MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[frank_ezelle]

Without a doubt, a team that counts on the 3 can be in big trouble when the shots are falling.  In the other unmentioned loss, DePauw hit 9 of 20 against Centre and for the season they are the best 3-point shooting team in the SCAC, hitting over 40%.  They are also 2nd in the league with a .746 on free throws and 3rd in the league with .474 from the field.  It sounds like there are the best shooting team in the league, and what might seem like a poor shooting night to a DePauw fan might not seem so bad to fans of other teams.

I 100% agree with your statement that DePauw is still a very dangerous team and maybe as good a pick as any to win the tournament, but possibly their outstanding shooting is masking some other problem.  Afterall, the 3-point shooting percentages you mentioned come out to 29.4% and if you throw in the Centre game the 3-point shooting in the losses comes to 32.7%, not great, but not exactly horrible. 

And another possibility is that there is no problem at all.  The loss at Centre isn't a bad loss considering that Centre is 13-1.  The loss at Wabash (10-5) doesn't seem to be a bad loss.  After seeing the OU team, the loss to OU might have been an upset of sorts but OU looks like a team that could beat anyone on a given night.  And the loss to BSC does seem like a bad loss since it was by 15 points, but BSC appears to have a very solid program with an 8-6 record and close losses on the road to OU, Southwestern and Emory.

All in all, I think DePauw is having a very good year that might not appear so good because they seemed set up for an outstanding year.  With their shooting and their experience, I still see them as a very difficult team to beat.

[jekelish]

I can't say I know what kind of year DePauw is having, but I know 11-4 is nothing to sneeze at, and as much as I'd love to see the 'Roos pull out the win today, I just don't know that I see it.  As evidenced in the Centre game, we just don't have the depth and firepower to stay with the best teams in the conference for the full 40 minutes.  30-35 minutes, sure, but not the rest of the way...yet.

Of course, on Friday we really struggled shooting the ball, particularly Kola Alade (5-17 FG), and when your star player struggles it's going to be tough to pull off many upsets.  If we have a game when our two best players are both "on" then we might actually have a shot, especially if Spencer Burke keeps developing and plays like he did against Centre.  Not on offense, but just being a real presence in the middle and making players think twice about driving the lane.

[brave heart]

I think coach Fenlon needs to develope more trust in his young players including the Freshman.When the starters are cold and a couple of them have been known to go ice cold, he needs to look at the bench for more than a rest for the staters.Alot of talent is sitting there watching and nothing like a little competition to sharpen up the hustle of a Senior.

[jekelish]

AC and DePauw are locked at 33-33 at the half...Moore leading DePauw with 13 points, Mark Foster with 11 for the 'Roos...

[DPULefty22]

DPU 86, AC 70 - Final from Sherman. Moore a career high 32 despite a scratched cornea. Schott with 21 and 8.

[pbrooks3]

Centre beat CC 70-55.  Colorado College led at the break, but Thomas Britt and TC Thomason helped the Colonels step it up in the 2nd half. 

[FlightofthePetrel]

Oglethorpe escapes with a come from ahead victory over the Hendrix Warriors  71-70.  Oglethorpe improves to 9-6 and 4-2 in the SCAC.  Ward leads the Petrels with a clutch basket at the end and a team high 17 points and 8 boards.

David Allison stepped to the line with 2 seconds left and missed both free throws.  Hendrix tries a length of the court pass that is tipped out of bound by OU.  Hendrix gets the ball back on the far sideline with 1.7 seconds and the second inbound pass is tipped away by Chaz Smith to secure the victory.  Great road win for Oglethorpe.

[frank_ezelle]

Lorenzo Bailey hits a shot in the lane with about 3-4 seconds to play to give Millsaps a 1 point win over Sewanee.  I think it was 76-75.  More coming in a few minutes.

[frank_ezelle]

I don't have a box score so I can't give exact numbers, but it felt like Millsaps played as bad this afternoon as they played good on Friday night.  The game started off with Sewanee taking an early lead and Millsaps coming back to tie the game and eventually take a lead of about 7-8 points at the end of the half.

