WBB: Little East

[7express]

I think if Dartmouth can go 12-2 in LEC play with at least 1 of those wins over USM (which is very possible) they'll be in the discussion.  Same with Boston, but they already 1 loss and are already on the edge, if they lose tomorrow to RIC their certainly done, only hope for them is winning the AQ.  RIC has a chance, but they lost to the 2 best teams they've played (Emmanuel and Babson) and don't think they have enough offense to sustain the whole season.  Western has to pretty much win out to be in discussion.  Unless USM really goes south their in no matter what happens.

I said it depends on what happens elsewhere, but if one of those other 4 teams (Boston/Dartmouth/RIC/Western) can get to 11-3/12-2 in LEC play and make the LEC final with at least 1 win over USM and all other favorites in other conferences win, I say you can get a second LEC team in the field.

[7express]

Sat schedule:
USM 78 @ Keene 65.
I think USM will be tested for a half.  Spaulding gym is a very difficult place to play.  Talent disparity for USM should cause them to pull away in the second.
Western 65 @ Dartmouth 67.
This is based purely on how much/effective Sha'Quira Palmer and Melissa DiNino can play on the defense end.  With them on the court, they'll negate Erika Bornemann and Colleen Moriarty in the post and force the Dartmouth guards to beat them.  Their definitely capable, but their offense goes through Bornemann and Moriarty first and foremost.  We have not been good against quick teams: Michaela Crosby of Bridgewater  abused us, and Sabree Rodriguez of Regis abused us.  Kelsey Garrity of Dartmouth is probably the best PG in the LEC this year and however long Palmer and DiNino are on the court (DiNino didn't play at all Wednesday) Garrity will find a way to get Moriarty touches and points, and get Dartmouth the win.
Boston 54 @ RIC 58.
Boston's #3 scoring offense vs. RIC's #1 defense.  Magic number for Boston is 55.  If they can manage to break  55 (RIC is averaging 47.6 oppg against D-3 teams) they'll win because RIC isn't going to score much.  Beacons will have a tough time winning scoring less then 55.  Boston has gotten to 55+ in all 9 wins this year and have been held to 42 & 41 in 2 losses.  In those 2 losses they have been held to 28.5% shooting.  RIC hasn't won a game this year where the opponent has broken 55 points, and once again excluding the URI game, have held their last 4 opponents to 41 points or less.    None of those 4 teams have the offensive firepower the Beacons possess though, while the Beacons have already played a very good defensive unit in Tufts.  Will be a very, very good game and look forward to watching the replay on LEC.TV when I return from the Dartmouth game.  Whichever teams style wins out wins the game.  RIC ain't winning a game in the 60's, Boston sure as hell ain't winning a game in the 40's.
Plymouth 42 @ Eastern 51.
Eastern has been more competitive, and has better overall talent then the Panthers do.  No reason why they shouldn't win this at home.

[7express]

Sat halftime scores:

USM 36-34, RIC 39-35, Dartmouth creaming Western 39-22.  No score Eastern vs Plymouth.

[7express]

Finals:

USM up by about 20 with 2:12 left, Eastern wins 66-44, RIC 71-57, Dartmouth avoided an implosion winning by 14 72-58.

[7express]

