WBB: Little East

[7express]

Halftime scores:
RIC 28-18, Western 43-19, Eastern 28-26, USM 25-11

[7express]

Finals in:

USM 82-61, pretty much guarantees the tournament goes through Maine, Western 83-39, Eastern 70-53 I believe and RIC leads Keene 49-44 with about 4 mins to play

[7express]

Thursday results:

Norwich 60-42.
Not like Plymouth is going to win anyways, but in order for them to be competitive they need Krystin Corliss to get more then 3 points on 1-11 shooting.
Bridgewater 72-58.
Michaela Crosby only had 2 points in 5 minutes due to injury otherwise this is probably worse.
St. Joseph's (CT) 67-40.
So Eastern loses to New Paltz by 8 (a team that's 12-0), plays USM (#13 team in country) to 5 and Amherst to 10 (#7 team in country), loses to Bridgewater by 3 (2 loss team.  Receiving votes in the poll), beat Dartmouth and smoke Boston, but in between lose by 27 to a middle of the pack GNAC team??
Western 62-48 over MCLA.
The teams combined for 39 made field goals and 56 turnovers which should tell you all you need to know about that game.  MCLA actually shot 37% but had 31 turnovers while Lucy Trembly lead all scorers for MCLA with 26, but she also had the game high in turnovers with 10.
Dartmouth 76-56.
Colleen Moriarty had a game high 16; Bridgett Dullea and Sandra Lanier each had 15 to lead Salem state.
47-29 OOC record

Sat results:
RIC 54-49.
About the only game I've ever seen where both teams shot (52) and made (16) the same number of field goals.
Western 83-39.
That's 3 straight games of giving up 48 or less points.  That's also a stretch where we've had the same starting 5 for 3 straight games, for the first time all season (coming into that stretch I think we had used 10 different lineup combinations through the first 13 games), so obviously this starting 5 is working.  Plymouth is probably the worst team in New England.  I'll be shocked if they get 1 LEC win this year.
Eastern 70-53.
The wheels are starting to fall off for Boston.  That's 3 losses in 4 games to begin 2013 for Boston with the lone win against Plymouth which almost doesn't count.  With USM, Western and Dartmouth the next 3, this has the chance to go south in a hurry.
USM 82-61 over Dartmouth.
Yes, USM still has road games left @ Eastern, @ Western and @ RIC, but Western still has to play Eastern & RIC twice each and Eastern & RIC still play once, while Dartmouth has 1 game left against Eastern & Western, and 2 against RIC.  So its unlikely RIC ends the season with only 1 LEC loss, and its also unlikely Eastern and Western end the season with only 2 LEC losses.  This result pretty much guarantees that the LEC tournament is going through Gorham, Maine this year.

Standings:
1) USM 15-0 (5-0)
2) RIC 10-4 (4-1)
3) Eastern 5-10 (3-2)
3) Dartmouth 11-3 (3-2)
3) Western 10-5 (3-2)
6) Boston 10-5 (2-3)
7) Keene 5-9 (0-5)
7) Plymouth 1-13 (0-5).

No OOC games this week, so games ONLY on Tuesday and Saturday this week, all of which are LEC games.

Schedule:
Tuesday, January 15:
Boston @ USM 5:30
Eastern @ Western 5:30
Keene @ Plymouth 5:30
RIC @ Dartmouth.  RIC/Dartmouth is probably the best of the day.

[7express]

Tuesday schedule:

Keene 64 @ Plymouth 45.
Keene shouldn't have much trouble.
Eastern 54 @ Western 60.
Krystina Forsman and Shannon McCourt are key.  Both defensive teams first team to 55 wins if they even get that high.
RIC 53 @ Dartmouth 59.
Dartmouth needs a bounce back after 2 tough losses.  RIC has played well, unsure how they can do on the road against the top half of the conference.
Boston 45 @ USM 75.
They have been awful on the road against good teams, don't see that changing.

[7express]

Southern Maine holding steady at #13.  What this does, is that unless theirs a bunch of losses in the 7-12 range, pretty much USM won't get much higher then 12th by next Monday, so unfortunately USM more than likely will not be undefeated AND in the top 10 when they play @ Western January 26.

