MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

hopefan · January 20, 2016, 07:44:29 AM

As for the Prin Westmin game, obviously Prin played with an even more depleted bench than usual with the 2 suspensions... A fantastic shooting display by Prin's Adaku Anumu brought Prin back into the game in the 2nd half, but they could never get closer than 8... Coach Mitchell kept on bringing in fresh bodies off the Westmin bench, and Romo Tabb had a big 2nd half to key a relatively comfortable win for the Jays. Anumu, often showing a smooth step back jumper worth 3 points, finished with 33 pts, 7 for 13 from 3's...

hopefan · January 21, 2016, 01:19:03 PM

One can get from Eureka, Mo to Eureka, Ill in less than 3 hours, but you gotta tromp on it....

All reports on the revised facility at Eureka are true... just lovely, bright, shiny, fantastic seating... something to be proud of and to show off for the entire Eureka College community.... Now then, just a little more catchup... put a few more $$$ into the front lobby, concessions, and restroom areas and it will be truly top notch all the way around.

Very short writeups today.. simply running out of gas, and though we're getting an average of 450 views per day, am missing followup from anyone else... Would be nice to have the 4 or 5 person network we had several years ago....

Greenville, a different look to win over EC 121-112... shooting 3's but not quite as often... and look what happened.. 44 free throws... maybe 10 in last 2 minutes, but there were a huge number of layups and easy jumpers or Free throws to add to the 3 pointers... a close first half turned into a 2nd half rout.. GC was up over 20 when GC's Tim Daniel fouled out with 6 minutes left... this not only took out key scorer, but seemed to mess up the rotation badly, and EC made the game interesting cutting the lead to single digits before running out of time... Frosh Daniel Saeli, point guard on 2nd unit looked very good, starting to convert drives to the hoop into points....Michael Hohm provided the level head and converted Free throws in the last several minutes to maintain the lead. GC second unit getting better, 63 points 1st unit, 58 points 2nd unit, despite tough night for Kenny Green... Daniels, Smith, Saeli, Green unit has gotten much more competitive......For EC the Feehan brothers were teriffic... Sam just can't be stopped, Shea as good as reported, had kind of an off night shooting but generated so much offense with penetration and dish... a shame the SLIAC is getting only one semester of these two playing together... if they were both back next year, it would be a season to look forward to..

Mac beats Fontbonne 76-66.... ugly shooting night from 3's for both teams, the combo of Mac's Johnson and Long dominate Fontbonne's duo of Kissing and Greenlee on the boards and in the scoring column... Mac gets a good night off the bench from Taten Musso with 13 points...

Iowa Wesleyan beats Webster 83-76.... Webster a teriffic first half keyed by frosh Evan Milligan off the bench with 11 points, but IWC runs off to a 19 point 2nd half lead and wins it easily. Tevin Evans and Evan Milligan combine for 38 points off the bench, Xavier Dortch adds 12.... Would imagine some lineup changes may be on the mind of Coach Bunch, he hasn't hesitated in the past...Ward gets double digits, but other 4 starters combine for 7 points... Very nice balance for IWC, all five starters have between 8 to 12 points, Mitch Drey doesn't start but finishes with 16 off the bench, Eliah Johnson goes 4 for 5 from 3's to add 12 points...

hopefan · January 21, 2016, 09:51:07 PM

Spalding 36 28 over Blackburn at half.

hopefan · January 21, 2016, 10:40:32 PM

Blackburn stunner win by 3

hopefan · January 22, 2016, 01:12:25 PM

The SLIAC fun every night

Blackburn quickly overcomes Spalding's halftime lead... keyed by an unbelievably cute give and go from Jordan McMillen to Jake Maestranzi, then a steal off the dribble and layup by Maestranzi to tie the game up just 3 minutes into the 2nd half. Spalding took the lead back for short periods of time, but in reality, Blackburn dominated the 2nd half... with quickness, hops around the basket, actually making Spalding look a step slow, and good old fashioned tough nosed defense..

Brandon Goeing, I wish I could talk to the kid.. I love the way he plays.. not blessed with great quicks or size, he just works like heck with or without the ball to get his shots... so many guys in this conference could learn by watching this kid play, but so many just want points to come to them, not work for them.. any way, Goeing met his match last night in Jake Maestranzi.. just a great head to head battle in the 2nd half, Maestranzi guarding Goeing, neither lost the battle... one who did lose was Henry Hicks, who tried to guard Goeing with trash talk, and Goeing smoked him with a long in your face 3 pointer, I LOVED IT...