Sat results:
USM 76-57.
Rebecca Knight had 14 of her 17 points in the 2nd half as USM stretched a 2 point lead at halftime (36-34) into a 19 point win by outscoring the Owls 40-23 in the 2nd keyed by Knight and Haley Jordan (12 of 14 points in the 2nd).
RIC 71-57.
Wow, they actually lost scoring more then 55, didn't see that happening.  Olivia Murphy lead all scorers with 18 and Kirtsen Morrison and Lauren Perra also scored in double figures for the Beacons with 17 & 11 respectively.  Ashley O'Dell lead RIC with 13 off the bench while Vandell Andrade, Stephanie Prusko and Courtney Burns each had 12.
Eastern 66-44.
Shannon McCourt had 20 points and 16 rebounds and Victoria Pfohl had 12 for the Warriors.  Meghan Faretra was the only panther in double figures with 10.  Bry Bennett only played 8 minutes for Plymouth, hopefully she didn't get seriously injured.
Dartmouth avoids an implosion, hangs on to defeat Western 72-58.
Dartmouth was leading 39-22 at halftime and had as much as a 26 point lead in the 2nd half (50-24) before they imploded.  They couldn't handle Western's full court press and turned the ball over in the backcourt.  What I don't get is coach Rybczyk uses the press to cut a 19 point deficit with I think 4:30 to play down to 9 with 2:30 to play so you made up 10 points in 2 minutes, and then she abandons the press??  Why??  To avoid a fast break layup (Dartmouth kept trying the home run ball but kept throwing it long).  They scored in the halfcourt anyway!  If you don't run the press we end up losing by closer to 20, so why are you abandoning it when it single-handily brought you back in the game (a game we had no business winning anyway, but if Dartmouth is going to wrap it up I'll take it  .  It's like going to the prom with an OK looking girl who asked you to go with her otherwise you weren't going to go.  Once there, you spot the homecoming queen there by herself because she broke up with her boyfriend and you spend the whole night with her.  Why ditch the person who was the only reason you were there in the first place??  Bringing that corny example back to here, running the press with Sha'Quira Palmer on the inbounder was the only reason we were down 9 with 2:30 to go, so why abandon it there??  If your not going to use it with the game on the line why use it at all??  And Western was awful: couldn't shoot (30.4% from 3) couldn't defend (Dartmouth shot 46.9% and scored 72 points) couldn't shoot free throws (11-24 for the game with Carly Murphy a cool 3-12), knew what Dartmouth was doing and STILL couldn't stop it (get the ball into Moriarty and Bornemann.  They finished with a combined 39 points).  About the only thing Western did well was rebound: outrebounded Dartmouth 45-32 and 22-12 on the offensive glass even though Dartmouth was the taller team.

Conference standings:
1) USM 13-0 (3-0)
1) Dartmouth 10-1 (3-0)
1) RIC 9-3 (3-0)
4) Western 7-5 (1-2)
4) Boston 9-3 (1-2)
4) Eastern 3-9 (1-2)
7) Keene state 5-7 (0-3)
7) Plymouth 1-10 (0-3)

Tuesday schedule:
Keene @ Western
RIC @ USM.  Battle of two top teams
Boston @ Plymouth.  End of Boston's 4 game road trip to open up the LEC schedule
Dartmouth @ Eastern

[7express]

Tuesday schedule:

Keene 57 @ Western 62
Western has gone south losers of 4 of their last 5 games which all but takes them out of a discussion for a pool C bid.  Keene plays opponents tough, but doesn't have enough firepower to win most close games against the upper half of the league.  Western is a team that's probably not gonna win many LEC road games, so we better hold serve at home.
Boston 74 @ Plymouth 51
Amazing how USM is gonna be playing their 3rd home game already and the Beacons have yet to play one at home.
Dartmouth 76 @ Eastern 66
Probably closer then it should be.  Shannon McCourt and Krystina Forsman will keep Eastern around, but Dartmouth with Kelsey Garrity, Erika Bornemann and Colleen Moriarty have too much firepower.  If Dartmouth wants to be a serious contender this year they'll win.  Good teams get challenged here, but they always come out and win.
RIC 58 @ USM 72
Conferences #1 offense (USM) vs the conferences #1 defense RIC.  RIC was able to out score Boston Saturday in another offense vs defense battle but playing USM in Maine is a whole lot different then playing Boston.  USM playing RIC and Dartmouth this week and with a 2-0 week would put their stamp as 1 of the best teams in New England along with Amherst, Williams, Tufts, and Babson.  Too bad we won't know how USM stacks up against those 4 until at least the tournament.

[7express]

USM up to #13 in the latest poll:

D3hoops.com women's Top 25, Week 6



Through games of Sunday, Jan. 6:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

DePauw (24)

13-0

623

1



2

Calvin (1)

11-1

574

2



3

Washington U.

11-1

567

3



4

St. Thomas

9-1

537

4



5

Hope

13-0

536

6



6

Amherst

12-0

497

7



7

Messiah

12-1

438

8



8

Tufts

13-0

424

9



9

Ohio Northern

12-1

412

12



10

Lewis and Clark

12-1

389

5



11

Thomas More

12-1

380

10



12

Montclair State

14-0

335

14



13

Southern Maine

13-0

306

15



14

Simpson

11-1

302

16



15

UW-Whitewater

11-3

206

17



16

UW-Stevens Point

11-3

202

18



17

Catholic

12-0

182

20



18

York (Pa.)

