MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[pbrooks3]

Hendrix beats Rhodes fairly easily 83-65. Other than a few moments in the 2nd half when Rhodes controlled pace, the Warriors were in command. There was balanced scoring with Hightower leading the way with 17. Ollie led Rhodes. Corey Smith was a non-factor tonight riding the pine a good bit with foul problems. He tried to take his frustrations out in the final minute with a tomahawk dunk attempt that failed when the ball slipped on his hand bouncing off the rim harmlessly.

[pbrooks3]

Centre got a good win last night against a much improved Southwestern team.  Centre had another relatively poor first half performance.  Playing without senior, TC Thomason, Colonels senior point guard, Ryan Crowdis and junior, Danny Noll stepped up big in the final 20 minutes to help Centre finish strong.  Crowdis' stat line of 18 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and only 2 turnovers was a big league performance.  He was also 12 for 12 on the foul line.  Senior leadership definitely shined in this one with Crowdis' game.  Danny Noll was big too, hitting for 28 points, including 7 of 9 on threes.  He had seven rebounds. 

The Southwestern game, in a way, was a potential "trip" game for the Colonels going into tonight's match-up with Trinity.  Don't know the status of Thomason for the Trinity game, but my guess is he'll be out of action tonight as well.

Wish I was going to be at this game.  Record-wise, this represents the best of the SCAC competing in Danville today.

[pbrooks3]

Are there any predictions for this weekend?

Here are mine:

Millsaps wins at Birmingham Southern by 4
Rhodes beats Hendrix by 4
Trinity wins in OT by 2 over DePauw
Centre over Southwestern by 11
Oglethorpe by 18 over Colorado College
Sewanee by 3 over Austin

I stunk it up on my Friday night predictions (2-4).  Here's what I see happening tonight and tomorrow:

Hendrix will win by 5 at Birmingham Southern - the Warriors looked pretty solid last night at Rhodes
Centre wins in a tight one at Danville over Trinity by 4 - this one will be physical and low scoring, probably 55-51 or something like that
Sewanee picks up a much needed win by 8 over Colorado College on the mountain
DePauw wins by 11 over Southwestern at home
Oglethorpe wins by 4 over Austin in a very competitive game
Rhodes struggles but wins by 3 at the buzzer over Millsaps

[Ron Boerger]

Looks like Trinity is going to go 0-2 on the road trip.  They're down by 9 at Centre with 8 minutes to go.

[pbrooks3]

Congratulations to Pat Cunningham and the Trinity Tigers on a hard fought victory on Centre's court this evening. It was difficult to follow the game completely but my Centre sources told me that the Colonels led most of the game. Give credit to the Tigers for hanging around and finding a way to win at the end. That's the mark of a great team when they can snatch victory on the road in a difficult venue. I've thought all season Trinity was the team to beat in this conference. It's probably not so bad that they took it on the chin at DePauw. Should they finish the regular season with only the 1 SCAC loss, I look for them to be the favorite in the tournament. They'll have a chance to climb the D3 rankings after this weekend. They may be marked down a notch or two for the DePauw loss, but they can get back to #8 or higher in a week or so.

As for my Colonels, they'll rebound. Greg Mason and his team have a lot going for them, and still are in position to get back to #1 on the Eastern side of the SCAC with a rematch against DePauw at home. Hopefully, TC Thomason will heal and be back at full strength in a week.

It's sort of a shame tonight's game wasn't broadcast (audio). Sure seems like it was a good one.  Appreciate who ever it was from Centre or Trinity that did update the score periodically tonight on D3HOOPS - thanks!

[pbrooks3]

Kudos to the Centre College administration for staging two nights of basketball this weekend in light of the winter storm damage and power outages throughout central Kentucky and Danville. For those not familiar with the situation there is a slideshow of the storm's effect on Centre and the Danville community on the college website - www.centre.edu.

[pbrooks3]

Toughness - Trinity is #1;
DePauw and Centre are contending for #2 right now.

One other note - Danny Noll is worthy of POTW consideration.  He contributed 57 points in the 2 weekend games. He had 28 Friday night against Southwestern hitting 7-9 on threes; tonight he tallied 29 with 5-8 from the arc. Pretty decent pair of games for a great young man. 

[Ralph Turner]

Brackets will be seeded 4 weeks from Monday.

