MBB: Coast 2 Coast Athletic Conference

[Warren Thompson]

Early final from York...

Lebanon Valley 82-#21 Lincoln 80

LVC head coach Brad McAlester records his 200th career win.

After yesterday's demolition at the hands of YCP, today a very nice rebound for the upset.

Kudos to the Dutchmen and to Brad for his 200th ....

[mwcsid]

UMW 81, Grove City 72

Baker 30, Lee 21... Each with 7 rebs, 2 assists, 2 steals.

UMW visits Gallaudet on Wednesday for first place in the CAC at 8 pm.

[ycp]

Final from York...

YCP 86-Messiah 77

Details later.

[Pat Coleman]

UMW visits Gallaudet on Wednesday for first place in the CAC at 8 pm.

Alright, well, that was odd to read.

[ycp]

Details from YCP...

The Spartans were led by Brandon Bushey as the senior had a team-high 18 points while he also had seven rebounds and two assists. Sophomore Chad McGowan recorded a double-double with 17 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Freshman Nate Fry capped a great weekend with 17 points and a career-high tying six rebounds. Senior Brian Singer was solid with 12 points and four rebounds while senior Kenny Fass was the final Spartan in double figures with 11 points. Junior Joe Yeck led the green and white with six assists and no turnovers in his 16 minutes of action. Bushey and Fass were the Spartans' two All-Tournament team picks.

Game Box
http://www.ycp.edu/sports/mens_basketball/2005/YCPMBB12.HTM

[Matt Letourneau]

Catholic 67, Drew 64 in an ugly game at DuFour.  Pat Satalin hit 2 free throws with 8.7 seconds left to give Catholic the lead, after Drew had taken it on free throws after Sowden was called for a foul with 13 seconds left.  Fumai sealed it with 2 more after Drew missed on their final posession.

I'll share some details and thoughts later.  Give me a break here guys, because I really haven't complained at all this year, but this was the flat out worst job of officiating I've seen this year.  This was the type of bad officiating that affects the outcome.  CUA didn't play well and trailed at halftime before Shane Sowden finally realized he was easily the best player on the court and took over for a stretch to get them back even.

In the first game--a real defensive struggle--Eastern Beat Brockport State 111-98 (by my recollection).  I was wrong about Eastern---man can they score.  That's what happens when you play a weak schedule, nobody knows if you are for real or not.  They looked pretty damn good--at least on offense.

GO PATRIOTS!

[Matt Letourneau]

Well, my Pats looked good...

Honestly, CUA today really didn't.  First and foremost, they won.  We do get kind of wrapped up in how teams look doing it (mostly because we're trying to figure out how good they really are), but the object of the game is to win, and it really doesn't matter if you do it by 3 or 30.  Not like you get extra credit. So kudos to the Cardinals for sticking it out today, overcoming a deficit a few times (especially down 1 with 13 seconds left) and winning the game.

They shot just 37% (Drew was at 48%), and were pretty bad from 3.  But they had a huge rebounding advantage 40-27, fewer turnovers too.  The rebounding advantage sort of spells out why I was frustrated with the first half---CUA's big guys clearly were far better than anything Drew had to put out there.  Finally in the 2nd half Shane stepped up and ended up with 17 points. He and Dwyer (who had a pretty good game) dominated in there.  I really feel like Shane has the ability to score almost every posession but just gets a little tentative. He has so much talent and he's a great player--if CUA is going to be a tournament team, they need him to play like the All-American caliber player I know he is.

This was a really sloppy game.  The refs let it get out of hand--too physical and so inconsistant.  From trip to trip, the standard for a foul changed.  So many times the same calls didn't get made.  You had a bunch of carries in this game, one gets called on CUA's Stolzenthaler (break out game, by the way---he started, made some freshman mistakes but really set an up tempo tone and hit a nice 3)  then nothing....The end of game sequence was an example of the refs just deciding to insert themselves. 

On Eastern's posession with under 20 seconds left, Sowden made what everybody in the gym thought was a clean block.  After the play is over, late whistle, two shot foul. Terrible!  Now of course they called Eastern for a foul on Satalin, on the inbounds, but he caught the ball up the court and got leveled so it was legit.  The Drew coach went nuts (how can you make that call and decide the game, he's shouting--conveniently ignoring the fact that seconds earlier the refs made a far more dubious call in his favor which could have decided the game too). 

Actually, he was really out of control--after the game is over he takes off after the refs when they were running off the court screaming at them.   Gonna be fun dealing with this guy in the new conference...his players had to get him under control.  Nothing wrong with emotion, and firing up your team, but there's a line...he crossed it.

Anyway, I really hope we draw a better crew tomorrow---this was the worst this year.  Didn't cost Catholic the game but man...

Eastern is actually going to be a tough matchup. There were so many defensive breakdowns for Catholic tonight---too many guys out of position (Sowden and Baker got caught on the perimeter a bunch of times) and one thing Eastern can do is score. A lot.  So really the key for tomorrow is Catholic playing better defense.  They were trying everything today, zone, man to man, whatever, without a lot of success and really to me at least that hasn't been a huge problem this year, so it could have just been a bad day.  Certainly Drew's Lopez (23 points, 4-5 from 3) had a lot to do with it--one of those days where it seemed like all the bad shots he took went it anyway.

