MBB: Little East

[AllStar]

Keene barely survives Becker.  Does not bode well for future games.

[7express]

Western @ Dartmouth
Plymouth @ Eastern
RIC @ Boston
USM @ Keene, the 4 conference games on the schedule. 

Western Dartmouth may not even get played, but if it does, that looks to be the best game of the day.  Western has the best record in the conference (9-2) playing 1 of 2 teams that are still undefeated in the conference.  I'd like Plymouth/Eastern a lot more if Plymouth was at home, since this is that dreaded sandwich game I love talking about.  Last game was the great win over Amherst, next game is against Dartmouth, I think Eastern gets caught napping.  As is, since Plymouth is on the road, and it seems like they haven't played in 20 years with the holidays I say Eastern wins a close one.  RIC/Boston has the potential to be an interesting one.  Can't see USM/Keene being interesting, mainly because both teams are under performing.  Keene needs a big win here.

[7express]

Western @ Dartmouth, as correctly predicted here 50 minutes ago, has been postponed:

http://www.corsairathletics.com/sports/general/2016-17/0106-bkb-postponement

Both the Colonial men & Corsair women play Monday, so Sunday doesn't seem like a viable makeup date.  They can't reschedule for a Saturday as all other Saturday's are full, so this looks like a Monday trip somewhere down the line.

[AllStar]

Saturday's (brief) results:

Eastern Connecticut got another double-double from Hugh Lindo and methodically pulled away from Plymouth in a 77-59 win.

Keene State received double-doubles from Ty Nichols and Matt Ozzella and raced out to a 28-7 lead in the first 7:40 en route to an 85-66 blowout of Southern Maine.

UMass-Boston got a double-double from Sam Freeman and had three others score in double-figures while snapping Rhode Island College's brief two-game winning streak.  The Beacons led 39-32 and pulled away in the second half to beat the Anchormen in Boston for the second straight season.

As 7express said, Western Connecticut and UMass-Dartmouth was postponed due to the snowstorm.
EDIT:  This game will be played Sunday at 4:00 despite Western's originally scheduled Monday home game against Stockton.  The Colonials will wind up playing three games in four days.  Incidentally, Stockton will also play a back-to-back, as they host Montclair State on Sunday.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

[AllStar]

Keene shoots 14-29 from the free throw line and less than 40% in the game while also turning the ball over 20 times.  A well-deserved pathetic loss.  Playing that way they will not beat anybody from any league.  In fact, against a better team, they probably would have lost by 30.

[AllStar]

Wednesday's results:

Southern Maine 82, UMass Boston 78 - Southern Maine gets their first conference win (6-10, 1-5 LEC) in a back-and-forth affair.  Zach Leal scored 19 for the Huskies, while Christian McCue had 18.  James Starks III had a 17 point, 12 rebound double-double.  The Beacons (10-6, 3-3 LEC) got 24 points and 20 rebounds from Dan Powers, but not much else.  Iser Barnes scored 16 points, but took 20 shots from the field.

Eastern Connecticut 95, Western Connecticut 77 - The Warriors (12-5, 6-0 LEC) dominated the second half after it was tied 44-44 at halftime.  Tarchee Brown scored 21 points and Hugh Lindo had 18 points and 18 rebounds.  ECSU capitalized on Western Connecticut's (10-5, 2-4 LEC) 15 turnovers, scoring 27 points (Western only had 10 points off Eastern's 13 turnovers), which was a big difference in the game.  Bobby Bynum scored 24 points for the Colonials and Rashard Rodriguez had 16, but Western only shot 38.9% in the game.  Eastern Connecticut shot 51%.

UMass-Dartmouth 84, Rhode Island College 66 - The Corsairs (11-5, 5-1 LEC) drubbed the lousy Anchormen, as they led 47-27 at halftime and by 32 with 12:56 left.  Abi Akanni scored 20 and Chris Mendes 17 for UMass-Dartmouth.  Benjamin Vezele scored 18 for the Anchormen (8-8, 2-4 LEC) and Domonique Bull had 14 in the blowout.

Keene State 82, Plymouth State 70 - Keene State (11-5, 4-2 LEC) did enough to rebound after Saturday's pathetic loss to Rhode Island College, but Plymouth (7-8, 1-5 LEC) was without their leading scorer Jack Preston.  The Owls led 46-34 at halftime and by 20 with six minutes left.  Matt Ozzella had 16 points and 15 rebounds for Keene State.  Dizel Wright also had 16, while the other three starters also reached double-figures in points.  The Owls made 31-of-41 free throws, which is an improvement from Saturday's dreadful 14-for-29 effort.  Mike Osgood had 16 points for the Panthers and Brian Boulay had 12.  Keene State has home games against UMass-Dartmouth and Eastern Connecticut next, and it's hard to imagine the recent performances will be even close to good enough to win those games.

