WBB: Little East

[7express]

Monday results:

Brandeis clobbers Boston 73-35.  Here's what I wrote yesterday: "Who knows??  Knowing Boston, this is a game they'll probably lose, even though they should win."  Looks like I nailed that one.  Didn't think for a second it would be by 38 though.  Maria Jackson and Nicolina Vitale lead Brandeis with 18 & 13 points.  Kirsten Morrison lead the Beacons with a whopping 8 points.  Olivia had only 4 points on 1-4 shooting and 15 minutes played, hopefully not injury related.

40-27 LEC; 54-19.

Tuesday schedule:
Keene vs. Worcester (@ WPI) high noon
Johnson State @ Plymouth 5:30 PM
USM @ Husson 6 PM
Mount Ida @ Dartmouth 7 PM
Amherst @ RIC 7 PM

Keene 65 vs. Worcester 59.
Worcester is 1-0 against the LEC this season beating Dartmouth early on in the season when they were injured without Kelsey Garrity.  Since then they are 1-6 to fall to 3-8 on the season.  Worcester stadium gym is finising getting built, so both Lancer teams are homeless this season, playing their games in Worcester area schools this season.  This is the 3rd or 4th year these 2 teams are playing, and all the matchups have been at 12 noon.  If everyone in my family wasn't away this week, I'd probably take a day and combine this Providence for the Amherst/RIC game later on in the day.
Johnson state 45 @ Plymouth 48 6 overtimes.
Between this game & Western on Saturday, maybe Plymouth's last chance to get a win this season.  Everytime I think they are turning the corner, they go backwards.  Johnson maybe even worse than Plymouth.  Johnson is 2-7 and their 2 wins are over a 1-7 team (winless against D-3 competition only win is by 4 against unaffiliated Unity College), and a 3-8 team.  Last year Plymouth was up by 10 with 7 minutes to play and got outscored 15-4  to end the game to lose by 1.
USM 76 @ Husson 54.
USM shouldn't have much trouble regardless of whether Rebecca Knight is back in the lineup or not
Mount Ida 37 @ Dartmouth 83.
Dartmouth's first game out of the break.  May struggle early on, but they'll blow them out in the second if they don't do so in the first as well.
Amherst 65 @ RIC 45.
The second time in 3 days an undefeated NESCAC team comes into the Murray Center.  Can RIC pull another rabbit out of their hat??  I doubt it.  Unlike Bowdoin, Amherst has actually played decent competition on their way to a 10-0 record.  15 point win over Keene, 14 point win @ Eastern, 21 point win vs. Emmanuel, 13 point win vs. Bridgewater, and a 13 point win over a Vassar team who knocked off #3 Montclair State a couple weeks ago.  RIC won't be able to score enough on the Amherst defense.

[AllStar]

Keene never trails while easily beating Worcester State 77-54.

[amh63]

Amherst will bee at RIC tonight in a 7PM game.  Enjoy!

[7express]

Tuesday results:

