WBB: Little East

[7express]

Keene over Anna Maria 68-43.
Kristina Russo had 10 points to lead the AMcats while Tiffany Warburton had 9 points and a game high 10 rebounds.  Christan Wojtas had a season high 26 for the Owls.  Keene plays William Paterson in the championship while the AMcats will get slaughtered by Regis in the consolation game.
RPI edges USM 54-52.  Ella Ramonas lead the Huskies with 13 points and Megan Pelletier had 12 points & 13 rebounds.  Ashley Clough had a game high 21 for the Red Hawks and Amanda Lynch had 14 points and 12 rebounds.  Huskies, who once again are without Rebecca Knight are really struggling for the second straight year and for the second straight year I have no idea whether the absence is injury or other related.  They need her back in the lineup soon.  USM is off until next Wednesday when they play Husson; RPI plays St. Lawrence Friday night in the Liberty League opener

35-26-1 LEC; 46-20-1 me

Wednesday schedule:
William Paterson @ Keene 2

[7express]

Paterson 65-63 vs. Keene today

[7express]

Wednesday result:

William Paterson over Keene 65-53.
Sara Luberto had 21 to lead the Pioneers and Brittany Harden also added 20.  For the Owls, Christan Wojtas and Courtney Roberts each finished with 15.  Keene is @ Fitchburg State Thursday night while the Pioneers play Kean on Wednesday night.

35-27-1 LEC: 47-20-1 me.

Friday schedule:
Green Mountain 37 @ Western 65

Friday results:
Western demolished Green Mountain 79-12 (yes not a typo). Carolina Brasa had game highs of 20 points and 10 rebounds.  Allison Wadsworth had 66.7% of the Eagles points as she finished with 8 and Keelin Banks had 4 off the bench.   Wadsworth also attempted almost 65% of the Eagles field goals as the Eagles finished with 34 attempts from the field and Wadsworth had 22 making only 3.  The Eagles shot 14.7% for the game and only 10% in the first half where they trailed 48-4 at halftime.  Sheesh!   My new nominee for worst team in basketball.  Seriously, the FCIAC high school teams would've given us better games.  The Eagles are 0-7 on the year, haven't scored more than 39 points all season, have given up at least 79 (90+ in 4 games!) and have lost all 7 games by at least 51 points including 3 by 60 or more.  Even in Plymouth's worst seasons (2012/13-'13-14) I don't recall them losing once by 50 points yet alone multiple times.  Green Mountain plays New Jersey City in the consolation game as they were a 52-62 loser to Farmingdale State and Western gets the Rams in the championship.

36-27-1 LEC; 48-20-1 me

Saturday schedule:
Salve @ Boston 1 PM
Plymouth @ Eastern 1 PM
Farmingdale State @ Western 4 PM

[AllStar]

Keene for whatever reason scheduled Green Mountain last year in a tournament, and Western followed suit this year (maybe neither team could find somebody else???...though I doubt that).  I don't know why this team is being scheduled.  In the game last year they had all kinds of trouble passing the ball let alone scoring.  They turn the ball over repeatedly.  To be perfectly honest, I don't know why they have a team when they put that product on the floor.  I don't know if Western has intramural basketball, but they'd probably be better off playing one of those teams.  I also feel bad for a team like New Jersey City, who instead of getting a useful game after a loss to Farmingdale State, has to play Green Mountain in a game that does nothing for them.  Hopefully these LEC teams have learned their lesson.  I understand scheduling a few cupcakes, but I think Green Mountain is worse than a cupcake.

