MBB: Great Northeast Athletic Conference

[Falcons 25]

AMC: 83
Keens State: 81

AMC wins on a driving layup by J. Green-Younger w/2 seconds left! Great game for J. Green-Younger- 25 pts.
This game was won by AMC on the free throw line- 27 made free throws!!!!!!  Too, they rebounded well &
played good defense.
GREAT JOB, MEN! Now, get ready for Williams!!!

[D3HoopJunkie]

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

What a great game the other night between Albertus and Keene State. I was unable to watch online but based on the box score and some of the highlights (including the game winner) that I saw online, it looked like a heck of a battle between 2 very good teams. Keene has played a strong schedule so far to start the season and while they have yet to see the results in the Win/Loss column this is still a strong team and a good quality road victory for the Falcons.

A HUGE game on Sunday afternoon against Williams College. Williams, like most NESCAC schools are always well coached, they play with discipline and overall are regarded as a top team in the Division 3 ranks, especially in the Northeast region. Coach Oliver and Albertus are so good at home so I am looking forward to another good game between these 2 schools! A win here for Albertus would go a long way late in the season.....

This Albertus team is so deep that Oliver could and has rotated out 5 guys at a time and it almost looks like they don't skip a beat. They are extremely athletic with so many shooters and scorers yet as a team they are very unselfish with the basketball. We have a handful of player who can beat the opponent on any night which is a great thing and one of the reasons why we dont have a particular player or 2 who is just lighting up the stat sheet. This is a very balanced team and we're only going to get better as the year goes on. I believe this is the strongest team we have had since our Sweet 16 appearance from 2014-15. It is all going to come down to our defensive effort. I think everyone in the country knows that we can score the basketball. Our defense this year is equally talented but its just a matter of whether guys want to step up and commit to it or not. So far in the early going, it looks like they have.

With all that being said, the top half of the GNAC is quite strong this year. It will be a difficult task to navigate to a GNAC Championship this season. I truly believe Albertus, St Joes CT, Emmanuel, Colby Sawyer, JWU and Suffolk are all capable of winning the conference and this regular season more than ever is huge for home court advantage during the playoffs. It wont be an easy task for the Falcons to repeat as Champs and continue their dominance over the rest of the GNAC but if theres one thing we know about its that this team and Coach Oliver are always up to the task and have proven time and time again that they can get it done when it matters most.

[D3HoopJunkie]

What a great win today for the Falcons. A complete team effort victory over a good Williams team. Williams struggled mightily from the floor as a team. Mostly due to the pressure that we applied on defense but also because it was just one of those days where the Ephs could not buy a hoop. People better start taking this Falcons team seriously because they can execute their offense with the best of them and when they commit defensively like they did today they can play and beat anyone. Depth, depth depth. We were missing 2 starters today, Damian Grant our 6'6 forward who is a major contributor and Tyreek Perkins who was hurt in the opening minutes of the game and yet we still got the job done without skipping a beat. Losing Andrew Rice to an atrocious second technical call was also a loss and yet this Falcon team pressed on. The second technical foul on Rice in this game was horrible! He had nowhere to step after blocking the heck out of the Ephs players shot and he stepped over the player on the ground instead of stepping on him and the ref called a T. Just a bad call that should have been handled differently by the official.

Great win but its time now to lock in and stay focused on the next task at hand. A 3 game week coming up with a road trip on Wednesday to take on in state foe Mitchell College followed by 2 home games against George Fox on Friday and a quick turnaround for a matchup the following day against #25 ranked WPI. 

[Falcons 25]

AMC notes- after the Victory over Williams!

Keith Antonio Davis had a "coming out" party in the win over Williams. Point Guard for AMC is very much "up for grabs"!
I like that he is a large point guard who always plays hard & has a good handle!
Rob Tindley & Qualon Wilkes are also in the competition for the point guard position. They all need to learn to distribute
the ball much better than they do now!
Marquan Watson is going through "growing pains" as a freshman, but make no mistake about it, he is the next big time player
on this team. (needs to let the game come to him & trust his teammates!!)
Rob Simmons, a star @ Classical in Hartford, will shine when Mitch gives him a chance!

[Saint-Paul]

Two victories this week over Wentworth and Wheaton push the Saints early record to 7 - 1.  I continue to be amazed at they way this team is playing. Each game the Saints have four, five , or six players in double figure scoring.  This prevents their opponents from keying their defense on any one player.  Saints continue to play unselfish basketball, with good shot selection, steady free throw shooting, and hustling back on defense.  Hope this formula can hold up when the Saints match up with some of the high profile teams in the GNAC. Saints don't have a dominate post player, either on offense or defense, so rebounding could be a problem against some of the bigger and more athletic teams. Conference games should be fun to watch.

[D3HoopJunkie]

AMC notes- after the Victory over Williams!

Keith Antonio Davis had a "coming out" party in the win over Williams. Point Guard for AMC is very much "up for grabs"!
I like that he is a large point guard who always plays hard & has a good handle!
Rob Tindley & Qualon Wilkes are also in the competition for the point guard position. They all need to learn to distribute
the ball much better than they do now!
Marquan Watson is going through "growing pains" as a freshman, but make no mistake about it, he is the next big time player
on this team. (needs to let the game come to him & trust his teammates!!)
Rob Simmons, a star @ Classical in Hartford, will shine when Mitch gives him a chance!

