MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

In January 12 I had a medical problem in my leg which kept me off my feet/moving slow for a month.

This was a close one, but a full recovery is expected, just will take a bit of time.

I'm beat as well, doing all the cooking,cleaning, driving, shopping, laundry, helping her students finish the semester, been an interesting last four weeks.

Glad to see that the North Country only gave up one win this weekend, wish it had been zero.

Geneseo looks like a real wild card, already have some L's, but a couple of quality wins as well.

So I misunderstood your post about major surgery... it was Kiki that had the surgery this time?

[magicman]

Geneseo's Gordon Lyons makes the D3hoops Team of the Week. The 6'5" sophomore forward is leading the Blue Knights in scoring for the season with  13.7 ppg. He is shooting a sizzling 59% from the field (46x78) and is also leading the team in rebounds with 7.8 per game. After starting the 1st 5 games of the season in which the Blue Knights went 2-3, he's come off the bench in the last 4 and that switch seems to have worked as Geneseo has won all 4 of those games. He averaging 25.6 minutes per game, 2nd best on the team. Congratulations Gordon.

Here's the ink from D3hoops:

Gordon Lyons
Lyons has been a super sub coming off the bench for the Blue Knights who went 3-0 in conference play last week. On Wednesday he scored 10 points in 25 minutes as Geneseo State handed Cortland State its first loss of the season, 70-66. Lyons' double-double (19 points, 13 rebounds) pushed Geneseo past Oneonta State 70-63 on Friday night. The next day he added 16 points and seven rebounds in a victory over New Paltz State 

Here's the D3hoops link to the complete TOTW:

http://d3hoops.com/awards/tow/2012-13/week4   

[magicman]

New D3hoops Top 25 is out and Rochester is one of only 2 East region teams to make the cut coming in at #8. The Yellowjackets move up 3 spots in the rankings, with 414 points, an increase of 87 over last week's total. Rochester, still undefeated at 10-0,  and champion of the Wendy's Classic that took place 10 days ago, is finally looking like the team that had such high expectations a year ago, when they entered the Preseason rankings at #7. After that lofty beginning the Yellowjackets quickly tumbled in the polls and dropped out of the Top 25 by week #5. By week #7 they were 9-5 and not even mentioned in the ORV's, finishing the campaign at 17-8 with no postseason play. This year has been a complete reversal. They started out in the preseason poll with a puny 10 points in the ORV category, moved up to #17 after the initial 2 week period, when the week #1 poll came out and have climbled steadily in the 2 weeks since then. They head a contingent of 3 UAA conference teams in the Top 25 as Washington University slips to #10 after falling from the unbeaten ranks, on a last second buzzer beater at Wheaton (Il.) on Saturday.

The other East  Region team in the Top 25 is NYU, the 3rd UAA school in the rankings. The Violets just finished a 2-1 week, coming back with 2 wins after getting upset by (ex-Siena College great), Coach Marc Brown's, New Jersey City Gothic Knights 60-50 on Monday, 12-3. The 2nd of those 2 wins came Sunday against a then 25th ranked and undefeated Stevens Ducks 71-65.  The Violets with that win managed to hang on to the #25 spot, as they fell 4 places and lost 100 points. Stevens fell from #25 into the ORV category where they received 16 points, a decrease of 52 from their previous total. 

Oswego State is the only other East Region team that gets a mention (barely...if you can call 1 point a mention) in the ORV category. Last week the Lakers had 6 points, went 2-0 for the week and dropped down to the single point this week.

With the SUNYAC teams beating up on each other, unless one of them manages to pull an Oswego, and put together a nice winning streak, I don't see our chances of getting much love this year in the polls. Someone asked me at the Buffalo State game on Saturday if the Cardinals would get some votes this week after hanging with Middlebury two weeks ago, going 3-0 this week, beating Keene State on the road and the Bengals in the Burgh. I said at the time, not even a sniff and that's as it should be. No YAC team has a strong enough record at the present time to merit much consideration.  Oswego and Cortland are the only YAC teams with a single loss, both with 6-1 records, but neither team has much in the way of signature wins. Cortland has only beaten 1 team with a winning record (Plattsburgh) and 2 of their wins have come against winless teams (Elmira and SUNYIT). Oswego is more of the same. They have yet to defeat a team with a winning record and lost at home to the only team they played that did have a winning record. (Plattsburgh). Lakers really need to toughen up their out of conference schedule. Up next for the Lakers, the always tough (heavy sarcasm here) Cazenovia Wildcats, perennial bottom feeders in one of the weakest D3 conferences in the country. Lakers will have scheduled this team for the 6th time in the past 7 years. Wildcats never closer than 25 and usually lose by 30 to 50 points. Hard to get ranked with the likes of those wins on your resume. Even the last 2 OOC opponents on the Lakers' schedule this year are having down years (RIT and SLU), and that's not something you can control, but when it's all said and done Lakers might have the weakest OOC slate of any YAC team. And ultmately come tournament time and for at large bid consideration that doesn't help them or other conference hopefuls.

We need to have something happen over the hoildays. Cortland, Buffalo State, and Plattsburgh all involved in out of town tournaments. Cortland in Daytona Florida at the end of December will face a so-so Ursinus team and then non D3 Embry-Riddle. Winning 2 will help but won't give them any national recognition. But you gotta start somewhere.

Bengals also in Florida over the holidays and take on a decent 6-2 Eastern Connecticut team that just knocked off then #14 Rhode Island College. Bengals will then face a solid Coe College team that took last year's National Semi Finalist and currently ranked #18 Illinois Wesleyan right down to the wire before losing 52-51. A couple of wins there could be the start of something noticeable for Buff State as well.

Plattsburgh State probably has the best chance of capturing attention with a couple of holiday wins but it's a tall order for the Cards. First up will be last year's Elite 8 and currently ranked #7 Franklin & Marshall College. The Diplomats are led by preseason All American 6'7" sr. Hayk Gyokchyan (and that's not a misprint) who is averaging a double-double of 18.7 ppg and 10.1 rpg. Beating F & M on their court won't be easy and they obviously think we're the weakest of the 4 team field or they wouldn't be playing us in the first game. F & M is currently undefeated with a 7-0 record. Depending on the outcome against the Diplomats we will meet the winner of Salisbury-Eastern Connecticut. The Warriors could end up playing 3 SUNYAC schools in less than a month. Salisbury has an 8-1 record losing only to 20th ranked Christopher Newport and will find out a lot more about their team in the next 10 days. They start with a visit to  #1 Virginia Wesleyan on 12-17, then travel to Va Wesleyan's fellow ODAC conference member Randolph-Macon on 12-19 and finish with a trip to Division I William and Mary on 12-21. Not sure but I think that may be the toughest 3 game stretch for any D3 school in the country this year.   No matter who we play in the 2nd game, if, and that's a BIG if, we manage to beat the Diplomats and win game 2 against whoever, the Cards will get some love. Enough to crack the Top 25...probably not but we will get some support in the ORV category, probably 20-30 points. Enough to build on if we get streaky. Personally I don't see this happening but it's a possibility and remains one of our few chances to get a SUNYAC team into the rankings, I believe.

Oswego State will probably win their next 5 games and sit at 11-1 after their 1-11 game against Fredonia. They meet Buffalo State the next day on Sat 1-12. If they win that game to get to 12-1 at the week's end, they may crack the rankings depending on what the teams in the Top 25 end up doing. But remember a 12-1 Oswego log will still, at most, only have a win over 3 teams with a winning record.  A loss to the Bengals will surely put a damper on that.                     

[Bengalsrule]

A rather light schedule tommorrow in the 'Yac. Oswego is at Cazenovia and The BENGALS are at home vs. Div 2 Central Penn (8-4). This Central Penn team is fast and athletic. Could cause some troubles for my beloved BENGALS before they depart to South Beach.

Somehow Jan 11th/12th ( next SUNYAC contests) seem real far away!

[magicman]

Buffalo State 101 Central Penn 98

Bengals tried hard to give this one away but in the end there was just too much Jake Simmons for Central Penn to contend with.  Simmons scored the final 4 points of the game to turn a 98-97 Buff State deficit into the final 3 point win. Simmons ended up with a season high (and maybe a career high) 43 points. He also became Buffalo State's all time leading scorer as he broke NBA great Randy Smith's 41 year old record with his total of 1722 points. Smith held the old record with 1712 points. Congratulations to Jake on a job well done over his career. Jake needs 278 points to reach the magical 2000 point level. With at least 16 games, a good chance for 17 games and possibly 18 or more games left in his career he can certainly attain that mark if he can remain injury free. Good luck in that quest.

Bengals grabbed an early 6 point lead but the Knights finally caught them with 16 minutes to go. Bengals went back in front by 6 with 12 minutes to play and the Knights not only came back and tied it up with 9:15 to play but after several minutes of trading buckets the Knights forged in front by 6 points on several occasions and went into the locker room up 51-48 at the half.
After 3 lead changes and several ties to cover the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half, the Bengals got 11 points from Simmons over the next 4 minutes to fuel a 19-5 run and opened up the first double digit lead of the game at 79-67 with 11:11 left to play. The Bengals reached their largest lead of the night at 83-69 with 10 minutes left, but then, lacking the killer instinct of past Buffalo State teams they let the Knights come all the way back and take a 98-95 lead with 1:30 left to play. Turning point of the game came with 45 seconds left when Central Penn was called for an intentional foul. Rod Epps hit two free throws to cut the deficit to 1 and with the Bengals retaining possession, Simmons scored on a layup to give the Bengals the lead with 37 seconds to play. Simmons got a block and a rebound at the other end, was fouled and made them both, to up the Bengals lead to 3 and the final margin. Too close for comfort here, if you ask me. Bengals should have won this game easily by 15 points.

Simmons scored his 43 points by shooting 15x23 from the field, 6x11 from beyond the arc and a perfect 7x7 from the line. He added 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and a block in 31 minutes.. His backcourt mate, Epps, also had a big night as he tallied 28 points, (10x23 fg, 3x11 3's 5x6 ft), with 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block in 39'. The  dynamic duo scored 71 of the team's 101 points. Anyar Majak just missed a double-double with 10 points and 9 rebounds. Ant Hamer filled up the stat sheet with 7 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals. Ryan Carney led the team with 11 rebounds.  Bengals shot 37x87 (42.5%) from the field, 10x30 (33.3%) from downtown and 17x24 (70.8%) from the line.  Both teams had 51 rebounds. The Bengals had 16 turnovers and 7 blocked shots (4 by Leon Moise in 9 minutes), while the Knights had 21 turnovers and 3 blocked shots.
Knights were led by Devon Dorsey with 20 points. Five other players reached double figures led by Tony Clagett with 13, Wes Kirkland with12, Connor Arnold with 11, and 10 each for Leonard Chester and Kevin Davis. Kirkland was the game's leading rebounder and had the only double-double as he had 14 boards to go with his 12 points.   
I think these teams thought there was a 24 second clock tonight.  161 field goal attempts and 50,  3 point attempts. Defense was hard to find. Knights shot 34x74 (45.9%) from the field and 7x20 from beyond the arc (35%).  They were 23x31 (74.2%) from the line. 

Bengals improve to 6-2 and will face Eastern Connecticut in Miami Florida on December 21st. 

[Bengalsrule]

199 points combined tonite. More than all but 2 NBA games last night!  School is out but Jake Simmons taught just as well. Scored the first 15 points of the game for the Bengals while playing within the flow. Cramped up at the 5;27   mark of the 2nd half with the BENGALS up by 9. Silence came over the crowd as he lay on his back at mid court. When the trainer began stretching him it was a sigh of relief although he had to come out of the game.

