MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[rmc1982]

Will be attending this year's edition of the Yellow Jacket-Hornet Classic here in Lynchburg at 7:00.  Sure to be a good one.  I hope this year's results are different from last year's.  I think I was in a coma for a few days (daze) after that. 8)

   










But my Jackets are in town, and I've not been able to travel as much as I'd hoped this season.  Gotta see 'em.  Will be wearin' my camo Virginia Law cap if you change your mind.

GO JACKETS!!

Pull for those Jackets hard tonite Jacketlawyer!I'm going to Crenshaw sunday and even though I'm in YJ Club I usually sit with those crazy students-they'll just be back from J-term  break-the view is better there-either that or I sit w/ EJ Scmidt,my old econ prof.......Go JACKETS

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Virginia Wesleyan is in trouble, playing without Ton Ton Balenga, down 65-54 with about 2:30 left!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

And Guilford is in a dog fight with W&L with about four minutes left... 53-52 Quakers!

[Matt Barnhart (kid)]

Great win by the Eagles, as they beat VWC 70-60.

Midway through the second half, VWC went on a 12-0 run to take a 54-53 lead. Then BC went on a 14-0 run to make it 67-54.

[FortyFour]

Any word on why TonTon wasn't playing?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I never heard why... mentioned several times... but I didn't hear why.

VA Wes losses by about ten.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

And Guilford and W&L are tied at 60 - less than 2 minutes left.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I have apparently lost the audio from the Guilford game. Not sure why. No score updates.

[FortyFour]

GC up 1 with about 26 seconds...TO called by Guilford

[donho]

 Jackets win 78-58

[donho]

 Guilford website has game over GC 64- WL 60

[rmc1982]

Jackets win 78-58

...and next we get the Gennies pissed off over their loss tonite.......GREAT.......but VWC lost...What a SHAME........looks like a race for #2...but there's still a helluva lot of B-A-S-K-E-T-B-A-L-L  left to play .......
GO JACKETS....and we're at home most of the rest of the way.......for whatever that means this year...........

[hasanova]

Guilford website has game over GC 64- WL 60

I just left the GC/W&L game and it was 64-60 Quakers.  Whew!  What a nailbiter the last few minutes.  After W&L led 3-2, Guilford built a 36-20 lead a minute or so into the 2nd half after two quick threes by Clay Henson, but then proceded to let W&L chip away.  The Generals actually led twice in the 2nd half - the last time at 58-56, but Ben Strong scored 6 of GC's last 8 points for the victory.  Let's do this by the numbers:

- 1 - # of untimely technicals by a GC player - W&L only hit 1 FT, but cut the lead to 4
- 2 - # of times Ben Strong blocked a 3-point attempt to tie in the last 10 seconds
- 5 - # of fouls by Bienemann - he sat out a lot of the 1st half & fouled out with 5:48 to go
- 8 - # of points by Bienemann, who didn't score in the 1st half
- 8 - # of threes by W&L, 5 by Kirk Jones - many very clutch
- 14 - # of missed FT's by GC - many the front end of a 1 & 1 - overall, a terrible 17 of 31
- 20 - # of points by Strong - not a great game at all, but enough

W&L could have quit when they got down by 16, but they're scrappy and kept fighting.  Kudos to them.  For about 2/3 of the game, GC looked clearly better, but they killed themselves with missed FTs.  It was a very "chippy" game, with a lot of rough play underneath - and the crowd was into it.  At one point, the GC students were in danger of getting a technical, but the refs asked a school representative to go over & tell them to cool it.  After a GC player was called for a turnover and a key technical, I could hear the chant "I am blind, I am deaf, I just wanna be a ref."  Which is funny, I guess, unless you're a ref!

I'm relieved the Quakers won & do not look forward to going to W&L.   GC's now 15-4, 10-2 and W&L is 12-6, 8-3.  A great game with lots of intensity that matched what I thought this contest would be!

[DenbowsRoomie]

Having listened to most of the game online, I agree with hasanova's assessment.  W&L could've rolled over and given this one away, especially with Greg fouling out with more than 5 minutes to play.  But the Generals kept scrapping away to keep it close until the very end.

It should be said that Ben Strong's impact goes way beyond his stat line -- it seemed like Generals players were picking up fouls simply by trying to deny him the ball.  It sounded like Greg fouled out on this sort of situation.

Now that W&L has dropped this one, the weekend road trip becomes so much more crucial.  Will the Generals come out at 10-3 in ODAC play or 8-5?  Anything still can happen with many ODAC games left!!!

[sludge]

<whew> I was way too hot in the Guilford gym tonight, and the players were dripping.  Slippery hands contributed to missed shots and free throws (although somehow mainly only for Guilford!).   

Guilford played very good D, which bailed them out of a poor shooting night.  Way to go, guys!  Belkoski was the Sludge player of the game, you bet.  Erik did almost every type of thing you can think of.  Strong was huge at the finish with a shot, free throws, rebounds, and blocks.  Kimbrough is an all-ODAC point guard.  Henson hit some big threes, and thank goodness Sanborn, Neville and Edmund had good shooting percentages in addition to Belkoski.  Everybody did the hard grimy work and contributed alot, what a fine team.

Yes, Bienemann had consecutive fouls 4 and 5 trying to deny Strong the ball.  He's a clever sharpshooter, and the Quakers didn't give him much room with the ball.  The Quakers kept Kusimo from going wild too, but Femi still crushed the boards  big time.  What skills on that guy.   McHugh and Jones, what a combo.  Very destructive shooters.

Great team effort and a fine win.

I'm sold on the W&L Generals; they have solid players and sound tactics.  I think they'll at least get a split this weekend.  Probably the toughest game for them will be the speedy scrappy Marlins.  I'm not looking forward to the Lexington game.