MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

A couple of weeks ago at the Wabash/Franklin game I kept a running post live from Chadwick Court.  With Wabash returning to Chadwick tomorrow night, I'm looking for some feedback.  Is this something anybody would like to see again or even regularly from Wabash home games?

Personally, I enjoyed it, but with the conference season getting underway in earnest, I'm likely to be at a gym somewhere at the same time as you, so simple recaps are likely to serve me as well.

[Li'l Giant]

I liked it, Wally.

[WooMix]

A couple of weeks ago at the Wabash/Franklin game I kept a running post live from Chadwick Court.  With Wabash returning to Chadwick tomorrow night, I'm looking for some feedback.  Is this something anybody would like to see again or even regularly from Wabash home games?

I thought the commentary was great.  I loved it.  If it's not too much to ask and not too big of an inconvenience, I'd say please keep doing them.   Thank you.

[wally_wabash]

The response seems pretty favorable...I'll go ahead and post live updates from Chadwick for tonight's critical Wabash/Allegheny game. 

This is an important game because the winner here holds the tiebreak and the loser doesn't get a chance to split the series later in the season.  Wabash and Allegheny seem to be teams that are likely to finish with similar records, so that tiebreak could be the difference between having to travel from one geographic extreme of the conference to the other in the first round of the tournament (as Wabash had to do last year...a regular season win at Allegheny would have reversed that situation).  The Gators have been off since 12/11.  It will be interesting to see how that layoff will affect Allegheny in tonight's game. 

[gobash83]

I know that you have already made up your mind, but I wanted to chime in and say that I enjoyed the in game updates for the Franklin game and if you are inclined to continue to do similar updates for other LG games, I would follow them the best I can.  Thanks.

[wally_wabash]

Alright....90 seconds to the anthem and the starting lineups.  I'll quickly set the stage here.  NCAC season kicks off in earnest tonight for both of these squads.  Allegheny has had a 145 day layoff or some such thing (they last played on 12/11) and to make matters worse I've been informed that Bill Babe and Ryan Hollihan (scorers #2 and 3 on the team) suffered injuries in practice this week and are out for tonight's game. 

This is the first of a four game home stand for the Little Giants and it will be critical for Wabash to take advantage of the extra home game they get in this east-comes-west year.  Lineups are being announced....tipoff coming shortly. 

Quickly before we get underway, I'll say that is a friends and family affair at Chadwick tonight....very sparse crowd, but those who came seem fired up.   

19:38 - Wabash wins the tip and Zimmer scores quickly to give Wabash the early advantage.  Nice to Zimmer off to a quick start.  He's taken some time to get into the flow of the game lately.  Simkus just scored for Wabash as well.  4-0 early. 

16:30 - Earl Rooks just got called for palming.  I'm not sure Earl could palm a grapefruit.  We've traded 3s since the last update.  7-3 Wabash.   

12:12 - Wabash opens up an 18-5 lead following a Chase Haltom 3 pointer.  8 minutes into this game, Allegheny looks like a team that hasn't played in 4 weeks.  They're just a step slower than Wabash right now and looking pretty sloppy.  We just traded 3s again.  21-8 now in favor of Wabash. 

8:52 - I should have kept my mouth shut.  Gheny is on a mini-run since the last update and has closed the gap to 23-19.  Wabash could probably use a timeout here, but Mac doesn't seem to agree with me.  We play on. 

6:28 - With the starters back on the floor, Wabash picked up the tempo and answered the Gheny run.  Wabash's little run here was just punctuated by a Wes Smith fast break dunk which promptly brought a Gator timeout.  31-22 here coming out of the timeout.

3:10 - Another steal and breakaway flush for Wes Smith.  He's putting on a show tonight as he's made a couple of very nice steals, had an impressive blocked shot and some nice rebounds.  If I can channel Hubie Brown, Wes has been very active in the painted area tonight.  37-26 in favor of the LGs. 

2:08 - We've got a timeout.  No score change, but I want to give some props to the kid doing radio tonight.  He's flying solo which can never be easy. 

0:00 - 39-30 is the halftime score.  Allegheny got some foul shots with 10 seconds to go, missed the second of two and put back an offensive rebound to close within 9 at the break.  All in all, not a bad close to the half for the Gators considering their first 8 minutes. 

Some halftime observations....Wabash is really forcing the pace of this game, particularly wiht the starting unit on the floor.  I don't know if this is to take advantage of Allegheny perhaps being a step slow due to their layoff or if they are taking advantage of Allegheny being down two players that typically give them big minutes...either way, it is working pretty well and if Wabash can maintain the high tempo, we may see Allegheny fold down the stretch. 

Not much that Allegheny has done really stands out to me so far.  Indvidually, George Raftis has been been pretty solid.  Livestats tells me that he's got 8 first half rebounds and 6 points which is a good 20 minutes work. The Gators are being led by Craig Devinney at the half with 7 points. 

