MBB: Little East

[7express]

Keene was a 27 point winner over Western in the first game.  Eastern up by 3 over Dartmouth about halfway through first half at last check.  I know really going out on a limb here but I'm guessing Keene has a slightly more difficult time in the final tomorrow.  I know these scores can be deceiving.  About 8 years ago Eastern beat Western in the semifinals by about 25 points, but that game was actually tied with about 13 minutes to go in the game before Eastern ended the game on a huge run to make the score look worse than it actually was.  Hopefully AllStar was there and can give us a run down of whether this was close for a half before Keene had a huge second half or whether Keene was in control from the opening tip.

[7express]

Keene was a 27 point winner over Western in the first game.  Eastern up by 3 over Dartmouth about halfway through first half at last check.  I know really going out on a limb here but I'm guessing Keene has a slightly more difficult time in the final tomorrow.  I know these scores can be deceiving.  About 8 years ago Eastern beat Western in the semifinals by about 25 points, but that game was actually tied with about 13 minutes to go in the game before Eastern ended the game on a huge run to make the score look worse than it actually was.  Hopefully AllStar was there and can give us a run down of whether this was close for a half before Keene had a huge second half or whether Keene was in control from the opening tip.

Judging by the boxscore and play-by-play with a 27 point halftime lead and up by 40 at one point in the second Keene was in control the whole night.  Western actually had 3 offensive rebounds on their first offensive series and yet scored 0 points.  About 5.5 minutes later Keene got a double digit lead where it remained the rest of the evening.

[7express]

Eastern holds onto defeat Dartmouth in the second semifinal.  Despite leading by only 3 at halftime, they never trailed in the second half, but could never put the Corsairs away either as the largest second half lead was 7 and they ultimately ended up winning by 4 or 5, forgot the final score I want to say 78-73??  Sets up what I believe is a winner take all final tomorrow night between the Owls and Warriors: winner wins the conference and automatic bid to the tournament, loser is left hanging at the alter.  My guess would be Eastern takes it home with a 76-71 final.

[ECSUalum]

Congrats to Keene State on the LEC Championship.  Unfortunately Carlos fouled out with 3 min to go and the momentum and a 7 pt lead completely turned!
Have to give credit to Ty Nichols, he is just one hell of a player and worked on getting Carlos fouled out of the game and scoring the team to victory!
Congrats to Cory Muckle on an outstanding game and who kept ECSU in the game!!

Eastern will desperately need to find a scoring post player for next year as this year there was nobody!!!

[AllStar]

Another great game between KSC and ECSU, ECSUalum!  Good luck to the Warriors in the NCAA tournament, as I think they stand a good chance of getting in according to the projections!  Hope we can see some good basketball from these teams in the NCAA's.

[ECSUalum]

Another great game between KSC and ECSU, ECSUalum!  Good luck to the Warriors in the NCAA tournament, as I think they stand a good chance of getting in according to the projections!  Hope we can see some good basketball from these teams in the NCAA's.

Same to Keene St Allstar, Keene as usual, ending the season on a tear!!  Also, great work on your charts and tables throughout the year!
PS was glad Ty got his LEC Championship yesterday, he certainly is one of the best players in D-III BB and deserves it !!

[magicman]

Another great game between KSC and ECSU, ECSUalum!  Good luck to the Warriors in the NCAA tournament, as I think they stand a good chance of getting in according to the projections!  Hope we can see some good basketball from these teams in the NCAA's.

Hey AllStar,

Congratulations on your LEC Championship. Dancing again after a year's absence...seems to be a regular occurrence now, especially since the coaching switch a few years ago. Good luck in the Dance.

I'm hopeful my Cardinals will hear their name called tomorrow around 12:40 PM. If they do, maybe they send them over your way. 

[wcsu91]

Congratulations to Keene on their LEC championship yesterday! Great game played by the top 2 teams in the LEC and IMO ECSU deserves an at large bid!  Does anyone on this board know if any teams in the LEC plan on declaring to play in the ECAC tourney this upcoming week?

[ronk]

Congratulations to Keene on their LEC championship yesterday! Great game played by the top 2 teams in the LEC and IMO ECSU deserves an at large bid!  Does anyone on this board know if any teams in the LEC plan on declaring to play in the ECAC tourney this upcoming week?

The declarations have been done already; no LEC teams declared.

[AllStar]

Appreciate the kind words, magicman, ECSUalum, and wcsu91!  I always enjoy the conversation!!

Selections at 12:30 tomorrow should, as always, be interesting.

wcsu91, as the for ECAC, it seems like that tournament has really dissolved.  Only very few teams now play in it.  I know there are various reasons why, but I think one of the simplest is some programs don't want to settle for less than making NCAA's.

[wcsu91]

@Ronk and Allstar: Thank you for the info on the ECAC tourney. Didn't realize The declarations were made already. Good luck tomorrow to everyone. It will be interesting to see who gets the at large bids and where teams are placed. Fun to watch!!

[7express]

Ever since the ECAC dropped the "region" championships and went to a 1 winner format a couple years ago, it has really taken a hit.  It was starting to take a hit even when they still had the regions, but I feel like that expedited it.  Best of luck to Keene, and hopefully Eastern in the tournament!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Ever since the ECAC dropped the "region" championships and went to a 1 winner format a couple years ago, it has really taken a hit.  It was starting to take a hit even when they still had the regions, but I feel like that expedited it.  Best of luck to Keene, and hopefully Eastern in the tournament!

They dropped the "Regional" tournaments because they couldn't get enough teams to sign up for them.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

ECAC has been dying a slow, miserable, death for about six or seven years, now.

[AllStar]

Regional bracket KSC is in: