MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[pbrooks3]

Thanks to some clutch shooting from Nate Ollie, 3 big free throws from Cory Smith and a 5-minute scoring drought by Rust to close the game, Rhodes wins 82-79. The Lynx played to the level of the competition tonight and squeaked by an inferior opponent. It was clearly the Ollie show with him putting up 32 tonight with an array of shots. He and Smith are both scorers who will need to figure out how to involve teammates if they are to enjoy success in the SCAC this season.

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps picked up their second win of the season this afternoon with a 70-66 victory over LaGrange College.  It was a game where LaGrange led most of the second half and Millsaps kept hanging on and chipping away, finally taking a lead with about 5 minutes to go and holding on as Chris Sanders hit 5 FTs in the last 29 seconds.

Obviously, this group is not on par with last year's team and there's no reason to expect them to be.  When it comes to game experience, the 2008-09 team is about on the same level as the 2004-05 group which finished at 9-16 after starting out 1-9.  This year's team will get better and I think they'll be a fairly good team by the end of the year, especially if they can find more consistency on offense.  It's a good sign that they had 5 players in double figures today and Brett Hittel came close as he provided a much needed spark with 9 points in 11 minutes of play.

Here's the box score from today's game:  http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/basketball-m/mcm08-08.htm

[pbrooks3]

6-1 Centre heads to Northern Kentucky tonight to take on a strong annual rival in Thomas More. Thomas More has opened the season in a similar fashion to the Colonels losing only one game to Transylvania, the same team that Centre lost to in their home opener by 2 points. Hopefully, the Colonels will be ready to compete tonight. I believe T More will have Live Stats on the web for this one. 

[Ron Boerger]

http://www.thomasmore.edu/athletics/mbasketball/live/xlive.htm , to be exact.

Trinity has a couple of games at Southwestern Thursday and Friday night - I'm going to try to get there.  It's another four-team event where SU and TU get two games against non-SCAC opponents. 

Ready to get the regular season underway!

[Walter17]

It should be a couple of good games for the Tigers and Pirates this weekend.  I don't know much about Lakeland or Marian, but you can never take a team from Wisconsin lightly in DIII - usually they are pretty competitive.

It's nice to see Trinity up to #22 in the latest poll.

[pbrooks3]

Centre played a stellar 2nd half and pulled away from Thomas More 76-53.  Kris Bentley lit it up from the 3-point line by hitting 6 of 9 for the game.  Ryan Crowdis chipped in 16; Alex Lloyd had 11 rebounds.  The game was close in the 1st half with Centre taking a 2-point lead at half.  They held Thomas More to 16% shooting in the final 20 minutes.  Appears the Colonels played some of their best basketball during the final half leading into the Christmas break. 

[pbrooks3]

Understand the Colonels employed a zone defense in the 2nd half that turned the game around. Not only did Thomas More miss 26 of 31 shots, they missed all 11 three-point attempts in the final half. Defense is Coach Mason's calling card whether it's man-to-man or a zone.

[Ron Boerger]

I didn't make it to Georgetown tonight, but Trinity had little problem with Lakeland (4-2), winning  82-53.   Four Tigers ended up in double figures with both BJ Moon and Charles Houston leading the way with 13.  Trinity (7-1) shot 48% (nearly 60% in the second half) to Lakeland's 31%.  Moon added seven assists and six steals.

In the nightcap, Southwestern defeated Marian (4-5), 67-56.  Zach Bergstrom had 17 and Andrew McDonald 14 to lead the Pirates, who improved to 5-3. 

[scaccommish]

We just opened the door on another new area of the SCAC website - SCAC Interactive.

We will use this area to blog from championship events as well as post pictures and video. Also, we plan on a weekly (or bi-weekly podcast), featuring interviews with student-athletes and coaches.

To check out the inaugural podcast, click this link:

http://www.scacsports.com/inside_athletics/interactive

[Ron Boerger]

Went to see Trinity take on Marian at Southwestern.  At first the Sabres had a great deal of difficulty getting anything going against the TU defense and found themselves down 10-0.  They eventually were able to start driving the baseline and got within a few midway through the first half.  Trinity then closed off the baseline, the Marian offense turned into a three-point shooting contest and the Tigers were able to build a 33-25 halftime lead.

In the second half, Marian got going with strong play from 6'5" post Logan Rankin and Trinity couldn't buy a basket.  A couple of turnovers, the second on a very lackadaisical inbounds pass, and Marian took the lead as Trinity scored but three points in the first 8:55 of the second half.  The Tigers would finally get going when BJ Moon hit a three on a rebound off a missed free throw, and Moon continued his strong play on both sides of the ball as Trinity pulled away down the stretch to garner a 62-49 win.   Charles Houston also had a strong night on the defensive end with several nice steals.

Trinity had a horrendous night from the free throw line early which helped keep the Sabres in the game.  TU improves to 8-1 while Marian falls to 4-6.

EDIT:  Southwestern already has the box up - great work by the SID there.  Moon had 19 and Houston 14 with 11 boards and 4 steals to lead the way for Trinity.

[Ron Boerger]

Thought about sticking around for the nightcap ... but didn't.  According to live stats Southwestern trails Lakeland 20-17 at the half.  The two teams have combined for 14 turnovers, 23 fouls and have shot a collective 1-17 from beyond the arc (with the Pirates doing heavy damage to the rims at 1-of-13).   Lakeland has missed 8-of-14 free throws.

Right now I would say I made the right choice.   

[pbrooks3]

SCACSID, appreciate the heads-up on SCAC Interactive. The website is clearly an improvement this year and junkies of the SCAC like me are benefitting.  Thanks. 

[Walter17]

The SCAC website looks terrific!  Great improvements.

Although they played maybe their worst game of the season, Trinity really showed their maturity against Marian last night.  They didn't let a little energy and some bad shooting effect their overall performance.  BJ Moon really stepped up and carried this team offensively for a two minute stretch to get Trinity back into the game.  Going into this weekend, Trinity was last place in the SCAC in FG% (under 40%!!!).  If their shooting percentage can increase, I think they have a legit shot at making a terrific run through out conference play.

[jekelish]

AC went out of conference to beat Stevenson (out of Baltimore) 78-58 tonight.  Burke and Beatty had 11 and 12 boards apiece, and 13 players scored, including, if I remember correctly, 9 with 6+ points.  Alade was the high scorer with 9 in an incredibly balanced attack.  Poor shooting from the 'Roos kept it close for awhile, but they got some big threes in the second half from Mewbourn and Bishop to help blow things open.

Thursday they fell to #24 UTD by 8 in a game that was very similar to the Trinity game.  UTD went on a 20-8 run starting with about 7 minutes remaining, opening up what had been a tight, back and forth game.

Once this team figures it out, they're going to be awfully tough.  Next year, especially, they could easily be a 15+ win team and really be a big threat in the SCAC.

[pbrooks3]

Coach Greg Mason is on Hoopsville tonight talking about SCAC basketball for anyone interested.  He should be coming on approximately 6 pm CT (7 pm ET).