MBB: Northwest Conference

[LogShow]

Good win Logs!  Get one more and head in to conference on a high note.

[cawcdad]

I went to the games. Pictures should be up in a little while, I'll post when they are.

The Rats started slow and looked rusty. Coach told me they hadn't played for nine days. It seemed neither team scored for the first several minutes. The Rats woke up, shook loose the cobwebs and had an excellent second half. By the end they were working the shot clock with crisp passing and shooting with a few seconds left and nailing them. They started hitting the offensive boards better in the second half too.

The Loggers came out firing on all cylinders looking much better than when I saw them in Turlock against Cal Maritime. UPS employed a smothering press from the get go and the Gusties just couldn't handle it. After a timeout, GA started doing a better job breaking the press, but not before precious seconds had ticked off the clock and Loggers hustled back on D. The Loggers weave against man defense was pretty to see. When GA went to a zone the Loggers moved the ball with crisp passes around the perimeter, started to pentrate, collapsing the zone and then kicking the ball back out for short jumpers. Beautiful.

I sure wish I could see Whitowrth - UPS later this year. Make sure you guys get to these games.

[Bearcat Press]

D.O.C.

Are you are Talking about Freeborn, I think he went to PSU?
Is that who you were thinking of?

Happy New Year!
GO WILDCATS

Good call on that, Tux.  He probably does mean Freeborn, who went to PSU.

Heading down to Salem tomorrow to watch the Bearcats take on Southern Oregon.  It'll be my first game this year - should be fun!

[Pio20]

The Pios beat Christopher Newport University out of Virginia 85-79 in their first game of the Cactus Jam Tournament in Phoenix. The Chris Newport website cites the game as an early blowout http://www.cnusports.com/News/mbball/2008/12/27/mb122708.asp

While the LC site says the game was knotted at 30 at the half. Quite odd. The Chris Newport site includes a play by play in the boxscore which shows the Pios leading 36-9 early on. I don't see how they could make up a play by play so I am gonna trust their write-up that shows the Pios up a ton early and slowly letting Chris Newport back in the game late. But the Pios came away with the win to improve to 5-2. They take on Old Westbury today at 4pm.

[Tuxguy]

BearcatPress,

Enjoy the game, now that old man winter has left for awhile maybe we can get back to our normal activities.        I'm sure there are a lot of games that couldn't be played and wont be made up.

GO WILDCATS

[LogShow]

Just checked the UPS website...Loggers walked all over Simpson 118-88.  Sounds like the game was a breeze for the Logs, who scored 73 points in the 1st half.  And appearently the starters hardly played in the second...so hopefully some of the reserves got some good mins.

Things get considerably tougher next week as conference starts and UPS opens up against LC.  I think that is going to be a great game!

[nwhoops1903]

Yep, WW and UPS both handle their opponents.  UPS just went nuts apparently after being down 14-7 or something like that.  73 in a half is mind bottling!  posted by Ricky Bobby.

[cawcdad]

The pictures from yesterday's games are posted:
Whitworth vs. Simpson
Puget Sound vs. Gustavus Adolphus

Didn't make it to today's games.

[D O.C.]

Obviously not sure gents, but would that be a Freeborn from Dayton? Whose brother, Randy, played at LINFIELD?

[OxyBob]

Eyewitness report from Thousand Oaks:

Buena Vista 108, Pacific Lutheran 100 OT

BVU: Matt Cleveland 29 pts, 12 rebs, Andre Wagner 21, Jeff Janssen 15
PLU: Kyle MacTaggart 24, Josh Dressler 21, Curtis Trondsen 20, James Conti 10

Halftime: PLU 42-40
Regulation: 84-84
Rebounds: BVU 55-38
Records: Buena Vista 9-1, Pacific Lutheran 5-3

Pacific Lutheran had a 7-point lead with 47 seconds to go in regulation, but a costly turnover and 2 missed FTs on 1-and-1s cost PLU a victory. Watching the teams warm up it looked like it would be a mismatch as Buena Vista towered over the much smaller Lutes, but PLU played a very aggressive man-to-man, overplaying and double teaming the ball à la Puget Sound, and refused to give in to Buena Vista, which outrebounded PLU 55-38..