[7express]

Saturday predictions:

Salve 67-65 (this is about the time of year Boston starts to lose winnable non conference games and that follows suit in LEC play.  I think their loss to Plymouth happened around January 15 last year and 2 games before that they lost by 40 to Brandeis team that finished the year 14-13).
Eastern 65-54.  If this was in Plymouth, I'd take the Panthers.  Eastern's 0-fer against the NESCAC and their subsequent LEC opener loss to than 1-6 RIC, coupled with the LEC's mediocre OOC record and bad teams leaves the Warriors no hope for the pool C selection, so the LEC games are their season.  Lucky for them as AllStar mentioned on here earlier, the conference sucks this year and that's putting it mildly.  Eastern gets the road trip to USM out of the way pretty early (in 2 weeks) and aside from Dartmouth & Western I don't think there's another team that can challenge then.  AllStar's Keene team has a good record but has played no one of note, so don't know how they are, Boston is 1 game above .500 despite playing mostly bottom-of-the-barrel area times, RIC is rebuilding this year away, Plymouth is next year away from doing some damage, and 2 years from cracking the top 4, USM can't win outside Maine and is without Rebecca Knight, and even Dartmouth & Western have questions: Dartmouth's has always been can they win important games away from home (we'll find that out Monday when they play @ nationally ranked Williams) and Western is a 1 person show, defensive-first team that struggles to score points, and has lost to the only 2 good teams they've played (USM & NYU).  This is definitely a  1 bid league, and Eastern looks to have the best roster capable of winning it, but they have to start here.  They have 13 more games left in their season (even though the actual schedule says theirs more), and I think I said in my preview scheduling those tough NESCAC teams is great, but if you don't win any of them (and Eastern wasn't close to winning any of the 4) then they could do more harm than good.  Replacing the Amherst game with some awful team like Mitchell might actually have been better. 
Western 64-53.  Not Green Mountain, the Colonials will have their hands full.

[AllStar]

The Keene women, sad to say, I do not have much hope for at all.  The loss to William Paterson was particularly disappointing.  The Pioneers struck me as a very mediocre team...some of the Owls' teams in the past would have won that game at home for sure.  The Owls rely heavily on shooting threes...and when they don't go in it isn't pretty.  The last few years, once conference play rolls around, they seem to get worse for whatever reason (they already lost to a short-handed Southern Maine team this year).  In fact, ever since their overtime win in Gorham last year they have been on a downhill trajectory.  Overall, the women's side in the conference seems to be trending in the wrong direction.  Southern Maine used to be a marquee team and now they are losing to RPI on a neutral floor...and RPI shot below 30% (even without Rebecca Knight that is not good).  As 7 mentioned, Eastern may be the top team in the league...but they lost to a very down Rhode Island College team who had 1 win.  UMass-Dartmouth has also gotten off to a nice start...we'll see how they do when they play some better teams.  Overall, though, I don't know what's going on with the league as a whole.  Not a good showing in the non-conference schedule.  I can't think of even one marquee win for the whole league.

[AllStar]

Saturday results:

UMass-Boston never trailed and throttled Salve Regina, 67-42.  After an even first 8 or 9 minutes, the Beacons quickly ran away from the Seahawks and led 33-19 at halftime.  To make matters worse for Salve, UMass-Boston went on a 24-3 run to open the second half for a 57-22 lead, their largest of the game.  Kirsten Morrison scored 12 points and Grace Geary added 10 for the Beacons.  The Seahawks shot just 29% in their pathetic offensive showing and had nobody in double-figures.  Laura Miller scored 7 points.   The Beacons improved to 6-4 with the victory and host Brandeis, who whacked them by nearly 40 last year, on Tuesday.  Salve Regina returns to Rhode Island and hosts Endicott in a Commonwealth Coast Conference game on Tuesday.

Eastern Connecticut picked up a necessary 61-32 home win over Plymouth to even their conference record.  The Panthers may be improving somewhat, but in their first two conference games they have lost by 37 and by 29.  Jill Ritrosky and Shannon McCourt each scored 12 points each to lead the Warriors in this game.  Plymouth, who shot just 25%, was led by Kelley Collins' double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds.  Eastern dominated every statistical category, including 50-30 on rebounds, to overcome their own off shooting (36.7% overall and 1-of-14 from three).  The Warriors improved to 6-4 and 1-1 in the Little East with the win and will travel to play MASCAC member Westfield State on Monday.  The Plymouth women, just like the men, will venture over to Vermont and take on Johnson State on Tuesday.  The Panthers snapped their 32-game losing streak at the expense of the lowly Badgers in Plymouth last year.

