MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[Jhoops]

stillfamily has it right. Royals freshman specifically Austin Twine and John Overstreet made big contributions. DeJesus will get on track tonight.

[hasanova]

The audio on SportsJuice.com was terrible, but I was able to catch some of Guilford's 101-77 win over Robert Morris (Springfield, IL).  The Quakers had four players in double figures, led (I think) by Ben Strong's 23.  Trust me, the audio was so bad I had trouble getting this much information.    Great win Quakers!  Keep it up versus Sewanee on Sunday.  Good luck to Roanoke in the 2nd game.

[and1wasp]

E&H defeats Cabrini 127-112

[emufan]

EMU defeats a pesky Southern Virginia squad by a score of 77-73.  EMU lead throughout the contest but couldn't pull away from SOVA.  Sager paced EMU with 28 pts and 12 boards while Parkes finished with 21.

EMU is going to surprise some teams this year, but they are awfully young.   Hopefully Coach Dean can keep this team going in the right direction and get better as the season progresses.   

Being 2-0 right now is great.

[jeloesel]

ODAC teams in action on Saturday:

Roberts Wesleyan 91
Lynchburg 86

Hampden-Sydney 93
Westminister 84

Bridgewater 93
Lancaster Bible 63

Averett 79
W&L 56

Guilford 101
Robert Morris 77

Roanoke 83
Sewanee 81

E&H 129
Cabrini 112

Randolph-Macon 81
Lycoming 66

EMU 77
Southern VA 73

[Llamaguy]

Made it to the EMU/SVA game last night. Good effort by EMU. Would have won by double digits if they could have defended the perimeter a little better. I will say the kid from SVA did also hit quite a few threes with a hand in his face though.

BC may have some hope early afterall, atleast until they know they have to defend a freshman shooter. Dominic Trawick had 18pts Friday night against SVA and followed it up with 26 against Lancaster Bible. I believe he was 7-9 from behind the arc last night. He was also named the MVP of the tourney hosted by EMU.

[hasanova]

Guilford defeated Sewanee 91-78 Sunday afternoon.  The Quakers led the Tigers by 25 in the 2nd half and were up 91-68 with 3 1/2 minutes to go.  The University of the South scored the last 10 unanswered points against the reserves to make the final score.  Ben Strong matched his career high with 30 points in 24 minutes on 10-13 from the floor and 10-11 from the line (he had 23 in Saturday's opener).  He and Snipes were named to the all tournament team.  Good weekend, Quakers!

[sludge]

I heard that one of the Robert Morris players told one of Guilford's, late in the game, that the RM team hadn't expected Guilford to be good.  I think they expected to beat Guilford soundly.  Somewhere in the next 101 points they changed their minds. (Final was padded by a double-T on the RM coach, late in the game).  There were (at least) four big "charges taken" in that game that don't show on the stat sheet;  two for Kimbrough, and two for Belkoski.  Guilford coach was still apoplectic over the defense in that game, though.  Strong and Snipes looked sharp, Burge was tenacious all over the place, and freshman Henson was just remarkable, draining every shot he took.  They bench held their own and then some.  It looked like there were a score of uncalled fouls in the game, maybe going both ways.

Hey, let's lobby to get "charges taken" on the stat lines!  Taking a charge is a big play.

I thought the Robert Morris players were very athletic, talented leapers.  I think Guilford managed to outrun them by the end, though.
***
In the game against Sewanee, the G defense looked stiffer.  Hard to tell, maybe Sewanee wasn't quite the slashing team, but anyway G wasn't giving much away.  Guilford also bothered their 3 point shooting noticeably.  The cause for concern was team foul trouble in the 2nd half, but it all worked out.  Guiford was really strong and quick out there.  And great entertainment - there was an off-the-backboard pass to the center rushing into the lane that resulted in a lightning quick dunk, among the general mayhem in the paint.  There were clearouts with cuts to the basket by guards and forwards, handsome threes also.  It was kind of beautiful.

I also figure the ODAC will be tougher.

Guilford still had gas in the tank at the end of those games.

[hasanova]

Hey, sludge.  Glad to see you back since Guilford hoops is up and running.  I tried to listen on sportjuice.com, but the audio was terrible.  I know it wasn't my computer because I tested a few other games and they were fine.  Thanks for your report - sounds as though you and some other family made the trip to Salem.  Coach Palombo is a stickler for defense, so it sounds as though he was getting a little angry with the boys when they got sloppy.  I'm looking forward to this season and hope we'll be able to contend for the ODAC title.  Personally, I think the Quakers are going to be pretty good and perhaps better than our 4th place prediction.  From what I can gather, GC was clearly the best team of the four at Roanoke.  I look forward to seeing you at the games.  Peace

[Mr. Ypsi]

I find it hard to believe that Robert-Morris, Springfield, would expect to beat ANYONE soundly!