Saturday's games are the first repeat opponents of the year.
Southern Maine at Eastern Connecticut (first meeting:  ECSU 73-51)
UMass-Dartmouth at Keene State (first meeting:  UMD 83-71)
Western Connecticut at UMass-Boston (first meeting:  UMB 93-90)
Rhode Island College at Plymouth State (first meeting:  PSU 71-70)

[AllStar]

Nice win for Keene State over UMass-Dartmouth, though it would have been better had they not blown a 10-point lead in the 2nd half.  They need to be better defensively, or they will lose to Eastern Connecticut by 20 or 30 points on Wednesday.  In fact, they need to be better overall than they have recently or they have no chance of winning.

[ECSUalum]

Eastern makes first appearance on the d3poll rankings with 15 votes!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Eastern makes first appearance on the d3poll rankings with 15 votes!

Well to be honest, they didn't appear on the rankings... they appear in the category of receiving votes.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

They appeared in my ranking.  Five losses stink, but they were all to pretty good teams and all close - more importantly all prior to December 19th.  Since then, they've been on a winning streak, with some good victories, including that 13 point win over Amherst - conference games by 18-20.  That's a good team.

[ECSUalum]

Eastern makes first appearance on the d3poll rankings with 15 votes!

Well to be honest, they didn't appear on the rankings... they appear in the category of receiving votes.

Come on Dave, the receiving votes teams are just an extension of the top 25, ie ECSU is ranked 30th, aren't you nit picking a bit? Have you ever heard of a top 30 national ranking?  The number of teams you list is arbitrary!  The way I interpret this poll is that if you get votes your ranked!!  30 out of 430 some odd D-III teams is good enough for me

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Eastern makes first appearance on the d3poll rankings with 15 votes!

Well to be honest, they didn't appear on the rankings... they appear in the category of receiving votes.

Come on Dave, the receiving votes teams are just an extension of the top 25, ie ECSU is ranked 30th, aren't you nit picking a bit? Have you ever heard of a top 30 national ranking?  The number of teams you list is arbitrary!  The way I interpret this poll is that if you get votes your ranked!!  30 out of 430 some odd D-III teams is good enough for me

While I know your tongue is firmly in your cheek... it is the Top 25 ... not the Top 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. LOL We can only vote for 25 teams

[ECSUalum]

Eastern makes first appearance on the d3poll rankings with 15 votes!

Well to be honest, they didn't appear on the rankings... they appear in the category of receiving votes.

Come on Dave, the receiving votes teams are just an extension of the top 25, ie ECSU is ranked 30th, aren't you nit picking a bit? Have you ever heard of a top 30 national ranking?  The number of teams you list is arbitrary!  The way I interpret this poll is that if you get votes your ranked!!  30 out of 430 some odd D-III teams is good enough for me

While I know your tongue is firmly in your cheek... it is the Top 25 ... not the Top 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. LOL We can only vote for 25 teams

I think if ECSU beats Keene St tonight away and RIC @ home, they should break into the top 25!!  That would make a 14 out of 15 and 11 in a row winning streak!!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Eastern makes first appearance on the d3poll rankings with 15 votes!

Well to be honest, they didn't appear on the rankings... they appear in the category of receiving votes.

Come on Dave, the receiving votes teams are just an extension of the top 25, ie ECSU is ranked 30th, aren't you nit picking a bit? Have you ever heard of a top 30 national ranking?  The number of teams you list is arbitrary!  The way I interpret this poll is that if you get votes your ranked!!  30 out of 430 some odd D-III teams is good enough for me

While I know your tongue is firmly in your cheek... it is the Top 25 ... not the Top 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. LOL We can only vote for 25 teams

I think if ECSU beats Keene St tonight away and RIC @ home, they should break into the top 25!!  That would make a 14 out of 15 and 11 in a row winning streak!!

I would beat heavily against that.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Eastern makes first appearance on the d3poll rankings with 15 votes!

Well to be honest, they didn't appear on the rankings... they appear in the category of receiving votes.

Come on Dave, the receiving votes teams are just an extension of the top 25, ie ECSU is ranked 30th, aren't you nit picking a bit? Have you ever heard of a top 30 national ranking?  The number of teams you list is arbitrary!  The way I interpret this poll is that if you get votes your ranked!!  30 out of 430 some odd D-III teams is good enough for me

While I know your tongue is firmly in your cheek... it is the Top 25 ... not the Top 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. LOL We can only vote for 25 teams

I think if ECSU beats Keene St tonight away and RIC @ home, they should break into the top 25!!  That would make a 14 out of 15 and 11 in a row winning streak!!

Not likely.