MBB: Coast 2 Coast Athletic Conference

[cuabigdog]

being very judgemental i feel coming from some one who wasn't even at the game that i know of .... the refs lost complete control of the game ... like it or not thats the way i feel,, no need to put down someone for stating his opinion...

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Found the Goucher-Hood score (thanks to the Goucher website!):
82-72 Hood... congrats to the Blazers for reaching the 20-win plateau for the first time in school history.

Coach Dickman certainly is coach of the year! And Ryan Jughans could make an arguement for player of the year (nothing against McGowan). Heck of a season that continues...

As for Goucher... thanks to James Russo, Pierre Thomas, Cameron Brown, and John SIcherman on their careers (baring they don't return). Russo certainly brought a lot of excitement and one of my favorite names to announce in 12 years. Thomas showned a lot of passion and it was good to see him return. Brown has a heck of a story... left and became a police officer... but decided to return to get his degree - he showed a lot of improvement this year and was a joy to watch. And Sicherman was wonderful to watch compete. He might have been too short at forward for years or not your prototypical guard... but one thing I appreciated was the fact he always tried... played his heart out... never quit... and always did what he could and what was asked of him... without complaint.

On to the semis!

Oh... and bigdog... thanks for proving Pat's point!

[gordonmann]

St. Mary's 89 Marymount 76 -- or something like that

[MuMu]

Goucher putting the stats up ending the season on a good note.

MU loses a Great group of seniors that I sweated with as well as some roadtrips, and fun spring breaks with. from here on out these are Coach MAC own recuirting class. Mike Grey and Fred Stanback returns.

I hope Mwash wins the CAC!

Matt what happen in the stands?

[Matt Letourneau]

I'm on baby duty for a while.  When my little guy calms himself, I'll post.  There was a pretty big fracas though and the game had to be stopped and the players taken off the court.  Couple dumb but harmless Catholic guys, Odumeru and a bunch of ridiculous Salisbury thugs who stormed across the court were involved.

Catholic played a nice complete game again tonight...

[MuMu]

Matt your a funny dude, thugsss and dumb cua fans, i cant wait to here this one..

Pat I like your post about CUABIGDOG, thank god you have not read any of my post.haha

[Pat Coleman]

being very judgemental i feel coming from some one who wasn't even at the game that i know of .... the refs lost complete control of the game ... like it or not thats the way i feel,, no need to put down someone for stating his opinion...

Doesn't mean it is necessary to complain about refs in a 20-point win. Think of the image you present.

[MuMu]

hahaha

[andre james smith]

Wow... great game at York tonight, one of the best CAC games I have been to.  York jumped out big early, but UMW weathered the storm and played some great pressure deep and fast paced offense the rest of the first half to really throw York out of their game by forcing turnovers and keeping the ball away from McGowan.  They stretched their lead in the second by starting to knock down some threes, but York made a good run (plenty of questionable foul calls included) to take a 4 point lead with 5:30 left.  AJ and Justin each made a clutch three and the Eagles never trailed again.  
Matt Hale showed why he is the true SOY in the CAC this season.  We were sitting behind the bench and he really wants the ball in pressure shots and he delivered, he's an exciting kid to watch.
Looking forward to one more battle between the Eagles and the Cardinals in DC.  I know Catholic is on a roll right now, but the Eagles had a look in their eyes tonight that I haven't seen in awhile and I don't think they are going to play like they did last Saturday at Dufour.  It should be another close one but I have the feeling that Mdubs can win this thing....

[andre james smith]

On a side note, a couple fans/ supposed officials at York were pretty rediculous tonight.  First we werent allowed to chant defense and kick on the bleachers, only stomp.  Then we couldnt stomp on the stairs.  Then the York cheerleaders handed out free shirts to us and we put them on the floor and were stomping on them and were threatened to be kicked out again.  Pretty sore losers over there who apparently think that we are at a 3rd grade basketball game.  Maybe we should have chanted "2-4-6-8 who do we appreciate after the game. 

Anyways, great win on the road for the Eagles... Go HOOD!

