MBB: Conference of New England

[scout]

CSC looks to have this one in hand... 54-41 with a little over 8 min left...

[Hugenerd]

UNE up 56-52, under 12 left.

[Ralph Turner]

Salve Regina 73, UNE 70,  2:43 left.
UNE Anthony Johnson at the line 1&1,  good and good. 73-72 2:35 

Good crowd at UNE tonight.

UNE ball  --Jefferson got the rebound. Belmonte hits his first basket, a runner. UNE 74-73
Salve Regina at the line. 1&1. time out 1:15 left.

Missed FT UNE rebounds
UNE -- bad pass by UNE.
SR -- shot blocked out of bounds 41.2 sec;  UNE leads 74-73. Time out. SR ball.
SR -- calls time on the in-bounds attempt.
SR -- traveling call.  Time out UNE with the ball 39.1 left.

UNE -- Rentrope fouled intentionally.  FT good and good. UNE 76-73. 0:30
SR -- Jaykyri Simpson fouls out 0:21 left. Boyd makes both UNE 76-75 0:21 

UNE -- Belmonte misses both FT's.
SR -- misses the floater.   UNE's Johnny Jefferson gets the reb and is fouled 0:03.7
UNE -- Johnson is an 88% FT shooter.  Timeout.  FT x2 --  Missed and good. UNE 77-75 0:03.7 left
SR -- 3FG no good.  UNE wins 77-75

UNE hosts the finals.

[scout]

CSC moves onto the championship game... 72-54

They are now awaiting the final of the other game to see if they're traveling or hosting on Saturday...

[Ralph Turner]

UNE hosts CSC

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

UNE hosts CSC

Should be a good one.

[backboard]

Great work on the updates scout, Ralph, and hugenerd.  I suppose this is what everyone was hoping for in the finals.

Salve put up a better fight than I had expected, going down to the very last possession.  Justin Woodworth came to play; he had 27 points and 10 rebounds while Windell Hickson chipped in with 16 of his own.  Jefferson dropped in 18 points and Quentin Thompson added 16.  There a total of 60 turnovers by both team and combined they shot 43 3-pointers.  Must have been entertaining to say the least.

Colby-Sawyer jumped out to a very every lead, 19-9, in the first ten minutes and never looked back.  I didn't see the game so I don't know why Aaron Trigg only shot 2-15, including 0-9 from 3-PT, but he certainly needed more than 5 points.  CSC was able to out-rebounded Gordon 34-24 as well as shooting ten more free throws.  Jon Chaloux led CSC with 23 points and 7 boards while Matt Lemieux scored 18 with 7 assists.  Bajema was the only player to score in double figures for GC as he had 24 points from 9-13 shooting.

Number1chargerfan, we await your input

[YeahBoss]

What a game! It was fast paced, sometimes ugly, always entertaining. Good job by Salve tonight, the game could have gone the other way if not for some traveling calls that hurt their momentum. Belmonte did not have many points for UNE, but he hit some big shots at the end.

[Hugenerd]

Great work on the updates scout, Ralph, and hugenerd.  I suppose this is what everyone was hoping for in the finals.

We had the tag-team working pretty well there.

Salve put up a better fight than I had expected, going down to the very last possession.  Justin Woodworth came to play; he had 27 points and 10 rebounds while Windell Hickson chipped in with 16 of his own.  Jefferson dropped in 18 points and Quentin Thompson added 16.  There a total of 60 turnovers by both team and combined they shot 43 3-pointers.  Must have been entertaining to say the least.

I dont watch much CCC basketball, but in the UNE/SR game, it didnt seem like anyone on UNE wanted to rebound.  Watching the game, my impression was that Salve got a ton of offensive rebounds, and looking at the box score, that is indeed true.  SR had 20 offensive rebounds and outrebounded UNE 43-26 (is it common for UNE to be outrebounded so badly?).  If it wasnt for 33 turnovers, Salve might have won the game (UNE wasnt much better with 27).  I think 60 turnovers might be the most I have seen this year for a game in d3 (I am sure there has been a game with more, but I havent seen it).  Regardless UNE survives, but I dont think they will win any more games this season playing like that (in the CCC final or in any postseason tourney they may play in).