Keene over Worcester 77-53.  Ashley Espinosa lead the Lancers with 15 points off the bench; Carly Kiernan (who is that Allstar??  I haven't noticed her before this year) had a game high 21 for Keene.
USM creams Husson 74-46.  Rebecca Young lead Husson with 10 points.  Erin McNamera had 29 for the Huskies.  Looks like whatever ailment took Rebecca Knight out of the game after 9 minutes in Scottsdale, AZ 2 weekends ago is still bothering here.  Hopefully for them it's not to serious, but McNamera has put up 15, 16, & 29 points in the games Knight has been out (including the game she left early).
Dartmouth clobbered Mt. Ida 77-43.  Kelsey Garrity & Erika Bornemann only combined for 16 points, but Garrity had 6 assists and Bornemann had 12 rebounds.  Katlyn Jesse had 10 to lead the Mustangs, Brianna Hochwater had 14 to lead the Corsairs.  The Corsairs bench outscored the Mustangs bench 28-2 helped by Hochwater's 14 points.
RIC hangs tough with Amherst 74-63.  Close only counts in grenades and horseshoes, but much better then I thought they'd do this stretch.  Megan Robertson & Jaime Renner each had game high's of 25 for the Lord Jeffs; Robertson got 22 of her 25 points from the floor as she finished shooting 11-19 while Renner did most of her damage from the free throw line: 13 of her 25 points came at the line, but she still hit 5-7 from the floor.   Steph Prusko lead RIC with 17 while Vandell Andrade & Cara Paladino each recorded double-doubles.  Andrade finished with a 16-10 line, Paladino finished with an 11-16 line.
Plymouth ends their 32 game losing streak, wallops Johnson State 89-72.    The last time the Panthers hit 80 points??  January 27, 2011 against.....Johnson State no less.  Last time they hit 89 or more??  December 10, 2009 when they put 90 on Lyndon State.  Eliannie Sola lead the Badgers with 17; Krystin Corliss was one of 5 Panthers in double figures with 22.  With the 89 points, that leaves RIC & Western as the only teams that have failed to crack 80 points and Western as the only team in the league which hasn't had a game go into the 80's this year as Roger Williams put up 80 on RIC earlier in the season.  Nice to see the Panthers have some fun this game.  Since Christmas of 2010 they've only won 8 games combined in that stretch, so even if it is only for 1 night, I'm happy for them.  Hopefully they can use this going forward into conference play.

44-28 LEC; 59-19 me

Wednesday schedule:
St. Joseph's (CT) @ Eastern 6 PM

SJCT 56 @ eastern 67.
SJCT is 6-5 and was actually the last team that lost to Worcester an embarrassing 19 point loss way back before Thanksgiving.  They have 1 common opponent: Trinity.  Eastern won by 8 on the road, SJCT lost by 12 at home.  That's all I need.

[AllStar]

7,

She's always been there.  I think she was bothered by a few different injuries earlier in the season and just now may be getting past those.  I guess she played well, recording a double double, in the Key Largo Tournament as well in one of those games...the box scores for those are finally up.  I also think Coach Boucher is giving her more minutes...although in the game vs Worcester State the bench got a decent amount of time in the second half due to the score.

[7express]

Wednesday result:

Eastern pounds SJCT 98-53.  Heather Framski lead SJCT with 16 points.  The Warriors put 6 in double figures lead by Julia DePoi's 17 off the bench.  The Warriors actually finished shooting better from the floor (60%) AND from 3 (61.6%) than they did from the free throw line (55.6%).  If you shoot 27 free throws like Eastern did, how often are you going to shoot better from the field than from the line??

45-28 LEC; 60-19 me.

Thursday schedule:
Johnson & Wales @ RIC 5:30
Dartmouth @ Western 5:30 (LEC game)
Lasell @ Keene 7

J&W 47 @ RIC 67.
The Wildcats ended a 7 game losing streak last time out defeating Mitchell college Saturday afternoon.  However, that win only brought them to 2-8 on the season, and still can't score as they have been held below 60 in 8 of their 10 games.  They have played 2 LEC teams this year: lost by 23 to Eastern, and lost by 41 to Dartmouth.  Kara Williamson and RIC may take the foot off the gas pedal the second half if its a blowout since RIC alumn Courtney Burns is coaching there.
Dartmouth 68 @ Western 58.
Dartmouth has lost 3 games this year: 1 was with Erika Bornemann out with mono, 1 was with Kelsey Garrity out with a knee injury, and the 3rd was a game Garrity had to depart early when she sustain that knee injury.  With all healthy now, look for them to go on a roll.  And the fact is, their lineup is better, and taking out Caroline Brasa, their reserves run circles around the Western reserves.  if St. Joseph's can beat them by 20, Dartmouth should be able to beat them by that same score, but I'll spot Western 10 points.
Lasell 53 @ Keene 59.
This is Lasell's first game since a grind-it-out 5 point win @ Plymouth State December 14, while Keene has played 3 games in that same time frame.

