WBB: Little East

[AllStar]

No, the Keene/Plymouth game was not close...nor was it entertaining.  If Keene wants to move up the standings they have to win the next 2 games, but they don't appear to be playing all that great right now.

[7express]

Well this certainly threw a monkey wrench into the plans:

Keene 69 @ Western 61.  Alright not that surprising Keene is good but they may be the quietest 20-3 team of all time (hell even I was shocked today was their 20th win)
UMass Dartmouth 72 @ Eastern Connecticut 65.  Now THAT'S surprising, and catapults Keene up to the catbird seat which sets up a virtual showdown for the conference in Keene on Wednesday.  Today's results have officially eliminated USM from hosting (at least 1 of Eastern or Keene will get to 10 wins while the most USM can get is 9) and also has eliminated Western from hosting since the most they can get is 10 and since they got swept by both Keene & Eastern this year they lose the tiebreaker to both should both finish 10-4.

IF Keene wins Wednesday night they win the #1 seed in the conference and would actually be a strong candidate for a pool C since they should probably pass Eastern in the rankings this week, and if they beat them on Wednesday they would definitely pass them the following week.  Eastern needs to win to stay alive, and then next Saturday they need to either win or have Keene lose to win the conference.  Should Eastern win the game and both Eastern & Keene finish 10-4, Eastern would have the head to head sweep and the tiebreaker.  Should Keene win the game and they both finish 10-4 Keene would win the tiebreaker due to having a better record against RIC (2-0) then Eastern would have (1-1).  They (Eastern) managed to lose to a worse RIC team twice last year, but the conference bailed them out, can Eastern bail themselves out for the RIC loss this year??

[AllStar]

Keene with a laughable performance against Eastern Connecticut...playing like this they wouldn't beat a middle school team.

[7express]

Eastern beats Keene to lock up the #1 seed since they won the season series.  Second straight year both men's and women's semifinals will be @ Eastern (of course that's assuming Eastern can beat both 8 seeds).  Hopefully this year they play the double header on Friday like they should've done last year (women's games in the afternoon, head down the street to the Willimantic Brewing company for a quick bite to eat, and then the men's semifinals at night.)
Western loses to RIC  meaning they won't finish higher than 3rd as they lose tiebreakers to both USM (USM beat Eastern, while Western was 0-2) and Keene (got swept in the season series).
USM can still finish 2nd: they need to beat Dartmouth, have Keene lose to RIC AND Western lose to Plymouth.  They win a tiebreaker against Keene if ONLY they tie at 9-5, but in a 3 way tie at 9-5 between them, Keene & Western, Keene has the superior winning percentage (they would been 3-1 against Western & USM; USM went 1-3 in those games and Western was 2-2).  USM & Western have clinched the last 2 home quarterfinal games.
In the bottom half: Dartmouth beats Boston, and as mentioned RIC beat Western.  Dartmouth currently owns the tiebreaker on Boston, and will own the tiebreaker on Boston regardless of what happens on Saturday, and they also own the tiebreaker on RIC.  HOWEVER, they have not officially clinched the #5 seed yet because in a 3 way tie at 6-8 between Boston, Dartmouth & RIC, Boston wins that tiebreaker since they'd have a superior winning percentage in those 4 games (Boston is 3-1; Dartmouth is 2-2, RIC is 1-3) and Boston owns the tiebreaker on RIC.  RIC has locked up the 7 seed, Plymouth has locked up the 8 seed and will be traveling to Eastern for the second straight season, and Dartmouth/Boston will be 5/6 in some order.

[7express]

I forgot Western swept USM, so if they finish tied they win the tiebreaker
If Western/Keene end up tied, Keene wins the tiebreaker
If Keene/USM end up tied, USM wins the tiebreaker
If all 3 end up tied, Keene wins on superior winning percentage, than would go back to breaking the USM/Western tie won by Western.

