MBB: NESCAC

[middhoops]

hoop master, it's just great for all of us to have more participation by Tufts' fans on this board.  Keep it coming!

[MENESCACFAN]

After seeing him liv, Hunter Sabety has my vote for All-Conference so far.  Physically dominant and fights like a warrior for rebounds.

If the snow holds off I will be attending Bates v Wesleyan tonight, though looking out of the office window I would call it 50/50!

[amh63]

Menescacfan.....you are a road warrior!   How bad is it?  The WBB teams of Amherst and Trinity has had "complications" up to Maine.....their games for tonight are postponed to Sunday.  I had fleeting thoughts early about going up to Amherst to watch the games live.  After last season when I go stuck in Hartford Bradley after flights back were cancelled several times...took a train home after a friend picked me up and took me home for food and a bed the next day...I'm glad that I changed my mind. 

[booyakasha]

Is the Amherst webcast always real choppy, or is it on my end?

Colby without Hudnut tonight. Hope it is nothing serious.

[P'bearfan]

Watching the trinity v Bowdoin game.  Tight game early in the first.  While I can only see the far side of the gym it looks like hardly any fans are there.  How can that be?  It's Friday night and the 2 conference leaders are playing!

[booyakasha]

Pol Bear, I can't recall seeing a Trinity game with a good crowd in the last 7 or 8 years, including playing in front of a dead crowd during a quarterfinal game. That being said, I haven't seen a Trin vs Amh or Wes game, so maybe that draws a little better crowd.

[P'bearfan]

It's halftime in Hartford and Bowdoin leads Trinity 32-28.

There's much more flow to this game than last season's rugby scrum.  Bowdoin playing well so far.  The P'bears look especially good when they are in transition.

[nescac1]

Williams up 46-33 at the half.  Ephs played their best offensive half of the season, moving the ball well, getting good shots, and for the most part nailing them.  Aronowitz (in particular), Wohl and Rooke-Ley all played very very well for Williams, who also received a spark off the bench from Cole Teal.  Williams has played tremendous defense on the first possession, doing an especially good job on Sinnickson and Meryman and limiting Midd to largely contested jumpers, but Middlebury has killed them off the glass, earning enough second-chance points to keep in the game.  Williams really needs to box all five men out, hard, because Midd's guys look bigger and springier down there.  Williams also continues to struggle in a weird area: missing another front end of a one-and-one.  I don't know if there is any way to find the stat, but I'd be willing to bet that Williams is comfortably below 50 percent on those shots for the season.  And generally by good free throw shooters, to boot.  It's bizarre. 

For Midd, Jake Brown and Matt St. Amour have played very well.  No one else really stood out and for Midd to come back and win they will need a lot more Sinnickson in the second half, which I imagine will happen.  No lead is ever safe when these two teams play so Williams will need to come out of the gates with the same level of passion to hold onto the lead. 

Kudos to Ed Flynn for an absolutely beautiful pick-and-roll finish in his limited PT.  Get the man the rock inside!

[P'bearfan]

Bowdoin and Trinity are going to OT!

[nescac1]

Tremendous win for Williams, night and day from the Hamilton game, that was Williams at its very best.  Nearly every point was scored off a layup, three point shot, or free throw, which is the goal of the Williams system when working well.  Williams consistently beat Middlebury off the dribble, leading to layups or passes for open threes.  Midd, on the other hand, seemed to rely on a lot of difficult, one-on-one moves and long contested jumpers, especially as the game wore on.  Midd was clearly determined to push the ball at all costs, but as a result, they took a lot of rushed shots.  For Midd, Matt Daley really played very well, consistently beating the Williams bigs down the floor for nice finishes.  Bryan Jones also had some nice moments for Midd, but the Midd starters had a tougher go of it.

Key stat of the game: Wohl and Aronowitz outscored Sinnickson and Merryman 35-13.  Wohl was absolutely stellar with his lock-down D on Sinnickson tonight, and Aronowitz has been playing better and better, and is emerging as a very solid, consistent third option for the Ephs.  Aronowitz's three point shooting is night and day from last year, he has clearly worked very hard at that facet of his game.

The best news for Eph fans was the unusually strong bench production ... I have to think 18 bench points is a season high.  Cole Teal is starting to come into his own, looking more confident as a playmaker and hitting open threes.  Darrias Sime was a beast on the interior, finishing some tough looks off the pick and roll.  Galvin and Flynn also had some nice contributions.  With Hayden back, the Eph starting five should have an advantage over any other starting unit in the league.  The question mark continues to be the bench, and hopefully the bench guys will build off this season's-best performance and continue to shine.  Just a tremendous all-around performance on both ends for Williams, can't recall the last time we beat Midd so handily. 

Also huge for Williams, 17-19 from the free throw line, badly needed after some recent struggles to find their shooting form again.  They even hit both ends of a 1-and-1! 

[P'bearfan]

Bowdoin trails Trinity 66-67 with 46 seconds left in OT.  Unfortunately Trinity has the ball.

[P'bearfan]

5 seconds to go and Bowdoin down by 1 with the ball.

[AmherstStudent05]

Emphatic 83-62 win for Amherst over Colby.  Unfortunately, work kept me from focusing on the game too much.

Obviously the big story was Hudnut's (at least to me) unexpected absence. Obviously that was a huge blow to the Mules' chances.  But boy was Amherst on fire for the first 25 minutes or so of this game.  Seemed like they could do no wrong as they shot the lights out early on.

I was a few minutes late firing up the webcast and Connor Green already had 16 points.  Unfortunately, he was picking up fouls and nailing threes with equal efficiency, so he finished with only 19 points on 7-10 shooting (5-7 from 3) before fouling out.  JohnnyMac and D. George each contributed double-doubles while Reid Berman dished out an impressive 13 assists (but was 0-4 from distance).  Talk about night and day from the Trinity debacle.

Now it is time to rest up for what should be a great game against Bowdoin tomorrow as the Polar Bears are coming off another heartbreaking OT loss to Trin.  Hausman continues to be an absolute scoring machine. 

[P'bearfan]

Bowdoin loses a real heartbreaker to Trinity 66-67.

While Trinity deserves credit for the win the real disappointment is that Bowdoin outplayed them for 38 minutes in regulation.  With 1 minute to go and the game tied Bowdoin couldn't find a shot and Trinity got the ball.  Bowdoin bounces back and steals the ball on the next possession.   Bowdoin calls timeout with 2.2 seconds left in regulation.  However Bowdoin couldn't get a decent shot on the inbound play and we head to OT.

In OT with just 5 seconds left Bowdoin struggles with the inbound play and heaves a last second prayer that is short.

Bowdoin's thin lineup really took it's toll late in the game and in OT as undoubtedly some of the team's struggles were due to fatigue.  Hopefully the guys can bounce back when they take on Amherst tomorrow.

[P'bearfan]

Sign's of a thin line up:

Swords: 41 minutes
Hurley:  39 minutes
Hausman: 37 minutes
Palecki:  35 minutes

In contrast only 2 players on Trinity played 36 minutes (Ajayi and Starks).