Western Connecticut won the Hat City Classic, stifling Farmingdale State 51-36.  The Colonials dominated the boards, 49-32 and limited the Rams to 26% shooting on the afternoon.  This was a wire-to-wire win for Western, who led 25-12 at halftime and scored the first ten points of the second half to take a 35-12 lead.  Farmingdale did fight back, using a 17-2 burst to cut Western's lead to eight with 11 minutes left.  The Rams slid back down the hill after that though, mustering only four points until a meaningless three with seconds to go.  Emily Dobson led the Colonials with 16 points and Caroline Brasa added 13.  Western Connecticut (8-2) will travel to take on UMass-Dartmouth in Massachusetts on Thursday (the second year in a row for this strange Thursday night conference contest).  It doesn't get any easier for Farmingdale (4-6), who will host No. 3 Amherst on Tuesday at 4:00 pm.  New Jersey City beat Green Mountain 92-29 in the consolation game (if you can call it a game) of this tournament.  In the two games, Green Mountain was outscored 171-41.

[7express]

I'll take Bowdoin over RIC 65-43

[7express]

Bowdoin crushes RIC 75-56.
Jess Korzec & Devin Hill shared team high scoring honors with 16 points each while Sara Binkhorst lead the Polar Bears with a game high 32 on 10-15 shooting.   The Polar Bears carry a 7 game winning streak into their matchup @ Emmanuel on Tuesday night while the Anchorwomen are off until next weekend when they resume LEC play vs. the Keene Owls.

38-21-1 LEC; 51-21-1 me.

Next games Monday:
Dartmouth @ Williams 5 PM
Eastern @ Westfield 5:30 PM

[7express]

Williams 67-54.  LEC fails to capitalize on another marquee win for the conference
Eastern 65-56.

If I end up 1-1 on the day I really, really hope the game I lose is the Ephs/Corsairs game.

[7express]

Williams defeats Dartmouth 73-59.  See the next set of stars for the actual sentence of game and skip  the first set of stars if you want to pass my analysis of the LEC's pool chances.