D3hoops.com women's Top 25, Week 7



Through games of Sunday, Jan. 13:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

DePauw (24)

15-0

623

1



2

Calvin (1)

13-1

598

2



3

Hope

14-1

525

5



4

Amherst

14-0

515

6



5

Messiah

14-1

490

7



6

Tufts

15-0

480

8



7

Washington U.

12-2

447

3



8

Ohio Northern

14-1

439

9



9

Lewis and Clark

14-1

403

10



10

Thomas More

14-1

401

11



11

Montclair State

16-0

388

12



12

St. Thomas

11-2

367

4



13

Southern Maine

15-0

342

13



14

Simpson

13-1

318

14



15

UW-Stevens Point

13-3

247

16



16

Christopher Newport

13-0

242

23



17

Lebanon Valley

13-2

174

20



18

Catholic

14-1

167

17



19

Cornell

14-0

143

21



20

Babson

13-1

119

22



21

Ferrum

12-0

118

--



22

Moravian

14-1

99

--



23

George Fox

12-3

83

25



24

UW-Whitewater

12-4

67

15



25

Mount Union

12-3

64

24


Dropped out: No. 18 York (Pa.), No. 19 Whitman.

Others receiving votes: Louisiana College 60; Baruch 33; FDU-Florham 30; Williams 29; UW-Superior 19; Whitman 17; Maryville (Tenn.) 14; Carthage 12; Howard Payne 11; Emory 9; Monmouth 7; Texas-Dallas 6; Bridgewater State 5; Rochester 4; Ithaca 4; Rhodes 3; New Paltz State 2; Loras 1.

[7express]

Tuesday schedule:

Western 60-48.
Nice 4 game winning streak, but the competition really steps up for us now: @ Boston, @ RIC and then home games vs. USM, New Paltz (undefeated, receiving votes), and then Dartmouth.  Sha'Quira Palmer had 17 off the bench to lead Western; Jill Rostrisky had a game high 18 for Eastern.  Western held Shannon McCourt to only 4 points and 6 rebounds.
Keene 62-41.
The last time Plymouth was within single digits was November 27 against Rivier.  And its likely with the way the LEC is this year that they'll lose all their remaining LEC games by double digits, with Johnson state the likely single digit loss or win.
USM 70-54 over Boston.
Team is so dangerous.  Boston played them to a 26 all tie at halftime, before USM ran them over in the 2nd outscoring them 44-28.
Dartmouth 75-57.
No shame in losing to USM or Dartmouth this year.  As I tweeted Courtney Burns after the game they'll bounce back from that.  4 of 5 RIC starters were in double figures, Kelsey Garrity had 27 for Dartmouth.  Erika Bornemann didn't play for Dartmouth which is something to keep an eye on for Saturday.

Standings:
1) USM 16-0 (6-0)
2) Dartmouth 12-3 (4-2)
2) Western 11-5 (4-2)
2) RIC 10-5 (11-2)
5) Eastern 5-11 (3-3)
6) Boston 10-6 (2-4)
7) Keene 6-9 (1-5)
8) Plymouth 1-14 (0-6)

Schedule:
Saturday, January 19:
Western @ Boston 1:00
USM @ Eastern 1:00
Dartmouth @ Keene 1:00
Plymouth @ RIC 1:00.  None of the games look all that appealing.  Western/Boston is the best because at least both teams have winning records.

[7express]

Thanks to not allowing above 48 the last 4 games and in that span holding opponents to 44.5 ppg, Western has vaulted past USM & RIC for the conference lead in scoring defense at 53.5 oppg.  USM is at 53.8 and RIC is at 54.7.

[7express]

Saturday schedule:

Western 63 @ Boston 48.
The wheels have started to fall off the track for Boston, they need to rebound quickly.  This is the start of a 6 game homestand, so it's doable to get them back in the race.  Western is a bad road team, but are really clamping down on the defensive end of the court.  With the way the defense has been polaying we only need to score about 50 or 55 to win games.  Much like the first meeting in Danbury last month, I doubt Boston is gonna be able to outscore us/get a game in the 60's and in order to win they'll need to get it in the 60's.
USM 78 @ Eastern 67.
Eastern lost by 3 in Gorham in December.  USM is just too talented to lose a game like this, however Eastern actually matches up well with them, they just don't have as much scoring/talent as the Huskies do.
Dartmouth 65 @ Keene 58.
All road games in the LEC are going to be tough, but the height for Dartmouth should win this out in the later stages of the 2nd half.
RIC 88 @ Plymouth 54.
Nice preperation for RIC before they get Western at home Tuesday night.