11-1

172

11



19

Whitman

11-1

163

--



20

Lebanon Valley

11-2

126

19



21

Cornell

12-0

123

23



22

Babson

10-1

107

22



23

Christopher Newport

11-0

87

25



24

Mount Union

10-3

78

13



25

George Fox

10-3

62

24


Dropped out: No. 21 Moravian.

Others receiving votes: Ferrum 61; Wheaton (Ill.) 46; Moravian 40; Emory 28; Louisiana College 22; Williams 20; FDU-Florham 17; Baruch 16; UW-Oshkosh 11; Maryville (Tenn.) 10; Loras 9; Monmouth 9; Rhodes 3; La Roche 2; Ithaca 2; Bridgewater State 1

[7express]

Halftime scores:
USM 35-30, Dartmouth 27-20, Boston 44-25 (yikes).

Western over Keene 38-29.  Both teams over 50% from field, Western 50% from the line.  No excuse to shoot 50% from the free throw line.

[7express]

Finals:
USM 78-71 (3 seconds left there), Boston 89-50, Western 62-43 and Eastern and Dartmouth in OT tied at 44.  Ill have a full recap later on tonight

[7express]

Tuesday results:

Western 62-43.
Keene shot a dismal 24.1% from the floor and scored 14 second half points.  They had scored the first 2 points of the 2nd half to cut it 38-31, but Ryanne Williams picked up 2 quick fouls and had to go to the bench and that was the end of the road for Keene.  Siobhan Carnall was the only Owl in double figures with 14, while Caroline Brasa (18) and Carly Murphy (15) lead the Colonials.  Free throw shooting finished at 60%....better then less than 50% like on Saturday I guess 
Boston 89-50.
Nice bounceback win for the Beacons who go home on Saturday for their home LEC opener.  Krystin Corliss lead Plymouth with 14.  Brittany Moore lead the way for the Beacons with 21 and she was one of 4 double digit scorers alongside Olivia Murphy (16), Teresa Pina (15) and Kirsten Morrison (13).
USM 83-71.
USM shoots 38 free throws and Nicole Garland shoots 15 by herself and RIC only shoots 17 as a team??  Only in Maine I guess.  Danielle Leblanc had 17 and Courtney Burns 16 to lead RIC; 4 of the 5 Husky starters scored in double figures (Erin McNamera just missed with 9) lead by Garland's 22.
Eastern 54-51 in overtime. 
I think they've finally founded to find a groove.  This is not a team I want to be playing at the moment.  Shannon McCourt was able to neutralize Moriarty and Bornemann and make them pretty much non factors (combined for 16 points on 7-21 shooting), though Moriarty did force the OT.  Dartmouth missed three 3's to force a second OT.  Shannon McCourt lead Eastern, once again as usual, with 13 boards and 11 points.  Krystina Forsman played all 45 minutes and scored 10 points, though missed 2 free throws late in the OT which gave Dartmouth the opportunity to tie up the game and force double OT.  With the loss, pretty much if USM beats Dartmouth Saturday, the conference is pretty much over because that's only one of the 3 or 4 games USM has a chance to lose, and a lot of middle pack teams probably beat up each other on the home court.

Standings (through games on 1/8/13):
1) USM 14-0 (4-0)
2) Dartmouth 10-2 (3-1)
2) RIC 9-4 (3-1)
4) Western 8-5 (2-2)
4) Boston 10-3 (2-2)
4) Eastern 4-9 (2-2)
7) Keene 5-8 (0-4)
7) Plymouth 1-11 (0-4)

Schedule:
January 10:
Plymouth @ Norwich 5:00
Bridgewater @ Boston 5:00 (an excellent non conference matchup).  Hopefully this is available on LEC.TV
Eastern @ St. Joseph's (CT) 6:00
Western @ MCLA 7:00
Dartmouth @ Salem state 7:00

January 12:
Plymouth @ Western
Eastern @ Boston
USM @ Dartmouth
Keene @ RIC

[7express]

Thursday schedule:

Plymouth 46 @ Norwich 65.
Norwich has lost 7 of 8 after starting the season 4-1 and Plymouth has lost 10 straight after starting 1-1, so neither team is setting the basketball world on fire with stellar play.  Norwich is 0-1 in the GNAC while Plymouth is 0-4 in the LEC.
Bridgewater 56 @ Boston 50.
Great game, which Western women weren't playing, so I could pay attention to this.  This is Bridgewater's 5th and last game against the LEC (4 of the 5 matchups took place on the road) and come in with a stellar 3-1 record losers to only RIC, and have wins over Dartmouth, Western and Eastern.  Also in their OOC schedule they have a 1 point W at Williams, and a 1 point home loss in the final seconds to Tufts who is now #8 in the country, so this team is tested.  Bridgewater guard Michaela Crosby has abused the last 2 LEC teams (Western & Eastern) and Boston isn't as good defensively as those 2 are.  After beating Eastern by 3 in Springfield's tournament, Bridgewater has won their last 3 by an average of more then 30 points.  Boston has failed their first 3 tests this year: Western, Tufts and RIC were all significant losses, but all 3 were on the road, this is the first one they'll have at home.  Can the Beacons beat a good team??  For a team picked 7th preseason by the coaches, this would be a nice boost for them heading into LEC play.  Bridgewater is a tad better and I think they pull it out in the end.
Eastern 57 @ St. Joseph's 55.
Eastern has been playing well.  St. Joes is 6-2 but has played no one. 
Dartmouth 64 @ Salem 61.
Salem is 2-1 against the LEC with the loss to USM and wins over Plymouth and Western.  How will Dartmouth respond after the bad L at Eastern Tuesday??  Salem has some height which can cause problems for Dartmouth.
Western 68 @ MCLA 71.
MCLA has won 5 of their last 7.  Haven't really played anyone (got squashed at Williams and Smith [11-1], lost a close 1 to Union (8-3, 7 game win streak), 4-1 at home in their cozy home in Northwest Mass.  Western ain't gonna win many road games this year and that's a long way to go in January to play 1 game.  If you take the highway its an extra 60 miles out of the way, but if you take route 7 even though its a direct route a route filled with traffic lights.  No matter, that's a long way (almost 3 hours), and they never do well on long road trips especially traveling that day (Oneonta, Keene).  May win, but won't be by anymore then 5.
45-26 OOC record coming into these games.

[7express]

MCLA leads 19-18 at halftime.  Terrible shooting (both teams) lots of turnovers (both teams).  Nicole Eaniello layup at the buzzer made this a 1 point game

[7express]

Western wins 62-48.  Only hit 2 threes the whole game but did an excellent job on defense

[7express]

Had a busy last few days.  Gonna have Thursday and Sat results on either Sat or Sunday.  Gonna have my Sat predictions later on today

[7express]

Sat schedule:

Plymouth 43 @ Western 68.
A 1-13 team playing against a team that doesn't give up a lot of points??  Not a good combination.  This would be a severe dissapointment if Western wins by anything less than 15 points (that excludes if coach Rybczyk plays Brittany Brandt and Lydier Walter the final half of the 2nd half, however).  Not a very deep team, so this is a nice game to sit the starters and give Walter & Brandt some major minutes.
USM 76 @ Dartmouth 71.
Best game of the day.  USM will be challenged, but they are the better team and they will pull away in the end.  I stand by my prediction I made in early December: this is the last road block stopping USM from being undefeated coming to Western January 26.  IF USM wins this game their going to be undefeated and ranked in the top 12 on January 26 when they come to Western Connecticut......when they'll suffer their first L of the year.  Since Dartmouth lost Tuesday, a USM win pretty much guarantees the semi's and finals are going through Gorham this year.
Keene 53 @ RIC 59.
Neither team is good offensively.  RIC is a lot better defensively than Keene is, and that's the difference.
Eastern 63 @ Boston 62.
Last year in the season finale, Boston defeated Eastern to earn the 6th and final spot in the LEC tournament and send Eastern home for the summer.  Boston has feasted on sub .500 teams this year haven't lost to one yet this season, but Eastern is better then any of those other sub .500 teams they've played.  Don't be fooled by Eastern's record either, this a team that has been extremely competitive in all of their LEC games this year and after beating Dartmouth give them some momentum.  I think they add to that and become an extremely dangerous opponent for the Colonials Tuesday night.