Empire 8

[magicman]

The Empire 8 league gets a team into the D3hoops Top 25 poll for the first time this season as Hartwick checks in with the #25 spot and a total of 50 points. The Hawks have been hanging around in the ORV category all year and finally crack the poll after beating Naz, then Fisher, over the weekend, to stretch their winning streak to 10 games. Their 22-2 record ties them for the 8th best record in all of D3.

Oswego State leads the East Region, occupying the #16 spot in the rankings and a total of 229 points.

[magicman]

New set of Regional Rankings have just been released. Not a lot of changes in the East. The only change was Hobart leapfrogging over NYU. Hartwick continues to lead the way.   Here's the East rankings:


EAST                      In Region     Overall
1.   Hartwick               21-2          22-2

2.   Oswego State       19-2          19-3

3.   Hobart                 18-4          19-4

4.   New York U.         18-4          18-4

5.   Medaille               20-2          21-2

6.   Nazareth              16-6          16-8

For the complete list of Regional Rankings, here's the link to the NCAA page:
http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d3/regional_rankings

[AUPepBand]

Saxons finish season at 15-10 (6-8 in E8) with a 61-53 win over Elmira College on "Senior Day" with senior Josh Parker leading all scorers with 21 to go with 5 rebounds and 3 steals. Mike Branche went 3-for-3 from behind the arc and finished with 13 points for AU.

Soaring Eagles led at the half, 25-22, with the lead changing numerous times in the second half. Elmira built a 48-42 lead with just over 8 minutes remaining but the Saxons played stifling defense and went on a 13-0 run over the next 6 minutes to take a 55-48 lead with just a couple minutes left.

In addition to Parker, it was the final game for seniors Derek Lewis (4 pts, 3 rebs), Bryan Bobo (2 pts, 2 rebs) and Pat Hollenbeck (2 pts, 3 rebs). Congratulations to Coach Dale Wellman and the Saxons for a fine season. AU finished 5th in the E8 (6-8) and one of only two teams to beat E8 regular season champ Hartwick this season...and nearly beat the Hawks at Oneonta.

On Saxon Warriors!

[magicman]

Hartwick wins the regular season and #1 seed in the E8 playoffs with a 91-76 win over Stevens and will host the tournament this coming Friday and Saturday.

Ithaca defeats Utica College 110-96  and will face the Hawks in the semis on Friday Feb. 24th if Nazareth wins tonight against St. John Fisher. If Naz loses to Fisher they would fall to the 4th seed and face Hartwick in the first round, leaving an Ithaca-Stevens matchup for the other semi. With a win tonight Naz would claim the 2nd seed and face Stevens in the other semi-final.

Edit: Nazareth defeats St John Fisher in overtime 68-62 and claims the #2 seed.

#4 Ithaca at #1 Hartwick

#3 Stevens at #2 Nazareth at Hartwick

[with age came?]

Who would have "thunk it" a few years ago....playoffs without St John Fisher......?

[bomber3]

Let's go Bombers.

[AUPepBand]

Nazareth holds on for a 74-71 win over Stevens to advance to the Empire 8 Tourney Finals.

Bombers and Hawks coming up next.....

[AUPepBand]

Bombers take a 40-26 lead into the locker room.

[magicman]

Hawks going down as Ithaca leads 73-63 with 1:35 to play. Naz will face the Bombers for the automatic bid to the Dance.

[bomber3]

Who would have "thunk it" a few years ago....playoffs without St John Fisher......?

..AND the Bombers get a playoff victory!  Congrats to the current Bomber squad on a hard fought victory over the top team in the E8 and one of the tops in the region.  This partially makes up for all the unexpected losses by Bomber squads over the past decade in both the E8 and NCAA tournaments.  There is still a long way to go but this is a good start.  Good luck tomorrow against Naz. 

[magicman]

Final score: Ithaca 79 Hartwick 67

That should guarantee the East Region gets at least 1 Pool C bid as the Hawks will be on the table right off the bat.

[Bombers798891]

Who would have "thunk it" a few years ago....playoffs without St John Fisher......?

..AND the Bombers get a playoff victory!  Congrats to the current Bomber squad on a hard fought victory over the top team in the E8 and one of the tops in the region.  This partially makes up for all the unexpected losses by Bomber squads over the past decade in both the E8 and NCAA tournaments.  There is still a long way to go but this is a good start.  Good luck tomorrow against Naz.

Amazing. Flat out amazing. The Bombers take down the 23-2 Hawks on the road. Closing the first half on a 20-6 run, the Wick never get closer than five the rest of the way, and spend most of the half down by double digits. Tom Sweeney with 21 to lead Ithaca.

Explain this to me. Ithaca beats 23-3 Hartwick twice on the road, and give 1-24 Elmira their only win of the season.

[magicman]

Ithaca leads Nazareth 35-27 at halftime of the E8 championship game.

[magicman]

Ithaca wins their 1st Empire 8 Tournament Championship with a 71-55 victory over Nazareth. Ithaca will enter the NCAA Tournament with a 14-13 record. Probably will be the worst record of the 62 teams at the Dance.

[bomber3]

Ithaca wins their 1st Empire 8 Tournament Championship with a 71-55 victory over Nazareth. Ithaca will enter the NCAA Tournament with a 14-13 record. Probably will be the worst record of the 62 teams at the Dance.

Yes!  Of the past 5 or 6 years this was probably the least likely Bomber squad to win the tournament but good for them.  Jay Bilas said it best on Gameday this morning, "the NCAA tournament does not crown the best team, it crowns the team with the best matchups that got hot at the right time".  The same principal applies the conference tournaments across all divisions of college basketball.  Some of the time, the best team in the conference wins the tournament, and some of the time it doesn't.  Ithaca had the best team in the conference several times of the past decade and didn't win the conference tournament, this year it did.  That is the nature of the sport and what makes it exciting for 5 months of the season.  In football, a lot of teams' playoffs hope are finished 3 or 4 games into the season and that isn't the case in basketball.

With the Bombers at 14-13, they are most likely up against one of the brackets top seeds (Amherst or Middlebury possibly), which should provide a great challenge.

Congrats to Coach Mullins and Tanous as well as the current Bomber squad on a great weekend and a long deserved and overdue E8 title.