MBB: NEWMAC

[Hugenerd]

Jimmy Burke was on the bench, but he is currently out with injury.  MIT has some more options this season to fill in, though, so they should be fine until he gets back.  They have Jamie Karraker, who had 17 points tonight, Nick Davis (who probably would have played more in a close game), Billy Bender, and Eric Zuk.  Freshman Josh Dunnaway was also out win injury tonight (along with Nick Sather, Will Baysinger, and Dan McCue), but from what I hear Dunnaway should be back soon. 

MIT should be in good shape in any case.  The really addressed some needs with their freshman class and players returning from injury.  With a solid backup for Hollingsworth in Will Dickson (who had 8 point, a team leading 7 boards, 4 assists, and 2 blocks tonight) and two solid backups for Will Tashman in Tim Donegan and Will Watkins, their backcourt is pretty solid.  In the frontcourt, they got a sharpshooter in Karraker back from injury, but also now have an athletic slasher type in Nick Davis.  They brought in a couple young point guards in Dunnaway and Attanasio.  They essentially have 2-3 guys at every position that Coach Anderson can go to under various circumstances, which was not at all the case last year (or the year before), when they were only 8 or so deep and were even thinner with injuries.

[toooldtoplay]

MIT vs. Emmanuel was an ugly physical game featuring over 50 fouls and 54 combined TO's. It was kind of like "if you can't beat 'em, beat em up. I think Emmanuel fouled out 4/5 of the starting lineup.  My positives from the game were the more up tempo play of the wings, the improved depth in the frontcourt and the overall talent top to bottom. Noel is A. A., Tashman has come back bigger, stronger and faster, and Kates shows increased size, speed, strength and game control.  Carraker did not shoot well and still hit 4 threes and is a long defender.

For the first game it was solid.  I expect improvement in all areas going forward.

Burke is sitting with a concussion and will be out for a while.

[mass_d3fan]

Coast Guard upsets Albertus Magnus in a big way, 97-72.  4 players from the Academy registered a double-double against a Magnus team that returns all but one player from a squad that lost in the 2nd round of the NCAAs last year.

Greg Marshall had career-highs with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Jimmy Knudsen tied his career-high with 16 points a had a career high 11 rebounds. Freshman John Benedict had 10points and 11 rebounds and Jevon James added 10points & 10 rebounds in the win.  Coast Guard dominated the boards, 56 to 28.



Meanwhile, Clark falls to RIC at home tonight, 63-49

RIC's Mike Akinrola, Steven Roberts & Ashton Watkins combined for 30 points and 17 boards. RIC controlled the glass on the night 40 to 23.

Brian Vayda had 15 and Mitch Renshaw 12 for Clark.  The remainder of the Clark squad shot 9 for 30.

[Hugenerd]

Coast Guard got a nice win over an NCAA team from a year ago, Albertus Magnus.  They actually won pretty easily, 97-72.  This may be some sort of record, Coast guard had 4 players with double doubles.  Greg Marshall had 27 points and 10 rebounds, Jimmy Knudsen had 16 points and 11 boards, Johns Benedict had 10 points and 11 boards, and Jevon James had 10 points and 10 boards.  Kevin Sowers (I am assuming the younger brother of former CGA guard Al) also had a pretty good game with 19 points, 7 assists, and 6 boards.  Overall, they doubled up Albertus in rebound, 56-28.

http://www.uscgasports.com/statistics/malb10.htm

[toooldtoplay]

Sounds like the CG is much improved from a year ago. Did everyone play for AM?

[Hugenerd]

Sounds like the CG is much improved from a year ago. Did everyone play for AM?

No,  their best player, Ray Askew, did not play and their second best player, Jefferson Lora, only played 7 minutes (dont know the reason why).

In their first game, CGA lost by 11 @Merchant Marine.  However, Merchant Marine is apparently a pretty good team (they are receiving votes in the top 25 poll)).  CGA looks pretty young, but they seem to have talent.  Jevon James, who was previously a top conference performer, isnt even starting over some younger players.

[Hugenerd]

Not a good night for the NEWMAC.

Clark, Springfield, and Babson all lose.  Oh yeah, and CGA lost to Gordon, the same Gordon that lost to Husson by 50 points 3 nights ago.

WPI only winner tonight.

[Hugenerd]

I was out all day, so didnt see any scores unti just now and was shocked to see MIT lost to Framingham. 

Hollingsworth doesnt appear to be himself (he is coming back from a broken foot this summer) and, as a team, they are committing way too many turnovers.  Hopefully the ship gets righted soon.

[WPI89]

So much for top 25 dreams.  MIT likely out and it will now take WPI 10 wins in a row to think about sniffing the list.  They went down to Becker.  First time ever (in its new reincarnation) WPI loses the Worcester tip-off tourney.

Back in the day we used to split it with Clark every other year basically.  But in the 7 years it has been back (with Worcester Stete, Becker, and Nichols) WPI has never lost.  Not that many years ago Becker was an all girls school and a decent WPI team should not be messing around in a close game with them.

I "watched" on the computer and it actually had wpi winning 63-62 for about 3 minutes then it switched to Becker 62-61 - no idea what happened?

Not a good day for the NEWMAC elite.

[mass_d3fan]

Good evening all, Late but still it is basketball season so it is good.

