WBB: Little East

[7express]

Eastern finishes a dreadful 25 point loss scoring just 36 points.  I'm starting to think their easy first half schedule inflated their record a bit.  After seeing 2 straight awful performances from them in person and a bad performance on-line vs Keene I don't think their as good as I thought they were 4 days ago.

RIC clubbed Dartmouth and Keene and USM both won close contests.  Full results later tonight.

I'm not sure any of the teams in the conference are very good to be honest.  Just like the men, this year is lacking.  I think many of these teams are just beating up on each other because they are all mediocre or worse.

I think RIC is the only legit team.  USM might be too since they're getting people back from injury.  Still not gonna write Eastern off.....yet, but the rest is pretty mediocre.  Dartmouth has really disappointed me, I thought they'd be so much better than they are.

[AllStar]

Eastern finishes a dreadful 25 point loss scoring just 36 points.  I'm starting to think their easy first half schedule inflated their record a bit.  After seeing 2 straight awful performances from them in person and a bad performance on-line vs Keene I don't think their as good as I thought they were 4 days ago.

RIC clubbed Dartmouth and Keene and USM both won close contests.  Full results later tonight.

I'm not sure any of the teams in the conference are very good to be honest.  Just like the men, this year is lacking.  I think many of these teams are just beating up on each other because they are all mediocre or worse.

I think RIC is the only legit team.  USM might be too since they're getting people back from injury.  Still not gonna write Eastern off.....yet, but the rest is pretty mediocre.  Dartmouth has really disappointed me, I thought they'd be so much better than they are.

I would tend to agree regarding RIC, but they are certainly beatable and I still think they could easily be slipped up.

I can't remember the last time UMD actually did something outside of the Tripp Athletic Center, so it doesn't really surprise me that they are again waffling in the middle.  I also don't think they play much defense.  Barely beating teams like Plymouth and Framingham State (even on the road) looks bad.  The Worcester State loss also is poor...even with injuries.  Injuries are never good...however, in some circumstances a good team needs to overcome those.

[7express]

Thursday schedule:

Daniel Webster 54 @ Keene 78.
Daniel Webster is 8-10, but plays in one of the worst conferences in D-3, the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC).  The Eagles are 0-7 against teams with winning records this year (something Keene possesses), getting outscored 526-344, and losing by an average of 26 points.

[7express]

Keene clobbers Daniel Webster in Thursday's lone game.  Kayla Free lead the Eagles with 19 points off the bench, while the Owls had balanced scoring.  13 of the 15 players that appeared on the court scored at least 2 points, and they were lead with Ryanne Williams 12 off the bench, and also got contributions from Amanda Petrow (10 points) and Carly Kiernan (11 points).  Kiernan and Williams each finished with double digit rebounds with 12 and 11 respectively.

51-28 LEC; 82-26 me.

Saturday schedule:
Western @ Dartmouth 1 PM
USM @ Keene 1 PM
Plymouth @ Eastern 1 PM
RIC @ Boston 1 PM. 
Plymouth/Eastern is definitely the worst of the day, the other 3 could be close.  Boston is more likely to keep it closer vs. RIC at home then Western is on the road @ Dartmouth, but I like Western more then Boston.  Both should be pretty good games.  USM/Keene looks like another good game as well.

[7express]

Saturday predictions:

Western 63 @ Dartmouth 78.
Western beat them by 20 in Danbury in January, and have played 2 pretty good games back to back losing by 2 to USM, and destroying Eastern.  Dartmouth is incredibly disappointing this year, but is a lot better at home, I'll give them the W.
USM 67 @ Keene 64.
Probably the best game of the day.  Keene won in Maine in November in overtime and never trailed in that game.  USM was up and down up until the New Year, but now that they have Rebecca Knight back in the starting lineup, and Megan Pelletier playing well, I look for them to make a run to at least pose a challenge to RIC.
Plymouth 38 @ Eastern 75.
Much like Dartmouth last Saturday, if Eastern can't beat them by at least 15 I'll be extremely worried.
RIC 67 @ Boston 55.
I really want to pick the Beacons at home, I just can't do it.  The last meeting in December was won by RIC 48-30 in a game that set basketball back 150 years.  The Beacons are actually the 4th best defensive team in the conference (53.4 ppg) behind only RIC (45.6), USM (51), and Western (51.8), and if you include overall games, the Beacons are second in the conference at 53 ppg behind only USM who sits at 51.8 ppg.  As usual, it comes down to whether the Beacons are going to be able to score points as they rank ahead of only the offensively challenged Plymouth Panthers & Western Colonials in the scoring department.  Against RIC their not going to score enough, and a 1 person show against the Anchorwomen isn't enough either.