*******************************
Stick a fork in the LEC they will officially be a 1 bid league* this year.  They've had countless and countless opportunities to pick up a marquee win and failed in every single opportunity, take a look:
Western: 8-2.  Lost to ranked NYU the best team on the schedule, 8 of their current non LEC games took place vs. teams at or under .500 including 0-8 Green Mountain which should take you out of conversation scheduling that team anyways.  Already have 1 conference loss (@ home no less!) so can't pull the "undefeated in conference play" card anymore; Conn College their only decent win at 10-2 probably gets worse as the NESCAC season wears on.  Have a game in February vs. 4-4 Regis which likely gets better as they steamroll through the NECC again.
Dartmouth: 7-3.  Like Western they lost handily to the only ranked team on their schedule.  At least their schedule was better than Western's was as only 3 of their non LEC opponents are at or under .500 none of them are good teams: Norwich (8-1), WPI (9-2), Worcester (7-3), and Framingham State (7-2) all have gaudy records, but none of them stand out as "marquee pool C earning victories."  At seasons end if even 2 of those 4 schools make the RR's, Dartmouth should feel lucky.  Dartmouth has lost 2 of the 3 games by a combined 4 points, but even if they won those 2 games they NEEDED the win @ Williams to keep them breathing, but they are about to be taken off of life support.
Boston: 6-4.  Best win??  A 5-5 Salve Regina team.  The opponents combined record in their 5 wins (not including RIC): 16-34.  The opponents combined record in their 3 losses (not including Keene): 24-8.  Next please!
Keene: 6-4.  The good thing for the Owls is that only 4 non LEC opponents currently hold records at or under .500.  The bad news for the Owls is like the Corsairs, the Owls have lost to the only 2 teams worth a damn that would've made a dent on their NCAA chances and they lost both games badly: 31 to Tufts and 17 to Amherst.  Have games upcoming vs. Fitchburg state (7-2), Worcester State (7-3) & Middlebury (7-3) in January, but none of those 3 games will make any dent at all.  And like Western already lost at home to an undermanned USM squad.
USM 6-5.  59-45.  That was the score in the Bates game with a little more than 6:30 to play after Taylor Flood hit 2 free throws.  From that point on, the Bobcats would hold the Huskies without a field goal for the games final 7:32 and would outscore the Huskies 16-1 over the final 6:30 to snatch victory from the certain jaws of defeat.  Now 7-4 and 6-5 might not seem like much of a difference, but in this case I think it would.  They got beat soundly by Bowdoin, but lost a close game to UNE, both ranked teams.  They are 1-2 since losing Rebecca Knight, and have only managed to muster 55.7 ppg's in those 3 games without her.  However, we can still continue to play the "undefeated in conference play" card as they are the only team that sits at 2-0, and if Dartmouth loses to Western on Thursday night would be the last remaining conference unbeaten period!  Have Colby (9-2) up in February which would be a big boost for them, especially if Knight is back.
Eastern: 6-5.  We knew the NESCAC gauntlet of Tufts, Williams and Amherst was going to be make or break for them and what they needed to do in the LEC: If they happened to win all 3 they were almost assuredly going to the NCAAs as long as they didn't completely implode during LEC play and hell sweeping that gauntlet would've afforded them a couple stinkers the rest of the way to boot.  Winning 2 of the 3 would still leave you in pretty good shape, but you couldn't quite cruise like you would have winning all 3.  Wining 1 would've been even OK, possibly good enough, likely good enough if you ran through the LEC and stumbled in the conference championship game.  Losing all 3 by single digits; would've preferred a win or 2, but at least we played close.  Can't stumble the rest of the way.  Losing all 3 by double digits (like Eastern did): welp, no margin for error now.  We'll have to do something else now to get in.  Like going 14-0 in conf like the men did last year might save us!  Then they compounded matters losing the Very. Next. Game to what then was a 1-6 (now a 2-9) Rhode Island College team, and poof there goes the "undefeated in conference play" card and Eastern's pool C chances to boot.  For good measure they added a loss to Westfield on Monday which I'll get to shortly.  Now at 8-4 Westfield can hardly be considered a "bad team" but when your a team like Eastern those are games you can't afford to lose.  RIC (2-9) and Plymouth (4-5) have no shot anyways, so I'll leave them out.  What makes this exciting is that every LEC game now becomes most important, because the conference is only sending 1 team.  To have the best chance to go means clinching home court throughout which means winning the regular season title, so let the games begin.  All these LEC teams will now basically be playing playoff games anyways.
* The only scenario (well 2) I can possibly see the LEC getting a second team is if the Dartmouth/Western winner Thursday wins out the rest of the season, all the way to the LEC final and loses, OR USM sweeps the regular season in the LEC, makes the finals, but loses.  In Western's case they'd be 25-3 overall and 13-1 in conference.  That left Staten Island out of the men's field last year but at least 25-3 would bring them to the table as a possible selection.  In Dartmouth's case they'd be 24-4, but an even better 14-0 in conference which would get them to the discussion table.  In USM's case they'd have a mediocre record: at best 22-6 depending on what they did the remaining non LEC games, but they themselves would also be an important 14-0 in conference play.  I always think how you do in conference (especially a double round robin like the LEC does which not many conferences do anymore) is MUCH more important than a 3 day, single elimination tournament, the first weekend of March) and is much more indicative about how good a team is because you have to keep that up for 2 months, you can't get hot as the 5 seed for example for 3 days and steal a bid from someone, you have to stay hot for 2 months.  I'm not saying you must get into the NCAA's with an unbeaten conference record, but they should at least look at you and give you consideration.