Sewanee started the second half with a small run to get the score basically tied, then they built a lead of about 6-8, and Millsaps slowly chipped away until they tied it a couple of times and took some small leads.  The last 43 seconds provided a controversial call by the refs, one that most people would say that only a home team would get.  While I think the call was technically correct, it would be surprising for a road team to get the same call.

Sewanee had the ball and a 1-point lead with about 43 seconds to go.  This might not be exactly right, but they took a shot and Pursell got the ball under the backboard.  I was in the stands at the opposite free throw line so I can only say that it appeared to me that Pursell covered up the ball since he was surrounded by two Millsaps players and I think he expected to get fouled.  The ref called 3 seconds instead. 

Pursell was in the lane and he did have possession of the ball.  Three seconds in basketball often is not the same as three actual seconds on a stopwatch.  I think he may have had it in his possession for 3 real seconds, often not long enough for a 3 second call in basketball.  The result was that Millsaps got the ball with 12 seconds to go, the ball got to Lorenzo Bailey, and Bailey hit his third of 3 crucial 2-pointers in the closing minutes of the game.  Sewanee had time to get off a running 30-35 footer that did hit iron but wasn't really close to going in.

[jekelish]

As evidenced in the Centre game, we just don't have the depth and firepower to stay with the best teams in the conference for the full 40 minutes.  30-35 minutes, sure, but not the rest of the way...yet.

boy to i hate being right all the time.  this was exactly the case again today for the AC/DePauw game, with it being a tough, good, tightly contested game until about the 10 minute mark of the second half, when DU went on a 21-10 run to open it up and put the 'Roos away.

[frank_ezelle]

I see that BSC won 58-54 at Trinity after only losing by 2 (55-53) at Southwestern on Friday.  Based on their last 3 games, I guess the BSC team is for real.

[pbrooks3]

Need someone to chime in on the Birmingham Southern and Trinity game.  BSC won 58-54, so it sounds like a Pat Cunningham type game with defense; just the wrong team on top.  I'll be curious to hear about this game as well as Frank's assessment of the Sewanee-Millsaps tilt.  Centre's senior guard, Thomas Britt led the Colonels today in a strong second half with 22 points.  CC was up at the half and expanded the lead to 8 (35-27) two minutes into the 2nd half.  Then Centre began chipping away at the lead, creating some turnovers and a number of empty trips to the basket for CC.  It was good to see the Colonels scrap hard in the altitude during the final 20 minutes.  The starters played a lot.  I expect the coaching staff is glad this weekend is behind them.

[pbrooks3]

BSC has a decent perimeter game and solid coaching so some of these wins against SCAC opponents doesn't surprise. 

[frank_ezelle]

Here's the link to Millsaps-Sewanee box score, play-by-play, etc:

http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/basketball-m/mcm-012008.htm

I've been going through the photos and on the play with Pursell and the 3 seconds, he did pull down the ball and then squat down with the elbows out to protect the ball or get fouled and he was dead in the center of the lane.  Still photos don't show if he was fouled or how long he was in the lane, just that he was definitely in the lane waiting to be fouled.

[Major_Fan]

Crazy finish in Jackson ... Link to #23 Millsaps/Sewanee Box Score.

http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/basketball-m/mcm-012008.htm

Millsaps' Bailey hits a 5-foot jumper with 2.8 seconds left to hold off Tigers.  All the credit in the world to Sewanee and their tough play.  Great from the charity stripe (21-of-26) and all five scorers hit double figures, led by Pierson with 16 before he fouled out with 5:17 left.  For some reason he and the coaches thought he had just four fouls.  A key moment in the game as the Majors trailed by five, 68-63, when he left the game.  Bailey started the game 1-of-8 from the floor and scored 11 points (2 free throws) over the final 6:14 on 4-of-4 shooting.  Huge matchup at Danville, Ky., on Friday night ... the 15-1 Majors vs. the 14-1 Centre Colonels.