I was trying to post last night about the WPI game when my computer crashed, after a day of recover fun, I am back up running to an extent anyway.

WOW, what a game at Becker College tonight.  Becker came with full effort and hustle all night.  They squeak out the upset win in the last few seconds after a wild back & forth over the last few minutes. 

I will post my observations on what I saw this weekend later today.

Tough day for the NEWMAC, but this is why they play the games !

[WPI89]

We need Nerd.  The conversation has come to a halt.  Lots of games tonight - hope MASS and Hugenerd are available for comments/recaps.

[mass_d3fan]

Sorry it took me so long to get this posted, but I have had a few computer issues here at home.

WPI was out of sync and pressing all night. In the first half, Jeff Robinson got into early foul trouble and was limited to 2 points in just 7 minutes of playing time. Matt Carr & Fernando Perez kept the Engineers in this one with their work down low.  Carr had 9 points & Perez chipped in with 6. No one else had more 3.

Becker was led by Trae Jacobs with 8 and Exum had 6, but the Hawks also had 3 players with 4.  In my view, this was the classic case of letting a team hang in a game and then they believe they can win it. (Simlar to MIT earlier in the day.)

The 2nd half was a lot of hustle plays by both teams.  Jerome Stewart came out hot in the first few minutes with 5 points, a block and a steal,
but Becker answered each time it looked like WPI would gain control of the game. Carr had a series of big blocks and forced traveled calls in the paint & Perez and Robinson converted on the offensive end. Ben Etten played his usual solid overall game with great defense while puting up 6 pts and grabbing 4 rebounds in the 2nd half.

It was great game to watch for any basketball fan. From the 9 minute point to the end of the game, neither team had a lead of more than 3 pts. It looked like WPI had finally wrestled control of the game in the final minute.  Becker had to foul a few times to put WPI into the bonus and send them to the line.  with 23 seconds left and WPI up by 1, they turned it over while inbounding the ball after the 6th team foul on Becker. Rajai Leggett missed the layup, but Markus Wright hustled as the trailer on the play got the rebound and put it in to give Becker the lead. Robinson was fouled and made both to give the Engineers the lead with 10 seconds left.

The game was finally decided onwhen Favors brought the ball up and penetrated the lane.  From what I saw Carr stepped up to help and I thought he may have partially blocked what I thought was a shot the ball went to Leggett who was alone  on the opposite side of the lane and he put the ball in at 3 seconds.  WPI must not have had any TOs left as they
just inbounded the ball and got off a desperate heave that was well short.  Now, the play-by-play section of the stat sheet shows it as an assist and not a shot by Favors, in either case, he got inside the defense and made a play.

               
A get well wish to senior DeJohn Joseph-Exum.  He hurt his knee on a horrific looking play. He jammed his leg awkwardly after knocking the ball away from a WPI player on a breakaway play. He did come back and try to play, but limped badly to the sidelines after one possesion.  I hope it is not a serious as it looked you hate to see any kid go down like that, but especially a senior.

[Hugenerd]

MIT won easily over Curry, 90-63.  Hollingsworth was out the lineup for Engineers, he didnt seem right early in the season, so hopefully he gets back in the lineup closer to 100% soon.  His backup, freshman Will Dickson, is a pretty talented post player and did a good job filling in last night.

WPI blew out the same Framingham team that upset MIT.  The game wasnt even close, with WPI leading by over 40 at one point.  Hopefully MIT never plays like they did last Saturday again, they are a much better team than they showed.

[WPI89]

Thanks for the detail on the Becker game, MASS.
Thanks for the updates from last night, HN.

[mass_d3fan]

Well, All I can offer on the WPI-Framingham State game is the perspective given to me by a friend who did attend it plus my look at the play-by-play and stat sheet. I meanwhile, spent the majority of my early evening in the massive mess on I495 as I had an afternoon appointment in Andover.

Anyway, to the game which was a 180 degree turn from the close game with Becker.  The Engineers came out and went right down low to Carr for 2 quick inside buckets one being a huge dunk.  That a prelude to how the night would go for WPI. After that, Stewart, Robinson & Brown each put up points as WPI buit its lead to double digits.  Ben Etten drained a couple 3's to end the half and extend the lead to 54-26.  As a team they shot 22 for 28 (79%) in the first half.

The second half belongs to the reserves as the starters did not log many minutes on the evening:

Nadeu - 20 min, 2 pts, 1 asst
Robinson - 17 min, 9 pts, 2 assts
Perez - 19 pts on 8 for 12, 5 rbs
Carr - 12 min 6 pts, 5 rbs , 2 assts
Perez - 11 min, 8 pts, 4 rbs
Etten - 13 min, 10 pts, 3 rbs, 3 assts
Bonhomme - 10 min, 1 pt

Led by Mike Byron with 12 pts the bench ,  Jameel Galloway with 7 rebounds and David White with 6 assists.

14 players scored & 14 logged 10 or more minutes.

The lone bright spot on the night for Framingham St belonged to Royce Veal who posted 15 points.  Darius Carter who went off for 27 Vs. MIT on Sat. was held to only 6 points.

I see MIT won big (without Hollingsworth) as Dickinson & Donegan combined for 28 points and 12 boards along with Tashman's double-double (16 & 10). But the real question is what is the short term & long term status of Hollingsworth? .... Nerd??