Wabash is being led by Gary Simkus who had 12 early points.  Zimmer is 3-3 for 6 points and Wes Smith has chipped in with 7 for the LGs.  Just over 6 minutes to go before the second half. 

[wally_wabash]

Early second half note....Wes has switched from the white headband to the red headband.  We'll see how Allegheny reacts and adjusts to the wardrobe change. 

20:00 - The red headband was a ruse.  Wes has shed the headband altogether. 

17:40 - And Aaron Brock finally opens the second half scoring with a leaner in the paint.  41-30 Wabash. 

13:53 - Brock scores again in the post to give Wabash a 48-36 advantage.  Offensively, the Gators are having a hard time getting into any sort of set play.  Another steal for Wabash here...Simkus lays it in.  50-36 now.  As I was saying, the Little Giant defense has been pretty smothering this evening.  It's clear that Wabash knows how important this game is. 

8:01 - Simkus nails a pair of free throws to give him 20 points on the night.  I'm guessing that this is a career high for Gary...if not he has to be close.  60-43 Wabash.

11:09 - there hasn't been a whole lot of scoring this half, but Earl Rooks just made a highlight reel no-look pass to Rich Kavalauskas for an easy layup.  Wow.  All 75 people in attendance tonight were wowed by that one.  54-37 for Wabash here coming out of a timeout.  Allegheny is still struggling to get anything going offensively...the Gators are scrambling big time on offense. 

9:33 - Gheny connects on a pair of free throws to trim the lead to 55-42 then comes with the all out full court press forcing a Wabash timeout.  I think the Gators are going to need to force a bunch of turnovers here down the stretch to get back in this thing...seems they think so too.  Wabash has just been too strong inside to expect Allegheny to get enough stops in the half court to make this a game. 

8:01 - Simkus connects on a pair of free throws to give him 20 points on the night.  This has to be somewhere around a career high for Gary.  60-43 Wabash.

6:00 - Zimmer drives and lays it in without much resistance.  67-47 and this one is starting to get away from the Gators.  Allegheny is starting to look fatigued. 

4:03 - It's 71-47 and benches are clearing.  I think Coach Clune is waiving the white flag.

2:29 - Timeout Wabash.  Mac is going to make sure that a couple of guys are going to get their first varsity minutes tonight. 

0:00 - Final score Wabash 75, Allegheny 56.  The Gators picked up some garbage time points to make this one a little closer than it really was.  Impressive win for Wabash tonight.  Hiram comes to town tomorrow as Wabash goes for the sweep against the eastern schools. 

[kiltedbryan]

Nice live updating, Wally!  +K

Sounds like a very good win for the LGs.  Part of that four-game homestand is against Wooster...sounds like Woo better be ready to play for that one. Will the Chadwick Crazies be back on Jan. 12?

[David Collinge]

...and to make matters worse I've been informed that Bill Babe and Ryan Hollihan (scorers #2 and 3 on the team) suffered injuries in practice this week and are out for tonight's game. 

Good grief.  Is it too late for me to change my pick for this game? 

[kiltedbryan]

From the Wooster website:

NCAC Player of the Week: In addition to his tournament MVP honor, Brandon Johnson (Columbus, Ohio / Groveport Madison) was the North Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Week.

In the Mose Hole tourney, Johnson had a combined 40 points with 10-of-10 free throw shooting and 11 assists against only two turnovers plus six steals in the two Wooster victories.

Congratulations to Brandon!

[David Collinge]

Hiram scores final five points to defeat Earlham 79-75 (at Richmond)

[kiltedbryan]

Hiram scores final five points to defeat Earlham 79-75 (at Richmond)

I was just going to ask if anyone had seen a score from this one.  I picked the right end of this pick'em.

[David Collinge]

Other game of pick'em interest:
John Carroll 55, Grove City 51

[smedindy]

Nick Welsh got tossed, so it says, and he did so after Ian Pfouts was called for a foul.

Now, I'm just guessing that Pfouts fouled Welsh pretty hard (perhaps) and Welsh took umbrage. Or there was some hard play and Welsh took umbrage. At any rate, there is no doubt umbrage was taken by Welsh and he was asked to leave.

Pfouts was the Hiram player that made a hard foul on one of the Wooster studs a couple of years ago and there was mayhem on the boards here. He was virtually drawn & quartered, boiled in oil, keelhauled, and forced to watch Barney videos. So there is some precedent that Pfouts isn't exactly a gentleman on the basketball floor. (Though he's probably a scholar since the NCAC don't cotton to no dummies...)

So, any Quaker or Terrier want to chime in on the lowdown?

[David Collinge]

I saw Pfouts and, I think, Bryan Yelvington nearly come to blows at Kenyon last season.  I've seen him play perhaps four or five games in his career; the kid plays like a hockey enforcer.