Empire 8

[triplethreat]

Any pre-game predictions for the opening night of empire 8 conference play?

Heres what I got...

RIT at Fisher -2
Utica at Ithaca -5
Alfred at Stevens +20
Hartwick at Elmira  -13

[gobombers15]

Any pre-game predictions for the opening night of empire 8 conference play?

Heres what I got...

RIT at Fisher -2
Utica at Ithaca -5
Alfred at Stevens +20
Hartwick at Elmira  -13

Your lines are somewhat confusing. Are you saying that Utica is favored at Ithaca??

[FisherDynasty]

As Jose said earlier its going to be really hard to predict until a few games in during the 2nd semester but ill give it a shot.

RIT at Fisher +2
Utica at Ithaca +3
Alfred at Stevens +20
Hartwick at Elmira +17

Pretty much the same, cant tell about the rit fisher game yet or the utica ithaca. both should be good games.

[triplethreat]

How are they confusing? The teams on the right are either plus or minus.  And yes Utica is favored by 5 in my opinion at Ithaca....

[gobombers15]

Here's my guess at tonight's final scores (as always, my goal is to hit one score right on the head before season's end):

RIT over Fisher, 72-66.
Ithaca over Utica, 71-63.
Stevens over Alfred, 80-55.
Hartwick over Elmira, 70-60.

[triplethreat]

Looks like a back and forth game in the first half at Fisher with the home team leadin 42-38 at the half.  Scoot Young lights up Fisher for 16 in the first half, he must be really improved because last year he did absolutely nothing and just sat at the three point line and shot 3s.  Fisher has a balanced scoring attack with 3 or 4 guys at 7 or more.  The second half should be an interesting one. Well see.

[gobombers15]

Frenetic game in Ithaca. Both teams had a lead of 7 in the first half with Utica rallying to take a 35-34 lead into the locker room. Bostic showing flashes but making some mistakes, too (fouling 3-pt shooter, offensive goaltending). Big three with 8, 8, and 7, respecitively. Herring and Maxwell with 10 each for the Pios.

Game is very intense. Radio announcers making it seem like teams aren't big fans of each other. Big crowd at The Bulb which is always nice to see.

[Caz Bombers]

Utica is listed as "RPI" on Ithaca's live stats for some reason, but those are Utica's players so it's definitely tonight's game.  IC up by 6 with 14+ to go.

[gobombers15]

Utica is listed as "RPI" on Ithaca's live stats for some reason, but those are Utica's players so it's definitely tonight's game.  IC up by 6 with 14+ to go.

Yeah, something is messed up with the LiveStats application. Earlier, the women were supposedly playing Alfred.

[gobombers15]

70-59, Bombers, 5 minutes left.

[triplethreat]

Fisher pulls out a big conference opener beatin RIT 84-80....Big game from Beigal with 17 and 16 and Baltz gets 19.  Kenny Gethers did all he could in defeat finishing with 29 and 12.

[gobombers15]

Good start for the Bombers, dispatching Utica by a score of 81-70. Good games for both the top PG's in the league. Stats of importance:

UTICA

James McClendon-- 18 pts, 7reb
Justin Maxwell--14 pts
Doug Herring-- 18 pts, 6 reb, 3 asst

ITHACA

Sean Burton-- 19pts, 9 asst, 6 reb
Sean Leahy-- 13 pts, 7 reb
Jeff Bostic-- 14 pts, 11 reb
Dom Scanlon-- 16 pts

Nice debut by Bostic and good to get a win over a team that has been getting the better of Ithaca over the last couple seasons.

[bombersquadron]

Ben Light Gymnasium was rocking tonight. Biggest crowd i have seen in the last two years. The game was very tight in the first half. Bombers got a big boost of the bench from Jeff Bostic, Brendan Rogers and Louis Kail. Ithaca was getting hurt on the offensive glass in the first half and also killing themselves with turnovers. Tom Brown and Sean Burton couldn't handle the inbounds pass after a made basket, which on my count lead to four turnovers.

Second half was a different story, Ithaca got up by nine early and was in control for most of the second half. Very balanced scoring but the team didn't perform well on offense, yet unlike in the past couple years, the team was able to still make plays and find a way to win instead of find a way to lose a clsoe game at home, which happened multiple times last year. Watch out for the games when Ithaca is flowing on offense they can run any team out of the gym.

It seems like every bombers fan was watching livestats and not the webcast on empire8tv. Bostic looked great for only playing basketball for a week. 1 two handed dunk in the half court set and two fast break jams that were nice.  Bostic clearly changed the game. There was one point when Utica was going to make a run and Herring came down the court got the ball and it looked like he was going to go for a dunk, he saw Bostic pulled up for an 6 foot bank shot and missed. Bostic also came out of no where to block a three point attempt. One stat not seen in the stat book were all the passes he deflected or tipped when Ithaca went into a zone defense.

[reelentless]

[It seems like every bombers fan was watching livestats and not the webcast on empire8tv]
Depending on your hardware / software setup I'm sure the quality varies, but I was happy with the webcast.  The announcers had done their homework, had the stats and their chatter wasn't terribly annoying.

Seeing the game as a Utica fan, I was encouraged.  Obviously the team has a ways to go, but they're young and they've (essentially) never played together.  Knowing a little about the team, they've got a big upside - the talent is there to play with anyone but the rhythm, consistency on defense and rotation hasn't been found yet.  For now, we'll have to take progress.

[sjfcards]

That was a huge win last night for Fisher. If they would have lost that game, and gone 0-3 heading to Stevens, that could have been a recipe for a disastrous season.

I am glad to see they found a way to pull out a close game down the stretch, unlike the first two games. Hopefullly Fisher can find a way to beat Stevens, and they are back on their way to another great season.