MBB: Little East

[ECSUalum]

I am assuming that all of tonight's games are still on as scheduled including the big game in

The ECSU-Keene rivalry has been a great over the past few years.  Any thoughts about tonight's game LEC followers?  Having ties to both programs and having great respect for both coaches I could not be any happier to see both programs alive in the conference, regional, and national races.  I see home court as being a factor in this rivalry so, for me, slight edge to the Owls tonight.

Best wishes to both teams until round 2 next month in Williamatic and,hopefully in the Conference tournament.

Warrior, the LEC championship game last March was unbelievable with  an injured Hugh Lindo and freshman Carlos Gonzales bringing ECSU back from a 13 point deficit over the last 5 min!!  Ty Nichols tried to tie with 5 sec left but was unsuccessful and the 2000 fans in Geissler Gym went bonkers!  I agree Keene may have slight advantage being home, but I wonder if everyone is back from vacation?   I think ECSU D and 3 point shooting will pull them through, especially if Tarchee Brown guards  Nichols.  I will predict a 80-74 victory for the Warriors.  However I always worry about a regular season sweep of a team that you face in the LEC tourney!!  Maybe it better to split but definitely get home court advantage!!!  As I said earlier, it will be a doozie tonight!

[ECSUalum]

I am assuming that all of tonight's games are still on as scheduled including the big game in

The ECSU-Keene rivalry has been a great over the past few years.  Any thoughts about tonight's game LEC followers?  Having ties to both programs and having great respect for both coaches I could not be any happier to see both programs alive in the conference, regional, and national races.  I see home court as being a factor in this rivalry so, for me, slight edge to the Owls tonight.

Best wishes to both teams until round 2 next month in Williamatic and,hopefully in the Conference tournament.

Warrior, the LEC championship game last March was unbelievable with  an injured Hugh Lindo and freshman Carlos Gonzales bringing ECSU back from a 13 point deficit over the last 5 min!!  Ty Nichols tried to tie with 5 sec left but was unsuccessful and the 2000 fans in Geitner Gym went bonkers!  I agree Keene may have slight advantage being home, but I wonder if everyone is back from vacation?   I think ECSU D and 3 point shooting will pull them through, especially if Tarchee Brown guards  Nichols.  I will predict a 80-74 victory for the Warriors.  However I always worry about a regular season sweep of a team that you face in the LEC tourney!!  Maybe it better to split but definitely get home court advantage!!!  As I said earlier, it will be a doozie tonight!

[ECSUalum]

Well I got the margin correct, Eastern prevails 70-64 in Spaulding Gym.  The gym was packed, so looks like the students have returned.  Star of the game Kendal Marquez who made some clutch free throws, (Eastern shot 47% from FT line in first half), down the stretch to ice the game with 2 minutes to go and led the Warriorts with 15.  Carlos Gonzales had a big 3 as well to put Eastern up for good, he scored 12.  Tarchee Brown had an off night scoring only 9, but had 12 rebounds!  6' 8" So. Jake McCarthy made his presence known tonight with 8 points and 9 boards and shut down Onozie in the 2nd half, Onozie who had 10 mostly in the first half.  T Nichols was "controlled" scoring 16 well below his average of 22, but had 12 boards.  D Wright led the scoring for Keene with 18.  Eastern was actually down by 19 points in the first half on crappy FG/TP and FT shooting while Keene had very good 3 point shooting. ECSU clawed back to reduce the margin by 7 at half time.  Nicholls got into foul trouble mid 2nd half and Eastern was able to keep the game close until the last 2 min when Marquez and Gonzalez took over.  Overall a very entertaining game to watch (except for the first half  )

[warriorcat]

That was an exciting game in Spaulding gym tonight.  Hats off to the WRriors for not hanging their heads when they fell behind by double digits. They worked their way back into the game by cutting down their turnovers and making some shots when Brown was clearly being harassed and thrown off his game by the young defenders Keene through at him.  Ty Nichols was playing with confidence and swagger in the first ten minutes. A couple foul calls went against him and he seemed to never regain his composure and control of the game. The eastern defense did a great job on the Keene big man James Anozie.  He has been a 63% shooter this season with an array of baby hooks and spin moves around the basket.  Not tonight though 4-10 and more than a couple of uncharacteristic turnovers in the paint.  Perhaps it was due to the great game that the 6'8" big man had tonight.

Eastern takes over the conference lead and losing at home makes the hill that much steeper when they travel to Connecticut next month. In the meantime, both teams need to put tonight behind them and take care of business beginning on Saturday. 