[7express]

Sat results:
Keene over Dartmouth 71-60.
Siobhan Carnell exploded for a career high 34 points and only missed 5 times all day (12-17 from the floor, 10-10 from the free throw line).
Western over Boston 72-61.
Western was up 67-47 with about 5:00 minutes left.  Not a way you'd want to close out a game.  Carly Murphy lead the Colonials with 18, 16 in the second half.  Olivia Murphy and Kirsten Morrison, Boston's 2 front court players combined for 39 points.  Luckily RIC doesn't have height this year.
RIC rolls Plymouth 69-31.
The score at halftime was 38-9, so RIC could have gone scoreless the 2nd half and they would have won pretty comfortably.  Plymouth for the game finished with 7 field goals, shot less then 16%, and the starting 5 for Plymouth finished 3-34 shooting.
USM 69-55.
Improves to 17-0 on the year, the best start in school history.

Tuesday schedule:
Western @ RIC
Plymouth @ USM
eastern @ Keene
Dartmouth @ Boston.  Western/RIC best of the day.

[7express]

Tuesday schedule:

Plymouth 33 @ USM 80.
Quite possibly could be a matchup of the worst LEC team ever against the best LEC team ever.  If Plymouth state is somehow able to win this, the word "upset" should be changed to "Plymouth" for the next year.
Eastern 54 @ Keene 58.
Keene has played well, lately.  2 straight wins to get back into the race.  I think they get Eastern at home.
Dartmouth 59 @ Boston 63.
Dartmouth suddenly can't win on the road losing road games to Eastern and Keene in the last week two teams they should have beaten.  Boston has lost 4 in a row and 5 of 6 since the calender turned to 2013 to derail and has lost 6 straight to Dartmouth.  Dartmouth is turning into a one man show, and the Beacons have the height to make sure Moriarty doesn't beat them.  Beacons get it done in a close one.
Western 54 @ RIC 57.
A matchup of 2 teams that play excellent defense (3rd & 1st respectively), and 2 teams that are not very proficient at scoring the ball (Western is 4th in the conference, RIC is 6th in scoring offense).  Western has only scored above 70 three times this season while RIC has only cracked 70 twice this season.   The telling stat in this game is RIC's defense: in 11 wins, their holding their opponents to an average of 43.3 ppg, hasn't allowed an opponent more then 57 points and has held them to 45 or less 7 times.  In 5 losses this year RIC is averaging 75 opponents ppg, the opponent has hit 60 all 5 times and has hit 70+ 3 of the 5 times.  So to recap, RIC is 1-5 when the opponent gets 55 points, and 10-0 when they hold the opponent to 55 or less.  RIC is 7-1 at home in the Murray Center while Western is only 4-3 on the road.  Western gets to 58 points or more they win; 57-50 Western points is a tossup, 49 or less points for Western nad I can't see how its possibly they can win.  In 2 games at the Murray Center last year, Western shot 5-29 (17.2%) from 3, thats another stat that can make a difference.  We need to hit on at least 25% to win.

[7express]

USM holding steady at #13, basically because NOONE in front of them lost last week.  Notice how #1 to #15 is unchanged from last week.  I guess beating the #13 team in the nation will have to subside, I was hoping they'd be #10.

D3hoops.com women's Top 25, Week 8



Through games of Sunday, Jan. 20:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

DePauw (23)

17-0

623

1



2

Calvin (2)

15-1

598

2



3

Hope

16-1

538

3



4

Amherst

17-0

528

4



5

Messiah

16-1

500

5



6

Tufts

18-0

486

6



7

Washington U.

14-2

442

7



8

Ohio Northern

16-1

441

8



9

Lewis and Clark

16-1

419

9



10

Thomas More

16-1

411

10



11

Montclair State

18-0

407

11



12

St. Thomas

13-2

346

12



13

Southern Maine

17-0

335

13



14

Simpson

15-1

331

14



15

UW-Stevens Point

15-3

262

15



16

Lebanon Valley

15-2

205

17



17

Catholic

16-1

180

18



18

George Fox

14-3

160

23



19

Louisiana College

16-1

124

--



20

Ferrum

14-1

116

21



21

Cornell

15-1

104

19



22

Williams

15-2

101

--



23

Mount Union

14-3

85

25



24

Babson

15-2

60

20



25

UW-Superior

15-3

58

--


Dropped out: No. 16 Christopher Newport; No. 22 Moravian; No. 24 UW-Whitewater.