By the time Jake came back, at the 3:21 mark,  the lead had dissappeared and the game was tied 93-93. The game went back and forth until the last 37 seconds when Jake made a reverse layup to put the BENGALS up by 1. He then blocked a shot by Anthony Claggett, got the rebound ..got fouled and made both free throws. Cenn Penn missed a hail of Mary and that was it. One heck of a game if I must say so myself!!

South Beach is the next destination for the 6-2 BENGALS. Must be nice!!!

[magicman]

Oswego 73 Cazenovia 55

As expected the Lakers didn't have too much trouble with Cazenovia tonight. The Wildcats did manage to hold Hayden Ward to his lowest output of the season at 13 pts (5x10 fg, 1x2 3's, 2x3 ft) but Ward only played about a half a game.Ward's three lowest scoring games have been against the 3 weakest teams on the schedule, due to his limited minutes in those games. He's got a double-double average of 25 and 10 in the other 5 games. Sean Michele led the Lakers with 17 points (6x10fg, 5x9 3's). Twelve Lakers hit the scoring column as the coach went to his bench early and often. Bench players played half the minutes in this game.

Lakers, now 7-1 for the year, are off for the next 3 weeks until they take on St. Lawrence on Jan. 4th in Laker Hall.

Ward was chosen as the SUNYAC Player of the Week for the 2nd consecutive week. Here's the write up from the YAC website:

Hayden Ward, Oswego

"Senior forward Hayden Ward averaged 24.5 points and 10.0 rebounds in a pair of Oswego State road wins over Brockport and Ithaca. Ward scored 27 points at Brockport with the biggest three points coming in the final seconds. He completed an old-fashioned three-point play that gave the Lakers a one-point lead. Ward followed that performance with a double-double (22 points and 11 rebounds) against NCAA qualifier Ithaca on Saturday."



Last week Ward had another double-double as he was the SUNYAC and ECAC Player of the Week. He was the first YAC player to get ECAC honors this year.

Too bad Jake Simmons only has 1 game this week or he might have picked up the SUNYAC and ECAC Player of the Week award after his big game Friday night. He still could get it with the light schedules out there. Breaking a record held by NBA great Randy Smith, one of the best D3 players in history, should be good for something, especially when you score a career high 43 points to do so.   

 

[magicman]

Champ,
Check your PM's.

[jdex]

Cortland 78, Nazareth 59 .........

Holding their widest edge of the period, RDragons up 34-26 at the break. Naz within three on a couple of occasions thereafter, the last at 47-44 at 13:24. Flyers then scoreless till 7:43 mark and in 64-47 hole. B. Manning trey and J. Winter deuce begins CSt pullaway. Gap grows to as much as 23 points. Rarely seen M. Brown from Fairport delights his guests with final two RDragon points. Visiting Corts light it up with 28x54fg percentage and 10x20 from outside the arc. Also with 36-29 board advantage. Naz just 22x57fg, 5x26 3s.

K. McMahon continues his comeback campaign with 17 pts(6x9fg), 8 rebs. B. Manning has 11 first half pts and winds up with 17(6x9fg, 3x5 3s). H. Hefele 13 pts(5x9fg); J. Smith 10 pts, 4 assts; J. Winter 9 pts(3x4fg, 2x3 3s). Naz with J. Giles 11 pts, M. Mills 11 pts.

CSt. to 7-1 and Daytona Beach post Christmas vs. Ursinus and Embry Riddle. Nazareth 7-3

[magicman]

Nice win by the Red Dragons over Nazareth to avenge a couple of YAC losses at the hands of the Golden Flyers. I liked the Cortland boys in this matchup and wanted to do some forecasting today but this bug has got a pretty good hold of me. Barely crawling out of bed. Can't get any worse, hope to recover in the next few days.

