WBB: Little East

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Halftime scores:
USM 37-26, RIC 34-23, Eastern 38-15 and Western ended half on 16-2 run to take 31-23 lead.  As expected Moriarty is killing us down low, Bornemann has missed some easy ones.

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Finals; Western 74-48, Eastern 68-33, RIC 68-50 and USM 58-56 (LOL).  They've looked awful since they got run over by Western last week.

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Sat schedule:

USM 58-56.
They don't look too impressive right now.  In Keene's last 4 possessions of the game (up 2, tied and down 2) they had 3 turnovers and 1 missed 3 pointer.  Terrible ending.  Erin McNamera had 2 free throws for the winner with 14 seconds left.  After Rebecca Knight missed 2 free throws with 3 seconds left the door open for Keene, they turned it over to end the game.  Siobhan Carnell only had 11 points and shot 3-16 from the floor.
RIC 68-50.
Nice bounceback for RIC after 2 tough losses.  Danielle LeBlanc lead all scorers with 16 for RIC.
Eastern 56-33.
Probably the most amazing thing this season is if the season ended today, Eastern is the 3rd seed.  They have Western (at home) and Dartmouth (road) this week, if they can somehow manage to go 1-1 then the last 2 open up nicely for them to sneak in there at the 3rd seed, Keene & Boston both in Willimantic to end the year.
Western 74-48.
Great distrubution Dartmouth.  Colleen Moriarty had 31, the rest of the team combined had 17, no one with more than 5.  That's 9 straight wins for Western now.  8 of the 9 the opponents have been held to 55 points or below, in 7 of the 9 games the opponent has been held below 50.  Excellent defense ladies!

Standings:
1) USM 20-1 (9-1)
2) Western 16-5 (8-2)
3) eastern 8-13 (6-4)
3) RIC 13-8 (6-4)
5) Dartmouth 15-6 (5-5)
6) Boston 12-8 (4-6)
7) keene 7-13 (2-8)
8) Plymouth 1-19 (0-10)
Notes:
Plymouth is the only team officially eliminated from hosting a first round game (though they were eliminated from that in November anyway) while Boston, Keene & Plymouth are officially eliminated from claiming the #1 seed and hosting the LEC tournament.
If the season ended today, Eastern (yes Eastern) is the 3rd seed because their 1-0 vs. Dartmouth (1.000%) and RIC is 0-1 (0%) vs. Dartmouth.

Schedule:
Tuesday, February 5:
Plymouth @ Keene
Western @ Eastern
USM @ Boston
Dartmouth @ RIC.  Both Eastern/Western & Dartmouth/RIC are equally as important.  I'd go Dartmouth/RIC as my game of the day though
Thursday, February 7:
Last day of OOC play, Suffolk @ Boston
Keene @ Lasell
Saturday, February 9:
Western @ Keene
Plymouth @ Boston
Eastern @ Dartmouth
USM @ RIC.  Eastern/Dartmouth gets my game of the day honors for next Saturday, however that could change based on Tuesday results.

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Tuesday schedule:
Plymouth @ Keene.
The bottom 2 teams and unless Boston falls of the tracks (probable) it's likely to stay that way.  Remember, Boston swept Keene this season, so even if they finish tied for 6th Boston gets the 6th seed.
Keene 73-34
Western @ Eastern.
Western's defense has been rolling people in their current 9 game winning streak.  In January in Danbury this was only a 12 point Western win.  Probably close again, but Western is just playing way to well right now to be defeated.  Possibly a let down after we finished the RIC-USM-New Paltz and Dartmouth (combined record of the time we played 60-11) stretch 4-0 and now play 2 sub .500 teams on the road this week, but coach Rybczyk will have this team ready, and we make it 10 in a row.
Western 63-59
USM @ Boston.
USM has looked awful the last 3 games, and the Beacons played well for the first half up in Gorham before the USM cement truck ran them over in the 2nd.  If the Beacons can weather the USM second half run, they'll have a chance to pull the upset.  Will it happen??  Probably not, but USM goes home with at least 1 road loss this week.
USM 73-65
Dartmouth @ RIC.
Probably best game of the day.  RIC is tied with Eastern for 3rd place and holds the final home quarterfinal spot.  Dartmouth is a game back with the first road spot.  Dartmouth won the first meeting by I think 20, so with a win they'll win the tiebreaker vs. RIC should they finish tied.  My problem with Dartmouth as usual is: can they win on the road??  1-4 so far in 5 LEC road contetst with the lone win coming against Plymouth which shouldn't count.  If they want to get a top 4 spot their going to have to find a way to win 1 of their 2 remaining tough road games: this 1 @ RIC is much easier then @ USM the 16th.  Lose both of them and no matter what happens their 2 home games (Easten Saturday and Boston next Tuesday) they'll probably start on the road.  The home win over Western back in the beginning of January is a nice thing to have in their back pockets should they finish tied with RIC/Eastern/Boston.
RIC 54-52