Others receiving votes: Moravian 48; FDU-Florham 46; Carthage 37; Christopher Newport 35; Maryville (Tenn.) 17; New Paltz State 13; Emory 12; UW-Oshkosh 11; Rochester 11; Baruch 10; Whitman 7; Rhodes 6; UW-Whitewater 5; Howard Payne 2; St. Norbert 2; Wisconsin Lutheran 1; Swarthmore 1; Otterbein 1.

[7express]

Damn, just saw on twitter that Sha'Quira Palmer is going to be out until the Dartmouth game a week from Saturday.  She was the biggest inside game we had so our inside game for the week is going to be almost non-existant.  Melissa DiNino really needs to step up.  Big problems for USM as this team doesn't do well against teams with height as it is.

[7express]

Western leads at half 33-21.  With a team as offensively challenged as RIC is this year them being down 12 is about the same as any other team being down 20.  My keys to victory was getting 58 points and 25% from 3.  Right now were on pace for 66 and are at about 44% from 3 in the first.  Courtney Burns the only one doing anything for RIC.  Other scores:
Dartmouth 39-25, Eastern 22-14, USM 45-25

[7express]

Tuesday schedule:

Western 58-42.
Really hitting their stride at the exact moment you want your team too.  No doubt they beat USM on Saturday, they are playing extremely well on both ends of the floor.  Lets revisit the keys to game.  I said Western needed to get to at least 50 to have a chance to win, and if they got 58 they would definitely win?  Check.  I also said they needed to hit on at least 25% of their three pointers?  Check (finished at 44.4% from 3).  Dominating effort all around.  Western lead by 12 at halftime, RIC cut it to 7 a couple times in the 2nd, but really from about the 10:00 mark of the first half it was all Western and they were never seriously threatened.  Amber Litwinko had a great day.  5-7 shooting (2-2 from 3) for 12 points, 6 rebounds her and Sciarra Brandt played great defense.  Courtney Burns of RIC probably had her best day of the season.  7-13 shooting 17 points, 7 boards in a losing cause.  Western held RIC's leading scorer Vandell Andrade to 0 points and 0-6 shooting.
Eastern 56-38.
Siobhan Carnell had 20 of Keene's 38 points.  Your never going to be successful when 1 player accounts for more then half of your total points.  The teams shot 25-26 from the free throw line combined.
Boston over Dartmouth 76-73.
Yikes!  That's now 3 straight road losses for Dartmouth, and the road for them doesn't get any easier.  Their final 3 LEC road games this season: @ Western, @ RIC and @ USM.  Yah, good luck getting a win there.  Nice win for Boston to get (somewhat) back on track.  Still have 5 more games on this homestand (4 LEC contests) to make some noise.
USM 92-51.
No one played more then 20 minutes for USM and 12 of the 15 logged double digit minutes.  All I'll say is that last Saturday RIC had a field day against Plymouth then couldn't score against Western next time out, hopefully same thing happens to USM Saturday.

Standings:
1) USM 18-0 (8-0)
2) Western 13-5 (6-2)
3) RIC 11-6 (5-3)
4) Eastern 6-12 (4-4)
4) Dartmouth 12-5 (4-4)
6) Boston 11-7 (3-5)
7) keene 7-10 (2-6)
8) Plymouth 1-16 (0-8).
Pretty much the only team guaranteed to not play at home in the first round is Plymouth, Western & USM look to be all but locks to at least host a quarterfinal.  Race for the other 2 spots between the final 5 will be exciting to watch.

2 games Thursday:
Keene state @ Middlebury 6:00
Conn College @ RIC 7:30

[7express]

Thurs schedule:

Keene 57 @ Middlebury 69.
keene has to score to win.  In 6 of their last 7 games they've been held to 62 points or less.  Last year Keene won 63-45 in Keene.
Conn College 49 @ RIC 61.
The Camels have really struggled in life after Jenn Shinall, never finding a consistant groove as they come into Providence with a pedestrian 7-10 record.  RIC has alternated wins and losses their last 6 games, and this is the type of team RIC has been eating for lunch on the defensive end this year.