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Division III basketball (Posting Up) => Women's Basketball => Region 2 women's basketball => Topic started by: Allen M. Karon on March 09, 2004, 03:53:08 PM

Title: WBB: Little East
Post by: Allen M. Karon on March 09, 2004, 03:53:08 PM
Any idea on ticket situation for sectionals-- i.e. how fast the tickets will be selling?  I understand that Bowdoin and S. Maine are selling their tickets in advance-- I am from the Boston area and have already booked a hotel reservation at Travelers Inn in Brunswick, ME-- I desperately want to go to watch the sectionals, but I'm afraid that sectionals may be sold out by 3 PM Friday-- which would be the time that the Concord Trailways bus from Boston will be arriving.

I have tried e-mailing Debbie Miller at Bowdoin, and while the automated message is helpful, there  have been no assurances that some tickets would be available for sale at gate.  I have not received any e-mail reply from Debbie Miller at Bowdoin, either.  I do not have a car, and it would not be feasible for me to take a separate trip to Maine just to get an advanced ticket.  According to the message, any unsold tickets by S. Maine, Scranton, or Wittenberg would go on sale at Bowdoin at 9 AM Friday, Eastern time.  

If anyone gets an extra ticket, I would appreciate it.  :-)

Good luck to all in the sectionals.
Title: Little East
Post by: Allen M. Karon on March 11, 2004, 04:04:01 PM
I am able to go to Friday's games after all.  My contacts up in Maine were able to use their pull and get me a ticket.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Allen
Title: Little East
Post by: ttn on March 13, 2004, 02:40:06 PM
everyone has been pretty quiet this year. well i will put in my 2 cents worth.
i dont want to take anything away from Bowdoin.  wow. what a defense.  
but i have to say something about the brackets. the ncaa screwed usm again. the potential should have existed for usm and bowdoin to play in the national championship. after all they were #1 and #2.  or at least they should have been able to play in the last round at bowdoin.  but as usual the brackets are influenced by the dollar, travel and convenience.  i think we have learned to expect this from the ncaa.  
anyway, Bia, Baby Face Myles, Meg, i am proud of you all.  
and good luck justine.- "nun" better at bowdoin.

usm fan
Title: Little East
Post by: Older I get..... on March 26, 2004, 12:20:20 AM
Any news on why the West Conn job is open???  Where did Rybczyk go after just 2 years???
Title: Little East
Post by: LA RAMS on November 24, 2004, 08:59:19 AM
What happened to Tiffany Jones????  Was she suspended or something?  Why, for God's sake?
Title: Little East
Post by: CoachStaff on November 27, 2004, 12:46:28 AM
Bangor Daily News, Nov. 24 reported that several USM student-athletes were suspended because of false time cards submitted for work-study in athletics. Jones may have been one of them?
Title: Little East
Post by: Nancy Abromowitz on December 12, 2004, 10:28:26 AM
Sat behind some Western New England parents yesterday at the Brandeis game, somebody should tell them you DON'T call a team overrated unless you beat them. Brandeis opened up multiple 20 point leads, substituted freely (several times had 4 frosh on floor at once, for 3-5 minute streches)and because Western scored 8 unanswered points in the last minute, doesn't mean if Caoch Simon wanted to beat you by 60 she couldn't. All the nasayers beware, if you have seen games since the opening game you would realize that Brandeis has taken steps evry week and this young team is getting more comfortable with their respective roles. Hope it continues.
Title: Little East
Post by: Kayla Johnson on March 01, 2005, 08:25:12 PM
Allen:
What's your take on the USM/MMA game?!
Title: Little East
Post by: LA RAMS on March 02, 2005, 11:06:57 AM
Funny how the news of Tiffany Jones' dismissal from the USM team comes RIGHT after I make my picks for the Dance which naturally had me picking USM dancing all the way to the National Championship game. What the HELL happened now?  I didn't know that she had been suspended back in January for violating team rules but this is really sad - not only for her but the team as well.  Bloody rotten timing to say the least.
Title: Little East
Post by: Allen M. Karon on March 02, 2005, 01:24:21 PM
Kayla--

With the news of the Tiffany Jones suspension, look for S. Maine to advance to the Sweet 16, but lose to  Bates or Emmanuel in the Sweet 16.  S. Maine's national title hopes are now practically gone.
Title: Little East
Post by: Kayla Johnson on March 02, 2005, 01:28:25 PM
Yeah bad news for USM...without her they are a different team - still great, but definitely not the phenomenal team they are with her!
Title: Little East
Post by: Not In The Bulb on March 04, 2005, 03:34:10 PM
With the suspension of Tiffany Jones, Southern Maine may have a difficult time with Ithaca. The Bombers got off to a slow start, missing Jennie Swatling and Kelly Gawronski who graduated last spring. The team jelled nicely, however, over Christmas Break when coach Dan Raymond instituted "two-a-day" practices, the first of which started at 6am. Since then, Ithaca has only lost to UR(in OT, a game the Bombers should have won), Bowdoin(who was #1 at the time), and conference rival St.John Fisher...who they've beaten twice since.  

Ithaca boasts a sure-fire first team all-american in Stephanie Cleary. Cleary is 2nd in the nation in both scoring and steals, after leading the entire NCAA, all divisions for men and women, in steals last year. She averaged over 30 ppg in the E8 tournament and opened with 27 in the first round vs Colby-Sawyer.

Other players to watch for Ithaca include junio Jill Post and sophomore Sue Kelly. Kelly, a sweet-shooting lefty, has come on of late. She has a very nice outside jumper. Post is an interior player who can also step out and hit the outside J. Her improved play coincided with the reawakening of the Bombers. I think this will be a very close game.

(Message edited by gobombers15 on March 4, 2005)
Title: Little East
Post by: Lloyd Christmas on March 04, 2005, 04:05:37 PM
Ithaca lost at home to Bowdoin (when the Bomber's "sure-fire first-team All-American" exploded for nine points and one steal) by 16. USM is a slight notch below Bowdoin/Bates, Jones or no Jones, and playing at home. USM is a dominant defensive team and has won its last 25 games.  

The loss of Jones hurts USM's depth a bit, but her loss won't make a difference until they play Bates.

I'd be surprised if this was a close game.
Title: Little East
Post by: Not In The Bulb on March 04, 2005, 05:31:39 PM
She'll have bad shooting nights now and then. She's expected to carry the entire load for that team so she's allowed to have a bad regular season game now and then. Keep in mind Bowdoin's coach was an Ithaca assistant up through last year. She'd seen Steph in every game and every practice for three years. Think maybe,just maybe, she knew Steph's strengths and weaknesses? I'm gonna say yes.

A "slight" notch below Bates? You got it handed to you by Bates, friend. You didn't have Jones then and you don't have her now, so I would say you're more than a "slight" notch below them right now.  

Unless Cleary can't throw it in the ocean tomorrow, this will be a close game. The Bombers are peaking at the right time.
Title: Little East
Post by: Not In The Bulb on March 04, 2005, 05:33:17 PM
And, yes, she's a shoe-in for first team all-american. SECOND in points and SECOND in steals in the nation. Over/Under on steals for her tomorrow is 4.5, place your bets now.
Title: Little East
Post by: Lloyd Christmas on March 04, 2005, 05:51:32 PM
I'm not from USM, I'm over from the NESCAC board to give you a little love, since this board is a ghost town.

When a player gets shut down against the only good team she plays, it's a solid bet she will not get first-team All-Americans. She'll be lucky to make any national team. Time will tell, though.

Bowdoin went 29-1 last year. I'm sure the addition of the former Ithaca assistant was a boon to the team, but methinks Bowdoin would have handled Cleary okay, regardless. That's what good teams do.

But back to the upcoming game. The reason I don't think it will close can be attributed to one of your statements above: "She's expected to carry the entire load for that team..." When a team is as clearly imbalanced as Ithaca is, it's a lot easier to cause them problems in the postseason.  

USM lost to Bates and Bowdoin very early, and that's it. I'll take a stab and say 75-59, USM.

And I'll take the under on your line.
Title: Little East
Post by: ttn on March 12, 2005, 10:22:03 AM
great game between usm and bates. either team deserved to win. its about time usm and bowdoin got to play later in the tournament rather than sooner.  i am surprised the ncaa didnt put  usm, bates, and bowdoin in same bracket  to save money.  
i am sure ncaa counted on bates  winning as well.  
usm may prove like the pats do that this is a team games.  one  player doesnt make or break the team.
Title: Little East
Post by: Allen M. Karon on March 12, 2005, 12:58:15 PM
According to the http://www.ncaasports.com Div. 3 scoreboard--

Due to the inclement weather conditions in the Portland/Gorham, Maine area which forced the closing of the Univ. of Southern Maine campus today (Saturday), the S. Maine/Springfield sectional final originally scheduled for tonight at 7 PM Eastern has been postponed to tomorrow (Sunday, March 13, 2005) at 2 PM Eastern.

All other women's sectionals are currently scheduled to tip tonight at 7 PM Eastern.
Title: Little East
Post by: Gordon "Marco Scutaro" Mann on March 12, 2005, 01:23:34 PM
USM confirms.

We'll play tomorrow.
Title: Little East
Post by: Kayla Johnson on March 13, 2005, 10:21:32 AM
Does anyone think Springfield has a chance?  Or is USM too strong at home?
Title: Little East
Post by: Allen M. Karon on March 13, 2005, 11:38:50 AM
Kayla--

At home, USM should be favored to win today.  However, although the last two meetings between the Pride and Huskies took place at Blake Arena in Springfield during (1) the first round of the NCAA tournament in the 2000-2001 season, and (2) the finals of the Naismith Classic in the 2002-2003 season, the Springfield Pride won both of these previous meetings.

I would pick USM today at Warren Hill Gym, seeing as they beat Bates on Friday, but I would not be too surprised if Springfield pulled off the upset again.
Title: Little East
Post by: Allen M. Karon on March 13, 2005, 04:20:18 PM
Congrats to Gary Fifield and the University of Southern Maine Huskies on their defeating Springfield today and advancing to the "Final Four".  Although no game is easy to win at this stage, USM surely made this game look easy in the way they played today against Springfield.

It will be interesting on Friday to see how Ashley Marble and Megan Myles of USM will match up against the taller Millikin post players of Joanne Conner and Lindsay Ippel.  Also of interest will be how Donna Cowing of USM will match up against the taller Laura Zimmerman of Millikin.

The Millikin starters not only can shoot well, but also pass the ball well.  4 of the 5 starters for Millikin have at least 75 assists each on the season.

I would suggest to Coach Fifield that he spend a lot of hours this week breaking down the Millikin game tapes.  I want to listen to a great match this Friday.  :-)
Title: Little East
Post by: Paul Clancy on March 14, 2005, 07:17:10 AM
USM has an awesome program and a fantastic coach.  The team's performance without the offensive force of Jones speaks to their depth.  And, I doubt there's another 5'9" post player (namely, Marble) who rebounds and generally plays that position so well.  Myles offensively plays more like a guard.  I suspect the "uncommon" approach these two bring to the game confound many defensive schemes.

My heart may be in the NESCAC and the UAA, but I grew up halfway between the two USM campuses (or is it campii?).  So, go Huskies, and with all your Maine players, bring back a championship to the Great State of Maine!
Title: Little East
Post by: Steve on March 14, 2005, 08:10:48 AM
Fifield will at least have the advantage that Ippel will not sneak up on them. She really has only played the last ten games of the season. Wheaton beat Millikin at home by 17 and lost by three on the road, but Ippel barely played in either game.  She has come out of nowhere.
Title: Little East
Post by: Steve on March 14, 2005, 08:14:24 AM
Expect USM to work hard on breaking Millikin's press this week.  They run a couple of full court presses, but their most damaging one is a 3/4 court press that creates huge turnovers around the half-court line. They crush teams that can't handle the press, and now they have a two-headed post combination.
Title: Little East
Post by: Allen M. Karon on March 18, 2005, 11:51:23 AM
Congratulations to:

S. Maine coach Gary Fifield--

WBCA DIII Coach of the Year-- 2004-2005 season.

This is the second year in a row that a coach from a Maine DIII school has won this prestigious honor.

News courtesy of http://www.usm.maine.edu/~athl

News also courtesy of http://www.mainetoday.com
Title: Little East
Post by: Allen M. Karon on March 18, 2005, 12:55:15 PM
The WBCA released the following press release this morning on the Coach of the Year award.  According to the press release, Jim Murphy of Bates College had been selected as the top candidate of this region (Region 1) for the award before the NCAA tournament began-- however, Gary Fifield automatically got nominated for the WBCA Coach of the Year award by virtue of being a coach of a DIII women's basketball national semifinal team upon USM's winning the sectional over Bates and Springfield, and advancing to Virginia Beach, VA.   Fifield then picked up the most votes this week to win the Coach of the Year award.

The press release can be read at:

http://www.wbca.org/releases/05DIIICOYrelease.asp
Title: Little East
Post by: Steve on March 18, 2005, 05:52:07 PM
Millikin 66, USM 60- Not that any of you care, but I have mixed feelings about it. I am a fan of the CCIW, and even though Millikin is our big rival, I am happy for them. On the other hand, I grew up in Gorham, so I always feel bad when USM loses.  Another great season, though.
Title: Little East
Post by: Allen M. Karon on March 19, 2005, 02:20:17 PM
Congrats to S. Maine and Scranton on a well-played third place game.

S. Maine 55, Scranton 53 Final

As the fourth place team, Scranton will receive their team trophy and other respective awards first in the ceremony to be held at the conclusion of the national championship game.

Southern Maine will get their team trophy and otehr respective awards from the NCAA immediately after Scranton.

Then, the national runner-up will get their team trophy and awards, followed by the national champion.

Tip-off of the national title game is at 3:05 PM Eastern.  Game will be televised on College Sports Television in addition to the D3Hoops.com/NCAAsports.com audio webcast.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Snowman on November 14, 2005, 11:23:34 AM
Heard that So Maine did not fair to well at Brandeis over the weekend? Is that true? Did everyone play?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on November 14, 2005, 02:36:11 PM
I would not be too despondent about S. Maine based on the scrimmage yesterday, nor would I be too overconfident about Brandeis.  Both teams belong among the top teams in DIII.

S. Maine played well enough in the second 20 min. period and the third 10 min. period to acquit themselves.  I would discount the first 20 min. of the scrimmage-- if S. Maine got themselves ready for the season as a result, it will only help the Huskies in the end.  S. Maine will still win the Little East.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: bearswatcher on December 17, 2005, 06:56:15 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, let's see, Wash U wins starts the season 10-0 and another all mighty Northeast superpower bites the dust. Come one guys, maybe it just isn't the NE's year. Last couple years NE teams spit the bit anyway. UAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAA
UAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAAUAA
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: LA RAMS on December 19, 2005, 01:46:29 PM

How much does Southern Maine REALLY miss Tiffany Jones now?  I would guess
after the debacle this last weekend quite a lot.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: d3bballinboston on December 20, 2005, 05:55:47 PM
how does a team lose to an unranked team and still get their #1 rating.. and how does salem state not get ranked? so many politics on polls. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on December 24, 2005, 10:13:57 PM
Does losing one game on the road automatically make you not the best team in the country anymore? If there were someone clear-cut ready to take their place, they would have gotten it, but nobody believes in anyone right now.

As for Salem, it's tough to go from zero votes to the Top 25 in one week. (which SSC deserved after losing to Clark and not having beaten anyone of consequence) to the Top 25. Since Luther was already doing the same, it was even harder for people to make room for two teams.

Luther won on the road by 20-some points at last year's defending champ. Salem State won at home, where they were 12-1 last year, even in a down year for them (20-7).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: d3bballinboston on December 25, 2005, 02:19:33 PM
I am just saying if you are unranked and ubeat the #1 team in the country.. dont you think you should be considered to be one of the best 25 in the country if you beat the supposedly #1 team.  Same goes on the other end.. If you are ranked #1 and lose to an unranked team.. you should fall out of that spot.  The voters, in my opinion, arent doing a truthfull job of who the top 25 is .  The top 25 is what the top 25 should be at that very given moment in time. Voters should be thinking that the team's potiential makes them better or that they have a toughschedule down the road. They should only be thinking of the games they played at the very moment.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on December 25, 2005, 03:24:15 PM
I think you have a should where you mean to have shouldn't in there somewhere.

But yes, I certainly see your point. However, as I said, it's hard to go from absolutely out of the poll to in the Top 25 in one fell swoop. As I said, there was more than one type of situation like that to consider this week, and the other was more impressive.

And no, I don't agree that No. 1 losing on the road at a quality opponent automatically makes them not No. 1. Our poll is pretty consistent, in fact, at not overreacting like that.

Merry Christmas, everyone.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Snowman on December 25, 2005, 10:46:56 PM
Pat,

I am a die in the wool USM fan, but I will tell you, when we came back from Brandeis everyone was none to happy with the result of the scrimmage. Shocked maybe, even though short handed. This is the first time I remember a team holding on to #1 position. Fact is if it was a ranked team that beat us, we would be out of the #1 slot. It is kind of wierd to remain after losing to an unranked team. Voters may think it a fluke, and I think time will tell, but still, very strange.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: uofs on December 25, 2005, 11:10:17 PM
pat your topic just doesn`t justify your theory of being ranked.Sure S.Maine lost to a good team on the road but didn`t Millikin also lose on the road when they where ranked #1?By the way great article about Scranton beating the #6 team in the country because when Catholic beat Scranton they where right on the front page and by the way they where not in the top 50 when they beat Scranton but moved up to 23rd justify please?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on December 26, 2005, 01:57:31 AM
Quote from: uofs on December 25, 2005, 11:10:17 PM
pat your topic just doesn`t justify your theory of being ranked.Sure S.Maine lost to a good team on the road but didn`t Millikin also lose on the road when they where ranked #1?

Yes. And there was a clear-cut No. 1 to take Millikin's place, right?

It's nice to take a couple days off around the holidays. Glad you understand. Not that I fully understand your incredible run-on sentence but I think I got the drift.

Quote from: Snowman on December 25, 2005, 10:46:56 PM
This is the first time I remember a team holding on to #1 position.

It has happened before.

Quote from: Snowman on December 25, 2005, 10:46:56 PM
Fact is if it was a ranked team that beat us, we would be out of the #1 slot.

I'm not sure you can state that as fact, no. If you'd lost to Brandeis or Bowdoin or Wash U or someone capable of being ranked No. 1, then I would say yes, definitely.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Snowman on December 26, 2005, 08:30:48 AM
Pat

I love to see the girls up here do well, as a transplanted Mainer, but this vote just give some legitimacy to those who scream Northeastern bias. I would love to see the breakdown of where the voters are from.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on December 26, 2005, 11:23:27 AM
Three from each of the eight Division III regions, plus me as the 24th voter. The NE voters are from the LEC, NESCAC and MASCAC.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Snowman on December 26, 2005, 12:19:26 PM
Pat,

Ok so USM gets a 1st place vote from their voter as does Bowdoin from theirs... Does the UAA a voter in the mix?

Now when you look at it, Brandeis their votes are more impressive considering the above, I would "assume" Wash U's votes would mean more as well.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on December 26, 2005, 12:57:22 PM
Did Bowdoin get any No. 1 votes at all?

Just because a voter has a conference affiliation does not mean he or she automatically votes lock-step with a conference bias.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Snowman on December 26, 2005, 02:03:48 PM
Pat,

Point taken, but it seems that the conference and then regional bias is natural...you didn't answer whether the UAA has a vote
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on December 26, 2005, 02:30:58 PM
Because we're having this conversation in two places, thanks to you crossposting everything. I'm not going to carry on the conversation twice.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: d3bballinboston on December 27, 2005, 10:45:13 AM
as far as the poll voters do they get changed every couple years as far as what leagues they come from?  i bet the poll would have less bias if you got your voters from leagues that might not have as many national contenders.. Like if you got the GNAC or the CCC or even theh NAC in their voting..  Also do you have a person from one of the Independent schools?  Seems like Independent schools always kinda get the shaft when it comes to being represented on these National polls at least in terms of voting is concerned
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on December 27, 2005, 12:38:57 PM
For the most part we base the voting panel's representation on what leagues have had the most success in the postseason. There is usually one spot per region that will rotate every few years as trends change.

As for independents, no, we don't have enough space to get all the conferences represented in a 25-person panel so the independents don't have a representative either at this time.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Snowman on December 31, 2005, 07:46:06 AM
USM back in sinc, with a blow out win
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: d3bballinboston on December 31, 2005, 12:51:13 PM
yah but USM played Husson college.. Helen keller school of the blind is better then them.. I wouldnt say they got in sync against probally one of the worst teams in the worst confrence in the country
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Snowman on January 02, 2006, 07:40:38 PM
PAT,

I have a job interview in NYC on the 13th of January, I see that NYU is hosting Brandeis on the 14th and was considering staying overnight to sightsee anyway. I assume it would eay to get to the NYU campus, will D3Hoops be broadcasting that game, if both remain undefeated? Anything I should do? see? at NYU. Thanks
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on January 05, 2006, 01:04:25 AM
I don't know if we will, since both student stations likely will be. But we've done it before.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MacNThrees on January 05, 2006, 09:56:51 AM
Didn't Husson get a bid to the tournament like 2 seasons ago???  I'm not saying they're good, but I've seen worse.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: d3bballinboston on January 05, 2006, 12:29:13 PM
you are thinking Maine farmington
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MacNThrees on January 05, 2006, 01:08:17 PM
Check out the 2004 archives on this site.  Husson gets a bid, before the NAC had an automatic, where the lost to guess who???? USM.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Snowman on January 05, 2006, 05:57:09 PM
Come you are not trying to make a case that Husson is any good are you? Look I will root us home, but be realistic, USM is OK and will remain #1 in the country simply because we will not lose as the LEC is as weak as they come with USM the exception.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MacNThrees on January 06, 2006, 01:08:22 PM
They are absolutely not a good basketball team.  But a win is a win...and I'm just saying there are worse teams out there.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Snowman on January 09, 2006, 10:15:17 AM
WHERE IS EVERYONE
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Balder Eagle on February 02, 2006, 03:46:56 PM
Everyone went to DC to observe Mary Washington win at the buzzer over Catholic and therefore remain undefeated, 19-0
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on March 09, 2006, 08:00:14 PM
D3hoopsNet, under contract from NCAAsports.com, will be broadcasting the entire Southern Maine sectional. Coverage starts a half-hour before tipoff and includes a preview of all four sectionals, plus in-game "live look-ins" at other sectionals in progress.

Mark Simon on the call.

http://www.d3hoops.com/audio/
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Josh Bowerman on March 13, 2006, 11:15:48 AM
Greetings, USM fans!  Congratulations on your women's team advancing to the Final Four this weekend in Springfield.  I hope that your ladies play well and wish them good luck.

I'll be photographing the game for d3hoops.com, and would encourage you to check out the photo galleries each night after the games.  And, please stop by and say "hi" during the timeouts--it would be nice to make your acquaintance.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: usmhoops1 on March 13, 2006, 10:45:20 PM
Should be a great 2 days of basketball.

We actually got brave and blocked hotel rooms at the Best Western in W. Springfield back in October.  Figured they would jack the rates up and we could always cancel if they did not advance.  Blocked 8 rooms and they are all filled!!!

Let the fun begin!!

Go HUSKIES!!!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on March 15, 2006, 06:50:13 PM
Ashley Marble appeared on Hoopsville last night and it turned out to be a great interview. It's worth downloading out of the archives to listen.

http://www.d3hoops.com/audio/06/marble031406.mp3
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Josh Bowerman on March 17, 2006, 08:57:29 PM
Congrats on a great win, Huskies.  Though my loyalties lie with HSU (and I'm disappointed for them), I must congratulate you and wish you good luck against Hope tomorrow.  You have a great team and I'm glad that I got to see you play here in Springfield.
Title: Little East
Post by: usmhoops1 on October 16, 2006, 07:06:41 PM
FOLKS!!!  It is here.  Time to talk some hoops.  How will our beloved Huskies fare?  Some new faces.  Tough early schedule.  Games 3 & 4 on the road at Bates and then at Bowdoin.  Win or lose,  great nights of hoops
in the great state of Maine. 

Anyone else  have some info on other  Little East teams? 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: usmhoops1 on January 15, 2007, 03:01:36 PM
USM fans, anyone awake?  10-1  and getting contributions  from several players.  Barring any more injuries, looks like the NCAA tourney  awaits.

Will there be another rematch between Bowdoin/USM?  The question is where will the regional be played?  I think it is not this regions turn but it will depend on who wins and who can /wants to host.  Lets hear some chatter!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on January 15, 2007, 05:37:36 PM
I'm looking forward to getting to see some of this conference this season, now that I live in Connecticut.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: bbald eagle on January 16, 2007, 09:47:36 AM
Quote from: usmhoops1 on January 15, 2007, 03:01:36 PM

Will there be another rematch between Bowdoin/USM?  The question is where will the regional be played? 


;D
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: d3bballinboston on January 26, 2007, 07:37:50 AM
Red-hot shooting leads PSU Women's Hoop past Newbury


Panthers hit 62 percent for game and 83 percent from three-point range
1/25/07

              PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Plymouth State University used red-hot shooting Thursday evening to defeat Newbury College, 75-38, in a non-conference women's basketball game at Foley Gymnasium.

              The Panthers connected on 70 percent from the floor in the first half (19-for-27) en route to a 55-18 halftime lead, and finished with a 62.2 percent clip (28-for-45) from the field.  PSU also shot 90 percent from the free throw line (9-for-10), and its 83.3 percent from three-point range (10 of 12) is the fifth-best performance in Division III history since the NCAA began tracking the statistic in 1988.

              The outcome stopped a six-game losing streak for the Panthers, who improve to 5-13 overall.  The hard-luck Nighthawks gave a solid effort but fell to 0-14.

              With the big lead, Plymouth State was able to use the entire bench.  Freshman Laura Kent (Bellingham, Mass.) led the team with 12 points and nine rebounds, while junior Annie Alosa (Concord, N.H.) was 4-for-4 from the field (3-for-3 from beyond the arc) and finished with 11 points.  Sophomore Kayla Morin (Pascoag, R.I.) contributed 10 points, including a pair of threes, and freshman Kathy Frankowski (Unionville, Conn.) chipped in with a season-high nine points.

              Newbury had three players score in double figures.  Senior Jessie Laliberty (Haverhill, Mass.) led all scorers with 13 points, while freshman Rashawna Wynn (Baltimore, Md.) added 11 points and senior Taraja Laws (Easton, Pa.) contributed a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

              Plymouth State returns to Little East Conference action on Saturday with a visit to Rhode Island College (1:00 p.m.)  Newbury will seek its first win Saturday at Saint Joseph's College, Maine (1 p.m.)

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: atn alum on March 08, 2007, 12:29:59 PM
If you can't make it on Friday or Saturday, please tune in:

We'll have all 3 games, so check us out if you have any trouble getting the USM radio coverage

http://www.d3hoops.com/audio

* Calvin vs Southern Maine
* Emmanuel vs DePauw
* Saturday's sectional final

Coverage on Friday starts at 5:15pm, Saturday at 6:45 ET

Feel free to e-mail the broadcast crew at cgbears2006@aol.com
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on November 28, 2007, 09:20:02 AM
To Atnwriter and to other fans of Eastern Connecticut:

In a conversation that I had with Emmanuel coach Andy Yosinoff recently, he had some great things to say about Eastern Connecticut.

Among the points he made to me were:

1.)  This year's Warriors team, as a team, may be better than any of the teams that were led by E. Connecticut all-star Allison Coleman.

2.)  If coach Yosinoff had a pick in the LEC pre-season poll, he would pick E. Connecticut to break S. Maine's lock on the Little East this season and to win the Little East title for the first time in at least a long while.

I have checked the scoreboard and the 4 home wins by E. Connecticut by an average of 23 ppg this season are impressive.

Unfortunately, since E. Connecticut plays an exclusive in-region schedule, there is no strong out-of-region team on the schedule to check on the Warriors's national caliber.    The next ranked team that E. Connecticut plays is on January 12, 2008, when S. Maine visits Geissler Gym in conference play.  The rest of the schedule seems to be teams that last year's Fitchburg State team could run the table against.

E. Connecticut seems to have some strong posts and quick and strong guard play.

So the question is:  how good is Eastern Connecticut this season?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: atn alum on November 29, 2007, 12:10:21 PM
Wow...good work Deis...

Are me and you the only ones who read this board?

Thanks for the tips.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Balder Eagle on December 12, 2007, 03:58:43 PM
Quote from: deiscanton on November 28, 2007, 09:20:02 AM
The next ranked team that E. Connecticut plays is on January 12, 2008, when S. Maine visits Geissler Gym in conference play.  The rest of the schedule seems to be teams that last year's Fitchburg State team could run the table against.

E. Connecticut seems to have some strong posts and quick and strong guard play.

So the question is:  how good is Eastern Connecticut this season?

Possibly you answered your own question deiscanton as Southern Maine are like the Energizer Bunny -- they just keep going and going :)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Balder Eagle on December 16, 2007, 12:27:23 AM
Eastern Conn. looking awfully mighty at 10-0 with USM (8-1) losing big at at Salem State  74-58 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ecsubball on March 02, 2008, 09:27:51 PM
Way to go Eastern Conn for winning the 2008 LEC Championship  8)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: atn alum on March 02, 2008, 09:35:06 PM
way to go for the first person to post on this board in almost 4 months...   ;D

and yes, congrats to ECSU
Title: Re: Southern Maine
Post by: hoopfan03 on November 12, 2008, 08:13:25 PM
Come watch the Lady Huskies take on the UNE Noe'Easters at Hill Gym on the Gorham Campus at 5:30 on Nov. 18th.  Visit this link http://usm.maine.edu/athletics/basketballfancoupon.pdf (http://usm.maine.edu/athletics/basketballfancoupon.pdf) to print off this coupon for a chance to win an Ipod shuffle, Portland Pirates tickets and many other prizes.  So come show your support and help us pack the gym as both of these schools hope to start the season off on the right foot.
Title: Re: Southern Maine
Post by: vanjuicce on November 13, 2008, 11:49:23 AM
I wonder how the Huskies will be this year, will they make it to the finals? Bring your friends and come cheer 'em on. Lets destroy UNE!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ztk336 on November 16, 2008, 10:01:16 PM
Il be there, I know the mens UNE team did a little scouting from Texas, but does anyone know how the girls team is? either way the Huskies will take em down
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: gethugefor26 on November 17, 2008, 10:32:18 AM
LAST MINUTE REMINDER! USM vs UNE tomorrow night Nov 18. Reignite the Plant sister rivalry that was born in the late 21st Century! Can the UNE Noreasters of the Commonwealth Coast Confrence compete with the Huskies of the established Little East Confrence?!?! SHOW UP WITH THE FAN COUPON AND TAKE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING AN IPOD TOUCH!

FAN COUPON LINK: http://usm.maine.edu/athletics//basketballfancoupon.pdf
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on January 19, 2009, 11:29:57 AM
Anyone know what happened to S. Maine captain Stacey Kent?    The Huskies seem to miss her very badly, as they have now lost their last 2 games-- S. Maine lost to RI College for the 4th time in school history last Tuesday, and the Huskies lost in Danbury to W. Connecticut on Saturday.

Without Stacey Kent, S. Maine is not a top 25 caliber team this season.  It is like Kean University losing Melissa Beyruti for the season now.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 03, 2009, 10:37:28 AM
She was suspended for 6 games for some reason.  Heard this this past weekend when USM played UMD
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 04, 2009, 11:53:35 AM
ECSU alum--

I got a private e-mail explaining the reasons.  Understandably, S. Maine did not want to make public the reasons other than the fact that Stacey Kent had to take a 6 game leave of absence from the team.

If all goes well, Stacey Kent should be in the lineup for the Feb. 5 game against Thomas.  If not, it will be the game following that.  If after the next 2 games she is still not in the lineup, then I will have to assume that the situation got more serious.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 06, 2009, 01:55:38 PM
As of last night's game against Thomas, Stacey Kent is now back in the lineup for S. Maine.  She scored 14 points last night in S. Maine's blowout victory.

We will see how her return affects the conference picture in the Little East, although S. Maine will probably have to win the conference tournament on the road for the first time in years to be sure of making it back to the NCAAs.  I will have to check the regional rankings next week to see about S. Maine's Pool C chances if they don't win the Little East tournament.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 12, 2009, 10:12:49 PM
Quote from: deiscanton on February 04, 2009, 11:53:35 AM
ECSU alum--

I got a private e-mail explaining the reasons.  Understandably, S. Maine did not want to make public the reasons other than the fact that Stacey Kent had to take a 6 game leave of absence from the team.

If all goes well, Stacey Kent should be in the lineup for the Feb. 5 game against Thomas.  If not, it will be the game following that.  If after the next 2 games she is still not in the lineup, then I will have to assume that the situation got more serious.


deiscanton,

Thanks for the update.  Good to see her back.  Saw her on the LEC TV webcast vs ECSU, and she looked great as usual.  It is too bad that her leave of absence had to put USM's season in jeopardy.  Look forward to a great LEC Tourney with the Huskies at full strength, they have a wonderful womens basketball tradition and I still belive they are one of the best teams in the country despite thier record.  Should be a tough fight between ECSU, WCSU and USM, with Keene always a threat
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 18, 2009, 10:39:06 AM
ECSU looks to have clinched the LEC regular season and will haave home field advantage for the LEC tourney

Any thoughts on how the Warriors now stack-up from a national basis?  They have been creeping up the D3 polls and now at 14.  They lost to USM in OT then beat them a couple weeks ago, beat a strong WConn team twice and took Keene easily last night after a close earlier match-up.  They also are in the top 10 in 4-5 NCAA stats.

My concern is they do not have the height that some other top teams have, however tenacious defence is thier strength and they have a low team foul average.  McFetridge, Morey, Brunet, Amato, Moriarty, and Perlioni have been outstanding over thier 13 game win streak.

We will miss the first 4, who are seniors next year!!!!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Ringer23 on February 20, 2009, 01:53:30 PM
Good Luck to Eastern in the tourney..first time hosting in almost a decade - home court should be an advantage, but you never know with 3 really strong teams in the conference with Eastern, Western, and USM.  Wouldn't be surprised if USM loses in the 2nd round of the tourney this year - they will most likely have to win it all to get a shot at NCAA's - Eastern should be a lock as long as they don't lose the first round.  Going to be a fun tourney this year!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: dgilblair on February 24, 2009, 07:37:04 PM
31-29 ECSU over UMD at the half.

Game is broadcast here

http://nutmeg.easternct.edu/athletics/women_basketball/women_basketball.htm
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Ringer23 on February 24, 2009, 09:25:16 PM
Close game in the first half with ECSU/UMD huh?  Semi's are set, going to be a great tourney this weekend.  Any thoughts?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: dgilblair on March 01, 2009, 04:15:01 PM
Quote from: Ringer23 on February 24, 2009, 09:25:16 PM
Close game in the first half with ECSU/UMD huh?  Semi's are set, going to be a great tourney this weekend.  Any thoughts?

Little late to reply but they were great games.  Nice coaching jobs by both USM and ECSU.  Some of the calls were suspect (both ways) but Eastern missed a bunch of free throws early and Maine nailed a couple 3's in the last minute of the game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on March 01, 2009, 05:26:56 PM
D,

Free throw % was a killer for the Warriors last night!!!   They also missed some easy lay-ups.  Denise needs to get the gals practicing at the FT line, as in the NCAA all the top teams are are in the 70% and higher range.  SOoooo important!!

USM played some good defense as well and were deadly at the foul line

Morey did not have a good tourney, and she is a key outside shooter for them.  Brunett was the star last night.

According to D3 Hoops it looks like besides USM, ECSU and WCSU will get bids,with ECSU looking to play Ithaca in Rochester NY

Good Luck to the LEC teams in the NCAA regionals

PS Nice turn out for the finals in Willi last night.  Saw a lot of the other ECSU sports team athletes there last night.
Sat in middle of a bunch of USM fans , who were very LOUD!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: dgilblair on March 01, 2009, 09:21:50 PM
Looks like we were watching the same game.  Some bad attemps to dump it down low to Ashley also.  Refs let some pretty bad hacks go uncalled and then called some that left you scratching your head.  USM did deserve to win though, they hit those big shots late. 

Brunett had a nice game.  She play some excellent D to go with the 15 points.  I've had a few conversations with her and she is a sweetheart.

As far as the USM fans......they acted like they don't win very often, which I found to be funny because they dominate in the LEC every year.  Maybe some ESCU fans did something to ticked them off from last year when we beat them at their house.  Thought it was odd that they would sit right in the middle of the home teams bleachers as well.  Not sure what the point of that was but there must be history with some.  I was over with the baseball team who were also LOUD.  That may have fueled some of the USM ire.

By the way it's my oldest son Bryan that graduated in December.  Shawn has a bit to go yet, were on the 5 year plan.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on March 02, 2009, 02:12:54 PM
ECSU at Messiah Pa, (outside Harrisburgh).  Looking at Messiah roster, the Warriors will have thier work cut out as they have a tall team, with an avg of +/-70 points per game, very good FT, 3 pt and FG % stats, and three excellent scorers/rebounders

They were ranked just above ECSU on the D-3 hoops polls last week.
Best of luck to the ECSU ladies in the NCAA D-III opening round this Wednesday
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: atn alum on March 05, 2009, 09:31:02 PM
Hello

Just letting you know that both games at Brandeis regional (including Brandeis-WCSU) can be heard at

http://d3hoops.com/audio
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on November 02, 2009, 12:21:01 PM
ECSU 2009/2010 roster now posted on thier web site.  Looks like they had a good recruiting year, and picked up some good height to replace Mcfedridge
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: chubbyboybaby on November 17, 2009, 08:44:53 PM
UMD is looking tough.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on January 17, 2010, 10:25:26 AM
After losing 4 starting Seniors last year, ECSU is looking quite strong, 11-3 overall and 5-0 in LEC play.  MUCH better than I thought at start of the season. Main reasons are overall strong team defense, Jessica Moriarty's leadership, and 5'-11" freshman Tenisha Carter
Tenisha Carter, is going to be a VERY good player, ( top scorer and re-bounder), in the LEC and North East as she progresses through her career at Eastern!!!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on January 23, 2010, 06:45:22 PM
Well, ECSU could do  nothing right against RIC, who has a mediocre record, losing bad 58-46.

Problem?  one word 26 turnovers!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Need to get things straightened out as they go to WConn on Tues :-[
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on December 06, 2010, 11:58:50 AM
ECSU ladies on a tear with a 6-0 start and their first LEC win this weekend vs RIC.

Warriors have an impressive scoring margin stat. of over 26 points and team D of 42 points per game.

Big test comes Thursday Dec 9th away vs Amherst College who are currently #1 in the country!!

They then go out to Phoenix to play what looks to be a good Ohio Northern University team.  Not sure how good U of Dallas is, but Simpson has a very good program and a very tall team this year!!! Warriors come back in Jan for two huge LEC games with WestConn.

ECSU lead by Sr. Guard Jessica Moriarty on the Offensive and especially on the Defensive side, with So. Forward Tanisha Carter and So. Center Lauren Kelleher  next in points per game and are the Warrior rebounding leaders. Sr. Forward Amanda Pierlioni also tough on the boards and, when hot, throws in a lot of three pointers.  Sr. Britanny Whiteley runs the offense and so far is 11-11 on the FT line!!!  Jr. Forward Piper Chapman and So. Guard Jessica Blogett provide depth off the bench.


Should see ECSU break into D3hoops.com top 25 this year 8-)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 02, 2011, 03:24:56 PM
First Regional Rankings: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/category/ncaa-stuff/regional-rankings/
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 12, 2011, 09:07:29 PM
Bad loss for Southern Maine @ RIC today, since both Western & Eastern went 2-0 against them, they'll get clobbered with that tiebreaker.
That means as long as Western beats Eastern on Tuesday, we'll get the #1 seed no matter what happens on Saturday (though I really can't see us losing to Boston anyways)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 14, 2011, 03:21:55 PM
Tuesday schedule:
Keene state @ Plymouth state 5:30
Mass-Boston @ Southern Maine 5:30
Mass-Dartmouth @ RIC 5:30
Eastern @ West Conn 5:30.

RIC is locked in at #4 for the LEC tournament no matter what happens to them this week.  A Western win over Eastern coupled with a So Maine win over Boston would set the top 4 as Western would host the tournament as the 1 seed, So Maine would be the 2 seed, Eastern would drop to #3 and of course RIC is #4.  Plymouth and Boston can help their playoff chances by pulling off wins.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 15, 2011, 11:50:40 AM
See below article:

http://nutmeg.easternct.edu/mt-static/athletics/2011/02/little-east-littleeast-mobi-debuts-tonight.html

Little East Conference TV will now provide access to broadcasts on smartphones etc!!!



Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 15, 2011, 10:48:26 PM
Tuesday's scores:
RIC over Dartmouth 81-49.  RIC already locked in 4th so means little for them.  Dartmouth is still fighting for a spot but should get in as they have a 2-0 record vs. Boston this year and Boston finishes at home vs. West Conn, so even if both lose Saturday to finish 3-11 in conference (Dartmouth vs. Keene, Boston vs. West Conn), Dartmouth would get the spot due to 2-0 season series record.
So Maine over Boston 59-42
Keene over Plymouth 63-47.  Plymouth state has been eliminated from the 2011 LEC tournament.
West Conn was a 74-55 winner over East Conn.  East Conn played well in the first half as it was tied 33 all at halftime.  Not a lot of teams would've beaten the West Conn team that played in the second half.  That means for the second straight year the women's LEC tournament goes through Danbury, CT and joining them in Danbury will be the 2 seed, Southern Maine.  Eastern (3rd seed) and RIC (4th seed), both will open the LEC tournament with home dates on Tuesday night with opponents tbd.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 16, 2011, 12:30:01 AM
Don't quote me on this, but I believe this is how 5 & 6 would be based on the results of the Western Connecticut @ UMass-Boston game and the Keene state @ UMass-Dartmouth game.  Dartmouth has the head-to-head over Boston (2-0 season series) so Boston has to finish above Dartmouth to get in, or Keene, Dartmouth, & Boston all have to finish 4-10 for Boston sneak in, thats the part I'm a bit confused about.  Will be a tall order for Boston to beat West Conn, even though I wouldn't expect the starterts to play the entire game with everything wrapped up.

Keene state & Western win: Keene would be the 5th seed, Dartmouth would be the 6.
Dartmouth win & Western win: Dartmouth 5th, Keene state 6th
Boston & Keene win: Keene 5th, Boston 6th
Boston & Dartmouth win: Here's are crazy Boston, Keene, and Dartmouth all finish 4-10 scenerio.  If they take better record of the 3, Dartmouth would be the 5th seed as they would be 3-1 vs. the teams tied with them.  Keene would be 2-2, Boston 1-3.  Then they do the regular two way tiebreaker in which case Boston would get the 6 seed based on their win over Western.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 16, 2011, 03:34:18 PM
Week 3 Regional Rankings are out: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2011/02/16/ncaa-2011-regional-rankings-week-3/
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2011, 11:24:39 AM
Sat schedule:
RIC 67 @ Plymouth state 42.  Don't think RIC should have much trouble with them.
Southern Maine 52 @ Eastern Conn 56.  Southern Maine can get a share of the title with West Conn should West Conn lose to Boston.  Both are locked where they are, Southern Maine will probably play the starters more then Eastern will because So Maine will get the bye to the semi's so their next game won't be until Friday the 25th; Eastern will play the opening round on Tuesday.
Keene state 57 @ UMass-Dartmouth 49.  Assuming Boston doesn't beat West Conn, the "winner" of this game is in Western's half of the bracket; the "loser" will actually turn out to be the winner as they'll end up on the opposite half.  Don't think either will make it past the opening round however, and I think Dartmouth gets crushed no matter who they play.  Keene's played Eastern tough twice (lost by 8 both times), while they've lost by double figures twice to RIC (12 in Providence, 13 in Keene), so they may want to lose actually.
West Conn 65 @ UMass-Boston 45.  Boston needs to win to get into the LEC playoffs.  If they do, they'll be the 6 seed, and the Dartmouth/Keene winner will be the 5 seed with the loser eliminated.  Wouldn't expect to see Karli Spera, Heather Lee, or Melissa Teel much this game, but West Conn has proved all year their the best in the conference, and even the reserves could probably win this game by double figures.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 19, 2011, 11:26:52 PM
Sat results:
West Conn 63-48 over UMass-Boston.  Don't be fooled by the final score, we could've won by a lot more if we wanted.  All 12 that were in uniform played, and 10 of the 12 logged double digit minutes to give a break to the starters that have done so much for us this year.  Heather Lee & Karli Spera were gone by the 12 minute mark.
RIC was an 81-51 winner over Plymouth state.  Take into account the men's 30 point win later in the day, RIC won 2 games by 60 points total, good day for them.
Dartmouth in overtime over Keene 57-53.  With Boston's loss to West Conn, both were assured of making the tournament.  Glad Dartmouth won though, because they tied Keene state in the standings and won the tiebreaker so instead of getting 2 blowouts in the first round (Dartmouth @ Eastern, Keene @ RIC it would've been if Keene won), we might get a competitive Keene state Eastern game.  Both games were decided by 8 points this year.
Eastern in overtime over Southern Maine 60-53.  Didn't mean much as a Western win earlier clinched the regular season title, and Southern Maine won the tiebreaker over Eastern anyways, but this was close throughout I head.  USM hit a buzzer beating 3 to force OT.

That leaves the LEC tournament as follows:
#1 West Conn and #2 Southern Maine get bye's to the semi's which start on Friday night in Danbury.
#6 Keene state travels to #3 Eastern Connecticut and #5 Dartmouth plays @ #4 RIC to open the LEC tournament on Tuesday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 21, 2011, 10:06:54 AM
My Tuesday predictions:

#5 Mass-Dartmouth 48 @ #4 Rhode Island College 72.  Blowout city here, really don't know how Dartmouth beat Boston twice this year, Boston played us a lot better then Dartmouth did.  I'll be rooting for Dartmouth to pull the monumental upset as RIC gave us some problems, and we had our way with Dartmouth.
#6 Keene state 56 @ #3 Eastern Connecticut 67.  In the playoffs, everyone starts back at 0-0 which is good for the Owls.  After winning the ECAC New England tournament last season, the Owls were fortunate Plymouth state was abysmal this year as Keene backed into the LEC tournament with a dissapointing 4-10 conference record.  Even though they lost to Eastern twice, they lost by 8 both teams, so Eastern sounds like a good matchup.  Keene probably won't win, but it will probably be close.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 22, 2011, 11:57:16 PM
RIC 63-52 win over Dartmouth.  That what makes tournament basketball so good.  I had RIC winning this by 30+, didn't think Dartmouth had a chance.  Of the 4 games on the slate today (2 men & 2 women), this game and the Keene/Eastern game were the largest margin's of defeat, and the Keene game went to overtime
Eastern lucky to still be playing with a 64-53 win in OT over Keene state.  This game shouldn't have even gone to overtime as Eastern scored the last 3 times they touched the ball at the end of regulation, and preceded to not miss in the overtime period (5-5 fg's, 6-6 free throws).  Also, on top of the defensive lapse the final 70 seconds for the Owls, they had 3 "unforced" turnovers I like to call them: One was throwing the ball away in the first half on a rebound when the point guard was running up court, not turned around to see where the ball was, Sarah Laudano fumbling the ball out of bounds late in regulation, and on an inbounds, the inbounder stepping over the line and giving the ball back to Eastern.  That was especially troublesome as they were inbounding underneath the Eastern basket, and Eastern was the other end of the court setting their defense, so there was no pressure to deal with.  If Keene held onto those 3 possessions, I don't think Eastern has enough time to force OT anyways, but even if they scored 1 single point on any of those 3 possessions, or played any semblence of defense the final 75 seconds, they'd be playing in Danbury on Friday night.  They made costly turnovers, bad defense and because of that the season is over.  At least East Conn USM semi should be good, the last few years they've played each other the games have been usually been close, so expecting more of the same on Friday.

That sets the semi's as RIC @ Western Friday at 6:00, and Southern Maine vs. Eastern at 8:00.  I'll post predictions Wednesday or Thursday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 23, 2011, 04:28:10 PM
Final Regional Rankings before Selection Sunday: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/category/ncaa-stuff/regional-rankings/
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 23, 2011, 09:52:26 PM
West Conn 6th, East Conn 7th, Southern Maine 10th.

West Conn is probably in even if they lose to RIC on Friday, but a win would solidify a bid should they lose Saturday.  USM/East Conn is an elimination game, loser is definatly out of the picture (especially if its Southern Maine), winner might get a Pool C depending what happens elsewhere.  Eastern is in better shape for a Pool C then USM is.  Should be a great Friday night of games in Danbury.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 24, 2011, 11:52:41 AM
Friday semifinals from the Feldman Arena at the O'Neil center on the campus of Western Connecticut state:

Rhode Island College @ Western Connecticut state 6:00
Western won the first meeting back in January in Providence by 5 I think it was in a game that was close throughout.  West Conn beat them by double digits at home a few weeks ago.  I'll take West Conn by 10 or so, a win that solidify's a NCAA birth should they lose on Saturday.  Western 68-55
Eastern Connecticut vs. Southern Maine 8:00
The 2 most consistant women's teams in the conference as the Warriors are making their 12th straight semifinal appearance, and USM has never missed the semifinals since the conference formed.  USM loses here, their done from tournament discussion, but might even have to win to get in, Eastern has to win to stay in the hunt for a Pool C bid.  There have been some good games played between the teams recently including last Saturday's meeting that went to overtime.  Whichever senior can make more plays (Kylie DeMillo for USM, Jessica Moriarty for Eastern) thats the team that will win the game.  Think Kylie has a better supporting cast around her as Eastern can struggle to put the ball in the basket consistantly, at least in the few games I saw them play this year.  They played last year in the semifinals and USM was a 50-43 winner IIRC.  It will be around the same score, but the same result as a year ago, USM vs. Western Connecticut for the right to go dancing.  This should be a great game to watch.  USM 54-49.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 25, 2011, 11:42:20 PM
Semifinal wrapup:
Western 77-68 over RIC.  Close game throughout which is what semifinals should be as long as your team wins of course.  Largest lead for West Conn in the second half before 1:15 when RIC started fouling was 8 points.  Teel had a great game once again, and we really shot the 3 well in the second half after not shooting it well in the first. 
Eastern was a 80-64 winner over USM.  Thought the final margin was closer then it was.  Even though the margin said it was 16 points, it was a lot closer then that as ECSU free throws at the end made the score appear worse then it did.  Game changed the final 10 seconds of the first half.  With the shot clock off and a 4 point lead, USM had the ball, probably holding for the last shot.  With 9 seconds left, Haley Jordan drives the baseline throws up a reverse-layup that misses badly and ECSU corralled the board.  Piper Chapman converts an and-1 attempt at the other end with 7 tenths of a second remaining.  Instead of trailing by 4, they trailed by 1 at the break.  USM scored first to begin the second half, but a couple 3's from eastern gave them the lead for good about 4 or 5 minutes in.  Eastern outhustled and out-rebounded USM from then on to keep them at bay.  Can't say if the same thing would've happened if USM had better clock management at the end of the first. 