[7express]

On the LEC tournament front: A Plymouth loss @ Eastern AND a RIC win @ Boston would eliminate the Panthers from winning the conference and hosting the tournament.

[7express]

Sat action, all games at halftime:

Eastern over Plymouth 39-22.  Krystin Corliss has 8 for the Panthers, Jill Ritrosky has a game high 17 for Eastern.  This game was tied at 8 about 6.5 minutes in, but a big Eastern run gave them a lead as big as 21 in the first before settling for a 17 point lead at the break.
USM leads Keene 23-20.  Erin McNamera and Kelsey Cognetta lead their respective teams with 12.  Huskies with a 17-6 run to end the half after trailing 14-8 with a little more than 10 minutes to play.
RIC up 29-18.  Steph Prusko with 8, Kirsten Morrison with 6 are the leading scorers.
Dartmouth 35-27.  Kerri Stolle and Chelsea Mone each with 7 for the Colonials; Garrity & Bornemann are relatively quiet (10 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist combined), but Ashley Brown (15 points, 5 steals) & Megan Ronaghan (10 points) are doing a number on the Colonials today.  Those are the only 4 players on the scoring sheet for the Corsairs so far.

[7express]

Sat results:

Eastern clobbers Plymouth 76-42.  Jll Ritrosky had a game high 21 points for the Warriors who shot 53.8%, who had a nice bounce back (albeit against a very bad team) after 3 straight subpar games.   Krystin Corliss finished with 11 to lead Plymouth, the only Panther in double figures. Eastern was up by 17 at halftime and was never seriously threatened in the second.
RIC gets the road win @ Boston 55-44.  With this win & Plymouth's loss, Plymouth is officially eliminated from winning the conference.  Christian McDuffy had 14 points off the bench to lead RIC who also got Cara Paladino (10 points) and Steph Prusko (11 points) in double figures.  Kirsten Morrison was the only Beacon in double figures with 10.  Olivia Murphy had 11 rebounds, but only scored 6 points on 3-9 shooting.  RIC only made 1 free throw the entire game and finished shooting 13% from the FT line.  Kara Williamson isn't going to be happy about that.  If their going to beat Tufts, their gonna have to hit free throws.
USM over Keene 56-40.  Erin McNamera with a game high 28 to lead the way for the Huskies.  Kelsey Cognetta had 12 to lead the way for the Owls, who were dreadful in the second half getting outscored 33-20 to lose going away.
Western wins @ Dartmouth 67-64.  After 2 straight misses at the line from Caroline Brasa left the door open for Dartmouth, Kelsey Garrity missed a long 3, and time expired as the rebound was getting batted around on the baseline.  What an incredibly disappointing season for Dartmouth.  With their road difficulties this season and with USM & RIC still coming in, this was a game they just could not afford to lose, but the ship is still sinking.  The second half they played made the second half Keene played like the Owls were perfect.  Megan Ronaghan lead the Corsairs with 28 on 11-22 shooting as the Colonials shut down Garrity & Erika Bornemann who finished with a combined 14 points on 5-19 shooting.  Ashley Brown had 17 but had just 2 in the second half.  Western outscored the Corsairs 40-29 in the second half after trailing by 8 at the break.

51-28 LEC; 85-27 me

Standings:
1) RIC 8-1 (14-5)
2) Eastern 6-3 (13-6)
2) USM 6-3 (13-6)
4) Western 5-4 (11-8)
5) Dartmouth 4-5 (11-8)
6) Keene 3-6 (11-8)
6) Boston 3-6 (11-8)
8) Plymouth 1-8 (2-15)
Notes: Eastern is 1-0 vs. USM so they have the tiebreaker.  Keene is 1-1 vs. USM while Boston is 0-1 vs. USM, so Keene gets that tiebreaker as they finished 1-1 against each other this year. 