Completely agree with your assessment on Marquan Watson. He is going to be a fantastic player under Oliver. We have seen this many times before with players over the years of his caliber. If he sticks with it and continues to work and be positive, Oliver will turn this kid into a legitimate star who will have a chance to someday make money playing overseas. I think he can be that good. He just needs to understand his role at the moment and try not to force the issue as much. It can be hard for freshman to come in to a program such as Albertus who has a constant flow of high caliber upper classman year after year. You go from being a top player in the state to getting a few minutes a game if any at all and that can sometimes be hard to get over. But this is the college game, its a completely different level and Oliver has made it known to many over the years that regardless of your talent level the best players are going to play. And in the very near future Marquan Watson will be one of those players!

Matchup with Mitchell College tonight. While we have owned this series head to head for many years its still always a game that intrigues me. I think we will have a positive result coming out of tonight game.

Terry Dawkins will have a big double double tonight in a bounce back performance after a tough game the other day for him against Williams.

[Falcons 25]

AMC News: Nice win over George Fox University!
Keys to the game:
AMC outrebounded the Bruins by 20! A lot of second chance points.
Terry Dawkins with a nice game( 19PTs/7 boards)
Davon Warner- quiet guy from Hillhouse who game after game is our MVP!
(8 rebounds from the little guy with a big heart!) Rain on Davon, with your 3`s!!!
Isaiah Lewis- 31 minutes & a solid player who loves to take it to the iron!
Drew Rice- what a difference a year makes! This man is now an offensive threat.
Marquan Watson- 12 Boards- 10 defensive- enough said!

W.P.I. today @ 5pm @ home!

[D3HoopJunkie]

Another huge matchup today! Nationally ranked WPI will be a real tough test for this Falcons squad after a hard fought battle with a very good George Fox team last night exactly 24 hours ago. WPI is a strong and disciplined team who executes there offense and they are feisty enough on defense to turn you over and make you make mistakes.

Let me start off by saying I am making NO excuses for this Falcons team. I am going in with the mindset that we are going to win this game and I know Oliver and the boys are more then confident as well. But it really sucks that we are going to be down 3 starters today. Senior Jahmerikah Green Younger was out last night and will be again today. I heard at the game last night that he sustained a concussion in practice earlier in the week. Senior Damian Grant, our 6'6 starting forward will also be out while he still recovers and while Tyreek Perkins was suited up last night, it doesnt look likely that he will play either as he continues to work his way back from a lower body injury. Albertus hasnt been 100% all season and yet we are still here at 7-1 with another huge opportunity today. It really speaks to the depth and character of this team to lose players of this caliber and be able to sub in and not skip a beat. Davon Warner and Andrew Rice have been fantastic and we will need another strong effort from them today. The guard will need to step up and I expect Senior big man Liam Perryman to play hard and have a big game today in a matchup with fellow big man Garret Stephenson who has been playing lights out of late for the Engineers.

Should be a good one folks! Hope a lot of people come down to pack the NEST!! 5PM as a start time is a little different then what most are accustomed to on a Saturday evening but everyone should make plans to come to the game and grab a slice in New Haven afterwards!

[Saint-Paul]

Did I read this box score correctly?  The 0 - 8 Lasell Lazers defeated Nichols, the 7 th ranked team in the nation. They didn't just beat them, they put 96 points on the board. I guess Lasell is a team to be heard from in the GNAC games.

[Falcons 25]

AMC over W.P.I. @ THE NEST!
Not really a contest after the Falcons built a substantial lead of as much as 22 pts. in the 2nd half.
When AMC gets "after it" on defense they can beat any team.
Not impressed with W.P.I. "big men"- not a lot of heart shown in this game!
Last game of the first semester is next Saturday @ home vs St. Lawrence.
Great job, Men!

[falcons2010]

Junkie and Falcons.... great updates throughout the last few years. Saints, how are you liking the new coach?

A good start to the year gor GNAC teams. They are playing a lot more "top level" teams since going to the new one game format.

Can't wait to see this Albertus team grow.

[7express]

Anyone go to the George Fox/AMC game the other night and get a GF roster??  Really wondering why they'd take a cross country trip to middle Connecticut (they played @ St. Joes the next day) right at the end of the semester??  Anyone know whether they do trimesters at GF instead?? 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Anyone go to the George Fox/AMC game the other night and get a GF roster??  Really wondering why they'd take a cross country trip to middle Connecticut (they played @ St. Joes the next day) right at the end of the semester??  Anyone know whether they do trimesters at GF instead??

Finals start tomorrow - they have Monday off.  Maybe they treated it like a long weekend?  I couldn't find anything on their site that specifically mentioned it - other than it was their longest trip of the year.

[Falcons 25]

I was at the AMC-George Fox game and The Bruins were outclassed, especially on the boards.
They seemed to give up, when they realized they couldn`t "board" with the Falcons.
They were equally awful the next night vs St. Joes- CT.

[Saint-Paul]

Saints close out the first semester with a 40 point win over Pine Manor.  Again, Saints place four starters in double figures, and ten players on the scoreboard.  Saints are moving the ball very well, finding open men, and making good shot selections.  This win pushes the Saints first half record to 8 - 2. It use to take the Saints 3 seasons to accumulate 8 wins, now they are doing it one semester. Keep it rolling right into the second semester.