made 19 field goals, but they forced 17 Hawks' turnovers while only turning it over themselves 7 times.  Hawks (1-2) host Wheaton Tuesday evening, while the Colonials (2-1) host WNE on Tuesday.

Plymouth beats Dartmouth 81-75.
Corsairs got 24 from Rezendez, but no one else scored more then 13.  Meanwhile Uche Nwokeji scored 25 and pulled down 16 rebounds, and also got key baskets from Curtis Arsenault (19 points) and Jack Preston (16 points).  As I saw with the DaQuan Brooks lead Western teams it's a lot easier to lose when 1 guy puts up 30 points and the next closest guy has 12 then a team that has 3 or 4 players that score 15+, even if no one gets more than 25.  Panthers (4-0, 1-0) host Castleton Tuesday, while the Corsairs (2-2, 0-1) host Husson Tuesday evening.

Keene over UNE 88-69.
Each team had their game high scorer at 17 points.  For the Nor'easters that player was Devin Thompson, for the Owls it was Nate Stichell and Lucas Hammel added 14.  Nor'Easters (3-2) head to Bowdoin on Tuesday evening, while the Owls (4-0) head to Springfield.

Brandeis crushed RIC 85-58.
Robinson Vilmont lead the Judges with 22, while Justin Campbell came off the bench to score a team high 21 for the Anchormen.  In the first half there were 29 fouls called combined and I believe 6 RIC players finished the half with 2 or more fouls but nobody fouled out of the game.  Judges (3-0) are back in action against local rival Lasell on Tuesday, while the Anchormen head to Bridgewater on Tuesday.

J&W over Eastern 72-59.
No boxscore for this game.  Apparently Purchase beat Ramapo in the first game since the Eastern schedule has them playing Ramapo on Sunday, but there's no result on the d3hoops scoreboard    If that's the case Eastern gets Ramapo in the consolation game, and J&W gets purchase in the championship.

16-9 LEC; 12-12 me.

1 game Tuesday:
Eastern (-3) @ Ramapo 1 PM.

[warriorcat]

Eastern CT bounched back in New Jersey beating the host team, Ramapo, 96-71 in the Consolation game.  An eye popping shooting game from Tarchee Brown  15 for 15 from the field including 10 for 10 on threes.  His only miss was a free throw (4-5) on his way to a 44 point afternoon. 

Looking at their first four games, while it is probably true that ECSU has the best starting group in the LEC (at least 4 of the 5 starters) they drop off significantly when they go to the bench except at point guard.  They do not have a low post scorer or a legitimate stretch 4.  Not sure how this impacts their offense this year but those pieces have been keys to their success in the past six seasons. 

[7express]

Sunday result:

Eastern over Ramapo 96-78.
Frank Nock had 17 points to lead the Roadrunners, and well....everyone knows what Tarchee Brown did already, and if you don't know it's front page news on d3hoops.com.  Warriors also placed 3 others in double figures with Kevin Leumene adding 14 and Hugh Lindo with  10 points and 11 rebounds.  Warriors (2-2) are off until weekend when they play Hartwick @ Hamilton College.  Roadrunners (2-2) open up NJAC play @ William Paterson and their interim head coach.

17-9 LEC; 12-12 me.

Next games up Tuesday, as 7 of the 8 teams play their final game before the Thanksgiving holiday.  Eastern the only team who's schedule is dark for Tuesday.

Keene (+4) @ Springfield 6:30 PM
Western New England (+13) @ Western 7 PM
Husson (+6.5) @ Dartmouth 7 PM
Fitchburg (+3) @ Boston 7:30 PM
RIC (-2) @ Bridgewater 7:30 PM
USM (+10.5) @ Bates 7:30 PM
Castleton (+4.5) @ Plymouth 7:30 PM

[7express]

I'm up at the Keene/Springfield game, with Keene up 17 and they lead by as much as 22, and really have absolutely no damn clue how they gave up 104 to Green Mountain and 91 to Lasell.  This is the same Springfield team that the other day beat the #12 team in the country Trinity (and I had no idea they were ranked either much less number 12!) and the Owls are beating them around harder then a piñata gets beat around at a kids party.  Owls still committ too many fouls as the fouls in the first half were 16-9, but I think they definitely got the short end of some whistles.  Of Springfield's 29 points I think at least 12 or 13 have come via free throws, so if they could actually play defense without fouling, this wouldn't even be a contest into the second half.  Under Colbert, Owls would blow this 17 point lead within 5 minutes of the break, let's see if Cain, Hundley, and Carter can keep them focused like the old regime couldn't do.

