MBB: Conference of New England

[bballbliss]

WIT @ GC

The Fighting Scots secured another victory over visiting Wentworth to move ahead to 5-0 for the second season in a row.  With a final score of 79-62, GC improved its quality of play yet again.  Four players scored in double digits with Marstaller leading with 19 points and 7 rebounds, followed by Jerry Logan, Mike Herr, and newcomer Aaron Trigg with 16, 13, and 12 points respectively.  Logan had a solid game playing all but one minute and Herr played all but four.  Trigg continued to impress both the crowd and coach Schauer, moving the ball well and driving to the hoop confidently after starting his second college game. 

The Fighting Scots travel to NEC on Tuesday.

[James]

BRISTOL, RI- The men's basketball team earned its first Commonwealth Coast Conference win Saturday afternoon defeating Colby-Sawyer College, 72-51. With the win the Hawks improve to 4-1 overall and 1-0 in the CCC.
RWU sophomore Bill Barrett (Fairfield, CT) was one rebound shy of his first double-double this season, posting a game-high 20 points and nine rebounds. Junior Dan Gumb (Patterson, NY) was just two rebounds shy with 10 points and eight rebounds

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

GC 79 WIT 62
CC 73 NC 68
UNE 46 ENC 41
RWU 72 CSC 51
NEC 96 Thomas 80
SRU 81 AMC 64


Stats tomorrow.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

GC 79 WIT 62.  Blue had 13 for WIT, Gaine and Bolton had 12 each and Todd Doyle finally showed up with 10 points and 5 assists.  For Gordon, Marstaller led the way with 19, Logan had 16 with 5 assists, Herr had 13 and Trigg got 12 in his first start.  Gordon shot 60% from the floor, missing only four shots in the second half.  However Wentworth played about as well as could be expected and came up well short.  It appears their lack of inside presence may be their undoing.

CC 73 NC 68.  Lots of fouls in this one.  Justin Lewis went off with 26 and 14 for NC.  Paquin had 15 off the bench, Vallee had 11 and Ron Powers got 10 rebounds.  For Curry Jonathan Bowers finally showed up and put up 21 and 10 in 27 points off the bench.  I assume he'll be the starting center pretty quickly here.  Still no aign of Jones yet, they'll be much better once they get their floor leader back.  Prescod had 15 points and Loice Williams had 13 off the bench.  I'm not sure what happened with this game. Brittian didn't do much and it appears Nichols really played some tough defense, but lacked an answer to Bowers.  I think we'll see both teams improving as the season goes along.  I'm quite impressed by what the Nichols team is able to do right now.

UNE 46 ENC 41.  Dismal failure for ENC here.  This was their best chance for a conference win; now they will have to hope they can top Anna Maria at some point.  Stickney went nuts down low with 9 points and 18 boards.  Farynaz had 14 and Belmonte had 10 and 10.  Apparently UNE found a way to isolate Jasmin and totally take him out of the game.  They packed the zone in tight and denied the entry and the ENC shooters couldn't win it (9% from the arc; 20% from the floor).    Marcellus was the only player in double digits with 12.  Also, word is ENC lost Colby DaSilva to ruptured Achillies this weekend.  Not good news for ENC.  Thankfully ANC doesn't have a big guy to challenge Jasmin, so there may be hope for a win in conference.

RWU 72 CSC 51.  Colby-Sawyer is having to face something they haven't worried about in a long time (probably since they got into the CCC back in the late 90's): rebuilding.  They just don't have the kind of team they are used to having.  I'm sure they can make the playoffs, but I doubt they get passed the first round.  RWU goes 9 deep and they all got good minutes in this one.  Barrett had 20 and Gumb got 10 off the bench.  Very well-rounded effort.  CSC was led by Fouriner with 12, Cousins had 10 and Murray got 13 boards off the bench.  They are also deep and well-rounded, but lacking leadership and experience.  I'm not sure CSC will be down for very long.  FTs won it for RWU, by the way, 19-33 to 8-19.  That was the biggest difference.

NEC 96 Thomas 80.  Would you believe they've got a box score on the NEC website?  Jaziri continues his good form scoring 29 in 27 minutes.  Imagine if they actually let him play the whole game?  Tyler Evans had 19 including 10-10 from the FT line.  Sylvia had 16 boards and they had six other guys over 5 points.  Not a good opponent, but another deep squad who gets to the line (28-37 to 8-14).  Thomas outscored NEC in the second half, so they evidently let up a little.  NEC may finally have put it together for a year.

SRU 81 AMC 64. Grendal had 20, Goodridge had 15 and 8 assists; Walsh had 11 off the bench for Salve.  Rose had 18 for AMC and Nunally had 10, most of them coming against the Salve bench late in the second half.  This seems like a really easy walkover for Salve.  Now it comes down to who wins the ENC-AMC battles as to who the worst team in the conference is.