My finals prediction:
Should be a great one at the O'neil Center.  I would've prefered to play USM in the final and before you say "7express, your an idiot, because USM crushed Western last time they met and Western is 2-0 against Eastern" let me explain 2 things:
1) We weren't going to lose to USM by 22 points again.  USM isn't a very good road team, so we could've taken them on our home court.
2) Eastern is the only team in the league that has the bodies to throw at Melissa Teel and not have a severe mismatch in the paint, and not only that, but ECSU has two to throw at the Colonials in Ta'neisha Carter and Piper Chapman, so if they get Teel in foul trouble the advantage goes to ECSU.  USM only had Courtney Cochrane size wise and she normally gets in early foul trouble.  Also, even though Eastern struggles to score consistantly, they play good defense and when they do score their a dangerous team as they can go inside, outside, or the mid range game.  USM has a good outside game, but their inside game could use more work.  Eastern was the last team to beat us in Feldman arena back in Feb 09.  It will be close throughout especially if Eastern is hitting their shots at a consistant pace but the 3 seniors Karli Spera, Heather Lee, and Melissa Teel will not be denied in their final home contest of their career (barring hosting a pod/sectional which isn't out of the question).  Western gets the auto bid 75-67, but eastern gets a Pool C bid on Monday afternoon.

Pool C implications from Friday (my thoughts at least):
USM is officially eliminated from consideration (RIC wasn't being considered which is why I'm not including them), barring major upsets in conference tournaments (like Rutgers-Newark beating William Paterson for the NJAC auto bid tomorrow, or Farmingdale state beating Mount St. Mary for the Sky auto bid) Eastern Connecticut will be in the NCAA tournament when its all said and done.  Think this win over RIC sealed a bid for the Colonials even with a loss to eastern.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: jumphigh on February 26, 2011, 09:11:20 AM
wow!!  Teel went for 38 pts. , 24 rebs. and 8 blocks what a nig
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 26, 2011, 01:53:17 PM
7express,

You are correct! ECSU does have Chapman and possibly Carter to neutralize for Teel, but if the Warriors cannot hold Teel to below 20 points, and Spera et al to below 35% FG %, it is over.  Frankly,  IMHO Teel is unstoppable and has tremendous offensive/defensive abilities, and... Western has the best chance in the NCAA of getting deep, so even though I will root for ECSU, I think WCSU will make a better showing for the LEC in the Tourney!! I am debating if I should go to O'Neill Center to watch ECSU/WCSU game or watch ECSU/RIC men's game on LEC TV!!  :-\
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2011, 07:14:00 PM
Teel with another dominating performance as she goes for 39 points 13 rebounds and 7 blocked shots in a 74-58 win over Eastern, as she was a runaway for tournament MVP.  Maybe the easiest MVP choice the conference has ever had to make as she averaged an astonishing 38.5 ppg, 18.5 rbg and 7.5 bpg in West Conn's two tournament games.  Remarkable numbers from a great player.  I don't mean to sound like a homer but with a legitimate draw (especially if were able to snag two home games which we should) this could end up being a final 4 team, no joke.  Any team we play in the tournament that doesn't have bigs is going to be in for a long game, plus were a good 3 point shooting team as well, so if the interior isn't working or isn't there, we can always play from outside.  Even with the Eastern loss, they should snag one of the 20 pool C spots.  Take a look at their schedule and tell me why they don't deserve a bid.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 28, 2011, 03:36:31 PM
West Conn women open the tournament Friday night down at Kean against Messiah university.  They've been an NCAA tournament regular, appearing for the 13th straight time, but this year they fell on hard times, started the season 5-6, but reeled off 15 wins their final 17 games to grab a pool C.  They lost in their conference finals to nationally ranked Lebanon Valley something like 51-37 or a score like that.  Winner of that game gets Vassar/Kean (most likely Kean) on Saturday.  Kean (in Union, NJ) isn't a bad trip at all, been to a few games down there already.  Only takes me about 90 minutes to get there, so i can get there on 1 tank of gas both Friday and Saturday and I can save the hotel since I won't be back that late Friday night and won't have to leave so early Saturday morning to go back there.

I forgot who eastern's first round opponent is, but they definatly made the tournament.  They will be playing up @ Bowdoin and I forgot who Bowdoin plays.  When I see the bracket I will update the ECSU scenerio.  Good to see them in the tournament, even with 3 losses to Western they definatly deserved the trip to the dance, good for Jess Moriarty, Amanda Pierlioni & Britt Whitely have a couple more games left
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 28, 2011, 03:47:21 PM
My fault Eastern goes to Amherst to face 4 time CUNY champion Baruch, winner gets Husson-Amherst winner (more then likely Amherst).  Amherst and East Conn played once this year and Amherst was a 14 point winner back in December.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 01, 2011, 01:12:07 AM
USM gets into the ECAC New England tournament as the 2 seed.  They'll host Regis on Wednesday evening, with the winner of that getting Endicott/MCLA winner on the highest remaining seed's court, could be at USM if UNE (the #1 seed) loses to Smith.

Here's the bracket: http://static.psbin.com/h/w/3cgelqexvsayvs/2011_New_England_Women-s_Basketball.pdf (http://static.psbin.com/h/w/3cgelqexvsayvs/2011_New_England_Women-s_Basketball.pdf)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 02, 2011, 04:27:07 PM
Regis @ USM tonight.
Don't know why USM took the ECAC bid to be honest.  Sure, its nice to keep playing, but when you have a rich history like the Huskies do (19 LEC titles, haven't missed the NCAA's since 1995) I would think it would be NCAA or bust for them.  Somehow, I don't see Duke taking an NIT bid should they miss the NCAA's one of these years, and USM seems to have the same consistancy.  Don't know anything about Regis, all I know is that they lost in the CCC finals to champion Salve Regina a team thats won 20 straight going into its first round game on Friday night @ Bowdoin.
I'll take USM 65-61 but wouldn't surprize me if it went the other way.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 03, 2011, 10:10:51 PM
USM with a 3 point win over Regis last night.  They play Endicott college, a 73-66 winner at MCLA in the semifinals at UNE.  Winner of that plays UNE/WPI winner Sunday afternoon.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 04, 2011, 10:59:54 AM
2 LEC teams starting NCAA tournament play tonight:

Eastern Connecticut travels up to Amherst to play Baruch college, the 4 time reining CUNY champions.  Baruch plays a tough non conference schedule, but the CUNY is terrible.  Eastern losing to Western 3 times gets them better prepared for games like this then Baruch beating a 5-19 Staten Island by 24.  Eastern 65-58
Western Connecticut travels down to Kean to play Messiah college.  Messiah is a mainstay in the tournament, 13th straight appaerance including NCAA runner's up 4 seasons ago.  Messiah struggled out of the gate starting 4-5 looking like they might miss the NCAA's but they turned that around in a big way winning 15 of their last 17 to advance to their 13th straight NCAA tournament.  Messiah has some size, though not as good as the size Kean has so Mel should have another good game, but we need to get Heather Lee going.  If were going to beat Kean we've gotta get Lee going from the outside because Tiffany Patrick of Kean isn't going to let us dominate down low like we have been recently.  Western wins 76-69
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 05, 2011, 12:06:14 AM
Good night as the LEC goes 2-0 to open the tournament with 2 tough games on tap for Saturday.

eastern beats Baruch 75-65.  Taneisha Carter had a Melissa Teel like performance with 20 points and 19 rebounds for the Warriors.   They'll need to shoot the ball better Saturday to defeat Amherst however.
Western with a 65-44 win over Messiah.  We held the Falcons to 33.3% shooting for the game a great defensive effort.  Mel only went for 18 points 11 rebounds and 7 blocks a terrible game for her with what she's been doing lately, but we had other people step up which we'll need for tomorrow.  Heather Lee had only 8 points on 3-10 shooting, but a couple of her shots were halfway down before rimming out, hopefully she keeps shooting.  Karli Spera knifed through the defense in the second half for 18 points and Sciarra Brandt did well in her first NCAA tournament game, and its funny because she looked nervous during the LEC tournament.  A perfect 5-5 from the field with some nice baseline and elbow jumpers to keep Messiah at bay.  All around a good effort.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 05, 2011, 12:24:33 PM
LEC teams today:

USM vs. Endicott at UNE.  Endicott was a decent team in the CCC this year.  Its not the NCAA's, but would be nice for Kaylie Demillo to go out with an ECAC championship, she's been good for them over the last 4 years.  USM 65-62
Eastern @ Amherst.  Have to be consistant on the offense end, limit your mistakes to almost none and play great defense.  Will they do all of that??  Probably not, but thats why they play the game.  Pray for the best, expect the worst, but I'll be pulling for them from Union, NJ.  Amherst 73-56
Western @ Kean.  Almost as tough as the Eastern game.  Kean is a female version of the Western men with one exception they play in your face defense.  They press, and they run, sometimes too fast for your own good.  Opposite of the West Conn Mid men, we keep this to a halfcourt game I'll take my chances if Kean runs us they may very well run us out of Harwood Arena.   Would be nice if Heather Lee knocks down those shots tonight we'll need all the outside shooting we can get.  Vassar did a good job of slowing it down in the first as they only went into halftime down 7, however in the second half the Kean press caused a lot of turnovers, which went for easy baskets and Kean ran all over them in the second to win by 31.  We have better players then Vassar does, so we should be able to handle the press better, but if we don't it'll be a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG night and an earlier exit then I want.  Kean 73-62
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: atn alum on March 05, 2011, 05:31:25 PM
Audio link for Eastern CT-Amherst in 2nd round: Tips at 6 ET

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/amherst-regional
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 05, 2011, 10:23:58 PM
Southern Maine defeats Endicott to 59-54 to advance to the final of the ECAC where they'll play UNE who was a 64-58 winner over WPI.  Tomorrow will be the final game the LEC plays this season as both Eastern and Western lost Saturday.
Amherst knocks out Eastern 76-54.  No boxscore from the game, but sounds like Eastern did better in the second meeting then the first.  You have to play almost flawless against a team with only 2 losses in the last 2 years.
Kean scores 30 of the first 41 points, runs away from Western 82-64.  The first 14 minutes was dissapointing, down 30-11 before we knew what hit us.  After that we slowly chipped away, cut it to 47-44 on a Heather Lee three eatly in the second, but then Kean went on an 8-0 run.  Western cut it back to 6 (67-61) on a Stephanie Slonski 3 point play with 6:14 to go, but from there Western only made 1 field goal, and scored 3 points the final 6:14 and that was that.  Its too bad we got paired up with Kean because if we had gone to Geneseo state or Bowdoin we would've won those pods fairly easily.  This team should still be playing but because of crappy matchups were not.  It was a good year and have to applaud Heather Lee, Karli Spera, and Melissa Teel on a great 4 year career.  All 3 were cogs of the team and they'll be missed next year.  if coach Rybcyzsk can coach this team next year to an ECAC bid that'll be a good year but I'll post my thoughts on next year later when I'm in a better mood.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 08, 2011, 12:13:05 AM
UNE defeated Southern Maine 79-67, so therein lyes the end of the LEC season.  I'll post my predictions for 2011/12 sometime this week.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 08, 2011, 11:35:20 AM
Here's my 2011-12 preview.  when these picks fail I can laugh at myself next January or even better you can laugh at me earlier.

Is this the year USM returns to dominance??  USM has completely dominated the league, for the most part since the LEC was formed 25 years ago.  However, they haven't won the conference regular season in 4 years (Eastern won in 08/09, Western won the last 2) and has only won the LEC tournament once in the last 5 years after winning 18 of the previous 21 championships.  The 2 heavyweights of the last couple years each graduates significant pieces that helped their schools upend the Huskies at the top.  Eastern graduates 4 seniors, 3 of whom were starters in Jess Moriarty, Amanda Pierlioni & Britt Whitely.  Western graduates 3 senior starters, their 3 best players and over 42 percent of their scoring.  Eastern will have to implement an entire new backcourt for next season, while Western might have to run anew system since we won't have Melissa Teel anymore.  USM only graduates 3 players (1 of whom didn't even play that much) and even though Kaylie DeMillo will be big she deferred to her teammates this year so they shouldn't miss a beat.  They should compete for the top spot with RIC (returns 4 of 5 starters) and Keene state (returns all 5 starters, loses no one).  Western & Eastern should both make the LEC tournament because both schools have good coaches but it could be an early exit for each school next year.

School most likely to miss the playoffs next year after making it last year??
I say Dartmouth unless Western really struggles to find consistancy.  RIC & Keene will be better, Eastern & Western will be worse but I don't see them falling to 7th or 8th worse, and USM will be steady, maybe slightly better.  So that leaves Dartmouth by default.

School most likely to make the playoffs next year after missing it last year??
UMass-Boston.  Plymouth state is still a few years away.  The Beacons finished with only their 4th winning season in the last 27 years, and have a good, young nucleous comming back.  Since I don't see a dominate team next year like Western was, I think Boston will get enough conference victories to get in.

My player of the year candidate
Stephanie Coro of RIC.  Quick, who averaged the most ppg in the LEC last year??  Courtney Cirillo??  Nope, she was 3rd.  Melissa Teel??  Nope, she was second.  It was Stephanie Coro, who poured in 18.4 a game to lead the Anchorwomen and the conference.

My projected standings
1) Southern Maine.  Conference dominance will return to Gorham, but it should be more balanced.  Could have the best inside outside game with Haley Jordan and Courtney Cochrane down low and Erin McNamera, Rene Nichols and Nicole Girard working the perimter.  If McNamera hits a sophmore slump, it could go to these other 2.
2) RIC.  Had trouble beating the top of the conference this year.  Went 1-6 against the top 3 in the conference with the only win at home against USM and that handicapped them.  As long as their able to at least split with Keene & USM they should be in good shape.
3) Keene.  Should have a nice bounceback season.  Had a dissapointing season this year after winning the ECAC New England tournament in 2010.  With the whole team returning, anything less then a top 3 or 4 finish would be a dissapointment.
4) Eastern Connecticut.  Have to rework the whole back court, but at least the front court is set with Piper Chapman and Taniesha Carter.
5) Western Connecticut.  Kind of scary because the bench didn't show a lot this year (not that they had to though).  Nicole Eanniello was a great 3 point shooter off the bench, she will probably take Heather Lee's pot in the lineup as the sharp shooter.  Not sure if Steph Slonski would be the best idea at PG, would like if coach Rybzcyk went out and got one to replace Karli Spera.  It was fine when she was spelling karli for bits, but I think she's too tall.  She's better in a 3 role.  Melissa Teel will be the biggest loss and biggest problem for us.  We'll miss the 4.3 blocks per game, 12.6 rebounds per game and 18.2 points per game.  Hopefully we get Molly Puryanda back next year.  She started her first 4 games, then got hurt, then go kicked off the team after the first semester.  Along with her we've got freshmen Tequilla Llyod, Chelsea Monet, Ally McDonald and Kristin Mooney.  All have decent height, except Ally & Kristin only came in at the end of blowouts, and Chelsea and Tequilla were injured.  Sciarra Brandt wasn;t an inside presence this year, but she may have to be next year.  Hopefully next year we play a pretty weak OOC schedule (Hunter, Lasell, CCNY, Mount Ida, Bay Path, Albertus, etc) because this team could use the confidence going into LEC play in January.  So even though it would be nice to get revenge on Babson & Mount St. Mary at home, next year isn't a good idea for that.
6) Mass-Boston.  Really don't know how this team lost twice to Dartmouth because they played Western tough.  Depending on how much Eastern and Western struggle wouldn't be surprized if they were 4th or 5th.
7) Mass-Dartmouth.  2 wins vs. Boston last year got them into the playoffs.  Much like Boston they have a young team that could reap the benefits of struggling Colonials or Warriors.
8) Plymouth state.  Don't think they have what it takes next year to get into the tournament.  Alicia Doucet will be the main scoring option for this team as Plymouth returns no one else who finished in the top 20 in scoring (Amanda kania who finished 12th for the panthers is a senior).  1 person teams normally don't fare well.

I predict Keene upsets USM in the tourney championship and the Huskies and Anchorwomen join the Owls in the 2012 NCAA tournament.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on September 01, 2011, 10:54:30 PM
Was able to find 4 of the 8 schedule's:

Boston, Keene & Eastern's schedule are official as they're posted on their respective websites.  Keene has a bunch of teams listed playing on the road twice so they have to fix things there.  Plymouth state's schedule isn't out yet, but changed the year on the 201--11 schedule to look at their schedule.  Only teams I can't find schedules for are RIC, Dartmouth, Southern Maine and West Conn.

Found 3 OOC opponents for Western: November 22 @ Emerson, December 6 at home against Mount St. Mary and Jan 5 at CCNY.  When they post their schedule, I will post it here and point out important games
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on September 09, 2011, 05:48:23 PM
Western women's schedule just released: http://wcsu.edu/sports/WBasketball/schedule.htm

Luckily we got a decent OOC schedule.  The 2 other teams in the Salem state tournament are the host Salem state and CCNY; both teams combined for 8 wins last season.  The 2 other teams in the Springfield tournament are Roger Williams and Springfield.  As I said in March I wanted a OOC schedule with a bunch of weak schools, and thats exactly what happened.  Of the OOC teams only 5 teams were at or over .500 (Mount St. Mary, Trinity, Skidmore, Oneonta and Roger Williams) and of those 5 only Oneonta and Mount St. Mary were any good, and Oneonta graduated 3 of their top 5 scorers.  If you include Molly Poryanda (who only played 4 games before she left) and Tequilla Lloyd (who transfered to SUNY-Delhi) we lost 5 of our top 8 scorers, 4 of our top 7 in FG percentage, our top 3 in FG's attempted and made, our top 2 in 3 point FG's attempted and made, 3 of our top 4 in rebounds, and 4 of our top 5 in rebound average, a national leader in blockedf shots and 3/5 of our starting 5.  Finishing with games against RIC, Keene and Eastern, the first 2 probably fighting for the league title will be a tough closing stretch.  Hopefully, we can pick up some wins OOC and gain confidence.  Winning the Springfield tournament which kick starts 2012 could be a momentum boost into LEC play which starts the next weekend.
Game not to miss: If we just had 1 of the 4 players we lost (Heather Lee, Karli Spera, Tequilla Lloyd, or Melissa Teel) I'd say Mount St. Mary on December 6 considering MSM won 63-60, and those 4 combined for 43 of the 60 points, and 25 of the 33 rebounds.  However, since we don't have any of those 4, I'll say Western @ Eastern, Tuesday January 17.  Both teams lose a lot, as each graduates 3/5 of their starting 5.  This game could go a long way to deciding who will have to battle with Mass-Dartmouth for the final playoff spot; the rematch between these 2 is Tuesday, February 7 in Danbury.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on September 09, 2011, 05:52:07 PM
Other LEC team's schedules:
Boston: http://www.beaconsathletics.com/sports/w-baskbl/sched/masb-w-baskbl-sched.html
Eastern: http://www.easternct.edu/athletics/women_basketball/wbb-schedule.htm
Plymouth: http://athletics.plymouth.edu/sports/wbkb/2011-12/schedule
Keene state: http://keeneowls.com/sports/wbkb/2011-12/schedule
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on October 12, 2011, 09:05:24 PM
My LEC predictions.  Conference record in parenthesis:

1) Rhode Island College (12-2). RIC finished 4th in the conference last year, but shot themselves in the foot by only going 1-5 against the top 3 teams in the conference. However, 2 of those teams in the top 3 last year got decimated by graduation. RIC returns the leading scorer in the conference, Stephanie Coro, who averaged over 18 ppg last year, along with 4/5 of their starting 5.
2) Southern Maine (13-3). A perennial favorite in the conference, they have won 18 conference championships, but haven't won since 07/08. They also return 4/5 of their starting 5, and have a great inside outside duo of center Courtney Cochrane and guards Renee Nichols and Erin McNamera.
3) Keene state (10-4). 2 years ago they won the ECAC New England championship (like the NIT except they brake it off into regions with 6 or 8 teams), last year with pretty much the same team that won the ECAC championship they finished tied for 5th in the conference and were lucky to make it to the LEC tournament where they lost in overtime to Eastern Connecticut. They bring back everyone from last year's dissapointing roster as they had no seniors. Last year they finished 4-10, 0-8 against the top 4. This year with no really good teams, they should be right there at the top.
4) Eastern Connecticut (7-7). They have advanced to the last 3 LEC tournament championship games (1-2 in those finals), but will need some help to get back there this year. They lose 3/5 of their starting 5 from last season, but the cupboard isn't totally bare: they return their two best frontcourt players, but have to revamp their backcourt as their PG and SG from last year are gone. If they can find a decent replacement by January, might not be that bad for the Warriors.
4) Massachusetts-Boston (7-7). Last year this young team (only 2 people on the roster were upper classmen [1 junior, 1 senior], along with 7 freshmen) posted only the team's 4th winning season in 28 years. As long as they finish strong this year (they started 11-2 last year before they limped to finish losing 9 of their last 11) they should be in contention for a playoff spot.
6) Western Connecticut (6-8). This will be a challenging year. Gone from this team: Over 40% of scoring, our PG who finished 17th in APG, 50th in assist to turnover ratio, our center who finished 2nd in blocked shots, 14th in double-doubles, 3rd in FG percentage, 40th in PPG, 17th in RPG, and finished with 1 triple double. On top of that, we lose 4 of our top 5 scorers, 3 of our top 4 in FG percentage, our top 3 in FG's attempted and made, our top 2 in 3 point FG's attempted and made, 3 of our top 4 in free throws attempted, 3 of the top 5 in free throws made. The thing that worries me is that since these seniors did so much they were in for the vast majority of the games, and most of the freshmen last year (we had 7 total. 1 was injured the whole season and didn't play, 1 got kicked off the team in December, and 1 transfered this summer) didn't play, aside from the final 60 to 90 seconds of games. We'll need big games from them. Only person that played meaningfull minutes that's still here, Sciarra Brandt, started the majority of games. She doesn't have to fill Melissa Teal's shoes, but if she does half of what Teal does it could be better.
7) Mass-Dartmouth (5-9). Just like Boston another young team consisting of mostly sophmores and juniors. Much like their in-state rivals they should be better next year, but if Western struggles to find consistant offense they could sneak in.
8) Plymouth state (3-13). They have 1 good player, Alicia Ducet. They started last season 7-1 and 1-0 in the LEC. They finished the season 8-17 overall and 1-13 in the LEC, meaning they lost 16 of their final 17 games and their final 13 conference contests. No matter how bad the top of the conference looks, this team still has some work to do.

My projected player of the year:
Stephanie Coro- RIC

All conference team:
Stephanie Coro-RIC
Alica Ducet- Plymouth state
Piper Chapman- Eastern Connecticut
Courtney Cochrane-Southern Maine
Courtney Cirillo- Keene state

my conference tournament projection:
Keene state upsets Southern Maine in the semifinals, then beats RIC in the finals, RIC & Southern Maine join Keene state in the NCAA tournament. None of the other teams get ECAC bids, so those 3 are the only 3 playoff teams.
       
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on October 13, 2011, 06:20:20 PM
Division III women's news tabs RIC as team to beat in the LEC this year and a team to watch, sitting just outside their preseason top 25.  Rachel Riley (crap I forgot about her when I did the preview) was tapped as LEC player of the year an an honorable mention to their all-american team.  RIC also gets a boost by adding Franklin Pierce point guard Cynthia Gaudet, Gaudet was the starter for the Franklin Pierce teams that went to back to back division 2 women's final four's in 2009 & 2010.  Full article:
http://www.goanchormen.com/index.html
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on October 26, 2011, 11:52:06 PM
Western gets started with a game against Post University on Saturday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 07, 2011, 10:15:33 PM
With the onset of the 2011-12 season just a week away, here are the LEC teams, and their games to watch this year, starting in the order I predicted from first to last:

Rhode Island college: This team has a very easy OOC schedule and should waltz through the LEC this year, so picking a game for them is challenging, however I'll go Wednesday, January 4 @ Stevens.  Stevens is a team who, ever since joing the E-8 (start of the 07-08 season) has been extremely competitive and one of the best teams in the E-8.
Southern Maine: Much like RIC they have a pretty easy schedule and aside from the RIC games should waltz through the conference.  IF this matchup happens (and 99% chance it does), the Babson @ Southern Maine game on New Years eve is the LEC OOC game of the year by far.  That's so big, if that ends up happening, I'll be making a second trip to Maine this year.  However, there's that slight 1% chance UW-Stout beats Babson and it doesn't happen, so you go with Tuesday, January 10 @ RIC.  First matchup this year of the titans, and 3 days before USM would have played Keene state the 3rd and final top 3 team.   That'll also end their 3 road games in first 4 conference games stretch.  USM wins that game, they definaitely have the advantage since USM would play RIC in Gorham in February.
Keene state: Tuesday, November 29 @ Amherst.  Their not expected to win, and probably won't, but Keene state has everyone back from last year's squad while Amherst will have to replace some key pieces.  I think they could keep it under 10.
Eastern Connecticut: Saturday, December 10 vs. RIC.  They open up the LEC season with 2 straight home games against USM and RIC.  They can put themselves in the race by winning those 2 games.
Mass-Boston: December 3 vs. Western Connecticut.  When you've only had 4 winning seasons in the last 28 years, it's imperative to get out to a strong start.  They get a depleted West Conn team that got bit by the transfer & graduation bug, so this is about as good of an opponent to get for Boston to get out to that important 1-0 conference start.
Western Connecticut: Tuesday, November 15 @ Oneonta state.  Your probably wondering why I'm listing our game to watch in our first game of the year replacing our 3 top scorers against a team returning it's top 3 scorers on the road no less.    This will be a good measuring stick game; stay competitive, we could get a few wins in conference, compete for that 3/4/5 spot, lose by 10+ and we could be looking at 10 wins or less a year after winning 24.
Mass-Dartmouth: Saturday, February 4 vs. Western Connecticut.  The main reason they snuck into the playoffs last year was because they went 2-0 against Boston.  Going 2-0 against West Conn this year could be the difference between playing in the tournament and not playing in it once again.
Plymouth state: Tuesday, February 2 vs. Johnson state.  Assuming they beat Lesley 2 days prior, winning this game would give them at least 2 wins after New Years; last year they won 1 game after New Years.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 12, 2011, 02:53:27 PM
Plymouth state preview:
http://www.d3hoops.com/seasons/women/2011-12/contrib/plymouth-state-preview

Apparantly Alica Ducet left (quit??) the program, so along with Amanda Kania (graduation) they lost their 2 best players off a team that lost 16 of their final 17 games including their final 13 LEC games.  Write down 1 conference win for my Plymouth prediction.  It will be a nice contest watching Plymouth state basketball this year: which one of their teams can finish with: A) more overall wins and B) more conference wins, because both the men and women shouldn't be winning a lot of games, and both should be losing a lot of LEC games.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 14, 2011, 03:06:40 PM
Little East poll is out, Rhode Island (as expected) is the runaway choice for first snagging all 8 first place votes.  I don't even think Western got all 8 first place votes last year:
http://littleeast.com/sports/wbkb/2011-12/releases/20111114-wbkb-preseason

I would've swapped Eastern & Keene and Boston & Western, but overall looks good.  Top 2 were the easiest to predict.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 14, 2011, 03:19:36 PM
Western roster is online; Got a transfer from Brandeis (Kayla Murkison) but who only played 6 game last year, and 2 CT high school players: Melissa DiNino from Holy Cross, and Amber Litwinko from St. Paul Catholic.  It's extremely possible the 4th best player on this year's edition is at the school mainly because of her softball skills.  That's about all I'll say for the expectations of this year's team.  If this team can somehow finish in the top 3, Rybczyk should be the runaway winner for coach of the year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 14, 2011, 08:22:30 PM
Women's schedule and predictions for tomorrow:

Plymouth state 56 @ Emerson 76. Emerson is one of the top teams in the GNAC and Plymouth state lost it's 2 best players off a team that lost 16 of their final 17 games last year
Southern Maine 64 @ UNE 57. UNE is decent, but So Maine is better.
RPI 65 @ Keene state 70. Not sure how RPI is, but this is the first game of the new year for Keene state to wash away last year's disaster
Salve Regina 72 @ Mass-Dartmouth 56. Hopefully this is close, but I'm not expecting much from Dartmouth.
Western Connecticut 54 @ Oneonta state 69. Not sure what to expect from this game; Oneonta state's top 3 scorers return, our top 3 leave. Hopefully we can keep it close.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2011, 11:08:00 AM
3-2 on the women's side to open up; Southern Maine & Plymouth state were the losers.

Emerson 62-51 over Plymouth state.  PSU was 2-21 from behind the Arc, that's not going to get it done.
Southern Maine loses to UNE 65-63.  Courtney Cochran scored 24 points to lead the Huskies, nobody else in the starting 5 scored double digits
Keene state in overtime over Rennsalaer 71-65.  No boxscore for this one
Dartmouth over Salve 65-61.  Nice win over an NCAA tournament team from last year.  The Dartmouth bench combined to play 32 minutes but only recorded 2 points in those 32 minutes.
Western over Oneonta 60-58.  Another nice win.  A couple of problems though: 1) this team doesn't have a true point guard or a true #5.  Chelsea Mone started at the 5 and she took more shots from 3 (6) then from 2 (5).  Granted she hit 2 of those 6, and a couple rimmed in and out, so it'll give us more options to work with if our #5 can hit from outside.  Amber Litwinko had 12 points in her collegiate debut and should be in the starting lineup Friday against Rivier.  As she continues to get more expierence she'll be a great player, really shot the ball well.  We also went 11-26 from behind the arc, could be a live by the 3, die by the 3 kind of team this year.

Wednesday schedule:
Easternm Nazarene 59 @ UMass-Boston 62
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 19, 2011, 09:36:53 PM
I'm really starting to like this West Conn team more and more.  After only scoring 60 their first game (and over half of those 60 [33] cam on 3's) they've scored 94 & 89 the last 2 nights.  Unlike last year where we had Karli Spera, Melissa Teel, and Heather Lee as our 3 and only scorers, we have more balanced scoring this year, and so far 3 different players have stepped us: Amber Litwinko had 12 points against Oneonta to lead us, yesterday against Rivier Amber yet us again with 21 and Caroline Brasa scored 12 off the bench, and today against Salem Jackie Zilnicki had 20 (14 in the first half, scored our first 6 points of the game), and Carly Murphy had 22 points to lead us when Amber had a "bad day" to her standards (5-9 only 10 points).  Sciarra Brandt and Nicole Eaniello still haven't gotten on track yet and Stephanie Slonski is still getting used to the PG role, but so far (granted it's only 3 games) I love the way this team is playing.  Everyone gets involved and contributes this year unlike last year where we stood around and waited for the 3 seniors to do something.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 22, 2011, 10:51:41 PM
West Conn improves to 4-0 as they demolish Emerson 82-53.  For the 3rd time this season Western has had a different leading scorer; tonight, it was Stephanie Slonski that lead the way with a game high 17 points; Carly Murphy (14) and Taylor Nkonoki (11) joined Steph in double figures.  We held Emerson to 12-49 from the floor (24.5%).  Granted, we haven't played anyone yet this year, but I thought we were going to struggle on offense and would need defensive turnovers and long rebounds to force fast break points.  So far this year we're doing better offensively than defensively.  So far this year we're avering 81.3 PPG (88.3 if you take out the Oneonta game), and giving up 63.8 PPG (but 65.7 if you take out the Oneonta game).  Not sure where those offensive numbers rank, but I think it's gotta be in the top 10 or 15, I just hope it can last the whole year.  Defense has to step up though, if we can keep the defensive PPG under 60 then we can do some things.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 29, 2011, 01:36:08 PM
I saw the Eastern Manhattanville game last night.  Pretty good game, but Eastern fell apart in the second half though.  Got some good young players on the program, so once they start to get game action, they could be adangerous squad to play come LEC play, but they have 2 huge conference games against USM this Saturday, and RIC the following Saturday.  Imo, both those teams are slightly above the rest of the competition in the LEC.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 29, 2011, 03:58:44 PM
West Conn with a big game tonight against the Conn College Camels.  Both teams come in undefeated (West Conn 4-0, Conn College 3-0), and in the meeting last year Western was down at halftime before they rallied for a 54-41 victory.  In Conn College's last game they started off the game trailing 15-0, but rallied to score 31 of the halves final 44 points and take a 3 point lead at halftime, and never trailed again after that against a good WPI team.  This is the Camels first home game as their first 3 were on the road, and this is Western's final game on a season opening 5 game trip before they return to the O'Neil Center for 3 of their next 4 games beginning with Trinity on Thursday.

This will be a nice offensive vs. defensive matchup: Western comes in averaging 81.3 PPG (88.3 if you take out the Oneonta game though), but the Camels only give up an average of 49.7 PPG: Western has given up an average of 63.8 PPG this year while the Camels have scored 69.3 PPG.  I'm gonna say this all year, but 60 is the magic number we should shoot for this year, if we can get to 60 chances are we'll win most of the games this year, but if we fail to score 60 it will be a lot more difficult.  This season has started better then I could have expected, but this looks like a tougher game I thought it would be when the schedule first came out, and would be another nice confidence booster with LEC play right around the corner.
My pick: Western 61-54.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 29, 2011, 11:38:56 PM
Western beats Conn College 83-69 to improve their record to 5-0 on the year.  5 scored in double figures leady by Stephanie Slonski's 18.  We have our home opener Thursday against Trinity, LEC opener Saturday @ Boston, before a big game looms next Tuesday against Mount St. Mary.  No reason we shouldn't be 7-0 heading into that game.

Southern Maine knocks off #10 Bowdoin tonight 63-49 while Amherst knocks off Keene 66-45 in other LEC vs. NESCAC games this evening.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 02, 2011, 02:15:07 AM
Boston creams Wheelock last night 73-19.  It was 37-10 at halftime and the Beacons held Wheelock to 8 field goals.  Wheelock only had 3 the entire second half and went from the 17:14 mark to the 1:56 mark without hitting one. 
Western beats Trinity 72-48.  Nicole Eaniello finally got on track; 8-9 from the floor, 3-4 from 3 for a game high 22 points, and Amber Litwinko chipped in 19 off the bench.  Really playing well as a whole unit, but come Saturday these games count.  West Conn (6-0) and Keene state (4-1) are leading the pack, everyone else has at least 2 losses.  For the Saturday schedule:

West Conn 75 @ Boston 45.  With the way were playing I can't see us losing this game.
Southern Maine 62 @ Eastern 60.  Going on the road is always tough, but USM is a better team, and I think they'll find a way.  They play @ Western next weekend, so they could be 0-2 in conference play going into the Christmas break; not a spot you want to be in, but you can easily bounce back from it.
RIC 78 @ Plymouth 48.  Plymouth gets hit with a buzzsaw.  They started 1-0 in conference last year and preceded to lose their final 13 conference games, can they reverse trend this year??
Dartmouth 56 @ Keene state 72.  Another team I can't see losing, especially at home.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 02, 2011, 02:31:23 AM
Even with the 72 points tonight we're still averaging 80 points per game first in the LEC, but giving up 62 per game which is 3rd worst in the conference, but our +18 differential is 3rd best.  Don't think our defense is that bad, but I doubt our offense is that good either.  I'd expect us to be around 65 PPG and 55 OPPG by seasons end. 
Of the conferences scoring leaders, even though West Conn is the only unbeaten, we only have 1 person in the top 10 in scoring (Amber Litwinko 9th at 13.4 ppg), so were getting everyone involved, which will be beneficial later on; USM (4-2) has 2, Dartmouth has 2, RIC has 2 (and neither of them are my preseason pick Stephanie Coro) and Eastern has 3 players in the top 10 in scoring.  Keene state (second in the conference at 4-1) has none in the top 10 in scoring
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar17 on December 04, 2011, 02:01:28 AM
Saturday Results
Keene State (5-1, 1-0) 71, UMass-Dartmouth (4-3, 0-1) 62

Eastern Connecticut (3-2, 1-0) 75, Southern Maine (4-3, 0-1) 57

Rhode Island College (4-2, 1-0) 84, Plymouth State (1-6, 0-1) 55

Western Connecticut (7-0, 1-0) 69, UMass-Boston (2-4, 0-1) 54

I'd say the only surprise was the Eastern/USM game - not really because Eastern won - but because it was so handily.  Southern Maine looks somewhat inconsistent out of the gates: losing in OT at St. Joseph's, beating No. 10 Bowdoin by 14, and being blown out by the Warriors in three games.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 05, 2011, 08:23:20 PM
Western with a big week this week: Tuesday night is Mount St. Mary, Saturday is Southern Maine.
Mount St. Mary's has consistantly been one of the better defensive teams in division 3 women's hoops.  I think last year they gave up something like 47.9 or 49.1 oppg.  Will definitely be the best team we've faced so far in the early going, and will be a nice barometer game to see where we are (only Rivier and Conn College have winning records).
Southern Maine has been inconsistant this year.  I'm not that surprised they lost to Eastern (even though I did pick USM), but the way they did was shocking.  Also, that loss to St. Joes in overtime really stands out; I saw St. Joes against Tufts (at Regis) on Friday night and St. Joes looked absolutely awful.  However, USM realises they can't fall to 0-2 in the conference, and will probably play a lot better.
I'd take a split in a heartbeat (hopefully the loss is to MSM), 2-0 wouldn't be surprising and would prove were a team to look out for, 0-2 wouldn't be all that surprising either but would be a big blow.  Both these games are at home, and the last time this team lost at home (regular season or LEC play) was in February 2009 when Eastern beat us.  Stephanie Slonski (the lone senior who's played all 4 years [Jackie Zilnicki only joined us in 09-10 because of softball]) has only lost 2 games at home in her entire career.  Nobody else on the team (including Jackie) has ever expierenced a home defeat at the O'Neil Center, so that could be the biggest deciding factor this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 06, 2011, 03:05:59 PM
Schedule tonight:

Mount Ida @ Boston
Salve @ RIC
Westfield @ East Conn
Mount St. Mary @ Western
Southern Maine @ Salem state

I'll post predictions in a bit.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 06, 2011, 04:04:54 PM
Mount Ida 59 @ Boston 60.  Could be close, I'll go with the home team
Salve 58 @ RIC 63.  Going with the home team again
Westfield 62 @ Eastern 73.  I saw Westfield Friday night against Regis didn't look bad; saw Eastern @ Manhattanville blow a 6 point halftime lead last week.  I think Eastern pulls away at the end.
Southern Maine 72 @ Salem state 60.  Who know's what to expect from them.   They beat a top 15 team in Bowdoin, but then lose to St. Joseph's and get crushed by Eastern.  They SHOULD win this game, but then again they should have beaten St. Joseph's...
Mount St. Mary 62 @ Western Connecticut 58.  MSM lead division 3 in scoring defense last year with 42.6 OPPG; 2009-10 they gave up 44.0 oppg, 2008-09 was 50.0 OPPG, 2007-08 47.0 OPPG.  So far this year their only giving up 50.4 ppg, have held their last 3 opponents to 37, 38 and 46 points.   Last year MSM only gave up 60 or more points in 4 of their 29 games, and in 2 of those 4 games it was either 60 or 61 (including a 63-60 win over West Conn in January).  Their highest opponent's total is 62.  Western meanwhile has not been held below 60 this season (a 60-58 win over Oneonta is our lowest total), and have gotten 80+ in 4 of our 7 games this year.  I'm gonna say this time and again, 60 will be our magic number; get to 60 have a great chance to win, get 59 or fewer and have a great chance to lose, this will be all apparant in this game.  If we can force turnovers that can go for easy fast break opportunities than we have a great chance in this, if MSM takes care of the ball I don't think we'll do much against the MSM defense.  What could be the difference: in last year's meeting (63-60 MSM win), both teams shot pretty much the same (both shot 50% in the first half, and West Conn finished 41.4% for the game while MSM finished 42.4% for the game), however Western had 18 turnovers to 15 for MSM, and the Knights outrebounded us 39-33 including 16 to 10 on the offensive glass.  This year we don't have a true point guard, so that TO number could be even higher, and this year our team is significantly shorter then last year so the rebounding numbers (especially the MSM offensive rebounds) could be higher.  Those can be the difference.  However, as I said, the only person on thios current squad that has suffered a home defeat was Stephanie Slonski way back on February 10, 2009, so that could be the biggest difference.  I think this will end this year whether it be with USM, MSM or RIC because all those 3 are better then we are.  Hopefully I'm wrong, but I just can't see it happening.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 06, 2011, 11:26:46 PM
Mount Ida over Boston 62-43.   Boston was down 34-10 at the half and made 4 field goals in the half; tough to win games like that.  Not even Western could win a game down 34-10 at the half with 4 made FG's.
RIC 61-52 over Salve.  Neither team shot the ball well; 36.5% for RIC, 34.4% for Salve, and combined for 60 turnovers, HOWEVER RIC converted 31 Salve turnovers for 24 points while Salve converted 29 RIC turnovers for only 12 points.
Eastern 67-42 over Westfield state.  Jessica Bladgett & Piper Chapman combined for 33 points
Southern Maine 74-60 over Salem state.  Damn, I was a USM miss away from nailing the exact score.  Huskies starters scored 67 of the team's 74 points, lead by Haley Jordan (25) and Courtney Cochran (29).  Courtney will have a field day on Saturday against us.
MSM 60-58 over West Conn.  Once again, I was a mde MSM basket from the exact score.  Adding the 2 point differential I had between RIC's projected and actual total I didn't have a bad day.  Jen Mocanu lead the Knight's with 29 points (20 in the first half), including the buzzer beater for the win.  Amanda Horvers had 12 for the Knight's all in the second half.  As expected, the game was close throughout; MSM's largest lead was 9, WCSU's only 4, and unlike what I thought, we actually outrebounded the Knight's 40-32 (13 to 10 on the offensive end).  Based largely on Carly Murphy and Caroline Brasa, who eached had 14 points we outscored the Knight bench 32 to 9, and those 2 were the real reasons we were actually still in the game.   Also, as expected, both teams were pretty close in all categories with the exception of 1 which was the deciding factor: WCSU was 22-56 from the floor, MSM was 24-60 (39.3% to 40.0%).  MSM was 3-18 from behind the arc (18.8%) compared to 6-18 from Western (33.3%).  Western was 8-10 (80%) from the free throw line, MSM 9-11 (81.8%).  The stat which decided the game like I thought it would: turnovers!!  MSM had only 13, we had 21, including with 5.1 seconds left inbounding underneath our own basket when we threw it away which allowed MSM to run down the court and hit the game winning shot, which really shouldn't have counted because it was still in Mocanu's hand with 0:00 on the clock, but that's what happens in division 3 with no replay availible, you have 3 zebra's making a judgemental call when there's (probably) no referee looking at both the clock AND the ball in the shooter's hand.  I doubt we would have won in OT anyways because we had used a lot of energy coming back from 56-47 down with 5:00 minutes to play, but we should have been givin the chance.  MSM won the points off turnovers department 29-12 (27-12 if we don't include Mocanu's last shot).   Even though MSM gave us a lot of good lucks and did a horrible job of boxing out, they made the defensive plays when they had to: after a missed Horvers 3 with 26 seconds left that would have given them a 3 point lead, they stripped the ball from Carly Murphy as she was driving the lane with 11 seconds to play.  After the inbounds, Stephanie Slonski missed a jumper, got her own rebounded, but MSM forced a jump ball, and after a couple Western timeouts, MSM forced the out of bounds which gave them the ball back for the gamr winner.  Losing games like this can have an impact for some time, but after Saturday were off until January 1, Saturday is a conference game, and winning that game is more important than winning this game since those games count.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 09, 2011, 12:13:06 AM
Saturday schedule:
RIC @ Eastern
Southern Maine @ Western
Keene @ Boston
Plymouth @ Dartmouth

I'll post predictions tomorrow.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 09, 2011, 12:18:30 AM
Amherst over Eastern Connecticut, 66-45 tonight.  Strangely, that is the exact same score as when KSC played Amherst.

Saturday's conference games
Keene State (5-1, 1-0 LEC) at UMass-Boston (2-5, 0-1 LEC)

Rhode Island College (5-2, 1-0 LEC) at Eastern Connecticut (4-3, 1-0 LEC)

Plymouth State (2-6, 0-1 LEC) at UMass-Dartmouth (5-3, 0-1 LEC)

Southern Maine (5-3, 0-1 LEC) at Western Connecticut (7-1, 1-0 LEC)

I'd say RIC/ECSU and USM/WCSU are the most intriguing games of the day.  I'd go with KSC and UMD over UMB and PSU, respectively, in the other games. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 09, 2011, 12:19:31 AM
Sorry, 7express, I did not realize that you had already posted the schedule. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 09, 2011, 05:31:25 PM
My Saturday predictions.  After going 4-1 Tuesday, and nailing 2 scores correctly and coming within 2 points of getting another 3 scores correct, I'm due for a 1-3 or 0-4 day.

RIC 76 @ Eastern 72.  Will probably be their 2nd or 3rd toughest game in the LEC (only road games @ So Maine, @ Western and @ Keene) will be tougher than this.  I'm not quite sure Eastern is as good as the 18 point win against So Maine showed.  In either case, Eastern will have to get a 3rd option behind Piper Chapman & Jess Blodgett.
Plymouth 52 @ Dartmouth 55.  Most likely the 2 worst teams in the conference.  Go with the home team
Keene 67 @ Boston 58.  Boston played Western tough for the first half last week, before they fell apart in the second.  Expect the same here.
Southern Maine 63 @ Western 62.  I'm already writing in Courtnry Cochran for 20+ points and 10+ rebounds, and Haley Jordan for 13+ points and 8+ rebounds, it's Renee Nichols and Erin McNamera we'll have to shut down, and even then it may not be enough.  Western hasn't lost 2 straight at home since February 10 2007 when Keene completed a 72-57 win, 4 days after RIC scored a 48-44 win; USM hasn't lost 2 straight LEC games since January 13 and 17 2009.  On the 13, USM lost  RIC 82-74, on the 17th USM lost to Western 61-44.  This is the second in our big test week, we failed the first test against MSM Tuesday, we have a chance to redeem ourselves here.  Even though we have a better record, USM is a better team, and unfortunately, I think we lose this at the end.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 10, 2011, 05:13:45 PM
Saturday, 12/10 Results
Rhode Island College (6-2, 2-0) romps past Eastern Connecticut (4-4, 1-1), 78-52

UMass-Dartmouth (6-3, 1-1) sails past Plymouth State (2-7, 0-2), 73-56

Southern Maine (6-3, 1-1) nips Western Connecticut (7-2, 1-1), 77-76 in OT

Keene State (6-1, 2-0) drops UMass-Boston (2-6, 0-2), 65-51
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 10, 2011, 07:58:19 PM
I'm going to start a conference rant, so if you don't want to read it, go down to the second set of stars (**********).

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

I know the LEC lost some great players last year: Karli Spera, Kaylie DeMillio, Melissa Teel, Heather Lee, Jessica Moriarty, but having seen 4 of the 8 teams so far (Western, Eastern, Boston & So Maine) it'll be a complete miracle if RIC loses anymore then 2 conference games this year, because every other team at the top has some major flaws, that if, which exploited will be a serious blow to those teams.  I haven't seen RIC yet (but plan on seeing them January 4 down @ Stevens) and haven't seen Keene and probably won't see them until Western plays them January 10, so I'm not including those 2 teams.
Southern Maine looks to be the second best behind RIC but they have absolutely no bench.  Sure Gary Fiefield uses a lot of players at least 5, and can run to 10, but none of them score; Jordan Grant had all 9 of So Maine's bench points today, and 5 came on the free throw line.  Also, if Courtney Cochran gets in foul trouble early they can be at a serious disadvantage.  Renee Nichols and Erin McNamera are 2 guards that don't shoot nearly enough as they should.  They could have a nice inside-outside game, but unfortunately, Nicole Garland is the only guard that isn't afraid to shoot.  I have a hard time seeing them stay in the game if Cochran goes out with foul trouble because that's their entire offense.
Eastern was the next pick after Southern Maine.  Jess Blodgett and Piper Chapman are both in the top 10 in scoring, nobody else on the team is even close.  Until they get a consistant 3rd option, they'll be a notch below, because you can't expect both of them to go for 25+ a game.
Western was next (well after Keene, but I can't mention Keene however).  This team just shoots way to many 3's because that's our entire offense.  It would be nice if we attacked the basket, but we can't because our 5 would rather shoot from the top of the circle then shoot inside the paint.  I know were #1 in the conference in 3 point field goal percentage, but I'm sorry shooting 34(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) times from 3 isn't going to get it done once we get to conference play when teams know we don't attack the basket and can just sit all 5 on the perimeter and make us beat them from inside.  Good defense can only get you so far, you actually have to put the ball in the basket once in a while.

*****************************
Dartmouth 73-56 over Plymouth state
Keen 65-51 over Boston
RIC destroys Eastern 78-52.  That team is really, really good.  As I said in the last paragraph I can only see them losing at most 2 games (@ So Maine then either @ Western/@ Keene/home vs. USM/home vs. Keene).
USM in overtime over Western 77-76.  That's 2 losses this week by a combined 3 points.  Courtney Cochran as expected and as predicted here absolutely killed us, was one of the single reasons why we lost: 13 rebounds, 13-19 shooting for 34 points.  Stephanie Slonski had tied the game late in the second half on an and 1, missed the free throw which forced overtime, so if she completes the 3 point play we would've won the game we actually had no business winning.  I have to severely question the clock management at the end.  After a Cochran basket gave her her last and final 34 points and a 77-73 lead with 14 seconds to play, Carly Murphy gets fouled with 2.5 seconds, and converts the basket to make it 77-75.  She made the free throw, even though she was trying to miss (which is what happens often anyways, when you want them to miss they don't, when you want them to make it they don't), and USM somehow dribbled out the rest of the 2.5 for the 1 point win.  Mini rant here: Why let them dribble it out, even though we have less then 5% chance of winning even with USM missing both free throws because we have to go the length of the court in 2 seconds, at least have that channce, don't just give up.  After the Slonski miss and a couple other missed possessions, USM was inboudning underneath the West Conn basket with 3.4 left in regulation, and McNamera was able to hit the side of the rim on her half court heave, we would've gotten at least a simular look.  Normally I don't like long breaks, but this 22 day stretch between games (we don't play again until January 1) could actually serve us well; we won't have to practice for a while (probably until after Christmas), so the players can finish up finals, go home for a while, be with the friends and family, and get their minds off basketball for a couple weeks, and come back to school after Christmas refreshed and refocused.

2 games on Tuesday, and then that's the end of action until after Christmas; Dartmouth hosts J&W, and Boston travels to Westfield state.   Keene & RIC are tied atop the conference at 2-0, Boston & Plymouth are in the cellar at 0-2; Western, Eastern, Dartmouth and Southern Maine are each 1-1.  Conference play resumes Saturday, January 7, so the standings will remain unchanged until then since every game between now and then is a non conference game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 13, 2011, 12:51:49 PM
2 games on the schedule tonight which end the first semester:

Johnson & Wales @ Dartmouth
Boston @ Westfield state.

I like J&W 53 @ Dartmouth 66.  Dartmouth is a surprising 6-3 so far this year, they'll end the first semester with a win, their off until January 4
I'll take Boston 50 @ Westfield 63.  Boston is off until January 4 after this game. 
Both game are availible on live stats this evening.  The conference is off until the 28th when Keene opens up down in New Orleans at the Big Easy challenge against Plattsburgh state
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 13, 2011, 06:23:11 PM
J&W leads 22-21 at halftime.  Colleen Moriarty has a game high 10 points on 4-9 shooting.  J&W has a balanced scoring attack so far; 2 have 6 points, 1 has 4.