[7express]

So apparantly Western beats Dartmouth by 20 74-54.  Very surprising considering this same team lost by 19 to St. Joseph's ME 5 days ago but road conference games will always be a battle.  Western will have their hands full @ Plymouth Saturday while Dartmouth needs to put this behind them and get ready for a short-handed USM team in Maine Saturday.

[AllStar]

Keene over Lasell 108-62.

[7express]

Thursday results;

RIC clobbers Johnson & Wales 74-37.  D'Ana Rolle had a team high 10 for the Wildcats.  Danielle LeBlanc & Cara Paladino each lead RIC with 12, who didn't play anybody longer than 28 minutes.
Keene all over Lasell 108-62.  Katie Stopera lead Lasell with 12; Christan Wojtas had a game high 26 for the Owls who played all 16 players at least 5 minutes while no one played more than 28 minutes.
Western over Dartmouth 74-54 to send each team to 1-1 in the LEC.  Chelsea Mone lead the Colonials with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Erika Bornemann had a game high 19 for Dartmouth.  Dartmouth is still my favorite to come away with the regular season title, but man this team is terrible on the road.  This West Conn team really is not that good, and they steamrolled them.  Remember, Dartmouth could've very finished second last year had they not lost road games to Keene (were awful last year), Eastern (were pretty bad last year), and Boston (not terrible, but not good either).  Luckily for Dartmouth they have their first 3 LEC games on the road so they'll have a back-loaded home schedule.

47-28 LEC; 62-20 me.

Saturday schedule, which consist of all LEC games:
Western @ Plymouth
Boston @ Eastern
Dartmouth @ USM
RIC @ Keene.  Much better slate on the women's side then the men's side.  3 of the 4 games are very important (Plymouth/Western lone one that isn't, but that is probably still good).  I'll give the best to RIC/Keene and then Dartmouth/USM.  I may go to the Boston/Eastern game Saturday.

[7express]

Saturday conference action:

Dartmouth 56 @ USM 65.
I'm hedging my bets here.  No idea if Rebecca Knight is going to available (missed the last 2 games with some kind of injury).  If she's out, Dartmouth can be hang with them and maybe even flat out win because Erin McNamera is the only one out there that actually scares you.  The rest of the team is decent, but there's no one else out there I'm that scared off.  If Knight is back think USM wins by about 15-20, because really Dartmouth as I said yesterday is a terrible road team.  I still like them (Dartmouth) to win the conference, and they can definitely cement that status with a win, especially if Knight is out, but I just don't see it happening.
Boston 56 @ Eastern 67.
Another team that isn't very good on the road.  Boston has actually won the last 2 years at Eastern, and this is their best team, but that 30 point outburst @ RIC and the 36 point output @ Brandeis really scare me away.  Eastern will get at it on the defense end, and I think I'm being really generous with the 56 point total for the Beacons.
Western 62 @ Plymouth 55.
Plymouth coming off their first win since November 17....................of 2012.  Western is coming off a dominating win of Dartmouth after looking dreadful the previous 5 games.  This game comes down to which teams are we going to get: Are we going to get the Plymouth team against Dartmouth (5 point loss at home, up by 9 with 7 minutes to play), or the Plymouth team against Eastern (19 point loss at home).  Likewise, which Western team are we getting: The one that needed a layup at the final buzzer to crack 30 points against USM, or the one that put up 74 on the Corsairs??  I'll place my bets in the middle of all of those.
RIC 54 @ Keene 62.
Keene is playing great.  2 great defensive teams going at it.  RIC has had a couple good outings (win over Bowdoin, close loss to Amherst), but both of those were in the friendly confines off the Murray Center.  On the road in Spaulding, against a team that has been rolling all season long??  I'll take the home team that's been rolling.

