MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[GU1999]

Lyon and Spalding win to stay unbeaten.

GU gives Webster an uncharacteristically early 3rd SLIAC loss.  The game started with GU on a 35-9 run and the HJ Long faithful never saw that lead dwindle in any significant way as GU cruised to the win.  GU shot well.  41% from 3.  And rebounded well ending -2.  One thing to watch was the small +6 turnover margin.  This is not big enough for a system team. 

Spalding (over Eureka) and Blackburn (over Westmin) hold serve at home.

Lyon (over Prin) and Fontbonne (over MUW) win on the road or should I say ON THE ROAD. 

It had to be nice for MUW to get back home as I understand they just finished an 8 day road trip for games in order to host their first official SLIAC regular season game. 

[GU1999]

Big slate of Midweek games in the SLIAC:

12/12/23:

Lyon at MUW:

Look for Lyon to handle this one with ease.  Lyon looks to be a solid top 4 team during the regular season.

12/13/23

Greenville @ Spalding:

A quick rematch of Spaldings 104-100 win two weeks ago.  I expect this one to be razor thin, but give me GU in this one.  I doubt that GU will turn it over 22 times again and I also think that they will shoot better than the 38.5/26.9/66.7 they slashed in the first match-up. 

Blackburn @ Eureka:

I suspect that Eureka will lose a second of the year to the Beavers despite being at home and Blackburns slow tempo, -6 rebounding margin ytd and sub 40% shooting from the floor.  The Red Devils just need to get more players involved in the scoring than Peewee Brown and Cody Baer.  These two scored 49 of the teams 62 in game one v Blackburn and are responsible for 60% of the teams scoring on the conference season.

12/14/23

Fontbonne @ Prin

FU will run away with this one. 

[GU1999]

Lyon smacks MUW by 29.

The teams were equal on turnovers and Lyon only held a slight advantage on the boards.  It is wild to see that MUW took 15 more shots than Lyon.  Albeit 5 less 3s and 4 less FTs.  MUW had 11 more offensive rebounds than Lyon, but that makes sense, because Lyon rarely missed. The story in this one was that Lyon shot it so well. 

Lyon slashed 63.5%/57.1%/88%  (on 21 3's and 25 FTs).  Lyon scored 94 points on 48 shots.  Would love to see the efficiency numbers for this one.  Lyon had 6 players with 9 or more points, led by 6' 5" Jr. guard Kylon McCullough with 16.   

MUW slashed 33.3%/43.8%/76.2% (on 16 3s and 21 FTs).

The shooting was a stark difference and the reason for MUW getting drubbed. 

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Lyon smacks MUW by 29.

The teams were equal on turnovers and Lyon only held a slight advantage on the boards.  It is wild to see that MUW took 15 more shots than Lyon.  Albeit 5 less 3s and 4 less FTs.  MUW had 11 more offensive rebounds than Lyon, but that makes sense, because Lyon rarely missed. The story in this one was that Lyon shot it so well. 

Lyon slashed 63.5%/57.1%/88%  (on 21 3's and 25 FTs).  Lyon scored 94 points on 48 shots.  Would love to see the efficiency numbers for this one.  Lyon had 6 players with 9 or more points, led by 6' 5" Jr. guard Kylon McCullough with 16.   

MUW slashed 33.3%/43.8%/76.2% (on 16 3s and 21 FTs).

The shooting was a stark difference and the reason for MUW getting drubbed.

Enjoy reading your posts!  I did a quick efficiency calculation (points per posession) and Lyon was at 1.422 for that game.  Typically anything north 1.20 is excellent, so that is in the elite category for sure.

[GU1999]

Lyon smacks MUW by 29.

The teams were equal on turnovers and Lyon only held a slight advantage on the boards.  It is wild to see that MUW took 15 more shots than Lyon.  Albeit 5 less 3s and 4 less FTs.  MUW had 11 more offensive rebounds than Lyon, but that makes sense, because Lyon rarely missed. The story in this one was that Lyon shot it so well. 

Lyon slashed 63.5%/57.1%/88%  (on 21 3's and 25 FTs).  Lyon scored 94 points on 48 shots.  Would love to see the efficiency numbers for this one.  Lyon had 6 players with 9 or more points, led by 6' 5" Jr. guard Kylon McCullough with 16.   

MUW slashed 33.3%/43.8%/76.2% (on 16 3s and 21 FTs).

The shooting was a stark difference and the reason for MUW getting drubbed.

Enjoy reading your posts!  I did a quick efficiency calculation (points per possession) and Lyon was at 1.422 for that game.  Typically anything north 1.20 is excellent, so that is in the elite category for sure.

Thank you Flying Dutch Fan!  Just trying to keep Hopefan entertained down there in Florida. 

[GU1999]

Greenville 86 - Spalding 82

Greenville snaps its two game losing streak against Spalding, winning a system style rock fight 86-82. 

This is the first time GU has scored less than 100 this year.  Spalding really knows how to slow GU down.  SU deployed a their GU tailored zone which forces  paint touches and contested 2s.  They do a really good job not giving up clean looks from 3.  And on offence Spalding is very content to work methodically.  I was a bit suprised to see that GU didn't lengthen the rotational shifts longer than the normal 60-75 seconds or even lessen the reliance on the third line.  All three lines played quite a bit last night, with the third shift playing 6 minutes. 

GU led comfortably all night stretching its lead out to 17 a few times.  And were up 74-61 with just under 7 minutes to play.  That is when Spalding put together their best run of the night and cut the lead 74-71 only 3 minutes later.  The teams went back and forth for the rest of the game but GU got two big 3s from Jarrod Webb and were able to stave off SU. 

