MBB: Conference of New England

[James]

BRISTOL, RI- The Roger Williams University men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season, 68-57, at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Tuesday night. Sophomore Bill Barrett (Fairfield, CT) led the Hawks in scoring with 22 points in the contest.
The Hawks began the game strong, jumping out to a 21-13 lead behind two three-pointers by junior Dan Gumb (Patterson, NY). RWU extended the lead to 28-17 before forcing the Bears to call time-out with 5:15 left in the half. Coast Guard proceeded to post a 16-0 run, reclaiming the lead, 33-28. The teams traded baskets before entering the locker rooms, 35-30, at halftime.

In the second half the Bears continued their strong shooting, slowly extending their lead to 45-39 with 12:30 remaining. Draining shots from the outside, the Bears recorded nearly half their points from behind the arc, finishing the game with 10 three-pointers. Junior Al Sowers finished the game as the Bears' leading scorer with 18 points.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Just imagine how good that Coast Guard team would be if their leading scorer from last year had actually come back.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Tuesday Night's Roundup:

NEC 77 Keene State 92 @ NH Tech.  Not a bad score for NEC, especially considering the opponent.  Tyler Evans who seems to have come out of nowhere was the leading scorer for NEC with 23 points along with 7 boards, 3 blocks and 5 steals.  Quinn had 22 and Sylvia went for 12 and 11.  They forced a lot of turnovers, but were sorely outrebounded.  All in all a good early season game.  We'll have to keep an eye on this Evans kid.

RWU 57 Coast Guard 68.  We got most of the info below, so I won't do much.  Disappointing loss, but not a bad team to lose to, if you have to lose one.  Camobreco had a bad day handling the ball with 7 turnovers.  Gumb didn't play too much and he seems to still be recovering.  Just looks like a bit of an off night against a good team.

AMC 74 Daniel Webster 81.  Of course there are no stats yet.

NC 77 Westfield State 84.  21 from Vallee, 20 from Lewis, 15 from Ron Powers and 11 from Paquin; too many turnovers.  The only real difference between the two teams was 13 turnovers for Westfield to 20 for Nichols.

CSC 77 Plymouth State 86 @ NH Tech.  Cousins had 26, Truncilleto had 13, Fouriner put in 12 and Andrew Tracy had 10 off the bench.  Still no defense from CSC with Plymouth shooting over 50% from the floor and the arc.  FT shooting got the best of them as they only managed to hit half of their shots.  Again, this seems to be a chemistry issue.  They were just as bad defensively to start last season, but the talent kept them afloat; it's just not happening that way this year.

SRU 77 Wheaton (MA) 83.  Seventy-seven seems to be the magic number for the CCC these days.  Goodridge led Salve with 20 points, Grendal had 16, Woodword 12 and Hazzard 11.  Rebounds, shooting percentages and turnovers were all very even.  Wheaton made it to the FT line almost twice as often as SRU and that was the difference.  This was a well played game for Salve with Grendal and Goodridge doing the inside-outside thing, again it just wasn't enough for the win.  Hopefully all these teams can get these issues corrected by January and we can have a real competitive conference season.

ENC 70 Mt. Ida 74.  Another tough close loss for ENC, although they have to be encouraged both by the margin and how many points they are actually able to put up this season.  No stats anywhere yet.

WIT 90 Becker 75 @ Suffolk.  At least somebody won last night.  PBJ had 20 points and 8 assists, Bolton put in 19 and Gaine had 17.  Doyle still seems to be burried in his Sophomore slump.  WIT shot 60% from the floor and won the rebounding battle to take this game.  I know Becker isn't the best opponent to judge a team by, but the team play here is good to see from Wentworth.  They had 26 assists as a team and are now getting solid play from their sixth man, the appropriately named freshman Kevin Wentworth.  They might come around after all and if they can get Bynes back for the stretch run, they could be a nice suprise up north.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

As far as I can tell, no CCC games tonight.

