MBB: Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference

[upb88]

All right, we've got snow, conference games and botched predictions... it's basketball season!

Interesting analysis, Hawk, but you should  know there are few "should win" games in the AMCC. Nice win by Pitt-Bradford at FSU, putting the clamp on Ryley. UPB has no seniors but has a nice group of juniors and sophomores who are growing up together. They look improved from a year ago, despite a bunch of turnovers in the early going.

Hilbert smacking LaRoche pretty good is a bit of a surprise. Hopefully Hilbert is for real. The more good teams in the AMCC, the better.

And LEC beating a Division II team is reminiscent of Pitt-Bradford beating regionally ranked Clarion on the road a few years ago. UPB won the conference and made the national tournament that year.

Have fun at the games, everyone.

[Hawk Backer]

upb88,

Nice win for you guys last night. 

I really believe that this year Frostburg and LaRoche are a bit down.  Frostburg had its two best players kicked off the team last season, and LaRoche is playing without its best player (don't know why).

Greensburg will be a big test today.

Hilbert has improved, and is in the same boat as Bradford.  They have no real contributions from any seniors, and have solid junior and sophomore classes.  Reinard can flat out score.  If they can get it together defensively, they can be top 5 in league this season IMO.

Lake Erie is the class of this league, IMO, and it will be interesting to see if they steamroll through like they should.  Behrend and Greensburg are tough, but if the Storm can use their athleticism to their advantage, they should be able to overtake them. 

They also have a tendency to take games off, but at the end of the day they should be at the top.

[upb88]

Medaille breaks a 29-game losing streak with a win over LaRoche.

[cantbestopped]

congrats to medaille, and what the hell happened to Laroche , not to long ago AMCC champions, now getting beat by 20 by Hilbert and losing to quite possibly one of the worst teams in the country.  Erie looks to be the cream of the crop thus far this year but when Greensburg gets it together they will be right there, plus Mt. could stir things up a bit.

[upb88]

Recap of the Pitt-Greensburg vs. Pitt-Bradford game

---

Pitt-Greensburg rallies three times in OT win over Pitt-Bradford

It was a night of comebacks at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg on Saturday as the Bobcats overcame an 11-point first-half deficit and late University of Pittsburgh at Bradford leads in regulation and overtime to win the Battle of the Branches, 74-73, in front of a couple hundred fans in Chambers Hall Gym.

The Panthers (3-3) were up by 11 with just over six minutes to go in the first half but found themselves trailing by the same number early in the second as the Bobcats (3-3) went on a 23-1 run. During the run, former Pitt-Bradford player Tim Gustin scored five of the Pitt-Greensburg points.

But behind junior forward Ryan Race, who scored 32 points and leads the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate conference in scoring, Pitt-Bradford engineered a comeback of its own. The Panthers closed to within a point with seven and a half minutes left in the second half on an old-fashioned three-point play by Race and, after the Bobcats re-established control by taking a seven-point lead, came within two on a "newfangled" three-point play by Race.

Pitt-Bradford then surged into a five-point lead with a shade under four minutes to go on a trey by Perth, Australia native Dan Thomas, who scored 18 points, but David Winfrey answered with two three-pointers of his own to give Pitt-Greensburg a one-point lead with a little over two minutes to play.

A pair of free throws by Race, who was 8-10 from the line for the game, gave Pitt-Bradford a one-point lead, but a three-pointer by Rashad Davison, his only points of the night, put Pitt-Greensburg up by two with 37 seconds left before a jumper by Panther Mark Austin tied the game at 66 with 16 seconds to go.

In OT, Race missed a free throw and failed to convert another old-fashioned three-point play, but Pitt-Bradford still led 73-70 with 1:43 to go. Pitt-Greensburg, however, regained the lead on a jumper by Daniel Waajid and a layup by Bill Scavincky, and late shots by Thomas and Shawn Spindler missed, Spindler just short on a jumper with six ticks left.

Waajid scored 16 points off the bench, and pulled down 12 rebounds, as the Bobcats outscored the Panthers in bench points, 25-2. Scavincky also scored 16 points in a balanced Bobcat attack.