Chris Davis looks like he could take over the game any time he wanted to... he pretty much did that in the 2nd half last night...many key free throws... still, I felt BC kept Spalding in the game in the last couple of minutes because other people tried to do things, rather than letting Davis and Maestranzi dominate the ball...my attitude is those two should have the ball and will either get fouled, or find the open man if they're being double teamed... I hated seeing a couple of plays where someone else drove and got fouled, when they're a 50% free throw shooter....

It was a real must win for Blackburn, and puts them in the group of 8 playing for the four conference spots, no one better than 3 losses, no one worse than 5... only IWC (ineligible), Principia (winless) are out of it...

hopefan · January 22, 2016, 08:03:55 PM

Where they are, what they have left:

Iowa Wesleyan 7-2
Home (3) Westmin, Blackburn, Greenville
Away (6) at Mac, Fontbonne, Prin, Spalding, Eureka, Webster

Westminster 6-3
Home (5) Spalding, Fontbonne, Eureka, Webster, Prin
Away (4) at Greenville, Iowa Wez, Mac, Blackburn

MacMurray 5-4
Home (6) Iowa Wez, Blackburn, Eureka, Webster, Spalding, Westmin
Away (3) at Prin, Grenville, Fontbonne

Spalding 5-4
Home (4) Fontbonne, Iowa Wez, Prin, Fontbonne
Away (5) at Westmin, Eureka, Greenville, Mac, Webster

Fontbonne 5-4
Home (4) Iowa Wez, Webster, Greenville, Mac
Away (5) at Blackburn, Spalding, Westmin, Eureka, Prin

Greenville 5-4
Home (4) Westmin, Spalding, Mac, Eureka
Away (5) at Webster, Blackburn, Fontbonne, Prin, Iowa Wez

Webster 4-5
Home (5) Greenville, Prin, Blackburn, Spalding, Iowa Wez
Away (4) Eureka, Fontbonne, Mac, Westmin

Eureka 4-5
Home (4) Spalding, Webster, Iowa Wez, Fontbonne
Away (5) Prin, Mac, Westminster, Blackburn, Greenville

Blackburn 4-5
Home (5) Fontbonne, Greenville, Prin, Westmin, Eureka
Away (4) Mac, Webster, Iowa Wez, Spalding

Only 2 things obvious to me... Iowa Wesleyan with 6 road games left, has toughest remaining sched, and may be pulled back into the pack..
And Mac with only 3 road games left, has a significant advantage over the other 8 teams

Westmin, though in the lead with a 6-3 record, has a tough road schedule at GC, Mac, BC, and Iowa Wez, 4 unlikely wins.

hopefan · January 22, 2016, 11:48:16 PM

hopefan's 1st half of the conference season All Conference Team

Chris Fowler Iowa Wesleyan Guard
Sam Feehan Eureka Guard
Tim Daniel Greenville Small Forward
Deavis Johnson Mac Power Forward
Brent Long Mac Middle

Almost..
Adaku Anumu Prin 2-3 spot
Ben Kissing Fontbonne 3-4 spot

Unfortunately this pretty much follows PPG over anyone else, but it's hard to argue against what any of these guys have done in the first half of the conference season....

hopefan · January 23, 2016, 12:02:05 AM

With only Prin out of the conference race, every game is critical...a one liner regarding tomorrow's games..

Iowa Wesleyan*** at Mac Mac brimming with confidence, hopefan would love to see them beat the first place*** team... it will be a good one... IWC won close first time

Greenville at Webster Webster beat the system badly first time around, but Greenville has now won four in a row, Webster really struggling

Fontbonne at Blackburn Tough to win at BC, BC on a high after beating Spalding... Blackburn won first time around

Spalding at Westmin Big game for Westmin to keep conference lead to themselves... looks like a tossup to me... Westmin won close down at Spalding.

Eureka at Prin Must win for Eureka, they should get it ....

y_jack_lok · January 23, 2016, 12:19:34 PM

Quote from: hopefan on January 22, 2016, 11:48:16 PM
hopefan's 1st half of the conference season All Conference Team

Chris Fowler Iowa Wesleyan Guard
Sam Feehan Eureka Guard
Tim Daniel Greenville Small Forward
Deavis Johnson Mac Power Forward
Brent Long Mac Middle

Almost..
Adaku Anumu Prin 2-3 spot
Ben Kissing Fontbonne 3-4 spot

Unfortunately this pretty much follows PPG over anyone else, but it's hard to argue against what any of these guys have done in the first half of the conference season....

So who would be on your all-conference defensive team?

hopefan · January 23, 2016, 01:07:53 PM

ouch.. well,

Jake Maestranzi comes to mind

Michael Hohm reads passing lines superbly in the Greenville system play

Webster zone has gotten good words here, but how do you credit any individual?