[number1chargerfan]

Trigg was as unheard from as his stat sheet shows and Bajema did his best to pick up the slack but it proved to be not enough

Gordon's big (number 3? not sure of a name) fouled out relatively early and that hurt them on the boards they also had 2 lane violations and other costly mistakes but CSC played the best basketball I've seen them play thus far and surprisingly didn't shoot a lot of 3's..usually their bread and butter

I was surprised by a decent turnout by Gordon's Pit as they had a fan bus full of students and supporters but even that couldn't help the Scots out of this one. The stable was the best it's been since the days of St. Clair

Here we go..for all the marbles CSC-UNE rematch..I plan to be there and am looking forward to a great game no matter who comes out on top

p.s I'm honored to have moved up over the years from ignored poster to someone who's input is respected (at least I hope) thanks guys you're all great!

[scout]

Looking at the stats, if CSC plays on Saturday anywhere near the level they did last night, they'll beat UNE by 10 plus.

It seems that no matter the talent level of the squad, no matter they teams they play, CSC is always well coached and the team executes its gameplan consistently. Congrats to them on a VERY solid win last night.

[YeahBoss]

Looking at the box score from the regular season match-up, its almost surprising that CSC lost the game on their floor. I guess it comes down to the CSC turnovers, UNE points off the turnovers, and UNE's second chance points.  UNE got outrebounded in that game as they did last night so I don't know, if they lose the rebound battle on Sat., if that will pay a part. I'm sure the coaching staff for UNE wants to keep the rebound stats closer than they were last night, but in the end it can come down to what your team does better than anyone else.  UNE seems to know their identity, they run the fast break better than anyone in the conference, I think that might even put up more points than anyone else in the conference but I'll have to check. Their press defense is better than anyone else in the conference. What does CSC do better than anyone else, what is their ultimate strength? CSC does not have to be the all around best team to win, if they do one or two things better than anyone else then they can win.  Press out on the outlets to stop the fast break, clog the middle in the half court set, make UNE settle for jumpers, out rebound UNE on both ends, etc. If CSC can do even a few of these things perfect for one game then they'll be conference champs.  But who knows for sure, these are young men who will have good days and bad days. Who knows how the refs will treat Simpson and how he responds?
  My choice: the fast break, more scoring opportunities, the press on the home floor, the home crowd, not having to traval, the deeper team with balanced scoring, knowing you do something better than anyone in your conference does anything else, the confidence that comes with already beating someone on their court, the stupid mascot, the igloo, harvard of maine, and everything else. UNE.
But who knows, I coud be wrong, worst things have happened.

Also: I was not at the regular season match-up, is there anything else about these two teams that we are missing?

[scout]

 
 
 

	Avg. Pt Margin	FG %	Opp FG%	3PT%	Opp 3PT%	FT%	Opp FT%	Reb Margin	Assist/TO	Opp Assist/TO	Steals/Game
UNE	7.5	45.4%	47.3%	37.0%	32.4%	65.9%	64.3%	-2	0.94	0.73	12.40
CSC	10.5	44.2%	39.4%	36.8%	29.0%	71.7%	64.3%	3	0.94	0.59	8.17

I thought it would be prudent to post these stats again to give a look into what CSC and UNE bring to the table.

[scout]

From what I see, it appears that UNE runs more fast break and forces more turnovers in their press defense. CSC, on the other hand, has a more half-court stifling defense. Both teams have the exact same assist to turnover ratio, but CSC forces more turnovers (even though UNE has more steals).

CSC has the better scoring defense and don't allow many three point shots at all.

On a neutral court, I'd give CSC the advantage for sure... But at UNE, I'm not so sure. Salve is like a poor man's CSC and they almost pulled out the win last night...

I'm going to have to go with CSC on this one I think...

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

In my estimation it will come down to how well the CSC guards handle the pressure.  If they remain calm and move the ball efficiently to get into a half-court set most of the time, they will win.  If UNE's pressure ups the tempo, CSC will have trouble.

Fortunately, CSC's reputation of hitting the boards hard and playing solid halfcourt D is the perfect foil to UNE's style of play.

Hopefully I'll be able to see at least part of the game.