Blackburn 76 - Eureka 73

Blackburn repeats its early season win over Eureka in a back and forth game that feathered 16 lead changes.  Izayah Talmadge led the Beavers with 26 and 6.  Peewee Brown had 24 and 9 for Red Devils. 

[GU1999]

Fontbonne 90 - Principia (H) 51

Less than two weeks ago Principia travelled to Fontbonne and played the conference favorites to a 6 point game.  Last night was a stark difference.  Fontbonne dominated Principia in Elsah in all facets of the game.  FU jumped out to an early double digit lead and expanded it to 40 midway through the second half.  FU had 15 players register meaningful minutes and had five in double figures with Ethan Chartland leading the way with 21.

Principia dismal night:

1) shot terribly 31.3%/21.1%/56.3%. 
2) 22 turnovers 
3) minus 19 on the boards

 

[RogK]

a very unusual stat from that game :
http://stats.ncaa.org/contests/3960238/box_score
only 4 fouls on Principia

[Flying Dutch Fan]

a very unusual stat from that game :
http://stats.ncaa.org/contests/3960238/box_score
only 4 fouls on Principia

I'm guessing most coaches (if not all of them) would be after the team for lacking any aggression on defense with that stat. 

[Gregory Sager]

a very unusual stat from that game :
http://stats.ncaa.org/contests/3960238/box_score
only 4 fouls on Principia

I'm guessing most coaches (if not all of them) would be after the team for lacking any aggression on defense with that stat.

Gentlemen, that box score needs to be assessed in context.

Principia, as always, has a very skimpy roster. The Panthers only have eleven players on the roster, and, as is always typical for them as well, some of those players are essentially nothing more than warm bodies who can allow the Panthers to go five-on-five in practice and who can be utilized in garbage time to save unnecessary wear-and-tear on the rotation players. And those rotation players are small in number, indeed; a glance at the stats and box scores for Principia shows that it's, for all intents and purposes, a seven-man team. Once again, that's a familiar situation for the Principia MBB program.

What makes it far, far worse is that Principia's leading scorer, Jaquan Adams -- a formidable offensive presence at 24.8 ppg who had outings of 26 and 23 points against a pair of very good ARC squads (Loras and Central, respectively) -- is currently out with an injury. In other words, Principia is now not only offensively challenged by having to replace the team's best scorer by far, it's now effectively down to a six-man rotation as well.

And that, I think, gets to the heart of the whole "How can they play defense if they never foul?" question. If you're worried that your team will lose its ability to compete if two or more guys get into foul trouble and have to sit, then you teach your players to be very judicious in how they approach their defensive responsibilities. The Fontbonne game is not an outlier; the Panthers have only been whistled for a single-digit number of fouls in each of their last three games (one of which was an overtime affair against Mississippi University for Women; six fouls were called against the Panthers in 45 minutes of basketball against MUW, and the Panthers won that game). After ten games they're averaging under 11 fouls per game as a team ... and that's taking into consideration that one of those ten games was against Grinnell, whose games can often descend into whistlefests.

[GU1999]

Next up for the short handed Prin Panthers....  GU.  They'll have a few weeks to hopefully get Jaquan Adams injury sorted. 

[GU1999]

Weekend Games:

WashU crushes SLIAC foes

WashU 90 - Prin 56:

I got a head of myself a bit saying that Prins next game was against GU.  I should have said, next conference game is against GU.  They had a little test in between with the mighty Wash U.  Game was dominated on the boards.  Wash U had more offensive rebounds than Prin had rebounds.  WashU won the second chance points 27 - 3.  I'd say this was David v. Goliath, but this David was equal parts size and depth deficient and carried no sling. 

WashU 96 - Fontbonne 75

Lyon 64 @ Hendricks 74
Hendricks win their side of the home to split the contests on the season.  Lyon, Spalding Fontbonne and GU looking like the top 4 at the break. 

Webster battles UMAC in Wisconsin:

Loses to Crown 82 - 70 - Crown (now 8-3 looks to have scheduled well and had a good record).  I think that this is a team that would be top tier of the SLIAC.   
Webster 77 v. Martin Luther 63 - ML came in to the game at 1 - 8.   

Random Beatdowns
Immaculata 81 - MUW 62
Nebraska Wesleyan 89 - Westminster 56
Monmouth 83 - Eureka 68

[hopefan]

Eureka's Cody Baer gets 23 points, 8 rebounds in exhibition vs low level D1 Western Illinois

Impressive!!

[GU1999]

Cody is sitting at 21.5 and 10.8.  Depending on how Eureka fares, he has to be on a short list for player of the year. 

[GU1999]

Well done Webster athletics!  The Salvation Army is not only my employer, but it is also a place that meets the needs of those in our communities who have virtually no where else to turn.  I love that the student athletes helped a family in need this year.  Years from now, that family will look back at this season, which often is not so joyful for those in need, and remember it fondly. Awesome work. 

From the SLIAC website:

"The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Officers, J.T., President (Baseball); Grace Rodgers, Vice President/Treasurer (Women's Soccer); Ellie Biedenstein, Secretary (Volleyball); and Kaeli Berry, PR/Social Media (Cheerleading) chose to Adopt-A-Family through the Salvation Army as their fall community service project. Grace Rodgers oversaw this initiative for the department.

Initially, Webster Athletics requested to adopt 13 families of varying sizes for each team to adopt. When the Salvation Army responded, they only had one family left to adopt. As a result, all athletics teams came together to adopt this one family.

Webster student-athletes were able to provide all items on the family's wish list and more! In total, Webster student-athletes donated over $1,500 worth of items to make this a very happy and bright holiday for this family in need. Members of the Athletics Department also got in the holiday spirit and donated for this family.

The Salvation Army was overwhelmed with the generosity of Webster University student-athletes."