[the_cru2]

This ENC team by far has the most potential I have seen in years.  They lack a lot of size down low, but Luc Jasmin is still pretty dominant.  He just needs to learn how to stay out of foul trouble. 

Overall this team can be very good.  they have proven so far to have the ability to hang with any team, they just havent been able to put it all together. 

They are still a very young team, so there is a lot of positives for them in the future. 

It will be interesting to see how the conference play pans out.  Is it just me or does the talent level overall seem to be down this year? 

[Muff10]

Press Release from AMC website:

The Anna Maria men's basketball team lost tonight to visiting Daniel Webster by the score of 74-81. Each team made 27 field goals and each team had 6 three pointers. But as is often the case in basketball, the team that wins the free throw battle wins the game. Tonight Daniel Webster went to the line 16 more times than the home team and hit 7 of those for the final difference. It was a very hard fought battle between two teams that play a very fast paced and determined style of basketball. In the end, the athleticism and depth of the visitors was just too much for the Amcats on this night.

Anna Maria played a decent game and shot a very good 50% from the floor.  Four players all scored in double digits with junior Dan Sadlowski leading the way with 13. But it was in the details that Daniel Webster found a way to win. Anna Maria turned the ball over 23 times – too many times to win games. And the visitors enjoyed a 23 – 7 edge on the offensive glass! These are important stats that tell the story as much as the free throw shooting.

Anna Maria did take a nine point lead into the locker room at the break and had found a way to neutralize freshman Warren Wiggins early. Wiggins only had 3 points and 2 rebounds at the half. But as the second half progressed, the relentless defensive pressure of the visitors began to take its toll on the home team, and when Wiggins buried a jumper with 9 minutes left to give the visitors their first lead since early in the game, the momentum was decidedly in Daniel Webster's favor.

At that point Wiggin's high school teammate, freshman Jamie Bryant, began to assert himself at both ends of the floor. He made three steals while hitting 5 of 9 shots from the floor in the second half. His effort tipped the scales and Daniel Webster had their second win of the season. Bryant finished with a game high 21 points. Sophomore Steve Austin added 18 for the visitors.

Jim Daigneault and Adam Richards both had 12 pts for the Amcats.

Anna Maria drops to 2-2 while Daniel Webster improves to 2-1

I wold have liked to have goen you my thoughts on the game, however I was unable to get to the game like I planed.  AMC lead at the half 41-32, but wans able to keep it goin in the 2nd.  23 off rebs is way too many to give up, they also had 20 turnovers.  another key stat was ft's, after goin 13-14 in the 1st AMC went 1-2 in the 2nd. 

AMC was again without Nunnally, as he is still recovering from a broken/dislocated finger.  Which surely lead to some of the margin in off rebs.  but AMC still needs to do a better job on the glass. 

Next game Thur 30. @ Becker - another winnable game, hopefully AMC will put 2     halves together

[jj]

I would agree that the overall talent is down a little.  The CCC lost several very good seniors last year so we will have to see if they can be replaced.  Too early to tell.

As far as ENC, I am looking forward to how they fare against Fram State on Thursday.  They have not hung "with any team."  They have hung with three very average or even below average teams and got spanked by a very good team by almost 40.  If they are improved they will be in the game against a solid team like Fram St. as well so we will see.  

On the other hand, one team that has proven to be better than expected is NEC.  They are beating the average teams and hanging with the very good ones.      