[hoodfan]

As DMac posted earlier Hood won 82-72. Balanced scoring helped the Blazers as 4 of 5 starters reached double figures. Gutekunst only starter not to reach double figures with 7 points, but he pulled down 17 boards. Junghans 22, Robine 18, Abercrombie 17, and Edmonds 14. Balanced attack for Hood tonite. Hood led at half 32-30, and started in a zone for the second half and slowed Goucher down a little. Ruuso got his 3rd foul early in the 2nd half, and sat for awhile. Russo played well in the first half, and when he went out Hood was able to extend their lead a little.

I really like Pierre Jones for Goucher. I have seen him play against Hood a couple of times, and watched him in the Pride of MD tourney at beginning of season. Against Hood this year he has gotten 20 or more in all 3 games they've played this year. Tonite he had 22 points, 10 boards. What do my fellow posters think of him in relation to all conference selections?  Based on how he's played against Hood this season, I'd give him first team, but have not seen him play against anyone else.

Congratulations to the Blazers on their 1st CAC conference tourney win. Got the SeaHawks on Thursday. Hood has been developing a pretty good following as the season has progressed, should be a good crowd on hand as there won't be any High School games competing with the Blazers on Thurs. night

[Matt Letourneau]

Ok, well all in all in a was an eventful evening at Catholic tonight.  I'll get to the game itself, but first, the "melee."

Basically what happened was that there was a tough out of bounds play in the far corner of the gym.  Left side across from the scorer's table.  The official standing there blew the call, and a couple of the students there jumped up and starting arguing.  Now that's a tight spot down there.  These guys did not cross the court, but they did startle the official and he stopped and wanted them ejected.  I can understand that.  They overreacted.  So they start the process of having them tossed.  As that's happening, the officials start walking away.  At that point, Salisbury's Odumeru turned around, went over to some of these guys' buddies, and they got into it, the end result of which was Odumeru pushing one of them into the bleachers.  The officials all had their backs turned and didn't see a thing.

Well, that contact prompted an eruption from the other side of the court.  All a sudden these three big dudes just come hopping out of the stands and run clear across the court to where Odumeru was, and they start getting into it.  At that point, Campus Police had arrived and had pretty much restored order, so these big guys take a seat over there.  It seems like everything is over.

The officials go ahead and restart the game, which was an inbounds play at that spot.  As soon as they do, those same guys that ran across the court go down to the front row and just totally start a brawl.  They went after whoever it was that got into it with Odumeru, and then all hell broke loose.  More people came over from the other side of the court, security came running, the CUA athletics department staff went running over there, etc.   The officials pulled both teams off the court, and they went over to their bench area.

Now, the CUA fans were furious that Odumeru got away with pushing a Catholic student.  The guys over there overreacted to begin with, but it was typical college basketball harmless stuff.  What escalated the whole situation was the Salisbury player either taking the bait or just being aggressive and going over there to get into it.  In my view, a player can never let that happen and needs to remove himself from the situation.  Then you had these goons from central casting come barrell-assing across the court.  How and why the officials let that happen without having them removed from the gym is beyond me--what did they THINK was going to happen with those guys now sitting over in the Catholic student section?

Keep in mind also, frankly, this was a lousy crowd for CUA.  Not a lot of students.  Not a rowdy gym--pretty sedate actually, until this point.  So its not like people had been going after each other all game and tempers were flaring.  Odumeru should have been ejected for going into the stands, the Catholic students that originally startled the ref should (and were ejected), and the goons from Salisbury should have been ejected for running across the court.  In reality, nothing happened to Odumeru, and the Salisbury thugs weren't tossed until after the second fight.

Now, the game itself was well played by Catholic.  Williams did get 21, but on 24 shots.  They played great team defense, and as a result Salisbury just quit running plays and played a lot of one on one.  Basically it came down to either Williams driving to the lane for a tough angle shot, or somebody taking a bad jumper.

On the offensive end, Catholic had 21 assists and an incredible 21-4 assist/turnover ratio.  It as the return of Fumai as he was dead on with some huge shots and got 26 with 14 boards.  The other standout for me was Waslienko--he played like one of the best pgs in the CAC, which he IS by the way--13 points, 10 assists, 1 turnover.