Live stats seems to have been frozen on the Dartmouth J&W game; with 1:59 to go Dartmouth leads 61-43 so looks like they won.  Moriarty finished with 25 points.
Westfield leads Boston 33-18 at halftime.  Boston scored the first 7 games of the game; got outscored 33-11 the final 18 minutes.  Got it to within 23-16 with 7:06 to play, but got outscored 10-2 the rest of the half.  Kirsten Morrison for the Beacons has a game high 9 points.
Westfield wins 54-37.  Westfield ran out to 24 point 2nd half lead and put it on cruise control from there.  The Owls were never seriously threatened at all in the second half.  That ends the first semester of games, the LEC resumes play on December 28 when Keene takes on Plattsburgh state down in New Orleans; LEC conference play resumes January 7.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 13, 2011, 11:45:58 PM
Quote from: 7express on December 13, 2011, 06:23:11 PM
J&W leads 22-21 at halftime.  Colleen Moriarty has a game high 10 points on 4-9 shooting.  J&W has a balanced scoring attack so far; 2 have 6 points, 1 has 4.

Live stats seems to have been frozen on the Dartmouth J&W game; with 1:59 to go Dartmouth leads 61-43 so looks like they won.  Moriarty finished with 25 points.
Westfield leads Boston 33-18 at halftime.  Boston scored the first 7 games of the game; got outscored 33-11 the final 18 minutes.  Got it to within 23-16 with 7:06 to play, but got outscored 10-2 the rest of the half.  Kirsten Morrison for the Beacons has a game high 9 points.
Westfield wins 54-37.  Westfield ran out to 24 point 2nd half lead and put it on cruise control from there.  The Owls were never seriously threatened at all in the second half.  That ends the first semester of games, the LEC resumes play on December 28 when Keene takes on Plattsburgh state down in New Orleans; LEC conference play resumes January 7.

Not to be overly critical or picky, but KSC actually plays No. 21 Mary Washington (7-0) on December 28 in New Orleans (12:00 pm).  That will be a very interesting game for the Owls.

KSC does play Plattsburgh State (2-4) - but on December 30 at 12:00 pm in New Orleans.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 14, 2011, 01:27:11 PM
Quote from: AllStar on December 13, 2011, 11:45:58 PM
Not to be overly critical or picky, but KSC actually plays No. 21 Mary Washington (7-0) on December 28 in New Orleans (12:00 pm).  That will be a very interesting game for the Owls.

KSC does play Plattsburgh State (2-4) - but on December 30 at 12:00 pm in New Orleans.


Whoops, my fault.  I was looking at the Dec 30th game against Plattsburgh thinking it was Dec 28.  Thanks for the correction.

Here are the standings heading into the holiday break. 
1) Keene state 6-1, 2-0
1) RIC 6-2, 2-0
3) Western Connecticut 7-2, 1-1
3) UMass-Dartmouth 7-3, 1-1
3) Southern Maine 6-3, 1-1
3) Eastern Connecticut 4-4, 1-1
7) Plymouth state 2-7, 0-2
7) UMass-Boston 2-7, 0-2

Upcoming schedule:
Wednesday, Dec 28:
Mary Washington vs. Keene state (in New Orleans) 12:00

Friday, Dec 30:
Plattsburgh state vs. Keene state (in New Orleans) 12:00
MCLA @ Southern Maine 3:00

Saturday, Dec 31:
Babson/UW-Oshkosh @ Southern Maine 3:00

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MVP on December 14, 2011, 06:23:22 PM
Slight correction, Southern Maine Invitational

Friday, December 30th Babson V UW-Stout @ 4:00
                               MCLA V USM @ 6:00

Saturday, December 31st- Consolation game @1:00
                                         Winners play @ 3:00
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 27, 2011, 10:40:29 PM
LEC back in action after a 2 week holiday recess with 1 game:

Keene state 62 vs. Mary Washington 74 (in New Orleans)
Game for Keene state to put their hat in the race that their a competitor for the regular season title.  The Owl's are 6-1, but they haven't played the toughest schedule to date yet.  They lost by 21 to #1 ranked Amherst, and even though 5 of their other 6 opponents are at or above .500, none of the others are ranked or receiving votes at the time being.  Mary Washington is ranked #20 at 8-0, and has won 7 of their 8 games by double figures.  Could be a nice win for the Owls to have in their back pocket at seasons end, and a nice win for the conference.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 28, 2011, 11:35:09 PM
Keene loses to Mary Washington 46-25 (yes, that is not a typo, that was the final score).  Keene actually had a 16-15 lead at halftime.  Just sounds like an awful game to have to sit through: the teams shot a combined 27.8% from the field (25-90), 15.8% from 3 (3-19), 8 combined assits from the 2 teams (MW lead it 5-3) combined with 37 turnovers, so they had an almost 1 to 4.5 assist to turnover ratio, yikes!!  Also, this is one of the few boxscores I've seen where there was not a double digit scorer on either side.  Really, how many times a year do you expect to win scoring 46 points??  Once, possibly twice if your in the NEAC with awful teams, none if your in the WIAC, or NESCAC??  Actually MW is one of the better defensive teams in the country, looks like they'll take that away from Mount St. Mary this year.  Only giving up 39.9 OPPG this year, and haven't given up more than 48 in a single game, so really they'd be in a lot of games scoring 46 this year.
Conference is off tomorrow: Keene plays Plattsburgh down in New Orleans on Friday afternoon, and Southern Maine hosts MCLA a little later on that day.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 31, 2011, 11:34:18 AM
Action from Dec 30:
Keene state rebounds nicely from the egg against Mary Washington to defeat Plattsburgh state 67-57. 
USM survives a scare from MCLA wins 78-75.  This team has looked really unimpressive this year Courtney Cochran had 18, Haley Jordan had 27.

Dec 31 schedule:
Babson 72 @ USM 58.  I hope I'm wrong here, but I think Babson blows them out.   You shut down the front court of USM, and make the backcourt beat you, you've got a great chance to win, and I think that's what Babson will do.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 31, 2011, 04:21:09 PM
USM 34-32 lead on Babson at halftime.  Cochran gave them the lead heading into recess.  Babson started the game up 6-0, so USM did a good job of weathering the storm early.  Babson shooting 44% from the floor, but they've turned it over 11 times.
Final: USM 68-66 over Babson.  Close throughout the 2nd half; Cochran made 2 free throws with 8 seconds to play to give USM the win and Babson turned it over on their possession (their 24th and final of the game).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: BigMac on December 31, 2011, 07:32:53 PM
I was at the UMW vs. Keene game and it was a defensive battle in the first half. UMW would get a small lead then with the bench in Keene would get it back. In the second half it was anyones game and you knew whoever made a run would win the game.
UMW is #1 for all divisions in scoring defense. Teams have a hard time scoring on them. Would not go by the stats completely as I think they were not well kept. So many "team" stats from all the games. In the play by play had Carol Dye (post player) taking and missing several "3's" She never took a 3 pointer
UMW does a great job on the top scorers and did so in this game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 01, 2012, 12:45:01 AM
It helps tomorrow (well...today actually), that both LEC games (1 men & 1 women) are each taking place at the same place.

Skidmore 53 vs. Western Connecticut 50 (at Springfield college).
Skidmore, out of the LL is 5-1 this year, 1 of the top teams in the East region, and should compete with Vassar, RPI & William Smith for the LL title.  They held Hamilton (5-5) to 29 points, destroyed Utica (5-4) by 26 points, and have held 4 of their 6 opponents this year to 47 points or less.  Their lone loss was by 16 to Williams; they held the Ephs to only 47 (their lowest total of the season), but they only managed to score 31.  Western is 7-2, and are a couple possessions away from being 9-0, however none of those wins look that impressive.  Considering Western last played on the 10th & Skidmore last played on the 9th, I'd expect a low scoring game, but I think Skidmore takes this by a couple.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MVP on January 01, 2012, 12:05:27 PM
In response to 7 express and the USM V Babson game. It was not close during the 2nd half, in fact babson had a 12pt lead w/ just under 15 min to go. Then the home ice advantage really kicked in ...with Wurdeman sitting on the bench for most of the 2nd half, Wurdeman got tagged for her fifth foul on an outrageous call sending Cochran to the line for her 9th and 10th free throw of the game.
[**Babson had a game total 14 FTA,  USM had 28 FTA   Collins, 13-21 FG yet had only 2 FT attempts. She got beat up all night but maintained her poise.
Cochran 5-10 FG and went to the line for10 FTA 
Jordan, named MVP went 4-20 FG but yet again went to the line and had 9 FTA .

In fact, babson shot 44% for the game, USM barely shot 36% //  FTA's handed the game to the host

PS: the night before USM V Stout,  USM 38 FTA,  Stout 18 FTA
Hopefully, Babson will face them again on a neutral court.

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 01, 2012, 10:58:25 PM
You mean MCLA??  The first round was MCLA vs. USM, Stout played Babson.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 01, 2012, 11:25:55 PM
Western loses by 10 57-47.
That's already as many regular season losses this year then we had all of last year and there's still 6 weeks of basketball to play.  Poor rebounding, turnovers, and Skidmore getting out on the perimeter, and limiting our outside shots really hurt us.  Hopefully, they don't send that around the LEC because that's pretty much the game plan against us this year; limit the perimeter shots, press us (which Skidmore did throughout) and make us beat you from the inside, Skidmore played it perfectly.  Caroline Brasa had another great outing from the Colonials (lead them with 17), and with Chelsea Mone injured again (i think), she should be inserted into the starting lineup.  If the season ended today and I was handing out the team MVP award, Carolina Brasa gets it without a doubt.  Nicole Eanillio might have had her worst game of the season; finished with more fouls (3) then points scored (2) and was 0-4 from behind the arc; the team combined from 3 was 5-21.  We get Roger Williams in Monday's consolation game.  Speaking of that game...


...Monday schedule:
Roger Williams 54 vs. Western Connecticut 67 (@ Springfield College)
RWU wasn't impressive.  About the only advantage they have is that their taller so they SHOULD win the rebounding battle, however I thought MSM would win that as well and they didn't.  RWU starts a freshman point guard, so this should be a good game for a defense to come out fired up.  I don't think we'll have a hard time holding RWU to 50 to 60, it's a just a matter of whether the offense can put up enough points, I say this game they break out.  This and CCNY Thursday are 2 good games to get back on track before the real season starts.
Eastern Connecticut 53 @ Conn College 67.
Taking out the 83 Conn College gave up against West Conn earlier this year, this is a team that is allowing only 45.6 ppg, and since that West Conn game have given up: 50, 47, 35, 43 & 41.  Eastern has been involved in 4 straight blowouts heading into Christmas: they beat USM & Westfield state by a combined 21.5 while they lost their next 2 to RIC and Amherst by a combined 23.5.   In ECSU's 4 losses their averaging 54.3 ppg, while in their 4 wins their averaging 83.5 ppg.  Not a blowout, but the Camels are good defensively and ECSU doesn't have enough offensive firepower.  They fall behind early and they can't recover.  I'm probably gonna head down from Springfield to check this out after the championship game up there.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MVP on January 02, 2012, 06:26:16 PM
yes, MCLA. The point was the disparity of FTA in both games against the host USM, the 1st night, MCLA and the 2nd night against babson.
Happy New Year to all WBB players and fans!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 02, 2012, 11:28:36 PM
It's not surprising, they always get the benefit of the calls up there in Maine.  Now onto the recap:

Western 54-39 win over Roger Williams.  This was an awful played game by the Colonials, but luckily aside from Alex Lanieri, nobody else on RWU could buy a basket.   Both teams shot a combined 33.6%, and RWU actually had a higher pecentage (36.2% to 31.7%) but Western took 11 more attempts to RWU did because they had 17 offensive rebounds and forced 31 RWU turnovers (might have actually been more).  Western converted those 31 tuenovers into 25 points.

Eastern was a 57-47 loser to Conn College.
Unfortunately for Eastern, not only did they lose the game, they may have lost the season.  Piper Chapman, Lauren Kellaher, Jessica Blodgett and Rachael Armstrong are currently not listed on the roster.  I heard from somebody at the game, that 4 Eastern players got suspended for the year and kicked off the team (i know Chapman and Blodgett are 2 of them, I assume Armstrong and Kellaher are the other 2 since none of them are listed anymore).  Besides that 2 others were suspended for this game (not sure who those 2 were), so when you add in that, they played this game with 7 players, a couple of whom had never even played a game in college before tonight, and Samantha Riccio is currently the only player that saw ANY minutes last season.  Jaymie Summer was a 3 year softball player (2 at division 2 UMass-Lowell) and finished with 0 points on 0-3 shooting and 4 fouls in 27 minutes.  Hayley Roberts came off the bench, hit 2 of 3 from the floor for a total of 4 points and 1 foul after being a member of the volleyball team in the fall.  They played hard, they scrapped (cut an 18 point second half deficit down to 7), but with their depth issues tonight, and the inexpiernce they have now since 4 of their 5 best players got kicked off, they'll be at a disadvantage from the get-go, and tonight was no different.  Even though they didn't win, I was impressed with the way they fought through adversity, they could've pitched up the tent and got blown out of the building (especially when they trailed by 18), but they kept fighting.  Personally, I don't think they'll be winning many LEC games now, but I really loved the effort.  I wanted to give Kim Rybczyk the conference coach of the year if we managed to finish in 3rd or higher, but if this severely depleted and inexpierencec Eastern squad can manage 6 wins and a tourney bid, Denise Bierly should win it by default.  I just have to point this out: of the 10 players listed on the roster, Eastern has one (yes one, 1!!!) returning letter winner, Sam Riccio.  Every other team in the conference has at least 3 in the starting lineup alone.

Tuesday schedule:
Boston 48 @ Rutgers-Newark 65.
Someone that might be happy with the ECSU situation is Boston (and Plymouth for that matter).  They may actually have company this year.  Newark is 8-3 and 1-1 in the NJAC.  Lost by 11 to Rutgers-Camden, 2 to Mount St. Mary and by 23 to Williams.  They only have 2 wins against teams with winning record; 49-42 against King's (who's 8-3) and 73-72 against Montclair state, who's 8-4.  Boston's 2 wins are against Berkelely college, a USCAA school, and Wheelock, a team that's 0-8, has scored less than 20 points twice this year and has lost by an average of 38 points this year.  Newark will kill them.
Southern Maine 79 @ Husson 54.
Husson is bad this year, but they did make the NCAA tournament last season.  USM is only 4-3 in true road games this year, including an awful lass to St. Joseph's of Maine back in November, and a loss here would be equally as bad.  In 5 losses this year Husson hasn't been closer than 22 points, of of their last 4 losses (since that 22 point L was the first game of the year), the "closet" was a 32 point loss which happen twice; other losses were by 35 & 36.  They've given up at least 74 in all 5 losses and have given up 95+ twice.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 02, 2012, 11:43:11 PM
Also, I wonder what that did to the captains??  Piper was one of them, and IIRC Blodgett was the other.  I didn't get there till about 4 minutes before the game started, so I missed the captains meetings, but I assume Sam Riccio takes over the captancy for the rest of the season.  Hopefully ECSUalum, Warrior, any Eastern fans/LEC fans that know what's going on here can shed some light.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on January 03, 2012, 02:10:21 PM
Quote from: 7express on January 02, 2012, 11:43:11 PM
Also, I wonder what that did to the captains??  Piper was one of them, and IIRC Blodgett was the other.  I didn't get there till about 4 minutes before the game started, so I missed the captains meetings, but I assume Sam Riccio takes over the captancy for the rest of the season.  Hopefully ECSUalum, Warrior, any Eastern fans/LEC fans that know what's going on here can shed some light.
Just a real shock!! I feel sorry for everyone left on the ECSU womens BB team, as Coach Bierly has put in soo much time and effort, recruiting, mentoring, and coaching these women, and now to find she has essentially "lost" the 2012 season!! Positive is that some young recruits will get a LOT of experience they would not normally have at this time in their college careers.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 03, 2012, 03:49:31 PM
I agree ECSUalum, even Riccio, a junior had only been the 6th/7th/8th option off the bench the last couple years will now be starting every game the rest of the season.  That, along with Taylor McBride (a freshmen) and the couple people who hadn't played basketball at all will greatly improve in this situation, and if they do make the LEC tournament, even if they ended up losing by 65 points, will do nothing but good.  But it is a shame though.  I know Eastern had played a tough OOC schedule, but with Blodgett and Piper they were one of the 3 or 4 best teams in the LEC, now I'm not so sure.  I said they played hard last night, so at least they have effort, and they get a relatively easy schedule the next couple games: their next 5 games (leading up to the WCSU game on the 17th) are: @ New Paltz (3-7), @ Plymouth state (2-7), @ Dartmouth (7-3), vs. Maine-Presque Isle (3-6), and vs. Boston (2-7).  The only game I'd say ECSU is a deciding underdog is the Dartmouth game, but they could easily win the other 4, and if they do, that could be a huge confidence builder heading into the 2nd half of the season where the schedule is a lot tougher (home game vs. Williams, Western & Keene twice each and road games @ RIC and USM).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 03, 2012, 04:35:03 PM
Newark beats Boston 51-37.
About the same I predicted; I predicted a 17 point win, but it was only 14.  Kirsten Morrison lead the Beacons with 11 points on 6-17 shooting.  Beacons had 31 turnovers which the Knight's converted into 25 points, and also outscored them 16-2 on the fast break. 
USM was an 82-60 winner over Husson.  No boxscore availible, so not sure what Cochran's final totals were.  That concludes Tuesday's women's schedule, Wednesday schedule:

Eastern 56 @ New Paltz 55.
If the suspension was just 1 game, I wonder who they got back.  In any case they'll be a disadvantage, but effort and hustle helps make up whatever disadvantage you have because you can't teach that, that's out of your control.  With more game expierence Jaymie Sommers will start to make the baskets in the paint that she missed on Monday, and can learn to play better defense to stay out of foul trouble.  New Paltz is 3-7, but have won 3 of their last 6 after starting 0-4, with their wins over a Stevens squad that is surprisingly bad this year (get to them in a second since they play RIC), Fredonia state who's 5-5, but 1-3 in the conference and Plattsburgh state, 4-5 on the year 2-3 in the conference.  New Paltz is 2-2 against SUNYAC opponents and only 1-5 against non SUNYAC opponents.  I'm rooting for them, I really am, hopefully they can pull out the W.
RIC 69 @ Stevens 59.
Not sure what happened to Stevens, maybe they had a lot of roster turnover, but they won the E8 tournament last year after beating Ithaca on their home floor.  They've lost against all the good team's they've played (Kean by 10, Richard Stockton by 15 & Baruch by 21), they've also suffered that setback to New Paltz (3-7) by 12.  Rachel Riley is 1 free throw away from 1,000 points, she'll surpass 1,00 easily.  I'll be down there for this game and have a report when I get back.
Eastern Nazarene 56 @ Dartmouth 61.
Let's see how Dartmouth plays as a favorite.  Eastern Nazarene is 4-4, and has beaten 1 team with a winning record, Framingham state (7-2), 44-43 with a layup as time expired, that game they got 30 offensive rebounds.  Taking out Framingham state, the 3 teams they've beaten have a combined record of 2-22.  Including Framingham the 4 teams they've beaten are only a combined 9-25.  This is a game they MUST win.  @ Western, vs. Eastern, @ Southern Maine, @ RIC, and vs. Keene are their next 6 LEC opponents.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 04, 2012, 11:57:13 PM
Eastern gets pounded by New Paltz 72-41.
This is getting worse for Eastern.  Once again, only 7 people played for the Warriors, but Kristina Forsman was notabable absent from the boxscore after logging 40 minutes on Monday night.  It just looks like the effort wasn't there tonight like it was Monday; New Paltz outrebounded them 59-47, outscored them in the paint 48-18, and the New Paltz bench outscored the Warrior bench 20-1.  Shannon McCourt lead the Warriors with 18 points; Sam Riccio and Taylor McBride (now probably their 2 best players) combined to shoot 1-27, and had more then twice as many turnovers (10) to points (4). When your 2 best shoot 1-27 from the floor chances are you're not going to win.

RIC 63 Stevens 52.
Quite possibly their worst played game of the year, but I'm telling you they have some shooters, and can really make shots when the games on the line, and they need a big basket.  After a 9 point RIC lead got dwindeled down to 1 with about 5:00 minutes to play Cynthia Gaudet just took over.  On RIC's next possession she completed the old fashioned 3 point play.  Then a steal by Ashley O'Dell followed a perfect pass from Gaudet to Rachel Riley for an easy layup, and then after another steal by O'Dell, Gaudet did it herself, and buried the Ducks with a 3 from the top of the key to get it back to a 9 point lead and that was all she wrote, and they play some defense too, really get in your face defensively, they give you nothing easily, you have to earn it against them this year; they finished with 15 steals on the night and could have had a lot more on top of that.  Gaudet lead the Anchorwomen with 24 points, and Riley followed with 16, easily surpassing the 1,000 point plateau.  BTW, what the hell has happened to Stephanie Coro this year??  My preseason player of the year (after I had forgotten Rachel Riley had another year of eligibility) has been a complete bust this year.  Granted, they have a lot more options this year, but after leading the LEC in scoring last year (over the likes of Melissa Teel, Kaylie DeMillio, Jess Moriarty, Karli Spera, Courtney Cirillio) at over 17 a game she's way down the list at 20th in the LEC in scoring (you can barely see her down there) at not even 10 per game.  Today she finished a measley 1-12 from the floor; the 1 she hit was a layup, and she wasn't even close on any of the jumpers she attempted.

Dartmouth a 57-55 winner over Eastern Nazarene. 
After having a 12 point lead at halftime, and being up 13 at the 11:00 minute mark, they almost blew it, but hung out to tie themselves with Western for the 4th best record in the conference at 8-3 (Keen and RIC are tied for 1st at 7-2, USM is next at 7-3).  Colleen Moriarty lead the Corsairs with 17 points and 9 rebounds; Alexis Malloy and Shardee Brown each had 20 for ENU, the other 6 that played for ENU combined for 15.

Thursday schedule:
Boston 54 @ Merchant Marine 51.
Both teams are terrible, both teams have 2 wins, and each of these teams beat a non D-3 team for 1 of their wins, and beat a crappy d-3 team for their other win.  Boston's non d-3 win was against the music school Berkeley college (out of the USCAA) while Merchant Marine's non d-3 win was against Vaughn (I have no clue who they are what conference/division they are a part of).  Boston's D-3 win is against Wheelock (winless), while Merchant's D-3 win is against CCNY (1 win).  Normally in these games I pick the home team, so why am I picking the road??  Boston beat Berkeley college 74-40, while Merchant Marine lost to Berkeley college 49-44; therein lies the difference.
Plymouth state 49 @ Johnson & Wales 52.
Another crap vs, crap game.  Plymouth has been off since they lost by 17 to Dartmouth on Dec 10, J&W is coming off a 41-40 loss to Gordon last Saturday in which the score at halftime was 10-9.  Each has 2 common opponents: J&W lost @ Dartmouth by 15, Plymouth lost there by 17.  Plymouth lost at home to RIC by 29, J&W lost @ RIC by 48.
RIC 86 @ York 42.
I have a feeling they'll play a lot better here.  Actually I'm even more sure Marcus Reilley can have Rachel Riley, Cynthia Gaudet, Ashley O'Dell, Courtney Burns, Nicole Girard, and Stephanie Coro put on street clothes and I'm sure they'll win this going away.  York is 0-11 on the season, have lost only 2 games by single digits, and have lost by an average of 33.8 their last 5 games.  They haven't scored more then 43 points those 5 games, and have been held to 53 or fewer in 10 of their 11 games this year.  They got beat by 50 by William Paterson and by 80 (yes 80, 8-0) against Eastern Mennonite.  This could be an easier win then the West Conn men had against SUNY-Cobleskill back in December.
Western Connecticut 85 @ CCNY 43.
Another game where coach Rybczyk could put Stephanie Slonski, Carly Muphy, Nicole Eanillio, Sciarra Brandt, Jackie Zilnicki, and Amber Litwinko in street clothes, and we'll probably win fairly easily.  Actually, I'm gonna do a running count tomorrow between RIC & Western comparing 3 things because they both play absolutely awful CUNY teams: 1) Which team scores more points 2) which team gives up less points and 3) which team has a higher winning margin.   I have RIC winning each category by the slighest margin (86 to 85, 42 to 43 and 44 to 42).  CCNY's lone win is against New Rochelle, and haven't lost by fewer than 10 this year, but have been playing better in December then they did in November.  CCNY has cracked 60 just twice this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 06, 2012, 01:19:45 AM
Plymouth state was a 54-50 loser to Johnson & Wales.  They started the game off trailing 16-0 and 20-3 before they rallied to score 14 of the halves final 27 points to cut it to 33-17 at the break.  A Colleen O'Hara layup with 17 seconds to play made it 53-50, but 1 of 2 J&W free throws sealed the game and the final margin.  Kellie Walsh lead the Panthers with 17, no one else had more than 8.
RIC 62-44 over York.
Cynthia Gaudet lead them with 18, Stephanie Coro had 11 on 4-11 shooting, the other 3 in the starting lineup (Nicole Girard, Courtney Burns & Rachel Riley) combined for only 11.  All 15 players on the RIC roster saw action for at least 4 minutes.
Western 64-44 over CCNY.
That means Western won 2 of the 3 categories I was keeping track of in the RIC/WCSU challenge: Western scored more points (64 to 62) each team gave up 44, and Western had the higher victory margin (18 to 20).  No boxscore of this game, but the shooting for both teams was poor.  Carly Murphy lead all scorers with 15, Melissa DiNino had 10 off the bench, by far her best performance of her college career, Steph Slonski had 8 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals a very good performance from our senior leader and team captain.
No score from the Merchant Marine/Boston game, and I've checked both school's athletic website and the Little East website, so not sure what happened there.

Conference off with LEC play resuming Saturday, and here's the schedule:
Keene @ Southern Maine
Boston @ RIC
Dartmouth @ Western
Eastern @ Plymouth.  I'll have predictions for all 4 games tomorrow.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 06, 2012, 02:29:13 PM
Saturday predictions:

Keene 67 @ USM 78
Tough schedule for USM; they play @ RIC on Tuesday.  The key to beating USM is to take Cochran out of the game, Keene state is undersized, and doesn't match up well.  If they can't hit perimeter shots they could end up losing by close to 30.
Boston 46 @ RIC 78.  If Steph Coro can find her jump shot, this team becomes even more dangerous then they are because you add in another shooter in that prolific offense.  No disrespect to Boston, but this game will be over at halftime.
Dartmouth 62 @ Western 65
This probably ends up being the best game of the day.  I'd say Dartmouth has more consistant scorers then West Conn does (Stephanie Houtman, Colleen O'Hara, and Colleen Moriarty).  Steph Slonski is the only person on the Colonial team you know is going to have a consistant game shooting the ball.  Carly Murphy is good from the outside, but if she steps inside she normally gets called for travelling, Nicole Eaniellio is MIA this year, someone should go send out a missing persons report to go find her, Amber Litwinko, Sciarra Brandt, and Jackie Zilnicki are like boxes of chocolates, you just don't know what you're going to get with them this year.  Some games (like early in the season against Conn College & Trinity) like they could be like chocolate and almonds where you can eat the whole box, other times (Skidmore, Mount St. Mary) their all chocolate and caramel where you have to throw the entire box away because you can't eat anything.  This team has been awful from outside the last couple games, and as I said all year this will be a live by the 3, die by the 3 kind of team, but we've won our last couple completely dead from outside.  Even though I wouldn't be surprised at all if we did lose, I can't see this happening at home, we have GOT to take advantage of the home court; good teams split on the road, sweep at home., we've already lost once at home, and still have the top 3 to play on the road this year.  Lose this game and we can all but forget about a top 2 seed this year.
Eastern 57 @ Plymouth 52.
Plymouth has lost 6 of 7, Eastern has lost 5 straight and half of their team.  This and Boston at home are probably PSU's 2 best chances for a conference win, I can't see them winning any games on the road.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 07, 2012, 07:29:47 PM
Sat results:

USM 65-58 over Keene. 
Courtney Cirillio lead the Owls with 17; Courtney Cochran and Haley Jordan combined for 33 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Huskies.  Once again, noone could shut down the front court.  IMO, if USM can somehow win @ RIC Tuesday night (I don't think they will though), they ain't losing again the rest of the season.  They'd get RIC at home in February, where their much better than on the road, and Eastern was the only team in the conference who actually matched up well with them; with their suspensions and deplated roster, they join the rest of the conference (sans RIC) who's mismatched against them.
Eastern pounds Plymouth 73-58.
Nice bounceback for the Warriors.  Shannon McCourt (28) and Kristina Forsman (20) lead the Warriors; Colleen O'Hara lead the Panthers with 13 who shot 2-20 from 3 and only 18-71 from the floor overall.
RIC all over Boston 60-37.  Boston connected on 3 of their first 4 field goal attempts; they hit only 8 of their next 57.   The Beacons went from the 5:00 mark of the first half to the 8:40 mark of the second half making only 1 field goal in that stretch.
Western survives Dartmouth 61-54.  It's amazing how we could've started off playing so well, and now we're playing so bad.  Shouldn't it be reversed??  Aren't you supposed to struggle early on, and get better as the season progresses??  We're getting worse as it progresses.  Should be very fortunate we won as Dartmouth started the second half shooting 4-20; if they start only shooting 7-20, Dartmouth more than likely wins the game.   And it's not like those 16 misses were contested jumpers, they were missing easy one's 5 feet from the basket.  Dartmouth got it to 57-54, but a Jackie Zilnicki layup with 29 seconds to play put the game out of reach, and the final 2 points for the final margin occured on the line.  Free throw shooting for the Colonials was absolutely atrocious 12-29; if you take out Taylor Nkonoki's 5-5, the rest of the team was 7-24 from the Charity stripe. :o  This will only add to our league worst free throw shooting, really have to improve from the line, teams should start using the hack-a-colonial approach until we prove we can shoot it consistantly from the line.  Why give up an easy layup for 2 points, if the Colonials have proven they can miss 2 free throws??  I'd like to know how the team is so good at shooting 3's yet so bad at shooting free throws??  Is it possible to petition the NCAA and LEC to shoot our free throws from behind the arc for the rest of the season??

With conference games Tuesday, there will be no more Sunday or Monday games until November of 2012, next year.  I'll have Tuesday predictions either Tuesday morning before I leave for Keene or Monday night.
Western @ Keene
Plymouth @ Boston
Eastern @ Dartmouth
USM @ RIC the conference game of the year and very well could decide whether the conf goes through Providence or Gorham, Maine.  If you want to know why, wait until I make my predictions, or ask on here and I'll respond whenever I see the question posted.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 09, 2012, 05:02:00 PM
Tuesday predictions (also starting now I'll list the Massey predictions after mine:

Plymouth 52 @ Boston 58 (massey lists this as a 59-56 Boston win, 59% chance)
Both teams are 0-3 (when you combine the 2 men's squad at also 0-3, the 4 teams at Boston tomorrow combine for a 0-12 conference record).  Neither of them has looked any good this year, but I'll take the Beacons because their at home.

Eastern 62 @ Dartmouth 66 (massey lists it at 66-59 Eastern 69% chance).
Tough game to gauge.  IMO, Dartmouth= last season's Boston.  Get fat eating cupcakes in the OOC portion of the schedule, and then get pounded once they get into conference play.  Boston started 11-2 in the OOC portion of their cupcake non LEC schedule, and finished 2-9 once they had to play LEC teams.  Dartmouth is 8-4 currently and only has 1 or 2 more non LEC games this year.  If they could've shot the ball better to start the second half Saturday, no doubt they would've beaten Western, but they didn't, and therefore, they got hit with the loss.  If Piper, Blodgett, and Lauren Kelleher were still with this Warriors team, I would pick them here by double digits easily, but I'm still not sure how good/bad this team is, so I'll pick Dartmouth in a close one at home.  Truley a coin flip in my opinion.

Western 62 @ Keene 66 (Massey lists 65-61 Western 63% chance).
This team really has not looked good lately.  The Owls had a good showing at USM after I though they would get blown out.  IF (and that's a big if) we can hold Courtney Cirillio to 15 points or fewer, we've got a great chance, if we let her go off like Courtney Cochran did to us, we'll get blown out.  However, this is a very tough and long trip (leave in the morning, get back to school about 1:00 am), and with the way we've been playing, I just can't see it happening.  Hopefully, we can get an split because imo, I can't see the men and women winning both games up here.

USM 62 @ RIC 76 (Massey has it 69-62 RIC 74%).
One of the few games RIC has a chance at losing the rest of the way (really think this @ USM, @ Keene @ Western are the only 4 games their in trouble the rest of the year).  Reason why I'm nominating it as conference game of the year??  If RIC wins, they'll be basically 3 up on their toughest competition (USM) with only 3 losable games the rest of the season.  Win this game, and just win 1 of those other 3, and their the regular season champs.  However, if USM wins, they'll be in the drivers seat.  They'll be tied with RIC, own the tiebreaker (at least for now), like RIC have a favorable schedule (only games I see an L for them is @ Keene & home vs. RIC).  They'll also have a backloaded home schedule the second half and get pretty much all their toughest opponents at home (Western, Eastern & RIC all go to Gorham in late January/ early February).  They also very rarely lose LEC games at home, and I can't see RIC beating them in Gorham in February when they couldn't beat them at home.    If USM was able to beat last year's Western team by 17 points at home, they'll beat this year's RIC team.  As much as I want to see RIC win, they win this, and they can start looking in the rear view mirror at the rest of the confernce.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 11, 2012, 02:42:12 AM
Tuesday recap:
Boston gets first conference win over Plymouth 63-42.
Colleen O'Hara lead the Panthers with 17.  Plymouth shot 5-33 in the second half.

Dartmouth 79-61 over Eastern.
This season will really help the youngsters for Eastern going forward.  Shannon McCourt, only a freshmen and almost never played because she was blocked by Piper Chapman and Lauren Kelleher is turning into their best player lead the team with 22 points and 11 rebounds on 10-20 shooting.  Colleen Moriarty and Erica Bornemann lead Dartmouth with 14 each

RIC runs past USM 74-50.
As usual, you shut down Cochran, and you more then likely win because their guards don't shoot the ball for whatever reason.  Rachel Riley completely dominated Cochran in the post, made her a non factor pretty much (9 points 6 boards 3-10 from the floor), and made someone else beat them which they aren't able to do because it's Cochran or bust for that team.  Really, how do Erin McNamera and Renee Nichols combine for only 2 points on 7 shot attempts??  Also, as usual, USM needs a bench as well.  in 63 minutes, the bench combined for 16 points 6 rebounds and only 15 shot attempts (making 4).  Luckily for them RIC is the only team in the conference that has height, and they have a great home court advantage because this is a 1 dimensional 1 person team this year.  Also, they better hope either Keene or Western can find a way to beat this RIC squad twice because USM is gonna get killed by them if they have to play in Providence again for the tournament. Rachel Riley had 12 and 14 for RIC, Cynthia Gaudet lead them again with 18, what a find she's been for them.

Keene over Western 69-60.
Western shot 24 shots inside the arc and a whopping 39 from.  Even though we made 14 of those shots and had 42 of our 60 points from outside the arc, their can't be that big of a discrepensy, we gotta attack the basket.  A Chelsea Mone 3 made the score 21-12 Western at the 8:52 mark.  11 missed shots later, and a 17-0 run between the 1st and second half made the score 29-21 Keene before Carly Murphy put us back on the board with a 3 at the 19:20 mark.  Second half was back and forth for the majority of the half before Keene pulled away at the end.

Non LEC action Thursday:
Keene state @ Worcester 12:00 noon.  Worcester is doing some Math Madness event whatever the hell that is, but noon starts during the week really screw everything up, especially when you've just played2 nights prior and have to play again 2 days later.  I'll take it though because I'm probably gonna head up there before going down to Eastern
RIC @ Trinity 7:00, Maine-Presque Isle @ Eastern, Boston @ Bridgewater both at 7:30 round out the Thursday slate.  I'll have predictions for those games tomorrow.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on January 11, 2012, 02:06:56 PM
Just visited D-II U of Bridgeport's womens BB site and noticed ECSU transfer Tanisha Carter not only leading the 4-10 Purple Knights in scoring (18.4ppg) and rebounds, (9 pg), but is #1 in points per game and #4 in rebounding in the whole East Coast Conference!!!!!.  How did ECSU let her get away??? :'(   Anyone know?  Some blogs refer to her even D-1 material!!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 11, 2012, 02:21:58 PM
When I saw UB earlier in the year (I only live like 20 mins away from there) I was absolutely shocked to see her name on the roster.  Granted, you can't see suspensions happening, but in light of that Carter would've been an incredibly nice addition to have back this year.  I think she should've been playing D-2 ball in the first place (same with DaQuan Brooks for the West Conn men I think he would hold his own in some low level D-1 conferences and would've played D-2).  When you have someone like that, you gotta keep them around.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 11, 2012, 03:51:24 PM
Keene state 63 @ Worcester 49.
Both teams played Tuesday night, and both teams play again Saturday afternoon.  On a noon start in the middle of a week in between conference games, the home team gets the edge because as I said last night noon starts (and any afternoon start before 4:00 PM), really screws up teams.  At least the home team has the advantage where they don't have to get on a bus at 8:30 AM and travel to the game.  All season Worcester has altered what they did: the started off with a loss, than they won their next game.  They followed that up losing 3 straight before winning 3 straight.  They followed that losing 2 straight in Hawaii, before coming back to the US and winning 2 straight.  Their current streak is at L1, so if we go by this logic, their due for a loss.  Worcester is 0-1 against the LEC so far losing to Dartmouth in November, and have a matchup against RIC in February; The Owls are 1-0 against the MASCAC beating Westfield state earlier and are done with the conference after this matchup.

RIC 73 @ Trinity (CT) 60.
The dreaded sandwich game.  Have a big victory against USM Tuesday, have a big road test @ Keene Saturday, and in between the 2 play a not-so-good Trinity team.  Those sandwich games are the one's you have to worry about, especially when they come on the road.  I think they take control in the second half after a sluggish first 20 minutes.

Boston 56 @ Bridgewater 73.
Bridgewater upset MCLA in the MASCAC tournament to win their conference last season.  They have a record of 7-5, but started the year 5-2, and have really feasted on sub .500 teams; 56 point win over Thomas (2-10), 29 point win over Trinity (5-6), and a 25 point win over Middlebury (3-8).  Last Saturday, they handed Fitchburg state their first loss of the season, who was in the ORV category of the women's top 25 poll.  Boston has won 2 of 3 after starting the season losing 8 of their first 10.

Presque Isle 54 @ Eastern Connecticut 82.
Presque Isle have already played SUNY-Canton (NAIA team), and Williams (tonight) on this trip through the East.  Presque Isle is 4-7 overall, but 3-2 against NAIA opponents while only 1-5 against D-3 opponents.  The Owls lone matchup against an LEC team this year wasn an 85-44 thrashing at the hands of Southern Maine.  A nice confidence builder for this Warriors team who have lost 5 of 6, with the majority of those losses implementing an entire new team.

Massey ratings:
Keene 61-49 (89%)
RIC 68-55 (89%)
Bridgewater 77-55 (98%)
Eastern 80-38 (100%)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 12, 2012, 01:06:15 PM
Worcester leads 26-17 at halftime over the Owls.  Keene has shot just 3-22 in the half, and started off just 1-16, so at least they ended the half making 2 of their final 6, about the only thing that has gone right for them.  Worcester's lead by as many as 14.
Keene state forced overtime tied at 49 all.  Sara Laudano missed what would have been the game winner with 2 seconds left after Worcester state turned it over with a chance to win.  Keene ended regulation on a 22-14 run to erase an 8 point deficit.
Final: Worcester wins 58-52.  Courtney Cirillio lead all scorers with 23.  Owls scored only 3 points and had no field goals made in the overtime session.  When you combine the first half and the overtime period, Keene state shot 3-31, a measley 9.7% in 25 minutes.  Not gonna win you many games.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 12, 2012, 03:24:27 PM
Hopefully for KSC's sake, it was the "sandwich" game you like to talk about.  Coming off a big win and with a big game coming up.  Worcester State is just 7-7...and is not very good in all honesty.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 12, 2012, 07:42:46 PM
RIC leads 34-26 at halftime, Gaudet with 10 points, Rachel Riley with 8 and 5 so far.  Anchorwomen shooting 48% from the floor.
Bridgewater 23-16 11:08 left, not sure of the Eastern score.
RIC 57-48 over Trinity.  Cynthia Gaudet lead them with 17, Rachel Riley had 13 and 12
Bridgewater 68-58 over Boston.  Lauren Perra lead the Beacons with 22; Jenna Williamson lead Bridgewater with a game high 26
Eastern 63-45 over Presque Isle.  Shannon McCourt had a game high 19 points; the teams combined for 3-20 shooting from 3.  Watching this game on LEC TV for the first half, Presque Isle brought down 0 assistants, so it was just the coach on the bench for the Owls.  What would have happened to them if the coach had picked up 2 technical's??

Saturday schedule:
Western @ Plymouth
Boston @ Eastern
RIC @ Keene
Dartmouth @ USM.  I'll have predictions tomorrow.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 13, 2012, 01:33:52 PM
Sat predictions:

Western 62 @ Plymouth 49.
Western had a good November start, but has looked bad since then.  Plymouth state has been bad all season.  Call me a homer, but I still like Western to challenge RIC & USM, but that mean's winning games like this
Boston 54 @ Eastern 60.
A coin flip game, but I like Eastern at home.  Boston has been playing very well since 2012 rolled around
RIC 67 @ Keene 59.
RIC is in a class by themselves.  Keene will give them a challenge for 30 minutes or so, but RIC's talent wins out in the end.
Dartmouth 54 @ USM 70.
At home and coming off a pounding at RIC Tuesday.  Not a good posistion for Dartmouth to be in.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 15, 2012, 08:15:04 PM
Sat results:

RIC pounds Keene 77-46.
Just proves their the team to beat now, they hadn't been playing as well as they could have been since they came back from Christmas break, but broke out in a big way.  Keene was down 41-12 at the half, shooting 18.5%, and shot only 25% for the game.
Boston 68-55 over Eastern.
Granted, it's over a depleted Warriors squad, but this is Boston's first win over Eastern since 2008, and puts them in the think of the LEC playoff race.  Shannon McCourt had 22 and 13 for the Warriors, while Krystina Forsman, Taylor McBride and Sam Riccio contributed to the loss shooting a combined 10-28; Kirsten Morrison was the only Beacon in double figures, but she finished with 31, as the Beacons have gone 3-3 so far in 2012 after compiling a 2-7 record in 2011.
USM 89-60 over Dartmouth.
Haley Jordan and Courtney Cochran combined for 38 points and 16 rebounds.  Colleen Moriarty lead the Corsairs with 13; no one else had more than 7.
Western 67-60 over Plymouth.
Another team that got shorter.  Kristen Mooney is not playing anymore, and Jackie Zilnicki is out until at least the Southern Maine game on the 28th as she's in a walking boot for the next 2 weeks.  Melissa DiNino with by far her best game of her young carer; 13 points 10 rebounds in 24 minutes.

Tuesday schedule (rivalry day), will have predictions Monday:
So Maine @ Boston
Plymouth @ Keene
Dartmouth @ RIC
Western @ Eastern
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 16, 2012, 02:52:22 PM
Tuesday predictions:

USM 73 @ Boston 50.
Boston has alternated wins and losses their last 6 games; last game for them was a win.  The Beacons have been playing better, but USM is clearly better.

Plymouth 56 @ Keene 67.
Keene can't score, but neither can the Panthers.  Owls win a defensive slug fest.

Dartmouth 56 @ RIC 82.
I stand by my prediction this seasons Dartmouth= last seasons Boston.  No one is playing better then RIC in the conference right now, they win going away.

Western 56 @ Eastern 49.
Will be a low scoring affair; Western has had trouble putting the ball in the basket and are playing short handed with Jackie Zilnicki out with a foot injury, and it looks like Shannon McCourt is the only player that's putting up consistant offensive numbers for the Warriors.

Massey ratings:
USM 68-52 (93%)
Keene 73-50 (98%)
RIC 74-53 (98%)
Western 68-61 (72%)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 17, 2012, 11:52:23 PM
Tuesday results:

Keene 70-42 over Plymouth. 
Krystin Corlis had 7 off the bench for Plymouth who shot 20.7% for the game.  The starting 5 for the Panthers contributed a grand total of 14 points.

Western 61-57 over Eastern.
Kristina Forsman lead Eastern with 14, but Shannon McCourt snatched another double double with 13 and 12.  Carly Murphy lead Western with 14.  Amber Litwinko played 3 minutes, all in the first half.  She was playing 20 25+ minutes the first semester, and she's had 2 games the past week where she's played 6 minutes and 4 minutes.  Sitting in front of Karli Spera at the game today, late in the game she was taking to Bam's mom, thinking about transfering where she would play more.  Hopefully she sticks around because she's got a ton of talent that she hasn't displayed yet.

USM 83-60.
Cochran and Haley Jordan only went for 30 and 12 combined, but it was more then enough for the Huskies who went into halftime up 23.

RIC by 39 over Dartmouth 62-23.
RIC held Dartmouth to 8 first half points, and 8 of 67 shooting from the floor (2 of 18 from 3).  Dartmouth sank a 3 pointer on their first possession of the game, and only scored 5 more times the final 19:08 of the first half.  All 15 players for the Anchorwomen played, and 14 of the 15 registered at least 7 minutes of action.  Rachel Rilry lead RIC with 18; Stephanie Coro and Cythia Gaudet chipped in 12 and 11 respectively.

1 game Thursday, and that will be Williams @ Eastern.  I'll have a prediction Wednesday, but Williams should throttle them.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 19, 2012, 12:16:27 AM
Williams 74 @ Eastern 50.
This game could be close for a while, maybe even a half (especially if Williams can't shoot), but the Ephs are better, more balanced, and more expierenced, and should run away from the Warriors in the 2nd half.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 20, 2012, 02:58:36 PM
Eastern with a 63-47 loss to Williams last night.  The Ephs were lead off the bench by Grace Rehnquist who had a game high 17; Eastern was lead by Shannon McCourt who had another double double with 15 and 13 (has to be the favorite for rookie of the year in my opinion), while Taylor McBride chipped in 10.  Only 3 other players for the Warriors were on the scoresheat however.

Saturday schedule:
Boston @ Western
Plymouth @ RIC
Keene @ Dartmouth
Eastern @ USM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 20, 2012, 03:48:53 PM
Sat predictions:

Boston 62 @ Western 66.
Boston has been playing well; Western hasn't been playing that well, but their still getting W's which is all that counts.  If this was at Boston, I'd probably give them the edge, but this team just doesn't lose at home (Steph Slonski has just 4 home losses in her career).
Plymouth 34 @ RIC 59.
If they (RIC) can hold Dartmouth to 23 points and 12% from the field, they can easily do the same thing to Plymouth who are on 19 straight conference losses and counting dating back to last season.  A Plymouth loss would officially eliminate them from clinching the #1seed, but I'd say their unofficially eliminated from that at this point anyways.
Keene 56 @ Dartmouth 60.
Depends which Keene shows up, because their easily capable of beating them as they have won 13 of the last 14 matchups, but you don't know which Keene team shows up; if it's the team that beat West Conn, scored 70 on Plymouth and played USM tough then they'll beat Dartmouth, however there also capable of scoring 25 in a game or going a 25 minute stretch shooting 3-31 in which case they'll lose.  I've made my feelings known on Dartmouth all year, but they'll win this at home.
Eastern 39 @ USM 70.
USM wants payback for the pounding Eastern put on them in Willimantic last month, however that was with a full roster; this team right now is a shell of what it was when it defeated the Huskies 6 weeks ago.    This actually would've been a good game to keep tabs on if the Warriors had a full roster.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 21, 2012, 01:09:25 PM
Western up 8-7 early.  Looks like we only have 7 players in uniform; Chelsea Mone and Amber Litwinko look to be the only subs.  I know Kayla Murkem, Jackie Zilnicki, and Taylor Nkonoki were out, looks like Caroline Brasa is out as well
18-16 Western 10:51.  Yup only 7 players availible for coach Rybczyk today. 
37-26 Western at halftime.  Really played well the second part of the first.  Kirsten Morrison is absolutely killing us in the paint though.  We're goning to have a lot of problems with Rachel Riley (RIC) and Courtney Cochran (USM) this week.
44-28 12:23 left in game.  There looks like there's 50 people at the O'Neil center today.  Can't say I really blame them for nobody being there.
52-36 7:04.  Both teams are really struggling here in the 2nd.  Not a lot of whistles which is why its already at the 7:04 mark. 
Kirsten Morrison gets the Beacons within 9 52-43 4:56 left.  Like Dartmouth 2 weeks ago, Boston could not buy a basket the first 10 mins which is why tjeir still 9 behind, too little too late for the Beacons.
Final: Western 60-46.  Winning ugly better then losing pretty.  Second half wasn't very pretty.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 21, 2012, 01:37:41 PM
Other conference scores:

Keene 28-21 8:31 left in first. 
Plymouth scored the first 2 points of the game, have been outscored 27-3 since then trail 27-5 .  Cynthia Gaudet and Stephanie Coro are each outscoring PSU as they have 7 each
USM up 15-6 15:03 left
Keene 36-35 at halftime.  Megan Farrell and Courtney Cirillio have 10 each
RIC 44-15 over Plymouth.  Gaudet has as many points as Plymouth does (15).
USM up 53-19 at half.  USM is shooting 67% so far.
Keene 55-47 7:50 left.  Cirillio is up to 19 for the Owls leading the way
RIC up 59-28 11:56 left.  Courtney Burns (10) and Rachel Riley (10) have joined Gaudet (15) in the double digit point department.
USM up 40 71-31 11:30 left.  Shannon McCourt game high with 17 but she only has 3 boards so looks like she'll miss a double double.  Cochran has 14 for the Huskies; Krystina Forsman has 8 for the Warriors.  USM only shooting 62% now after shooting 67% in the first.
Southern Maine up 39 with 6:50 left (87-38), RIC up 35 (71-36) with 3:23 left.  I know I'm going out on a limb here but I'm proclaiming both games........over.  Keene up 2 possessions (66-60) 2:11 left, so at least we had 1 somewhat competitive game today.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 21, 2012, 02:22:23 PM
Western wins 60-46.  Once I find stats, I'll edit this and post the game high's.
Kirsten Morrison exploded for 30 points................too bad the rest of the team scored 16 total.   Colonials were lead by Carly Murphy with 13 with Nicole Eaniellio (11), Stephanie Slonski (10) and Amber Litwinko (10) joining Murph in double figures.  With the shortened bench, all 7 Colonials played at least 17 minutes.
Keene 77-65 winner over Dartmouth.  Courtney Cirillio lead all scorers with a game high 29 points (19 in the 2nd half).  Erika Bornemann lead the Corsairs with 19
RIC finished up their 29 point win over Plymouth 73-44.  As I stated earlier, after Plymouth scored the first 2 points of the game, RIC scored 27 of the next 30 points to go up 27-5 and they cruised from there.  Colleen O'hara did not play for the Panthers; Michaela Galvin lead the Panthers with 17; Cynthia Gaudet lead all scorers with 17, 15 in the first half.  RIC lead by as many as 36 in the 2nd.
USM 94-52 over Eastern.  Huskies had 5 in double figures lead by Courtney Cochran with 16; Shannon McCourt lead all scorers with 21.  McCourt (21), Krystina Forsman (14) and Danyelle Rodriguez (9) combined for 44 points; the Warriors got just 8 points from the rest of the team.  Huskies finished the game shooting 54% and lead by as many as 50 in the second half. 

