MBB: NESCAC

[walzy31]

Middlebury @ Amherst
Amherst -2.0
O/U: 137.0

[magicman]

Middlebury comes back from a 15 point 2nd half deficit to tie Amherst at 68 -68 with 30 seconds remaining on a layup by Joey Kizell.
After a Middlebury time out, Amherst gets a huge shot from Taylor Barrise, who nails a three pointer with 3 seconds left. Amherst fouls Joey Kizell who makes the first one and misses the 2nd hoping for the putback but Amherst comes away with the win 71-69.

Aaron Toomey leads Amherst with 18 points and Willy Workman has 16. Joey Kizell is the game's high scorer with 21 points and leads 4 Middlebury players with double figures. Jake Wolfin had 18 points, Ryan Sharry had a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds, while Peter Lynch also had 10 points.

[BankShotCharlie]

Glad to see the NESCAC Championship back where it belongs...  Amherst, MA

Well done fellas.  Now only if the Jeffcast didn't cut out at the exact worst time possible (Toomey taking his man one-on-one with 23 seconds left).

Keep it rolling and to the rest of the NCAAd3, beware the purple ides of March...

[magicman]

Middlebury @ Amherst
Amherst -2.0
O/U: 137.0

Pretty good line walzy. +1

[amh63]

Yup!.......missed the last 30 sec.   Thanks Magicman for the recap.
Walzy.......you are right on.
Great win and title for the seniors!

[ECSUalum]

Yup!.......missed the last 30 sec.   Thanks Magicman for the recap.
Walzy.......you are right on.
Great win and title for the seniors!

amh63,
Congrats to the Lord Jeffs on their NESCAC Tournament Championshipand best of Luck for the NCAA's

[amh63]

Needed to post something more mature than my last one.  Went to the boxscore and it actually represents how close this game was.....a classic as forecasted.  The teams had the same number of steals, blocks, turnovers.  Amherst had one more assist and two more rebounds.  Midd made one more 3-point shot but Amherst had a better % at 50 percent.
Thought that Coach Brown made a great move.....fouling Holmes in the last minute with Amherst in the lead by 4 and the ball.
Coach Hixon countered with a foul with 1 sec to prevent a 3-point miracle shot by Midd.
Both teams had star players with foul problems....Barrise of Amherst and Sharry of Midd.  Both stars returned to make impacts with Barrise making the winning shot....a 3-point shot in the last seconds to help win the game.  Both teams made comeback runs....Amherst in the first half and Middlebury in the second half.
Looked for Old Guy to gauge the game....He was calm and collective in the times I spotted him....or was that a life-size poster?

[walzy31]

Great accomplishment for Amherst! I am happy for the players, coaches and fans.
Hats off to Middlebury...they never quit and never go away. One minute we are up 15 with 8 to play and the next it is tied with 30 seconds left.

My two fun facts:
Aaron Toomey is 28-0 in Lefrak
With Kizel's intentional miss on his last FT, his FT% for the season drops to .9040. Toomey's 11-12 weekend rises his FT% to .9047. Those are both fantastic percentages for the two best point guards in the league.

[walzy31]

Willy Workman was MVP of the championship game, but everyone made big contributions on both ends.

[Old Guy]

The recap on the Amherst sports homepage is good. Midd is a game group. The Panthers have five losses in two years - all the losses are by one possession (total of five points in three losses this year). Would love to draw the Jeffs on a neutral court.

Scored tied today at 68, Amherst ball, 30 ticks left. Toomey lets the clock run down, deep in the right quadrant. He starts his drive to the left with about five seconds on the clock, is bottled up at the foul line (good D), finds Barrise on the arc, left, with a sliver of daylight, who nails the three (catches a little iron) with a hand in his face. Great shot. 71-68.

3.2 seconds left, after a timeout. The Jeffs intentionally foul Kizell after the Panthers inbound the ball, the best foul shooter in the league at 92%. 1.9 seconds left. Jeffs put in Holmes and Kaasila to box out on the blocks, Sharry next to Holmes. Kizell hits the first, and then throws up the perfect miss, high arc, back rim, start the clock, high bounce, scramble for the ball. Thompson ends up with it 8-10 feet from the hoop, left, throws up a prayer, not close, gets fouled in the process.

Ref acknowledges the foul but says it was after the time had run out. No complaints. Probably right. There's not a ref in the world that would have called a foul in that situation, me included.

Jake Wolfin and Joey Kizel were terrific. 39 points and four turnovers in 35 and 37 minutes respectively. They brought us back.

The Jeffs did a good job on Ryan Sharry - he only took six shots (3-6). He picked up foul #2 at the 12 minute mark of the first half, re-entered at 8 minutes and picked up #3 on a change shortly thereafter. Walzy asked me at the half why Sharry came back in: "we're down 14. We need him." He played the second half trying not to foul when Kaasila/Holmes/Waller/ went to the hoop. He's a great help defender, leads the league in blocks, but he had to be careful.

You could say that Amherst "outplay(ed) the Panthers through a good portion of the game," but it's a game of runs and you best never count the Panthers out - they played damn well in the last ten minutes, tie game after 39 1/2 minutes of play, all even. Large boisterous Amherst crowd - we put a scare into them at the very least. Nice representation of Midd fans too.

Tough loss for the Panthers, second week in a row. Exciting game.

[Bucket]

My two fun facts:
Aaron Toomey is 28-0 in Lefrak
With Kizel's intentional miss on his last FT, his FT% for the season drops to .9040. Toomey's 11-12 weekend rises his FT% to .9047. Those are both fantastic percentages for the two best point guards in the league.

And Kizel hasn't lost in Pepin. Won't it be a fun two more years watching those two go at it?

Too mentally (emotionally?) exhausted from the game and drive home to write anything coherently about the contest. I'll save that for another day. In the interim, hats of to Taylor Barrise for hitting such a big shot and to Amherst on the victory. And a standing O for the Middlebury Panthers for their effort and never-say-die commitment to the game and each other.

My last fun fact: Ryan Sharry—four years, four appearances in the NESCAC championship game. Quite a career. Here's hoping it continues for several more weeks.

[amh63]

Really!.....saw Willy's numbers and his effort in the game and felt his impact was critical.  Is that offiical or your opinion Walzy?

[maineman]

When will the brackets be out?

[7express]

When will the brackets be out?

Tomorrow afternoon.  Men's get announced at like 12 or 1, women's are announced an hour later.

[amh63]

Brackets are reported to be out by Monday afternoon, I believe.