MBB: Coast 2 Coast Athletic Conference

[mwgoonie]

Refs suck. Period.


And despite all the F-bomb talk, Matt was still only 20 feet from the guy. So I don't know what difference it makes what he heard.

[kitchenrat]

Road win for the sparts 72-56. Bushy lead YCP with 16.

[bisonpride]

UMW was so LUCKY to come up with the win.. The game was kind of robbed.. I am not going to complain because it's fact.. UMW was lucky to come out of the gym with the victory. Also, Coach Woods should have got T easy at end of the game, even though his team was winning after the buzzer sounded. At least, the Cardinals win over St. Mary's. Game stats will come up later on..

[Akela15]

Looking at the box score it looks like Brian Singer had a big game off the bench for the Spartans.  Was anyone at the game for a recap?

[Matt Letourneau]

Catholic did indeed beat St. Mary's 77-60 in a rather wild game.  First of all, it was my first trip ever to SMC and the new gym--interesting place.  Whoever designed the gym did a great job with the acoustics--it was really, really loud in there despite being about half full.  Pretty good CUA crowd for a game that far away.

Big story of this one was the job freshman Nick Olivero did on Tyson Lesense.  Together with Aaron Kelly (more on him later--the 'wild' part of the game--Lesense was absolutely shut down--5 of 18 for 14 points.  Olivero was incredible on defense---he did the exact same thing to Mike Lee in the previous game.  The CAC better watch out for this kid--as a freshman, if you draw Lee and Lesense as your assignment and the two of them go a combined 10-36 against you, that's pretty impressive.  He played smothering defense, gave up no more than 2-3 decent looks.

Tyson got very frustrated and increasingly demonstrative--after calls, he'd complain, storm around, shake his head, etc.  Kelly was doing a great job on him when Nick was on the bench.  The two of them were going at it a little bit, ref stopped play and called a double tech.  Now I think by now everybody in the league knows Aaron Kelly.  He is not a volatile player.  He's a hard-nosed head down quiet guy.   He didn't think he deserved a tech, neither did I.  Lesense was getting away with bloody murder the whole game with holds, push offs, etc. 

In his own back court, Gene the ref (we all know Gene, don't we--and for the record unlike many on here I actually think Gene does a pretty decent job, he at least works hard to be in the right position to make calls even if he's not always right, that's more than you can say for a lot of guys--so I have nothing against him), walks over to Aaron, and Aaron kind of just shrugs his shoulders at him and asks why he got a tech.  Gene turns around, t's him up AGAIN, and ejects him.   I guess he thought he was complaining about the call too much.

It isn't like he was mouthing off, showing attitude, using profanity, anything like that.  Aaron absolutely couldn't believe it.  So Lesense shows the t's with a huge grin on his face.  And let me tell you, it was the WORST thing that could have happened to St. Mary's.   The Catholic fans--but also players-- were furious Kelly had gotten ejected, especially considering what Lesense had gotten away with (that was the issue for me, the double standard).  He was ejected with 5:00 left and the score 55-50 Catholic.  Catholic went on a 13-2 run in the next 2:30 and blew the game away.  It was nice to see them fired up.  Olivero ended up drawing an offensive foul off of Lesense (I think the refs had finally tired of him really) and fouled him out, which allowed the Catholic fans to, well, enjoy the moment.  SMC bench didn't like it much though.  So it goes.

Anyway, otherwise, another nice spark from Josh Mish off the bench--8 points in 9 minutes.  Catholic had their second straight good game inside---Pat Dwyer had 17 and Shane Sowden 15.  On the offensive end Olivero had 11.  In case you couldn't tell, I'm high on this kid---he just seems to be in the right spot at the right time, and is high energy.  He'll come flying through and grab an offensive rebound when you don't expect it. 