Tuesday schedule:
RIC @ Western
USM @ Plymouth
Boston @ Dartmouth
Keene @ Eastern.  As usual I'll have predictions Monday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 22, 2012, 02:23:25 AM
Biggest week of the season coming up for the Western women in what could potentially make or break their season (were tied for 2nd with Keene & USM) and are still within striking distance of RIC.
Tuesday we get RIC at home.  RIC is a team that gets contributions from 12-15 players nightly, has the best PG in the league who can really make plays, their 6th man off the bench would start for any of the other 7 teams in the conference, and has a great post player.  Were still going to be shorthanded for this game (Kayla Murkem & Jackie Zilnicki are definitely out, not sure whether Taylor Nkonoki or Carolina Brasa will be back).  Then on Saturday we go up to Gorham to take on USM.  Really not expecting us to win this game (last year we lost by 18 up there), but hopefully we can keep it close.  After this week, the only losable game we have is @ RIC on Feb 14; @ Dartmouth (Feb 4) and home vs. Keene (Feb 11) are games we could possibly lose, but we should be favored in both of them however.

Going 1-1 would be decent, especially if it's against USM.  I'm already ruling out catching RIC even if we win Tuesday because I know we aren't winning in Providence later on, so I hope we can pass USM/Keene for the 2 seed and the bye.  Even though were tied with both USM & Keene, technically were 1 back of them since we lost the first game against both teams, and therefore, would lose the tiebreaker if the season ended today.  A loss to USM would put us defacto 2 games back of USM since USM would hold that 2-0 season series tiebreaker if we finish tied, and therefore USM would have to lose three times in order to be passed. 
Going 0-2 would force us to play Tuesday barring an unforsense collapse by USM, who has the easiest schedule ever in February; 3 of their final 5 conference games are at home; road games are Keene & Dartmouth, and by the time of the game only Keene & RIC are likely to be above .500 on the day of the game.  However, we'd likely play the 3/4 home game on Tuesday (barring an unforsene collapse by us) and the likely opponents would be eastern/Boston/dartmouth, teams we've had success with in the past.
Going 2-0 is almost impossible, but would definitely prove we're still in the running for the top spot.  And as I said earlier, after the USM game, the game @ RIC in mid February is the only game of the season we'll likely lose.  2-0 week would put us only 1 back of RIC, and hopefully they can lose to both Keene and USM in February so we can sneak in the back door.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 23, 2012, 05:51:16 PM
Tuesday prediction:

RIC 64 @ Western 58.
I think they'll get a test in this game, something they haven't gotten since the Stevens game in January because they've been running over every team with a cement truck this year, at least the Colonials will fight back with a dump truck, but it probably won't matter.  We get beat off the ball a lot which won't be good with Gaudet running the show for RIC, were gonna get smoked in the post with Rachel Riley which won't be good, and our best defender (Taylor Nkonoki) was in street clothes the last game, not sure of her status.  RIC played us extremely tough in 3 meetings last year (I think our largest margin of victory in any of the 3 matchups was 9), and with the way this team plays defense under coach Rybczyk we're hardly ever gonna get blown out and will be in the majority of the games we play, however this RIC is too good offensively, defensively and are sooooo much deeper then the Colonials are they win in the end.  RIC gets a closer game then they probably think they will, but they'll survive.  One X factor to keep an eye on from here on out is how RIC handles prosperity, especially this game @ USM later in the year.  Last year in an even deeper league then this currently Western took charge knowing it was make or break with what their losing, and took no one lightly.  Granted some teams gave us harder matchups then others (RIC & Keene for example), but they swept through the conference like they were expected to.  This RIC team has the same window: 4 of 5 starters are seniors, and even though the roster is deep, nobody expects the bench to contribute anything, so their likely to take a step back next year.  I remember someone on the RIC team taking a picture of the LEC standings and posting it on twitter on the night of Jan 10 (after they beat USM and we lost to Keene) with a caption that said something like, "isn't this a beautifal thing?"  THAT'S what I'm talking about prosperity.  We weren't taking any pictures of the standings after we beat Eastern for the first time in the regular season last year...that's because we were expected to win.  RIC is expected to win every game they play from here on out with the exception of the USM game which I'll rule as a pick 'em, I'm not too confident in them running the table if people are tweeting pics of the standings after 4 conference games have been played.  If you want to take em after you beat Western on Feb 14 to win the championship, then yes take them.  Championships aren't won after 4 conference games, nor are they won on January 10.

USM 83 @ Plymouth 43.
This could be even worse if Colleen O'Hara doesn't play for the Panthers; she was out Saturday.

Boston 56 @ Dartmouth 55.
Last year I thought Boston was better because they played Western tougher then Dartmouth did, yet Dartmouth swept the season series.  Dartmouth has a better record, but it was via OOC cupcakes; Bostin is playing better at the moment, they steal one on the road.

Keene 54 @ Eastern 58.
Keene has absolutely no business losing this game, but why oh why do I think they will????
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 25, 2012, 12:22:10 AM
RIC survives 56-54.  Courtney Burns hit 2 free throws with 28 seconds left in a tie game to give them the lead, and the final possession for the Colonials was awful.  RIC had a couple fouls to give and they used them inside 10 seconds.  With 7 seconds left, Steph Slonski got knocked the ball out of her hands, and rolled out of bounds near the scorers table with 3 seconds left, and that essential ended the game.  Sciarra Brandt had their 3 blocked at the buzzer which essentially ended the game.  Yet another game this year where we either lost the game or the opponents D made a key stop: In the MSM game (2 point loss), MSM made 2 key defensive stops, including forcing a turnover, and preceded to go coast to cooast for the winner.  In the USM game Steph Slonski missed a free throw attempt which would have won the game, and we lost by 1 in overtime.  Today RIC forced a foul, converted the free throw, and got the block to win.  Tomorrow rest of recaps and my mid season awards.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 25, 2012, 01:17:36 PM
Tuesday results:
USM 86-53 over Plymouth.
Courtney Cochran combined for 47 points and 27 rebounds and almost singe-handily outscored the Panthers by themselves.
Keene 58-38 over Eastern. 
Krystina Forsman, Taylor McBride and Shannon McCourt combined for 35 of the teams 38 points with the lone 3 points coming on a Danyelle Rodriguez 3 who finished shooting 1-16.  Eastern shot 15.6% from the floor in the 2nd half and was held scoreless the final 6:59 of the game.
RIC 56-54 over Western.
Talked about this game last night, but Rachel Riley had a great birthday (she turned 21 yesterday), as she lead RIC with 19 points, but the player of the game was Courtney Burns.  In a 54-54 tie with 29 seconds left, she was fouled by Chelsea Mone and converted both free throws.  With 1 second left she blocked a Sciarra Brandt 3, and Rachel Riley corralled the rebound as the horn sounded.
Dartmouth 64-53 over Boston.
Once again, I missed a Boston Dartmouth pick, sigh.  Kirsten Morrison lead the Beacons with 19 points, while Erika Bornemann and Colleen Moriarty paced the Corsairs with 16 apiece.

Thursday schedule:
RIC 66 @ Worcester 54.
RIC should win this, but probably closer because it's a non-league game.
Salem state 67 @ Dartmouth 65.
Salem state has won 7 of their last 10 after starting 2-6 to run their record to an even 9-9 with a 5-1 MASCAC conference record.
Middlebury 54 @ Keene state 62.
Not to be confused with the men's team, the Middlebury women are 5-11 (0-5 in the NESCAC) and have lost 8 of their last 10, but have won 2 of 3.  No reason Keene shouldn't win this.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 25, 2012, 02:04:30 PM
7express's mid season LEC awards.  Feel free to disagree with these and add your own where you see fit:

Best team: RIC.  Is their any doubt??
Most dissapoint team: Boston.  I thought they'd be a lot better then their 5-14 overall record and 2-6 conference record
Team with most to gain in the second half: Boston.  They probably don't catch Western for the last home spot (4 back with the tiebreak), HOWEVER their tied with Eastern (own the tiebreaker) and 1 back of Dartmouth and get both at home in February.  Their also done with Western and after this weekend they'll be done with Keene
Team with least to gain in the second half: Eastern.  Really, the only winable game left on their schedule is Plymouth, and their last 3 games they've lost by 16, 42 & 20.
Coach of the year: Right now Marcus Reilly, however if RIC ends up losing to USM, and Western finishes in the top 3 I'd give it to coach Kim Rybczyk based on what they lost last year and where they finished this year.  If Eastern can find a way to make the LEC tournament, Denise Beirley is another coach I take a look at based on what she was dealt with after Christmas
Rookie of the year: Shannon McCourt.  If there's one bright spot for Eastern it's her.  She probably doesn't play otherwise and she's making the most of her opportunities.  I think she's scored in double figures every game she's started in since she was forced into the starting lineup after New Year's.  Taylor McBride and Krystina Forsman are other candidates on that Eastern squad that wouldn't have logged major minutes this year and are making the most of the playing time, along with Kirsten Morrison who is the Beacons leading scorer as a freshmen and 3rd overall in scoring.
MVP: Cynthia Gaudet.  The do it everything guard for RIC (well except rebounding).  She can score (leads the team), dish the ball (leads the team in assists), and plays great defense (leads the team and second in conference in steals).  A great team has a great floor leader, and Gaudet is one of the reasons RIC has an unblemeshed LEC mark and only 2 losses overall.  Other MVP candidates: Carly Murphy-Western (even though I think Caroline Brasa is team MVP more though), Courtney Cirillio (Keene), Rachel Riley (RIC) and Courtney Cochran (USM).  If the Beacons can make a move these final 4 weeks, and finish 4th/5th I wouldn't be surprised to see Kirsten Morrison get a lot of votes; not enough to win obviously, but enough to get her in the top 3 or 4 though.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 25, 2012, 03:47:06 PM
Interesting article on Kirsten Morrison: http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/womens_basketball/articles/2012/01/22/north_readings_morrison_leaving_her_mark_on_the_basketball_court_at_umass_boston_too/

I thought I had remembered that name when I looked at the Western Boston volleyball recap from October.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 26, 2012, 08:56:24 PM
Thursday non-conference games
Rhode Island College survives at Worcester State, 72-63.  Anchorwomen outscored Lancers by 18 in the second half (39-21) after trailing by 9 at the half.

Keene State downs Middlebury, 63-45.

UMass-Dartmouth tops Salem State at home, 85-72.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 26, 2012, 10:03:21 PM
Thursday results:

RIC 72-63 over Worcester state.  I think it was a tougher game thna RIC thought they were in.  They scored almost as many points in the 2nd half (39) then they did in their last game against Western (56).  Good teams can rebound from halftime deficit's, bad team's don't hold halftime leads.
Dartmouth 85-72 over Salem state.  Kelsey Garrity lead 6 Corsairs in double figures with 23 points.  The Vikings, who shot 3-20 from 3 were lead by Rachel Carter with 18.
Keene over Middlebury 63-45.  Sara Laudano lead the Owls with 17.  Scarlett Kirk was the leading scorer for Mid who were held to under 30% from the floor for the game.

Sat schedule (I will have predictions tomorrow before I leave for Maine):
Western @ USM
Eastern @ RIC
Boston @ Keene
Dartmouth @ Plymouth.  None of the games are that impressive.  I'd say Keene vs. Boston is the closest just because Keene has trouble scoring.  if that USM/Western game was in Danbury I'd nominate that, but in Maine I think we get run out of the gym.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 27, 2012, 01:18:31 PM
Sat predictions:

Western 52 @ USM 75.
Since losing to RIC, USM has won their last 4 by an average of 31.8 points with the "closest" being a 23 point win against Boston.   The Huskies have won their last 2 home games by 35.5 points, beating Dartmouth by 29 and Eastern by 42 (when they lead by as many as 50 in the game).  Western will still be short-handed.  Taylor Nkonoki is cleared to play, but Jackie Zilnicki is still out for at least another week with a toe injury, and Caroline Brasa has mono so I'm not sure if she'll be availible.  Last year with the big 3 up here (Heather Lee, Karli Spera, and Mellissa Teel) we lost by 22, and really were never even in the game.  I know there's no moral victories, but really would be a moral victory if we can keep this to single digits.
Eastern 38 @ RIC 75.
Eastern has lost their last 5 games by an average of 17.8 points, while RIC is on a 13 game winning streak.  Last month in Willimantic RIC turned a close game (8 point lead with 6:30 to play) into a 26 point blowout by scoring the games final 18 points.  That was the last game Piper Chapman, Lauren Kelleher, Jessica Blodgett & Rachael Armstrong played for the Warriors before they were all dismissed from the team a few weeks later.
Boston 54 @ Keene 62.
I think Kirsten Morrison will keep the Beacons competitive for 30 minutes, but unfortunately, no one else on that team can step up.
Dartmouth 62 @ Plymouth 57.
If Colleen O'Hara plays for the Panthers, I say PSU wins, if O'Hara doesn't play (she's been out since the 17th), they get blown out.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 28, 2012, 09:25:06 PM
USM beats Western 69-56.
Courtney Cochran did not play for USM and wasn't even with the team (neither dressed in uniform or in street clothes).  Something to keep an eye on later in the year. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 28, 2012, 11:22:38 PM
Rest of Saturday results:

Dartmouth 76-62 over Plymouth.
Colleen Moriarty lead 3 Corsairs in double figures.  Once again Colleen O'Hara for Plymouth was a DNP, has to be an injury at this point.  A Dartmouth win over West Conn next weekend would tie them for 4th in the standings, guess we weren't as comfortable as I first thought.

Keene clobbers Boston 75-33.
Kirsten Morrison got held to 6 points and 9 boards in 33 minutes of action.  15 players for Keene played 5+ minutes.

USM 69-56.
As stated earlier, USM finished the final 9:33 on a 27-8 run.  And granted it didn't matter in the end, and made the final margin 13 instead of 11, but you would think a senior would be smart enough to realise to dribble the ball out when the opponent is letting her do that, then to do stat padding.  USM hosts Colby on Tuesday, their gonna have big problems if Cochran is out for that game as well.

RIC keeps rolling 83-52 over Eastern.
What was a close game at halftime (33-29), RIC ended it by outscoring the Warriors 50-23 in the 2nd stanza.  Cynthia Gaudet lead them with 19, Rachel Riley had 16 and 7, while Danyelle Rodriguez lead the Warriors with 17.

Since were approaching February from here on out after every conference day, I'm going to post the updated standings, and how the conference tournament would shape out if the season ended today.

1) RIC 17-2 (9-0)
2) USM 15-4 (7-2)
2) Keene 13-5 (7-2)
4) Western 13-6 (5-4)
5) Dartmouth 12-7 (4-5)
6) Eastern 6-13 (2-7)
6) Boston 5-14 (2-7)
8) Plymouth 2-15 (0-9)
Eastern, Boston & Plymouth are all eliminated from claiming the #1 seed, Dartmouth is 1 loss OR  1 RIC win from being eliminated for that 1 seed as well.  Boston won the first head to head meeting against Eastern this year (rematch is Feb 18- final day of the season), so Boston has the 6th and final spot.  Likewise, USM won the only head to head meeting against Keene (rematch is next Saturday), so they get the 2 seed and final bye while Keene gets #3.
RIC would host the semi's and get to a bye to them, and USM would join RIC in the semi's.  Keene would host Boston and Western would host Dartmouth in the first round on Tuesday to open the tournament.

No LEC games on Tuesday, so we get OOC games on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday of this week, before LEC action picks up again Saturday.
Tuesday schedule (will have predictions Monday):
Colby @ USM
Lesley @ Plymouth
Tufts @ RIC
Eastern @ Bowdoin (good luck).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 30, 2012, 04:27:09 PM
Tuesday predictions:

Colby 56 @ USM 59.
Colby is receiving votes, you would think USM would go into that ORV category if they win this; that would give them wins over Bowdoin (was ranked at the time, not even receiving votes now though), Colby (bounced around between the top 25 & ORV all year) and Babson this year (top 20 all season).  It sounds like Courtney Cochran will be back, so I'll take the Huskies by a field goal.

Lesley 32 @ Plymouth 58.
The 2 teams are on a combined 25 game losing streak (Plymouth on a 9 game losing streak, Lesley on a 16 game losing streak), and bring a combined 2-31 record into Foley gymnasium.  Lesley has been held to 40 points or less in 13 of their 16 games this season, while Plymouth has scored 40+ in 16 of 17, that's the difference in this pillow fight.

Tufts 56 @ RIC 62.
Best game of the day.  It's too bad the West Conn men have a game because I really want to see this game.  Tufts has good defewnsive pressure but 2 things which I think will decide the game 1) They have no height and 2) they can have periods in the game where they struggle to score.  The height disadvantage for the Jumbo's will be the main reason I think they lose this game, but really could go either way.

Eastern 45 @ Bowdoin 83.
Yah, good luck Eastern!  Bowdoin coming off a big win over NESCAC and state rival Colby, so their could be an emotional letdown for the Polar Bears.

Massey ratings:
Tufts 55-51 (62%)
USM 64-62 (55%)
Bowdoin 71-51 (97%)
Plymouth 72-28 (100%).  Wow, Lesley must be really bad if Plymouth has a 100% to win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Maine 1 on January 31, 2012, 07:48:41 AM
A couple of thoughts here-first on Tufts--they actually have a very good freshman post player--who battled Colby's bigs evenly a few weeks ago (Colby has a 6-3 and 6-1 front line)--so don't be surprised if she doesn't get more playing time.

Colby versus USM should be interesting.  I would not be surprised either way on that one
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 01, 2012, 02:11:43 AM
Tuesday results:

USM 73-67 over Colby.
Haley Jordan lead 3 Huskies in double figures with 23 points.  That gives USM wins over Colby, Bowdoin & Babson this year all teams that were either ranked or in the ORV category at the time.  Hopefully this gives USM some votes in next week's poll.
Plymouth 63-27 over Lesley.
Plymouth held Lesley to 4-23 shooting in the 2nd half.  Kellie Walsh lead the Panthers with 13 points
RIC over Tufts 62-41.
Their really rolling, Tufts was 17-3 on the season, losing 2 of their first 3 games in November when they had to replace the school's all-time leading scorer in Colleen Hart, and then lost by 1 to Bowdoin in the final seconds.  RIC held Tufts to 23.2% shooting.  Rachel Riley and Cynthia Gaudet each poured in 15 and Riley missed a double double by 1 rebound.  That's now 16 straight W's for RIC.
Bowdoin 65-45.
Eastern is going the opposite way as this was their 7th straight loss.  Kristina Forsman scored 11 of Eastern's 20 field goals and attempted 24 of their 55 field goals.  She lead them with 23, noone else scored more than 7.  Jill Henrikson lead the Polar Bears with 25.
When you take into account the 5 men's games on Tuesday, the LEC finished 5-3 against the NESCAC with 1 game remaining this week.  Not sure of the overall record of the league is the whole season.

Wednesday schedule :
Mount Ida @ Mass-Dartmouth.  I'll have a prediction in my next post
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 01, 2012, 02:40:31 AM
Wednesday schedule:

Mount Ida 62 @ Dartmouth 67.
Mount Ida is 10-9 on the year and 4-4 in the GNAC.  They are 1-1 against the LEC this year; losing to Keene state and beating Boston.   Dartmouth is 2-0 against the GNAC beating Johnson & Wales by a combined 22.5.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 02, 2012, 02:35:55 AM
Wednesday result:

Dartmouth 70-55.
Colleen Moriarty lead the Corsairs with 17 who now assured of no worse than a .500 season this year.  The Corsairs forced 23 Mount Ida turnovers, and they converted those turnovers into 22 points

Thursday schedule (predictions in next post):
Johsnon state @ Plymouth state
Western @ Bridgewater state
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 02, 2012, 03:29:07 AM
Thursday predictions:

Johnson state 54 @ Plymouth 62.
The teams are a combined 7-30.  Take out Johnson state's 2 wins against USCAA teams and their only win against a D-3 team is Green Mountain state who they swept (0-14 in any other D-3 games this year).  Last year's 82-48 win over the Badgers gave Plymouth their only win in their 16 losses in 17 game stretch to end the season.

Western Connecticut 65 @ Bridgewater 67.
The 2 teams have the same exact record (each 13-6).  Bridgewater has won 8 of 9 since the calendar turned to 2012 to run out to a 2 game lead in the MASCAC with 4 conference games remaining.  Looking at the NCAA milage counter https://web1.ncaa.org/TES/exec/miles (what the NCAA uses to calculate miles between schools) between Bridgewater and UMass-Dartmouth (where we play Saturday) is only 32 miles, while Western to Bridgewater is 174 miles and Western to Dartmouth is 172 miles.  I know it's a Friday and there's probably some girls that have class, and I know were talking about D-3 here, but it seems incredibly pointless to travel all the way back to Danbury at 10:00 PM on a Thursday night (it's at least a 2:45 trip), only to come right back up here on Friday night/Saturday morning.   Hell, the only reason I'm actually going to be coming back is I'm going to see Skidmore play @ Vassar Friday night; if that game was a different weekend, or was on Saturday instead of Friday, I'd stay up there Thursday and Friday, and probably go into Boston to visit my cousin who goes to BU.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 03, 2012, 01:26:30 AM
Thursday results:

Plymouth 66-49 over Johnson state.
Kellie Walsh was a surprising non-starter for the Panthers (she's started every game to date for them this year); she had 2 points on 1-7 shooting in 24 minutes off the bench.
Bridgewater over Western 72-67.
Luckily this didn't count in the LEC standings because this was not a very well played game by Western.   We were up by 2 at halftime, largely in part because Bridgewater had a 10 minute stretch in the 1st half where they made 1 field goal.  We were down 9 with 1:38 to go, and back to back 3's from Taylor Nkonoki and Caroline Brasa, and a jumper by Stephanie Slosnki got us to within 68-65 with 47 seconds left.  After 4 straight missed Bridgewater free throws, we got the ball back with a chance to tie, but a Caroline Brasa turnover (our 29th and final of the game :o) gave it back to the Bears, they converted both free throws, and that was the game.  We probably had our best game from the line; 11-12 from the charity stripe when were at or near the bottom in that department in the conference.  Even though we shot 50% from 3, and had a chance to force OT, you don't deserve to win when you turn the ball over 29 times.  Fought back well the final 98 seconds to give us a chance to tie hopefully we can use that these next 4 games.  This was our final OOC game of the season, and everything else from here on out counts now.  Can't afford anymore games like this. 

Saturday schedule (have predictions tomorrow):
RIC @ Boston
Plymouth @ Eastern
USM @ Keene
Western @ Dartmouth.
USM/Keene best game, Boston/RIC worst game, Eastern/Plymouth most important game.  My superlative's for Saturday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 03, 2012, 01:33:01 AM
Also, Saturday could give us our first home opponent in the opening round of the LEC tournament: RIC (who has already clinched a spot in the 6 team field) can finish no worse then the 4 seed with a win over Boston AND a Western loss to Dartmouth.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MVP on February 03, 2012, 09:32:44 AM
Is there any doubt remaining as to whether the referees are in the bag at USM home games?  Yet another blatant example was on 1/31/12. USM had 33 free-throw attempts, Colby had 15 free-throw attempts. USM 's Jordan was 13-16 at the line... once again she had more free-throw attempts than the whole Colby team. This has happened time and time again. Look at the boxscores throughout the season >:( This is not a coincidence. They should be forced to play any post season games at a neutral court, otherwise be disqualified.
Since 12/30, the New Years Tournament, hosted by USM at Gorham...they have hosted 9 home games, 11/22 there is no posted boxscore. that I can find....but out of the remaining 8 home games;
Opponents have had 103 free-throw attempts, USM has had 214 free-throw attempts.

In response to 7express,  "That gives USM wins over Colby, Bowdoin & Babson this year all teams that were either ranked or in the ORV category at the time". " Hopefully this gives USM some votes in next week's poll."
In those three (opponent ranked) wins, all three games were home at Gorham, opponents had 33 FTA, USM had 76 FTA   

Their only 4 losses all season were away games!!! We'll see how they perform in late February away from home ice advantage.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 03, 2012, 02:11:01 PM
They only have 2 road games left the rest of the season: Keene state Saturday then Dartmouth the final day of the season the 18th.  The other 3 (Boston the 7th, RIC the 11th and Plymouth the 14th) are all at home.  We'll see if RIC is able to beat them up there.  USM could possibly lose to Keene (I hope not, but they only beat them by 7 in Gorham in January), but can't see them losing @ Dartmouth, and should be able to beat Boston & Plymouth without a problem.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 03, 2012, 03:23:13 PM
Sat predictions:

RIC 64 @ Boston 42.
Last meeting was a 23 point RIC win.  Kirtsen Morrison lead the Beacons with 14 points, no one else had more than 6.  They'll need more scoring, but probably not going to matter much.

Plymouth 47 @ Eastern 50.
Must win for Plymouth.  They sit 2 back of both Boston & Eastern, and a loss would put them 3 back of Eastern for the 6th spot.  A loss would also give Eastern the 2-0 season series and first tiebreaker.  A win would put them right back in the mix at only a game back, and would only have to win 1 of these games: @ USM, vs. Keene, @ Western instead of all 3 if they were to lose.

USM 57 @ Keene 52.
A Keene win and we can officially drop West Conn out of the top 2.  We'd still be 2 back of USM regardless (with the tie breaker) and a Keene win over USM would give them that tiebreaker over us, so they'd really be 3 up on us with 4 to play.  Keene only lost by 7 in Gorham, their question is will they be able to score consistantly enough, because their undersized against USM.

Western 62 @ Dartmouth 58.
Probably gonna end up being the 4/5 matchup when it's all said and done, only question is where it takes place.  Dartmouth more then likely wins the first matchup if they don't come out of halftime shooting 4-20 to start.  Dartmouth win, not only are they tied in the standings, Dartmouth assures themselves of a winning season.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MVP on February 04, 2012, 05:04:47 PM
Southern Maine loses at Keene. Shouldn't be a  shock or a surprise. Southern Maine did not have the benefit of the home town referee calls in this one . All five losses for USM this season have been on the road, where they didn't have the referees in the bag. Good luck to Umass/Boston , RIC and Plymouth playing in Gorham, the officiating makes it almost impossible for opponents to get out of there with a win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 04, 2012, 08:34:33 PM
Boston & Plymouth could have the refs in the bag for them and it wouldn't matter.  Those 2 would need more than the refs on their side to beat USM.

I get it, your mad that Babson lost up there (I didn't watch the game nor watch it on live stats, so I can't comment on the officiating), but give it a rest already!  It's already been known and I've mentioned it on here, that ALL teams in Maine (Colby, Bowdoin, USM...all the power teams) get the home town discount when it comes to officiating.  It's been proven, and will continue to happen.  As I said RIC is more than capable of beating them since their the only team in the conference that actually matches up with them.  At least this USM loss means aside from a major choke from RIC, USM WILL NOT be hosting the semifinals, and right now Keene has a better chance to host it then USM does, especially since they'll have to beat RIC later on which'll mean winning that tiebreaker should it come to that.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 05, 2012, 12:50:37 AM
Sat results:

Complete opposite in the LEC today.  On the men's side the "closest" game was Western's 18 point win over Dartmouth.  On the women's side, take out RIC's beating of Boston, the other 3 games were decided by a combined 8 points.  Lets start with 1 of those 3...

Plymouth 55-53.
Saved their season, and its sad to watch this Eastern team right now.  What a mess!  I think they still may make it anyways, but it just made their life tougher.  Tiffany Lewis won the game for the Panthers with a 3 with 34 seconds to play for the eventual winner.  Shannon McCourt recorded another double double (14 and 12), but the team shoots just 1-12 from 3 point range. 

Keene 49-46 over USM.
How does Keene score 49 points and shoot only 27.7% from the field yet they still won??  Keene still alive to sneak in the backdoor and steal the conference from RIC, especially when they play the final game of the season, and RIC heads up to Gorham Saturday.  USM needs a lot of help now.

Dartmouth 60-57 over Western.
5 of our 8 losses, and 3 of our 5 in conference have been by 5or less including the last 2 and 3 of the last 4.  The only game that wasn't was when he had a 6 point lead with I think 8:30 left to play and we somehow ended up losing by double figures.  I'd rather lose by 30 than lose by 3 which is what's been happing lately: 1) because it takes its toll on the players.  I'm sure they'd say they can rebound better by getting blown out then by losing 4 straight, 3 of which were by 2, 3 & 3 points.  Last year we lost by 22 @ USM in Mid January, and our next loss wasn't until the first weekend of March.  You can tell this team is playing conservative their waiting for the proverbial other shoe to fall which brings up point #2 why I think losing by 30 is better then losing by three 2) If you lose by 30, you just admit the defeat and move on, losing those close games can cause you to go back and say what if which I think is why their playing conservative: Our first loss to Mount St. Mary we turned the ball over underneath our own basket in a tie game late in regulation, and MSM won it at the buzzer. 4 days later Stephanie Slonski had completed an and-1 attempt which tied up the first USM game with 26 seconds left.  The free throw would've given Western the lead and more than likely the win especially the way USM was shooting in the 2nd half; Steph misses the free throw, Courtney Cochran takes over in overtime scoring 10 of USM's 13 points and we lose by 1.  Starting off this current 4 game losing streak against RIC, we foul Courtney Burns in a tie game; she hits both free throws, we can never get off a good look at our end, lose by 2.  Last Thursday at Bridgewater, have the ball with a chance to tie after trailing by 8 just sends earlier and Caroline Brasa turns it over on a double dribble; lose that game by 5.  Unfortunately, that's the problems were faced with.  Were not gonna blow out many teams with the style we play, and likewise with our defense and ability to shoot the 3, were also hardly ever gonna get blown out either.  I've already given up hope catching Keene for the 2 seed (3 up with 4 to play), I just hope there's someway we can pass USM and end up 3rd so we won't get paired with RIC in the semi's.  Give me Keene anyday of the week; like us a team that plays good defense and is very inconsistant at scoring the ball.  Caroline Brasa leads the Colonials with 20 points.  She's listed as a sophmore, but wa injured all of last year, does she still qualify for rookie of the year??  if so, she'd be right there in the running with Shannon McCourt, Kristina Forsman, and Kirsten Morrison for rookie of the year.

RIC 70-43.
I think this team may even be better then last year's Colonial team, I'd like to see them face off.  Either way, they'll get a chance to prove it @ USM next Saturday.  Looking at the boxscore, their starters didn't much at all, if anything yet they still won by almost 30, that's scary.  Rachel Riley couldn't even hit double figures in points or rebounds (finished with 8 and 5).  Cynthia Gaudet got held way below her average with only 12; Stephanie Coro had 16, but took her 17 shot attempts to get there.  Nicole Girard finished with more turnovers then assists (albeit 2 to 1).  Kirtsen Morrison had 14 for the Beacons.

Tuesday schedule:
Eastern @ Western
Keene @ Plymouth
RIC @ Dartmouth
Boston @ USM.  I'll have predictions Monday.

Conf standings:
1) RIC 19-2 (10-0)
2) Keene 14-5 (8-2)
3) USM 16-5 (7-3)
4) Dartmouth 14-7 (5-5)
4) Western 13-8 (5-5)
6) Boston 5-15 (2-8)
6) Eastern 6-15 (2-8)
8) Plymouth 5-15 (1-9).

On the tournament front: RIC can do worse then the 3 seed, and can clinch the top seed and home court advantage that comes with it with a win on Tuesday against Dartmouth coupled with 1 Keene loss during the week: either @ Plymouth or @ Western.  RIC can also clinch it going 2-0 this week OR Keene going 0-2 AND USM losing at least once.  I'm not sure what the tiebreakers in the LEC are, but Dartmouth and Western CANNOT be separated via winning percentage against each other or against any of the other teams in the conference (each are at 0% against Keene, RIC & USM while at 100% against Eastern, Boston & Plymouth).  Chances are it's not staying that way, so luckily I don't have to figure that out  ;).  Boston won the first meeting between them and Eastern, and also hold the tiebreaker over Plymouth, so Boston is in control of their destiny.  USM, RIC & Keene have all clinched playoff spots, Western & Dartmouth can both clinch spots with wins Tuesday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 06, 2012, 03:22:49 PM
Tuesday predictions:

Eastern 48 @ Western 62.
These 2 teams along with Boston playing the worst basketball is the conference at the moment.  Eastern hasn't scored more then 55 points since January 12, while Western has only given up more than 60 points 3 times in their last 12 games.  3 of 5 Western's conference losses, and 5 of 8 overall losses have been by 5 points or less including 3 of the last 4.  3 weeks ago in Willamantic, Western won by 4.

Keene 67 @ Plymouth 42.
Plymouth has won 3 straight, but Lesley, Johnson state & Eastern Connecticut shouldn't be confused for Keene state.  Keene is still in the running for the #1 seed in the LEC tournament, and a loss here would pretty much eliminate them.  Keene has won 6 straight since coming off back to back losses to Worcester state & RIC; that streak started with a 27 point home win over Plymouth.

RIC 67 @ Dartmouth 50.
This RIC team is too good and too talented to lose games like this.  RIC won by 39 and held the Corsairs to 23 points their last meeting in Providence.  I know I'm going on a limb here, but I say the Corsairs are going to do slightly better this time around.

Boston 51 @ USM 90.
Boston has lost 5 straight, starting with a 23 point loss to the Huskies at home, while USM is undefeated at home.  Looks like a total mismatch.

Massey ratings:
RIC 71-56 (92%)
USM 74-47 (99%)
Keene 68-47 (97%)
Western 69-54 (93%)

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 08, 2012, 02:08:01 AM
Tuesday predictions:

Keene 77-51 over Plymouth.
Sarah Phelan lead the Owls with 16 points.  Since getting pasted at home by RIC by 31 points, Keene has won 7 straight.

Western ends their 4 game losing streak, beats Eastern 66-53.
Only 6 players played for Eastern, and Taylor McBride, Danielle Rodriguez, Kristina Forsman, and Shannon McCourt started and played all 40 minutes.  Haley Roberts came off the bench and subbed Jaymie Sommers for only 4 minutes, so the entire Eastern starting 5 played at least 36 minutes.  You think their happy they only have 3 games left??  Luckily Denise Bierly has some room on the team for a lot of first year players, get some depth at least.  Sam Riccio is out with what looks like a knee injury, I doubt we'll see her again this year.  Really sad what's happened to them the second semester.

USM 67-55 over Boston.
Kirsten Morrison with 25 and 13 to lead the Beacons.  Will be an interesting race for rookie of the year; it turns out Caroline Brasa is still eligible (she's a sophmore, but missed all of last season), because she just won the rookie of the year.  Morrison has been the most consistant all year (mainly because Caroline's been in an out), but when Caroline plays, I think she's the best freshmen in the league, and right now if the season ended today she's winning the West Conn team MVP.  Also, can't count of Dani Rodrigiuez, Shannon McCourt, Kristina Forsman, and Taylor McBride from the Warriors.  Haley Jordan and Courtney Cochran combined for 31 for the Huskies.  I know it's almost impossible, but I'd LOVE to get USM again in the tournament on a neutral court.

RIC 70-52.
If this team doesn't lose Saturday @ USM, their finishing undefeated because I doubt they lose at home to Keene or Western.  Rachel Riley just missed a double double finishing with 15 and 9.  Stephanie Coro is finally starting to turn it on (though it seems like Cynthia Gaudet is regressing); Coro had 19 points on 7-15 shooting, and lead the team in rebounds with 13 out of the guard spot.  RIC outscored them 38-20 in the 2nd half after it was tied at 32 at halftime.

No games Thursday, so next action is Saturday:
Keene @ Western
RIC @ USM
Boston @ Plymouth (virtual elimination game for Plymouth.  They lost the first meeting in Boston earlier this year)
Dartmouth @ Eastern
Best game: RIC @ USM most important: Boston @ Plymouth.  Worst game if your an offensive fan: Keene @ Western.  Both teams play good defense, and both have trouble consistantly scoring, especially Western if the 3 ball isn't falling.  That may not be a very pretty game on Saturday, points will probably be at a premium.

Standings:
1) RIC 20-2 (9-0)
2) Keene 15-5 (9-2)
3) USM 17-5 (8-3)
4) Western 14-8 (6-5)
5) Dartmouth 14-8 (5-6)
6) Eastern 6-16 (2-9)
6) Boston 5-16 (2-9)
8) Plymouth 5-16 (1-0)
Boston has the tiebreaker over Eastern due to their 1-0 season series record.  Eastern has a win over USM from back in December when they had their full compliment of players which will come in handy if they tie either Plymouth or Boston.

Tournament:
RIC would host, Keene joins them in the semi's.  Boston @ USM (3 vs 6) and Dartmouth @ Western (4/5 game) open up the tournament.

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 08, 2012, 04:31:51 PM
My predictions for the rest of the season:
RIC beats Western & Keene, loses to USM finishes 13-1
Keene beats Eastern loses to Western and RIC finishes 10-4
USM beats RIC, Plymouth and Dartmouth finishes 11-3
Western beats Keene and Plymouth loses to RIC finishes 8-6
Dartmouth beats Eastern and Boston, loses to USM finishes 7-7
Eastern loses to Dartmouth, Keene and Boston finishes 2-12
Boston beats Eastern loses to Plymouth and Boston finishes 3-11
Plymouth beats Boston loses to USM and Western finishes 2-12.

Race for the last spot (between Boston, Plymouth & eastern), the final bye (Keene & USM) and the final home game in round 1 (Dartmouth & Western) are the races to keep an eye on.  RIC needs to lose to USM, somehow lose to Keene and or Western at home, winning both previous meetings on the road (including in Keene by 31) AND Keene winning @ Western.  Even though they haven't officially clinched yet, and may not even clinch it on Saturday (need to beat USM AND have Keene lose), I think we can safely say the tournament is going through Providence, because as I said they need to lose BOTH games in Providence, something they haven't done all year, and haven't won a home contest by less than 9 (haven't won an LEC home game by less than 23).  HOWEVER, if I'm RIC I want this thing over with Saturday, if I'm them I'm a big Western fan on Saturday.  Western gave them by far their toughest win of the season, and even though we don't shoot the ball particularly well, if were shooting the 3 it can wind up being a long night, and even if we don't, our defense is enough to keep us into the game until the end, and how will RIC be respond if somehow the conference is tied going into the last day of the season, especially considering they were running through it the whole year??  Keene would have abolsutely nothing to lose that game either if both went into that game with identical 11-2 conference marks.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 09, 2012, 12:15:31 AM
Regional rankings released today and 3 LEC teams in the ranking, RIC at 2, USM at 7, Keene at 9.  I find it funny how RIC is #2 in New England (one of the strongest regions in the country if not strongest) yet their not in the top 25 and up until 2 weeks ago hadn't even recieved a single vote for the poll.  Judging by the rankings RIC is fine for a pool C, USM is on that cusp (6 to 8 is usually the magic number between who's in and who's out).  Keene is heading back to the ECAC (if they take the bid).  Only chance they have at getting a bid is if they beat RIC AND make the LEC championship game and even then it may not be enough.
My opinions: RIC is all but a lock to get into the field, if USM can finish the regular season unbeaten their more then likely in, just because they would've had wins over Bowdoin (even though they only rank 10 Bowdoin's probably 11th), Colby (#10), RIC (#2) and Babson (#3).  Keene has to beat RIC and make the championship game.

Only way I see the LEC being a 1 bid league is if RIC beats USM Saturday, USM loses to either Dartmouth in the season finale OR Keene state in the semi's, and Keene loses to RIC next Saturday and then loses again in Providence a week later.  I think either USM or Keene joins RIC in the tournament.

Here's the rest of the rankings btw:
Northeast
1 Amherst 20-0 22-0
2 Rhode Island College 19-2 19-2
3 Babson 17-2 18-2
4 Tufts 18-4 18-5
5 Williams 16-4 18-4
6 University of New England 17-4 17-4
7 Southern Maine 15-5 16-5
8 Connecticut College 15-4 16-4
9 Keene State 14-4 14-5
10 Colby 15-5 15-5
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 10, 2012, 01:34:36 PM
Sat predictions:

Keene 52 @ Western 57.
Even though Western is eliminated from clinching the top 2 spots, were still in the running for that final home slot, as we sit 1 up on Dartmouth, and with this win would win the tiebreaker over Dartmouth and in essence be up 2 with 2 to play.  Keene has to win to stay within striking distance of RIC, who they play next weekend.  Neither team will shoot the ball exceptionally well, but I think Western makes more plays at the end. 

RIC 72 @ USM 74.
I hope RIC wins, but USM is  extremely tough up there in Maine.  An RIC win coupled with a Keene loss would clinch the league for RIC; somehow USM is still alive, they would win the tiebreaker against both if all 3 finished 12-3.

Boston 54 @ Plymouth 56.
Plymouth loses and their eliminated from playoff contention.  Assuming Eastern loses to Dartmouth, Boston, Plymouth and Eastern would have identical 2-10 league marks and sit in a tie for 6th.  More than likely that Eastern/Boston matchup the final day of the season decides the last spot.

Dartmouth 66 @ Eastern 42.
Eastern hasn't won a league game since January 7 and a game overall since January 12.  Dartmouth can ill afford to lose this if they want a home game in round 1.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2012, 12:56:23 AM
Big game for Western against Keene state tomorrow.  With the win, we would gain the tiebreaker over Dartmouth for that final home spot in round 1 (eliminated from finishing 1 or 2 however).  Comparing Dartmouth's and Western's schedule:
Dartmouth hits the road for Eastern Saturday, Boston Tuesday, and finishes at home with Southern Maine next Saturday.
Eastern plays Keene at home Saturday, hits the road for RIC and finishes at home against Plymouth.

I can't see Dartmouth losing to Eastern or Bosotn (Bostom more probably however) and likewise can't see them beating USM (though they are a terrible road team, so who knows).  That would leave them 7-7, just as I predicted in the preview.
Western Keene game is a tossup, but they should beat Plymouth and lose to RIC.  Those 2 would leave the Colonials 7-6.  Beating Keene not only would give the Colonials the edge in the final standings if the results go as planned (which they usually don't anyhow), BUT would give the Colonials the tiebreaker if they both finish with the same record (i.e. 7-7 or 8-6).  Losing the game vs. Keene would more than likely tie us in the final standings (once again, if the results go as planned) BUT losing to Keene would cause Dartmouth to win the tiebreaker, IIRC.  Not that it matters much where we go that Tuesday, because I have a feeling the men's team grabs 1 of the 2 bye's on the men's side, but I have Tuesday class until 2:15 and not looking forward to driving to Dartmouth on a Tuesday night.  Hopefully Providence on Tuesday is the final weekday trip I have to make this year, I'll have a difficult time getting there on time as it is.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2012, 11:01:44 AM
Looks like Western finally gets their whole compliment of players back.  Taking out Kayla Murkison, who wasn't in the regular rotation, and was going to be used sparingly, this is the first game since January 7 we'll have our full compliment of 9 players who played regularly in uniform; that was the last game Jackie Zilnicki played in before she got injured, but she'll be back today.  Without her, te team was only 4-5, but with her the team was 10-3.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2012, 06:50:04 PM
Western beats Keene 55-53 in overtime, USM beats RIC 72-68.  Dartmouth loses to Eastern somehow 66-54, and Boston beats Plymouth.
That means Western can do no worse than 4th (could tie Dartmouth, but Western wins the tiebreak) and no higher then 3rd (we'd win the tiebreak over Keene in that case), Dartmouth can do no better then 5th.  Plymouth is still alive somehow.  I'll post results next and then playoff seedings sometime later.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2012, 07:22:50 PM
Sat results:

Boston in overtime 75-69 over Plymouth.
The Beacons only have 3 wins, but at least their beating who their supposed to: Eastern and Plymouth (twice) teams their either tied with or sit below in the standings.  1 loss by Plymouth and their eliminated.  Actually scratch my last post; Plymouth is OFFICIALLY eliminated; Boston and Eastern play each other next week, so 1 of those teams is guaranteed a 4th conference win.  Kirsten Morrison with a monster game 22 points 16 boards on 7-18 shooting.  She may have to quit volleyball (what she was recruited for by Boston), because she's a damn good basketball player.

USM 72-68 over RIC.
Have to think this clinches a pool C bid for USM.  They take this win and combine them with Bowdoin, Babson & Colby, & Keene, 4 of the 5 in the regional rankings (probably 5 of 5 if the Northeast ranked more than 10).  I still think RIC needs these last 2 home games AND win their semifinal game to feel sure about a bid.  Still leaves USM in a posistion to host; they'd win tiebreakers over both RIC & Keene.

Western in overtime 55-53.
As expected no offense, strictly defense.  Bad loss for Keene, and what really could have been the difference for Keene in this game they were rebounding a missed/blocked Western jumper with about 5 minutes to go up 4, two Keene players ran into each other going for the rebound which left Caroline Brasa alone for an easy 2.  The Keene players don't bump into each other, Keene probably wins this game.  Courtney Cirillo had a great look from halfcourt which would have won the game, just came up a bit short.

Dartmouth with a bad loss at Eastern 66-54.
The Dartmouth bench played 21 minutes and the ONLY thing they contributed was 1 rebound, 1 assist and 4 turnovers.  How do the 4 players off the Corsair bench not even attempt 1 shot??  Shannon McCourt had 20 and 16 for the Warriors, while Kristina Forsman lead them with 24 points.

Standings and tournament:
1) RIC 20-3 (11-1)
2) USM 18-5 (9-3)
2) Keene 15-6 (9-3)
4) Western 15-8 (7-5)
5) Dartmouth 14-9 (5-7)
6) Eastern 7-16 (3-9)
6) Boston 6-16 (3-9)
8) Plymouth 5-17 (1-11)
USM wins the tiebreaker over Keene (2-0 vs. Western while Keene is 1-1), as mentioned previously Boston won the only meeting of the season against Eastern, so until they play again Boston will continue to win that tiebreaker.  Plymouth is eliminated so now we have 2 teams (Boston & Eastern) fighting for 1 spot; more then likely it comes down to the Eastern/Boston game on the 18th, next Saturday.
RIC would host, USM gets the other bye.  It would open on Tuesday with Boston @ Keene (3 vs 6 game) and Dartmouth @ Western in the 3/6 game.  I'm just happy it's official, we won't have to go on the road that Tuesday.





Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2012, 09:50:43 PM
Playoff standings:
Easier then on the men's side, but still confusing.  I'll have more in depth after Tuesday games where things become clearer, but I'm posting these now to let you know where teams stand heading into the final weekend:
RIC: can finish no worse than 11-3.  They win 1 of their 2 games at home this week, their the regular season champion. 
Keene and USM can both finish 11-3 if they win out.  If RIC somehow loses both games at home, and USM and Keene win out, USM would be your champion (based on the 2-0 head to head record over Western while the other 2 would be 1-1).  RIC would be the 2 seed in this scenerio (more road wins than Keene, assuming thats the next tiebreaker after going down the standings).  IF Keene and USM end the season tied, USM wins the tiebreaker (2-0 record vs. Western while Keene was 1-1).  So, USM clinches no worse than a bye with a win over Plymouth Tuesday.
Western cannot do worse then the 4 seed: even if Dartmouth ties them, Western owns the tiebreaker (1-1 record vs. Keene while Dartmouth was 0-2).  However, Western can pass Keene and finish 3rd, if they win out and Keene loses out.  In that case Western would win the tiebreak over Keene (1-1 record vs. RIC while Keene would be 2-0).
Dartmouth cannot pass Western, but they can be caught by Eastern.  If Dartmouth loses out and Eastern wins out, Eastern would get the 5 seed based on being 1-1 vs. USM (though really that shouldn't count because they had a whole different team that game).
No matter what happens with Eastern and Boston on Tuesday, the winner of that Eastern/Boston game will be the final participant.  IF both teams have the same result: their tied for 6th going into the final day of the season and that will break the tie.  IF Eastern is 1 game up going in and Boston wins: Boston wins the Saturday game, they get in based on their 2-0 head to head record.  IF Boston is 1 up going in and Eastern wins: Eastern wins the tiebreaker due to that win they had around Thanksgiving against USM, which as I said shouldn't count because it was an entirely different team then.
Here they are by breakdown and where each team can finish:
#1 RIC or USM.  I could be wrong but from what I see Keene CANNOT finish 1st no matter what happens.  RIC gets 1st with 1 win OR 1 USM loss.  USM gets first with 2 wins AND 2 losses by RIC
#2 RIC/USM/Keene.  If RIC doesn't get 1st, they'll end up here.  USM needs 1 win AND 1 Keene loss to lock up at least the 2 seed.  Keene needs 2 wins AND 1 USM loss to finish 2nd.
#3 Keene/Western.  If Keene can't finish 2nd they may end up here.  Keene needs 1 win OR 1 Western loss to lock up the 3rd seed.  Western needs 2 wins AND 2 Keene loss to finish 3rd.
#4 Whoever doesn't get 3rd between Keene and Western will end up here.  No other team can finish in 4th.  Western is 4th with 1 loss OR 1 Keene win; Keene is 4th with 2 losses AND 2 Western wins.
#5 Dartmouth/Eastern.  Dartmouth is here with 1 win OR 1 Eastern loss.  Eastern jumps to 5th with 2 wins AND 2 losses by Dartmouth.
#6 Boston/Eastern/Dartmouth.  If Dartmouth doesn't finish 5th, they'll end up here.   Whoever wins next Saturday between Boston and Eastern will nab the final playoff spot.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 13, 2012, 03:52:56 PM
Tuesday predictions:

Western 52 @ RIC 58.
A few weeks ago in Danbury Courtney Burns hit 2 free throws with 30 seconds to play, and blocked Sciarra Brandt's 3 as time expired to escape Danbury with a 2 point win, in what was undoubtfully their toughest win of the season.  I said a few weeks ago that this team under coach Rybczyk will not blow out a lot of teams, but likewise will hardly ever get blown out themselves just because of the great defense they play.  We'll see how that second prediction pans out.  RIC is undefeated at the Murray Center, blowing almost everyone out of the water; their "closest" home victory was 9 points over Salve Regina back in early December when they turned the ball over 29 times, and their "closest" LEC victory??  23 points against Boston.  RIC is coming off a loss on Saturday, and them coming off losses, their almost dominant; after opening the season with a loss @ UNE, they won their next game by 16 @ Bridgewater state; coming off a loss to Emmanuel, they beat Plymouth by 29.  Western hasn't won a road game since January 17 (a 4 point win @ Eastern), and hasn't had a win on the road against a team with a .500 or better record since November 29 when they won @ Conn College.  I think we keep it close, but RIC is too talented to lose this game, and they clinch the outright title.

Plymouth 47 @ USM 80.
Plymouth is already eliminated so their playing spoiler.  USM is still fighting with Keene for the final bye and still in the running for the 1 spot if RIC blows both these games at home.

Eastern 53 @ Keene 72.
Keene has to win to keep pace with USM for that final bye.  This game means nothing to Eastern.  Win or lose, their game Saturday against Boston will decide whether they make the playoffs or not.

Dartmouth 67 @ Boston 64.
Pretty much meaningless as Dartmouth is pretty much locked in at #5; only way they drop to #6 is if they lose out and Eastern wins out.  Much like Eastern at Keene, this game means absolutely nothing for Boston in terms of making the playoffs, the game that counts for them is Saturday, at home, against Eastern.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 13, 2012, 05:36:36 PM
Massey ratings for Tuesday games:

RIC 69-54 (93%)
USM 83-50 (100%)
Dartmouth 62-56 (68%)
Keene 65-49 (94%).

Kinda funny how Western only has a 7% chance to win, yet were the second highest likely upset pick to happen.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 15, 2012, 01:24:04 AM
Tuesday results:

USM 74-52 over Plymouth.
I think for the first time all year someone other than Haley Jordan or Courtney Cochran lead the Huskies in scoring.  Nicole Garland scored 22 to help lead the way.  Cochran had 18 points and 15 boards.

