MBB: NESCAC

mrmike88 · March 04, 2006, 01:05:30 PM

For those of you interested in listening to the Amherst-Hamilton game tonight, we'll have it live on WAMH. Pregame starts at 6:45, tip is slated for 7:00. http://wamh.amherst.edu/

samster · March 04, 2006, 01:16:45 PM

The pressure is on Amherst, Hamilton has nothing to lose by coming out of the gates with both guns firing. If they are on -- it could be trouble ....

walzy31 · March 04, 2006, 01:29:08 PM

Is Hamilton going to travel well? NCAA rules state that 1/4 to 1/3 of the home gym must be reserved for the visitor's cheering section. If the Continentals don't travel well it will be a pretty dull environment at LeFrak...

I look for Amherst to run a tighter rotation much like they did against Tufts in the NESCAC finals (10 man with the top 8 seeing 85%). If the lead gets in the 20s Hixon will start subbing more freely.
Time to win 5 straight.

mrmike88 · March 04, 2006, 07:00:57 PM

We're having technical difficulties on the WAMH broadcast. It'll be up in a few minutes.

mrmike88 · March 04, 2006, 07:49:02 PM

Amherst 37, Hamilton 23 at the half. We got disconnected again. We'll be back up in about 5 minutes.

mrmike88 · March 04, 2006, 07:49:17 PM

Tufts and Cortland tied at the half as well.

formerbant10 · March 04, 2006, 08:56:40 PM

83-59 The Jeffs cruise. I'm sure the benches were cleared for this one.

Walzy, right on with Amherst's score. I guess Hamilton just didn't quite have it in them.

mariner75 · March 04, 2006, 08:59:03 PM

Jumbos in Sweet Sixteen......beat Cortland St by 3. Clutch free throws by Shepard (again) pulled them through a hectic last 2 minutes. Give Cortland credit...everytime Tufts went up by 8-10 points in the second half, they kept coming back.

formerbant10 · March 04, 2006, 09:15:26 PM

That's key for Amherst looking to host. If Cortland had one, there was a good chance of 3 NY teams being in the regional. Shouldn't be a problem now.

It's too bad that the NESCAC will have to take each other out. But I bet it'll be a great game again. Best of luck to both teams.

mariner75 · March 04, 2006, 09:29:12 PM

Jumbos looked great last night....while they had to hang on tonight against Cortland..... Tufts looked a little tight and sloppy down the stretch.....The Red Dragon's are a quick team that hit some 3's to hang in there the second half. Martin didn't dominate inside as one would've thought against the smaller line-up. It'll be interesting next week given the prep time for each team. Tufts has nothing to lose while it seems the expectation is the Jeffs would disappoint if they didn't get Final Four this year.

mrmike88 · March 04, 2006, 10:05:08 PM

Amherst did a solid job of pulling away in the second half tonight. Hamilton pressed the entire game, and it only caused a few turnovers. They also ran a short rotation, which worked against them in the second half - it looked like the Continentals just ran out of gas, while Amherst continued to pound away. Great D tonight, holding Hamilton to 30% from the field and 11% from 3-land. Bedford dropped 30, Wheeler was on, and Caz made multiple treys.

The one thing I would worry about is that Amherst was beat on the boards by a good but not great rebounding team.

Amherst-Tufts III next Friday night should be fun!

P.S. We're sorry about the WAMH technical problems. We were using a faulty phone line that kept disconnecting us. We'll have it all fixed for next weekend.

met_fan · March 05, 2006, 12:36:14 AM

Yeah, Hamilton certainly did not have it tonight. They couldn't do anything on offense and Amherst hit their stride in the second half, knocking down their open jump shots.

ephoops · March 05, 2006, 12:54:33 AM

So much for the mighty WIAC...Three teams in the tourney and none make it to the Sweet 16.

walzy31 · March 05, 2006, 09:09:49 AM

Amherst looked like they were back to the form they need to be at in order to make a long run in the NCAAs.
Bedford 11-16 for 30 and it seemed he missed less than 5 shots. Casnocha 5-7 on threes.
Hamilton is a good squad and came ready to play. They played hard nosed tough defense from tip off til the final buzzer. I liked how it didn't matter who was in, but whomever was defending on ball was able to defend Amherst players close and force them to play under stress.
Hamilton shot 12% from deep and Amherst shot 45%. Hamilton from the line shot 68%, Amherst 89%. It was the lack of the three ball going in for Hamilton that took them out of the game. 1-10 in the first half and Amherst did everything right to have a double digit lead and continued to get easy buckets in transition.
Hamilton absolutely murdered Amherst on the O-Glass (24 offensive rebounds to Amherst's 23 defensive rebounds). Most were on put backs or tips that ended up being Hamilton's best way to score.
Coach Paulsen, how was the game last night as a fan? That will be the closest you get to getting back to the sweet 16 for a bunch of years.
Nicest dunk: Nick Jones on a put back one handed looked like LeMarcus Aldridge.
Tufts for the third time...at LeFrak...seperated by another 2 weeks like the first two games. Should be fun.
Rafters...I'm in! I am a topper. Thanks for the shots D. Fight in McMurphy?

JeffRookie2 · March 05, 2006, 11:25:55 AM

Bedford passes two players last night (John Hammermesh and Robb Caseria) to move into fifth place all-time in the Amherst scoring list. He now has 1,455 career points, meaning that if Amherst plays 2 or 3 more games, and Bedford keeps scoring at about 15-20 points per game, it is very possible that he could reach 1,500 career points.