[warriorcat]

Sorry that I missed you at the KSU/Springfield game 7.  It was hard to believe that the Springfield team I saw tonight could beat the #12 team.  Keene was tough on both ends for most of the first half and the first 5 minutes of the second.  Really good balance and unselfish play by the Owls.  The bench players really struggled to match any of the intensity of the first 8 or 9 players.  Keene does not return to play until Dec 5 when they host UMass-Dartmouth followed by a trip to Boston to play UMass-Boston on Dec 12.  I think they will find league play will demand that they come ready to play and stay focused. 

[warriorcat]

Good night for LEC teams
6-1 including wins over 2015 Tournament teams Bates, Husson, and Springfield.  The only loss was perhaps the biggest shocker Bridgewater St over RIC.

[7express]

Good night for LEC teams
6-1 including wins over 2015 Tournament teams Bates, Husson, and Springfield.  The only loss was perhaps the biggest shocker Bridgewater St over RIC.

The same RIC team that I saw live against Brandeis on Saturday I shouldn't be too surprised, but Bridgewater has been pretty bad in their own right.  They just came off a game where they lost by like 40 to Cortland state, while RIC lost by like 30 at Brandeis, so I guess someone had to win 

IRT Keene, this is the first time in my 16, 17, 18 years of watching basketball I ever recall a coach taking out their starters up 20 with 4 minutes left and then 3 minutes later having to bring them back in with 50 seconds to play because the leads now down to 8.  The first 8 to 9 guys in the Keene rotation are great, but after that, woof!  It gets real bad!  And what are they doing at the end there??  Just move out of the damn way!  Not sure what the final numbers looked like either as I only track the score, timeouts & turnovers at the game, and check the other stuff when I get home, but it looks like Keene probably only hit 55-65% from the free throw line.

As for the Owls, this very well could be the team to beat in the conference this year.  I've seen 4 of the 8 live so far (Eastern, Western, RIC & now Keene) and probably Western & Keene were the 2 best from start to finish overall, and of those 2 Keene looks to have the better talent.  I was telling someone tonight 2 things I noticed about the Owls:
1) Nate Stichell is going to be this years DaQuan Brooks (remember him??)
2) This Keene team would've looked like an exact carbon copy of the sophomore, junior, senior years of DaQuan Brooks............had coach Campbell recruited a big guy, and the team had a consistent second scoring option that they could count on nightly.  They both run, get careless due to the run outs, and sub average defensively, but would throw in an "in your face" defense once in a while like Keene did tonight.  Dizel Wright, Matt Ozzella & even Lucas Hammel & Nate Howard can give the Owls the 10-18 point nights every night to supplement Stichell which Brooks never had.  If they can shore up the defensive side of the ball, and stay out of the foul trouble and stop giving the opposition 30 points from the free throw line this really would be the team to beat, because they can outrun everyone, and probably have the deepest 1-8 from what I've seen (the starting 5 + Jeff Lunn, Ty Nichols, Andrew Haude off the bench).  After there is where it gets dicey (with Jaquel Edwards the best of the rest) and a team like Eastern probably has the best "overall" team even if the regular rotation guys aren't as good it's because the bench guys are better then Keene's is.  At any rate it'll be a fun conference to watch this year.  We've been stuck in the doldrums since 2012 when that year of Brooks, Nick Nedwick, Jamie Kohn, Mike Akrinola, Derek D'Amours, Mason Choice all graduated, so I think were due to have a competitive year for once with most/all the teams are on equal footing. 

[warriorcat]

Thanks for the info on RIC.  I guess I just can't get my head around the fact that they are not the same RIC as they were with Coach Walsh.

I agree with a lot of what you said about Keene.  I am not ready to put Stichell in the same category as D. Brooks.  In this first segment of the season, he has shown himself to be the glue guy for the Owls.  The rest of the bunch are capable of double figures every night.   I have watched/played/coaches basketball for 50+ years, and I have seen a few coaches pull reserves out at the end of the game.  This is usually a statement to the bench that you better be ready to play no matter what the score is and there is no guarantee of playing time.  I think Coach Cain is trying to create a different culture at Keene and that move last night was a statement.  I, too, feel that Keene fouls too much but they do play to their strength which is quickness and overplaying on the perimeter.  Interesting that Keene actually shot more free throws than Springfield (37 to 32) with only three more fouls (28 to 25).  I agree with you that I thought their FT % was around 60% but I was surprised that it ended up at 70%. 

[7express]

Really??  They finished 70%??  Seemed a lot worse then that.