I'll go: Western over Plymouth; Dartmouth over USM, Eastern over Boston and RIC over Keene.  That would leave Keene #2, Western #3, USM #4, Dartmouth #5, Boston #6, RIC #7

[AllStar]

Quarterfinals:
Top-seeded Eastern Connecticut trailed at halftime (?) against last place Plymouth (who has lost 38 straight LEC regular season games) 30-27, but overtook the Panthers for a closer-than-expected 68-58 win.  They will host this weekend.

Fifth seed UMass-Dartmouth pulled out a 61-58 overtime win in Gorham over fourth seed Southern Maine.  The Corsairs beat them for the second time in four days, with the previous game being a 60-48 win in Dartmouth on Saturday.  It is the second straight year Southern Maine was knocked out in the first round.

Keene State overcame a bad shooting performance to beat RIC easily for the third time this year, 70-58.  Much like UMD and USM, these two teams just played on Saturday as well, with the Owls winning 54-40 in Providence.

UMass-Boston and Western Connecticut was postponed due to weather and rescheduled for tomorrow at 6:00 pm in Danbury.  The Colonials swept the Beacons in the regular season, winning 83-73 in Boston and 71-64 in Danbury.

Semifinals:
Given that the men's semifinals are Saturday night this year, the women's must be Friday night.  I haven't seen any times yet, but I imagine Eastern Connecticut will play UMass-Dartmouth first (the teams split the regular season series, with each team winning on the road) and then Keene State will play the winner of UMass-Boston and Western Connecticut after.

[7express]

Woof!  Western was up 17 at halftime (39-22) on Boston, and they lost pretty much going away 70-62.  In case you are scoring at home (and I know no one is which is why I'm posting it) Boston won the second half 48-23.  Really not going to win many games giving up 48 points in a half, at least Boston ONLY held them to 39 in the first!

Boston advances to face Keene on Friday, along with Dartmouth vs. Eastern.  Remember, the 2 UMass schools were my tournament sleepers.  I didn't think either would win on the road (ooops!) but I also mentioned that I think both could give Western & Keene problems (half right so far), and that was posted before Dartmouth won @ Eastern in the regular season.  I think at least 1 of Dartmouth or Boston play for the championship on Saturday, and if I had to guess I'd say Boston.

[7express]

Picks tonight:

Dartmouth 63 @ Eastern 69.  Dartmouth playing well, and just won a couple weeks ago in Willi, but the Warriors get the win at home.
Keene 53 vs. Boston 57.  Keene swept the season series from the Beacons, but they last played in mid January while Keene was still red hot and the Beacons were still finding their footing.  Different teams here tonight going in different directions.  Western swept the season series from Boston as well and then lost in the quarterfinals, and I still say is difficult to beat a good team 3 times in 1 season, that's why I like Boston to pull out the win.

[7express]

So looks like 2 blowouts tonight:

Eastern ran over Dartmouth 67-51 and Boston won a slugfest over Keene 51-39 though not sure if that game was close and Boston padded the margin with free throw's at the end, or whether Boston lead the majority, hopefully AllStar can fill us in later (if he was watching), unfortunately I had my own game this evening, but if it was close I may catch it this weekend on littleeast.tv.

So that sets up Eastern vs. Boston for the second straight year in the LEC championship game.  Last year was a classic, so hopefully this year is just as good as last year's was, and after the dud of a semifinals I think we are due for a good game.  Like vs. Western & vs. Keene, Boston got swept in the season series vs. Eastern, but unlike the first 2 rounds where I thought Boston would win I won't continue to play with fire as Eastern gets the win at home 67-54. Great career from Olivia Murphy, but this is probably her final collegiate game.  Too bad she wasted 3/4's of her time in Boston on a no offensive team where she was the only scorer.  There going to have a really hard time replacing her 15.4 points and 12.4 rebounds per game next year.

Edit: talk about playing with fire!  Boston was down 25-17 at halftime, and held Keene to 14 second half points, 2 days after holding Western to 23 second half points.  Now I know Keene, Western and Eastern if Ritrosky gets shut down have trouble scoring, but I wouldn't want to go down 10+ points at halftime again.  And a shot out to the Keene offense!  18 points in the first quarter, and a combined 21 points the final 30 minutes.  Well done ladies!

