MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

SliacChamp · December 16, 2014, 04:38:52 PM

Can the mighty G O R L O K S handle the D3 life and overcome a stressful finals week and snag a big win before Christmas break?

y_jack_lok · December 16, 2014, 09:42:08 PM

Quote from: SliacChamp on December 16, 2014, 04:38:52 PM
Can the mighty G O R L O K S handle the D3 life and overcome a stressful finals week and snag a big win before Christmas break?

To do so they have to beat the team that gave current #2 Augustana its only loss.

And while I'm posting, I was checking scores and followed the last 7+ minutes of the Blackburn-Knox game. Blackburn was trailing by about 4, tied it at 69 then lost 89-73. That game was at Blackburn. Scratching my head.

y_jack_lok · December 16, 2014, 10:12:52 PM

Mac loses to Augustana 78-73. Perhaps Mac's new player is providing some much needed help.

SliacChamp · December 17, 2014, 11:08:02 AM

Trainer at Millikin said that kid nearly tore apart that team with his terrible attitude. Im not sure of Coach Creal can contain that so it will be interesting to how it plays out.

hopefan · December 17, 2014, 01:42:55 PM

I talked with Coach Creal. very upbeat about johnson's attitude. Note too that Johnson is being moved in slowly. Starters did most of the damage vs Augie heck of an effort.

formersliaccommish · December 17, 2014, 10:03:22 PM

Denny, I'm happy you are getting along OK. Continued speedy recovery to you, and give my best to your Mom.

John Jones and Henry Shannon were really good players at Maryville. We played them in the 1997-98 season when I was the head coach at UMSL and handled Maryville pretty easily, but Jones had 27 points and Shannon 17. Both of them could have played at the D2 level as starters on weak teams (UMSL that year), or important bench players on strong teams.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all; I don't post very often but read the page every week, more often than that during the hoops season, to keep with the SLIAC.

ecreddevils · December 19, 2014, 04:55:05 PM

Bradley 80
EC 38

A good experience game for EC, hung in for a bit in the first half against a D1 team out of the Missouri Valley.

This has been a rough year for Bradley, seems to be a program in decline for a university that relies heavily on basketball (no football). There is a fair bit of chatter on this one on their message boards:

Can't link direct for some reason, but check the Basketball Fan Talk forum's first few threads:

http://bradleyfans.com/

hopefan · December 19, 2014, 09:54:58 PM

Central doesn't like Webster zone. Gorlocks up 6 at half. Dominating the boards.

SliacChamp · December 20, 2014, 12:21:16 AM

Great team win for the Loks. Everyone seemed to buy in to the zone tonight and it gave Central fits. 41 total 3's taken for Central whip Webster holds them to 31% shooting overall. Even after a late surge by Central Webster was able to hold a team averaging 85 ppg to 65.

Webster also had a great bench by committee tonight. Haywood, Walton, Henry off the bench in the first half provide a huge lift. Second half we see the mix of Zehner, who had HUGE buckets for Webster, Walton and Henry. If those guys continue to buy into their role this team will be fun to watch after Christmas break.

Two things stood out to me and my group tonight.
1. Aaron Griffin showed up tonight and had big time rebounds and some clutch buckets.
2. Webster showed us something that can run them over teams in the Sliac- athleticism on the offensive boards. They consistently had 2-3 players crashing and trying to make huge plays on the offensive glass. Couple of missed tip slams by ward and smith but it was still a good thing to see them making a play on those balls.

Next up Eureka at EU, a place that troubles Webster last year. I know that game is still in the back of the returning Webster players as it cost them a conference title.

Merry Christmas readers/posters

WUPHF · December 20, 2014, 12:51:40 AM

Iowa Wesleyan trailed Truman State University by one at the half before taking an early second half lead. Truman would eventually take over however and finish with a 75-57 win.

Truman is actually a good Division II squad that is 8-3 on the season even if a few of those wins include the usual lower division Iowa schools.

WUPHF · December 20, 2014, 01:03:44 AM

I was looking at Central and interestingly, besides the win over Augustana, they do not have a win over a .500 Division III school. They have a four point win over a winless Missouri Baptist a win over St. Ambrose from the NAIA.

WU FAN · December 20, 2014, 01:22:58 AM

A historical note for everyone that keeps track of this stuff out there. Ahmad Smith currently sits in 8th place on Webster's all time scoring list with 1155 points but is only 130 from being in sole possession of 2nd. Barring something unforeseen he'd project to get there by the end of January. Getting into 1st would be a really big task but you never know.

WUPHF · December 20, 2014, 01:27:18 AM

To finish a career as the No. 2 highest scoring player ever would be very special. It would be cool to see it happen for sure.

y_jack_lok · December 20, 2014, 05:44:03 AM

Quote from: WU FAN on December 20, 2014, 01:22:58 AM
A historical note for everyone that keeps track of this stuff out there. Ahmad Smith currently sits in 8th place on Webster's all time scoring list with 1155 points but is only 130 from being in sole possession of 2nd. Barring something unforeseen he'd project to get there by the end of January. Getting into 1st would be a really big task but you never know.

This is from Niel's article after the Principia game: "Smith now had 1138 career points and passed Scott Spinner (2004-07) to move into eight place on Webster's all-time scoring list." Since then Smith has scored 33 against Wash U and 17 against Central which would make his current career total 1188 tying him with Ryan Turk at #7 and 96 points short of a tie for #2 on the list with 15 regular season games remaining. However, scoring another 418 points in 15 games to tie for#1 is a very tall order.

hopefan · December 20, 2014, 06:46:18 AM

Quote from: y_jack_lok on December 20, 2014, 05:44:03 AM
Quote from: WU FAN on December 20, 2014, 01:22:58 AM
A historical note for everyone that keeps track of this stuff out there. Ahmad Smith currently sits in 8th place on Webster's all time scoring list with 1155 points but is only 130 from being in sole possession of 2nd. Barring something unforeseen he'd project to get there by the end of January. Getting into 1st would be a really big task but you never know.

This is from Niel's article after the Principia game: "Smith now had 1138 career points and passed Scott Spinner (2004-07) to move into eight place on Webster's all-time scoring list." Since then Smith has scored 33 against Wash U and 17 against Central which would make his current career total 1188 tying him with Ryan Turk at #7 and 96 points short of a tie for #2 on the list with 15 regular season games remaining. However, scoring another 418 points in 15 games to tie for#1 is a very tall order.

Let's hope Smith concentrates on WINNING first.. some bad shots last night, by both him and Ward, gave critical possessions to Central far too early in the shot clock at crunch time... darn near cost Webster the game, along with missed free throws. Fantastic job on the boards by Everyone, and in agreement with SLIACChamp, real key to win was play from the bench... they got the first half lead, and didn't give it up in the second half while the starters got a rest... This game was played as hard as any I've seen this year...