[magicman]

Loose ends:

Tuesday 12-11
Hamilton defeats New Paltz 82-63 at Hawk Center. Was waiting to hear what Hawkball had to say about this effort.

Disappointing effort by the Hawks at home losing to Hamilton in a game that really wasn't as close as the final score indicated. Hamilton led by as many as 16 in the 1st half and had a 27 point lead midway through the 2nd half. Shareef Taylor didn't start for the Hawks for the first time all year, coming in off the bench 5 minutes into the game. That experiment didn't work. Hawks should have won this game especialy at home. Matt Devine with 15 pts and 7 rebounds led New Paltz. Deveino McRae with 13 pts and 6 rebounds. Kevin Roach with 12 pts and 7 boards.

Hamilton with 4 guys in double figs, led by Matt Hart with 17 and Greg Newton with 16.

Hawks drop to 4-6 and are off until January 4th when they travel to Delaware Valley for their final OOC game. 



Saturday 12-15
Fredonia State 67 Penn State-Behrend 58

The Blue Devils jumped on the Lions right out of the gate and went up 14-0 and 17-2 before Behrend came back to close within 9 at 28-19. Fredonia ended the half with 4 straight points and had a 32-19 edge at the half.

Blue Devils stayed comfortably ahead and reached their largest lead of the game at 54-35 with 10 minutes to go. Lions made a late run to get within 5 before Fredonia hit their free throws down the stretch to put this one in the win column.

Dalton Kashmere with a pretty good shooting night led the Blue Devils with 20 points. He was 6x7 from the field and 8x9 from the line. Amir Billups had 14 points, Joe Monahan had 11 and Tyrone Clark had 10.

Blue Devils even their record at 5-5 and won't be back in action until January 11th when they travel to Oswego for an 8 PM start .

[magicman]

Oneonta State drops a 70-54 decision to Ottawa University in the Hoop and Surf Classic out in Honolulu, Hawaii on 12-17. Ottawa is an NAIA team from Ottawa, Kansas. Red Dragons fell behind early, tried to play catch up and hung with the Braves through the first 11 minutes of play. Down 16-12 with 9:12 left in the half the Braves scored 8 unanswered points and coasted to a 38-21 halftime lead.

The 2nd half was more of the same as Ottawa gradually increased the lead to as much as 23 halfway through the period and the closest Oneonta could get was 13 points.

Red Dragons' Frankie Kelly was the game's leading scorer with 19 points (8x10 fg, 2x3 3's, 1x5 ft). Zach Mager had 14 points (1x4 fg, 1x2 3's, 11x12 ft) and a team leading 7 rebounds.


Oneonta State played again the next day on 12-18, also in Honolulu, and lost a 68-54  contest to Division II St. Edward University of Austin, Texas.
Red Dragons played a decent 1st half that featured numerous ties and lead changes. Down 27-26 with 1:52 left to play Oneonta scored 7 straight points and took a 33-27 lead into the break. The Hilltoppers quickly ate into that lead and after 4 minutes had forged in front 36-35. After trading leads over the next few minutes, St. Edward's, down 39-38 would go on an 11-3 tear to open up some daylight with 9:27 left to play. The Hilltoppers slowly increased the lead to double digits and led by as much as 15 on several occasions as they cruised to the win.

Frankie Kelly with 14 and Zach Mager with 13 once again led the Red Dragons.  Oneonta falls to 1-9 and will next play on January 8th when they host Oswego State.   

[7express]

Buffalo state vs. Eastern Connecticut should be a good one.  From what I see of the Buffalo state scores very high scoring team have cracked 80 all 8 games and 90 in 3 of 8 games.  Eastern, under coach Bill Geitner is a defensive first team.  Eastern has won more high scoring games then usual this year, but for the most part they lose most games when the opposistion gets over 70 while they win most games if they keep the opposistion under 70.  Will be interesting to see which style wins out.  If Eastern is able to slow the pace down I like their chances, however if Buffalo state runs, plays up tempo, gets out in transistion this could get ugly real fast.  Will be interested to see what Magic says about this game.  For what its worth I have Eastern 72-71, but that's more a homer LEC pick then anything else.