[James]

Hoops fan you said
[FTs won it for RWU, by the way, 19-33 to 8-19.  That was the biggest difference.

From just looking at the stats I guess you could get that picture. However, if you at the game it was clear that RWU was dominant in all ascpects of the game. 11 of the 18 free throws came with 3:30 to go in the game when CSC was intentionally fouling to stop the clock. Despite a few runs CSC wasn't close to pulling this one out.

You are right about RWU being 9 deep. Barrett plays the most minutes right now, Camobreco is starting to show some seasoned leadership that the new freshman Loughan, who is a good player, may not have yet.

Still like Barrett for All Conference this year.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Well right, RWU was in the lead for most of the game and many of the free-throws came at the end, but when I do these analysis, because I can't possibly be at every game, I try to look for the signs of where a team might be in trouble (way too many turnover, getting so sorely outrebounded that the opponent took twice as many shots, etc).  In this particular game, everything was pretty even numbers wise except for the Free Throws.  As much as it's realistically improbable, if RWU didn't take and make all of those shots, it would have been very close at the end.


It's another reason why it's good to have posters from every school so we can get those specifics from the game that can not be replaced by any amount of statistical analysis.

[James]

Hoops Fan you said
if RWU didn't take and make all of those shots, it would have been very close at the end.

I need to respectfully disagree because I don't think CSC scored in the last 3:30 of the game so RWU could have shot 50% from the line and still won by 14 points instead of 21 ponits. As I said before, the game wasn't close.

Lets see what happens tomorrow at Curry?

[glory_days]

James, I respectfully disagree with your use of emoticons.  Thank you, that is all.

[James]

I don't know how the sad face got on my post. I only meant to close out the sentence with  question marks.

[glory_days]

It's all good.  Hoops Fan, what's the good word on Salem State.    Not that GC should look past NEC but I would say Salem State is the one team that would be a limfac for GC going into Christmas break undefeated.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Salem is a team that can beat Gordon, but as far as I've seen they're all over the map this year.  It will really depend on who shows up for both teams.  I think Gordon at its best can beat Salem at its best, but as well all know, things happen during games.

I wouldn't be suprised at any outcome.  I take that back; I'd be suprised if Gordon got beat by more than 12, anything else is possible.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Tuesday's Games
UNE @ EC
GC @ NEC
WIT @ CSC
ENC @ Mitchell
AMC @ NC
RWU @ CC

Salve is off tonight.


Gordon needs to be ready tonight.  This NEC team can score and this one has trap game written all over it.  Someone really needs to make sure these guys aren't looking ahead to Salem State.  While I don't think NEC is all that good overall, they can certainly make you pay for mistakes.

[heythere]

Salem vs gordon will be a good match up, salem is tough. if gordon can somehow stop downie, they can pull off a win

[backboard]

It'll be interesting to see if CSC can stop the bleeding tonight at home vs WIT.  Should be a good game

[scout]

Hey everyone... I'm new to this posting business, but I've been following the boards for over two years, so I know what's going on...

I'm the sports editor for the Gordon College student newspaper, so obviously I will have more information on that end than anywhere else... Still, as a journalist, I understand the importance of keeping things in perspective, so I will try to not express my bias, but instead share pertinent information...

I've been to every Gordon game thus far, except for the one in Philly, and I have seen a variety of results... Against Mt. Ida and MIT, Gordon showed inexperience in dealing with the pressure that comes with being a nationally recognized team... In Philly, that same inexperience almost caught up with them as it took an overtime period to beat an inferior team... Finally, after Thanksgiving, Coach Schauer found a way to motivate his team to succeed, trouncing Middlebury and playing a solid 40 minutes against WIT...

Gordon has now reached a crossroads. Tonight they travel to NEC in what proves to have more than one storyline. In one case, Gordon is playing its first away conference game against a team that many have dubbed 'most improved' in the conference. In another sense, Gordon is looking ahead to the monumental matchup against Salem State on Saturday. In still a third sense, the team is trying to balance having a target on their backs and still finding the right situations to use various players.

I will be traveling up to Henniker this evening to watch the game, so I will have some feedback on it when I get back. From talking with Mike Herr, he thinks that this court is one of the toughest to play on as an away team. It sounds like it's a small gym where, according to him, 'It's tough to find your shot.' So, in many senses, Gordon will have to win the game by doing what it does best, play defense.

In talking to many of the players, they center their play around their defense and I believe HoopsFan offered some good insight when he said that 'this game has trap game all over it.' We'll see how things turn out, and if Gordon can extend their streak. Last year, Gordon started off 5-0 as well, but proceeded to lose their next three. That included a Salem State loss.

We'll see what happens.