MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[DenbowsRoomie]

Unfortunately I had to miss the BC/W&L game, due to one of my grad classes being every Wednesday night at 7pm.  ALAS!

I've noticed that the main struggle in the early going has been Turnovers.  But as W&L's new guards adjust to college play, I believe that this is a concern that will fade.  The bigger pandemic for the Generals I feel is the rebounding.  In my years of watching the team, W&L has never had a dominant rebounding squad (if I recall, Halkitis, a 5'10" player, led the team in rebounding his freshman year).

There are definitely some players on the team who can rebound.  Bienemann is good and Femi can just out-jump anyone.  Alex and Mason have the size to do the job.

I think that since W&L doesn't play with a dominant post-presence player, a Wansley or Hunter-type guy, they really suffer by not having a go-to rebounder.  On offense, the bigs often set up at the top of the key, to swing the ball to guards coming off of screens.  I might suggest the problem is systemic to W&L's offense, but rebounding was a concern even in the Lafave days.

I'm mostly focusing on offense because in order for the Generals to consistently put up good offensive numbers, they need one of 2 things -- 1) To shoot a high percentage OR 2) To effectively get offensive rebounds.

But even before that point, W&L must to continue to improve overall ball control.  That's the part where I expect to see immediate improvement.

At any rate, this weekend's games will test W&L's ability on the boards.  We all know what Wansley can do, not to mention Philip Hawley.  And VWC can board too.  It will be a challenge for W&L to match these opponents' intensity on the glass.

W&L has traditionally played these teams strong in the first half, only to let things slip in the 2nd.  Let's hope for  a strong finish!

I should be in Lex hopefully in time for the 2nd half of the RMC game.  No matter the outcome, any D3hoopsters present in Lex Vegas should come see my band play Saturday night at one of the many fine fraternal organizations present at W&L.

lets go gennys.

[jeloesel]

Early in the second half, Liberty leads Lynchburg 47-25.  I'm glad Manos is back on the court, since he has 10 of the Hornet points.

[steelyglen]

Jim...score be damned...the $$$ is just too good!

[jeloesel]

You could hear the cash register going cha-ching in the background.  Liberty shears the Lynchburg lambs, 84-50.  LC shot 33% from the field, 8-17 from the stripe, and turned it over 25 times. 

[mybleedinghands]

With about 7 minutes left we were only down by 16 then we started putting in the bench players soon after that and the Flames were able to expand to a huge lead after that. We had a good effort, but they just simply had much more talent than we did and it took over. They were just bigger, stronger, and faster than us and were able to capitalize on it. We had difficulties guarding their forwards and big men. Their forwards were as big as our centers and just quicker than our big guys, which made it difficult to guard them. Their athleticism allowed them to just jump over our big men to get the rebounds. Liberty was obviously a superior team. We jsut didn't have the athleticism and the size to match up well with their guys. I'm satisfied with how we played considering who we were playing. Good way to play going into the game with Guilford, hopefully it will rub off tomorrow.

I did love the environment and the arena though. For anyone who hasn't been there, they have 4 video screens that they use for intros and various other things and it's a pretty cool element.  there were also a little over 3300 fans there that were very supportive of their team. It was nice to see that many fans at one of our games. It was a pretty nice experience. Hopefully we'll be able to turn this into a rivalry of some sort and be able to compete with them better in upcoming years.

[jeloesel]

My recollection of the last seven minutes of the game was a little different than scotties, so I checked the box score and play-by-play regarding substitutions.  The subs (Barksdale, Wright, Marciniak, Fancourt) only appeared in the last two or three minutes, when the Hornets were down by a margin 27 or 29.  The names of the "regulars" (Manos, Sweeney, Albright, Fairchild, Vasilou) appear in the play-by-play until that point.  The "regulars" played their normal minutes.  I guess coach Swickwrath didn't follow scottie's notion to save them for the Guilford game.

It was fortunate for Lynchburg that Liberty couldn't shoot free throws--the Flames were only 17-33 from the charity stripe.

Pete Manos had another nice game with 18 points and 6 rebounds.  Matt Sweeney chipped in with 12 points and 4 boards.

[3sdown]

This is a link in the Richmond Times-Dispatch yesterday about Sean McAloon, the new Head Varsity Basketball Coach at Benedictine.  Many of the old timers on this board probably remember him, but he was a starting guard for several years at RMC along with Matt Meehan, Joe Goldin, John Talley, and others.  He spent several years coaching at RMC as a Nunnally and Rhoades assistant before moving along to Bucknell with Coach Pat Flannery.  This is his first season at Benedictine...Thought some may be interested in reading the article. 

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128768479895&path=%21sports%21preps&s=1045855935451

[algernon]

Tigers down the Wasps, 130-99, setting a new Tiger record for points scored while keeping the Wasps below 100 points for the first time this season.

