MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

no more unblievable results today  -  Greenville crushes LCC and maintains sole possession of first place   

[the godfather]

The results from The Nest are what the Blue Jay fans hoped for.  A 76-67 victory over the Red Devils of Eureka.  A very exciting game.  Westminster led early but Eureka went on a small run and led before Westminster could tie it at 27 for the half, behind the shooting of Landon Kurz.  Eureka came out blazing and went up ten in the second half.  The subs for Westminster came in and gave some great minutes to tie it up with about 8 minutes left.  Great spark off the bench by a couple of Westminster reserves, young and old.  The game was back and forth until it was tied at 60.  At this point most of the Westminster starters were back in and went on a ten point run to seal the game.  Eureka has a good squad.  A lot of hard playing and great energy on the bench, which is absoulutely fantastic to see in youngsters these days.  Good win for Westminster who is winning the games it should so far.  Injuries have been trouble for the Jays but they seem to be very resilient.  In the words of my man Killer, GO BLUE JAYS!

[y_jack_lok]

Here is a report for hopefan from the Webster-Blackburn game. Webster had a 36-26 halftime lead. As Webster did to Eureka Friday night, Blackburn did to Webster this afternoon -- just kept chipping away. Blackburn won the way they always do against Webster, hitting big 3 pointers and driving the lane for baskets and/or fouls. In a one point game there are about a million things you can point to that could have changed the game for the losing team. As I said in my post last night it is winning the close ones that is the difference between a good team and a not so good team. With two one point losses in the last 3 games, but a good come from behind win in the other game, do we know what kind of team Webster is? I'm not sure, but I'm starting to lean one direction.

With about 30 some seconds left Webster had a 70-68 lead. Leotis Howard, who had a great game for Blackburn, drove the lane, made a layup and got fouled. He made the free throw to make it 71-70. Webster inbounded with 8.8 seconds left. Got the ball to Corey Kuhn who missed a 3 pointer just before the buzzer. I don't know if that was the play that was called in the timeout before Howard's free throw, but that's the way it played out. Good win for Blackburn, dsisappointing loss for Webster. With some of the other results today this conference race is shaping just like we all expected -- a tight one, except for surprising Greenville, who come to Webster Tuesday night. Webster had better be ready.

[fcnews]

After playing 4 of their first 6 games at home, Greenville has to go on the road sooner or later.

In then FU game today, Mac wanted to run and gun, and FU was more then happy to oblige. FU went 10-13 from 3's in the first half. It would be nice if FU would have been on the winning side of those two last second losses. The Griffin's have fought their way back into it. Now we get to host WU and Westminister this week.

I am shocked at the Webster result.

[y_jack_lok]

Webster always seems to have a tough time against Blackburn. Webster has played 4 of its six conference games at home and is 2-2 with wins over Maryville and Eureka and losses to Mac (by 5) and Blackburn (by 1). As MacAttack said, to be successful this year teams are going to have to steal some wins on the road and Webster has let their pocket get picked twice.

[pantherpride06]

Once again, I'm sorry for the late write up on the Greenville game.  As soon as we were done, I headed straight to watch my COLTS play.  And, if you didnt know, they won 15-6.

Final at Greenville, Ill.
Greenville 93, Lincoln Christian 62 (F)

Greenville
Conquest: 21 pts, 3 ast, 3 stl, 3 reb
Williams: 5 pts, 4 reb
Taylor: 5 pts, 5 ast, 4 reb
Simmons: 21 pts, 11 reb, 4 ast, 5 stl, 1 block (1st Career Double-Double)
Hensold: 8 pts

BENCH
Wolfe: 6 pts
Gregornik: 2 pts
Mutton: 2 pts
Ellis: 16 pts, 7 reb, 3 ast
Hohm: 4 pts, 2 reb
Hobbie: 2 reb, 2 ast

Greenville shot 54% from the field, 71.4 from 3FG, and 80% from the FT line.

Lincoln Christian
Smith: 6 pts, 2 reb
Searby: 6 pts, 11 reb
Sickmeyer: 2 pts, 5 reb
Wilson: 8 pts, 3 reb
Everett: 10 pts, 3 reb

BENCH
Neal: 7 pts
O'Malley: 8 pts, 2 reb
Post: 2 pts
Black: 13 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 2 blocks

Lincoln shot 34.7% from the field, 15.4% from 3FG, and 55.6% from the FT line.

Greenville played well tonight again a Lincoln Christian team that was obvously tired from the long trip last night w/ the storm.  They arrived at their hotel at 2am and left at 8am.  Not much sleep.  Lincoln is a very scrappy team and will get a couple SLIAC wins as has been stated before.  They will do well as they continue to build.  No major story lines from the game.  Simmons missed two shots on the night, one from the FT line (4-5) and one from the field (7-8).  Coach Barber played everyone on the bench and seen some JV guys get some nice minutes.  Even "The New Guy" as the crowd called him Chris Hohm seen some PT and bagged 4 pts.