[Maq Diesel]

Gordon has Mitchell tonight and I know nothing about them, although I have seen some scores against teams I am know but I hate comparing scores its useless.   Tonight should be interesting for Gordon though, Coach Scahuer voiced his disapointment in Gordon's effort thus far.  He said he wants more effort on defence and said rebounding was going to be more of a focus in practice this week.  It will be interesting to see how the team responds tonight.  They might not need much effort to beat Mitchell but WIT on Saturday has enough good players to beat Gordon if the defence and rebounding efforts dont improve.  If anyone out there knows about Mitchell I would be interested to hear a little bit about them.  My prediction for tonight is look for Gordon to get back on track and play to their potential and win big 80-55

[Maq Diesel]

Gordon put an absolute pounding on visiting Mitchell tonight winning by a score of 92-54.  Gordon finally looked like the team people have been talking about this preseason.  Marstaller led the way with 23 points and 5 board in only 21 minutes of play, other players in double figures were Mike Herr (15 and 8) and Tim Deluca (11). The starters played only a few minutes in the second half in a game that saw nine players get 10 or more minutes and every player see the floor.  Gordon's rebound had been lacking in their first few games and you could tell tonight they were hungry for rebounds and just gave a much better effort as they won the battle of boards 51 to 29, including 21 offensive rebounds.  Overall it was Gordon's best effort of the year, look for them to build on tonights effort as they take on WIT on Saturday at home.

[bballbliss]

I'm a GC alumna with my first post! I was also at the GC/Mitchell game last night, and though GC won by a wide margin, the first half of the game was a bit like watching my high school team.  Schauer must have had some strong words for the players at half, because the team completely stepped up their game quality!  It was also exciting that each player on the team had at least 3 minutes on the floor so early in the season.  No one had more than 2 personal fouls which is a great improvement from the last three games.  Like Maq said, our rebounding game has struggled in the past and last nights performance showed growth in the players.

Conference play starts Saturday with GC hosting Wentworth.  I don't know much about this team; any comments?

[Maq Diesel]

We have heard about Gordon and Mitchell here is a breif recap on Thursday nights other CCC action,

Endicott loses 66-74 to visiting MIT
Anna Maria loses at Becker 73-76
Nichols drops Fitchburg St. at home 79-67
Curry loses at home to Trinity (conn) 87-104
ENC loses at Framingham State 73-80
Salve Regina won on the road at Johnson and Wales 67-49

This weekends games

WIT @ Gordon
Anna Maria @ Salve Regina
RWU @ Colby-Sawyer
Curry @ Nichols
UNE @ ENC

Thomas @ NEC

Endicott has the weekend off and it looks like that might be a good thing as they drop to 1-4 on the season and their schedule get no easier over the next couple of games.

[gullfan]

EC lost another preseason game. At 1-4, I know they are bummed -to say the least. Last night they tried to stay with MIT but never got over the hump. Corbett got them on the board early, before it turned real ugly. Like the way T Burton handles and goes to the hoop! Turnovers were down, but a couple of late ones hurt. But those MIT'ers can really shoot foul shots. All night, they only missed one or two - and made a bunch down the stretch. That was the difference.
  Looks like the Gulls are coming around. Not as much wrong as earlier scores might make you think.

[threeball23]

Glad to see that CCC play will get under way this weekend...But I hate to see a CCC team lose to Becker, it's just not good for the league.  The RWU/CSC game may be best of the weekend.  Should be a good gage to see if RWU can go up and get a win in New London.  EC has got to be better than their 1-4 record suggests, they have played the toughest scheule thus far.  I think they will still be a factor in the CCC come February.

[jj]

Got a few real interesting and closely matched conference games this weekend:

RWU @ CSC - RWU has got to be the favorite but I have a feeling Foti will really have his guys ready to play.  Never easy to win there.

Curry @ Nichols - Nichols has to be excited about playing Curry at home 1st semester.  Curry will be much better 2nd semester.  Nichols seems to be playing well and has a very good shot a winning this one.

UNE @ ENC - All I have to say is somebody will get their first win of the year and start the conference season 1-0 all in one day.   

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

WIT @ GC
NC @ CC
UNE @ ENC
CSC @ RWU
NEC vs Thomas
AMC @ SRU

These should be some interesting games, although already this morning Lincoln scored 201 in one game.  We'll have to see if the six winners in these games can equal that.