MBB: NESCAC

[Bucket]

Jake Brown in street clothes, fwiw

[jumpshot]

Ephs up by 1 over the plague in spite of 4 turnovers in the last four minutes of the first half.

[nescac1]

Really fun and exciting first half in LeFrak.  Williams up by one and frankly Amherst should be very glad that is the margin.  Ephs are playing very well, the best they've looked vs. Amherst so far this year, and frustrating to not have more of a lead, but Amherst has hit around four very difficult 3's late in the shot clock, including an NBA-range 3 from Berman and a four point play by Dawson that were back-breakers.  Jeffs 7-14 from 3 and especially early in the half shot the lights out.  Williams is playing great D and has received tremendous offensive play from Aronowitz and Heskett, but could really use some 3's from Cole Teal and/or Mike Greenman in the second half to balance out the attack.  Both teams look locked in on D -- very little is coming easy in this one. 

[nescac1]

Fantastic win for the Ephs and I HOPE this is enough to propel them into the NCAAs -- but of course, I also hope they are not done in the NESCACs.  They will have a chance to redeem their worst performance of the season vs. Tufts, but no doubt it's a tough matchup. 

For the Ephs, a tremendous wire-to-wire performance and the game was not as close as the final score suggested as Amherst hit about five garbage-time threes to close the margin a bit.  Williams really could not have played much better -- the key stat, only nine turnovers for the game.  When Williams simply takes care of the ball, they are very tough to beat.

Kyle Scadlock was amazing for the Ephs, keying the second-half run with a few unlikely 3's, some clutch rebounds, and several highlight-reel defensive plays.  When he is locked in like that, he is really fun to watch.  Dan Aronowitz was great all game, attacking the rim beautifully, and narrowly won another tremendous one-on-one battle with McCarthy.  Those two have had some wars over the last few years.  James Heskett and Bobby Casey both made some clutch offensive plays as well.  Even Chris Galvin got into the act with an incredibly rare three-pointer in a critical spot to complement his usual savvy passing and hard-nosed D.  A really huge 15 minutes of play for him and he gets my unsung hero award for this game.

The Eph defense was really scintillating in that second-half run, when Amherst couldn't get any sort of clean look at the rim.  Of course, it didn't help Amherst's cause that the entire offense was basically one-on-one play with very little ball movement.  A few key stats tell the story there. 

The LVP for Amherst, though, is most definitely the fan base -- Lefrak looked about a third empty, and the Eph contingent was far, far louder from buzzer to buzzer.  Felt like a home game for Williams.  Weak showing for a playoff game vs. an arch-rival.  Amherst may squeeze into the NCAA tourney, but they've done everything they can to play their way out the last few weeks. 

Strange year for the Jeffs given the talent on hand.  Was Connor Green much better than folks gave him credit for?  Perhaps.  The future for Amherst is an enormous question mark with only four rotation players returning.  There seems to be talent on the bench, but most of it is duplicative of Amherst's two best players, both wings.

[jumpshot]

The Ephs earn a sweet win over the plague by playing good defense, rebounding well, limiting turnovers to 9, and playing freely with confidence and swagger. Lots of credit is due to Coach App, his assistants, and the players for persevering to get to this unselfish, team-effort, character win on the road.

Meanwhile, the disharmony of this year's version of the plague catches up with them at absolutely the wrong time and place. Their fall from  a #1 ranking, 8-0 record, was foreseeable as mentioned early on this board. Even today the point guard goes 3 for 19 from the floor, despite having 5 teammates who shot better than 50%.

An outstanding display of determination, pace, and effort by the Ephs. Good luck the rest of the way ....

[middhoops]

Happiest Eph fans have been all year.  Congrats.

[Cards Fan]

Sigh...

[NEhoops]

Tough loss for WES. They'll have to regroup heading into the tournament assuming they get an at large bid. TRI always seems to play well this time of year (home or away) and was able to control tempo down the stretch. It's not always pretty with these two.   

Hot shooting from three for BAT made up for 18 turnovers, but either way MID was too much at home. St. Amour puts up points, but they'll need Brown back to make a strong run for the NESCAC title and beyond.