Robert-Morris, Chicago: helluvateam, would beat many lower level d1s.
Robert Morris, Springfield: loses to many of the dregs of the midwest.

Hopefully they have improved, if you saw them as "very athletic, good leapers"; otherwise your team is in deep doo-doo.

[hasanova]

I find it hard to believe that Robert-Morris, Springfield, would expect to beat ANYONE soundly!

Robert-Morris, Chicago: helluvateam, would beat many lower level d1s.
Robert Morris, Springfield: loses to many of the dregs of the midwest.

Hopefully they have improved, if you saw them as "very athletic, good leapers"; otherwise your team is in deep doo-doo.

Mr. Ypsi, Guilford is a good team and sludge has an "inside track" to what might have been said on the court.  Whether the RM player is simply delusional or had any reason to make that statement is another matter, but if sludge says it was something someone said on the court, then it happened.  The fact is, Guilford took care of them rather handily, so I think that's all that matters.

[jeloesel]

I'll give a more detailed report of the games by Guilford and Roanoke later. 

However, Roanoke lost to Robert Morris yesterday afternoon, 79-75.  That probably says more about Roanoke's poor play at this time of the season as it does about the quality of the Robert Morris team.

http://www.roanoke.edu/athletics/mbball/0607box/game2.htm

[steelyglen]

Good opening weekend for Bridgewater. While the 30 point win against Lancaster Bible was expected, the convincing win against Southern Virgina was not, especially considering it was the season opener and was not being played in the friendly confines of Nininger Hall. SVA had beaten a D-2 team in OT a couple of nights earlier. Coach Bill Leatherman had expected a struggle.

A very high level source said BC played "some of the best defense we have had here in a long time". Josh Fox hit a couple of big shots late and also blocked a couple of late shots. That's good to see as he has to be "the man" (maybe not the leading scorer every night but the guy who plays big in crunch time) for the Eagles to sustain any success.  Freshman Dominic Trawick had 18 points to lead BC. Fox opened with a double-double (17 pts/12 boards) and Michael Oblitey had 12 points 9 rebounds. Jay Strotman was singled out for his defensive play. BC hit 59.3% from the floor in the second half to turn a close 7 point halftime margin into a 16 point run away, 78-62.

On Saturday, Trawick was "en fuego" ( to quote Dan Patrick) as he hit 6-7 from the arc (10-13 overall) and scoring 26 points. Fox had 17 and Oblitey had 15. Trawick was named Tournament MVP while Fox also secured All-Tourney honors. Again it was turning up the second half offense that aided the young Eagles. After shooting 45.2% in the first half BC shot 65.6% in the second half to turn it into a 93-63 rout. Granted not a lot of competition on Saturday night but 2-0 is 2-0 no matter how you slice it.

Bridgewater actually gets a couple weeks off, not playing again until their home opener on December 2nd. This will be a good time for Coachs' Leatherman and Weller to look at tape and do some crucial teaching prior to games 3&4. 2-0 was not expected this morning, so kudos to this team for getting it done in week 1. I will be at the Don Glick Invitational Dec 2-3 (along with a certain former ODAC POY) )to get a first hand look and will spew more insight upon my return. Nice work Bridgewater!

[steelyglen]

Well...still 2 games to go in the Week 1 "Pick'ems" but a quick peek sees every guru on the top side of .500 so far. jaydubyadubya checks in at 8-1 so far with only the W&L loss blemishing otherwise perfection. feelthesting10 is right there at 8-1 also and shares the early lead. 6 gurus check-in at 7-2 including usual contenders Algernon, 3sdown and jacketlawyer.  5 are in at 6-3 including yours truly (damned Lynchburg)brianhamilton and stillfamily. At 5-4 the group includes "jimmy", and1 wasp and a trio of pick'em newcomers.

2 games to go for week 1. Still obviously plenty of time to get in. Remember we are playing this year for a pair of ODAC tournament ducats in addition to the food and drink of the gods! Post your picks or e-mail them to me. Good pickin' gurus!

[FISHTANKFAN]

 I would just like to wish the Marlins another successful year.  Good luck against CNU tomorrow....I will be listening to the game.... and congratulations to all the ODAC teams who have played so well this early in the season.   No cakewalk for the Marlins or any team.  Great basketball in the ODAC this year for sure!