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Halftime scores:
Dartmouth 22-18, USM 37-31, Eastern 31-23.  We look dreadful.  Miracle we are only down 8.  I believe we have 18 of our 23 points from 3 ill have to check that.  Getting beat in transition and down the court.  I like our chances because we are only down 8.  No score Keene Plymouth.

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70-55 final here in Willamantic, that was an ass kicking if I've ever seen one.  Eastern outplayed us from the opening tip to the final whistle.  Very poor game by Western, but Eastern treated this like the LEC championship game.  Need to regroup on Saturday for a young, inconsistent but talented Keene squad Sat also on the road.  No matter who you play road games in the LEC are never easy.
Keene, USM, Dartmouth in OT are your other 3 winners.  Finals later tonight.

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Tuesday results:
Plymouth loses to Keene 31-63.
At this point I just feel bad for them because they are clearly overmatched with the roster they have this year.  They have been held to 42 points or less in 7 of their last 9 games which makes the RIC offense look like Grinnell's.
Speaking of RIC they lose to Dartmouth 60-57 in overtime.
Well at least Dartmouth won a conference road game.  Ashley O'Dell forced OT with a 3 with 11 seconds remaining in regulation, but then missed 2 at the end of the overtime.  After registering 31 Saturday, Colleen Moriarty finished with 21 today, so if your keeping score at home Moriarty, over the last 2 games, has scored 52 of Dartmouth's 108 points in that stretch.  Sounds like a good game to catch on littleeastTV tomorrow since my morning class is cancelled.
USM 77-69 winner.
This win cooupled with Western's loss pretty much assures the semi's and finals are in Maine.  Still holding out hope RIC AND Dartmouth can defeat them, but I'm not couting on both happening (Dartmouth game is at home, I think they lose to RIC, however to keep it interesting).  All 5 Huskies scored in double figures lead by Nicole Garland's 23; Olivia Murphy had 21 to lead the Beacons.  Sure seems like the favorite for LEC rookie of the year, at least in my opinion.
Eastern 70-55.
One of the few games where the team that wins never trails.  Eastern raced out to a 6-0 lead, Western went on a 7-1 run to tie the game at 7, than Eastern scored the next 10 points to go up double figures, and they were never really threatened again after that.  I've already stated in my previous 2 messages about the Colonials loss so I'll keep it close: Eastern was doing 2 things all game: run a backdoor screen (which Western NEVER caught on they were always a step slow getting there) and getting Brianna Leonard/Jill Ritrosky in a 1-1 matchup in the high post which they abused (combined for 45 points).  Early in the game it looked like Caroline Brasa rolled her ankle and she was never the same after that: 1-8 shooting 0-6 from 3, more turnovers & fouls (3 each) then points (2) and a terrible knee injury in the 2nd half.  Speaking of her knee injury, that really took the wind out of the sails.  We were down 10, but had the second part of the second half (occured at about 10:50), and she's a great part of the offense.  Second leading scorer, leading 3 point shooter, spreads the floor, can drive, she gives us options when she's on the court.  Even though she was having a terrible game up to that point (partly because of the rolled ankle, imo), she is very dangerous and can rack up 10 points rather quickly, so teams have to know where she is.  So not only that, but at that time she went out, we had Carly Murphy & Sha'Quira Palmer playing with 4 fouls each so you lose Brasa, a few minutes later Murph fouled out, and that was the end of the Colonials, and more then likely their NCAA spot.  LEC tournament title or bust now.  Back to Brasa for a second hopefully it's nothing serious, and thankfully I've never torn my acl before, but it looked like a torn ACL/MCL from the way she went down and the way her father reacted.  If that's the case that's her second torn ACL in 3 years, and its possible she may not play again.  But hopefully tomorrow or Thursday she'll get good news on it, but I don't think we'll be seeing her Saturday and in all liklihood probably the rest of the year, in which case is a crippling blow for the Colonials chances.