After the fight, Salisbury was totally dead.  They didn't hit a shot for a couple minutes and they were totally unglued.  Up until that point, the fouls were almost all called on Catholic, but Salisbury started getting very rough and physical and thus drew some whistles.  The officials had let way too much of that go on, particulary underneath the basket.  As BigDog said, 9 minutes into the second half the fouls were 7-1 for Salisbury.  There's not any point in my going into a dissertation on why that's crazy, but it was what it was and I think it certainly led to the game getting a bit out of hand.  And then you had a situation with the game winding down where you start to fear that somebody's going to get hurt.

So anyway, back come the Eagles.  This is going to be very interesting, I KNOW we are going to get a better Eagles team and Mary Wash's best shot.   But Catholic really is playing good basketball now, even making their free throws (15-17 in the 2nd half).  Should be a great game.

Looking at the box score, I still can't figure out how Mary Wash won.  Sure, 3 points, but that was 42 points.  York won every other category, dominating some.  Huh.  Well, CUA's going to have to really pound the ball and defend the 3.

[Cardinal guy]

Wait -- a Salisbury player pushing someone from Catholic? That NEVER happens!

Thank goodness we're getting out of this league.

[ycp]

First, before I get into anything about the game. Addressing ajs comments. There was a small, but very boistrious group of classless Mary Washington fans. Most of their fans were fine but some of them were real pieces of work. To call the York people sore losers is ridiculous. Mary Washington won the game fair and square. We feel bad for our seniors who had their careers ended. That's it. I don't think anyone enjoys having their season ended. There are a number of other classless actions by a few members of the Mary Washington contingency but I really don't feel like going into it tonight. It's not worth it. We lost, you won. Congrats.

Also, amazing how in 16 home games this year, that group of Mary Washington fans are the only people that have been trouble during the year. Maybe a look in the mirror is necessary.

As for the game, it really came down to one thing for York. The inability to keep Mary Washington from getting huge offensive rebounds. The Eagles had 11 first half offensive rebounds and fired off 12 more shots than York. Also, ajs, you want to complain about the refs yet the foul discrepency was 10-5 in the first half. Odd for a team that rarely goes to the basket to draw ten fouls in the first half while a team that does go to the basket draws just five. Curious. Amazing how blinded fans can get by their team colors. The officiating had no bearing on the outcome of the game. They were pretty consistent and called fouls on both sides. It certainly isn't the reason we lost or you won.

The biggest play of the game came when York was up 64-60 and Baker was at the line for a one-and-one with about 5:30 left. Baker misses the free throw and Whitworth (I believe) hustles to get an offensive rebound. That leads to a Fitzgerald three followed by a Baker three and a four point lead turns into a two point deficit. The Spartans were really starting to play well and a defensive rebound on the free throw miss keeps the four point lead intact with the chance to add on. Now, six points against Mary Washington is just two posessions but the momentum was clearly on the side of York.

With the game tied at 75, the Eagles call time out with 16 seconds left. The Spartans do a great job of defending the Eagles play and Hale has to "settle" for about a 26 to 27 foot three that draws nothing but net. That kid plays like the Grumbacher is his home away from home. He won the game for the Eagles in the first meeting with some clutch free throw shooting. Hats off to Hale, he hit a tough shot with Joe Yeck defending him pretty well. You don't really expect someone to make a bomb like that to win the game.

With .2 left, one Eagle ran onto the floor prompting the technical foul. It really didn't make a difference because the three point advantage. Even if we make both free throws you only have time for a tap from the far end of the floor.

Congrats to Spartan seniors Brad Zerfing and Joe Yeck. They have fashioned a four-year record of 80-33 including a mark of 69-18 over the final three years of their career. To win 16 games on a team that had basically three players who played the year before is a huge accomplishment. This year will serve as a great bridge between NCAA tournament teams and the future which is extremely bright for YCP.

I will watch the remainder of the CAC men's tournament from afar. I hope all the games are as exciting as tonight's game was. It was two good teams going after each other for 40 minutes. Just what a good college basketball game should be. Good luck to all four remaining teams.

[ycp]

By the way, the box score is here:

http://www.ycp.edu/sports/mens_basketball/2006/YCPMBB26.HTM