The Tigers had 7 guys in double figures:  Kaase, Murray, Prehmus, Forrester, Guill, Lawton, and Edwards.  The Tigers outrebound the Wasps, 71-31.  HSC players hit 68% of their shots while the Wasps hit only 32% of their shots (and 21% on their 65 shots from behind the arc).

[algernon]

Guilford defeats Lynchburg at home, 79-64.

Virginia Wesleyan defeats Roanoke on the road, 58-41.  The Marlins outrebound the Maroons, 50-27.

Earlier this afternoon, Wesley College defeated the Bridgewater Eagle football team, 46-7.

[former rmcsid]

Visiting R-MC up 36-17 over W&L in Lexington at halftime . . .

[hasanova]

Guilford defeats Lynchburg at home, 79-64.

Virginia Wesleyan defeats Roanoke on the road, 58-41.  The Marlins outrebound the Maroons, 50-27.

Earlier this afternoon, Wesley College defeated the Bridgewater Eagle football team, 46-7.

I just got home from the GC/LC basketball game in Greensboro.  I don't have any stats, but Ben Strong looked very good today, especially in the 2nd half.  I'm sure he had over 20 points.  LC jumped out front 8-2, but the Quakers took a 9-8 lead a few minutes later and then never trailed.  It was a slow 1st half, with GC up 28-24, but better shooting and fewer turnovers in the second half.  The Quakers are now 4-1, 2-0 while the Hornets fall to 0-8, 0-2.   I think the Quakers are going to better their preseason #6 ODAC ranking and I also think it's going to be a long season for the Hornets.

[baselinejam]

Gennies smooshed by a red hot Randilph-Macon

[hasanova]

Here are some stats from LC at GC:

The Quakers outrebounded the Hornets 51-34.
LC was only 19/58 for the game (32.8%) and 3/14 from beyond the arc (21.4%).
GC was a little better at 28/62 (45.2%) and 6/21 from 3-point range (28.6%) for the game, but had a strong second-half, shooting 17/28 (60.7%) from the floor.
As usual, GC was weak from the FT line, hitting only 17/29 (58.6%).
LC was decidedly better at the charity stripe, shooting 23/31 (74.2%).
As I mentioned earlier, Ben Strong was great with 17 second-half points and 26 for the game in only 22 minutes.
Kimbrough chipped in 14 and Edmond had 11 for the Quakers.
For LC, Prior had 19, Vasiliou 11, Albright 10 and Manos 8.

The Quakers are over to DI Elon Monday night.  Let's see what happens ...

[jeloesel]

If you had told me that Roanoke would hold Virginia Wesleyan to 58 points for the game...
If you had told me that VWC would only shoot 13% (2-15) from beyond the arc...
If you had told me that VWC would only shoot 50% (6-12) from the line...
If you had told me that VWC would turn over the ball 20 times....
If you had told me that VWC would put Roanoke in the bonus early in the second half and in the double bonus about the middle of the half, and ...
If you had told me that Brandon Adair would be held to 4 points in the first half, and would wind up as the only VWC player in double figures,
I would have been confident that my pick of Roanoke to win the game was safe.

How wrong I would be.  Because...
Roanoke would only score 41 points...
Roanoke would only shoot 24.5% from the field for the game...
Roanoke woud only shoot 13% (3-29) for the second half...
Roanoke would give up 12 offensive rebounds...
Roanoke would convert on only 10-18 FT in the second half, missing five in a row at one point...
Roanoke would turn over the ball repeatedly at half court allow for easy break-away baskets by the Marlins (including a thunderous dunk by Brandon Adair)...
The only Roanoke player to score in double figures was T. Jackson with 10, and ...
Roanoke would only have 3 assists for the entire game.

I hope Page Moir takes these kids to woodshed before the game with Randolph-Macon because they played with no intensity and no heart.  This was a game that Roanoke lost, rather than Wesleyan won.  Nothing bad about the Marlins' play--they looked like a solid team.  Not an outstanding team by any means---a team that was not yet on the top of its game.  Roanoke, on the other hand, couldn't have beat Lynchburg the way they were playing. 

But everyone is entitled to one bad game during the season.  Now that the Maroons have gotten that out of the way...

[former rmcsid]

Final from Lexington, Va.:
Randolph-Macon 71
Washington and Lee 41

R-MC is now 4-1 overall/2-0 ODAC
W&L is now 0-7 overall/0-2 ODAC

For R-MC:
Justin Wansley:  16 points, 5 assists, 6-of-9 shooting
Stephen Sutherland:  `10 points, 3-of-5 shooting, 2-of-4 three-pointers
Justin Short:  9 points, 4-of-7 shooting

For W&L:
Greg Bienemann 12 points, 6-of-7 shooting

R-MC at Roanoke 3:00 Sunday
W&L hosts Virginia Wesleyan 4:30 Sunday