Standings:
1) USM 21-1 (10-1)
2) Western 18-6 (8-3)
3) Eastern 9-13 (7-4)
4) Dartmouth 16-6 (6-5)
4) RIC 13-9 (6-5)
6) Boston 12-9 (4-7)
7) Keene 8-13 (3-8)
8) Plymouth 1-20 (0-11)
Dartmouth swept RIC, won the season series 2-0 and will therefore win ANY tiebreaker with RIC should they finish tied.  USM is a pretty safe bet for #1, and has already clinched a home quarterfinal spot.  The race for the next 3 is the most interesting: 4 teams (Western, RIC, Eastern, Dartmouth) seperated by 2 games for 3 spots.

Upcoming schedule:
Thursday, February 7:
Suffolk @ Boston
Keene @ Lasell

Saturday, February 9:
Western @ Keene
Plymouth @ Boston
USM @ RIC
Eastern @ Dartmouth.  Eastern/Dartmouth gets my nod as best of the day.

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A couple things to point out before the last couple OOC games tomorrow:

1) regional rankings out about 9 PM.  USM 3rd, Western 9th.  USM is safe Western needs to win tournament to get in, luckily we matchup extremely well against USM and no doubt can beat them, even in Maine (we only lost by 5 in Maine in December).
2) she thinks, along with what me and the Eastern broadcaster thought but sounds like Carolina Brasa has a torn ACL, fingers crossed that its not.  As the broadcasters currently stated last nignt even if its only a sprain she could be out for the rest of the season and more then likely Sat at Keene if there even is a game Sat.
3) the loss to Eastern is even worse then a thought.  Not only did we lose to the game and 1 if our better players we also lost a game on USM and lost the tiebreaker now. If Western was able to win that game, won out, and had USM lose to RIC we would've won that tiebreaker based on our season sweep of RIC.  Now with the loss USM wins a tiebreaker if it comes to Eastern (they were 2-0) so now we need USM to not only lose to RIC and now Dartmouth as well we also have to have RIC finish in front of Eastern.

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Western Keene schedule for Saturday has been postponed to Sunday.  Same times women @ 1, men follow at 3.  As of 1:45 PM, the other 3 contests (RIC vs. USM Plymouth @ Boston, Eastern @ Dartmouth) are still on as scheduled, but have a hjard time seeing any of those being played Saturday.
http://wcsuathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2012-13/releases/20130207jkvxf3

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Thursday predictions:

Suffolk @ Boston.
An intriguing non conference matchup between Boston teams.  Suffolk is 16-5 on the year, 8-1 in the GNAC.  Lone loss is to another Boston team Emerson.  They only play Emmanuel once and thats the final day of the regular season so that game more then likely probably decides the GNAC winner.  Suffolk is 2-2 against Boston area schools this year and this is the 1st of 4 straight games they finish the season against city combatans (have Wheelock, Emmanuel & Mount Ida after this).  Suffolk has won 9 of their last 10 games, the last 5 wins by an average margin of greater then 30, and have won their last 7 by double digits.
Boston is 12-9 on the season, but 8-2 against non LEC opponents with the 2 losses coming to teams in the top 25 poll/receiving votes.  They lost to Tufts who's top 5 and lost to Bridgewater who is receiving votes.  The Beacons are 1-0 against the GNAC beating Mount Ida and are 2-1 against Boston area teams (2-2 if you want to include Bridgewater who falls outside of the Boston area vicinity map which I used to see how far out I wanted to go).  Game is available on littleeast.tv and should be a fun game to view on the archives tonight or tomorrow.
Suffolk 67-59
Keene @ Lasell
Another GNAC Little East battle on our hands.  Lasell's lone game and lone victory of the season against an LEC squad was against Plymouth by 17 back in January.  Last time out Lasell ended a 4 game losing streak by defeating Rivier on 2 free throws inside of 5 seconds.  Last time out Keene also ended a 4 game losing streak with a victory over the hapless Plymouth Panthers.
Keene 61-59

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Sunday predictions:

USM @ RIC.
A USM win officially locks up the #1 seed in the tournament as they would win the tiebreaker over Western.  A loss keeps Western in the hunt but we would need USM to lose to either Plymouth or Dartmouth AND have RIC finish in front of Eastern.  I've said USM would lose this game but RIC just cannot score.  Since scoring 17 in Gorham January 8, the Anchorwomen are averaging 54.9 ppg and I've stated time and time again good defense can only get you so far, you actually have to put the ball in the basket at some point and score some points.  But I ain't gonna flip flop from my origional RIC prediction.  Score some points RIC, please!!
RIC 62-59
Western @ Keene.
Keene did beat Dartmouth at home and it's always tough to play up there, but aside from Siobhan Carnell, they don't have many scoring options. 
Western 65-49
Plymouth @ Boston.
Last game of Boston's season long 7 game home winning streak.  Boston won the first meeting in Plymouth by 39.
Boston 84-33
Eastern @ Dartmouth.
Last month, Eastern rebounded from an 11 point halftime deficit to come away with the overtime win.  Dartmouth picked up a key win at RIC last Tuesday to sweep the Anchorwomen, and they need to win this to avoid the sweep at the hands of Eastern.  Dartmouth is tough to beat at home (2 losses), and even though Eastern is having a great year, Dartmouth gets them at the Tripp Athletic Center.
Dartmouth 68-62

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Schedule changes:

Western/Keene pushed back to Monday because Western couldn't find a bus for Sunday.  Plymouth Boston also pushed back to Monday.  Because of those 2 Monday games, Dartmouth/Boston Keene/Eastern and Plymouth/USM scheduled for Tuesday will be played Wednesday night instead.  Western RIC is still scheduled for Tuesday but that is likely to get pushed back to Wednesday as well.
Eastern/Dartmouth and USM/RIC are tipping off tomorrow after getting pushed back from Saturday.  Eastern/Dartmouth are still scheduled to tip at 1 & 3, USM RIC is pushed back an hour.  Women start at 2, men at 4.

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Eastern/Dartmouth back to tomorrow and Western's site updated the RIC schedule change to Wednesday night instead of Tuesday.  So to recap:
1 game today Sunday and that's USM @ RIC (women at 2, men at 4)
3 games Monday: Eastern @ Dartmouth, Western @ Keene, Plymouth @ Boston.  All games have the women tip at 5:30 and men at 7:30
0 games Tuesday
4 game Wednesday: Keene @ Eastern, USM @ Plymouth, Boston @ Dartmouth, RIC @ Western.  Women's games at 5:30 men's games at 7:30

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Watching this USM RIC game there looks like there's about 15 people in Providence
Halftime: USM leads 28-22 at halftime.  As usual they just can't score any points.  USM can't hit much either.  Courtney Burns leads RIC with 8 points on 4-8 shooting and Jordan Grant has a game high 10 points for USM on 3-5 shooting.  At least RIC shoots at the better basket the 2nd half.
Regulation ends at 52 all.  USM took a 49-42 lead, but RIC went on a 10-1 run to take 52-50 lead but Jordan Grant forced OT with a baseline jumper.  Ashley O'Dell's halfcourt heave came up short for RIC.
Final: USM 56-54 in overtime.  The teams combined for 6 points in overtime.  Erin McNamera hit only 2 field goals on the day (I think she finished 2-15 on the day) but 1 of the 2 was the winner in overtime at the overtime buzzer.  Now clinch the #1 seed in the conference tourney.
Boston up 42-21 9:38 left

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Not up in Keene:

Western leads 24-14 5:38 left. 
Boston 28-9 1:16
Dartmouth up 13-12
Back to back 3's for Amber Litwinko put Western up 32-19 with 2:25 to play in first
Boston leads 29-10 at halftime over Plymouth.  Plymouth shooting just 4-26
Western leads Keene 37-23 at the half.  Perfect end of half clock management by the Colonials.  Knew exactly how much time was left, and resulted in a Nicole Eanniello 3 to put them up by 14 at the half.  Colonials have already attempted 18 3's making 6 of them.  Both teams shooting well Keene's at 38% were at 39%.
Dartmouth leads 24-17 at halftime.  No stats availible for that and of course I'm watching the Western Keene game.  I'll catch this later on this evening when the Keene/Western men's game ends.
37-31 Western 14:42.  8-0 run by Keene to start 2nd keyed by 2 Christian Wojtas 3 pointers.  No wonder Keene couldn't score in the first our basket is terrible.
46-41 Western 6:10.  This basket at Western's end is a joke.  Keene got as close as 3 at 46-43.
Boston 63-32 2:02 left.
Western wins 54-48.  Woof.  Could get nothing to fall in the second half Keene had a couple good looks down 1 to take the lead inside 3 minutes, but when your a 9-13 team playing a 16-6 team you miss those opportunities.  Jackie Zilnicki & Sha'Quira Palmer got us a couple clutch baskets after Keene had those misses to give us some breathing room.
Dartmouth finishes a 66-50 win over Eastern and Boston was a 65-33 winner over Plymouth.