So a good win on the road.  Wednesday, of course, Catholic is at York.  I really wish I could go to that game, but I'll have to work.  I'm sure it will be another great one, and I hope its not the last one of the year (well if somebody else wants to beat York, by all means feel free, don't get me wrong)...

Sounds like a crazy game at Mary Wash.   CoachT and pride don't have to tell me twice how tough Gally is.  The Cardinals will be glad to vouch for them.  Actually, I'm glad they're keeping up the high quality play--people can understand a little better why Catholic lost at their place...if they get you way out of your game (which they did against Catholic), with their home crowd all riled up, its tough.   I'm looking forward to their crosstown trip on what will be Senior Day at Catholic (and hopefully our own crowd to contend with).

[ycp]

Details from Marymount...

The Spartans were led by senior Brandon Bushey as the guard tossed in a game-high 16 points while he also had three assists and three rebounds. Chad McGowan added 15 points, six rebounds, three blocked shots, and two steals for the green and white. Senior Brian Singer continued his stellar play of late with 14 points and six rebounds in just 14 minutes of action. Singer was 4-for-4 from the floor and 6-for-8 from the charity stripe. Brad Zerfing was the fourth Spartan in double figures with 11 points. Senior Kenny Fass pulled down a game-high seven rebounds for York.

The Saints received 14 points from Brandon Parker as the guard was 5-for-14 from the floor. Corey Diamond added nine points and four rebounds to the Saint attack. Pooyan Rahimi and Charles Atakora each added eight points to the Marymount offense.

[kitchenrat]

Does anyone know the deal with Hood and their Gym. Are then building a new one or do they always play at the High School? Looks like they played all road games in the first semester. Just wondering if any of you Maryland CAC types knew.

[unreallawns]

Salisbury snuck by at goucher in double overtime.  The rest of the season is going to be very interesting as far as wrapping up the 2-5 seeds.

[spartanfan]

Hood currently plays at Thomas Johnson HS, where Hood's coach Dickman (some of you Catholic guys might recognize that name) used to coach HS ball.  Hood was an all girls school, with no basketball team. With the new addition of males and a team, I can imagine it'll be a couple years before they have a gym.  Dickman is notorious around that part of MD as being able to recruit some top-notch talent; he did it in HS (winning multiple state championships) and I guarantee you it won't be long until Hood is a VERY respectable program.  I had the pleasure of being posterized by Terrance Morris my junior year in HS at this gym.

[Pat Coleman]

Hood was an all-women's school with a basketball team. However, the campus gym is barely sufficient for that program. I don't know what plans are to replace it.

For those who remember Marymount's old gym, Hood's gym seats about one-quarter as many people. There's no out of bounds space. Probably would be unsafe to play men's games there and I don't know how safe it is for the women's games either.

[spartanfan]

I didn't even know they had a women's team.  I knew they some sort of gym, my mom played volleyball for them back in the day. But figured they had turned it into classrooms or something.  I'll give Dickman 6 years before he has Hood win their first NCAA bid, whether it be as an independent or by winning whatever conference they end up joining. 

[Pat Coleman]

They joined the CAC.
http://www.d3hoops.com/news.php?date=2005-12-30

[Akela15]

A little of topic but not too far, regarding Hood's athletic programs their mens soccer team has made very big steps in the right direction this past year.  I believe they finished above .500 for the first time and started the season off very strong before slightly fading off.  So as previous posters have stated it wont be long before their basketball team is competitive as well, espcially with their coach.

[muchacho]

Congratulations to Nick Olivero for being named CAC player of the week. After a slow start following his great season on the gridiron, Nick is starting to show how great of a basketball player he can be as well. I think Nick can be the starting guard opposite of Satalin for the rest of the season, and lets see if Coach Howes gives him that chance Wednesday against York.

[Matt Letourneau]

Yeah, Catholic seemed to work well with Satalin at the 1 and Olivero at the 2, drawing the toughest defensive assignment.  Nick did start for the first time against SMC in recognition of his play against Mary Washington.