Lets see what happens, 4 pm tomorrow.  Looks like the other CAC teams got back on the winning track too tonight.

[muchacho]

I agree with you Matt that Sowden sometimes plays like he doesn't know how good he is. Not only that, but I don't think that the team plays in a way that shows how good he can be. Sometime Sowden will be posting up, and the perimeter players don't have the confidence to throw him the ball. Shane needs to get as many touches as possible, which will get other players open more. He is averaging 14 points a game, but on just 9 shots per game. I think he should be trying to put the ball up 15 times a night, and that would help the team out a lot.

[localfan]

Here's hoping that Hood College can start planning for a basketball court that they can call home, instead of using the local high school's court.

[Matt Letourneau]

I agree with you Matt that Sowden sometimes plays like he doesn't know how good he is. Not only that, but I don't think that the team plays in a way that shows how good he can be. Sometime Sowden will be posting up, and the perimeter players don't have the confidence to throw him the ball. Shane needs to get as many touches as possible, which will get other players open more. He is averaging 14 points a game, but on just 9 shots per game. I think he should be trying to put the ball up 15 times a night, and that would help the team out a lot.

Right. I don't think its the scheme or the play called or anything like that--the intent is to get him the ball--but its not happening enough.  And then a part of it is just him not taking the shots.  But you sit there yesterday and watch him--he's totally covered, he gets the ball, spins around and completely turns around the defender and banks it in--and you wonder why he just can't do that more.  I think he can and I think they want him to.  And you know he's fast and quick for such a big guy so he gets down the court really well.  He put up 14 shots last night, here's hoping its a new trend. 

I've seen Hilleary and Morley--CUA's best 2 big guys over the last 7-8 years.  Talent wise, Sowden is every bit as good.  He doesn't have Will's jump shot but inside he's got the best moves of any of them, the best leaping ability and he's the fastest.

[cugrad]

Shane doesn't have the help that Morley and Hilleary had. Those two played with some pretty good guards who were a real threat to score from long range. Catholic has great difficulty scoring threes these days. This is what makes them a mediocre team. 

[Matt Letourneau]

Catholic wins the CUA Pepsi Classic by defeating a scrappy Eastern team 89-67. Cardinals got a great game from Pat Dwyer (17 points, 11 boards), a ton of free throws from Pat Satalin (20 points) and a great shooting game from Scott Fumai (18 points).  They played much better defense, especially interior and held Eastern to lots of long jump shots and 3 attempts.  Eastern got very, very physical at the end and lost their composure a bit.  They committed a bunch of pretty hard fouls, and both their coach and a player got t'd up.  The player slammed the ball down next to the ref.  Also, they were called for an intentional on a really nasty foul (their fans were ridiculous to complain about it), when Stolzenthaler literally got pulled down by the back by an Eastern defender with no attempt for the ball.

But anyway, much better game today by the Cards, maybe they are getting it together again.

[muchacho]

The boxscore showed that Sowden wasn't starting today or yesterday. Is this something Coach Howes is trying out to give the team a boost, or is their some other issue involved?

I would agree that Sowden definitely doesn't have the help that Morley and Hilleary had. There was always a lot of depth at the guards for Catholic, and 5 or 6 guys who could hit 3's. In terms of their game, Morley did offer a lot more from the outside, but wasn't nearly as athletic as Sowden or Hilleary. I think Shane and Matt are very similar atheletes, but Hilleary could post a guy up and hit a jump shot fading away. Sowden is much more likely to try to get around the defender and lay it off the glass. I've always thought that Sowden's talent was on par with Hilleary, but Matt just seemed like a better competitor, as well as Morley. Both of those guys wanted the ball and would get physical in a ballgame. Sowden is talented yet timid.

[Matt Letourneau]

Yes, Shane hasn't started.   For the most part, he and Dwyer haven't been on the court at the same time (except for the last few minutes of each game).  They've sort of been in a rotation.  I have no doubt there are other things at play, too.

I don't disagree with your assesment.  There was one play today when Shane was literally triple teamed a few feet from the basket. He twisted around all three guys and layed it in.  I haven't seen a Catholic player that's ever been able to do that.  I'm talking about pure talent here. 

There is cause for optimism heading back into league play now that CUA played pretty well today.  I had no idea Stolzenthaler was so good. He started the last two games, I don't know that it was intended to be a permanent change but the offense seems to run the best when he's out there.  He's very quick and made some great passes today.  Kelly is still the best defender on the team, but it gives you good offense/defense options when situations warrant at the 1.

I'm going to be in Los Angeles this week and weekend, so I'll miss the St. Mary's game and the annual trip to Goucher.  I was looking forward to both.

[bbald eagle]

The Drew coach went nuts (how can you make that call and decide the game, he's shouting--conveniently ignoring the fact that seconds earlier the refs made a far more dubious call in his favor which could have decided the game too).

Actually, he was really out of control--after the game is over he takes off after the refs when they were running off the court screaming at them. Gonna be fun dealing with this guy in the new conference...his players had to get him under control. Nothing wrong with emotion, and firing up your team, but there's a line...he crossed it.

Sounds like there's already a wreck on Interstate 8!