[magicman]

Only  one game on tap today for YAC teams.

Buffalo State vs Eastern Connecticut at Miami Florida 3:00 PM

As my friend, 7express, from the LEC wrote this should be a good one. The Warriors and Bengals have played a common opponent in New Paltz and both teams came away with a 4 point win over the Hawks. Buffalo won at home while Eastern won at Hawk Center. Both teams with 6-2 records, with quality wins and tough losses. I think the Bengals will be hard to slow down, but Eastern can play an up tempo game as well. Buff State guards Rod Epps (25.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 25x67 3's) and Jake Simmons (19.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 23x61 3's) are the heart of the Bengals offense and it's hard to shut them down. The Bengals 3rd guard is Anthony Hamer, who averages 7.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg and 6.0 apg. The Warriors counter with a solid backcourt as well in Brian Salzillo and Joe Ives. SUNYAC fans may remember Salzillo as he was the Eastern player who hit the big bucket against Oswego last year in the 2nd round of the NCAA's. Down 69-67 in the 2nd overtime, Salzillo came down and nailed a 3 pointer with about 5 seconds left to give Eastern a 70-69 win. There is a question about Salzillo's availability for today's game. He has missed the past 2 games for a rules infraction and I don't know if his temporary suspension will carry over to the Florida trip or not. The Warriors will start freshman Trachone Preston in place of Salzillo if he can't go. Salzillo averages 16.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg and leads the team in 3 point shooting with 26x61 (42.6%). Preston averages 7.5 ppg, and is 10x18 from downtown. Preston may start even if Salzillo plays but Salzillo gets 32 minutes a game to only 20 minutes for Preston. Ives is 3rd on the team in scoring with 12.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg and 12x29 from long distance. I have to give the edge to the Bengals in the backcourt not only for the scoring differential but for the ball hawking abilities of their 3 guards as well. Epps, Simmons and Hamer have combined for 55 steals in 8 games. Salzillo, Ives and Preston have 11 in 8 games. Eastern has the edge with their big men and if the Bengals' bigs get in early foul trouble that could prove to be a difference maker. The Warriors leading scorer is 6'4" jr forward Mike Garrow (16.6 ppg, 6.6 rpg) and 6'5" sr. forward Chris Robitaille is also hitting for double figs at 11.1 ppg with 7.3 rpg. A starter in 5 of 8 games this year, Tyler Hundley a 6'6" sr. forward gives them 5.8 ppg and 5.4 rpg. The Warriors also bring in occasional starter Brandon Yarborough who has 4.0 ppg and 6.8 rpg while averaging 22 minutes of floor time. Buffalo State counters with 6'7" soph Anyar Majak (10.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and 6'8" sr. Seth Runge (6.4 ppg, 5.3 rpg). Ryan Carny comes off the bench and adds 5.0 ppg and 5.6 rpg in 21 minutes per game.

This is a tough game to predict and it really is a pick em game. Three point shooting, a solid weapon for both teams, will be the deciding factor, I think. I've seen Jake Simmons light it up in person and believe he or Epps will be the difference makers. Plus I think the Bengals will win the turnover battle to offset any rebounding deficit. Like 7express I'm going with a homer pick and taking the Bengals to win this one over the Warriors 83-80           

[magicman]

Final from Miami:

Buffalo State 89 Eastern Connecticut 85.

Waiting on some stats from Bengalsrule by phone. Eastern had a 1 point lead at the half. Bengals scored 8 of the final 11 points in the game to pull out the win.

Anyar Majak led the Bengals with a career high 31 points. He also had 7 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. Rod Epps had 21 points and Jake Simmons scored 19 points. Bengals won the battle of the boards and had fewer turnovers than the Warriors.