Spalding's Trisko leads the league in blocks, but is that an indicator of good defense?

tough question, yjack

haterinthehouse · January 23, 2016, 07:05:41 PM

Chris Davis is closing in on 1K pts with game coming up at Mac. A junior and hasn't been all-Sliac

What a joke

allamericanredhead · January 24, 2016, 12:35:14 AM

Hope you are the best. This board would die without you and with my old bones, it gets harder and harder to get out and see a game. Your love for D3 basketball shows in all you write. I almost feel like I am at the games. FREE DENNIS

hopefan · January 24, 2016, 07:35:26 AM

Saturday, Jan. 23... hopefan makes a great decision...

Original plans were to drive the 2+ hours and see the 'best' game at MacMurray... Mac, on the upswing with back to back wins hosting conference leader*** Iowa Wesleyan... but by Friday, the old hoper was beat, having battled god awful traffic and snow plow flotillas on Tuesday's short but time-consuming round trip to Prin, the lengthy excursion to Eureka on Wednesday, and a more reasonable foray to Blackburn on Thursday... all trips worth it for the basketball I saw, but darned tiring!!.. So I decided on Friday that I would stay local and see Greenville at Webster...

Treated to not one, but two buzzer beaters!!!! Greenville women hit a 3 pointer with 2 seconds on the clock to beat the upset minded Webster ladies by 2, and the Webster men get an offensive rebound putback truly at the buzzer to win the Greenville game... an amazing afternoon of hoops for which I thank all four teams involved... I just sit back and shake my head at all those who don't get it....

All right.. thoughts on Greenville-Webster...

Throughout the game I'm thinking to myself,I should be rooting for Webster, a Webster win crowds the standings closer to Hopefan's much wished for 'everyone at .500' result (yes, we're darned close), but deep down, the Greenville system is so much fun to watch, it's hard not to ooh and ah over each 3 pointer....
Trouble was, the 3 pointers weren't dropping like they did up at Eureka...
Tim Daniel finally has a poor shooting day, Kenny Greene on the second unit has one even worse... Both units obviously struggle to find perimeter openings vs the Webster zone, and penetration into the zone often led to bad shot selection against quicker Webster defenders...
So.. while the Webster offense, led by repeated moves to the hoop by CJ Moore, Joseph Henry, and Evan Milligan, scored just enough to win, it was the zone defense that clearly won this game for the Gorlocks.
The last 30 seconds unfolded like this...Webster had come back from a 13 point deficit to take the lead, Michael Hohm hits a 3 pointer to tie it and Webster has a final 30 second possession... they hold it, Hunter Ward gets the 20 foot jumper with about 4 seconds and misses off the rim, EVERYONE goes for the rebound, Evan Milligan gets it on the right side, misses with a short bank shot and CJ Moore rebounds right in front of the rim with a put back in MASSIVE traffic at the buzzer... there was actually a rush to the floor of the Webster bench and Webster fans at that point that was pretty cool!!!
STRANGER THAN STRANGE... was it an unbelievably smart piece of Bunchism strategy, or some Bunchism discipline for 2 player's youthful indiscretion? Evan Milligan and Tevin Evans, led the Gorlocks in scoring, coming off the bench, in Webster's prior game on Wednesday vs Iowa Wesleyan... Yet neither played in the first half vs Greenville!!! Milligan entered the Greenville game early in the 2nd half, Evans a little later, and Milligan ended up being the difference maker in the game getting 16 points in 15 2nd half minutes. Was this Bunch saving his effort for the second half? Or a message sent to pay for an indiscretion?
Greenville ended up with more turnovers than Webster, 21-20, and put Webster on the line for 39 free throw attempts, Webster making 29... that's where the game was won and lost
Both teams tremendous effort on the boards, Webster won that battle too...

from the box scores...
BC takes care of business, nipping Fontonne at home, 80-77... strange stat line, Ben Kissing, an All Conference level foward, plays 16 minutes, 0 for 4 from field, one point... WHAT?... then it's noticed that Ben Kissing also got T'd up.. hopefan GUESSES that Mr. Kissing was having a rough day at the office, said the magic word, and Coach Thornhill elected to give Mr Kissing the rest of the day off...
More strange stats.. starting Griff guards Williams and Watkins play 52 minutes, get 6 points and 2 assists, guards off the bench Ettinger and Gentry play 43 minutes, score 34 points and 5 assists... I personally don't understand, but then I'm not at practice every day either...
Blackburn wins it on the boards and with good perimeter shooting, 11 for 22 from 3's. Game was close the last 10 minutes, Font cut the lead to 1 with a Gentry 3 pointer in last 10 seconds, but Chris Davis Free throws clinch it for BC. All five BC starters hit double figures... BC now on a nice upswing....