[ECSUalum]

Below find the LEC standings.  Except for Eastern Keene and maybe Western, the Conference is not very good as you can see from the records of the rest of the League.
Team                          Conference   Overall
Eastern Connecticut         6-0           14-2
Keene State                    5-1           11-5
Western Connecticut        4-1             7-7
Mass-Boston                   3-3             9-8
Rhode Island College       2-3            4-10
Mass-Dartmouth             2-4             9-7
Southern Maine               1-5            2-14
Plymouth State               0-6             6-9

[amh63]

ECSU...congrats to your win over Keene.  Helps me in my picks on another board. 

[AllStar]

Keene missed a chance to hold serve at home when it appears, given what the league looks like, they needed to pull out last night's game to have any chance.  Missed opportunity, particularly with how they started the game.  WCSU and RIC played tonight, so here is an update to this.

[ECSUalum]

ECSU...congrats to your win over Keene.  Helps me in my picks on another board.

Thank You Sir!!

[ECSUalum]

Keene missed a chance to hold serve at home when it appears, given what the league looks like, they needed to pull out last night's game to have any chance.  Missed opportunity, particularly with how they started the game.  WCSU and RIC played tonight, so here is an update to this.

One thing about Eastern this year and last is that they can fall behind by double digits, keep their cool and fight back to win!!  I like the confidence they are playing with this year!  Their bench is one of the best in NE IMHO!!

[AllStar]

[AllStar]

[ECSUalum]

Competitive, fast transition game last night at Geissler Gym between ECSU and WCSU!  Western with a really athletic team and Tyler Rowe who is a great player!  He is soo quick with the dribble/drive as well as a tremendous outside shooter/floor general!  However, they were not enough to defeat the Warrior as Eastern prevailed 88-80!  The game was close throughout, with Eastern edging into the lead as the 5 min mark hit.  Fr. Cory Muckle had a great game with some key 3's  and great D, as did 3 pt. sharpshooter Sr. Kendal Marquez who scored his 1000th point, (cumulative Western and Eastern), last night.  Rowe led all scorers with 21 pts and scored his 1000th point, (cumulative Conn College and WCSU). 

So. Carlos Gonzales continues to impress with his smooth ball handling, scoring, thievery, (he is in top 10 in NCAA D-III in steals), and court smarts.  In the end it was a big Sr. Tarchee Brown and Kendal Marquez 2nd half that in the end propelled the Warriors to victory over the Colonials in +/- the last 5 min.
 
ECSU will be at Plymouth State this Sat the 27 and then back at home vs a tough Trinity squad!

[ECSUalum]

Eastern defeats Plymouth State/the 3 brain frozen referees 85-73. These clowns literally gave the Panthers 10+ points on ridiculous, no, and missed calls.  These 3 (John Rafferty, James Companion, Daniel Moylan), blind mice/knuckleheads were determined to hand Plymouth the game!!!.  Eastern should have won by 30! 

[AllStar]

[7express]

Eastern defeats Plymouth State/the 3 brain frozen referees 85-73. These clowns literally gave the Panthers 10+ points on ridiculous, no, and missed calls.  These 3 (John Rafferty, James Companion, Daniel Moylan), blind mice/knuckleheads were determined to hand Plymouth the game!!!.  Eastern should have won by 30! 

Just be happy they won.  As I (and others) have said previously through the years on here, those refs in New Hampshire & Maine are known to be perpetual homers.  I remember in Daquan's senior year @ Western, those Maine officials called a cheap hand check foul literally 45 feet from the basket in a tie game inside of 4 seconds which sent USM to the line to shoot free throws for the game winning points.  And IIRC, Western that year ended up finishing 1 back of Eastern I believe for the conference title.  I never like blaming losses on referee's because it sounds like I'm complaining and that Western team should have never allowed that USM team to be that close in that situation but that was a really bad foul considering the time and situation.  That would have been a questionable call at 19:54 of the first half, a bad call at 4 seconds of the first half, and a completely atrocious completely inexcusable call unless you were being paid extra under the table to call that in a tie game with 4 seconds left in the second half.  I've seen players get literally hit on the head at the basket with 4 seconds left in a tie/1 possession game and not get a foul called because the refs want to let the players decide the game, but the Maine homer zebra's call a freaking hand check 45 feet away from the basket.  And yes, in case you are asking 6 years later it STILL makes me angry!