[AllStar]

So looks like 2 blowouts tonight:

Eastern ran over Dartmouth 67-51 and Boston won a slugfest over Keene 51-39 though not sure if that game was close and Boston padded the margin with free throw's at the end, or whether Boston lead the majority, hopefully AllStar can fill us in later (if he was watching), unfortunately I had my own game this evening, but if it was close I may catch it this weekend on littleeast.tv.

So that sets up Eastern vs. Boston for the second straight year in the LEC championship game.  Last year was a classic, so hopefully this year is just as good as last year's was, and after the dud of a semifinals I think we are due for a good game.  Like vs. Western & vs. Keene, Boston got swept in the season series vs. Eastern, but unlike the first 2 rounds where I thought Boston would win I won't continue to play with fire as Eastern gets the win at home 67-54. Great career from Olivia Murphy, but this is probably her final collegiate game.  Too bad she wasted 3/4's of her time in Boston on a no offensive team where she was the only scorer.  There going to have a really hard time replacing her 15.4 points and 12.4 rebounds per game next year.

Edit: talk about playing with fire!  Boston was down 25-17 at halftime, and held Keene to 14 second half points, 2 days after holding Western to 23 second half points.  Now I know Keene, Western and Eastern if Ritrosky gets shut down have trouble scoring, but I wouldn't want to go down 10+ points at halftime again.  And a shot out to the Keene offense!  18 points in the first quarter, and a combined 21 points the final 30 minutes.  Well done ladies!

Thankfully I was not.  Keene played a terrible non-conference schedule, beating a lot of cupcakes...which doesn't help you prepare for bigger games, even in this bad version of the Little East.  This is the second time within the past two weeks that they couldn't beat a middle school team.  Keene shot 29.4%...and that was the better percentage of the two teams!  UMass-Boston shot 23.7%.  I'm sorry, that is just awful basketball from both teams.

[ECSUalum]

Congratulations to the women Warriors and Coach Bierly for back to back LEC Championships.  After the disaster of 4 years ago, Coach Bierly has brought Eastern women's basketball back to respectability!!

[amh63]

Amherst meets ECSU in Rowan...New Jersey site....in the post season.  Amherst's men is hosting in LeFrak, so the women team was shipped to Rowan.  Went there for a Lacrosse regional...got lost in the wine region of NJ....east side of the lower end of the NJ Turnpikre.  Pretty area, but you can get lost  easily .
Amherst has lost some front court players since the last meeting with the Warriors.  In the Nescac title match with Tufts at Tufts, Amherst won by 1 and got revenge for Tufts two point victory in LeFrak.
Amherst won the game without its front court players and making only one three point shot. 

[7express]

Amherst will blow them out.  I think Rowan is in between Philly & AC, if you make it up there from the DMV (easier drive for you than Amherst is  ) make it a long weekend trip.

[amh63]

7express....thanks for the thought.  Heading to NC on Friday....my best man moved to the Chapel Hill area from East Lyme, CT.  He got tickets for the ACC WBB semi final in Greensboro on Sat....we both are still UCONN women fans...though . 

[7express]

On the recruiting front: Both Eastern and Western have gotten seniors off of the Cromwell Panthers for the class of 2020.  Emma Belcourt is a lefty shooting guard and is going to Western to play for coach Rybczyk who should fit right into that offense.  Mya Villard is about a 5"11 6 foot post player going to Eastern to play for coach Bierly.  She may not start right away replacing Ritrosky, but she'll add size on the depth chart behind Lexis Foster and whatever other post players coach Bierly brings in next year.  Cromwell finished the regular season 20-0, and are playing in their 3rd state final this weekend.  Back in 2013 when Belcourt & Villard were freshmen they were part of a Cromwell team that finished that regular season 20-0 and ended up winning the state title, they'll have a chance to bookend their careers the same way.  Both programs are getting proven winners, who will be valuable assets not only next year but in the next 4 years as well.  Congrats to both girls!