Eureka 101 80 over Prin.. this one was never close.. I knew Eureka just had way to much energy for Prin to compete with.. Tommy 'the time bomb' Goulding leads Eureka with 27 points... Prin's Adaku Anumu goes for 34, but has a tough shooting night, missing 15 shots...

MacMurray beats Iowa Wesleyan 95-79.... the win for Mac doesn't surprise me, but the dominating score sure does... This result confirms my early season belief that Mac would be the conference favorite, and they seem to have put perimeter shooting woes behind them to really get on a roll... the one two power punch of Brent Long and Deavis Johnson dominates again, Long scoring 23 on 9 for 13 shooting, Johnson snagging 14 rebounds... and unexpected scoring help from point guard Mike Cameron who finishes with 17 points. Another stat line I'd like in on was IWC's Mitch Drey.. normally a double figure scorer, smooth shooter, gets 2 minutes, no points... hurt? ill? Coach's decision? Mac wins the boards 41-22...

Westmin nips Spalding 58-54.... great defense, or awful offense...

Guess you had to be there.. no one can figure out how, but Westmin just keeps rolling up the wins, maintaining a one game lead over Mac, and 2 games over everyone else...two tough road losses for Spalding this week, bringing them back to the pack.. in a low scoring game, Spalding's 10 point lead at half would seem insurmountable, but Westmin showing a propensity for 2nd half comebacks....Spalding goes 5-9 from FT in 2nd half, Westmin 13-16.. had to play a big role in turn-around... Spalding was up 6 with 5 minutes left... BUT FAILED TO SCORE IN LAST 4 MINUTES OF GAME as Westmin pulled ahead...Spalding changed their look, going big with Trisko and Terez Smith starting, but it didn't get a win.. Trisko 17 rebounds but only 6 points while Goeing and Turner are firing from 3's???

Enjoy it readers... you owe this one to All America Red... hopefan needs to feel just a little appreciated once in a blue moon... I take this stuff seriously, and I know many of the readers do too.... a positive remark makes it easier to put in the time...

hopefan · January 24, 2016, 01:21:53 PM

I know you're all waiting for hopefan's Player of the Week... let's go thru the process of elimination..

Prin.. Adaku Anumu had another big scoring week, but he's shooting a lot to get those points, and Prin is becoming less competitive.... NOPE

Eureka... Sam Feehan played super against Greenville, but they lost..and Tommy Goulding scored big vs Prin, but it was Prin...NOPE

Spalding... two losses, Goach Gray would shoot me if I awarded one of his kids... NOPE

Greenville... Tim Daniel shot well at Eureka, but Greenville gave away a critical game to Webster... NOPE

Webster.... Evan Milligan had 2 great games off the bench, but the loss to Iowa Wesleyan rules him out... NOPE

Fontbonne.... Two road losses.. Cody Ettinger gets 22 off the bench vs Blackburn, but doesn't play vs Mac... NOPE

Iowa Wesleyan... Mitch Drey has big game off the bench vs Webster, but doesn't score in loss to Mac.... NOPE

Westminster... continues their roll, winning over Prin and Spalding, Tanner Cochrane goes double digits both games, but not stand-out type numbers.. Westmin gets a little from many, and I'm sure Coach Mitchell likes it just fine... MAYBE, but NOPE

Blackburn.... 2 HUGE MUST WINS, but like Westmin, many guys share in the responsibility...Maestranzi and Davis led the way over Spalding, Manuel had best numbers vs Fontbonne...

MacMurray... the expected win over Fontbonne, a gamechanger with the win over Iowa Wesleyan...Deavis Johnson and Brent Long both have 2 big games (how often have I already mentioned these two guys in the same sentence this year?) Johnson has 32 points, 28 rebounds in 2 games; Long has 42 points and 15 rebounds

I'm giving the hopefan Player of the Week to Deavis Johnson...despite Long's continued incredible shooting (16 for 24 from the field), Johnson's two double-doubles, and his domination on the defensive boards (24 defensive rebounds) earn him the award... make room in the trophy case!!!!

hopefan · January 24, 2016, 01:39:21 PM

We're really approaching hopefan parity...

Iowa Wesleyan and Westminster at 7-3
Mac at 6-4
the big 6 (Blackburn, Eureka, Fontbonne, Greenville, Spalding, Webster) at 5-5
Prin at 0-10

Near perfect parity at season end would be 9 teams at 10-8, and Prin at 0-18.... sorry Prin, I'd love to see it happen... Prin's year can be NEXT YEAR!!!!

Right now, I think the main thing that will mess this scenario up is Mac... with all the home games remaining and a light road schedule, it's harder to imagine them going 4 and 4 than seeing Westmin and Iowa Wez going 3-5!!!

But how big is every remaining game on the schedule in the effort to achieve Conference Tourney status!!!!