As for those who are doubting... fcnews brings up a valid point.  Greenville has played 4 of the 6 SLIAC games at home. This only mean the road is rough ahead going into the likes of Fontbonne, MacMurray, and Lincoln Christian in a little under a month will be tough.  We have been on the ropes with Webster the last two years with losses being close.  Then we go up to Eureka who is coming off two tough losses and then out to tangle with Matt Mitchell and the BlueJays (currently 2nd in the SLIAC.)  Tough road trip.  But, I think our guys are very tough physically and mentally.  We will play two of those games during a break so the kids should be rested up.  I'm definately not going to say we are the Maryville Women of the Men's side.  We aren't going to cream everyone we play.  But, we are going to be very, very competitive and when you think you have us beat (MacMurray), we will come back and fight you for the win.

Projected losses for Greenville.  I seriously doubt we can go 18-0...  I think the top three team will slug it out.  MacMurray, Eureka, and Westminster are going to be bears to play.  Those are the three I worry about the most.  You can't count our Lee McKinney, fcnews, and the boys at Fontbonne nor the cats at Webster.  We have to ride the train and see.

And Mac Attack.  I hope you come back.  Our Pick-Em's are all based on you and if you are jumping ship, then all hope is lost for our championship race here.  COME BACK ATTACK, COME BACK!

[fcnews]

Y_Jak - I'm still trying to figure out who BC had that could of possibly slowed Hoggatt down. At BC v. FU the beavers had no post defense what so ever.

[hopefan]

FC   per the boxscore, there are two answers to your question

1)   BC did not defend Hoggat well at all - he was 12 for 16 from the field

2) the other sign is, Hoggat was 3-4 from the line, which says to me that Webster still didn't go to him enough

Looks to me like Webster lost it with defense  -  give Hammond and Allen 30 points between them, and you should win (Webster gave them only 26) -  Howard, who seems to run up alot of points against weaker defensive teams, can't be allowed to run up 25 points - someone, either an individual, or team defense, lost the  game right there.

[fcnews]

Thanks for that Hopefan. You missed a heck of a shoot out at the DSAC yesterday. If teams decide they want to run with FU, they better be ready to shoot lights out. If any game turns into a "Big Game of Horse" I like our chances. Another impressive nite scoring from two freshmen, Branch and White had 10 3's, 4 each in the first half.

[y_jack_lok]

hopefan's observations about the Webster-Blackburn game, derived solely from reading the box score, are pretty much on the money. The big difference was the same as the loss to MacMurray -- perimeter defense. Blackburn hit 8 3's to Webster's 3 3's. That's a 15 point differential in a one point game. It was a team loss. No particular player can be singled out for defensive lapses. Webster changed defensive assignments  a number of times. Blackburn's 8 3's were evenly distributed -- Hammond (3), Howard (3), and Tommy Baro (2).

[ballhog01]

Fontbonne suprises Mac and gets themselves right back in the race. They have four proven scorers and a team that is full of freshmen and sophmores. I wouldn't want to be an opposing coach looking at another 2 or 3 years of this group. When Storandt, Fogerty and McCoy reach their senior year this team could possibly be the team that breaks the sliac's National Tournament losing streak.

Fontbonne should win at least 2 out 0f 3 this week and get themselves in a great position for the second half.

[fcnews]

Ballhog - Your getting way ahead of yourself. FU still struggles with the fact that they are young. It's a challenge to have 4 or 5 great high school scorers and trying to mesh them into a unit. They are on the right track but far from complete.

Did we lose BeaverSID, EurekaSID and Mac Attack? I got coaxed back by several emails and now the board is almost stagnate. It maybe easier for the four remaining to just give each other a hooler on the phone.

[pantherpride06]

lol...  I almost was going to do that fcnews... i just didnt know how to call you... wanted to explain the crazy GC/MC game Friday.

[pantherpride06]

Well, the Pick 'Em has fell apart.  Here are the latest standings since Mac Left...

Correct Picks for last week

BeaverSID: No Picks Submitted
MacAttack: 8
PantherPride: 10
FCNews: No Picks Submitted

Up-to-date Standings
PantherPride: 65
MacAttack: 63
BeaverSID: 56
FCNews: 47

Is it over?  What's the deal?

[fcnews]

Stick a fork in it Pride. That horse is dead. Hey, but you still get to enjoy the first place ride.

Now you get to take the Panther Pride show on the road. I would say it's two very tough road games, but I still can't figure out WU's problems. I guarantee you though, they will be up for their visit down Big Bend on Friday nite.