For Pitt-Bradford, Austin recorded a game-high 13 rebounds.

After its win over Penn State Behrend on Friday night, last year's regular season AMCC champion Pitt-Greensburg (2-0) moves a game ahead of Pitt-Bradford (1-1) in the early AMCC standings. Pitt-Bradford defeated Frostburg State on Friday night.

The teams hook up again at Pitt-Bradford on Friday, January 27.

[Hawk Backer]

Hilbert was up 13 at one point to Lake Erie and blew it.

[upb88]

The conference seems to be wide open. Does the preseason "favorite" ever win the thing? And does the regular-season champion ever win the tournament? I think the latter has happened only once in the eight-year history of the AMCC.

[upb88]

Article on Pitt-Greensburg and its impressive newcomer, Bill Scavincky:

http://www.gatewaynewspapers.com/penn-traffordstar/55955/

[berlychick]

Nice article...Its really nice to see the AMCC get some press
I am hoping to head to a Pitt-Bradford game in January...
Impressed how well Ryan Race has developed over the past 2 years..
he is a great kid as well as a dedicated player to the program

Good Luck Panthers...

[berlychick]

Well it appears another addition of the "Moore War" is over with Fredonia
getting the win...
Not sure but I think that means that Pitts Coach Moore is
at the kids table this Christmas....

[Hawk Backer]

Break up the Mavs... 2 in a row with a win vs. D'Youville.

Advance to finals of Buff. State tournament.

Spartans might pull a Medaille this year.  0-6 thus far.

[cantbestopped]

LOL hawkbacker... but the streak will come to a sad end tomorrow

[Hawk Backer]

With the first semester coming to a close, lets recap what has been an interesting first month of basketball.

The story of the season, from my perspective, is the two wins that Medaille has.  Beating LaRoche after going 0-forever last season is an accomplishment itself and if Medaille doesn't win another game all season, it has been a successful one for Dick Hack and company.

Equally as impressive was Lake Erie's 66-62 victory over 2005 Division II tournament contestant Edinboro.  Granted, Edinboro lost two 1,000-point scorers and are a little bit down this season, but the win was impressive nontheless and the Storm are going to be a force to be reckoned with in the AMCC. 

Pitt-Greensburg is the other conference team at 2-0 in league after victories over Pitt-Bradford and Penn State Behrend.  Duke Cooper is as advertised, and a Division I transfer that is the class of the league.  17.1 PPG, 6.1 RPG and 4.2 APG is pretty impressive no matter the level.  Bill Scavincky has been an impact player in his first season in the league, averaging 17.0 per game and replacing Kevin Conlon as Cooper's running mate.  Look for Greenburg to again be in the top four in the league and make a run at the title.

Mount Aloysius is the conference's third unbeaten team, having played only local rival Penn State Altoona.  The Mounties have broken the century mark in four out of seven games this season, but have also shown that they are hot and cold.  After beating Waynesburg 104-90 in the second game of the season, they were anhillated in the rematch, 106-78.  Justin Ohler and Roman Mims again lead the attack, but if history has proven anything its that this type of up and down attack is not conducive to conference championships.

There is a logjam in the middle of the AMCC, as there are four teams at 1-1 in conference.  Penn State Behrend, Pitt-Bradford, Medaille and Hilbert all have .500 records in conference, with Behrend and Bradford both beating Frostburg State while Hilbert and Medaille both defeated LaRoche.

Behrend is the best of the four, with the loss to Greensburg being its lone loss thus far.  Kevin Buczynski has come into his own in his sophomore campaign, and is averaging 22.8 PPG, thanks in large part to a 41-point outburst against SUNYAC opponent Fredonia.  David Gahan and 6'4" shooter JJ Ferguson also average in double figures for the Behrend Lions, who will undoubtedly have a say in the AMCC Conference tournament.

Bradford has also been impressive in the early going, having defeated Frostburg and taken Greensburg to overtime.  Three of the Panthers four losses have been decided by a total of six points.  Sophomore Ryan Race is the star of the team, averaging 20.4 points per contest, almost double that of the second highest on the team.  He is the go-to guy, and will be counted on throughout the season.

