MBB: Coast 2 Coast Athletic Conference

[Balder Eagle]

GO EAGLES!!

[bbsquared]

Huge CUA lead in offensive boards catapults them to a 4 point lead wuth 4 to go.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Back and forth game at the DuFour Center... as I post UMW has a one point lead with 0:55 remaining!

And by the way... UMW has only five turnovers all game... CUA - 10!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Looks from the live stats like a 69-67 win for CUA. Congrats Cards.

Can't really tell how it ended... looks a bit confusing on the live stats. Will look forward to hearing about it later!

[bbsquared]

CUA wins the battle of the boards 50-32, but UMW wins the foul #'s 26-13. Inside game must have been working for the Cards.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

According to the St. Mary's site... Hood 92 SMC 76 - thought that would be closer.

CUA at Hood for the championship! I would say that CUA and Hood are probably both in the tournament no matter what. But the Pool C cut off on the QOWI keeps getting higher!

We need to see a new QOWI report to see if this is true!

[muchacho]

Catholic gets in without a win this Saturday against Hood? I'm not up on what a team would need to get into the tourney with a Pool C in this region, but I think losses to Goucher and Gallaudet would make a negative impression on whoever is responsible for selecting the teams.
What other teams in this region from other conferences will be competing for Pool C bids?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Man... could you please keep up with how this works. CUA's QOWI - Quality Of Wins Index - is actually HIGHER than Hood's. The losses to Goucher and Gallaudet did hurt... if they had been wins... CUA would be even higher and in better shape.

Also... those are two of only five regional losses. Hood has five regional losses but a lower QOWI. Regional losses and QOWI are the two most important parts of the selection process.

I suspect if Hood beats CUA... both get in.
If CUA beats Hood... Hood may be on a very small bubble!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Just to help those of you who doesn't know about the QOWI - here is the most recently print out BEFORE tonight's games!