Eastern 61-56 over Keene.
This result coupled with the above leaves USM locked in at 2 and Keene at 3.  As usual, the inability for Keene to put the ball in the basket is their downfall as they shoot only 34.8%.  There's no reason to lose this game especially at home, but I guess it makes up for Keene's win over USM a few weeks ago where they won despite only shooting 27.7% and scoring 49 points.  Western and Keene 2 proof's that defense can only get you so far.  Of course, both of those teams could easily end up playing for the tournament: Keene gets USM on a neutral court (they only lost by 7 in Maine and won by 3 at home), and Western is in RIC's half.  Even though we got blown out tonight, we couldn't play any worse than we did for the final 10 minutes, and for 80 minutes against RIC this year played them tough for 65.  I'd LOVE to get RIC again, I don't think RIC wants to see us again.  As I said Monday, this win for Eastern does them nothing, they STILL need to win Saturday to get into the tournament.

Dartmouth 56-47 over Eastern.
Need to beat USM at home and hope Western loses to Plymouth to get the final home spot.  Loss to Eastern last Saturday is a killer right now.  Much like Eastern, this loss doesn't keep Boston out of the playoffs, win Saturday and their in.

RIC 66-38 over Western.
Actually wasn't a bad as the score indicated.  Western was only down 10 after a Carly Murphy 3 (the only 3 we made the entire game) with 10:57 to play.  The rest of the game we scored 8 points on only 3 field goals as RIC outscored us 26-8 to end the game.  if we meet up in the semi's I doubt we play that bad again.  RIC clinches the outright title AND sets a school record for number of victories in a single season, congrats to the Anchorwomen senior class!

Standings/tournament:
1) RIC 21-3 (12-1)
2) USM 19-5 (10-3)
3) Keene 15-7 (9-4)
4) Western 15-9 (7-6)
5) Dartmouth 15-9 (6-7)
6) eastern 8-16 (4-9)
7) Boston 6-17 (3-10)
8) Plymouth 5-18 (1-12)
Top 3 are set they CANNOT change on saturday.  Eastern/Boston winner Saturday gets the 6th and final spot.  Western finishes 4th with a win OR Dartmouth loss.
RIC would host, USM joins them in semi's.  Eastern @ Keene (3/6 game) and Dartmouth @ Western (4/5) game on Tuesday.

Final OOC games take place Thursday, but not sure why were playing these games late in the season:
Lasell @ Keene state
Boston @ Suffolk.

Saturday is the final day of the regular season, order of games from most important to least important:
Eastern @ Boston
Plymouth @ Western
USM @ Dartmouth
Keene @ RIC

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 15, 2012, 11:42:37 PM
Second Northeast regional rankings:
Northeast
1 Amherst 22-0 24-0
2 University of New England 19-4 19-4
3 Rhode Island College 20-3 20-3
4 Tufts 19-4 19-5
5 Southern Maine 17-5 18-5
6 Colby 18-5 18-5
7 Williams 17-5 19-5
8 Bowdoin 17-5 18-6
9 Babson 19-2 20-2
10 Emmanuel (Mass.) 16-5 17-6

Emmanuel replaces Keene, Bowdoin replaces Conn College.  Babson takes a huge drop because the NEWMAC sucks, and UNE rises to 2nd.  Aside from that not much else changed.  As long as USM & RIC stay in the top 5, and BOTH make the LEC championship game, they should both be in good shape for an NCAA tourney bid.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 15, 2012, 11:56:31 PM
Thursday predictions:

Lasell 54 @ Keene 63.
Gives Keene a good opponent to bounce back from after 2 tough losses.  Lasell has only cracked 60+ points 6 times in 23 games this year.

Boston 53 @ Suffolk 72.
The second of 2 LEC vs. GNAC matchups on the day.  Suffolk is locked in at 4th for the GNAC tournament (they will play Boston area rival Mount Ida in the 8 team tournament which tips of Tuesday).  Boston is still fighting for their spot in the LEC tournament field.  I almost went to Suffolk coming out of high school, it was my 2nd choice after Hofstra.

Massey predictions:
Suffolk 58-49 (79%)
Keene 76-35 (100%)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2012, 01:10:25 PM
I'll have Thursday's results combined with Saturday's results tomorrow, busy day ahead of me today.  Sat predictions:

Eastern 62 @ Boston 59.
The game of the day in the conference.  Winner gets the 6 seed, loser is eliminated.  Boston won by double figures in Connecticut last month, so naturally you'd think they'd be the choice at home, right??  Wrong!  Boston has won 1 game since then, against 1-12 Plymouth state, while Eastern has won two straight games against teams with .500 or better records.  They get this win to get in.

Plymouth 43 @ Western 59.
Win for Western and they get the final home spot, lose and we could open on the road.  A loss here would give the Panthers back to back 1-13 seasons in the conference.

USM 65 @ Dartmouth 54.
A loss by Dartmouth here also gives the Colonials the final home spot whether or not the Colonials win or lose.  A Colonials win makes this game meaningless; USM is locked in at #2 (owns the tiebreaker against Keene state), and a Western win locks the Corsairs at #5.

Keene 51 @ RIC 72.
Meaningless for Keene as they need to win the LEC tournament to get into the NCAA tournament, but a lot riding for RIC's sake.  They have to protect the home court against the Owls in order to stay alive and nab one of the pool C spots should they fail to win the LEC tournament.  Anchorwomen won by 30 in Keene last month; this should be closer, but RIC should still pull out a W by 15+ though.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2012, 11:35:50 PM
Keene and USM declare for the ECAC tournament.  I believe this was the final day to declare, so this list should be the declared teams throughout all 4 regions.  I doubt USM has to worry about it as they should be in the NCAA's, I wouldn't be surprised if Keene got a top 3 seed.  I was hoping West Conn would declare, oh well  :(

http://static.psbin.com/0/4/czb3meix5j3ihs/Declared_Teams_W_Basketball.pdf
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 18, 2012, 11:23:02 PM
Sat results:

Western all over Plymouth 65-40.
Western started the game up 30-6, and never lead by less than 18 the rest of the game for an easy victory.  I feel bad for Stephanie Slonski she's played in almost every game in her 4 year career and on senior day she gets injured and can't play :(  Hopefully she'll be playing Tuesday.

Boston wins the "win and your in game" over Eastern 75-53.
Eastern started the game off with a 3 pointer from Danyelle Rodriguez...that would be about their only highlight of the game as Boston scored 25 of the next 31 points to go up 16 and they never looked back.  Eastern never got closer than 11 the rest of the game.

USM 75-71.
Coach Gary Fifield records his 600th career win in the Huskies comeback victory.   Haley Jordan and Courtney Cochran combined for 39 points, while Stephanie Houtman lead the Corsairs with 22.

RIC 62-54 over Keene.
Their closest home win of the year, but don't be fooled by the final; RIC was up by 20 at halftime.  Rachel Riley pulled down 12 boards to give her 1,000 in her career, and she joins the exclusive 1,000 point 1,000 rebound club (she scored point #1000 in January at Stevens).

Final standings:
1) RIC 22-3 (13-1)
2) USM 20-5 (11-3)
3) Keene 16-8 (9-5)
4) Western 16-9 (8-6)
5) Dartmouth 16-10 (6-8)
6) Eastern 8-17 (4-10)
6) Boston 8-17 (4-10)
8) Plymouth 5-19 (1-13)

Tournament seedings:
#1 RIC
#2 USM
#3 Keene
#4 Western
#5 Dartmouth
#6 Boston (they finished 2-0 against Eastern so they won the head-to-head tiebreaker).

Tuesday starts the opening round of the LEC tournament:
#6 Boston @ #3 Keene 5:30
#5 Dartmouth @ #4 Western 7:00.  I'll have predictions Monday
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 19, 2012, 02:06:37 AM
7express:

Keene State actually got it to 54-52, however, and forced RIC to make plays down the stretch for the win.  It wasn't just garbage time that made it look better than it was - RIC actually was challenged a little bit.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 21, 2012, 01:28:04 AM
Tuesday tournament predictions:

Dartmouth 58 @ Western 53.
Just got word Stephanie Slonski is done for the season.  Such a shame  :(  This is a kid that's only not started 3 games since the start of her sophmore year up until Saturday, and her final few games of her career, she gets hurt and won't be able to suit up no matter how far Western goes.  I think Caroline Brasa has the flu as well.  These teams split the season series this year each protecting home court; Dartmouth won by 3 at home a few weeks ago, and Western won by 7 in Danbury in early January (in a game which was a lot closer than the final indicated).  Stephanie actually sat out a portion of that Dartmouth game with an ankle injury, and the team looked lost on the offensive end when she was on the bench.  Combined from 3 against the Corsairs this year the Colonials were 12-36 from behind the arc (33.3%), but just 7-26 in the game we lost.  The 2 teams that lost this year were both winning by 2 at the half, more than likely Dartmouth sweeps them if they don't start the second half shooting 4-20.  Last meeting against the Corsairs Carly Murphy had by far her worst shooting game of the season; 0-8 from the field and none of the misses were even that close and was held to a goose egg in the scoring column.  This game will come down to the Dartmouth bigs (Colleen Moriarty and Erika Borneman) and how Western is shooting the 3.  Borneman and Moriarty combined for 34 points in the game we only shot 7-26 from 3 while in the first meeting even though they combined for 29 points they combined to miss 24 of the 34 shots they took from the floor.  I just think without a floor leader, and Dartmouth not missing the easy looks they had last game they come away with the win.

Boston 53 @ Keene 61.
Taking out the 77 points Keene scored against Plymouth, these are the total number of points Keene has scored in their 4 conference games since recording a 71-33 win over the Beacons on January 28: 49, 53, 56, & 54.  Since January, theirs only been 2 other games besides the 2 I mentioned where Keene has managed to score more than 63 points: they scored 69 against Western in mid January and managed to put up 77 on the Corsairs a week later.  Really, Boston couldn't have played much worse that last meeting up in Keene: they hit on only 25.5% of their shots (12-47) and turned it over 26 times.  As Eastern proved last week, your always gonna be in games against a team that has trouble putting the ball in the basket, and right now, Keene is having trouble in that regard, but maybe the second half against RIC turned that around.  I think Kirsten Morrison will keep the Beacons in the game right up until the 5:00 minute mark, but Courtney Cirillio will make some plays down the stretch to make sure they leave with the win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 22, 2012, 12:12:23 AM
Opening round prediction:

Keene 54-31.
Keene was up 35-10 at the break and was up 48-18 when I checked on my new iPhone when I got the O'Neill Center.  So much for my prediction of "Boston keeping it close."  At least Boston won the second half 21-19 and won the last 7:35 11-4.

Western beats Dartmouth 65-57.
For the life of me I don't know why this team didn't declare for the ECACs.  Having extra practices and at least 1 extra game possibly 2 or 3 would do this team wonders going forward.  This team loses just 1 senior off their roster, and youngsters like Erika Borneman (a sophmore- 19 points), Kelsey Garrity (a freshmen-20 points), and other freshmen Melissa Daigle & Erica Batchelder could use the postseason expierence.  It's amazing a team like USM which has all this tournament pedigree declares for the ECAC (not that they'll need it this year though), but a team like Dartmouth with almost no success and a talented but very raw roster decides not to give those freshmen some more postseason expierence.  Don't understand it.  Nicole Eanniello had 18 to lead the Colonials, while Jackie Zilnicki had 12 in her first game back since she got injured back in early January (she played less then 4 minutes combined in games against Keene & Plymouth).  Playing in her last college game, what a way for Stephanie Houtman to end her career; 4-19 from the floor (2 of those 4 came in the final 2 minutes when Dartmouth was down double figures), a lot of wild circus shots near the basket that missed badly, yelling at the defense whenever the Colonials had an open 3 look, and quite possibly the worst, got called for a 5 second violation inbounding the ball to start the second half with the Corsairs leading 2.  The Colonials took that turnover, a Nicole Eanniello 3 off that turnover gave us a 1 point lead and we never trailed again.  When you combine Paul Rose and Stephanie Houtman's stats in their last game: 6-33 shooting, 1-11 from 3.  The 3rd time this season in 3 meetings the winning team in the Dartmouth/Western game has trailed at halftime.  In all 3 meetings the home team trailed by 2 at halftime.  That's kinda scary :o

Sets up the semifinals:
#4 Western Connecticut @ #1 RIC
#3 Keene state vs. #2 USM.  I'll probably head up to Providence Friday, and Willimantic on Saturday because I have more confidence in the Western men beating RIC then the Western women in beating RIC.  I'll have predictions Thursday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 23, 2012, 02:38:01 PM
Semifinal predictions:

#4 Western 48 @ #1 RIC 56.
In Danbury, this was a 2 point RIC win; in Providence it was like a 30 point RIC win, but was only a 5 point game at halftime.  That second half was probably the worst half I've ever seen the Colonials play in the 3 years I've been enrolled at the school.  We've been outscored in the second half 73-40 by the Anchorwomen this year.  This RIC team is too talented, too deep, and too senior laden to go down in the semi's, but it will probably be close for most of it since RIC doesn't matchup well against us.  Our downfall, like usual will be shooting the ball; if we can shoot 45%+ from 3 we'll be in it up until the end, if not winning it, if not were in trouble.  Without Stephanie Slonski, we need to take care of the basketball in order to even stay competitive; RIC is the conference leader in thefts, and leads the conference in turnovers forced per game.  In 2 meetings this year RIC has forced the Colonials into 37 turnovers and 14 steals.  Against Dartmouth on Tuesday, we turned it over 16 times including 12 via Corsairs steals (10 combined for Shannon Singletary and Kelsye Garrity), we gotta take a lot better care of the ball against an RIC team that will hound you the entire game.  Without a true point guard in there, it will not be fun against this RIC pressure defense.  45%+ 3 point shooting 10 turnovers or less that's our recipe for stealing a W; unfortunately, I don't see any of that happening.

#2 USM 54 vs. #3 Keene state 48 (game at RIC).
The 2 meetings have been close this year; the Huskies won by 7 in Gorham, and lost by 3 in a defensive slugfest where the teams combined for as many turnovers as field goals made (29).  In 2 meetings against USM, the Owls have only shot 35% from the floor (35-100), and turned it over 40 times.  In both meetings this year the team that hit the lower percentage from the floor ended up winning the game: in the January win USM shot 40.4%, Keene shot 41.5%, but USM won, a few weeks ago in Keene, Keene managed to win despite hitting just 27.7% while the Huskies were just slightly better at only 28.1%.  In both meetings, the home team had a huge disparity at the free throw line which more or less resulted in those 2 teams winning since the games were so close; USM outshot the Owls 30-12 at the free throw line in January, while the refs returned the favor in Keene, sending the Owls to the line 22 times and the Huskies just 11.  Hopefully at a neutral site, it's more nuetral and 1 team won't get an advantage at the line. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 23, 2012, 03:18:47 PM
Quote from: 7express on October 12, 2011, 09:05:24 PM
My LEC predictions.  Conference record in parenthesis:

1) Rhode Island College (12-2). RIC finished 4th in the conference last year, but shot themselves in the foot by only going 1-5 against the top 3 teams in the conference. However, 2 of those teams in the top 3 last year got decimated by graduation. RIC returns the leading scorer in the conference, Stephanie Coro, who averaged over 18 ppg last year, along with 4/5 of their starting 5.
2) Southern Maine (13-3). A perennial favorite in the conference, they have won 18 conference championships, but haven't won since 07/08. They also return 4/5 of their starting 5, and have a great inside outside duo of center Courtney Cochrane and guards Renee Nichols and Erin McNamera.
3) Keene state (10-4). 2 years ago they won the ECAC New England championship (like the NIT except they brake it off into regions with 6 or 8 teams), last year with pretty much the same team that won the ECAC championship they finished tied for 5th in the conference and were lucky to make it to the LEC tournament where they lost in overtime to Eastern Connecticut. They bring back everyone from last year's dissapointing roster as they had no seniors. Last year they finished 4-10, 0-8 against the top 4. This year with no really good teams, they should be right there at the top.
4) Eastern Connecticut (7-7). They have advanced to the last 3 LEC tournament championship games (1-2 in those finals), but will need some help to get back there this year. They lose 3/5 of their starting 5 from last season, but the cupboard isn't totally bare: they return their two best frontcourt players, but have to revamp their backcourt as their PG and SG from last year are gone. If they can find a decent replacement by January, might not be that bad for the Warriors.
4) Massachusetts-Boston (7-7). Last year this young team (only 2 people on the roster were upper classmen [1 junior, 1 senior], along with 7 freshmen) posted only the team's 4th winning season in 28 years. As long as they finish strong this year (they started 11-2 last year before they limped to finish losing 9 of their last 11) they should be in contention for a playoff spot.
6) Western Connecticut (6-8). This will be a challenging year. Gone from this team: Over 40% of scoring, our PG who finished 17th in APG, 50th in assist to turnover ratio, our center who finished 2nd in blocked shots, 14th in double-doubles, 3rd in FG percentage, 40th in PPG, 17th in RPG, and finished with 1 triple double. On top of that, we lose 4 of our top 5 scorers, 3 of our top 4 in FG percentage, our top 3 in FG's attempted and made, our top 2 in 3 point FG's attempted and made, 3 of our top 4 in free throws attempted, 3 of the top 5 in free throws made. The thing that worries me is that since these seniors did so much they were in for the vast majority of the games, and most of the freshmen last year (we had 7 total. 1 was injured the whole season and didn't play, 1 got kicked off the team in December, and 1 transfered this summer) didn't play, aside from the final 60 to 90 seconds of games. We'll need big games from them. Only person that played meaningfull minutes that's still here, Sciarra Brandt, started the majority of games. She doesn't have to fill Melissa Teal's shoes, but if she does half of what Teal does it could be better.
7) Mass-Dartmouth (5-9). Just like Boston another young team consisting of mostly sophmores and juniors. Much like their in-state rivals they should be better next year, but if Western struggles to find consistant offense they could sneak in.
8) Plymouth state (3-13). They have 1 good player, Alicia Ducet. They started last season 7-1 and 1-0 in the LEC. They finished the season 8-17 overall and 1-13 in the LEC, meaning they lost 16 of their final 17 games and their final 13 conference contests. No matter how bad the top of the conference looks, this team still has some work to do.

My projected player of the year:
Stephanie Coro- RIC

All conference team:
Stephanie Coro-RIC
Alica Ducet- Plymouth state
Piper Chapman- Eastern Connecticut
Courtney Cochrane-Southern Maine
Courtney Cirillo- Keene state

my conference tournament projection:
Keene state upsets Southern Maine in the semifinals, then beats RIC in the finals, RIC & Southern Maine join Keene state in the NCAA tournament. None of the other teams get ECAC bids, so those 3 are the only 3 playoff teams.
     

Just found these.  Actually wasn't that far off: RIC finished 13-1, had they lost that game at Western (won by 2) would've finished 12-2.  Nailed USM (that 13-3 should be 11-3).  I overestimated Boston (they really did struggle), and didn't realise half of Eastern's team was gonna be kicked off at Christmas.  Underestimated Dartmouth & Western.  My POY and my all conference team predictions were awful; but in fairness to myself I posted this before I realised Alicia Doucet left the Plymouth program, and likewise didn't realise Piper Chapman was gonna get booted from the team.  Courtney Cirillio may make it on there at seasons end, and Courtney Cochran almost definitely gets on there.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 25, 2012, 01:10:12 AM
Semifinal results:

USM 60-52.
I've never seen a group of guards shoot less then on this Huskies team.  As usual Keene couldn't score when it mattered and that was a big reason why they lost.  Late in the game Keene missed 6 straight shots in what was at the time a 53-46 game with 4:00 minutes to play.  For the game Keene connected on only 32.2% of it's shots and 30% from 3.  Courtney Cochran had 17 points, 13 rebounds and one ridicuously stupid technical foul for elbowing a Keene player to the ground under 2 minutes left when USM was up 10.

RIC 20 point win over Western 67-47.
Don't be fooled by the final score thinking this was somewhat close....it wasn't.  RIC could have won by a lot more, but Marchs Reilly wanted to give everyone on the team a chance to play.  A Sciarra Brandt baseline jumper at 12:37 put us on the board, and a Carly Murphy free throw at 9:27 gave us 3.  Those would be the only 3 points we'd score in the half as RIC raced out to a 37-3 halftime lead.  When your down by that much you have to hope the opposition goes as cold as you did the 2nd half, meanwhile you have to play almost flawless the second half and still it's usually not enough, but really you aren't winning games scoring 3 points in a half.    All 15 people that suited up for RIC played at least 4 minutes.

Championship game prediction (Saturday at RIC 5:00 PM)
#2 USM 56 @ #1 RIC 72.
Just an awful matchup for USM.  Rachel Riley neutralizes Cochran in the paint, and if you eliminate Cochran out of the USM offense it's not doing much.  Unlike the USM guards who have shot-itis (the fear of shooting the ball??), Cynthia Gaudet isn't afraid to shoot it, or drive it.  Getting the ball inside to Rachel Riley and Courtney Burns will draw double teams which will leave Nicole Girard, Stephanie Coro, or Cynthia Gaudet out alone on the wings.  This was a 20+ point win in Providence in January, I say this is closer, but RIC is the far superior team and should win by double digits.  I think both teams are safe for a tourney bid on Monday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 25, 2012, 04:45:25 PM
RIC leads 25-18 at halftime.  The teams are a combined 16-50 shooting so far with 18 turnovers.  Courtney Cochran has 4 points and 2 fouls for the Huskies, while Rachel Riley and Cynthia Gaudet have 8 each to lead the anchorwomen
RIC ends up winning 50-44 to punch their ticket to the NCAAs.  I still think USM joins them in the field on Monday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 26, 2012, 09:28:27 AM
7,
You have done a tremendous job over here on the LEC womens side this year.  Sorry, I was preoccupied with the mens side as obviously ECSU's womens team had some issues  :-[.  However, Coach Bierly  has gotten some excellent young players, ie Shannon McCourt in particular, some, some good experience this year and should be able to build on that next year with some new recruits.  We really missed Tanisha Carter this year, why she went to Bridgeport, ( poor program), I will never know.  Maybe she sensed the problems with certain team mates in advance. :o 

Congrats to RIC womens basketball for winning the LEC regular season and tournament and for an overall outstanding 2011-12 season!!

Good Luck to the Anchorwomen and any other LEC teams in the big show!!!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MVP on February 26, 2012, 07:18:05 PM
Congratulations to the RIC WBB team!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 27, 2012, 11:17:14 AM
http://static.psbin.com/t/s/sadj43c29nr3hg/d3hoops-2012-wbb-projection.pdf

That's the projected women's bracket, official one gets announced at 2:30.  I really like RIC's chances to go deep in this one.  That can easily beat Vassar in round 1 (Vassar has no height), and as long as their playing at home they can knock off Colby/UNE (they lost to UNE by 1 up at UNE).  As long as William Paterson makes it, the sectional would more then likely be there, and that's a good team with height and 2 all-americans, so I think their run ends there.

Southern Maine is going to have their hands full with St. Lawrence.  Luckily for them that's a projection and not the official one.  Hopefully the NCAA rewards RIC and doesn't screw them like they screwed Western last year by sending us down to New Jersey.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Maine 1 on February 27, 2012, 11:26:48 AM
I wouldn't get to involved in the projected brackets, the real ones can be entirely different. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: LORENZO123 on February 27, 2012, 11:56:40 AM
Quote from: Maine1 on February 27, 2012, 11:26:48 AM
I wouldn't get to involved in the projected brackets, the real ones can be entirely different.

One can only hope! I was looking forward to seeing you in Wellesley.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MVP on February 27, 2012, 12:23:04 PM
Quote from: LORENZO123 on February 27, 2012, 11:56:40 AM
Quote from: Maine1 on February 27, 2012, 11:26:48 AM
I wouldn't get to involved in the projected brackets, the real ones can be entirely different.

One can only hope! I was looking forward to seeing you in Wellesley.

Babson should host , but don't hold your breath!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 27, 2012, 12:31:11 PM
That's true, but I still like RIC to host, especially since the men just got sent on the road.  They were 3rd last week, and and the team in second (UNE) lost, so I'd expect them to jump UNE.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Maine 1 on February 27, 2012, 01:18:21 PM
WE will find out soon--I would expect RIC to host, as they will likely be a second seed. Just noticed that Amherst is only playing on game on Saturday--so it is possible Amherst could host.
Babson should be hosting over Emmanuel
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: littleeastguy on February 27, 2012, 02:46:07 PM
So RIC will host. They get Baruch in the first round. This is not a bad draw for the anchorwomen at all.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 27, 2012, 02:53:37 PM
Quote from: littleeastguy on February 27, 2012, 02:46:07 PM
So RIC will host. They get Baruch in the first round. This is not a bad draw for the anchorwomen at all.

Then they get Hartwick/Emmanuel in round 2.  They'll kill Baruch, they played Emmanuel early in the season, lost by 8 but that was in Boston.  Not sure how Hartwick is, I'll take a look at that this week.

USM plays Bowdoin up in Ithaca.  Why their sending 2 teams from Maine that are 40 minutes from each other to the middle of New York I don't know, but really this matchup is boring.  USM already played and beat them once this year, no reason to say they can't do it again on a neutral floor.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 27, 2012, 04:59:39 PM
Keene #1 seed in the ECAC New England tournament:
http://www.ecacsports.com/championships/2011-2012_Winter_Championships/2012_Women-s_Basketball_Championships/2012_ECAC_Women-s_Tournament_Seedings
As long as they win Wednesday night, they'll host the semifinals and finals Saturday and Sunday.  Endicott is a team to watch out for, but as long as Keene can score, they should be able to beat any of the other 6 on that list.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 28, 2012, 12:49:24 PM
Conference awards: http://littleeast.com/sports/mbkb/2011-12/releases/20120228-mbkb-all-conference

I understand why the conference gave player of the year to Cochran, she was all they had on the offensive end, but they finished 2 games behind RIC, so I would've given POY to Cynthia Gaudet.  I also would've swapped Kirsten Morrison (who won rookie of the year) in favor of Carolina Brasa, but really can't blame that.  Gaudet won defensive player of the year and Marcus Reilley won coach of the year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 29, 2012, 02:46:08 PM
Keene state opens up the ECAC tournament tonight against 8th seeded Regis College.  Since Keene state is the #1 seed, they will host every gamr at home where they only have 1 loss on the year as long as they keep advancing in the tournament; winning tonight would ensure the semi's and finals are played at Spaulding gym.  Regis was predicted to win the NECC conference in their first year after coming over from the CCC last summer, they did well for the most part: 21-5 on the year and 18-0 in conference, but they got upset in the semifinals by Daniel Webster to end up in the ECAC's.  2 of Regis's 5 losses on the year came to NCAA tournament teams (should be 3 of 5 since Colby should be in the field), and all 5 losses came to teams that finished at least 10 games over .500, and all 5 of the teams had at least 19 wins.  The Pride did not lose any of those 5 games by more than 12 points.  Regis is 10-1 in road games this season, only loss a 4 point loss at Colby.  Regis averages 71.7 points per game.  Keene has to play great defense because Regis looks like a lot better team.  If Keene has a prolonged scoring drought like their capable of, it's lights out for them, because defense can only take you so far.  My prediction: Regis 67 @ Keene 61
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 29, 2012, 09:10:57 PM
Keene is a 58-36 winner over Regis.  With the win, Keene will now host the semifinals and finals Saturday and Sunday; the Owls semifinal opponent will be Colby-Sawyer who was a 69-66 winner over Suffolk.  Regis started the game with the first basket of the game; they ended the half down 29-12.  Keene scored the first basket of the 2nd half, led by now fewer than 19 the remaining of the game, and got it as high as 26 in the 2nd half.  Sara Laudano was the games only double digit scorer as she paced the Owls who shot 34.7%.  Stephanie Crawford lead the way for Regis with 7 who shot only 9-47 form the floor, 1-12 from 3 and turned it over 29 times.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 01, 2012, 06:56:49 PM
Friday predictions:

Baruch 54 @ RIC 72.
Baruch is 19-9 on the year, but only 9-7 in road/neutral games, and 0-4 against teams in this year's tournament.  RIC is undefeated at the Murray Center.   Last year when Baruch had a better team they lost by 10 to Eastern at Amherst.  RIC should be able to take this by double digits.

USM 66 vs. Bowdoin 53 (game at Ithaca, NY).
Why are 2 schools separated by less than 45 miles playing each other in the middle of New York??  This matchup already took place earlier this year when USM won 63-49 in Gorham back in December.  Both teams are not good away from home; USM is 9-6 away from Gorham, Bowdoin is only 6-6 outside of Brunwick, ME.  USM has the better road/neutral record and won earlier in the season, so their my pick.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 04, 2012, 04:32:05 AM
Nice time for RIC to suffer their first home defeat of the season as they fall to Emmanuel 57-52 for their first loss in the Murray Center this year.  That also makes RIC 0-2 against Emmanuel this year compared to 25-2 against everyone else, sometime a team just has your number.  The year I was at Hofstra our lacrosse team finished 20-2 but both losses that season were to UMass meaning we went 0-2 against UMass, but were undefeated against everyone else.
Keene beats Colby-Sawyer and they will play Smith for the ECAC title, I'll have more later on in the day.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 04, 2012, 05:08:05 PM
Second straight year an LEC team falls in the final of the ECAC tournament as Keene loses to Smith 65-57.  This concludes the LEC season and later in the week I'll have a 2012-13 preview, which could come as early as tomorrow.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 06, 2012, 03:57:13 PM
With the 2011-12 season in the books, it's time to look forward to the 2012-13 season.  If ESPN and CBSsportline can do a power rating 12 hours after the final of the men's championship I can do a 12-13 preview 48 hours after the LEC season ends.  This looks to be Western's to lose next year.  Granted, we don't know who's going to transfer and who were going to bring in, but we bring back 4/5 of our starting 5, and pretty much all of our bench players, though granted the 1 we lose was a second team all conference selection and a floor leader.  Dartmouth (1 senior) should be up there, and I FINALLY look for Boston finish in the top 4 this year.  RIC & Keene should take significant steps back next year; both team lose 4/5 of their starting 5, projected conference record in parenthesis.

1) Western Connecticut (12-2).  Of the 3 teams that finished ahead of us next year, all 3 lose significant pieces.  RIC & Keene graduate 4 starters, and USM graduates Courtney Cochran who was basically their entire offense this year.
2) Dartmouth (10-4).  Like the Colonials, they also return 4/5 of their starting 5.  They'll have one of the taller front court's in the conference with Erika Borneman and Colleen Moriarty both over 6 feet tall.  Their guard play was shaky last year, and with Stephanie Houtman graduating, they should bring in a point guard
3) USM (9-5).  They'll pretty much be undefeated at home, but they'll have to win some games away from Gorham.  With Cochran graduating I look for a more balanced offense; Haley Jordan isn't as good as Cochran, and if Renee Nicholas and Erin McNamera continue to give the ball to Jordan next year instead of looking to shoot more, they could finish more towards the bottom.
4) Boston (7-7).  I believe they have no seniors this year and they have the rookie of the year.  They shoukd at least finish at .500
4) Eastern (7-7).  The biggest wildcard in the whole thing.  If Jess Blodgett and Lauren Kelleher are able to return, this team could finish near the top (both have another year of eligibility left), if they don't I still look for them to finish in the middle of the pack.  Even though they lost a lot, those freshmen that had to play and start, that's valuable experience moving forward.  May not be next year, but it should pay dividends in 13-14.
4) RIC (7-7).  Like West Conn the year before them, they had their 1 window of opportunity and they made it count.  They had more depth then Western did, and Marcus Reilly is as good a coach as Kim Rybczyk is, but I have my doubts.
7) Keene state (6-8).  They couldn't shoot the ball well last year and they graduate 4 starters.  Defense can only get them so far.  Siobhan Carnell will be a big boost for them next year.
8) Plymouth state (4-10).  Still a couple years away, but they should be able to win more then 1 game which is what they've won each of the last 2 years.

player of the year- Colleen Moriarty Dartmouth

All conference team:
Kirsten Morrison- Boston
Renee Nicholas-USM
Krystina Forsman- Eastern
Siobhan Carnell- Keene
Carly Murphy- Western
Colleen Moriarty- Dartmouth
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 15, 2012, 03:22:35 AM
Stephanie Slonski elected to play in NEWBA senior all-star classic in Springfield.  Also joining her from the conference are Rachel Riley, Steph Coro, and Cynthia Gaudet of RIC and Jenn Shinall of Conn College.
http://wcsu.edu/sports/WBasketball/NewsStories/wbSlonskiNEWBASeniorClassic030812.html
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 17, 2012, 04:39:38 PM
Courtney Cochran named an honorable all-american: http://d3hoops.com/awards/all-americans/women/2012
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on May 10, 2012, 06:44:09 PM
Just did an off season preview for the guys, so figured I'd do one for the girls too.  These predictions don't take into account which players are coming in for these respective teams, just what teams lose, and how I'd rank them.  I'll have official predictions closer to when the season starts after I take a look over some rosters.

Plymouth I think is still a year away.  However they've gone 2-26 in LEC play the last 2 years, so they should improve on the 1-13 record they've had in conf action the last 2 seasons.  RIC and Keene got obliterated with graduation which should help their chances.
Eastern.  The wildcard in this whole thing, and we'll know more about them once November rolls around.  Jess Blodgett, Rachael Armstrong and Lauren Kellaher, who all got kicked off the team mid season last season all have eligibility left.  Not sure they'll be playing basketball again, but the door's at least somewhat still open.  They didn't win many games after Christmas, but it was valuable expierence for them, and they should benefit with a whole team for the whole season.  There were a few games last year after the mass suspensions where they only suited up 6 or 7 players.
Keene graduates 4 of 5 starters.  Siobhan Carnell, the lone returning starter, and Rachel Brucks a freshmen guard out of suburban Atlanta (really, how did coach Boucher get her to go to school up there) should keep the Owls above water.  How will life with out Cirillo be??  My guess?  Not fun to begin the year.
Boston.  Last year dissapointed me, but I really believe this is the year they can snag a home game in round 1.  As of now only real dominate team should be Western, Dartmouth & USM will be pretty good.  No reason Boston shouldn't win all the other games at home against the other teams.
Dartmouth.  Graduate just one player in Stephanie Houtman.  I believe if Colleen Moriarty doesn't get injured they beat West Conn in the opening round.  Erika Bordeman improved greatly from her freshmen to sophmore year if she works on her free throw shooting over the summer they'll be a team to be reconked with.  If they can beat USM at home, I think this could end up being your second place finisher.
RIC.  This is the exact same situation as Western had coming into last season.  RIC had a 1 year window to work with and like Western, they made it count running away with the LEC title.  Unlike Western, the RIC bench played more then the Western bench in 10-11 but I don't think it's quite as good as the Western bench was.  Ashley O'Dell, the first sub off the bench last year probably starts for any other team in the conference....and she was a starter in 10-11.  Courtney Burns is about the only other player worth mentioning.  I think their in severe danger of missing the tournament next year.
USM.  Graduates Cochran, as well as starting guards Nicole Garland and Renee Nichols as well as a defensive stopper off the bench Kim Rivett.  Last year without Cochran or if you shut her down USM was awful.  Erin McNamera after having a pretty good freshmen year had a terrible sophmore year, and they'll need her to step up because Haley Jordan's the only other player they have coming back.  They'll take a big step back next year and probably need to win all 7 home conference games in Gorham because they may not win 1 outside of Maine.
Western.  Stephanie Slonski is the only starter that graduates.  Nicole Eanniello had a dissapointing season last year, but Stephanie Slonski finished on the first team.  Carly Murphy had a great season, and I'd look for her to continue it, if not for Kirsten Morrison at Boston Carolina Brasa would've been ROY after coming back from ACL surgery in 10-11, Taylor Nkonoki can step in for Steph at PG and plays great defense.  The 2 impact freshman Amber Litwinko played well in the first before she quited down in the first, Lissa DiNino was pretty much invisible in the first half, but turned it on in the 2nd when her roomate Litwinko started to struggle.    I didn't even mention Sciarra Brandt and Chelsea Mone yet.  Will be close between us and Dartmouth, but those 2 are at the head of the field.

conf predictions:

1) Western
2) Dartmouth
3) Boston
4) USM
5) Eastern
6) Keene
7) RIC
8) Plymouth

The losses suffered by RIC, Keene & USM as well as the uncertainty surrounding Eastern really opened the door for Boston.  I don't think their neccessarly the 3rd best team and may not even pick them 3rd in my predictions, but when you combine those 5 teams, Boston is in the best shape of the 5 if the 12-13 season started today which is why they go 3rd right now.

NCAA tournament prediction: The conference takes a big step backwards next season.  Any more then 2 or 3 conference losses is going to hurt Western and Dartmouth.  Right now I'll say only the tourney winner gets in, but if Dartmouth and Western can both finish at least 12-2 and split with each other and make the finals, then both get in.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: lechoopsfan on May 14, 2012, 10:15:39 AM
I am sure that the LEC will be very competitive. Do not sell USM short. 1 very good incoming frosh and a transfer from UMaine. The transfer will help immediately. She is a very good get for the Huskies. Would be interested to hear if any others are getting some impact players?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: bsc73 on May 15, 2012, 02:09:21 PM
who's the transfer from Maine? I'm surprised that they only have one. I would expect that they would have many more.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: lechoopsfan on May 19, 2012, 01:25:48 PM
Rebecca Knight. She saw alot of time and started as well. Lefty and overall good player. She helps ALOT and quickly.  USM will need more but she is a very good start.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on July 26, 2012, 04:36:24 PM
Here's what I was able to dig around for Western's 12-13 schedule.  When schools post the full schedule, I will post them on here.

Oneonta state at home Nov 15
@ Mount St. Mary Nov 20
@ Trinity Nov 29
home vs. Bridgewater state Dec 5
@ USM Dec 8
home vs. Plymouth Jan 12
home vs. USM Jan 26
@ Plymouth Feb 16
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on July 27, 2012, 11:17:03 AM
From ECSU athletics web page:
CONGRATULATIONS ALLISON!!!!!!!!
What an unbelievable playershe was!!!
NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. - Eastern Connecticut State University alumnus Allison Coleman (Jewett City) has been selected as one of only two women's basketball players tabbed as inaugural inductees into the Little East Conference Hall of Fame.
The most decorated women's basketball player in NCAA Division III history when she graduated, Allison Coleman became the first four-time Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division III All-America. The 2004 State Farm/WBCA National Player of the Year led Eastern Connecticut State University to a 101-17 record (.856 winning percentage) and four postseason appearances. Coleman was the catalyst for the Warrior squad that reached the 2003 NCAA Division III National Championship Game. The only four-time Little East Player of the Year in the conference history guided Eastern Connecticut to a share of two regular-season conference championships. Coleman is the only student-athlete in program history to record 1,000 career points (1,991) and rebounds (1,134). She is also the program leader in assists (579), and steals (369). Named to the LEC women's basketball 25th Anniversary Team last year, Coleman, was previously  inducted into the Connecticut Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in April of 2010 as the fifth Eastern individual to gain that honor in the first 23 years of that hall of fame's existence
.

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on August 21, 2012, 02:33:56 AM
Rachel Riley, the RIC grad this summer, has gotten a job with the WPI basketball team.  I'll see if can get an article on the WPI site, but I heard the news from her twitter update.
Also, talking about RIC, it looks like they'll be having a new leader this year as it looks like Marcus Reily has signed on for an assistant gig at URI in Kingston down the highway. 
Here's the article on URI's hire of Reilly: http://www.gorhody.com/sports/w-baskbl/2012-13/releases/20120625ryc1rw

Still no article on Rachel's hire yet (but it is official), I'll update if I find an article.  Congrats to the both of them, and wish them the best of luck this year
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on October 02, 2012, 10:06:23 PM
Western's official schedule:

http://wcsu.edu/sports/WBasketball/schedule.htm
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on October 03, 2012, 07:57:31 PM
RIC's schedule:
http://www.goanchormen.com/index.html

For as young a team as their gonna have, that 3 game closing stretch is brutal: home vs. USM @ Western @ Keene
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on October 25, 2012, 10:43:55 PM
Women's preseason top 25 poll out:  USM comes in at #39 (30 votes), RIC somehow comes in at #43 (6 votes) even though they have pretty much no one returning from last year.  Dartmouth & Western my 2 favorites this year have 0.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on October 28, 2012, 01:53:21 PM
My LEC predictions.  Conference record in parenthesis:

1) Western (12-2).  The class of the league this year by far losing only 1 player to graduation.  The roster still isn't out yet, but I expect everyone that played last year is back with the team this year because I haven't heard about any transfers during the summer.  Melissa DiNino & Carolina Brasa (should've won rookie of the year last year) played excellent in the second half, if they can put together a full season of that along with Amber Litwinko (had a good first half, sluggish second half) and get Sciarra Brandt & Nicole Eaniello back on track this year (both were awful last season) this will be a very good year.  Can't see us getting threatened much this year which could be a problem in March.  Gary Fifield probably brought in some talent but they have to fill a lot of holes & RIC graduated just about everyone significant and lost their coach.  Its entirely possible our 2 toughest games of the season occur the first 3 weeks of the season: we play USM in Gorham on December 8 and play @ Mount St. Mary on November 20.
2) Dartmouth (10-4).  As long as they can split with USM this year I think they can finish in the top 2.  They have a very young team (1 senior) last season, and Erika Bordeman & Colleen Moriarty are the real deal.
2) USM (10-4).  They looked awful without Courtney Cochran in the game last year and guess what?  She already used up all her eligibility, along with the only 2 guards that weren't afraid to shoot in Renee Nicholas and Nicole Garland.  I know Erin McNamera is a point guard, but she really has to get some shots this year and Haley Jordan did a good job playing alongside Cochran last year but is she ready to take a leadership role?  If McNamera gets shots this year and Jordan can get half of what Cochran did (18 ppg, 7 rpg) they'll be successful.  Luckily for them the conference really drops off after this.
4) Boston (8-6).  Have to take advantage of a down year.  Kirsten Morrison (LEC Rookie of the year) and Lauren Perra are their 2 returning leading scorers, but they need to get a 3rd option.
5) Plymouth (7-7).  Colleen O'Hara and Kellie Walsh are their 2 best players and both have 1 more year of eligibility remaining.  They've only won 2 LEC games the last 2 years, that should change this year
6) Eastern Connecticut (5-9).  Sam Riccio is their only returning letter winner.  After the mass suspension they played well with what little talent they had left.  I still think they'll sneak into the tournament.
7) RIC (4-10).  Nicole Girard?  Gone.  Cynthia Gaudet?  Gone.  Rachel Riley?  Assistant coach up at WPI.  Marcus Reilly?  Now an assistant at URI.  Not much going for them this year.  Ashley O'Dell their leading returning scorer started in 10-11, but came off the bench last year that's how deep their team was.
8) Keene state (3-11).  Another team with a mass graduation culminated by Courtney Cirillio.  They struggled the last 2 years with a upper classmen driven team, now they have to get by with division 2 transfer Siobhan Carnell leading the way. Both RIC & Keene are extremely young, so both have to take advantage of home games against the bottom of the conference (Plymouth/Boston/eastern) to get into the playoffs.

Player of the year:
Erika Bordeman- Dartmouth

1st team all LEC:
Erika Bordeman- Dartmouth
Colleen Moriarty- Dartmouth
Caroline Brasa- Western
Kirsten Morrison- Boston
Siobhan Carnell- Keene
Haley Jordan- USM

Playoff:
Western over USM in the LEC final; both Dartmouth & USM join Western in the tournament.

Later today I'll have a game to watch for each team this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on October 28, 2012, 03:09:18 PM
Games to watch for each team based on projected order of finish:

Western: November 20 @ Mount St. Mary.  I still wish this was a conference game so we'd get them twice a season instead of only once.  MSM always wins the Skyline, Western should be the favorite in the LEC and the last 2 years this game has been decided by a total of 5 points: 3 points in January 2011 in Newburgh, and 2 points in Danbury last December on a Jen Macanou game winner.  Luckily for Western Macanou's gone and so is Amanda Horvers their 2 best players, so early might be a good chance to get them.  This game, @ USM @ Dartmouth and home vs. USM are likely the only games Western struggles with this season.
Dartmouth: February 16 @ USM.  The final day of the regular season, this will probably decide which team gets the final bye and joins Western straight in the semifinals and which team has to open the tournament on Tuesday.
USM: january 26 @ Western.  Likely their last tough road game of the season.  Win this along with beating the Colonials in December, and USM could be in the drivers seat for the LEC regular season championship.
Boston: December 11 vs. Westfield state.  Aside from their opening tournament on November 17-18, this is their only home game until January 10.  Granted, its not a conference game, but you have to win games at home, and maybe all the road games pre-Christmas give the team some confidence going into the conference slate.
Plymouth: December 1 @ RIC.  Coming off back to back 1-13 LEC season's a great chance to pick up win #1 in their first conference game against a depleted RIC squad.
Eastern: November 17 vs. Simmons.  The opening day of the season, and still don't know hoe Eastern's roster will look.  This game will tell us how they look, and whether or not they can be a force this year.
RIC: February 16 @ Keene state.  Final game of the season.  With the mediocrity at the bottom of the conference, this could end up deciding the final playoff spot.
Keene: January 12 @ Rhode Island College.  Keene's first 4 conference games are: @ Dartmouth, home vs. Boston, home vs. USM and @ Western.  I can't see Keene winning any more then 1 of those games, and losing this game will probably be too big of a hole to come out from.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 07, 2012, 02:29:48 AM
Looking at the Eastern roster: http://www.easternct.edu/athletics/women_basketball/wbb-roster.htm not a whole lot of talent; Kristina Forsman, Taylor McBride, Sam Riccio and Jaymie Sommers played well last year.  Watch out for Victoria Pfohl.  She's from my hometown and went to my home high school, she'll be great by her senior season even though she may not make a dent this year.  Also, having her in Willamantic gives Denise Bierly and the staff an even better chance to get her younger sister who's about 100 times better.  She made varsity as a freshmen and was the best player on the team.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 08, 2012, 03:44:37 PM
Western Connecticut with their first scrimmage tonight at William Paterson.  This would actually be a pretty good regular season matchup however.  Think WPU might be a little overrated because they graduate their 2 All American's but their still in the top 25 in both the D-3 poll and the coaches poll.  Roster not set yet, but sounds like Western has a ton of turnover.  Taylor Nkonoki isn't playing this year (or at least not in the scrimmage tonight).  Brittany Brandt joins her twin sister Sciarra on the roster along with about 5 or 6 freshmen which is funny because we only lost 1 senior (Stephanie Slonski) and I don't think anyone else left/transfered.  Looks like were gonna have a whole lot of depth this season.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 08, 2012, 11:24:24 PM
Saw the Western Paterson scrimmage yesterday.  Not pretty, but it was only an exhibition game.  Once again like last year this will be a 3 point or bust team; can't make them we don't win.  Didn't do so well against Paterson who had equal or greater size to Carolina Brasa, Chelsea Mone, & Melissa DiNino which doesn't mode well for Dartmouth or USM. 
Still don't have a point guard either.  Nicole Eanniello started the game there along with Sciarra Brandt, Carly Murphy, Jackie Zilnicki and a freshmen (don't know the name yet).  I'd rather have Eanniello on the off guard spot, but none of the other 4 that started can play the point either.
Melissa Delzio (a freshman) backed up Nic and played pretty well..............................except she went like 1-6 from the free throw line.    Your PG can't miss that many free throws, but aside from that she really played well, wouldn't mind her having the start next Thursday.
Lydia Walter (another freshmen) was the backup for Delzio.  Didn't see much of her in the game (maybe like 3 or 4 minutes tops) but she handeled the ball well and ran the offense.
Speaking of people that didn't play much, Caroline Brasa & Carly Murphy, the 2 best off of last year's team saw a whole lot of the bench and not much of the court.  Hopefully it was just giving the freshman a look and not injury related for either of them, but Murph played less then 5 minutes the whole second half.
For the rest of the team about the same as last year: Hopefully Amber Litwinko can have a productive whole season instead of only half a season.  Chelsea Monet & Caroline Brasa, 5"10 & 5"9 respectively still would rather shoot from the perimeter then shoot from the paint.  Melissa DiNino is still a work in progress on the offensive end, but is probably the team's best post defensive player.  Can't say much about Sciarra Brandt she took like 2 shots.  Brittnany Brandt in limited action played well.  Jackie Zilnicki will be the hustle player: doesn't score a lot of points, but not afraid to get on the floor, and get her hands in there to deflect & intercept passes.  Anytime she tried to take the ball up the court however, she took it out.
How'd I make the lineup Thursday:
Marisa Delzio
Nicole Eanniello
Carly Murphy
Jackie Zilnicki
Sciarra Brandt
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 09, 2012, 02:12:06 AM
Liz Stitch new coach @ Plymouth:
http://littleeast.com/sports/wbkb/2011-12/releases/20120712-wbkb-psu-stich

Living a few minutes up the street from Sacred Heart University, I've seen Stitch a few times with the Blue Devils.  Played under a great coach @ Hartford (Jen Rizzoti) and @ Central they had their best 4 year season in quite some time.  I think she'll do quite well up there @ Plymouth.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 13, 2012, 04:40:19 AM
Western roster up:
http://wcsuathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2012-13/roster

Surprised that Sciarra Brandt is one of the captains this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 13, 2012, 10:27:31 AM
LEC preseason poll:
http://littleeast.com/sports/wbkb/2012-13/news/20121113-wbkb-preseasonpoll

How is RIC picked 3rd?!?!?  They have virtually no one left from last years team.  And I like how Dartmouth gets pegged 4th, but they get the final first place vote.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 13, 2012, 07:27:12 PM
Now officially 48 hours until the season gets underway, seems like a good time for predictions:

The lone women's game Thursday has Oneonta state @ Western Connecticut.