In the first half, BVU had a 33-28 lead at 5:00, but PLU went on a 12-2 run to lead 40-35. Buena Vista tied it a 40, but Curtis Trondsen's jumper gave the Lutes a 42-40 halftime lead. In the second half, PLU was up 47-42, but BVU went on a 15-2 run and led 57-49 at 13:50, stretched the lead to 64-53 at 11:10, and looked to be in control. Back came Pacific Lutheran with a 17-3 run of its own, and the Lutes led 70-67 with just under 7 minutes to go. After BVU took a 77-76 lead, PLU made 8 straight and led 84-77 with 47 seconds to go. Matt Cleveland made a 3-ball to cut the lead to 84-80. After BVU took a TO, PLU tried to inbound the ball, but Kyle MacTaggart threw it straight out of bounds so no time ran off the clock. Cleveland got fouled and made 2 FTs to cut the lead to 84-82 with 35 seconds left. PLU's James Conti was fouled with 26 seconds left, but he missed on the 1-and-1, and Andre Wagner scored on a layup to tie the game at 84. After a timeout, PLU's Gabe Smith was fouled on the baseline by Jon Millea with 3.8 seconds left, but, like Conti, Smith missed on the 1-and-1. After a TO by BVU, Wagner took a half court runner which banked off the backboard and hit the rim but missed, and the game went to OT. Buena Vista exerted its muscle in OT, outscored PLU 14-3, and led 98-87 with 1:30 to go. The Lutes did not go quietly, however, and cut the lead to 102-98 before Wagner sealed the win with 4 straight FTs. Great college basketball game.

For Buena Vista, Matt Cleveland was awesome with 29 points, including 11-for-16 FGs and 3-for-3 on 3s, and 4-for-4 FTs, and he also had 12 rebounds. Andre Wagner was only 6-for-20 shooting and 1-for-6 on 3s, but he had 8 assists and 5 rebounds and was a very clutch 8-for-8 from the line. Freshman guard Jeff Janssen took advantage of PLU's overplaying defense, got open repeatedly, and scored 15 points on 5-for-6 on 3-balls. For PLU, Kyle MacTaggart had 24 on 8-for-13 (6-for-9 3s). Buena Vista shot 16-for-17 FTs, and Pacific Lutheran was 10-for-12, though the 2 misses at the end of regulation were killers.

Tuesday night Pacific Lutheran plays Luther at 6:00 p.m. at Cal Lutheran.

OxyBob

[nwhoops1903]

Eyewitness report from Thousand Oaks:

Pacific Lutheran had a 7-point lead with 47 seconds to go in regulation, but a costly turnover and 2 missed FTs on 1-and-1s cost PLU a victory. Watching the teams warm up it looked like it would be a mismatch as Buena Vista towered over the much smaller Lutes, but PLU played a very aggressive man-to-man, overplaying and double teaming the ball à la Puget Sound, and refused to give in to Buena Vista, which outrebounded PLU 55-38..
OxyBob

Thanks Bob.  Too bad the Lutes couldn't have held on to win.  This would have been a major victory for the NWC.  7 points with :47 to go!! So close.  PLU can certainly put up some points.  PLU should be a fun team to watch play this season in conference.

[Tuxguy]

D.O.C.,

No relation to the Freeborns of Dayton.

The kid from PSU as you said led the Nation in Scoring.

[OxyBob]

Too bad the Lutes couldn't have held on to win.  This would have been a major victory for the NWC.  7 points with :47 to go!! So close.  PLU can certainly put up some points.  PLU should be a fun team to watch play this season in conference.

Last night I spoke with some of the PLU players after their game with Luther, and they were disappointed but made no excuses that they didn't get the win against Buena Vista.

PLU's aggressive style was effective against Buena Vista. The only criticism I'd offer is that the Lutes continued to allow BVU's freshman guard Jeff Jansen to get wide open and catch and shoot when it was obvious that he could make open jumpers.

OxyBob

[nwhoops1903]

Too bad the Lutes couldn't have held on to win.  This would have been a major victory for the NWC.  7 points with :47 to go!! So close.  PLU can certainly put up some points.  PLU should be a fun team to watch play this season in conference.

Last night I spoke with some of the PLU players after their game with Luther, and they were disappointed but made no excuses that they didn't get the win against Buena Vista.

PLU's aggressive style was effective against Buena Vista. The only criticism I'd offer is that the Lutes continued to allow BVU's freshman guard Jeff Jansen to get wide open and catch and shoot when it was obvious that he could make open jumpers.

OxyBob

Well that kind of sounds like PLU to me.  Rarely is it that they have all 5 guys playing at a high level at any one stretch of time.  Find the weak link and you should be able to score without difficulty.

[D O.C.]

Disappointed in the entire LINFIELD program, again, in the fact that no attempt was made to alert alumni that the team was in SoCal over vacation. Got the requests for more money though.

                                       HAPPY NEW YEAR