1   11.652   1   UW-Stevens Point   0.957 (22-1)   23-2
2   11.625   1   Amherst   0.958 (23-1)   24-1
3   10.950   2   Trinity (Conn.)   0.850 (17-3)   21-3
4   10.810   3   Worcester Polytech   0.905 (19-2)   21-2
5   10.708   4   Salem State   0.920 (23-2)   23-2
6   10.696   1   Chicago   0.818 (18-4)   20-4
7   10.667   1   Mississippi College   0.952 (20-1)   22-2
8   10.640   2   St. Thomas   0.880 (22-3)   22-3
9   10.600   1   Lake Erie   0.950 (19-1)   23-2
10   10.520   5   Rhode Island College   0.880 (22-3)   22-3
11   10.400   1   Brockport State   0.840 (21-4)   22-4
12   10.381   2   Washington U.   0.810 (17-4)   19-4
13   10.375   2   Virginia Wesleyan   0.875 (21-3)   22-3
14   10.333   3   Aurora   0.913 (21-2)   23-2
15   10.318   3   St. John's   0.864 (19-3)   19-6
16   10.292   2   St. Lawrence   0.792 (19-5)   20-5
17   10.261   1   Ramapo   0.783 (18-5)   19-7
18   10.250   4   Occidental   0.813 (13-3)   18-5
19   10.250   4   Augustana   0.833 (20-4)   20-5
20   10.238   3   DePauw   0.900 (18-2)   21-4
21   10.217   3   Rochester   0.739 (17-6)   17-7
22   10.217   6   Keene State   0.826 (19-4)   22-4
23   10.208   4   St. John Fisher   0.792 (19-5)   20-5
24   10.174   5   UW-Oshkosh   0.783 (18-5)   21-5
25   10.174   1   Johns Hopkins   0.864 (19-3)   21-4
26   10.136   2   John Carroll   0.727 (16-6)   17-8
27   10.125   7   Brandeis   0.750 (18-6)   18-6
28   10.105   2   Messiah   0.842 (16-3)   19-5
29   10.038   2   Stevens   0.808 (21-5)   21-5
30   10.000   4   Guilford   0.870 (20-3)   21-3
31   10.000   5   Averett   0.800 (16-4)   18-6
32   10.000   3   Catholic   0.792 (19-5)   20-5
33   10.000   4   Lincoln   0.786 (11-3)   17-7
34   10.000   3   Wooster   0.900 (18-2)   23-3
35   9.960   6   Mary Hardin-Baylor   0.840 (21-4)   21-4
36   9.909   6   Whitworth   0.864 (19-3)   22-3
37   9.905   7   Loras   0.810 (17-4)   19-6
38   9.900   4   Ohio Northern   0.700 (14-6)   19-6
39   9.875   5   Hood   0.792 (19-5)   20-6
40   9.870   5   New York University   0.783 (18-5)   19-5
41   9.870   6   Scranton   0.739 (17-6)   19-6
42   9.864   8   UW-La Crosse   0.727 (16-6)   18-7
43   9.800   3   Manhattanville   0.800 (20-5)   21-5
44   9.792   8   Bates   0.708 (17-7)   18-7
45   9.778   7   Centre   0.778 (14-4)   20-4
46   9.773   8   Maryville (Tenn.)   0.864 (19-3)   19-6
47   9.765   5   Hope   0.824 (14-3)   21-3
48   9.762   6   Hamilton   0.714 (15-6)   18-6
49   9.739   7   Alvernia   0.913 (21-2)   22-4
50   9.737   6   Westminster (Pa.)   0.842 (16-3)   18-7
51   9.708   9   Husson   0.875 (21-3)   21-5
52   9.652   4   New Jersey City   0.696 (16-7)   17-8
53   9.650   5   Elmhurst   0.750 (15-5)   19-5
54   9.636   9   McMurry   0.818 (18-4)   19-6
55   9.625   8   King's   0.708 (17-7)   17-8
56   9.529   9   Lewis and Clark   0.765 (13-4)   18-6
57   9.500   6   Carthage   0.650 (13-7)   16-8
58   9.500   7   Capital   0.667 (16-8)   16-8
59   9.476   8   Wittenberg   0.810 (17-4)   22-4
60   9.409   7   Grinnell   0.727 (16-6)   17-6
61   9.364   9   FDU-Florham   0.636 (14-8)   17-8
62   9.360   10   Tufts   0.600 (15-10)   15-10
63   9.348   7   Utica   0.739 (17-6)   18-6
64   9.346   11   Western New England   0.731 (19-7)   19-7
65   9.318   10   DeSales   0.727 (16-6)   18-7
66   9.316   8   Wheaton (Ill.)   0.632 (12-7)   16-8
67   9.300   5   Rowan   0.750 (15-5)   20-5
68   9.292   12   Babson   0.625 (15-9)   16-9
69   9.273   10   Greensboro   0.773 (17-5)   20-6
70   9.250   13   Bridgewater State   0.708 (17-7)   17-7

That is the Top 70. 59 make the tournament... and figure the cut point will be somewhere around 9.700... remember upsets in the Pool A conference tournaments will add very good teams to the Pool C group. Example... Guilford lost tonight (#30)... and Chicago (#6) and Wash U. (#12) still have to play each other to decide who gets in automatically and who gets the Pool C.

[cuabigdog]

congratulations to CUA on a hard fought victory tonite 69 --67 .. satrting out  down 5-0 and  down by as many as 12 at one point  the cards hung in there to pull off a very eXciting and well palyed game by both teams. UMW should hold their heads high as this game came down to the last shot and at no point did either team give up.. this was a very exciting game to be at  and i hope Sat  will prove to be just as exciting...

GO CARDS !!!!

[hoodfan]

Hood 92 SM 76, Big games from Gutekunst (29pts, 22rebs) and Junghans (31 pts) lifted Hood to victory tonite. Close through out 1st half,  Hood gained some momentum at end of half to take a 5 point lead. Hood slowed the pace of the game in the 2nd half and slowly pulled away. SM had trouble connecting from 3 point land (5-26). Credit SM kids with handling themselves with class during and after the game.  SM really turned their season around after a rough beginning. Looking forward to a great final on Saturday. Hopefully it won't be the last game for either team

[cuabigdog]

Patrick Dwyer's 20 points and 13 rebounds
and Stephen Wheeler's 16 points and 11 rebounds led Catholic University
to a 69-67 victory over the University of Mary Washington in the
Capital Athletic Conference semifinals at DuFour Center on Thursday.

    The second-seeded Cardinals (21-5) will play top-seeded Hood College
(21-6) at Thomas Johnson High School in Frederick, Md., on Saturday at
7 p.m. Scott Fumai added 15 points for Catholic, which overcame a
12-point deficit in the first half. It will be the Cardinals' eighth
straight appearance in the CAC championship game.