Oneonta has 3 starters coming back from a team that went 19-9 (14-4 in the SUNYAC) a year ago and upset league champ Buffalo state (25-3, 16-2) in the SUNYAC championship game last year to advance to the NCAA tournament.  However, their leading returning scorer is Kristin Pappalardo who only averaged 6.8 ppg last season.  Pappalardo is also their leading returning rebounder, and leading 3 point shooter (both in number of makes and attempts).  Other red Devils to keep an eye out for are: Grace Schilling who is the second returning leader in assists and shot the ball at a 42.7% clip from the floor last season, Alyshia Crawford who was 31.1% from 3 last season, Kelly Mulligan who's 66 assissts lead the team and Kate Wilverding who was 13 of 49 from 3 last season.  Last season they outscored opponents by 5.4 PPG, and you don't not want to get into a free throw contest against them: they shot 70.3% from the line while their opponents only shot 67.1% and the Red Devils had 10 players that finished the season with a free throw percentage of 65% or higher.  Last seasons meeting in Oneonta saw Western scored 33 of 60 points from behind the arc and more then half of their field goals were three's (20 field goals; 9 two's, 11 3's) in a 2 point Western win.    The real winner of this game is me because it'll only take me like 40 minutes to get to the game instead of 40 hours like it did last year.  But I'm going with Oneonta 54 @ Western 60.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on November 13, 2012, 08:19:19 PM
SID Bob Molta's interview with Coach Denise Bierly, on this years squad/recuits, and the difficulties of the 2011/12 "lost" year!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFq2pm2wRZA&feature=plcp
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 15, 2012, 10:24:27 PM
Western finishes a dreadful 55-40 win over Oneonta.
its a win, and a win over an NCAA tournament team from last season, but that was ugly basketball.  We had 55 points, but 28 at halftime and only 41 at the 4:35 mark, and its never good when you score more points the final 4:35 (14) then you did the first 15:25 of the half (13).  If Oneonta doesn't foul late down 13 we probably only end up with around 49 or 50.  The 3 big keys of the game which resulted in the Western win: Oneonta was 7-17 from the free throw line including starting the game 0-8.  They didn't hit their first free throw until there were 12:06 left in the game, while Western only took 8 free throws (mainly because they took 21 three pointers) but they made 6 of those 8.   Western had 14 points off of 19 Oneonta turnovers while Oneonta converted 19 Western turnovers into just 4 points.   Finally, the Western bench outscored the Oneonta bench 20-6.  Not pretty and we still have a lot of work to do, but we hit over 30% from 3 (33.3%), that'll be our benchmark and got a win over a 2012 NCAA tournament team.  I just don't know why shoot so many outside shots were gonna become 1 dimensional as the season wears out.  6 of our 13 players listed on the roster are 5"10 or taller so we probably have one of the tallest teams in the league, lets start to work the ball inside more.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2012, 12:41:57 AM
Friday schedule:
River 47 @ Dartmouth 67.
Colleen Moriarty and Erika Bordeman should have a field day as Rivier only has 2 players that are 5"10 or taller.
Southern Maine 88 vs. Maine-Farmington 42 (@ Dartmouth). 
The second game of the Dartmouth classic.  Rivier plays USM & Farmington plays Dartmouth Saturday.  I'm interested to see how D-1 transfer Rebecca Knight does for the Huskies.
York 37 @ Keene 60.
York finished 3-22 last season, and needed to use their gym as evacuees for hurricane Sandy.  The 3 other teams in this tournament; Mount Holyoke, York & Mount Ida, combined to go 24-51 last season, so even short handed and young, Keene should still be favored to win their tournament for the 15th straight year and 16 times in the 17 years they've had it.
Eastern Nazarene 65 @ Plymouth 52.
No Colleen O'Hara OR Kellie Walsh this year for the Panthers, so maybe they can go 1-13 for the 3rd straight season.  Liz Strich saw the largest turnaround at the D-1 level with the 07-08 Blue Devils finishing with 4 wins and the next year them finishing with 19, so there is hope on the horizon for Plymouth, probably won't be this year.  Norwich vs. Elms is the second game of the tournament.
Bowdoin 65 vs. RIC 60 (@ Babson).
The battle of the 2 teams that lost a lot of scoring.  The Polar Bears graduate 4 starters and lose 38.5 ppg from last year while RIC also loses 4 starters, 2 all conference selections, the player of the year, their coach and 46.1 ppg.  Framingham state vs. Babson is the first game of this tournament.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2012, 02:39:11 PM
Dartmouth is up 66-60 with 9 seconds to go, so looks like they'll be 1-0.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2012, 08:39:51 PM
USM wins 73-45.  Nicole Garland had 18, Rebecca Knight had 7 points and lead the Huskies with 10 rebounds
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 17, 2012, 01:09:29 AM
Sat schedule:

Mount Holyoke 47 @ Keene 80.
I don't think they'll win by 60 again like they did Friday, but they should win fairly comfortably.
Middlebury 62 @ Boston 68.
Plymouth failed their opening test against Eastern Nazarene....badly.  Mid finished 7-17 last year, 0-10 in the NESCAC and lost 7 of their 10 conference games by double figures.  Much like Plymouth, this game could decide how their season goes.  I have Boston finishing 4th in my preseason poll while the coaches have them finishing 7th, so this game could go a long way in deciding who's dart ends up closer.
Elms 67 @ Plymouth 52.
Both teams were blown out in the semi's: Plymouth at home by 29 to Eastern Nazarene, Elms by 25 on a neutral court.  However, Elms finished last year 20-9 while Plymouth has back to back 1-13 LEC seasons.
Southern Maine 88 vs. River 59 (@ Dartmouth).
Rivier suffered a 6 point defeat at Dartmouth, so is Dartmouth worse then advertised or is Rivier better then advertised?
Bates 56 vs. Western 58 (@ Salem state). 
Bates finished last year 11-13 their first losing season in the last 5 seasons, so they'll look to start the 12-12 season out right.  Western gets the slight advantage in having already played a game, but with how awful they looked Thursday it may not be much of an advantage.
RIC 62 @ Babson 72.
RIC had a great win vs. Bowdoin Friday, Babson isn't nearly as good as they've been in the past, but at home Babson should win, hopefully I'm wrong.
Simmons 45 @ Eastern 67.
Simmons finished 13-34 the last 2 seasons.  Keene didn't have much trouble against York, I think this is about the same.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 18, 2012, 09:50:49 PM
Western loses to Salem state 74-71 in the Salem tournament.  They didn't deserve to win that game or even be close in all honesty, but because Salem state couldn't get rebounds on the defensive end and couldn't hit free throws down the stretch, the Vikings left us with a chance to win, but then we gave it right back to Salem.
After a Nicole Eanniello runner tied the game at 71 with 10.6 seconds left, Salem state, without a timeout at its disposal, got trapped in the corner so it looked like either Western was gonna get a final shot off or go to overtime, but we bailed Salem out with a bad foul by Jackie Zilnicki (though she had a great game that was the only bad thing she did).  After 1 of 2 free throws gave Salem a 72-71 lead we threw the insuing inbounds pass out of bounds at midcourt.  Salem hit 2 free throws for the final margin with 9 tenths of a second left, and the desperation attempt was intercepted by the Vikings to end a dissapointing loss.  They have a big game Tuesday @ Mount St. Mary who split 2 games at Emerson college over the weekend.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 19, 2012, 08:59:48 PM
Tuesday schedule:

Trinity 56 @ Keene 63.
They've outscored their opponents 163-86 so far this year, but Trinity is a step up in competition from both York & Mount Holyoke.  Trinity is 1-1 losing by 4 to Springfield and beating Mitchell by 46.
Boston 54 @ Fitchburg state 63.
Boston has had 2 nice wins to start the season over Middlebury & Manhattanville, the latter of the 2 who will probably competete for its conference's regular season & tournament titles.  Fitchburg state, the last couple of seasons has started off great and collapsed down the stretch.  Last year they started 11-0 and 14-1 receiving votes in the top 25 poll before they ended the season losers of 8 of 10.  In 2010 they started 6-3, lost to Western in Florida by 37 and went in the tank after that dropping 10 of their last 15 games that season.
Bridgewater 56 @ RIC 62.
Bridgewater is 2-0 beating Maine-Maritime and by winning by 1 against a Colby who was great last year but lost a lot of points.  RIC is 1-1 against Bowdoin (win) and Babson (loss) 2 teams that also suffered greatly. 
Southern Maine 67 @ Bates 51.
Saw Bates in Salem lose a close one to Western (lost 69-62) and get blown out against MIT.  MIT scored on their first 7 or 8 possessions, never trailed and aside from a few points in the second half where they trimmed a 10 point halftime deficit down to 4, MIT was never really threatened.  They didn't shoot the ball very well in Salem and don't have a lot of height, even on the road I don't think USM has much trouble with them.
Worcester state 53 @ Dartmouth 62.
The Lancers are 1-1 suffering a 5 point loss to Clark and clubbing Becker (24 point win).  This is the first of 2 straight for the Lancers against LEC opponents as they play RIC Sunday and they only have 2 winning seasons in the last 6 years.
Western Connecticut 60 @ Mount St. Mary 59.
The last 3 meetings in this series have been decided by a combined 9 points, all MSM wins, so I guess were due for a win, especially if its close.  2 years ago in Newburgh we lost by 3 and last December in Danbury we lost by 2 on a Mocanau buzzer beater after we turned it over with a chance to win.  Taking out Steph Slonski since she graduated, the other 4 that started last December will probably be starters again tomorrow scored a combined 15 points in 77 minutes or 1 more then Caroline Brasa had in 20 minutes off the bench (14).
Plymouth 54 @ Castleton state 67.
Castleton state is 2-0 beating Regis & Westfield state both better teams then Plymouth has played so far (Eastern Nazarene & Elms) and Plymouth is only 1-1.
Eastern Connecticut 55 @ Emmanuel 67.
Emmanuel thrives against the LEC, 4-1 against the LEC over the last 3 seasons.  Much like the Western men, the Eastern women are still looking for an identity and will struggle in the early going. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 20, 2012, 04:37:00 PM
Massey ratings: Not all games are calculated, and the number in parenthesis is the percentage Massey thinks that teams win by.  Obviously the higher the number, the more likely it is that team wins.  47%-53% is virtually a toss up.

RIC beating Bridgewater 68-59 (76%)
USM beating Bates 73-68 (64%).  Massey has both Bates games calculated, but neither of USM's 2 wins are calculated
MSM beating Western 59-56 (Western has a 45% winning percentage)
Keene beating Trinity 70-62 (73%).  Neither of Keene's 2 wins are calculated)
Dartmouth beating Worcester 62-58 (625).  Neither of Dartmouth's 2 wins are calculated
Fitchburg beating Dartmouth 68-63 (64% for Fitchburg).  Only 1 of Boston's 2 wins is calculated
Emmanuel beating Eastern 68-53 (90% for Emmanuel)
Castleton beating Plymouth 73-51 (96% for Castleton).  It's still early, and these rankings will change, but as of now Plymouth is only favored in 2 games the rest of the season: @ lasell on January 3 (51%), and home vs. Johnson state on January 31 (74%).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 20, 2012, 11:38:33 PM
Tuesday results:

Keene loses by 2 to Trinity 51-49.  Trinity got a layup as time expired to win.
Boston 70-67 over Fitchburg.  Middlebury, Manhattanville & Fitchburg state, not 3 great teams, but not 3 bad teams by any means and Boston has 3 wins.  Its still early, but I think the LEC coaches really sold them short picking them 7th.
RIC gets the sweep of Bridgewater, women win 63-54.
Colleen Hanscom, Michaela Cosby, Elisha Homich and Jenna Williamson 4/5's of Bridgewater's starting 5 combined to shoot 7-43 (16.3%).  The team shot just 30.6% (19-62).  Courtney Burns had 11 to lead RIC
Castleton rolls Plymouth 82-48.
After tying the game at 11 all, Castleton went on a 39-18 run between the first & second halves to blow the game open.
USM 68-54 over Bates.
It looks like McNamera is actually shooting this year.  Only scored 8 points, but shot the rock 10 times which seems like more then she had all of last season.  Nicole Garland lead them with 16 on 6-15 shooting.  Haley Jordan had a double double with 12 and 12.
Dartmouth 69-64 over Worcester state.
Erika Bornemann had a double double with 10 points and 11 boards, Colleen Moriarty poured in 15, but the star for the Corsairs was Kelsey Garrity.  Lead the team (and the game high tally) with 18 points, but contributed 6 assists and had 7 steals to also lead in both those departments.
Eastern loses to Emmanuel 65-47.
Shannon McCourt lead the way for Eastern which she will for most of the season: 17 points and 14 rebounds.  Fiona O'dwyer lead Emmanuel with 30 points and 16 boards and Jennifer Bujnowski also had a double-double for Emmanuel with 10 points and 12 boards
Western 55-43 win over MSM
Not there because I was at the guys game, so can only look at what the boxscore says but looks like the whole team shot horribly.  The team was 18-52, but if you take out Jackie Zilnicki who went 7-11 and finished with 20 points the team shot a dismal 26.8% (11-41).  The other 4 in the lineup with Jack (Chelsea Mone, Melissa DiNino, Carly Murphy & Nicole Eanniello) combined for 9 points.  Not sure what happened to Carly Murphy.  She only had 1 foul, but only played 16 minutes, missed both of her field goal attempts and finished with 0 points, hopefully she didn't get injured.

5-3 for the conference on the night.  Going into the Thanksgiving most impressed with Boston so far.  Conference race looks to be wide open, but USM looks to be a cut above the rest, however
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 24, 2012, 10:11:04 PM
Conference back in action with 2 games Sunday:

Worcester state 56 @ RIC 62.
Worcester is 1-2 losing to Clark and Dartmouth and blowing out Becker for their only win.  Suffered a 5 point loss to LEC school Dartmouth last time out.
St. Joseph's (ME) 53 @ USM 74.
USM somehow lost to them last year, I don't think that's happening this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 25, 2012, 05:50:37 PM
Sunday schedule:

RIC over Worcester 59-40.
RIC forced Worcester into 30 turnovers which included 19 steals to improve to a surprising 3-1 on the season.
USM over St. Joes 67-52.
Nicole Garland, Erin McNamera, Haley Jordan and Rebecca Knight all finished with 12 points to lead the Huskies and Jordan Grant was a missed free throw away (finished with 9 points) from having the entire Husky starting 5 finish in double figures.  Nash Billiew had 8 of USM's 10 bench points (Taylor Hawkins) had the other basket.
LEC improves to an impressive 20-7 in OOC action.
Monday schedule:
Manhattanville 67 @ Eastern 56.
Eastern only got 17 points from players on last year's team that was on this year's team in last season's 71-67 loss in Purchase.
Conn College 54 @ Western 62.
Western has won 5 of 7 in the series and 3 in a row in Danbury since the series resumed in 2005-06.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 26, 2012, 08:02:09 PM
24-22 Western leads at the half.  Conn College already has 33 rebounds.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 27, 2012, 11:24:27 AM
Monday schedule:

Manhattanville 63-60.
Eastern lead 31-30 at halftime.  4 of 5 Valiant starters scored in double figures lead by Jennifer McSharar with 15.  Shannon McCourt lead Eastern with a game high 18.
Western wins a snorefest over Conn College 54-38.
Some interesting facts from this brick fest in Danbury from this evening:
-Western used their 4th different starting lineup through their first 5 games.  The only 2 constants: Jackie Zilnicki (Co-LEC player of the week) and Nicole Eanniello are the only 2 that have started all 5 games.  Chelse Mone had started the previous 4, but she came off the bench tonight.  So far through the first 5 games only 5 oout of 13 players on the roster haven't started at least 1 game: Sha'qira Palmer (missed 2 games), Brittany Brandt (only played in 1 for 2 minutes), Amber Litwinko, Marisa Delzio (Nicole's backup) & Lydia Walter (hasn't even appeared in a game yet.).
-The teams were a combined 4-25 from 3 with Conn College a cool 1-11 from behind the arc.
-There were 43 offensive rebounds
-If the total rebound numbers were reversed, both teams would have had more total rebounds then points scored, as it turns out Conn College finished with 17 more rebounds then points scored.
-There were as many people with double digit rebounds (3) then double digit scorers (3, all from Western).
- If you take out Carlee Smith from Conn College (4-12) and Jackie Zilnicki from Western (4-11), the other 8 starters combined shot 11-61 (18.0%).

It doesn't matter how pretty it is, a win is a win.
Conference goes to 21-8 in OOC games.

Tuesday schedule:
Amherst 88 @ Keene 47.
This is not gonna be pretty.  Amherst lost a lot from last year's team, but they just recently ran over a great William Paterson team by 27 points who would run circles around Keene, and let's face it, Amherst is Amherst, they'll just reload.
Rivier 64 vs. Plymouth 60 (@ NH Tech, Concord, NH)
Rivier is 0-2 against the LEC, but Plymouth is the worst team in the conference.
Bridgewater 63 @ Dartmouth 67.
We need to include Bridgewater in the LEC standings this year.  As well as this game they have played RIC (loss), they play @ Western next week, play Eastern @ Springfield's tournament on New Years and plays Boston later on in January.
New Paltz state 65 @ Eastern 49.
New Paltz is 2-0 beating two good teams in Hartwick and NYU.  They haven't played in 10 days so they maybe a bit rusty.  Eastern last played 24 hours ago, so they may be a bit tired.  New Paltz is better and they'll pull away at the end.
USM 69 @ Bowdoin 51.
USM, from what I've seen, looks to be the best in the conference so far, and Bowdoin is still trying to figure out who fits where after they lost 4 starters from a year ago.  Bowdoin lost by 50 to UNE their last game so I assume they'll play better at home, but USM is going to have two much talent for them.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 27, 2012, 08:03:51 PM
Tuesday results:

Amherst 65-42.
Considering Amherst clobbered William Paterson by 27, Keene should be happy they kept this to only 23.
Rivier beats Plymouth 78-71.
This Plymouth team is bad.  Krystan Corliss lead Plymouth with 20, Deanne Purcell lead all scorers with 24 to lead Rivier.
Bridgewater leads Dartmouth 45-34 with 15:05 left in the 2nd.
Eastern leads New Paltz 15-8 with 11:28 to go in the first
USM leads Bowdoin 35-28 with about 1:45 left in first
Dartmouth falls to Bridgewater 69-55.
Bridgewater was up by double digits most of the second half.  Dartmouth got it to 10 or 12 a few times, but whenever Dartmouth would get it close they'd turn it over, or Bridgewater would hit a back-breaking 3.
Eastern leads 26-22 at the half.
USM beats Bowdoin 72-58.
Rebecca Knight with her best game as a USM husky.  10-13 from the floor, for 25 points just as conference play is about to start.   ::)  Not that they needed anymore help though.  They had some close games in Maine last year and probably will this year, but can't see anyone beating them up there this year.
New Paltz comes back to beat Eastern 64-56. 
Eastern scored 15 of the games first 17 points and still lead by 4 at halftime, but New Paltz outscored them 42-30 in the second half.  Kristina Forsman lead Eastern with 24 and she was joined in double figures by Shannon McCourt with 10.  Maliqua Fisher lead New Paltz with 17.

Conference falls to 22-12.  No games Wednesday, action on Thursday includes: Emmanuel @ RIC, Plymouth @ Salem, Wheelock @ Boston, Western @ Trinity.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 28, 2012, 11:34:33 PM
Thursday schedule:

Emmanuel 62 @ RIC 58.
I really like what RIC has done this year, the most surprising team so far, but I don't like them with Emmanuel.  Emmanuel gave RIC half of its losses last season (RIC had 4, Emmanuel had 2 of them including in the tournament).  Emmanuel has remained the same, RIC got worse.  Big day of basketball at the Murray center tomorrow though, got this game and the men hosting #1 MIT right afterwards.
Plymouth 46 @ Salem state 63.
Salem has lost 2 straight after a 2-0 start, but those 2 were against Babson & Tufts 2 teams in the top 25.  They'll dispose of Plymouth pretty easily. 
Wheelock 35 @ Boston 59.
Wheelock hasn't beaten a non conference opponent since they beat Pine Manor January 5 of 2011.   Including this year they've been held to 40 or less points 12 times in non conference games including total outputs of: 20, 25 & 33 points this year meaning their ppg average is 26.  Last year Boston beat them 73-19 and actually I think the final margin is closer to that then my projected 59-35 score.  Wheelock has lost games by 64 (to Eastern Nazarene) and 57 (to Albertus) this year.  Yah, I don't think Boston is gonna have much trouble.
Western 65 @ Trinity 60.
Western has won 4 of 5 against Trinity since 2006 and the teams are a combined 7-2 this year with the 2 losses coming by a combined 7 points (Western @ Salem by 4, Trinity vs. Springfield by 3) so a couple extra possessions and they could be 9-0 combined heading in.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 30, 2012, 01:00:52 AM
Thursday result:

Emmanuel 60-35.
Good defense (27 turnovers forced, 28% shooting) a tall front line (43 rebounds) and a great scorer (Fiona O'dwyer with 22), this is a good team.  Which GNAC team loses more games this year: Emmanuel (women) or Albertus Magnus (men)??  Think each will end up with 1.
Salem 80-56 over Plymouth.
Combining the men's game, Salem won both games over Plymouth by a combined score of 167-113 this evening.
Western 60-57.
Not pretty, but it's 5-1.  Sha'Qira Palmer had her best game of the season 6-7 for 15 points and Jackie Zilnicki chipped in 12 including a jumper with 28 seconds left when we were up by 1 to put the game away.  I heard the team got their stuff stolen from the locker room as well, who steals stuff fron a team locker room???  They turn the ball over too much (19 turnovers) can't hit free throws (63% tonight) and aside from Jackie, nobody else has really gotten into the scoring department.  Nicole Eanniello is invisible at the point, Sciarra Brandt had a quiet 7 points, Carly Murphy and Caroline Brasa shot a combined 4-15.  Someone besides Jackie has to step up on Saturday.
Boston creams Wheelock 79-18.
Here's my quote from the preview from yesterday: "Last year Boston beat them 73-19 and actually I think the final margin is closer to that then my projected 59-35 score. "  I really screwed giving Wheelock 35 points.  The score at halftime was 43-4 (not a typo), so at that point Courtney Mattingly (Boston's coach) could've put in 5 little kids from the stands to play the second half and they would've won easily.  The fact that Boston actually won the second half by more then 20 as well (36-14) speaks to how truly awful Wheelock is.  Wheelock started the game down 22-1 and after their lone field goal of the half (a 3 no less; they finished the half 1-15) at 10:14 got the score to a "managble" 22-4, Boston scored the final 21 points of the half.  I know I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm gonna say their game on Saturday at Western is going to be slightly more difficult.

24-14 OOC record.

Friday's lone game is the beginning of LEC play: Keene 57 @ Dartmouth 69.
I'm going to try to go up here just to see what Keene & Dartmouth each have.  No clue why their playing on Friday and not Saturday like the rest of the conference is, but Dartmouth should get this pretty handily.  Keene is a young and not very tall team, so Erika Bordemann and Colleen Moriarty should both do some work in the paint.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 30, 2012, 06:17:08 PM
Dartmouth leads Keene 29-18 at halftime.
Siobhan Carnall leads the Owls with 7 points who are shooting just 26.9%.  Erika Bordemann leads the Corsairs with 9 points.  Colleen Moriarty picked up 2 early fouls and for the most part was ineffective (1-4 shooting, 4 rebounds, 2 points).  The teams are a combined 3-11 from the charity stripe.
Final from Dartmouth: Dartmouth holds off Keene 58-48.  Dartmouth improves to 4-1 and 1-0 in the LEC while Keene falls to 2-3, 0-1 in the LEC.
Conference schedule tomorrow is Boston @ Western, USM @ Eastern, and Plymouth @ RIC.  All games begin at 1:00 PM.

Saturday predictions:

Boston 53 @ Western 59.
The teams are a combined 9-1 with Boston a surprising 4-0 on the early going.  Taking out Boston's 79-18 thrashing of Wheelock their other 3 wins have come by a combined 13 points.  The last 2 games for Western have been ugly, but their W's.  I like Boston, I had them 4th preseason, so its not all that surprising to me to see them 4-0, but they come back to reality....at least for 1 game.
Eastern 43 @ USM 80.
My fault, this is at USM.  This isn't going to be pretty.
Plymouth 42 @ RIC 73.
Neither is this one.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 01, 2012, 01:46:37 PM
Western leads Boston 30-22 at the half.  This team aside from Caroline Brasa just CANNOT shoot in a half court offense.  In all my years watching basketball I have never seen a teams second unit performing better then the first unit, but that's the case here.  At least 12 of Western's points have come off Beacon turnovers in the backcourt.

In other scores RIC leads 37-26 and USM trails Eastern 31-30.  Eastern should take a picture of the scoreboard.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 01, 2012, 02:40:01 PM
Western wins 62-41.
RIC won 69-43
USM up 58-54 with about 43 seconds left so looks like they'll win
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 01, 2012, 06:54:14 PM
Sat results:
RIC 69-43 over Plymouth.
Taylor Perry had 16 to lead Plymouth who shot only 15-50 for the game.  Stephanie Prusko had 15 off the bench to lead RIC
USM 59-54.
That wasn't pretty.  With all the bigs USM has how do they get outrebounded 48-31 including 18-4 on the offensive glass??  That +14 advantage on the offensive glass is probably the only reason this was actually a close game.
Western 62-41.
I think Sha'quira Palmer might actually be the team MVP this year.  When Melissa DiNino is in they play a man-to-man defense which isn't impressive, but it gets the job done.  When Palmer subs in for DiNino they go to a full court press with Palmer on the inbounder because she has ridiculously long arms and usually the last 2 or 3 games the person that gets the pass gets trapped in the corner (the worst place to be on the press), and Western gets steals which go for easy basket.  However, I'm only cofident in 2.5 people shooting the ball this year (I'll get to the 2.5 first).
In regards to the 2.5, Palmer is only effective 2 feet or less from the basket where she can use the window for easy layups, you want her to get away from the basket and make her beat you shooting jumpers.......she can't right now but she's only a freshmen so she still has 3.5 years left to work on a jumper.  Now that I took care of the half Jackie Zilnicki & Carolina Brasa are the only 2 I'm even remotely cofident in taking the last shot of a close game.  Have no clue what happened to Carly Murphy & Sciarra brandt this year both have been pretty bad so far, Melissa DiNino is a liability on the offensive end, Amber Litwinko is hurt, Chelse Mone even though she's 5"10 only shoots from outside, Marisa Delzio never looks up at the point and never pushes tempo, and Nicole Eanniello wasn't in uniform or even on the bench.  According to Carly after the game she had some "issues" and "should be back."  Hopefully this isn't anything serious.
2 things I really don't like about this team however:
1) This team is absolutely awful in a halfcourt set and pretty much Zilnicki & Brasa are the only ones that can shoot.  Those 2 were a combined 15-32 today shooting the ball (rest of the team was 10-34).  They got 29 of their 62 points off of 24 Boston turnovers, so getting almost half of your total points off of opposistion turnovers isn't very good.
2) In all my years watching basketball, this is the first team I have EVER seen where the second unit is better then the first unit (Palmer & Brasa being the 2 keys).  This isn't very a bad thing except the team has used 5 different lineup combinations in a total of 7 games so you don't even have consistancy.  However, I like Palmer & Brasa coming off the bench.  The starters (minus Zilnicki) had a total of 14 points and would have been 6 except Murphy got a couple baskets in garbage time to booster her point total from 2 to 8.  Those 2 off the bench are great sparks, but do you really want to be down 10-0 because nobody can shoot the ball in the starting 5 when Brasa & Palmer come in and wreck havoc on the press??

1 game Monday: Brandeis @ Dartmouth.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 03, 2012, 01:11:12 AM
Brandeis 54 @ Dartmouth 67.
Brandeis is 3-3, but lets dig deeper into their 3-3 record.  Their 3 wins are against: Daniel Webster (0-6), Mitchell (0-6) and Springfield (1-4) so they have 3 wins against teams that are a combined 1-16 this year.  Take into account Springfield started the year 1-0 before losing their next 4 and Brandeis 3 wins are currently on a 16 game losing streak combined.  Not good.  They got blown out by Emmanuel & Tufts, but only lost by 1 to Babson 3 teams in the top 25 so this team has played some decent competition in the early going to prepare them for the rigors of the UAA.  Dartmouth has played 3 teams with a winning record.  They won 2 of those games by a total of 11 points: Rivier by 6 (4-2) & Worcester state by 5 (3-3) and got crushed by Bridgewater (5-1), but I like Dartmouth at home.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 03, 2012, 11:04:03 PM
Monday result:

Dartmouth 50-49.
Brandeis lead for exactly 8 seconds of the first half; a Kasey Dean basket with 8 seconds to go in the first half broke a 18 18 tie and gave Brandeis a 20-18 lead into the break.  The largest second half lead for either team was 6.  Colleen Moriarty lead all scorers with 22 pointers including the game winner with 5 seconds to go and block a Brandeis layup at the buzzer to preserve the win.
25-14 OOC record

Tuesday schedule:
Boston 67 @ Mount Ida 44.
Mount Ida has won 3 games beating 2 of the worst team in basketball in the process (York & Wheelock, Daniel Webster also 0-6 is the other win), and when they lose they lose bad: 26 to Mount Holyoke, 29 to Westfield state and 45 to Wheaton.  Not gonna be Wheelock, but with Tufts on Thursday, they get the offense and the team back on track after Saturday.
RIC 62 @ Salve 48.
This is Salve's first game against an LEC team this year but plays Keene later this month, likewise, this is RIC's first game against a CCC opponent, but plays Roger Williams in January.
Keene 52 @ RPI 59.
RPI's 2 losses are @ Emmanuel (no shame there) and @ Williams (no shame there).  They're 5-0 in their other 5 games.  They'll make it 6-0.
Eastern 56 @ Westfield state 72.
In their 2 losses Westfield has combined to average 39.5 points; in 3 wins their averaging 62.3 points.  Eastern is only allowing 56.6 ppg this season. 
Salem state 54 @ USM 63.
My bold prediction of the season: If USM can get out of this week 2-0 (they have Salem state & Western Connecticut both at home) USM will be undefeated and ranked in the top 10 when they come to Western Connecticut January 26.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 04, 2012, 11:28:56 AM
New top 25 poll.  USM is the only LEC team checking in at #23 on this week's poll:

Through games of Sunday, Dec. 2:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

DePauw (24)

6-0

623

1



2

Mount Union

5-0

586

2



3

Calvin (1)

5-1

545

4



4

St. Thomas

4-1

504

5



5

Washington U.

4-1

472

8



6

Lewis and Clark

7-0

471

6



7

Hope

5-0

455

9



8

Messiah

5-0

450

10



9

Amherst

5-0

412

11



10

Tufts

6-0

375

12



11

Thomas More

6-1

342

13



12

UW-Stevens Point

3-2

333

3



13

Lebanon Valley

5-1

296

7



14

York (Pa.)

6-0

261

15



15

Illinois Wesleyan

4-2

249

17



16

Emmanuel

6-0

238

16



17

Simpson

7-0

218

20



18

Emory

6-0

182

19



19

UW-Whitewater

4-2

133

14



20

Ohio Northern

5-1

125

24



21

Scranton

6-0

104

--



22

Babson

6-0

90

23



23

Southern Maine

6-0

74

--



24

George Fox

3-2

71

21



25

Mary Washington

6-1

70

22


Dropped out: No. 18 Williams; No 25 St. Norbert.

Others receiving votes: Williams 65; Monmouth 61; Carthage 51; Montclair State 42; Louisiana College 40; Moravian 37; Redlands 33; Cornell 30; Christopher Newport 20; Catholic 20; UW-Superior 9; Howard Payne 7; UW-River Falls 6; St. Norbert 6; William Paterson 5; Rochester 5; Rhodes 4; Ferrum 2; Ithaca 1; Baldwin Wallace 1; Wheaton (Ill.) 1.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 04, 2012, 10:16:22 PM
Tuesday results:

Boston 72-55 over Mount Ida.  What's the average height of Mount Ida as a team, 4 foot 3??  How else do you explain Boston outrebounding them 72-31 including a ridiculous 45-9 on the offensive glass??  Those 45 offense rebounds lead to an equally ridiculous 93 field goal attempts.
RIC 50-39.
LOL RIC shot 21.4% from the line (3-14).  So in 1 game we saw a team attempt 93 shots from the floor which is probably one of the highest totals in a regulation game this year, then in the next game we have a team that missed 11 of 14 free throws which is probably one of the worst free throw percentages of a team that attempted at least 10 free throws.  Basketball is a strange game.
Eastern 72-66. 
4 of the 5 Warriors started scored in double figures lead by Kristina Forsman with 15. 
USM 83-61.
Rebecca Knight had 27 points and hit 12 of 14.  Very dangerous club, I sure as hell wish we didn't have to play them this week.
Live stats seems to be stuck at RPI 54 Keene 40 13:49 of the 2nd. 
RPI beats Keene 83-68.
Siobhan Carnell had a game high 27 points.  Keene outshot them 72-54, but RPI made their shots count hitting on more then 45% of them (46.3%).
Conference a 4-1 day and goes to 29-15 on the year OOC.

Wednesday's schedule:
Bridgewater 62 @ Western 60.
Bridgewater is 5-1 on the year with their only loss by 9 to RIC, but they made up for that by defeating Williams @ Williams last week.  Also last week they destroyed Dartmouth @ Dartmouth.  Western hasn't looked very impressive and we actually play a good team.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on December 05, 2012, 12:39:40 PM
ECSU....See that your women's team will be visiting Amherst on Thursday in LeFrak at 5:30.  I will be watching a bit on the website.  This year in the "CAC" and in the Emmanuel game last night, the women's game is the featured game at around 8PM whereas the men's game is the "early" game.  Starting to get use to the schedule but it will make it harder for me to catch some live games...traveling and all.
How is your team doing?  Amherst this year is young and has a short bench.  Hope the game will be such that both teams learn from it.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 05, 2012, 03:35:35 PM
Their not good.  Had an upper class mutiny at Christmas last year that their still recovering from, and like Amherst don't have a deep bench either.  I think last night they only went 2 of 3 deep.  Their 2-5, but have been in pretty much every game with the exception of the Emmanuel.  Eastern has only been outscored by 9 this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 06, 2012, 12:26:18 AM
Wed Result:

bridgewater 69-62.  I got to the Feldman arena when it was 23-20 Bridgewater with about 7:45 left in the first; Bridgewater outscored us 17-7 the rest of the half after I arrived and went up 13 at halftime (40-27) and was up by as many as 15 in the second half, but the Colonials comeback attempt fell a couple points and minutes away.  Hard to win games when your down by 15 with 12:00 minutes left to go in the game which is exactly what happened to us.  Caroline Brasa had a game high 21 off the bench to lead Western, Michaela Cosby had 20 to lead Bridgewater who got just 3 points off of a bench that went 2 deep.  Jackie Zilnicki had 1 point, 4 rebounds and 7 turnovers in 27 minutes of action, worst game of the year.
29-16 OOC record for conference.

Thursday schedule:
Keene 62 @ Daniel Webster 39
Keene is GREAT against teams with 1 win or less: 2-0 in games when the opponent has either 0 or 1 win and Daniel Webster is 0-7.  Daniel Webster is so bad they only gave up 43 points their last time out.....and still managed to lose because they scored only 39.
Salve 56 @ Dartmouth 63.
This is the middle of a stretch of 6 games in 13 days for Dartmouth and the beginning of a stretch of 3 games in 5 days for Dartmouth.  After their game on Monday against Johnson & Wales which ends both streaks, they'll be off until January 2.
Eastern 53 @ Amherst 73.
Their not as good (at least not yet) as they were the last couple of years with Caroline Stedman, but Amherst is still Amherst and their still undefeated.  This maybe over at halftime.
Boston 43 @ Tufts 70.
Tufts hasn't allowed an opponent to get more then 54 points this year and has held opponents to 43 or less in 4 of 7 games.  I like Boston but their defense isn't on Tufts level and there's no way their going to be able to score on the Jumbo's jumbo sized D.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on December 06, 2012, 07:14:36 PM
Amherst beat a tough ESCU team at home 65-55.  It was only a 6 point lead at the half.  Though Amherst built a 14 point lead in the second half, the ESCU team fought back and had the lead down to only 3 at one time.  Stats was down...however one ESCU player had over 25-30 points and hit them inside and outside.  Good game to watch.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 07, 2012, 01:47:24 AM
Thurs results:

Keene 75-43.
Keene's 3 wins are now a combined 1-20 on the year.  Both them & Boston have a lot to prove this weekend.
Dartmouth 67-54.
Colleen Moriarty had 26 on 13-20 shooting to lead all scorers
Amherst by 10 over Eastern 65-55.
Their not winning games, but their really competitive against extremely talented teams: lost by 5 @ USM last weekend and only lost by 10.  They lost by less points in that same gymnasium then William Paterson did (started out preseason top 25) and probably most NESCAC teams will.  Getting a win @ RIC Saturday would bea huge momentum boost for the 2nd half of the season.  Shannon McCourt had 25 to lead all scorers.
Tufts 68-42 over Boston
Against the 2 best defensive teams Boston has faced this year (Western & Tufts) they scored 41 & 42 points respectively.  And good early season wins over Middlebury, Fitchburg & Manhattanville don't look so good now as all 3 are either at or below .500.  As I said earlier, both them & Keene have a lot to prove.

31-18 OOC record

Sat schedule:
Eastern @ RIC, Western @ USM, Dartmouth @ Plymouth, Boston @ Keene.  Take out Dartmouth vs. Plymouth which will be a rout, the other 3 are all interesting: Eastern isn't winning, but is playing teams tough.  How will Western slow down the USM attack and can they contain Knight?  Neither Boston or Keene has beaten a good team yet this season, so the winner wil finally get a "good victory" and stay in contention for a sleeper pick.  Interesting set of games, I'll nominate Eastern @ RIC for the best only because I think Boston/Keene will struggle to get 75 combined points between the two, and I think USM blows Western out of the building.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 07, 2012, 08:47:26 AM
Saturday predictions:

Boston 45 @ Keene 41.
Neither team can score that much, and both are good defensively.  Boston's wins are better then Keene's are, so they get the edge.
Eastern 63 @ RIC 61.
They played USM & Amherst close throughtout but suffered 2 close losses which was sandwiched in between a victory of Westfield state.  I say they break through in this one, and pull out the road win.
Dartmouth 67 @ Plymouth 49.
Will Plymouth win any LEC games this year??
Western 58 @ USM 73.
If USM wins this one, their unbeaten and in the top 10 when they come to Western for the rematch January 26.  Let's see what they do against Rebecca Knight, if there's any chance of us to win this we've gotta slow her down.  Also, were not going to outscore or outshoot them, so were going to have to play this game in the 50's with lots and lots of USM missed shots.  I don't think that's happening.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 08, 2012, 01:52:06 PM
Halftime scores Boston leads Keene 35-33, USM leads 33-25, RIC up 22-15, and the Dartmouth Plymouth game is over for all intents and purposes as Dartmouth leads by 22 39-17
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 08, 2012, 02:47:10 PM
Women's finals: USM 60-55, RIC 41-36, and Dartmouth 68-47
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on December 08, 2012, 05:30:54 PM
Quote from: amh63 on December 06, 2012, 07:14:36 PM
Amherst beat a tough ESCU team at home 65-55.  It was only a 6 point lead at the half.  Though Amherst built a 14 point lead in the second half, the ESCU team fought back and had the lead down to only 3 at one time.  Stats was down...however one ESCU player had over 25-30 points and hit them inside and outside.  Good game to watch.
amh63,
As 7express stated, a bunch of Juniors and Seniors acted foolishly/stupidly and were thrown off the team by Coach Bierly, >:( >:(, so the team is very young, (mostly Freshman and Sophs).  Their problem is they seem to loose intensity/focus in the second half, blowing big leads!!  Additionally, because they are young they commit a lot of TO's.  However, with a couple of more years of experience, they will be pretty good, especially with McBride, McCourt, Forseman, etc.  I did not see the game, but am glad it was not a blowout!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 09, 2012, 12:01:48 AM
Sat results:

Boston with a nice win @ Keene 70-60.
Teresa Pina lead all scorers with 22 points for the Beacons who improved to 6-2 on the year.
RIC 41-36.
The teams combined to shoot just 26.8%.  Courtney Burns of RIC was the games lone double digit scorer with 12.
Plymouth 67-49.
15 players for Dartmouth played who were lead by Colleen Moriarty with 15.
USM 60-55.
I can't wait to get them in Danbury when they won't have the Maine officials with them, their awful up there.  2 plays really changed the game:
1) Melissa DiNino got called for a terrible foul with Western up 1.  I could hear the sound of the ball on the other side of the court.   Jordan Grant hit 2 free throws (2 of her career high 19) put USM up 1 and they never trailed again after that.
2) With the same score, Nicole Eanniello got a missed USM jumper and got the ball ripped out of her hands by Taylor Flood.  A couple seconds later a Rebecca Knight layup gave USM some breathing room.  Western scored 6 points and made only 2 field goals the final 7:20 to go from up 4 to losing by 5.

Next game on Monday which is Dartmouth @ Johnson & Wales.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 09, 2012, 06:55:57 PM
Monday prediction:

Dartmouth 73 @ Johnson & Wales 54.
J&W hasn't beaten a team with a winning record all season.  Last year Dartmouth won by 17 and held them to 31.1% shooting.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 10, 2012, 11:51:14 PM
Monday results:

Dartmouth 77-49 over J&W.
Colleen Moriarty had a game high 23, and the Corsairs held J&W to 28.8% shooting.
32-18 OOC record

Tuesday schedule:
Westfield 62 @ Boston 68.
I really like this Boston team.  Had a nice win at Keene, outside of Plymouth haven't won a road game in forever in the LEC.  Last week Westfield lost at home to Eastern, I don't like them going cross state.
Emerson 56 @ Plymouth 54.
Both teams are bad.  Combined they have a 3-12 record and have lost a combined 11 games in a row.  However, Emerson somehow beat Mount St. Mary earlier in the year, so they get the edge by 2.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 11, 2012, 11:34:02 PM
Tuesday results:
Boston 55-51 over Westfield.
Nice to see the Beacons finally insert Kirsten Morrison back in the starting lineup, I was wondering why the reigning LEC rookie of the year was coming off the bench.  She lead all scorers with 20 points.  The Beacons bench got 4 points in 19 minutes of action which was even better production then the Westfield bench who subbed in 6 reserves who combined for 5 points (all 5 from 1 player).
Emerson 70-56 over Plymouth.
This may just be the worst team in New England.  Them & Johnson state can fight it out for that title in late January.  Krystin Corliss had a game high 30 to lead Plymouth.
33-19 OOC record.

Heading into the Christmas break Eastern, Keene, Boston, Dartmouth & Western are all off until after Christmas (and Dartmouth & Eastern are off until 2013).  USM & Plymouth have 1 game remaining USM at home vs. Husson Friday, Plymouth on the road Saturday @ Lyndon state.  RIC has 2 games left, both on the road: Sunday @ URI, Wednesday @ J&W.

Next set of games Friday: Husson @ USM.  Will have a prediction Thursday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 14, 2012, 12:01:57 AM
Friday schedule:

Husson 45 @ USM 73.
Husson & USM have 2 common opponents: St. Joes (ME) and Bates.  USM won both games by double digits.  Husson lost to Bates by 45, and by 39 to St. Joes.  All 4 of Husson's losses have come by at least 19 points.  Last year USM by 22 @ Husson and they had a worse team.  USM rolls.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 15, 2012, 12:10:32 AM
Friday results:

USM 57-20 over Husson.
USM held Husson to only 7 field goals the entire game, and held them to 2-26 shooting the second half.  Jordan Grant lead the Huskies with 11 points and all 15 players for USM played double digit minutes with Meredith Reid getting the teams most minutes with 17.
34-19 record.

Sat prediction:
Plymouth 46 @ Lydon state 51.
One of only 2 teams left on Plymouth's schedule that Plymouth has a legitimate chance to beat (Johnson state being the other).  Lyndon state is only 2-6, but those 2 wins are against Wheelock (0-8) and against Johnson state (2-7). 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 16, 2012, 01:04:13 AM
Sat results:
Lyndon 61-50 over Plymouth.
I think hope is lost for this Plymouth team this year.  Bry Bennett & Kristyn Corliss lead the Panthers with 12 each, Donna Lawson lead all scorers with 15 for Lyndon.  Their off until January 3 they could use the break.
34-20 OOC record.

Sunday schedule:
RIC 46 @ University of Rhode Island 62.
Nice competition for the RIC ladies.  With old coach Marcus Reilly on the URI bench this year, you know if the score gets out of hand URI will empty the bench and play the bench because Marcus Reilly isn't going to run up the score against players he coached last year, the RIC coach this year was an assistant under Reilly at RIC, and RIC assistant coach Cynthia Gaudet played for Reilly at RIC last year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 16, 2012, 05:31:27 PM
Sun results:

RIC 60 URI 89.
10 of the 11 players for URI played double digits minutes, and none of the Rams starters played more then 25 minutes.  Ashley O'Dell had 14 points to lead the way for RIC, the other 4 in the RIC lineup combined for 15 total.  URI finished shooting 62.5% for the game.

1 last game before Christmas and thats RIC @ Johnson & Wales on Wednesday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 18, 2012, 08:19:21 PM
Wed schedule:

RIC 77 @ Johnson & Wales 45.
J&W has played 1 LEC team this year; they lost by 28 to Dartmouth last week.  RIC has 3 losses: Babson (top 25 team), Emmanuel (top 25 team) and University of Rhode Island (division 1 team).  RIC wins this easily.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 20, 2012, 07:03:54 PM
Wed result:

RIC 62-41 over J&W.
Cara Paladino had 12 to lead RIC.  RIC held J&W to 10 field goals and 18.2% shooting. 
LEC goes into the Christmas holiday with a 35-21 OOC record.

Conference is off until Saturday, December 29 when Western hosts Staten Islandand USM plays D'Youville at a tournament in Salem.  Have a good holiday!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 28, 2012, 10:03:14 PM
Hope everyone had a good holiday, but back to action Saturday with 2 games:

D'Youville 47 vs. USM 80 (@ Salem state).
D'Youville is located in Buffalo and plays in the AMCC conference.  Their 3 wins are against teams that are a combined 7-21 this year.  In 5 losses their getting outscored by 23 and have averaged a combined 51.2 points per game in those 5 losses.  In 8 total games their only averaging 56 ppg. 
Staten Island 53 @ Western 67.
Staten Island is 5-5 out of the CUNYAC.  It's too bad we scrimmage Baruch since their the only CUNYAC team worth playing in an actual real game since they completely dominate the league.  CSI started the year 0-4 including an embarrassing 35 point loss to 1-8 York college of NY, but since that loss they have won 5 of 6 to even their record at 5-5, including an impressive win over Brooklyn college who's only loss prior to that was by a respectible 25 against Amherst, and who have beaten the likes of Stevens, Farmingdale state & NYU this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 29, 2012, 03:16:20 PM
Sat results (I'll update this throughout the day):

Western leads CSI 40-27 at halftime
Western wins 77-56.
Carly Murphy had 18 to lead Western who never trailed and lead by as many as 23.  Interesting starting lineup as coach Rybczyk started both point guards this afternoon, Nicole Eanniello and Marisa Delzio. 
USM beats D'Youville 75-55.
Pretty much right at D'Youville's average (they were at 56 ppg coming in).  Jordan Grant had 22 points to lead the Huskies and Rebecca Knight had 16.  Once again everyone played.  Most minutes a starter played was 27 minutes.  Its always nice to get blowout wins, but they've just had 3 weeks off, and with all the blowouts USM is involved in, the starters are gone by the 8:00 mark.  Are they going to have enough conditioning to last the whole LEC season against a very good league this season??  5 of the 8 teams are 7-3 or better and 6 of the 8 have a positive point differential, so USM should get challanged a little coming up, and that should start against Maine rival UNE on Wednesday evening.
Unlike the men's side, the women's side is putting together a very great and overlooked season: 37-21 in OOC play.  If you take out Plymouth state who is pretty much a guaranteed win for the opposistion that total is 36-15 for the other 6.

Sunday schedule:
USM 89 vs. Dominican 43 (@ Salem state).
Dominican, out of the Northern Atletic Conference and Lake Forest, IL is 0-11 on the season and has lost it's last 3 games by a combined 32.7 points.  They have only lost 3 games by less than 10 points this season.  I say leave Knight and Jordan grant out of the lineup and USM still wins by 15.
Boston 56 vs. Maine-Maritime 53 (@ Key Largo, FL).  Maritime is 3-3 out of the North Atlantic Conference.  The 3 teams tied for first above them are the only 3 teams in the conference with a winning record.  This is only going to be the third team Maritime will have played with a winning record: they lost to Bridgewater state by 20 in November, and in their last game before Christmas lost to Castleton by 3. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 31, 2012, 01:44:23 AM
Sun results:

USM rolls Dominican 76-53.
Nash Billew had 19 to lead the way in her first start of the season, replacing Taylor Flood in the starting lineup.    Erin McNamera was the only other Husky in double figures with 17.  Rebecca Knight and Jordan Grant had 12 combined points on 2-16 shooting.  Laura Kniepes had 18 to lead Domican who fall to 0-12 on the season.
Boston wins in double overtime over Maine-Maritime 69-60.
4 of 5 Beacons scored in double figures lead by Olivia Murphy's 20.  Teresa Pina forced overtime with a layup, and Murphy forced the second overtime with a layup.  The Beacons never trailed in the second overtime stanza.
39-21 OOC record.

Monday schedule:
Rivier 64 @ Keene 61.
Rivier has won 6 of 7 after starting the season 0-2 against Little East teams.  They also played LEC opponent Plymouth state earlier this year.   Keene has gone the opposite direction dropping 5 of 6 since starting the season 2-0.  This is Keene's first game against a GNAC opponent.
Fitchburg 58 vs. Boston 65 (@ Key Largo, FL).
1 of those rare rematches at a tournament of a game that took place earlier in the year.  Fitchburg is riding a 4 game winning streak, but as you may remember from my previous recaps, Boston was able to snag a 70-67 win against Fitchburg IN Fitchburg on November 20.  Much harder to beat a team in a true road game then on a neutral court some 1,000 miles away.  Boston is good, since they already won @ Fitchburg, they should complete the sweep.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 02, 2013, 08:15:48 PM
At the half Western leads Regis 37-30.  Regis is doing well on the break and almost points have come in the paint.  I don't think they can play in the half court.  If we can cut down on stupid turnovers which lead to easy Regis points, we should win this by 15-20.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 03, 2013, 12:24:20 AM
Monday results:
Keene lost to Rivier 72-67.
Rivier only made 18 field goals, but they forced 22 Keene turnovers.
Boston clobbers Fitchburg 76-39.
Thought Boston would win, no idea it would be this lopsided.  This is a very good team HOWEVER for the most part their schedule has been littered with cupcakes and the LEC is very good this year.  It's obvious they can play defense: they average 54.8 Oppg, and have only given up 65 or more twice in 11 games, but question for them is can they score enough when they get matched up against a good team??  They faltered at Western last month after playing well for a half, and they were never in the game against Tufts their only 2 losses, but in those 2 they only scored 41 & 42 points easily their lowest point totals of the season.  They have RIC @ RIC Saturday, a good team, but a beatable team assuming Boston can score some points.  Taking out their 2 guaranteed losses to USM (since no one is beating USM this year minus Dartmouth, RIC or Western at home), this a team that could finish with only 4 or 5 LEC losses and get a high seed.  I picked them high preseason, and were my team to watch, but they can really put the conference on notice their here to compete with USM & Dartmouth with a statement win Saturday
Monday's OOC record was 40-22

Tuesday results:
Keene survives Colby 58-57 on the consolation game of their tournament.  No boxscore available.
Bridgewater over Eastern 56-53.  Eastern isn't winning the games, but they sure are playing them tough.  Also, it's nice to know Western isn't the only LEC team from Connecticut Michaela Crosby abused this year.  Combined against the 2 CT schools: 18-31 shooting and 41 points.  She ended the Eastern game on her own personal 4-0 run after eastern had taken a brief 53-52 lead late in the game.  Bridgewater now 3-1 against the LEC this year (including Dartmouth's lone loss of the year) and concludes their LEC tour on January 10 with a game @ Boston.  Could end up being one of the best non LEC games this year.
Tuesday's OOC record: 41-23

Wednesday results:
Swathmore 63-46 over Eastern.
Swathmore was undefeated before they somehow lost to a 1-7 Springfield team a team that came in losers of 7 straight, so you know that was going to be a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong trip back to surburban Philly if Swathmore lost 2 games to teams with a combined 3-15 record.  Wish Eastern would've kept it a little closer, but the expected the end result.
USM 73-62 over UNE.
Well, at least USM actually played someone halfway decent.  UNE was only 5-3, but lost 2 games to Bates and Colby by a combined 2 points, so that 5-3 could've been 7-1.  UNE is also a team that has won 20+ games the last 4 seasons and has beaten USM the last 3 years.  Jordan Grant continues her rennaissance with 19 points.  Rebecca Knight was a huge addition to this team, gave them a much needed weapon on the wing, but I don't see how you could give POTY to anyone on USM other then Jordan Grant with the way she is playing right now, and is probably the front runner for conference player of the year with Colleen Moriarty of Dartmouth.
Dartmouth over Eastern Nazarene 68-39.
That's 6 straight wins since their loss to Bridgewater and taking out the Brandeis game which they won by 1, the other 5 have been won by an average of 20.4 points.  Like their neighbors to the North in Boston, this is a school that hasn't tasted much success and have a put up game Saturday against Western.  With Sha'qira Palmer, Moriarty and Bornemann won't have much of an advantage, so our their guards quick enough to beat the Western defeanders off the ball and either get Palmer out of the lane or have the defense collapse and kick it to the outside??  Regis did that tonight and was one of the big reasons why they won.  Time will tell.
Keene 66-60 over Worcester.
Keene's 3rd game in 3 days, why are they playing a non tournament game the day after finishing a tournament??  There's no LEC tournament or that reason NCAA tournament's (not that Keene will be going that far though), so not sure what Keene accomplished by playing 3 games in 3 days.  Siobhan Carnall finished with a game high 21.
Regis 66-61 over Western.
I'm still trying to figure out how we lost this game.  Regis did a great job speeding the game up.  Of their 27 field goals only 1 was from 3, and I'd say at least 18 were in the paint maybe even more.  Beat Western off the dribble which is why they got so many opportunities in the paint.  Pressured Western into 13 turnovers, but got 15 points off those turnovers, most of them fast break opportunities.  Definitely the quickest team I've seen them play this year.  However, I'm still searching for the reason we lost this game.  We had a 50-37 lead with 13:45 to play and got outscored 29-11 to the final 13:43.  Hopefully that was an abberation, and not a sign of things to come from a team who's calling card is on the defensive end.  Good teams don't get outscored by 18 to end a game however.
Wednesday's OOC record: 44-25

Thursday schedule:
Plymouth 54 @ Lasell 60.
If they can't beat Emerson at home, good luck here.  Lasell actually has a decent 4-5 record.
Roger Williams 53 @ RIC 68.
Jekhly & Hyde for RWU.  start off 1-4, and are currently on a 4 game winning streak to get back over .500.  Win @ Colby by 23 two weeks after losing to Smith at home by 28.  Tough team to gauge.   This is the 7th game of an 8 game road stretch for RWU whose last home game was November 20 and who won't see the home confines again until January 8.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 03, 2013, 12:47:58 AM
7express:

Scheduling forced the postponement of a high school tournament the previous week, pushing everything back a day from then on, leading to that 3 game in 3 day stretch for KSC.   It was not originally scheduled that way.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 03, 2013, 02:50:09 AM
Ahh I see.  So the tournament was supposed to be Sunday to Monday off day Tuesday, Worcester game Wednesday??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 03, 2013, 11:59:46 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 03, 2013, 02:50:09 AM
Ahh I see.  So the tournament was supposed to be Sunday to Monday off day Tuesday, Worcester game Wednesday??