Trinity may have earned its hosting of first round games by virtue of the win over Centre, coupled with losses by RMC, McMurry and Centre.

Centre may have lost a first round host slot with that loss to Trinity.

[pbrooks3]

I think you're right Ralph. This is really gut check time for Centre. That was a tough loss for Centre given that they had the game pretty well in hand at the 35 minute mark. Pat has limited talent and skill in his lineup and not a deep bench, but he's got fearless kids with a desire to get it done. I have no doubt Greg Mason will get his team prepared and ready to go again. The question is whether they want it enough to get to the D3 tournament. I'm not sure Centre earns a D3 tournament bid this year unless they finish strong. That means a minimum of winning out the remainder of the regular season and at least advancing to the finals of the SCAC tourney. I believe DePauw or Oglethorpe would like to be that team too, and both have legitimate shots.

[pbrooks3]

Rhodes is playing under the level of their competition so far this afternoon.  Millsaps leads 41-30 at the half. Lots of missed free throws in this game, particularly by Rhodes. Rhodes got in the bonus early but has failed miserably to take advantage of this. Songy leads the Majors with 9. Millsaps has 7 or 8 threes and they are getting almost any look they want. It would be interesting to see what Rhodes could do if they'd try playing defense. This is a game Rhodes should win, but one they may squander if they refuse to defend.

[pbrooks3]

Rhodes and Millsaps played an exciting game - Millsaps pulls it out 84-79. Rhodes made a nice comeback, but they had too big a hill to climb. They tied the score a few times but could not take control. Corey Smith had 28 (?) for Rhodes. Blake Martinez lit it up from 3 for the Majors with 26 or 27. I counted 6 3-balls. Songy and Martinez made key free throws in the final minute to help with the win. Rhodes' achilles' heel beside porous defense - poor free throw shooting. This game was one Rhodes gave away to a team with less talent. I sound like a broken record!

[frank_ezelle]

Not to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like you are saying that the individual talent at Rhodes is losing to the better team play of other SCAC teams. 

For Millsaps, this was a critical win.  They came into the game with 6 SCAC games remaining and a need to win at least 4 to get into the SCAC Tournament.  Today's win still leaves Millsaps with a lot of work to do, but it kept them within reasonable range of that #4 spot.

By the way, while the lighting is better at Rhodes, I do believe their music selection and volume control falls behind Millsaps.  They definitely don't consider the parents and older alums when playing music at halftime and between games. 

[pbrooks3]

Frank, I couldn't agree with you more on the music at Rhodes - it was pretty sad. The real problem today with the audio was the lack of fannies in the seats. When the gym is nearly empty, the noise is deafening and the selection of tunes isn't any better. My wife spent the better part of the Ladies game trying to get Rhodes officials to turn down the volume. Believe me there weren't many students there this afternoon. 

My comment about talent may be slightly off base. Rhodes has the players to more than match up with Millsaps this season, but certainly did not match up to the skill and intensity of Millsaps. Rhodes falls down regularly because they don't play defense. No different today except they also managed to miss 16 of 29 free throws.

I am actually more impressed with the Millsaps team now that I've seen them play twice. Martinez is a great shooter. The young man playing in the post obviously is a smart kid; what he lacks in ability he makes up for with smarts. He played effectively against Centre and he followed the scouting report today against Rhodes. Songy is always steady and makes big plays. Sanders is athletic and does a lot of good things. Vanardo took the ball to the basket effectively. Millsaps has some nice role players coming off the bench including the big freshman who Rhodes couldn't find a match for today. I think your Majors are jelling right now, and if they are able to finish strong and somehow get in the SCAC tourney mix, they'll be a tough 1st round match for someone.  Coach Wise has done a good job re-tooling. 

[brave heart]

Great weekend for DePauw. The Trinity game was everything we needed,holding team to 30% shooting.Combination of cold shooting and nice defensive effort by Depauw.Trinity is the real deal and at home would be especially difficult for anyone to beat.The Southwestern game was over with 3 min gone in the second half.A very long trip home for Southwestern.Very strong game on both ends of the floor for Depauw.Now we need to avoid a let down on this next trip to BSU and Memphis.

[pbrooks3]

DePauw has a chance to crack the Top 25 with the win over Trinity.  Centre should come out of the top 25, probably somewhere around 30-32.  Trinity is about #10 in my book.