Schedule:
NO LEC games Tuesday, so OOC games the whole week with LEC play resuming Saturday:
Tuesday, February 4:
Norwich @ Plymouth 5:30 PM
Colby @ USM 5:30 PM
Middlebury @ Keene 5:30 PM
Eastern @ Conn College 6 PM
Boston @ Suffolk 7 PM
Tufts @ RIC 7 PM.  A game RIC MUST win if they want to get national recognition.  Potentially the game of the year.

Thursday, February 6:
Western @ Purchase 7 PM
Dartmouth @ Curry 7 PM

Saturday, February 8:
Keene @ RIC 1 PM
Plymouth @ Western 1 PM
Eastern @ Boston 1 PM
USM @ Dartmouth.  I'd say USM/Dartmouth best of the day.  Last stand for the Corsairs.

[7express]

Tuesday predictions:

Norwich 75 @ Plymouth 50.
This is Norwich's first game against an LEC team since they lost to RIC 71-59 February 27, 2011.
Colby 59 @ USM 74.
The White Mules are 6-14 and 0-7 in the NESCAC.  They've been competitive in a lot of their NESCAC games only to falter late, and reading on the NESCAC board, they have no inside game.  They are 3-5 against teams from the state of Maine including a season sweep at the hands of Bowdoin.  USM won @ Colby 60-54 last season.
Middlebury 54 @ Keene 62.
The Panthers have lost 5 straight overall, and 8 of their last 10, while the Owls had a modest 3 game winning streak halted with an awful second half Saturday vs. USM.  Middlebury won last seasons meeting 60-54.
Eastern 63 @ Conn College 61.
Conn College is 12-7, but has been competitive in most of their losses: 2 point loss @ 15-4 Roger Williams, 6 point L to 14-5 RIC, 4 point L to 15-3 Coast Guard, 2 point L @ 18-3 Bowdoin, and a 7 point L vs. 18-0 Tufts.  Their lone blowout was a 19 point loss @ Tufts, but only lost the second NESCAC matchup by 7.  Eastern has been playing awful, and let's face it, any team can look good playing Plymouth, but I still think they can get the win.
Suffolk 47 @ Boston 72.
The Beacons are on a 3 game losing streak with big LEC games upcoming against Eastern & Dartmouth, but Suffolk (10-7) are usually the teams they beat by a pretty big margin.
Tufts 63 @ RIC 58.
RIC looks like they are going to run away with the LEC, but a good game to show where they stand come tournament time.  Tufts is 18-0, and is still at #6 in the latest top 25 poll.  RIC is getting no love from the voters on the committee even though they've won 11 of their last 12 games, mainly because the LEC is down this year, but with a win over Tufts would probably steal some votes in the low 20's.  The 3rd unbeaten NESCAC team that has come into the Murray Center in the last 30 days (is that a record??); won by 11 vs. Bowdoin, and lost by 9 to Amherst were the results of the first 2 games.  Tufts is probably the best of those 3 teams, but RIC is playing a whole lot better now than they were when they played Bowdoin & Amherst in early January.  Should be a great game, but Tufts is the better team, and I say they get the win.

[AllStar]

Horrible loss for Keene women.  I wonder what has gone on with them.  They seem to be falling apart.  The very young Keene men are looking more promising for the future than the women despite having a down season this year.

Last I knew Tufts was routing Rhode Island College.

Not good.

[7express]

Tuesday results:

USM over Colby 55-32.  What an ugly game!  Rebecca Knight had 10 for USM, Carylanne Wolfington had a game high 13 for the White Mules.  USM won despite turning the ball over 20 times.
Norwich over Plymouth 61-50.  Taylor Perry with 13 off the bench for the Panthers, Aliah Curry had a game high 29 for the Cadets. 
Middlebury over Keene 59-55.  Christian Wojtas was one of 4 Owl's in double figures with 15 to lead the team.  Scarlett Kirk lead the Panthers with 20 points & 18 rebounds both career highs.  A second straight awful second half from the Owls who were up 29-21 at halftime and got outscored 38-26 the second stanza.
Eastern over Conn College 78-65.  Julia DePoi with 16 to lead the Warriors, who replaced Brianne Leonard in the starting lineup.  Tara Gabelman had 22 to lead the Camels, and Carlee Smith had 14.  Nice all around game for the Warriors who went into half up 51-26 shooting 63.3% from the floor.
Boston with a win at Suffolk 74-71.  Got consistant scoring from the Beacons for the first time pretty much all year as 5 Beacons finished in double figures, lead by Olivia Murphy's 16 & Andrea Suffredini's 14.  Jennifer Ruys had 28 points and 12 rebounds, both game high's for the Rams.
RIC fails their test, loses to Tufts 63-42.  Hannah Foley had 14 points & 7 rebounds for the Jumbos who hit on 43.4% of their shots from the field, and turned RIC over 22 times.  When RIC wasn't turning the ball over, they weren't hitting either as the Jumbos held the Anchorwomen to 29.5% shooting.  Really difficult to beat a quality team as talented as the Jumbos are when you turn the ball over that much and can't even hit on 30%.  Looks like the LEC tournament winner is the only team going to the tournament.  All focus should be on the remaining 5 LEC games for all 8 teams, but it still look like it's Eastern's or RIC's to lose.  If RIC were able to win this game, they had an outside shot to get in with a loss in the finals, but now that's squashed.  LEC tourney title or bust for them now.  Cara Paladino was the lone Anchorwomen in double figures with 15.  Vandell Andrade had 13 rebounds, but was held to just 7 points.

54-31 LEC (only 2 non league games remains, so will still finish at worst 21 games over .500), 90-28 me.

[7express]

Horrible loss for Keene women.  I wonder what has gone on with them.  They seem to be falling apart.  The very young Keene men are looking more promising for the future than the women despite having a down season this year.

Last I knew Tufts was routing Rhode Island College.

Not good.

The second half of both games vs. USM & Middlebury were not good.  Conditioning maybe??  They seem to be doing fine in the first half.  If games were only 20 minutes long, they would actually be a pretty good team.

[AllStar]

Horrible loss for Keene women.  I wonder what has gone on with them.  They seem to be falling apart.  The very young Keene men are looking more promising for the future than the women despite having a down season this year.

Last I knew Tufts was routing Rhode Island College.

Not good.

The second half of both games vs. USM & Middlebury were not good.  Conditioning maybe??  They seem to be doing fine in the first half.  If games were only 20 minutes long, they would actually be a pretty good team.

I wish I knew.  I have no idea.  Theyve looked lost now for like three weeks.  I also think overall their schedule isn't that good.  The young mens team has played a far tougher schedule in my opinion and even they look more like they know what they are doing than the women.  They just don't hit their shots with tremendous consistency.  So...really...I have no clue.  Conditioning?  Could be.  The offense looks miserable.

[7express]

Thursday predictions:

Dartmouth 68 @ Curry 72.
Dartmouth's 3 road wins this year: Brandeis (10-8), Plymouth (2-16), Framingham (11-9).  Curry is only 11-8, but until they can win consistently on the road, pick the opponents.  This is the same team that has road losses this year to: 8-13 Worcester State, 12-9 Bridgewater State (giving up 99 points in the process), 12-8 Boston (by 15), 11-8 Western (by 20).  The Corsairs haven't looked too good the past week: losing by 29 @ RIC and 4 days later blowing an 8 point halftime lead at home to Western.
Western 63 @ Purchase 58.
Purchase is 10-8 on the season, and right in the middle of the Skyline race when perennial heavyweights Mount St. Mary (3-16, 3-6) and Farmingdale State (11-7, 8-1) are beatable which opens the race for the rest of the conference which includes Purchase.  The Panthers haven't played an LEC team since at least 2006-07 and quite possibly even longer than that, while Western is 2-0 against the Skyline this year beating Farmingdale & Mount St. Mary by pretty wide margins: Farmingdale by 17, Mount St. Mary by 21.

[AllStar]

Dartmouth is falling apart, loses to Curry 75-69.  Bad bad loss.
Western beats Purchase easily, 70-43