Yes
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 03, 2013, 11:04:48 PM
Thursday results:
Lasell 69-52 over Plymouth.
Plymouth actually had a higher field goal percentage (44.0 to 38.6) however, Lasell had 20 more shot attempts (70 to 50) mainly because Plymouth turned it over 23 times compared to just 11 for Lasell, and Lasell recored 20 offensive rebounds to only 7 for Plymouth.
RIC 67-35 over RWU.
Not counting URI, RIC has held 6 of their last 7 opponents to 43 points or less and in 10 games against D-3 teams RIC has help the opposistion to 54 points or less 8 times.  That's going to win you A LOT of games.
45-26 OOC record

Sat starts round 2 of conference play:
USM @ Keene.  Will USM be tested??
Western @ Dartmouth.  How will Q handle Bornemann & Moriarty??  She's prone to foul trouble, so if she sits were screwed.
Boston @ RIC.  Best game of the day: Boston's 3rd best scoring offense vs. the conferences #1 scoring defense.
Plymouth @ Eastern.  Someone has to win, right??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 04, 2013, 12:33:51 AM
Expresses LEC midseason report card:

Very good conference this year as evidence with the OOC record I post after each day.  USM is head and shoulders above everyone else, however.  I say the next in line is probably Dartmouth based on the expierence from last year, the height they have and the guards are quick.  Rounding out the rest of the top heap is Boston/RIC/Western each have strengths that the others don't.  Boston's the best offensive team of the bunch; RIC is the best defensive team of the bunch, and Western shoots the 3 better (and more) then the others.  All games between these 4 or 5 teams are going to be very exciting and we get the benefit of having a few right out of the game: RIC and Boston and Western & Dartmouth play each other this weekend, USM plays RIC Tuesday and USM plays Dartmouth next Saturday.  Team by team capsules:
USM: Very good.  Even with the conference as powerful as it is, they should get through it unscathed.  Maybe a loss @ Dartmouth, maybe a loss @ Western, maybe a loss @ RIC won't be many more then that.  Rebecca Knight gives them another threat on the wing, but my player of the year is Jordan Grant with the December she's played.
Eastern: The good news for them is Plymouth is terrible and Shannon McCourt and Krystana Forsman both have another 2.5 years.  Have played most teams tough, but haven't pulled out the wins, and with the league this year will probably be hard to do.
Western: Still shoot to many three's.  If they aren't falling were in trouble.  Free throw shooting is worlds better this year then it was last year.  Perimeter and half court defense is worse this year then last year, can be beaten off the ball easily via a quick team.  Interior defense is a strength with Sha'Quira Palmer and Melissa DiNino, however their a freshmen and sophmore respectively and still make inexperienced plays, especially late.  Both are prone to foul trouble and if both are on the bench our interior defense is virtually non-existant.  Need for them to stay on the floor against teams with height: Dartmouth/USM/Boston.  Still think we'll finish well, but will have problems against those teams.
RIC: Great defensive team.  #1 scoring defense in the conference averaging 50.5 points allowed per game, however if you take out the loss tor URI, and you should because its a non-division 3, that total drops dramatically to 46.7 ppg.  In 8 of 10 games against Division 3 schools, RIC has allowed 54 or more points twice, and hasn't allowed more then 43 since December.  Defense wins you championships, however offense wins you games.  Can they score enough on the offensive end to give their defense a chance to close it out??  RIC is only 6th in the conference in scoring offense, has no double digit scorer, and whose leading scorer appears way down at #17 on the list of ppg.
Plymouth: At least Bry Bennett and Kristyn Corliss look like good players.  After going 1-13 in conference each of the last 2 years they'll be lucky to just get to 1-13 again this year.
Keene: Tied with Boston & Dartmouth for most players on the scoring list (each team has 4 players represented).  2 of those 4 are in the top 6, 2 of those 4 are underclassmen, and 3 of those 4 will be back next year.  The problem with them is that they don't do anything spectacularly well: they don't lead in a single offensive or defensive team category, and are only #2 in 1 category: offensive rebounding.  Everything else they're 3rd or lower.
Boston: Of their 4 players represented on the scoring list 3 of the 4 will be back next year and 2 of the 4 are underclassmen.  As I've said their offense is one of the best in the conference, and they can score, but are they going to get enough against the tough defenses like RIC/USM/Western Dartmouth.  I like this team to make the semifinals though.
Dartmouth: Probably the biggest threat to unseat USM this year with the height to match them in the front court and the speed and quickness in the backcourt.  They have never been successful, so how will they handle the pressure of being a favorite.  Unless they totally go south their probably an NCAA team and probably an LEC final participant.

Conference grade: A+.  The only team that's really bad is Plymouth.  Eastern has a bad record, but they've been competitive in most of their games this year.  USM and Dartmouth are right where I thought they'd be.  Keene & RIC are exceeding expectations, Boston's playing very well, Western has dissapointed this year, but thats still a good team with a good 7-4 record, so can't be too dissapointed about that.
Number of NCAA teams: 2 (Dartmouth & USM) with the slight possibility of a 3rd if Boston keeps winning and things break right in other conferences.  Only reason I don't think it's going higher then 2 is because teams will start to beat each other up now that LEC play is mostly here in earnest, and Dartmouth and USM are the only 2 teams that can withstand that.  As for beating each other up, this is Western's schedule between January 19 and February 2: @ Boston, @  RIC, home vs. USM, home vs. New Paltz, home vs. Dartmouth.  That's brutal.  That's 4 of the top teams in the conference sandwiched between a very good New Paltz team out of the SUNYAC a team that's currently 9-0.  If Western can get through that stretch 3-2 they should be rewarded.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: bsc73 on January 04, 2013, 02:09:04 PM
I enjoy reading your posts 7 express and most of the time i find you are right on. I do, however have to disagree with you that Dartmouth and/or Boston have a chance for an NCAA berth. I feel the only way they would get in would be as an AQ. Besides USM, RIC would be the only school that would have a chance for an at large. Dartmouth and Boston's non conference is weak to say the least. The NCAA isn't going to take a team or teams that play Wheelock, Mt. Ida, Eastern Nazarene, Wheelock, Lyndon state etc. If you look at the at large births that have been given out in the past, they all go to the NESCAC schools and the LEC schools like ECONN, WCONN, RIC and USM. All those schools play much tougher schedules than Boston or Dartmouth. Last year UNE received an at large bid and their out of conference games included Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, USM etc. I'm not saying that Boston and Dartmouth aren't excellent teams, only that they need to beef up their OOC schedule.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 04, 2013, 02:33:24 PM
I think if Dartmouth can go 12-2 in LEC play with at least 1 of those wins over USM (which is very possible) they'll be in the discussion.  Same with Boston, but they already 1 loss and are already on the edge, if they lose tomorrow to RIC their certainly done, only hope for them is winning the AQ.  RIC has a chance, but they lost to the 2 best teams they've played (Emmanuel and Babson) and don't think they have enough offense to sustain the whole season.  Western has to pretty much win out to be in discussion.  Unless USM really goes south their in no matter what happens.

I said it depends on what happens elsewhere, but if one of those other 4 teams (Boston/Dartmouth/RIC/Western) can get to 11-3/12-2 in LEC play and make the LEC final with at least 1 win over USM and all other favorites in other conferences win, I say you can get a second LEC team in the field.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 04, 2013, 02:55:48 PM
Sat schedule:
USM 78 @ Keene 65.
I think USM will be tested for a half.  Spaulding gym is a very difficult place to play.  Talent disparity for USM should cause them to pull away in the second.
Western 65 @ Dartmouth 67.
This is based purely on how much/effective Sha'Quira Palmer and Melissa DiNino can play on the defense end.  With them on the court, they'll negate Erika Bornemann and Colleen Moriarty in the post and force the Dartmouth guards to beat them.  Their definitely capable, but their offense goes through Bornemann and Moriarty first and foremost.  We have not been good against quick teams: Michaela Crosby of Bridgewater  abused us, and Sabree Rodriguez of Regis abused us.  Kelsey Garrity of Dartmouth is probably the best PG in the LEC this year and however long Palmer and DiNino are on the court (DiNino didn't play at all Wednesday) Garrity will find a way to get Moriarty touches and points, and get Dartmouth the win.
Boston 54 @ RIC 58.
Boston's #3 scoring offense vs. RIC's #1 defense.  Magic number for Boston is 55.  If they can manage to break  55 (RIC is averaging 47.6 oppg against D-3 teams) they'll win because RIC isn't going to score much.  Beacons will have a tough time winning scoring less then 55.  Boston has gotten to 55+ in all 9 wins this year and have been held to 42 & 41 in 2 losses.  In those 2 losses they have been held to 28.5% shooting.  RIC hasn't won a game this year where the opponent has broken 55 points, and once again excluding the URI game, have held their last 4 opponents to 41 points or less.    None of those 4 teams have the offensive firepower the Beacons possess though, while the Beacons have already played a very good defensive unit in Tufts.  Will be a very, very good game and look forward to watching the replay on LEC.TV when I return from the Dartmouth game.  Whichever teams style wins out wins the game.  RIC ain't winning a game in the 60's, Boston sure as hell ain't winning a game in the 40's.
Plymouth 42 @ Eastern 51.
Eastern has been more competitive, and has better overall talent then the Panthers do.  No reason why they shouldn't win this at home.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 05, 2013, 01:48:58 PM
Sat halftime scores:

USM 36-34, RIC 39-35, Dartmouth creaming Western 39-22.  No score Eastern vs Plymouth.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 05, 2013, 02:50:21 PM
Finals:

USM up by about 20 with 2:12 left, Eastern wins 66-44, RIC 71-57, Dartmouth avoided an implosion winning by 14 72-58.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 05, 2013, 09:54:12 PM
Sat results:
USM 76-57.
Rebecca Knight had 14 of her 17 points in the 2nd half as USM stretched a 2 point lead at halftime (36-34) into a 19 point win by outscoring the Owls 40-23 in the 2nd keyed by Knight and Haley Jordan (12 of 14 points in the 2nd).
RIC 71-57.
Wow, they actually lost scoring more then 55, didn't see that happening.  Olivia Murphy lead all scorers with 18 and Kirtsen Morrison and Lauren Perra also scored in double figures for the Beacons with 17 & 11 respectively.  Ashley O'Dell lead RIC with 13 off the bench while Vandell Andrade, Stephanie Prusko and Courtney Burns each had 12.
Eastern 66-44.
Shannon McCourt had 20 points and 16 rebounds and Victoria Pfohl had 12 for the Warriors.  Meghan Faretra was the only panther in double figures with 10.  Bry Bennett only played 8 minutes for Plymouth, hopefully she didn't get seriously injured.
Dartmouth avoids an implosion, hangs on to defeat Western 72-58.
Dartmouth was leading 39-22 at halftime and had as much as a 26 point lead in the 2nd half (50-24) before they imploded.  They couldn't handle Western's full court press and turned the ball over in the backcourt.  What I don't get is coach Rybczyk uses the press to cut a 19 point deficit with I think 4:30 to play down to 9 with 2:30 to play so you made up 10 points in 2 minutes, and then she abandons the press??  Why??  To avoid a fast break layup (Dartmouth kept trying the home run ball but kept throwing it long).  They scored in the halfcourt anyway!  If you don't run the press we end up losing by closer to 20, so why are you abandoning it when it single-handily brought you back in the game (a game we had no business winning anyway, but if Dartmouth is going to wrap it up I'll take it  ;).  It's like going to the prom with an OK looking girl who asked you to go with her otherwise you weren't going to go.  Once there, you spot the homecoming queen there by herself because she broke up with her boyfriend and you spend the whole night with her.  Why ditch the person who was the only reason you were there in the first place??  Bringing that corny example back to here, running the press with Sha'Quira Palmer on the inbounder was the only reason we were down 9 with 2:30 to go, so why abandon it there??  If your not going to use it with the game on the line why use it at all??  And Western was awful: couldn't shoot (30.4% from 3) couldn't defend (Dartmouth shot 46.9% and scored 72 points) couldn't shoot free throws (11-24 for the game with Carly Murphy a cool 3-12), knew what Dartmouth was doing and STILL couldn't stop it (get the ball into Moriarty and Bornemann.  They finished with a combined 39 points).  About the only thing Western did well was rebound: outrebounded Dartmouth 45-32 and 22-12 on the offensive glass even though Dartmouth was the taller team.

Conference standings:
1) USM 13-0 (3-0)
1) Dartmouth 10-1 (3-0)
1) RIC 9-3 (3-0)
4) Western 7-5 (1-2)
4) Boston 9-3 (1-2)
4) Eastern 3-9 (1-2)
7) Keene state 5-7 (0-3)
7) Plymouth 1-10 (0-3)

Tuesday schedule:
Keene @ Western
RIC @ USM.  Battle of two top teams
Boston @ Plymouth.  End of Boston's 4 game road trip to open up the LEC schedule
Dartmouth @ Eastern
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 07, 2013, 03:38:50 PM
Tuesday schedule:

Keene 57 @ Western 62
Western has gone south losers of 4 of their last 5 games which all but takes them out of a discussion for a pool C bid.  Keene plays opponents tough, but doesn't have enough firepower to win most close games against the upper half of the league.  Western is a team that's probably not gonna win many LEC road games, so we better hold serve at home.
Boston 74 @ Plymouth 51
Amazing how USM is gonna be playing their 3rd home game already and the Beacons have yet to play one at home.
Dartmouth 76 @ Eastern 66
Probably closer then it should be.  Shannon McCourt and Krystina Forsman will keep Eastern around, but Dartmouth with Kelsey Garrity, Erika Bornemann and Colleen Moriarty have too much firepower.  If Dartmouth wants to be a serious contender this year they'll win.  Good teams get challenged here, but they always come out and win.
RIC 58 @ USM 72
Conferences #1 offense (USM) vs the conferences #1 defense RIC.  RIC was able to out score Boston Saturday in another offense vs defense battle but playing USM in Maine is a whole lot different then playing Boston.  USM playing RIC and Dartmouth this week and with a 2-0 week would put their stamp as 1 of the best teams in New England along with Amherst, Williams, Tufts, and Babson.  Too bad we won't know how USM stacks up against those 4 until at least the tournament.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 08, 2013, 01:48:57 PM
USM up to #13 in the latest poll:

D3hoops.com women's Top 25, Week 6



Through games of Sunday, Jan. 6:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

DePauw (24)

13-0

623

1



2

Calvin (1)

11-1

574

2



3

Washington U.

11-1

567

3



4

St. Thomas

9-1

537

4



5

Hope

13-0

536

6



6

Amherst

12-0

497

7



7

Messiah

12-1

438

8



8

Tufts

13-0

424

9



9

Ohio Northern

12-1

412

12



10

Lewis and Clark

12-1

389

5



11

Thomas More

12-1

380

10



12

Montclair State

14-0

335

14



13

Southern Maine

13-0

306

15



14

Simpson

11-1

302

16



15

UW-Whitewater

11-3

206

17



16

UW-Stevens Point

11-3

202

18



17

Catholic

12-0

182

20



18

York (Pa.)

11-1

172

11



19

Whitman

11-1

163

--



20

Lebanon Valley

11-2

126

19



21

Cornell

12-0

123

23



22

Babson

10-1

107

22



23

Christopher Newport

11-0

87

25



24

Mount Union

10-3

78

13



25

George Fox

10-3

62

24


Dropped out: No. 21 Moravian.

Others receiving votes: Ferrum 61; Wheaton (Ill.) 46; Moravian 40; Emory 28; Louisiana College 22; Williams 20; FDU-Florham 17; Baruch 16; UW-Oshkosh 11; Maryville (Tenn.) 10; Loras 9; Monmouth 9; Rhodes 3; La Roche 2; Ithaca 2; Bridgewater State 1
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 08, 2013, 06:20:44 PM
Halftime scores:
USM 35-30, Dartmouth 27-20, Boston 44-25 (yikes).

Western over Keene 38-29.  Both teams over 50% from field, Western 50% from the line.  No excuse to shoot 50% from the free throw line.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 08, 2013, 07:13:07 PM
Finals:
USM 78-71 (3 seconds left there), Boston 89-50, Western 62-43 and Eastern and Dartmouth in OT tied at 44.  Ill have a full recap later on tonight
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 09, 2013, 12:56:50 AM
Tuesday results:

Western 62-43.
Keene shot a dismal 24.1% from the floor and scored 14 second half points.  They had scored the first 2 points of the 2nd half to cut it 38-31, but Ryanne Williams picked up 2 quick fouls and had to go to the bench and that was the end of the road for Keene.  Siobhan Carnall was the only Owl in double figures with 14, while Caroline Brasa (18) and Carly Murphy (15) lead the Colonials.  Free throw shooting finished at 60%....better then less than 50% like on Saturday I guess  ???
Boston 89-50.
Nice bounceback win for the Beacons who go home on Saturday for their home LEC opener.  Krystin Corliss lead Plymouth with 14.  Brittany Moore lead the way for the Beacons with 21 and she was one of 4 double digit scorers alongside Olivia Murphy (16), Teresa Pina (15) and Kirsten Morrison (13).
USM 83-71.
USM shoots 38 free throws and Nicole Garland shoots 15 by herself and RIC only shoots 17 as a team??  Only in Maine I guess.  Danielle Leblanc had 17 and Courtney Burns 16 to lead RIC; 4 of the 5 Husky starters scored in double figures (Erin McNamera just missed with 9) lead by Garland's 22.
Eastern 54-51 in overtime. 
I think they've finally founded to find a groove.  This is not a team I want to be playing at the moment.  Shannon McCourt was able to neutralize Moriarty and Bornemann and make them pretty much non factors (combined for 16 points on 7-21 shooting), though Moriarty did force the OT.  Dartmouth missed three 3's to force a second OT.  Shannon McCourt lead Eastern, once again as usual, with 13 boards and 11 points.  Krystina Forsman played all 45 minutes and scored 10 points, though missed 2 free throws late in the OT which gave Dartmouth the opportunity to tie up the game and force double OT.  With the loss, pretty much if USM beats Dartmouth Saturday, the conference is pretty much over because that's only one of the 3 or 4 games USM has a chance to lose, and a lot of middle pack teams probably beat up each other on the home court.

Standings (through games on 1/8/13):
1) USM 14-0 (4-0)
2) Dartmouth 10-2 (3-1)
2) RIC 9-4 (3-1)
4) Western 8-5 (2-2)
4) Boston 10-3 (2-2)
4) Eastern 4-9 (2-2)
7) Keene 5-8 (0-4)
7) Plymouth 1-11 (0-4)

Schedule:
January 10:
Plymouth @ Norwich 5:00
Bridgewater @ Boston 5:00 (an excellent non conference matchup).  Hopefully this is available on LEC.TV
Eastern @ St. Joseph's (CT) 6:00
Western @ MCLA 7:00
Dartmouth @ Salem state 7:00

January 12:
Plymouth @ Western
Eastern @ Boston
USM @ Dartmouth
Keene @ RIC
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 09, 2013, 10:53:48 AM
Thursday schedule:

Plymouth 46 @ Norwich 65.
Norwich has lost 7 of 8 after starting the season 4-1 and Plymouth has lost 10 straight after starting 1-1, so neither team is setting the basketball world on fire with stellar play.  Norwich is 0-1 in the GNAC while Plymouth is 0-4 in the LEC.
Bridgewater 56 @ Boston 50.
Great game, which Western women weren't playing, so I could pay attention to this.  This is Bridgewater's 5th and last game against the LEC (4 of the 5 matchups took place on the road) and come in with a stellar 3-1 record losers to only RIC, and have wins over Dartmouth, Western and Eastern.  Also in their OOC schedule they have a 1 point W at Williams, and a 1 point home loss in the final seconds to Tufts who is now #8 in the country, so this team is tested.  Bridgewater guard Michaela Crosby has abused the last 2 LEC teams (Western & Eastern) and Boston isn't as good defensively as those 2 are.  After beating Eastern by 3 in Springfield's tournament, Bridgewater has won their last 3 by an average of more then 30 points.  Boston has failed their first 3 tests this year: Western, Tufts and RIC were all significant losses, but all 3 were on the road, this is the first one they'll have at home.  Can the Beacons beat a good team??  For a team picked 7th preseason by the coaches, this would be a nice boost for them heading into LEC play.  Bridgewater is a tad better and I think they pull it out in the end.
Eastern 57 @ St. Joseph's 55.
Eastern has been playing well.  St. Joes is 6-2 but has played no one. 
Dartmouth 64 @ Salem 61.
Salem is 2-1 against the LEC with the loss to USM and wins over Plymouth and Western.  How will Dartmouth respond after the bad L at Eastern Tuesday??  Salem has some height which can cause problems for Dartmouth.
Western 68 @ MCLA 71.
MCLA has won 5 of their last 7.  Haven't really played anyone (got squashed at Williams and Smith [11-1], lost a close 1 to Union (8-3, 7 game win streak), 4-1 at home in their cozy home in Northwest Mass.  Western ain't gonna win many road games this year and that's a long way to go in January to play 1 game.  If you take the highway its an extra 60 miles out of the way, but if you take route 7 even though its a direct route a route filled with traffic lights.  No matter, that's a long way (almost 3 hours), and they never do well on long road trips especially traveling that day (Oneonta, Keene).  May win, but won't be by anymore then 5.
45-26 OOC record coming into these games.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 10, 2013, 07:51:50 PM
MCLA leads 19-18 at halftime.  Terrible shooting (both teams) lots of turnovers (both teams).  Nicole Eaniello layup at the buzzer made this a 1 point game
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 10, 2013, 08:54:09 PM
Western wins 62-48.  Only hit 2 threes the whole game but did an excellent job on defense
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 11, 2013, 04:31:28 PM
Had a busy last few days.  Gonna have Thursday and Sat results on either Sat or Sunday.  Gonna have my Sat predictions later on today
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 11, 2013, 07:37:55 PM
Sat schedule:

Plymouth 43 @ Western 68.
A 1-13 team playing against a team that doesn't give up a lot of points??  Not a good combination.  This would be a severe dissapointment if Western wins by anything less than 15 points (that excludes if coach Rybczyk plays Brittany Brandt and Lydier Walter the final half of the 2nd half, however).  Not a very deep team, so this is a nice game to sit the starters and give Walter & Brandt some major minutes.
USM 76 @ Dartmouth 71.
Best game of the day.  USM will be challenged, but they are the better team and they will pull away in the end.  I stand by my prediction I made in early December: this is the last road block stopping USM from being undefeated coming to Western January 26.  IF USM wins this game their going to be undefeated and ranked in the top 12 on January 26 when they come to Western Connecticut......when they'll suffer their first L of the year.  Since Dartmouth lost Tuesday, a USM win pretty much guarantees the semi's and finals are going through Gorham this year.
Keene 53 @ RIC 59.
Neither team is good offensively.  RIC is a lot better defensively than Keene is, and that's the difference.
Eastern 63 @ Boston 62.
Last year in the season finale, Boston defeated Eastern to earn the 6th and final spot in the LEC tournament and send Eastern home for the summer.  Boston has feasted on sub .500 teams this year haven't lost to one yet this season, but Eastern is better then any of those other sub .500 teams they've played.  Don't be fooled by Eastern's record either, this a team that has been extremely competitive in all of their LEC games this year and after beating Dartmouth give them some momentum.  I think they add to that and become an extremely dangerous opponent for the Colonials Tuesday night.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 12, 2013, 01:43:05 PM
Halftime scores:
RIC 28-18, Western 43-19, Eastern 28-26, USM 25-11
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 12, 2013, 02:37:28 PM
Finals in:

USM 82-61, pretty much guarantees the tournament goes through Maine, Western 83-39, Eastern 70-53 I believe and RIC leads Keene 49-44 with about 4 mins to play
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 13, 2013, 03:14:19 PM
Thursday results:

Norwich 60-42.
Not like Plymouth is going to win anyways, but in order for them to be competitive they need Krystin Corliss to get more then 3 points on 1-11 shooting.
Bridgewater 72-58.
Michaela Crosby only had 2 points in 5 minutes due to injury otherwise this is probably worse.
St. Joseph's (CT) 67-40.
So Eastern loses to New Paltz by 8 (a team that's 12-0), plays USM (#13 team in country) to 5 and Amherst to 10 (#7 team in country), loses to Bridgewater by 3 (2 loss team.  Receiving votes in the poll), beat Dartmouth and smoke Boston, but in between lose by 27 to a middle of the pack GNAC team??
Western 62-48 over MCLA.
The teams combined for 39 made field goals and 56 turnovers which should tell you all you need to know about that game.  MCLA actually shot 37% but had 31 turnovers while Lucy Trembly lead all scorers for MCLA with 26, but she also had the game high in turnovers with 10.
Dartmouth 76-56.
Colleen Moriarty had a game high 16; Bridgett Dullea and Sandra Lanier each had 15 to lead Salem state.
47-29 OOC record

Sat results:
RIC 54-49.
About the only game I've ever seen where both teams shot (52) and made (16) the same number of field goals.
Western 83-39.
That's 3 straight games of giving up 48 or less points.  That's also a stretch where we've had the same starting 5 for 3 straight games, for the first time all season (coming into that stretch I think we had used 10 different lineup combinations through the first 13 games), so obviously this starting 5 is working.  Plymouth is probably the worst team in New England.  I'll be shocked if they get 1 LEC win this year.
Eastern 70-53.
The wheels are starting to fall off for Boston.  That's 3 losses in 4 games to begin 2013 for Boston with the lone win against Plymouth which almost doesn't count.  With USM, Western and Dartmouth the next 3, this has the chance to go south in a hurry.
USM 82-61 over Dartmouth.
Yes, USM still has road games left @ Eastern, @ Western and @ RIC, but Western still has to play Eastern & RIC twice each and Eastern & RIC still play once, while Dartmouth has 1 game left against Eastern & Western, and 2 against RIC.  So its unlikely RIC ends the season with only 1 LEC loss, and its also unlikely Eastern and Western end the season with only 2 LEC losses.  This result pretty much guarantees that the LEC tournament is going through Gorham, Maine this year.

Standings:
1) USM 15-0 (5-0)
2) RIC 10-4 (4-1)
3) Eastern 5-10 (3-2)
3) Dartmouth 11-3 (3-2)
3) Western 10-5 (3-2)
6) Boston 10-5 (2-3)
7) Keene 5-9 (0-5)
7) Plymouth 1-13 (0-5).

No OOC games this week, so games ONLY on Tuesday and Saturday this week, all of which are LEC games.

Schedule:
Tuesday, January 15:
Boston @ USM 5:30
Eastern @ Western 5:30
Keene @ Plymouth 5:30
RIC @ Dartmouth.  RIC/Dartmouth is probably the best of the day.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 14, 2013, 12:20:23 PM
Tuesday schedule:

Keene 64 @ Plymouth 45.
Keene shouldn't have much trouble.
Eastern 54 @ Western 60.
Krystina Forsman and Shannon McCourt are key.  Both defensive teams first team to 55 wins if they even get that high.
RIC 53 @ Dartmouth 59.
Dartmouth needs a bounce back after 2 tough losses.  RIC has played well, unsure how they can do on the road against the top half of the conference.
Boston 45 @ USM 75.
They have been awful on the road against good teams, don't see that changing.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 14, 2013, 11:02:11 PM
Southern Maine holding steady at #13.  What this does, is that unless theirs a bunch of losses in the 7-12 range, pretty much USM won't get much higher then 12th by next Monday, so unfortunately USM more than likely will not be undefeated AND in the top 10 when they play @ Western January 26.

D3hoops.com women's Top 25, Week 7



Through games of Sunday, Jan. 13:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

DePauw (24)

15-0

623

1



2

Calvin (1)

13-1

598

2



3

Hope

14-1

525

5



4

Amherst

14-0

515

6



5

Messiah

14-1

490

7



6

Tufts

15-0

480

8



7

Washington U.

12-2

447

3



8

Ohio Northern

14-1

439

9



9

Lewis and Clark

14-1

403

10



10

Thomas More

14-1

401

11



11

Montclair State

16-0

388

12



12

St. Thomas

11-2

367

4



13

Southern Maine

15-0

342

13



14

Simpson

13-1

318

14



15

UW-Stevens Point

13-3

247

16



16

Christopher Newport

13-0

242

23



17

Lebanon Valley

13-2

174

20



18

Catholic

14-1

167

17



19

Cornell

14-0

143

21



20

Babson

13-1

119

22



21

Ferrum

12-0

118

--



22

Moravian

14-1

99

--



23

George Fox

12-3

83

25



24

UW-Whitewater

12-4

67

15



25

Mount Union

12-3

64

24


Dropped out: No. 18 York (Pa.), No. 19 Whitman.

Others receiving votes: Louisiana College 60; Baruch 33; FDU-Florham 30; Williams 29; UW-Superior 19; Whitman 17; Maryville (Tenn.) 14; Carthage 12; Howard Payne 11; Emory 9; Monmouth 7; Texas-Dallas 6; Bridgewater State 5; Rochester 4; Ithaca 4; Rhodes 3; New Paltz State 2; Loras 1.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 16, 2013, 12:00:55 AM
Tuesday schedule:

Western 60-48.
Nice 4 game winning streak, but the competition really steps up for us now: @ Boston, @ RIC and then home games vs. USM, New Paltz (undefeated, receiving votes), and then Dartmouth.  Sha'Quira Palmer had 17 off the bench to lead Western; Jill Rostrisky had a game high 18 for Eastern.  Western held Shannon McCourt to only 4 points and 6 rebounds.
Keene 62-41.
The last time Plymouth was within single digits was November 27 against Rivier.  And its likely with the way the LEC is this year that they'll lose all their remaining LEC games by double digits, with Johnson state the likely single digit loss or win.
USM 70-54 over Boston.
Team is so dangerous.  Boston played them to a 26 all tie at halftime, before USM ran them over in the 2nd outscoring them 44-28.
Dartmouth 75-57.
No shame in losing to USM or Dartmouth this year.  As I tweeted Courtney Burns after the game they'll bounce back from that.  4 of 5 RIC starters were in double figures, Kelsey Garrity had 27 for Dartmouth.  Erika Bornemann didn't play for Dartmouth which is something to keep an eye on for Saturday.

Standings:
1) USM 16-0 (6-0)
2) Dartmouth 12-3 (4-2)
2) Western 11-5 (4-2)
2) RIC 10-5 (11-2)
5) Eastern 5-11 (3-3)
6) Boston 10-6 (2-4)
7) Keene 6-9 (1-5)
8) Plymouth 1-14 (0-6)

Schedule:
Saturday, January 19:
Western @ Boston 1:00
USM @ Eastern 1:00
Dartmouth @ Keene 1:00
Plymouth @ RIC 1:00.  None of the games look all that appealing.  Western/Boston is the best because at least both teams have winning records.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 17, 2013, 07:15:19 PM
Thanks to not allowing above 48 the last 4 games and in that span holding opponents to 44.5 ppg, Western has vaulted past USM & RIC for the conference lead in scoring defense at 53.5 oppg.  USM is at 53.8 and RIC is at 54.7.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 18, 2013, 12:40:11 PM
Saturday schedule:

Western 63 @ Boston 48.
The wheels have started to fall off the track for Boston, they need to rebound quickly.  This is the start of a 6 game homestand, so it's doable to get them back in the race.  Western is a bad road team, but are really clamping down on the defensive end of the court.  With the way the defense has been polaying we only need to score about 50 or 55 to win games.  Much like the first meeting in Danbury last month, I doubt Boston is gonna be able to outscore us/get a game in the 60's and in order to win they'll need to get it in the 60's.
USM 78 @ Eastern 67.
Eastern lost by 3 in Gorham in December.  USM is just too talented to lose a game like this, however Eastern actually matches up well with them, they just don't have as much scoring/talent as the Huskies do.
Dartmouth 65 @ Keene 58.
All road games in the LEC are going to be tough, but the height for Dartmouth should win this out in the later stages of the 2nd half.
RIC 88 @ Plymouth 54.
Nice preperation for RIC before they get Western at home Tuesday night.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 20, 2013, 12:23:26 PM
Sat results:
Keene over Dartmouth 71-60.
Siobhan Carnell exploded for a career high 34 points and only missed 5 times all day (12-17 from the floor, 10-10 from the free throw line).
Western over Boston 72-61.
Western was up 67-47 with about 5:00 minutes left.  Not a way you'd want to close out a game.  Carly Murphy lead the Colonials with 18, 16 in the second half.  Olivia Murphy and Kirsten Morrison, Boston's 2 front court players combined for 39 points.  Luckily RIC doesn't have height this year.
RIC rolls Plymouth 69-31.
The score at halftime was 38-9, so RIC could have gone scoreless the 2nd half and they would have won pretty comfortably.  Plymouth for the game finished with 7 field goals, shot less then 16%, and the starting 5 for Plymouth finished 3-34 shooting.
USM 69-55.
Improves to 17-0 on the year, the best start in school history.

Tuesday schedule:
Western @ RIC
Plymouth @ USM
eastern @ Keene
Dartmouth @ Boston.  Western/RIC best of the day.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 21, 2013, 02:50:48 PM
Tuesday schedule:

Plymouth 33 @ USM 80.
Quite possibly could be a matchup of the worst LEC team ever against the best LEC team ever.  If Plymouth state is somehow able to win this, the word "upset" should be changed to "Plymouth" for the next year.
Eastern 54 @ Keene 58.
Keene has played well, lately.  2 straight wins to get back into the race.  I think they get Eastern at home.
Dartmouth 59 @ Boston 63.
Dartmouth suddenly can't win on the road losing road games to Eastern and Keene in the last week two teams they should have beaten.  Boston has lost 4 in a row and 5 of 6 since the calender turned to 2013 to derail and has lost 6 straight to Dartmouth.  Dartmouth is turning into a one man show, and the Beacons have the height to make sure Moriarty doesn't beat them.  Beacons get it done in a close one.
Western 54 @ RIC 57.
A matchup of 2 teams that play excellent defense (3rd & 1st respectively), and 2 teams that are not very proficient at scoring the ball (Western is 4th in the conference, RIC is 6th in scoring offense).  Western has only scored above 70 three times this season while RIC has only cracked 70 twice this season.   The telling stat in this game is RIC's defense: in 11 wins, their holding their opponents to an average of 43.3 ppg, hasn't allowed an opponent more then 57 points and has held them to 45 or less 7 times.  In 5 losses this year RIC is averaging 75 opponents ppg, the opponent has hit 60 all 5 times and has hit 70+ 3 of the 5 times.  So to recap, RIC is 1-5 when the opponent gets 55 points, and 10-0 when they hold the opponent to 55 or less.  RIC is 7-1 at home in the Murray Center while Western is only 4-3 on the road.  Western gets to 58 points or more they win; 57-50 Western points is a tossup, 49 or less points for Western nad I can't see how its possibly they can win.  In 2 games at the Murray Center last year, Western shot 5-29 (17.2%) from 3, thats another stat that can make a difference.  We need to hit on at least 25% to win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 21, 2013, 07:46:17 PM
USM holding steady at #13, basically because NOONE in front of them lost last week.  Notice how #1 to #15 is unchanged from last week.  I guess beating the #13 team in the nation will have to subside, I was hoping they'd be #10.

D3hoops.com women's Top 25, Week 8



Through games of Sunday, Jan. 20:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

DePauw (23)

17-0

623

1



2

Calvin (2)

15-1

598

2



3

Hope

16-1

538

3



4

Amherst

17-0

528

4



5

Messiah

16-1

500

5



6

Tufts

18-0

486

6



7

Washington U.

14-2

442

7



8

Ohio Northern

16-1

441

8



9

Lewis and Clark

16-1

419

9



10

Thomas More

16-1

411

10



11

Montclair State

18-0

407

11



12

St. Thomas

13-2

346

12



13

Southern Maine

17-0

335

13



14

Simpson

15-1

331

14



15

UW-Stevens Point

15-3

262

15



16

Lebanon Valley

15-2

205

17



17

Catholic

16-1

180

18



18

George Fox

14-3

160

23



19

Louisiana College

16-1

124

--



20

Ferrum

14-1

116

21



21

Cornell

15-1

104

19



22

Williams

15-2

101

--



23

Mount Union

14-3

85

25



24

Babson

15-2

60

20



25

UW-Superior

15-3

58

--


Dropped out: No. 16 Christopher Newport; No. 22 Moravian; No. 24 UW-Whitewater.

Others receiving votes: Moravian 48; FDU-Florham 46; Carthage 37; Christopher Newport 35; Maryville (Tenn.) 17; New Paltz State 13; Emory 12; UW-Oshkosh 11; Rochester 11; Baruch 10; Whitman 7; Rhodes 6; UW-Whitewater 5; Howard Payne 2; St. Norbert 2; Wisconsin Lutheran 1; Swarthmore 1; Otterbein 1.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 22, 2013, 12:02:30 AM
Damn, just saw on twitter that Sha'Quira Palmer is going to be out until the Dartmouth game a week from Saturday.  She was the biggest inside game we had so our inside game for the week is going to be almost non-existant.  Melissa DiNino really needs to step up.  Big problems for USM as this team doesn't do well against teams with height as it is.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 22, 2013, 06:11:51 PM
Western leads at half 33-21.  With a team as offensively challenged as RIC is this year them being down 12 is about the same as any other team being down 20.  My keys to victory was getting 58 points and 25% from 3.  Right now were on pace for 66 and are at about 44% from 3 in the first.  Courtney Burns the only one doing anything for RIC.  Other scores:
Dartmouth 39-25, Eastern 22-14, USM 45-25
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 23, 2013, 01:15:52 AM
Tuesday schedule:

Western 58-42.
Really hitting their stride at the exact moment you want your team too.  No doubt they beat USM on Saturday, they are playing extremely well on both ends of the floor.  Lets revisit the keys to game.  I said Western needed to get to at least 50 to have a chance to win, and if they got 58 they would definitely win?  Check.  I also said they needed to hit on at least 25% of their three pointers?  Check (finished at 44.4% from 3).  Dominating effort all around.  Western lead by 12 at halftime, RIC cut it to 7 a couple times in the 2nd, but really from about the 10:00 mark of the first half it was all Western and they were never seriously threatened.  Amber Litwinko had a great day.  5-7 shooting (2-2 from 3) for 12 points, 6 rebounds her and Sciarra Brandt played great defense.  Courtney Burns of RIC probably had her best day of the season.  7-13 shooting 17 points, 7 boards in a losing cause.  Western held RIC's leading scorer Vandell Andrade to 0 points and 0-6 shooting.
Eastern 56-38.
Siobhan Carnell had 20 of Keene's 38 points.  Your never going to be successful when 1 player accounts for more then half of your total points.  The teams shot 25-26 from the free throw line combined.
Boston over Dartmouth 76-73.
Yikes!  That's now 3 straight road losses for Dartmouth, and the road for them doesn't get any easier.  Their final 3 LEC road games this season: @ Western, @ RIC and @ USM.  Yah, good luck getting a win there.  Nice win for Boston to get (somewhat) back on track.  Still have 5 more games on this homestand (4 LEC contests) to make some noise.
USM 92-51.
No one played more then 20 minutes for USM and 12 of the 15 logged double digit minutes.  All I'll say is that last Saturday RIC had a field day against Plymouth then couldn't score against Western next time out, hopefully same thing happens to USM Saturday.

Standings:
1) USM 18-0 (8-0)
2) Western 13-5 (6-2)
3) RIC 11-6 (5-3)
4) Eastern 6-12 (4-4)
4) Dartmouth 12-5 (4-4)
6) Boston 11-7 (3-5)
7) keene 7-10 (2-6)
8) Plymouth 1-16 (0-8).
Pretty much the only team guaranteed to not play at home in the first round is Plymouth, Western & USM look to be all but locks to at least host a quarterfinal.  Race for the other 2 spots between the final 5 will be exciting to watch.

2 games Thursday:
Keene state @ Middlebury 6:00
Conn College @ RIC 7:30
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 23, 2013, 04:08:12 PM
Thurs schedule:

Keene 57 @ Middlebury 69.
keene has to score to win.  In 6 of their last 7 games they've been held to 62 points or less.  Last year Keene won 63-45 in Keene.
Conn College 49 @ RIC 61.
The Camels have really struggled in life after Jenn Shinall, never finding a consistant groove as they come into Providence with a pedestrian 7-10 record.  RIC has alternated wins and losses their last 6 games, and this is the type of team RIC has been eating for lunch on the defensive end this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 24, 2013, 09:53:20 PM
Thursday results:

Middlebury over Keene 60-54.
At least Keene got scoring from other then Siobhan Carnell tonight: Christan Wojtas and Kelsey Cognetta each had 10 along with Carnell's 21.  Keene finish the game 1-15 from 3.
RIC over Conn College 59-46.  RIC was up 41-36 with about 7:35 the last I saw of this, so they must;ve gone on a scoring barrage to end the game.
48-30 OOC record.

Sat schedule:
USM @ Western
Keene @ Boston
Plymouth @ Dartmnouth
RIC @ Eastern.  USM/Western might be the game of the year, so of course its the game of the week.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 25, 2013, 01:22:46 PM
Sat schedule:

Keene @ Boston.
Keene can't score, Boston's at home.  Hasn't been playing very well, but has done well (save for the Eastern game) this year against teams like Keene.  Boston gets it done.
Score: Boston 69-51
Plymouth @ Dartmouth.
This game will be over by the first timeout of the first half.  No contest.
Score: Dartmouth 85-41
RIC @ Eastern.
Much like Western last year defense can only get you so far, you actually have to put some points on the board.  RIC scored 46 last meeting and are only averaging 56.2 their last 5 games (53 ppg if you take out the 69 they scored vs. Plymouth).  Doubt RIC wins scoring 46 points again.  This will be in the 50's, but RIC will score enough to win.
Score: RIC 59-56
USM @ Western.
Best game of the week, and maybe even the best of the season.  This is definitely the toughest game yet this season for undefeated USM, and with a win probably finishes the season undefeated (I was gonna say they'll lose @ RIC, but RIC can't score enough).  Western has come in winners of 6 straight, are only giving up 47 ppg that stretch, and have held opponents to 45 or below 3 of those 6 times, and are playing the best basketball of the season at the most important time.  However, none of those 6 teams we played were very efficient on the offensive end.  Boston was the best offensive team in that stretch and they got 62, and USM has so many more weapons then they do.  Western doesn't do well against teams with size, and have lost 4 straight to USM.  However, USM doesn't do well in Danbury (won by 1 last year against a much worse Western team), and doesn't do very well against Western in particualar.  Even though they've won 4 straight only one of those 4 was a blowout (January 2011), the other 3 were one possession games with about 2 minutes or less left.  Should be a great game, I recommend everone watch this on littleeast.tv beginning at 1:00 PM.
Score: Western 69-67.  USM is a better team, but I've been saying since December that USM would come in here undefeated and we would win.  With the way were playing now, why would I flip flop??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 26, 2013, 01:46:16 PM
Western leads 31-22, Boston 29-28, Dartmouth 34-16 and Eastern leads RIC 26-24
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 26, 2013, 02:51:39 PM
Unbeaten no more:  Western leads by as much as 20 in the 2nd half, wins 68-55 over USM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 26, 2013, 02:59:30 PM
Finals are in:
Western 68-55, Dartmouth big, Boston by 20 over Keene and RIC loses by 2 at Eastern.  Bad bad loss for the Anchorwomen.  As mentioned earlier, defense can only get you so far, you actually have to score some points
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 26, 2013, 10:19:43 PM
Sat results:

Western 68-55.
Caroly Murphy finished with a double double of 18 points and 11 rebounds, both game high's.  The Colonials defense was once again absolutely superb this game holding the conference's #1 scoring offense to just 55, 17 below their season average of 72.  The last 5 minutes weren't good, but I'll give it a pass because they were up 20 with 5 minutes to go.  With this win, I think as long as we beat New Paltz Tuesday, at least split the remaining games with Dartmouth & RIC (both at home), make the LEC final (which would probably mean beating RIC/Dartmouth again), and don't trip up in one of the road games (Keene/Eastern/Plymouth), this team should be in the NCAAs.  They are absolutely on fire right now.
Boston 69-48 over Keene.
The Beacons outscored Keene 40-20 in the 2nd to turn what was a competitive game at halftime (29-28 Boston) into a Beacons rout.
Dartmouth 76-39.
Lets not confuse Dartmouth routing Plymouth at home meaning their back on track.  After their 2 joke games midweek (Moutn Ida and Lyndon state) it's put up or shut up for them: @ Western next Saturday @ RIC the following Tuesday.  Dartmouth has been awful on the road in January, but they beat both at home pretty handily, they need to get at least a split.
Eastern 55-53 over RIC.
You have gotta score points RIC!!  RIC has no alternated wins and losses their last 8 games which should change Tuesday since they have Tufts.  All but takes them out of discussion for at-large selection if they even still were in consideration for Pool C anyways.  However, they get the win over Tufts, beat USM, split with Dartmouth and Western, they could be right back in the mix.

Standings:
1) USM 18-1 (8-1)
2) Western 14-5 (7-2)
3) Eastern 7-12 (5-4)
3) Dartmouth 13-5 (5-4)
3) RIC 12-7 (5-4)
6) Boston 12-7 (4-5)
7) Keene 7-12 (2-7)
8) Plymouth 1-17 (0-9)

No Tuesday LEC game this week:
Schedule, Tuesday:
USM @ Colby 5:30
Dartmouth @ Mount Ida 6:00
New Paltz @ Western 7:00
Bowdoin @ Eastern 7:00
RIC @ Tufts 7:00.  New Paltz/Western best of the day.  Was going to be RIC/Tufts, except RIC has gone south in the last few weeks.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: joe8579 on January 27, 2013, 07:27:13 AM
Nice predictions 7express!

I'm not sure I agree with your logic about an at large bid being a possibility for West Conn. They have a decent strength of schedule at this point, but it is liable to go down with the remaining games against the bottom half of the conference. We will have to wait for the regional rankings to come out, but it looks to me like they have either a 1-1 or possibly a 2-2 record against regionally ranked teams. Combine that with 7 losses (according to your scenario of losing one more regular season game plus the conf championship), and I think they'd be on the outside looking in. I think they have to either win out and reach the championship game or win the LEC tournament to get a bid.

We will know more when the regional rankings come out in a week or so.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 28, 2013, 04:13:41 PM
Tuesday schedule:

USM @ Colby.
Lets see how USM bounces back from their first loss of the season.  Colby is a dissapointing 7-11 on the year and 1-5 in the NESCAC.  even on the road, USM should win by double digits.  This certainly would qualify as a bad loss for USM.  USM 85-67
Dartmouth @ Mount Ida.
Dartmouth has lost 3 of their last 4 road games, while Mount Ida has lost their last 7 straight, losing each game by at least 13.  Make it 8 straight losses by at least 13.  Dartmouth 66-41
New Paltz @ Western Connecticut.
New Paltz was undefeated until last Friday when they got drilled at Geneseo state 73-43, however they did rebound with a 9 point win Saturday to come into the O'Neil Center with an overall mark of 16-1 on the season.  For how great overall they've been, they haven't been very good on the road.  In 10 road/neutral games this year they've only won by double digits 3 times in those 10 games.  Western Connecticut is rolling along, winners of 7 straight including an upset of 13th ranked USM on Saturday, they continue their march.  Western 58-54
Bowdoin @ Eastern.
Bowdoin, much like their Maine rivaly Colby lost a lot from last years team and has a dissapointing 10-8 record and have lost 4 of their last 7 games.  Eastern does well against LEC opponents, but they seem to take a step backwards when they go out of conference.  2 days after coming from behind to beat Dartmouth they get drilled at St. Joseph's (CT).  Bowdoin won last seasons meeting by 20, this should be a little closer, but see Bowdoin prevailing in the end.  Bowdoin 65-58
RIC @ Tufts.
This matchup lost a bit of luster in the last couple weeks as RIC has gone south losers of 4 of their last 7 games and has alternated wins and losses their last 8 games.  Tufts is 20-0, in the top 7, and have held their last 7 opponents to 57 points or less.  Doesn't bode well for a RIC team that can't score the ball.  Tufts, like RIC is a defensive first team, but their better at putting the ball in the basket then RIC is.  The 1 thing going for RIC is Tufts has the Amherst showdown this Saturday in Amherst, so chances are their looking forward to that game.  Tufts is still in the NCAAs even if they lose this, so really Tufts doesn't have much to lose, except a potential hosting opportunity.  RIC has much more to lose. RIC won last seasons meeting by 21 in Providence. Tufts 63-45
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 28, 2013, 08:21:10 PM
USM drops from 13 to 14 in the poll.  Once again, the only LEC team ranked:

D3hoops.com women's Top 25, Week 9



Through games of Sunday, Jan. 27:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

DePauw (23)

19-0

623

1



2

Calvin (2)

17-1

593

2



3

Hope

18-1

548

3



4

Amherst

19-0

545

4



5

Tufts

20-0

525

6



6

Ohio Northern

18-1

475

8



7

Lewis and Clark

18-1

460

9



8

Montclair State

20-0

453

11



9

Thomas More

18-1

444

10



10

Simpson

18-1

401

14



11

Messiah

17-2

354

5



12

Washington U.