[7express]

Tuesday results:

Keene survives Springfield 87-78.
4 of 5 Owls starters scored in double figures lead by Dizel Wright who had team highs of both 17 points and 10 rebounds.  Josh Downes had a game high 25 points, and Larry Piretra had a game high 11 points for the Pride.  Pride (2-3) are off until December 8 when they play @ New Paltz, while the Owls (5-0) are off until December 5 when they play the LEC opener vs. Dartmouth.

Western over Western New England 76-63.
Mikey Pettway had 15 points to lead the Golden Bears and Zach Askew (I believe Ray's brother) added 12 points and 10 rebounds.   Phil Starks and Luis Bridtter lead the Colonials with 24 & 20 points respectively.  Golden Bears (1-3) play next Wednesday when they open up CCC play @ Gordon, while the Colonials (3-1) are off until December 3 when they host Westfield.

Dartmouth edges Husson 91-88.
Raheem Anderson lead the Eagles with 30 points and Trevon Butler added 23, while Jordan Rezendes finished 3 rebounds shy of a triple double as he finished with a stat line of 33 points, 10 assists, and 7 rebounds.  Corsairs were down 10 with 8:14 left to play, and got a 3 pointer from Atakan Akcam with 3 seconds to play for the winner.  Eagles (1-1) host Maine-Farmington Tuesday night, while the Corsairs (3-2) play a neutral court game @ Assumption College vs. Worcester State on Tuesday night as well.

Boston over Fitchburg 88-83.
4 of 5 Falcons scored in double figures lead by Jaleel Bell with 16.  Michael Campbell had a game high 24 points and added 12 rebounds, while Dan Powers came off the bench to record 19 points and a game high 14 rebounds.  Falcons (3-3) host MIT Saturday, while the Beacons (2-1) open up the 31st annual Beacons Harbor Invitational tournament on Friday when they square off against USCAA opponent Vermont Tech.  #12 ranked Trinity will play USCAA foe Maine-Fort Kent in the second game Friday.

Bridgewater over RIC 67-61.
Fawaz Mass lead the Bears with 19 points and Joseph Carty had 17 points and a team high 10 rebounds, while Terrance Tribble and Chris Green each had 15 points for the Anchormen and Tribble added a game high 11 rebounds.  Bears (2-4) are off until December 3 when they play @ Dartmouth, while the Anchormen (1-3) host Tufts on Saturday afternoon.

USM outscores Bates 106-92.
Mike Boornazian lead the Bobcats with a game high 26 points, Shawn Strickland added 20 points and Maecus Delpeche added a game high 11 rebounds.  6 Huskies scored in double figures lead by Atencio Martin and Jose Nuve who each finished with 21 and Aaron Toman added 13 points off the bench.    Both teams return to the court Sunday against state opponents: Bates (2-1) plays UNE, while the Huskies (4-1) have the big US 202 rivalry game against St. Joes of Maine.  There will be added focus on that game as I've put that in the national pick 'em league schedule for this week, and once again will be the only d3 game in town when it tips off at 7:30 Sunday night.

Plymouth over Castleton 88-71,
Chad Copeland had 16 and Pavin Parris had 15 to lead the Spartans, while 6 Panthers scored in double figures: Brian Boulay and Curtis Arsenault finished tied for the game high with 18 points, while Uche Nwokeji, Jack Preston, Ernie Johnson, and Niuck MacGregor each finished with 11.  Spartans (1-2) host Southern Vermont on Sunday, while the Panthers (5-0) head to Lesley for a game Monday evening.

23-10 LEC; 15-16 me 

1 game coming up on Friday:
Vermont Tech (+21) @ Boston 4 PM.

Have a good and safe Thanksgiving everyone!

[7express]

Friday result:

Boston over Vermont Tech 74-70.
BJ Conaway scored 25 to lead the USCAA school with a game high 25 points, while Maurice Magras scored 19 to lead the Beacons, Michael Campbell had 10 points & 12 rebounds, and Sam Freeman had 12 points off the Beacons bench which outscored Tech's bench 23-3.  In the second game Trinity (CT) demolished Maine-Fort Kent (even more remote than Presque Isle is!) 90-51 so Vermont Tech (2-3 it looks like) will play it's fellow USCAA school  Fort Kent while the Beacons (3-1) host the #12 team in the country.

24-10 LEC, 15-16 me (forgot this game was taking place today)

Saturday schedule:
Tufts (+1) @ RI College 1 PM
Trinity (-10) @ Boston 3 PM
Hartwick (+5.5) vs. Eastern (@ Hamilton) 5 PM