   Mary Washington (16-10) had a chance to win it with about three
seconds left but Justin Baker's 3-pointer from just outside the top of the
key hit the front of the rim. Teammate Matt Hale (12 points) collected
the rebound beyond the 3-point line but couldn't get off a good shot.
Baker finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds.

   The teams exchanged a late one-point lead four times in a little over
a minute. Fumai's two free throws gave the Cards a 68-67 lead with 52.4
seconds to go. Baker missed a baseline jumper at the 35-second mark,
Dwyer got the rebound and was fouled. He missed both free throws but
Stephen Papageorge grabbed the offensive rebound. Papageorge finished with
eight boards.

Catholic called its final two timeouts at the 29.9-second mark and Nick
Olivero accounted for the final margin by making the first of two foul
shots. The sophomore hit 5 of 6 from the line and finished with eight
points and five rebounds.

   Baker grabbed the rebound, brought the ball up court and never
relinquished it. The Eagles, with a timeout remaining, went into a four
corners offense and Baker was isolated on Dwyer. Had Dwyer played him too
tight, Baker would likely have tried to drive around him to the basket.
With Dwyer off Baker a couple steps, Baker launched his final 3-point
attempt. Hale chased down the ball and put up a weak shot with defenders
around him.

   The Cardinals out-rebounded Mary Washington, 50-32, and had 24
offensive boards. Dwyer had eight offensive rebounds. Fumai hit 7 of 8 free
throws.

   The Eagles led 27-15 on a 3-point play by Hale with 7:36 to play
before the break. Catholic answered with a 10-0 to cut the lead to two.
Baker ended the run with one of his two 3-pointers. He hit a layup 45
seconds later to put Mary Washington back up by seven. The Cards scored the
final four points of the half to trail by 32-29 at halftime.

   The Cardinals took a 62-56 lead on two Dwyer free throws with 4:03 to
go. They led 64-60 before Baker cut the margin to one on a 3-pointer
from the left corner. Jon Pierce (13 points) put the Eagles on top,
65-64, on two foul shots with 1:34 remaining. Olivero's two free throws put
Catholic ahead but Baker's driving jumper gave Mary Washington its
final lead, 67-66 with 1:15 left.

[andre james smith]

Wow, another instant classic..... great effort by both teams.  The Eagles played their hearts out for the second straight game and gave it everything they had.  Mike, AJ, and Justin led the Eagles through 4 amazing years(3 for JB) and should hold their heads high.  It was a great game and both teams played really hard, of course there was some questionable officiating (it is the CAC of course),  26-13 personal fouls. i know CUA took it inside more, but UMW drove to the basket much more, so it should have been a little more even in that category.  Hale got HACKED in the last second, i dont care what you say about fouls not called in the last minute, the kicked got pummeled, dispute that and you are just plain wrong and weren't watching the game.  Goodluck to CUA and Hood in the finals  and whoever wins, represent the CAC.  I would also like to give some props to Wheeler and Dwyer.  My comrades and I have given the two of them some serious heckeling the past 4 years ( good hearted, yet rather spirited).  Both of them came up to us after the game outside and shook our hands and told us how we were great fans and how they appreciated how we rooted so hard UMW.  That was a classy move on their part and I respect them so much for that.

Now to the ugly..... My buddy didnt want to bring this up on here, but i feel like it has to be known..... Everyone at the game can attest to the fact that all us UMW fans were on our side cheering our team on the whole game.  With about 5 miuntes left, my friend went to use the restroom and was accosted by 3 CUA students IN THE BATHROOM STALL for being a UMW fan. They tore his clothing and swung at him while he was by HIMSELF.  He notified the CUA "security" of who did this and they went to talk to to them on the sidelines and said they "had in under control".  After the game, we were on our way out and the same kids started jawing at again and one CUA student spat on my friend and another one threw his LIT CIGARETTE at his face.  The "campus police" once again witnessed this and started questiioning the guilty CUA students and taking names.  After all was said and done, the Cua security was joking around with the lit cigarette kid and talking about how his brother lives on the same street as he does.  Pretty much an entire joke.  Officer Foley is in charge and gave me the investigating officers name so hopefully something comes of this.  I hope something comes of this and these coward thugs are brought to justice.