[7express]

Looks like Rebecca Knight is still out for USM as she isn't in the lineup for the Huskies.  Also, the Lasell/Keene State men's boxscore is up for the RIC/Keene game so may take a while before I find the score from that game.  Hopefully Allstar gives us an update on that game later on this afternoon.

[7express]

Boston leads Eastern 27-25 at halftime.  Andrea Suffradini leads all scorers with 10 points for the Beacons.  Kirsten Morrison replaced Olivia Murphy in the starting lineup and each has 6.  Erin Brooks & Brianna Leonard each have 5 for Eastern.
USM killing Dartmouth 41-21 at halftime.  No Knight, no problem.  Gretchen Anderson, Knight's replacement has 12 points, and Erin  McNamera has 10.  Erika Bornemann leads the Corsairs with 8. 
Western leads Plymouth 34-23 at half.  Taylor Perry has 8 for Plymouth, Chelsea Mone has 9 for the Colonials.

[7express]

Sat results:
Eastern by 20 over Boston 67-47.  Taylor McBride had 16 to lead Eastern.  Boston actually got some scoring from someone other than Olivia Murphy & Kirsten Morrison as Andrea Suffredini put in 20 for the Beacons.  However, Morrison & Murphy only put in a combined 18 points and only 6 combined in the second half when Eastern outscored them 42-20 to turn a 2 point halftime deficit into a rout.
USM runs over Dartmouth 78-54.  Erin McNamera had 17 to lead the Huskies; Erika Bornemann (13 points) and Kelsey Garrity (11 points) for the only 2 Corsairs in double figures.
Western defeats Plymouth 56-42.  Taylor Perry and DeAsia Lawrence each had 12 to lead Plymouth.  Carolina Brasa had a game high 15 for Western.
RIC wins @ Keene 61-50.  Carly Kiernan & Courtney Roberts each had 13 to lead Keene.  Vandell Andrade lead RIC in points & rebounds with 16 & 22 respectively. 

47-28 LEC; 65-20 me

Tuesday schedule:
Eastern @ Dartmouth
Western @ Keene
Plymouth @ Boston
USM @ RIC.  All games at 5:30 PM.  USM/RIC best of the slate followed by Eastern/Dartmouth.

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

[7express]

Tuesday schedule:

Eastern 67 @ Dartmouth 72.
I'd hate to call a game on January 14 a "must win" game, but for Dartmouth this might be a "must win."  After struggling to survive Plymouth state, a game that saw them down 9 with 7:30 left to play, they have gotten beat down in 2 straight games by 20 against an average Western team, and by 24 to a USM team that was without their second best player.  Dartmouth hasn't played a home game yet, so they still have a couple to make up on the leaders, but if they lose this, it's gonna be tough sledding for them.
Western 57 @ Keene 61.
Western is 2-1 getting obliterated @ USM, and beating Dartmouth and Plymouth.  Keene is 1-2 winning in OT at USM, but then dropping games to Boston & RIC.  Keene bounces back at home.
Plymouth 43 @ Boston 78.
Plymouth 0-3 losing a close game to Dartmouth, blown out by Eastern, and hung around with Western for a while but could never get over the hump.   Boston has averaged 38.5 points in their last 2 LEC games; and in their last 2 overall games have averaged 41 points.  Boston bounces back in a big way.
USM 58 @ RIC 65.
Both teams sit at 2-1 tied with Western for second.  USM has a home loss to Keene, and wins over Western & Dartmouth.  RIC's lone loss is to Eastern in overtime and they have a win @ Keene state and home over Boston.  RIC has been very good in the Murray Center this year winning 4 of their 5 games this year with the only loss by 11 points against #3 and undefeated Amherst.  They also knocked off undefeated and top 25 team Bowdoin a few days before that Amherst loss.

[7express]

http://www.newburyportnews.com/sports/x12785865/Future-nurse-running-the-point

Nice story on Erin McNamera, explaining how she juggles being a nursing major with a senior captain on the basketball team.