If I had a vote, I'd put WIL in the NCAA tournament. They are making the most of their opportunities and playing well at the right time, particularly at the defensive end. Time to sit and wait for AMH. Is Dawson a senior?

Impressive second half for TUF, they'll be hosting next weekend. They'll have to figure out things at the FT line, but have some strong momentum at this point. Any word on Palleschi? Good season for HAM, they'll be in the mix next year.

Anyone's game next weekend. TUF and MID are in good shape. TRI has to win out and a trip to the finals for WIL would be huge.

[jumpshot]

Hey, Toad. Since you may have been there in person, your thoughts on the Ephs' win at the plague today?

[lumbercat]

NE Hoops-

Couldn't agree more. Trinity just finds a way to win.
I'm scratching my head over this one.....if you told me before the game that Ogundeko would go 4/14 from the floor for 8 points and turn it over 5 times I would bet the house on the Cardinals.
Didn't see the game and stats can be deceiving but at the end of the day a great win for Trinity.

Bates got off to an awful start at Middlebury and turnovers did them in but credit the Panthers game plan for that.

Good luck to Old Guys Panthers. They are the prohibitive favorite in my view.

[AllStar]

[toad22]

Hey, Toad. Since you may have been there in person, your thoughts on the Ephs' win at the plague today?

The defense was really good today. Galvin, when he was in there, played Dawson very well. The Eph centers played the high ball screen very effectively, and the PGs for Amherst didn't get in the paint much. Except for the 3ball, Amherst couldn't get much done against The Williams defense.

Williams, finally, shot the ball decently against Amherst. That has been a long time coming.  I should also note that Williams out rebounded Amherst, which helped a whole lot. A very satisfying win for Williams.

[jumpshot]

Thanks, toad22. You captured the essence of a tremendous win for the Ephs. Hopefully more to come ....

[Bucket]

As we look toward the 2017 NESCAC semifinal weekend, I just want to throw some recognition Jeff Brown's way.

In 2015, Middlebury finished 9th and out of the NESCAC tournament. That is the one blip from 2007-08 to 2016-17 that Middlebury has not advanced to the semifinals.

Nine out of the past 10 years, Middlebury has been playing in the tournament semis. No other program in the conference has done the same during the past decade, and for good reason. It's a hell of an achievement, an incredibly difficult thing to achieve.

[Old Guy]

Bates played great at Middlebury. The Delpeches played like they didn't want their season to end (35 points, 19 rebounds) and the Bates guards shot the lights out (13-27 from three, but the last three 3pt attempts were desperation heaves in the last minute).

The Bobcats weathered the initial Middlebury assault (20-5 after seven minutes) to get within ten at the half. The Midd lead early was as many as 17 points. Matt St. Amour had 21 in the first half, then Bates came out and throttled him (I can hear Furbush at the half - "You need convincing #11 can shoot? Get on him!). Matt scored his 13 second half points in the final 7:20 of the game, the best shot a falling out of bounds flick of a 3 pointer from an impossible angle to break a tie.

Is there anyone playing better in all of D3 than Matt St. Amour? He's playing his best basketball against the best teams in the league in crunch time, averaging 26+pts in the last eight games (six NESCAC opponents and Keene State and Plattsburgh - no patsies). Plus, he's much more than a scorer: he's a defender (among the league leaders in steals - 1.8 a game), a passer (3 assists per game; 5 today); a rebounder (5 per game). He's a terrific scorer and a complete player.

Midd clearly misses Jake Brown, but Jack Daly again was heroic at the point with 14 points and 11 assists (and 5 rebounds and 3 steals). Big Eric McCord had his hands full with the Delpeches but just gets better and better (13 points, 11 rebounds today) - he works very hard and makes his contribution with little fanfare; Adisa Majors had 10 points (two big foul shots down the stretch after we had missed the front end of three consecutive one and ones) and 4 rebounds - that's good production from the 5. Tarantino continued his effective play with 7 rebounds - he runs the floor and plays above the rim. Bryan Jones hit three 3s and kept the Bates D honest. St. Amour may have had 34 but it was a team win, a grinder.

On to Boston and the Bantams.