And yes I yelled at the CUA free throw shooters behind their bench at the end of the game after all of this went on, where I shouldnt be sitting, after all this was going on.... but yelling during the game is one thing, jumping someone 3on 1 in the bathroom is another thing.......

[Matt Letourneau]

What a great game at DuFour tonight.   A fitting end to the Mary Washington-Catholic skirmishes over the last few years.  Basically, it all came down to this almost surreal moment, when Mary Washington had the ball, down two.  Baker playing point-forward, takes the ball down.  Everybody's set up in their positions.  Its Dwyer on Baker, two seniors and two of the most respected players in the league.  Somebody's going home.  Clock ticking down...8-7-6-5-4...Baker makes his move, fakes to one side, Dwyer doesn't bite, fakes to the other side, again, Dwyer stays his ground...Baker pulls up, takes the shot, Dwyer steps up to defend...the shot's on target...but Dwyer's defense was just enough to force Baker to alter the shot...front rim.  Ballgame.  Wow.

Sure, some of the Mary Washington fans are apparently going to whine about the ensuing rebounding free for all, which is pretty ridiculous to me.  It was a long rebound, the ball ends up way past the three point line, everybody on the court goes diving for.  Hale ends up with the ball, and he's on the floor.  As the buzzer goes off, he tries to chuck the ball up.  I guess they wanted a foul called.  But there's no crew in the country that would call that--I'm not sure even what they could have called.  Initially, it could have actually been a jump ball, since CUA players had their hands on the ball.  It could have been a travel, because Hale was on the floor.  If it was a foul, it could have been called on the floor going for the ball.  But, I mean--there's no way you can call a three point shooting foul there when you have a bunch of guys on top of each other and somebody chucks it up.

Overall, Mary Washington played a very, very good game.  Their energy  was great, they took care of the ball, and they played very good trap defense.  While Andre's upset at the free throw disparity, really Mary Washington got a ton out of the foul situation--Wasilenko fouled out with 5 minutes to go (yeah, questionable call because he fell down, they called a trip) and Fumai had 4 fouls with 7 or so to go.  Wasilenko not being on the court ended up giving Catholic fits on the inbound plays, coupled with Mary Washington's great trap. Fumai had to play off Baker down the stretch, allowing him to get some drives.  For some reason, with a minute left, Wood took off the trap but they did get some turnovers on it.

On the other end, though, Catholic's perimter defense was awesome.  Mary Washington was just 8-23 from 3.  As we all know, that is their bread and butter.  Particularly in the second half, the Eagles got almost no good looks at the basket.  As a result, they did get some points off of penetration, but I think if you are Catholic you almost take that---at the end of the game, when you are playing with a 3-5 point lead, Catholic was giving Mary Wash one on one looks to prevent the three and it worked for the Cardinals.

Dwyer played a great game tonight.  I know he was only 7-14 from FT but a lot of those misses were in the first half--second half he was pretty solid down the stretch.  Wheels didn't have his best game but he's still a rebounding force.  50-32 was the rebounding advantage for Catholic.

It was a lot different game than last week.  Mary Washington was a lot more fired up.  Catholic was ICE cold from outside...6-19 overall and they started just terribly. That allowed the Eagles to really double down inside and not respect the outside shot. 

But you know---good teams win those kinds of games.  You come out, you take a punch, you get down 12.  You're not hitting much of anything, you're being forced away from the basket inside, ice cold outside...but Catholic got through it, fought hard, most importantly did not deviate from the game line, forced the ball inside, got some good looks, got to foul line a lot, and relied on a senior to play one on one defense to end the game and the Eagles season.

I'm so glad this senior class was able to walk off their home court with a win in what is likely their last home game.  That meant a lot.

On to Hood.

[andre james smith]

Upset about the FTs??.... yes CUA shoots 18 MORE FTS IN THE SECOND HALF ALONE, and i know CUA was strong inside with offensive rebounds and posting up,  but UMW was driving to the basket much more and 18 more in one half in a playoff game is rediculous..... and like i said, UMW was driving more than they regularly do based on the fact that Ditka and co. were calling a tight game.... guess we should have won last week at Dufour so we could have gotten the home game and the calls that come along with it.

No comment about your thugs at CUA Matt? I thougt that you would come up with some way to justify roughing up a fan that came up to Dufour to root his team on.......