Hilbert has also fallen victim to close games all year, as they lost the opener to Hobart in overtime and fell to Keuka at the buzzer.  The Hawks dropped LaRoche by 20 at home, then had Lake Erie on the ropes and were up by as many as 13 in the second half before a swarming Storm press brought them back.  Sophomore Dallas Reinard has been the spark on offense and is leading the team with 18.0 PPG.  JUCO transfer Corey Vander Sluis has also made a nice contribution to the team, averaging 13.7 points and a team-high 7.0 boards per game.

Medaille... well what can you say?  The Mavs recruited hard over the past year and the results are beginning to show.  Sophomore transfer James McNeil is a superstar, and while averaging a ridiculous 20 shots per game, he has sparked the team and given the Mavs at least a hope in most games.  Scott Hack has also improved from his freshman season and is averaging 15.6 points per game and providing a perimeter presence.  Obviously Medaille is going to struggle to make the conference tournament, but like I said previously, it's good to see a number besides 0 in the left hand column.

Penn State Altoona dropped its conference opener to Mount Aloysius, but I still think Altoona can do some damage in the league.  Tyler Franklin is a stud, and Ethan Stewart-Smith, while being a whipping boy at the end of last season for his placement on the AMCC Honorable Mention team, is a glue guy that does all of the little things necessary to win.  I also think that any coaching is going to be an improvement over the leadership that Armon Gilliam provided at the end of last season.  He had obviously wore out his welcome at the school and any wins that the team had at the end of last season were in spite of him rather than because. 

Frostburg State lost a pair of games to Bradford and Behrend and it is going to be interesting to see where the Bobcats go from here.  This school has the most potential of any in the AMCC, with there being so few D3 schools in the state, it being a state school with nice facilities and the ability to provide a nice state-school tuition rate to students.  But for some reason, the team has not been able to win with any consistency in basketball.  Frostburg's lost four straight, face a tough Christopher Newport team then travel to Lake Erie and LaRoche for conference matchups after break.  This on top of rumors that the team may leave the conference to go to the CAC.  Will be interesting to follow the team the rest of the year.

Lastly, and certainly least, is LaRoche.  After a conference tournament championship two years ago and an appearance in the conference semifinals last season, LaRoche has hit the skids.  Losing two D1 transfers will do that to a team, but really is no excuse for the duldrums that they have had this season.  Pringle and Dorazio made up a large part of their team, but the component they're missing the most is Devin Taylor.  He was conference newcomer of the year and a low post presence, and they are sorely missing him.  Grady and the two Davis kids are ok, but if you dont let them beat you, they have nothing at all inside.  It's a sad story, but after losing to Medaille... it does not look good for LaRoche this season.

As has been mentioned before, this conference is really a strange one to figure out.  Lake Erie and Pitt-Greensburg look to be shoe-ins for the conference tournament but after that, it's anyone's guess.  LaRoche looks like they will be near the bottom of the league and Medaille doesn't have enough firepower to make the conference tourney, but the middle of the conference is a crapshoot.  Behrend is going to be good but they really haven't beaten a good team yet (the combined record of the schools they have beaten thus far is 11-28, and their best win was probably against a very poor Fredonia team out of the SUNYAC).  PS-A has a superstar, but do they have enough support?  Bradford as well, and Bradford is young...  Hilbert has a balanced attack, but are they ready to succeed with so much inexperience?  Should be an interesting second half of the season...

[Gregory Sager]

Awesome job, Hawk Backer. I feel as though I know the league a lot better after having read your piece.

[David Collinge]

Behrend is going to be good but they really haven't beaten a good team yet (the combined record of the schools they have beaten thus far is 11-28, and their best win was probably against a very poor Fredonia team out of the SUNYAC).

I think I'll get a chance to see Behrend this weekend at the CalTech tournament.  They'll be playing #5 Univ. of Puget Sound, so we'll see how they fare against a quality opponent.  I'll try to remember to post my impressions in here.