*********************************

As for the Dartmouth loss to Williams: not much worked.  Megan Ronaghan and Alicia Kutil shared team high honors with 16 points scored as Dartmouth shot only 33.8% for the game.  Ellen Cook was 12-15 from the floor (5-6) from 3 en route to a game high 33 points for the Ephs who shot 49.2% from the floor and 47.6% from 3.  Dartmouth (7-3) resumes LEC action hosting Western on Thursday while the Ephs (11-1) host Trinity on Friday before their conference showdown with hated rival Amherst on Saturday afternoon.
If you read the LEC pool C's chances you would know Eastern lost to Westfield by a 65-57 score.  Jill Ritrosky lead Eastern with 13 points while Julia DePoi tied a game high with 10 rebounds.   Jill Valley lead the Owls in scoring with 20.  If your a starter, how do you attempt only 1 field goal, 2 free throws, and grab 3 rebounds in 22 minutes of action??  What the hell are you doing in the other 20??  That was Lexis Foster's line last night: 1-1 shooting, 1-2 free throws, 3 rebounds (1 offensive 2 defensive), 3 points in 22 minutes.  That was matched by teammate Erin Brooks: 0-1 shooting , 2-2 free throws, 3 rebounds (1 offensive, 2 defensive) and 2 points.  Guess how many minutes she got??  4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Warriors (6-5) are at St. Joseph's (CT) on Thursday evening while the Owls (8-4) start MASCAC play with an important game at 7-2 Framingham State also on Thursday evening.

38-23-1 LEC; 52-22-1 me.

Tuesday schedule:
Plymouth State @ Johnson State 5:30 PM
Brandeis @ Boston 5:30 PM
Keene @ Fitchburg 5:30 PM

[7express]

Plymouth 65-54
Boston 73-59.  Maybe this year is different...
Fitchburg 65-62

[7express]

Plymouth over Johnson 60-51.
Sarah Voorhis lead the Badgers (3-7) with 12 points, while DeAsia Lawrence and Taylor Perry each also had 12 to lead the Panthers (5-5) who have a non-losing record this late in the season for the first time since January 15, 2011 when they lost to RIC to fall to 7-7 in the middle of a 1-16 stretch to end that season (started off 7-1, ended 8-17.  Have never recovered since.)  Plymouth plays NAIA opponent Fisher College out of Boston Thursday afternoon (weird 2 PM start), Badgers get Lyndon State Saturday.

Boston edges Brandeis 69-65.
Considering last year they lost by 40, this is definitely an improvement!  Frankie Pinto lead the Judges (8-3) with 18 points while Grace Geary lead all scorers with 26 for the Beacons (7-4) who got 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Beacons.  I'm not gonna jump in all the way like I have in the last couple years but if the Beacons can continue to get improved play from Geary, Katrina Edwards & Mallory Nelson this could definitely be a sleeper team this year.  Brandeis plays UAA travel partner, top 10 ranked, and unbeaten NYU on Saturday afternoon, while the Beacons have an important LEC game vs. Eastern Saturday afternoon.

Keene over Fitchburg 58-44.
Kelsey Cognetta lead the Owls (7-4) with 20 points, Amanda Petrow and Sarah Kober each had 12 points and added 11 and 10 rebounds respectively.  Falcons (7-3) only put 1 in double figures which was Laura Cote who had 16.  Falcons, who have lost 3 of 4 after starting the season 6-0 will look to buck that trend as they play host to Salem State Thursday evening in some MASCAC action, while the Owls winners of 6 of 8 after starting 1-2 look to continue their hot streak Saturday @ RIC.

41-23-1 LEC; 54-23-1 me.

1 game Wednesday:
Husson @ USM 6 PM

[7express]

Wednesday prediction:

USM 65-58.  Even without Knight, I think USM gets a much needed win.

[AllStar]

Even with Rebecca Knight, Southern Maine loses at home to a very mediocre Husson team 79-77 in overtime.  Huskies allowed 46 points to the Eagles in the second half and now are an unimpressive 6-6 with three straight losses to WPI, RPI, and Husson.