15-3

328

7



13

Catholic

18-1

272

17



14

Southern Maine

18-1

265

13



15

Louisiana College

18-1

258

19



16

UW-Stevens Point

16-4

211

15



17

Cornell

17-1

151

21



18

George Fox

15-4

149

18



19

Mount Union

16-3

142

23



20

Williams

16-3

120

22



21

Lebanon Valley

16-3

115

16



22

Babson

17-2

101

24



23

Moravian

18-2

77

--



24

Ferrum

16-2

76

20



25

FDU-Florham

18-1

60

--


Dropped out: No. 12 St. Thomas; No. 25 UW-Superior.

Others receiving votes: UW-Superior 52; Christopher Newport 40; Emory 34; Carthage 32; Baruch 30; UW-Whitewater 30; Whitman 23; St. Thomas 22; Maryville (Tenn.) 19; UW-Oshkosh 18; Rochester 17; Howard Payne 17; Loras 14; Castleton 8; Wisconsin Lutheran 7; Rhodes 7; Otterbein 3; New Paltz State 2; La Roche 1; Monmouth 1; Ithaca 1; Bridgewater State 1.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 29, 2013, 07:39:43 PM
Western leads 26-17.  This is turning into a very stout and very good defensive unit.  New Paltz is missing some easy ones, but they forced like 10 New Paltz turnovers so far.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 29, 2013, 07:42:10 PM
Other scores USM 60-54, Dartmouth 93-54, Bowdoin 27-21, Tufts 28-14.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 30, 2013, 01:06:00 AM
Tues schedule:

USM 60-54.
Not the way you want to rebound from your first loss, that was a tough one.  Jordan Grant had 25 to lead the way for USM.  How does Erin McNamera play 39 minutes, and gets only 1 point and 2 field goal attempts.  Great work by the USM bench today, brings us back to last year, and looks like their really missing Nash Billew.  In 38 combined minutes for 5 Huskies bench players they averaged a cool 0 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 4 steals, and 4 field goal attempts.
Dartmouth 93-54.
They actually won a road game!!!  Wait, does beating Mount Ida on the road actually count as a road victory, though??  4 Corsairs were in double figures lead by Colleen Moriarty with 30.  They shot 57.8% for the game and had 55 at halftime.  Granted, they match up very well with Western (bigs that can score, fast guards that can drive) but its possible they won't even get 55 all game on Saturday.
Western 49-44.
A win is a win is a win.  The teams combined were 4-28 from 3 and really none of them were evern that close.  Western (4-18) were all going long, New paltz's (0-10) were barely getting iron.  They only "officially" listed New paltz for 25 turnovers, but looked like they had about 50, as they went about 8 straight possessions in the first half with a turnover.  Really didn't give Western anything to work with on offense, agressive on defense, especially in the 2nd.  Didn't let Western get in their flow.  If they don't miss 7 free throws, and don't turn the ball over a zillion times their 17-1.  Hell, even trailing by 9 at halftime due to the turnover problems in the first they had the lead AND the ball with about 2:15 left to play and naturally, you guessed it, turned it over.  Western got a layup to tie.  Next possession was either another turnover or missed shot, Western scored.  Ball game.  Jackie Zilnicki with 17 was the star of the game and Sciarra Brandt with 9 including a couple layups late were the stars of the game.
Bowdoin 61-50.
Why do you take this trip down to Connecticut in the middle of NESCAC play if your Bowdoin??  Breanna Leonard was the game high scorer for Eastern with 17.
Tufts 52-35.
That is the 9th straight opponent Carla Berube's team has held to 50 or less and the 16th time in 21 games this year have held the opponent to 50 or less.  That's also 5 times in the last 7 games the Jumbo's have held the opponent in the 30's, and 9th time in 21 games that has happened.  So to put that in perspective, in more then 40% of their games this year there has been more game time then number of opponents points THAT is a good defense.  I don't care that RIC couldn't hit water from a boat in the middle of the Atlantic, those numbers are extremely impressive no matter the opponent, and they've played some good teams: Williams, Skidmore, Bridgewater, Boston, Emmanuel.  Really looking forward to that game vs. Amherst on Saturday.

51-32 OOC record.
Next games on Thursday:
Lyndon state @ Dartmouth, Johnson state @ Plymouth.  I know its a bold prediction here, but if Plymouth loses this they ain't winning again this season.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 30, 2013, 11:56:02 PM
Thursday schedule:
Plymouth @ Johnson state.
The 2 teams are a combined 4-32 overall on the season and 1-20 in conference action.  Yuck!  After starting 1-1, Plymouth has dropped 16 straight losing all but 1 by double digits.  Johnson state's last 3 losses have been by an average of 36.3 points.  of Johnson state's 15 losses, 14 have been by double digits, however one was by 11 and 2 by 12, unlike Plymouth who's second "closet" loss is by 11 and then third "closest" is 13.  The good news?  Someone has to win, right??  Even if it's 7 OT's tied at 20, right??  If Plymouth loses this, they lose every game the rest of the season by double digits, easy money to take to the bank.
Plymouth 43-40 (3 OT's).   The only points scored in any of the overtimes is Krystin Corliss game winning 3 pointer with 2.8 seconds left in the 3rd overtime.
Lyndon state @ Dartmouth.
Nice way to go into your biggest game of the season Dartmouth by playing two punchless opponents.  Say what you will about how physical demanding the New Paltz game is, but that gives us about 7,000 times more expierence then by beating Mount Ida and Lyndon by a combined 350 points.  I'd rather win a game scoring 49 points then win 2 games BY 49 because you need to play well on defensive end of the court, can't make mistakes.  You can turn the ball over 60 times and scoe 4 fist half points against Lyndon and you'd probably still win by double digits.  May as well just make it a scrimmage, its basically what it is. The combined record of Lyndon state's 5 wins: 14-74.  Tell me why they're playing this??
Dartmouth 90-37
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 01, 2013, 12:20:42 AM
Thursday result:

Plymouth loses by 1 62-63.
My god, this team stinks.   I'll nominate them for worst in New England, give me someone better.  They actually had a 10 point lead with 7:11 left to play and got outscored 15-4 to end the game.
Dartmouth 76-53.  Colleen Moriarty with 23 to lead the way.
52-33 OOC record.

Sat schedule:
Keene @ USM
Dartmouth @ Western best game
Eastern @ Plymouth
RIC @ Boston.  Most important game of the day.  Both teams have fallen and are having trouble getting back up.
All games start at 1:00 and as usually I will have predictions Friday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 01, 2013, 05:25:41 PM
Sat schedule:

Keene @ USM.
USM hasn't looked great their last 2 games.  This is their 6th LEC home game of the year so their going to be spending most of February on the road, and won't be back in Gorham until the final day of the season, February 16 vs. Dartmouth as they embark on a 3 game road swing to Boston, RIC & Plymouth.  If Siobhan Carnall can somehow score 50 points I'd take the Owls, but their scoring has dropped off lately.
USM 73-58
RIC @ Boston.
RIC has lost 4 of their last 6 to fall out of the race.  Boston is on a modest 2 game winning streak following a stretch where they lost 5 out of 6 games to begin 2013.  RIC's only road win of 2013 is @ Plymouth which pretty much shouldn't even count.  Big game in the race for the 4 spot: RIC is tied with Dartmouth & Eastern for 3rd at 5-4 and Boston is a game back in 6th at 4-5.  RIC won the first meeting in Providence 71-57, and since then are only averaging 55 ppg.
Boston 59-56
Eastern @ Plymouth.
Over at halftime.
Eastern 73-34
Dartmouth @ Western.
Western's defense since their 14 point loss @ Dartmouth has been outstanding, holding opponents to 47.6 ppg in their current 8 game winning streak.  Dartmouth's only road victory in LEC conference play is @ Plymouth which as I stated above shouldn't even count.  Dartmouth is a very bad matchup for us, so if 1 team is able to break through against this vaunted defense its the Corsairs.  Last meeting we knew what Dartmouth was doing and couldn't stop it (Moriarty & Bornemann combined for 39 of their 72 points), and with Kelsey Garrity running the point (underrated PG) who's at top of the conference's assist leaderboard, she will be key for Dartmouth's victory.  As I've stated earlier, this team this year has gotten abused by quick PG's (Michaela Crosby of Bridgewater, Sabree Rodriguez of Regis, Garrity the first meeting, the back up for New Paltz constantly got behind the defense she just could never finish).  As I stated the first meeting, the ability to contain and slow Garrity, and how Melissa DiNino and Sha'Quira Palmer (she will be back) do against the Corsairs will be the key.  Don't be shocked if this is close at the end even though we completely blew out USM; we match up a lot better with USM then we do with Dartmouth.  I want nothing to do with them again this year after this game.
Western 65-62
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 02, 2013, 02:03:14 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 02, 2013, 03:11:17 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 02, 2013, 07:42:05 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 04, 2013, 06:13:50 PM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 05, 2013, 06:17:05 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 05, 2013, 07:24:22 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 06, 2013, 12:40:41 AM
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.

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 07, 2013, 12:14:22 AM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 07, 2013, 02:10:46 PM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 07, 2013, 02:28:50 PM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 09, 2013, 04:18:31 PM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 10, 2013, 12:46:39 AM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 10, 2013, 11:45:45 AM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 10, 2013, 02:02:37 PM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2013, 06:01:51 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2013, 10:11:53 PM
Lots of tournament scenerio's clinched today:

As mentioned USM clinched the #1 seed yesterday and the live in-game practice against Plymouth state in the quarterfinals that comes with it.  It became official when they lost to Keene last Tuesday, but has been unofficial since December, Plymouth is the 8 seed and will be playing USM in Gorham next Tuesday in round 1.
In today's action Western clinched the 2 seed (they'll win tiebreakers over both Eastern & Dartmouth) and Keene clinched the 7 seed (they got swept by Boston so even if they catch them they can't pass them) so we have 2 of our final 4 matchups set for next Tuesday:
Plymouth @ USM in the 1 vs. 8 game
Keene @ Western in the 2 vs. 7 game.
3 to 6 are still a mess (and even at 5-7, Boston still has a chance to host a first round game) but 1 RIC win (@ Western) OR 1 Boston loss (@ Dartmouth) locks Boston in as the 6 seed so you pretty much just have Eastern/RIC/Dartmouth fighting it out for spots 3-5.  If I had to guess I'd say Eastern ends up 3rd, Dartmouth 4th, RIC 5th.  As long as we leave Dartmouth in the 4/5 spot I could care less who finishes 3rd.
As for Boston hosting a quarterfinal game: IF they sweep this week (@ Dartmouth @ Eastern), and have Dartmouth lose twice (end @ USM) AND have RIC lose twice (@ Keene is the Saturday game) Boston would clinch the 4 seed since they'd have a sweep of Dartmouth
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 12, 2013, 10:50:41 PM
I'll have Thursday/Sunday/Monday & Wednesday results coming up Wednesday or Thursday, next post I'll have clinching scenerio's and what each game means:

Keene @ Eastern.
Eastern still fighting for that home spot, Keene locked in at 7th and will be facing Western next Tuesday in Danbury.  It's funny because the Western men and Keene men still have a pretty good chance of meeting up in the quarters up in Keene
Eastern 65-54
RIC @ Western.
RIC like Eastern fighting for that home spot.  Western is locked in, and since they lost last Tuesday pretty much took themselves out of pool C discussion.  This game means absolutely nothing for Western, so if we lose, who cares.  Pretty much a scrimmage for us.  RIC's had 2 tough losses to Dartmouth & USM in overtime I think they take it.  I'd actually prefer if RIC wins tbph.  Its all about matchups in the semifinals.  I want Dartmouth as far away as possible so if that means we have to take a conf loss to have RIC keep pace with them, so be it.  Edit scratch that, I'll just be the Beacons biggest fan tonight.
RIC 56-55
USM @ Plymouth.
This game will be over the moment USM steps onto the court for pre-game warmups.  This will be the 1-8 matchup next week in Gorham bench probably gets A LOT of minutes in this blowout.
USM 89-30
Boston @ Dartmouth.
Boston loss, or RIC win officially locks the Beacons in at 6th.  Dartmouth is the last of those 3 teams fighting for the last 2 spots.  I believe Dartmouth owns tiebreakers over both Eastern (Eastern 1-1 vs. RIC Dartmouth is 2-0) and RIC (season sweep), so they are in the drivers seat.  As I said yesterday, Boston sweeps this week they are still in the running for the 4 seed.  Go Beacons!!
Dartmouth 76-54
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 12, 2013, 11:08:39 PM
Tournament scenerio's:

USM has clinched the #1 seed.  No one else can claim it
Western has clinched the #2 seed.  No one else can claim it
Dartmouth clinches the 3 seed with: a win AND Eastern loss AND RIC loss
Dartmouth clinches at least the 4 seed with: A win OR A RIC loss
Eastern clinches at least the 4 seed with: A win OR RIC loss
RIC clinches the 5 seed with: A loss AND Eastern win AND Dartmouth win
RIC clinches no worse then the 5 seed with: A win OR Boston closs
Boston clinches the 6 seed with: A loss OR RIC win
Keene has clinched the 7 seed.  No one else can claim it
Plymouth has clinched the 8 seed.  No one else can claim it

Where they can end up:
USM.  Has clinched #1
Western.  Has clinched #2
Keene.  Has clinched #7
Plymouth.  Has clinched #8
Dartmouth can finish anywhere from 3rd to 5th.  Own tiebreakers over both Eastern and RIC
Eastern can finish anywhere from 3rd to 5th.  Lose the tiebreaker to Dartmouth own the tiebreaker over RIC
RIC can finish anywhere from 3rd to 6th.  Lose tiebreakers to both Eastern & Dartmouth, own the tiebreaker over Boston
Boston can finish anywhere from 4th to 6th.  In the event they go 2-0 this week they'll own a tiebreaker over Dartmouth but lose tiebreakers to both Eastern & RIC.

Meaningful games (in order of importance):
Dartmouth/Boston.  Half of the LEC field seedings could be decided at about 7:15 Wednesday night.  Dartmouth can also do no worse then a home quarterfinal game if they win and have Western win
Eastern vs. Keene.  Another team that can be the final host if they win and get help by their westerly neighbors across Connecticut
RIC/Western.  RIC needs wins to have a home game, but probably too late.
USM/Plymouth.  The only thing semi-important about this game is that USM can win the outright regular season title with a win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 13, 2013, 07:15:08 PM
RIC wins 61-54.  Lead for majority of the game, got a 3 from half court by Megan Sewell at the first half buzzer which set the tone for the rest of the game.
USM 81-39, Eastern leads 53-47 after trailing 31-22 at the half and Dartmouth leads 52-50.  Both of those have about 4 minutes to go
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 13, 2013, 11:43:59 PM
Boston clinches the 6 seed.  And I take back what I said yesterday Western isn't "officially" locked into the 2 seed yet, but since they play Plymouth it might as well be official.  Dartmouth would win a tiebreaker if they both finished 9-5.  Eastern loses a tiebreaker to Western at 9-5 and in a 3 way tie I believe Dartmouth would win that tiebreaker.
in the 3/4/5 seeding Dartmouth own the tiebreaker over RIC as well as Eastern, Eastern owns the tiebreaker over RIC and in a 3 way tie at 8-6 Dartmouth wins that one I believe.  Eastern owns the tiebreaker over RIC so those will be your final 2 home quarterfinal participants.  So, here's how it shakes out:

#1 USM.  Cannot change
Western gets the 2 seed with a win OR Dartmouth loss
Western gets the 3 seed with a loss AND Dartmouth win
Dartmouth gets the 2 seed with a win AND Western loss
Dartmouth gets the 3rd seed with a win OR Eastern loss
Dartmouth gets the 4th seed with a loss AND Eastern win (note Dartmouth cannot finish lower then 4th)
Eastern gets the 3rd seed with a win AND Dartmouth loss
Eastern gets the 4th seed with a loss OR Dartmouth win
RIC is locked into the 5th seed (they lose tiebreakers to both Eastern & Keene)
Boston is locked in at 6, Keene at 7, Plymouth at 8.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 15, 2013, 12:45:51 AM
Doing Sat predictions because I have a busy day tomorrow before heading up to Plymouth not sure I'm going to be able to get them in:

Western @ Plymouth.
Western last 3 games since finishing the RIC/USM/New Paltz/Dartmouth gauntelt not very good.  Terrible basketball, lethargic, and this is a different team without Caroline Brasa.  If this is within 15 we have major trouble heading into the tournament.  Put them away earlier and hold them at bay.
Western 83-32
RIC @ Keene.
2 teams that can't improve their posistion (5th & 7th they'll finish) and 2 teams that can't score.  Lovely game!
RIC 54-50
Boston @ Eastern.
Eastern will be playing a home game on Tuesday just to be decided whether its the 3rd or 4 seed.  Actually, this could very well be the 3/6 matchup on Tuesday.  Boston's already the 6, a Dartmouth loss to USM leaves Eastern 3rd.
Eastern 58-46
Dartmouth @ USM.
USM hasn't looked very good, but win or lose they should be safe for a tournament bid.  A Dartmouth win leaves them with the 3rd seed and a matchup with a Western team in the semifinals they can easily beat on a neutral court while a loss (assuming Eastern beats Boston) leaves them with the #4 and another date with USM next Friday.
USM 69-62
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 16, 2013, 01:50:03 PM
Halftime scores:
RIC 32-20, USM 34-19, Boston 29-20 and Western 40-22.  First 12 minutes weren't good as Plymouth was within 3 at 20-23 but Western ended half on 17-2 run
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 16, 2013, 02:44:49 PM
Western wins 74-42 to officially clinch 2 seed.  Eastern loses to Boston 57-49 so that leaves Dartmouth 3 and Eastern 4.  Keene plays @ Western Tuesday at 7, RIC at Eastern at 5:30 and Boston at Dartmouth at 7.  Not happy about having Dartmouth in our half but they've had trouble with Boston this year so hopefully the Beacons can knock them off
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 16, 2013, 09:56:34 PM
Official LEC tournament pairings:

#8 Plymouth (1-23, 0-14)
@
#1 Southern Maine (24-1, 13-1)

#5 Rhode Island College (15-10, 8-6)
@
#4 Eastern Connecticut (10-15, 8-6)

#7 Keene (9-16, 3-11)
@
#2 Western Connecticut (18-7, 10-4)

#6 UMass-Boston (14-11, 6-8)
@
#3 UMass-Dartmouth (18-7, 8-6)

I'll have official predictions Monday, but I like at least 1 road team advancing (probably RIC).  And as I said earlier Dartmouth has had problems with Boston this year so I wouldn't be totally shocked if they pulled it off.
USM/Plymouth will be over by the 15:00 minute mark and Western should beat Keene by 10-15.

http://littleeast.com/sports/wbkb/2012-13/news/20130216-wbkb-lecpairings
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 18, 2013, 02:33:39 PM
Tuesday predictions:

#8 Plymouth state @ #1 USM.
This game is the real reason why they should've stuck with the top 8 because Plymouth has absolutely no chance to win this.  None, 0.  If Plymouth were to miraculously win this I'll walk from my house to Plymouth, NH (google map says it takes more then 3 days to walk) and get a tattoo of the Panther logo.  In 2 games against USM this year Plymouth has lost by 39 & 42 points.
USM 89-36
#7 Keene state @ #2 Western.
Western won by 19 in Danbury and by 6 in Keene.  This game probably more likely to be like the one in Danbury last month compared to the one in Keene 8 days ago.  This team hasn't looked very good the last couple games, but I think we should pull this out by double digits.  I'm probably gonna end up going to the men's game at Eastern, so there won't be much of a recap on this until I watch the game on littleeast.tv.
Western 64-42
#6 Boston @ #3 Dartmouth. 
Like Keene Western, they just played last Monday and the Corsairs have had problems with the Beacons this year.  Dartmouth lost by 3 in Boston, and only won by 7 in Dartmouth, but were trailing at halftime.  Hopefully, the Beacons can pull this out because I think we get beat by Dartmouth on Friday, and we won't have much trouble against the Beacons.
Boston 64-63
#5 RIC @ #4 Eastern.
RIC has won 2 straight on the road to end the year, Eastern finishesd the year 1-1 at home lucky to survive against Keene and losing to Boston.  Both teams are young, but Eastern is more up and down then RIC is.  I don't know how you kill Western at home and beat Dartmouth, yet you lose at home to Boston after beating them by 17 on the road??  RIC has averaged 49.5 points in 2 games vs. Eastern this year, if they can get to 55 points, I don't see how Eastern is going to be able to outscore them. 
RIC 57-51
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 18, 2013, 06:33:53 PM
Southern Maine up 4 spots to #9:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

DePauw (22)

25-0

621

1



2

Hope (3)

24-1

594

3



3

Calvin

22-2

553

2



4

Ohio Northern

24-1

537

4



5

Montclair State

25-0

530

5



6

Amherst

24-1

508

6



7

Thomas More

24-1

489

8



8

Lewis and Clark

23-2

414

11



9

Southern Maine

24-1

392

12



10

Catholic

24-1

381

13



11

Tufts

23-2

378

7



12

Simpson

23-2

338

9



13

Messiah

22-3

324

10



14

Cornell

22-1

288

15



15

Williams

21-4

267

17



16

Emory

21-3

224

21



17

Babson

23-2

170

19



18

Christopher Newport

23-2

154

22



19

Lebanon Valley

21-4

128

20



20

UW-Whitewater

20-5

113

24



21

UW-Stevens Point

20-5

110

23



22

Washington U.

19-5

105

14



23

Ferrum

22-3

97

16



24

Louisiana College

21-3

90

18



25

Whitman

20-4

48

--


Dropped out: No. 25 FDU-Florham.

Others receiving votes: Carthage 47; Rochester 29; Baruch 28; Ithaca 22; Maryville (Tenn.) 21; UW-Oshkosh 17; Widener 16; Castleton 12; Wisconsin Lutheran 12; Bridgewater State 12; Howard Payne 12; St. Thomas 9; Marymount 5; Smith 5; New Paltz State 4; George Fox 4; Trinity (Texas) 4; FDU-Florham 1; Wheaton (Ill.) 1; Rhodes 1.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 20, 2013, 01:05:30 AM
Tuesday results:

RIC 66-54 over Eastern.  The Eastern bench consisted of 1 player playing 1 minute meaning 4/5 Eastern starters played all 40 minutes and the other played 39 minutes.  They were gassed at the end, lots of missed shots from in close when they were down 10 after getting demolished for most of the game.  Ashley O'Dell lead RIC with 21 off the bench; 7-8 from the floor, 5-5 from 3.  RIC will need O'Dell to get going on Friday vs. USM
USM 63-31.  Something tells me they could've won by a lot more if they wanted too, but when your already leading 31-8 at halftime against a team that's 1-23, why run up the score??  Nicole Garland was the only starter that played more then 18 minutes.  Jordan Grant only played 8, hopefully for them she didn't get injured.
Western 52-34.
Siobhan Carnall had 12 points to lead the way in her final game.  Carly Murphy & Nicole Eanniello each had 10 for the Colonials.  Doesn't sound like this was very exciting, but I'll have to catch it on littleeast.tv
Dartmouth 71-59 over Boston.
This boxscore seems a little strange: Moriarty 2-15 shooting, Kelsey Garrity 20 shot attempts (has she even shot the ball 20 times the whole year??), but how can your PG have 5 more shot attempts then the conferences leading scorer, and then Olivia Murphy shooting 10-27 for the Beacons.  Something doesn't add up.

Semifinals set:
#5 RIC @ #1 USM 5:30 PM
#2 Western vs. #3 Dartmouth.  Will make predictions Thursday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 21, 2013, 05:03:28 PM
Semifinal predictions:

#5 RIC @ #1 USM.
USM won by 8 in Maine, and won by 2 in overtime in Providence.  Taking out Plymouth state, USM has beaten exactly 1 opponent by double digits since suffering the loss to Western and that was Dartmouth the final game of the year.  Usually when a teams wins all these close, I'd say their due for a loss, but the fact they keep winning them actually bodes well because they know how to close out games.  With the defense RIC plays their capable of beating anyone in the league, the problem with them is whether their able to score enough points.  If they can hold the potent USM offense under 60 points I say RIC wins.
USM 62-54

#2 Western vs. #3 Dartmouth.
Each team won the home game against each other by a pretty large margin (don't be fooled by Dartnouth ONLY beating Western by 14 at home.  We were down by 26 midway through the second half and only got back in the game because Dartmouth kept turning it over on our press).  As I have stated the whole year Dartmouth is not a good matchup for this team.  Moriarty in the post, Kelsey Garrity running the show conference leader in assists and steals.  Hang onto the ball for the most part.  Sha'Quira Palmer injured her ankle Tuesday, but looks like she'll be ready to go.  No Caroline Brasa is a huge loss and I think that's the difference.  Even with Care, I probably would've picked Dartmouth.  We need Carly Murphy, Jackie Zilnicki & Nicle Eanniello to make some shots.
Dartmouth 64-62

Since my predictions were awful last week (4-4), I'm using the reverse psychology effect because I would love to see/hope to see a RIC/Western final on Saturday.  No matter what happens any matchup on Saturday will be good.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 22, 2013, 06:24:09 PM
USM leads RIC 31-21 at halftime
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 22, 2013, 11:26:52 PM
USM won by about 10 and Dartmouth won in overtime 74-64, out scoring Colonials 10-0 in overtime.  Had the ball with 7 seconds left in regulation, but missed 2 from in close.  Great careers from Carly Murphy, Nicole Eanniello, Carly Murphy, and Courtney Burns from RIC, all who likely played their final games this evening.  A pleasure to watch the Western seniors the last 3 years, just sucks we don't have another game or 2.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ramfan on February 23, 2013, 11:09:46 AM
Western should have declared for the ECAC's. With 19 wins would have been a lock. Would have gotten another game or two...
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 23, 2013, 01:49:20 PM
Quote from: ramfan on February 23, 2013, 11:09:46 AM
Western should have declared for the ECAC's. With 19 wins would have been a lock. Would have gotten another game or two...

Usually I'd agree but a couple things
1) they didn't declare last year (had about same record I think finished 17-10), and last year would have been more beneficial to them playing a few extra games, since they were a fairly young team
2) after losing in that heartbreaking fashion and seeing the seniors who gave it their all for an NCAA bid I don't think they'll be motivated.  ECACs should be used for young teams, not veteran teams that were picked high preseason and fell short.

RIC however should DEFINITELY declare for the ECACs.  The extra practice and games they'll get (if they get bid) would be emmense full.  2/5 of their starting 5 are freshmen.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ramfan on February 23, 2013, 04:43:42 PM
ECAC's should be used for young teams.....that's bull....get off your high horse.....
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 23, 2013, 04:59:33 PM
At the half USM leads 48-27.  Nicole Garland just not miss from outside.  She ended the half with an off balance 3 hits all of the rim before dropping in
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 23, 2013, 11:45:12 PM
Quote from: ramfan on February 23, 2013, 04:43:42 PM
ECAC's should be used for young teams.....that's bull....get off your high horse.....


The Western senior class has won 2 LEC regular season & conference tournament titles, are 2-0 in the LEC championship game finals, 2 NCAA apperances (if they didn't lose to Eastern and RIC late and beat regis in January might be 3), made at least the semifinals all 4 years.  This team will not be motivated to play in an ECAC game.  Last year was a better year and if they didn't apply last year they sure as hell ain't applying this year.

Sure enough, here's the declared teams: http://static.psbin.com/1/h/5kj45l944zb7nw/Women-s_Bball_New_Declared_Teams_Feb_W_Bskb.pdf and I think the deadline to declare has past already.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 24, 2013, 02:34:49 AM
And in case you were wondering/cared USM went on to demolish Dartmouth 90-66 accuretely predicted in this space.  Nicole Garland finished with 18, Jordan Grant with 24.  Go into the NCAA's 27-1 and with the right matchups (like paired against East/Atlantic teams) could very well be playing 2 Fridays from now in the regional semifinals if not longer.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 24, 2013, 03:05:31 AM
Anyways, even losing Colleen Moriarty likely the player of the year Dartmouth is going to be really good next year.  Get Erika Bordemann back, Kelsey Garrity's only a sophmore so she still has 2 years of eligibility left.  USM likely takes a step back (Garland, Grant, Jordan all seniors Knight has 2 more years) but should still be near the top, RIC has 4/5 of their starting 5 returning they should still be up there.  Eastern has pretty much no juniors or seniors that played major minutes, Boston only loses 1 senior, Western will be the wildcard (Zilnicki, Murphy, Eanniello gone and heard Palmer was thinking of transfering).  I'll have an offseason preview a couple days after the last LEC game, but this looks like it can be an extremely competitive league in 2013-14.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 25, 2013, 03:02:20 PM
USM is hosting first and second round matchups; USM gets Smith Ithaca vs. Colby-Sawyer is the other matchup in Gorham.  I hope Ithaca is ready for that LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG trip up there.  Actually get a very decent draw (much better then the RIC men got).  Ithaca's a tough matchup, but since it'll be in Maine I think USM can take them out.  Rochester/Emmanuel/Scranton & Williams are the teams directly above them.  Even though the sectionals will probably be in Rochester, USM can take out all of those and the bottom half of the bracket is West/South teams so not a clue how any of them are.  Lewis & Clark & Emory have the best record.  Saw Emory @ Brandeis last last year, but I think that's a whole different team.  I say USM definitely advances onto next weekend.  Assuming my 4 picks hold up (Rochester, USM, Emory, L&C) that sectional will either be in Rochester or USM since the NCAA will pay less to fly 2 teams out East then fly 3 to Emory/L&C.  If it's in Rochester I think USM's run ends in sweet 16, if it's in Maine, they lose to DePauw in the semifinals.  Can't complain about their bracket, did fairly well.  Did much better then Babson (vs. New Paltz then @ Tufts most likely) or Bridgewater (vs. UNE @ Amherst) did and those teams were ranked higher last week and all 3 won their conferences.  Could USM somehow have passed both of them??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: bsc73 on February 25, 2013, 07:31:24 PM
Interesting that USM could pass both of them. Any thoughts on why that might have happened?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: NE Hoop Guy on February 25, 2013, 07:51:17 PM
That is an easy question.  NCAA politics.  Remember when your kids played local sports and a few parents made all the decisions, etc?  This is the same thing, just with big people. (Notice, I did not say adults).   

The fact that Babson has been the indisputable number 2 team in the northeast the last three years, (D3 hoops final rankings, NCAA success) and can make a strong argument for this year and has never hosted is outrageous.  It has not hurt their performance but something stinks when you look at the stats.  Five straight years of NCAA play, first round in a NESCAC gym four times and in western NY the fifth.  Yes they were sent 450 miles to western ny, with a 27-0 record.  Two times in the regional, two NESCAC gyms.  Babson's record over that time 129-19.  NCAA record 7-4, two elite 8's.  Never hosting.  I challenge anyone to find a team with that success that never hosted.

NCAA loves NESCAC of course, and this year it was so obvious that USM would nudge out Babson.  Why?  NCAA politics.

Long answer to an easy question.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 25, 2013, 08:22:08 PM
Quote from: bsc73 on February 25, 2013, 07:31:24 PM
Interesting that USM could pass both of them. Any thoughts on why that might have happened?

Actually I just looked.  USM was 4th behind Amherst (1), Tufts (2) & Babson (3).  Bridgewater was 5th.  My mistake, I thought USM & Bridgewater were swapped.  I don't see how they could have jumped Babson.  Is Dartmouth beating Western to get served up to USM in the finals REALLY enough to pass a Babson team that had no control over Smith losing to Wellesley and getting a worse opponent in their conference finals??
Title: Re: Little East - Babson
Post by: LORENZO123 on February 25, 2013, 09:55:19 PM
"The more things change, the more they stay the same"
1. A French proverb making the observation that turbulent changes do not affect reality on a deeper level other than to cement the status quo.

It goes back to the fourth grade. The more you complain, the more you get punished.

It's really sad, there was no justification for Babson going to Oneonta two years ago then to Amherst last year in an obvious snub. This year, ranked third in the region they go to Tufts, and USM hosts. Not only does USM have the refs in their pocket, now they have the NCAA, too? For all of their effort and success, the Babson women deserve more respect than they've been given, especially this year!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 25, 2013, 10:18:19 PM
I thought it was Medaille that they got sent to back in 2011??  I don't even remember Oneonta making the 2011 tournament...

And about that, it sucked that they got sent there, but at least they were the best team of the 4 there.  I'd rather get shipped 500 miles unneccessarly, but be the best team then stay at home and get the #1 and #4 ranked teams in the NE region.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MVP on February 25, 2013, 11:06:37 PM
Very disappointing news that Babson gets snubbed once again in their bid to host the 2013 NCAA tourney.

What does Babson have to do?  This basketball program and it's athletic facilities are in an elite class.

This Babson WBB program deserves the chance to host. This basketball program and this 2013 team represent what D3 basketball is all about.

Their 5th consecutive bid to the tourney w/ 2 elite 8 appearances the last 3 years along with a conference win streak of 85 games justifies awarding this team a 1st round host.  There is no satisfactory explanation as to why Babson wasn't chosen to to be a host venue. Babson has to travel to Tufts , yet lower seed USM gets to host.  We all know what happens in Gorham w/ the refs.

Can anyone explain that?

Despite the disrespect and being placed in a pod w/ #1 and #4 seed in the region Babson, NEWMAC Champs will be well prepared and ready to go against Suny-New Platz on Friday night.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: remsleep on February 25, 2013, 11:15:23 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 25, 2013, 08:22:08 PM
Quote from: bsc73 on February 25, 2013, 07:31:24 PM
Interesting that USM could pass both of them. Any thoughts on why that might have happened?

Actually I just looked.  USM was 4th behind Amherst (1), Tufts (2) & Babson (3).  Bridgewater was 5th.  My mistake, I thought USM & Bridgewater were swapped.  I don't see how they could have jumped Babson.  Is Dartmouth beating Western to get served up to USM in the finals REALLY enough to pass a Babson team that had no control over Smith losing to Wellesley and getting a worse opponent in their conference finals??

I would think that one of the reasons that Babson has not hosted is that their gym stinks.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 25, 2013, 11:56:02 PM
Babson should have enough of a seating capacity and I *assume* they put in a bid to host, so I have no clue why they keep getting passed over.  Hopefully MVP can answer the question about the arena capacity and possible whether they put in a hosting bid or not.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: MVP on February 26, 2013, 01:10:11 AM
As a fan of the Babson team and as like many of you posters ....I've been to more than a few gymnasiums over the years, most recently during the Babson 5 year run visiting most of the gyms in the NCAA northeast   The Babson campus is one of the most beautiful in the country, located in Wellesley, MA 8 miles west of Boston. The athletic facilities and specifically the Staake gymnasium at the Webster Center are top notch and gorgeous. The gymnasium is amazing. The gym floor, sound system, score board, home and away locker accommodations are all phenomenal. The spectator stands/ bleachers are excellent certainly with a capacity to host an NCAA crowd of up to 1500. There are plentiful hotel accommodations both local and in Boston for a wonderful visit to Babson/ Wellelsey and Boston. There are also plenty of wonderful restaurants and other things to do just steps from the Babson campus during the weekend of 2013 March Madness.

I searched for a picture of the gym and was only able to find this pic, from the facilities page on the babson web-site.


http://babsonathletics.com/information/facilities/staakegymnasium


 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2013, 07:59:37 AM
My picks for awards handed out later today:

Player of the year: Nicole Garland USM
Rookie of the year: Gonna be close between Vandell Andrade (RIC) and Olivia Murphy (Boston).   Think Vandell takes it
Coach of the year: Denise Bierly Eastern
Defensive POY: Kelsey Garrity Dartmouth

Thoughts??  Agree/disagree??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2013, 02:36:57 PM
Conference awards handed out earlier today: http://littleeast.com/sports/wbkb/2012-13/news/20130226-wbkb-all-conference

A couple of thoughts
1) Everyone was saying Colleen Moriarty for conference POY was a runaway selection, but I didn't see it.  The team finished a measley 8-6 in the conference and lost shocking road games to Keene, Boston & Eastern, otherwise their probably in the NCAAs right now.  USM was loaded I know and a ton of scorers so I can see not giving it to 1 of them (even though Garland or grant probably deserved it).  If you don't want to give it a USM player give it to Caroline Brasa.  I'd say she was the most valuable player in the league; how else do you explain Western losing as much as they did after she got hurt??  They were 16-5 in the games she played in, and finished the season 3-3 with her out of the rotation (including the game she got hurt in).
2) uhmmm...where is Kelsey Garrity on the all defensive team??  I don't know how you decide an all defensive team, but the conference's second leader in steals (percentage points behind the leader and since the leader still has a few more games left [Jordan Grant-USM] while Garrity's team is done for the year, Garrity could very well end up first in that category) should probably be on the list. 
3) co-coaches of the year??  First of all, you couldn't decide which person to pick, and then you chose the wrong 2.  USM was picked first finished first.  I didn't think they'd be as good as they were, but I figured they'd end the year in the 20-25 range/receiving votes in the poll, about 21-4, so I wasn't that far off, but at least I can see why Fifield was picked, Rybczyk I'm a bit more confused.  Western was picked second, finished second, dissapointed in my eyes (lost2 road games to sub .500 teams which likely kept us out).  Even though Bridgewater & regis finished a combined 29-1 in their conference this year we lost to both of those teams at home, in the process blowing a 13 point second half lead against Regis.  Probably win 1 of those, beat the 2 sub .500 road teams (Salem state & Eastern) and were preparing for the NCAAs instead of cleaning out lockers.  Don't know how that consitututes coach of the year, someone inform me.  Was it because we were the only team to beat USM??  I don't know how Denise Bierly DOESN'T win this award??  Eastern was picked 6th finished tied for 3rd (net gain of 3, Western & USM each had a bet gain of 0) and literally that whole team is filled with sophmores and freshmen, so less then a year after the team mutiny she takes one of the youngest teams in the country beats Western, Dartmouth & RIC with that young team, finishes in a tie for 3rd place and doesn't win coach of the year??  Might as well just abolish the award.  Gary Fifield shouldn't have even beaten her out, but if I was tie with Fifield and Bierly I could live with it, how Kim Rybczyk beat her out I have no idea.
4) Great pick for Rookie of the year.  I thought Vandell Andrade was more deserving and I was gonna state whether Courtney Mattingly was the only person doing voting for rookie of the year's, but Olivia Murphy beats her out in every statistical category except field goal percentage.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: joe8579 on February 26, 2013, 06:12:19 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 25, 2013, 11:56:02 PM
Babson should have enough of a seating capacity and I *assume* they put in a bid to host, so I have no clue why they keep getting passed over.  Hopefully MVP can answer the question about the arena capacity and possible whether they put in a hosting bid or not.
It's relatively easy to figure out why USM got to host and Babson did not.

http://www.d3hoops.com/playoffs/women/2013/womens-basketball-championships-handbook

All the criteria used to rank teams are there. USM beats out Babson because they have a higher strength of schedule and higher winning percentage. I'm betting USM jumped Babson in the last regional rankings.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2013, 06:57:05 PM
Quote from: joe8579 on February 26, 2013, 06:12:19 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 25, 2013, 11:56:02 PM
Babson should have enough of a seating capacity and I *assume* they put in a bid to host, so I have no clue why they keep getting passed over.  Hopefully MVP can answer the question about the arena capacity and possible whether they put in a hosting bid or not.
It's relatively easy to figure out why USM got to host and Babson did not.

http://www.d3hoops.com/playoffs/women/2013/womens-basketball-championships-handbook

All the criteria used to rank teams are there. USM beats out Babson because they have a higher strength of schedule and higher winning percentage. I'm betting USM jumped Babson in the last regional rankings.

They likely jumped them as I said on the previous page, but since they don't release the final rankings we never know and can only assume something happened.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ronk on February 26, 2013, 07:04:04 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 26, 2013, 06:57:05 PM
Quote from: joe8579 on February 26, 2013, 06:12:19 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 25, 2013, 11:56:02 PM
Babson should have enough of a seating capacity and I *assume* they put in a bid to host, so I have no clue why they keep getting passed over.  Hopefully MVP can answer the question about the arena capacity and possible whether they put in a hosting bid or not.
It's relatively easy to figure out why USM got to host and Babson did not.

http://www.d3hoops.com/playoffs/women/2013/womens-basketball-championships-handbook

All the criteria used to rank teams are there. USM beats out Babson because they have a higher strength of schedule and higher winning percentage. I'm betting USM jumped Babson in the last regional rankings.

They likely jumped them as I said on the previous page, but since they don't release the final rankings we never know and can only assume something happened.

Dave McHugh is going to interview the women's chair very soon; you could ask him to ask her why USM got to host.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2013, 07:25:06 PM
Is the interview going to be availiable??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ronk on February 26, 2013, 07:37:45 PM
Depending on when it takes place, I think he was either going to archive it on Hoopsville or play it on Hoopsville tomorrow night.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on February 27, 2013, 02:15:15 PM
I don't know when it is scheduled for. This has been a tough get for us the past couple of years. The men's committee chairs have been much more willing to talk.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 28, 2013, 08:25:54 PM
Friday schedule.

Lone LEC game because it's the lone LEC team still playing is Smith @ USM.
Smith is 22-4 on the year, and 16-2 in the NEWMAC.  The Pioneers are 0-2 against Babson, and 22-2 against all other opponents on their schedule (3 point loss to RPI in November, 12 point loss in NEWMAC semifinals to Wellesley).  Besides Babson, the Pioneers have only plaayed 1 other ranked team this year and that was Williams who they defeated 53-49.  This is their first game against the LEC this year.  This is also going to be USM's first game against the NEWMAC this season.  Smith is lead by sophmore guard Paulina Solis who averages 15.1 ppg and is a all NEWMAC first team selection.  Senior guard Devon Quattrocchi pitches in 12.4 ppg, and junior forward Rose Drummond averages 11.9 points and a team high 6.5 rebounds.  Smith outscores their opponents by 14.5 ppg, however USM both averages more points per game and opponents points per game.  This will be Smith's first ever trip to the NCAA tournament while USM will be appearing in the NCAA's for the 26th time in the last 28 years and has 3 runners up finishes to their name, all in the last 14 years.  Between the NCAA expierence, the home crowd, being up in Maine, USM pulls away in the 2nd half to win by about 16 or so.
USM 74-58
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 01, 2013, 03:25:03 PM
Both games at USM this evening: Ithaca vs Colby-Sawyer at 5:39 and Smith @ USM are available on littleeast.tv
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on March 01, 2013, 08:35:22 PM
USM losing 41-28 at home to Smith at the half.  Not a good first half by the Huskies.  14 turnovers and being outrebounded 20-13.  Smith is shooting 51%.  All this via Live Stats.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 01, 2013, 10:24:24 PM
USM picks the worst possible to time to have their worst game of the season.  USM allows Smith to shoot 50% from the floor, turned it over 22 times and got outrebounded by 10 in a 80-58 loss to Smith.  Against Plymouth state USM can pull that off and probably win, but against a talented 23-4 Smith team you cannot have that stat line and expect to advance.  Once you get to the national tournament, there's no teams like Plymouth state.  Everyone of the 64 teams is a good team, and Smith wasn't going to roll over and die just because they were playing on the road against a top 10 rated team playing in their 26th NCAA tournament searching for their 4th final 4 in the last 13 years while Smith was playing their first ever tournament game.  You have to bring your A game to the table every game, and if you don't your going home a lot sooner then you had hoped.   Dissapointing for USM though, this bracket was set up to have them remain in Maine until the final 4, but like I said you can't expect to win when the opponent shoots 50% in the NCAA tournament.  Sure it does happen on rare occassions, but not often.

That officially ends the LEC season, definitely a lot sooner then I would have liked it.  Have to wonder how many people are going to be at Ithaca Smith tomorrow??  I haven't watched the USM/Smith game yet (I was at dinner), but saw about 15 minutes or so of the Colby-Sawyer Ithaca game and there weren't many people in the stands for that one.  Also, since USM is out are they still going to the game on littleeast.tv tomorrow??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: remsleep on March 02, 2013, 12:38:59 AM
Watched Smith stun USM before a raucous ( for a while) crowd at Hill Gymnasium.   It was amazing to watch Smith absolutely run USM out of their own gym.  No one...and I mean no one....would have predicted this outcome.  An incredible coaching job by Lynn Hersey who imposed the high motor defense and get up the floor offense that Smith used so successfully during the regular season.  Thing is...I don't think anyone thought that would work against the Huskies.  Smith only has one kid who might crack the starting five of USM (Quatrocchi in place of McNamara)...yet their high intensity approach as a T-E-A-M completely shocked USM.   As one who has watched many NEWMAC seasons and is also very familiar with USM ( have seen them play innumerable times) it was one of the most incredible efforts I have seen in a long long time....Smith showed how much playing with enthusiasm and committment to the defensive end can do.  Incredibly-- and this is what really shocked me-- is how much mentally tougher Smith was than USM.  Typically the Mainers have a solid determination...not so tonight when compared to Smith's approach.   While Solis and Drummond received the lion's share of the credit in the post-game recap----and they certainly deserved some credit---the two players who won this game were the ubiquitous Quotrocchi and her whirlwind game along with Weston off the bench who did a great job of ensuring that USM generally only got one shot at the basket.  Outstanding effort by the Pioneers....still can't figure how Babson beat them twice.   Should be interesting tomorrow night v. Ithaca
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 07, 2013, 12:26:59 PM
West Conn's leading scorer from last year, Caroline Brasa, goes in for her ACL surgery this afternoon.  Good luck Care, and the LEC better watch out, she'll be back better then ever next year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: remsleep on April 09, 2013, 12:11:06 PM
Love to hear about coaching change rumors. Let's dig and find out!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on April 10, 2013, 06:19:53 PM
Rem I doubt there's any in the LEC this year.  Keith Boucher has been at Keebne for about 26 years he's not getting fired.  Lauren Lavigne (Plymouth is in year one of the rebuilding stage) she's not leaving.  Courtney Mattingly (Boston), Kim Rybczyk (Western), Kara Williamson (RIC), and Amanda van Voorhis (Dartmouth) all had good years but nothing that stands out to go up.  Denise Bierly (Eastern-18 years) and Gary Fifield (USM-28?? years) aren't going anywhere.

Fifield MIGHT retire, but a retirement will be the only coaching change IMO thi year and Fifield is likely the only retirement possibility.  Keith Boucher at Keene a potential candidate as well for retirement.  Doubt either happens though.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: remsleep on April 10, 2013, 11:36:35 PM
7....I thought Lavigne had left and was replaced...I distinctly remember the PSU job being advertised last off-season ( and as a part-time position if you can believe that!)....am I confused?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on April 11, 2013, 05:56:35 PM
Quote from: remsleep on April 10, 2013, 11:36:35 PM
7....I thought Lavigne had left and was replaced...I distinctly remember the PSU job being advertised last off-season ( and as a part-time position if you can believe that!)....am I confused?

Yah Liz Stritch replaced Lavigne last summer.  I was typing that in class, was going a bit too fast, lol.  Either way, that's a major rebuild up there in New Hampshire and even though they only won one game (and finished the season with I believe 23 straight losses) she's still got another couple of years until the seat gets warm.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on May 08, 2013, 11:10:23 PM
Sciarra Brandt and Chelsea Mone named captains for next season.  Why their deciding that on April 17 (that's when it became official I just didn't see it until now) I have no idea.  Ill update with the article link a little later.
Also according to the article our season opens at the Richard Stockton tournament November 15-16.  Maybe ill get the schedule before October this year since we have the tournament already, probably wishful thinking on my part.  Also, I believe we host a tournament around New Years this season as well, I know coach Rybczyk was talking about it at the end if last season.

http://wcsuathletics.com/sports/wbkb/index
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on May 09, 2013, 12:30:22 AM
It seems like its a good time for the my pre-preseason predictions.  Last year was a pretty good year, but this year could be even better.  Some questions that can play out over the season that could be the key to who wins and who loses because unlike the last 4 years where there was a clear cut front runner (Western in 2010 & 11, RIC in 2012, USM in 2013 (even though I picked them 3rd I think the coaches picked them unanimously 1st), there's none this year.  Everyteam has flaw(s) that can easily be exploited:

1) Can the Mass schools finally make the jump?  If you've been reading this for the last 2 years you know I've been driving the Beacon bandwagon.  They've started off well, only to crumble as the season entered January against stiff conference competition.  Assuming they don't lose anyone to preseason injury/off-season transfer they'll be one of the better teams in the league.  You don't agree with me?  4/5 of their starting lineup returns and I believe 3/5 will finally jump from underclassmen to upper classmen.  They have the last 2 reining rookie of the years.  Mattingly has got to have the best job recruiting.  If your going to be playing D-3 basketball, who wouldn't want to do it in Boston, one of the better cities in the US??  Why would you go Danbury, CT Keene, NH, Plymouth, NH, Willimantic, CT or Gorham, ME if you can play in all of those places by going to school in Boston?  Dartmouth should have made the jump last year, but couldn't win squat on the road even though they had the leagues best player which was unguarable.  Speaking of that...
...2) How does Dartmouth replace Moriarty?  They'll probably be my preseason pick again (why I don't know), if they can match Moriarty's production.  They'll probably be more dimensional on offense this year instead of "give Moriarty the ball and get out of the way."  IF Erika Bordemann tries to be like Moriarty was they'll be a failure.  Their success is going to start and end with Kelsey Garrity.  She gets everyone involved and stay on the court they'll be up there, she doesn't they'll be a middle of the pack team.
3) Can Eastern & RIC score?  As I've said numerous times defense only gets you so far.  Eastern has everyone back, but Courtney Burns (who's going to be playing in Europe next month btw) is going to be a huge loss for RIC, she was the heart and soul.  Do they have any leadership??
4) Which way is Western going to fall?  We started off slow last year as we were working everyone into a rotation, once we got everyone settled we went on an absolute tear (10-0, sub 45 opponents ppg including knocking off back to back unranked and top 25 teams in a 3 day span), then came crashing down with a big Thud! like a redwood falling in the forest when Caroline Brasa tore her ACL.  Outside of USM (Haley Jordan, Jordan Grant, Nicole Garland), Western has probably the biggest loses in the conference with Carly Murphy, Nicole Eaniello, and Jackie Zilnicki.  Murphy was the slasher, Eanniello was the 3 king (queen??), Zilnicki was the tough-hard nosed, in your face defender.  We have plenty of 3 point shooters left, but not many of the in your face defenders or slasher type.  Brasa could be one when she returns, but one wrong move (she already has 2 ACL tears in the last 3 years) could be a career ender.
5) Which part of USM's season was a fluke: the 27-1 regular season and LEC tournament record or the 1 and done double digit loss to NCAA newbie Smith in the first round at home?  I'll be honest, I don't think USM was nearly as good as the 27-1 regular season record indicated.  I've said it on here, and I think D3 agreed with me.  I don't believe USM ever got higher then 9th in any poll.  It could be because they started the season unranked but if you have a team who's only loss on the season is on the road to a team that's won 10 straight holding opponents under 45 points a game if you believed in them you could put them higher then 9th ahead of some teams who had 2 or even 3 losses. They also got the benefit of playing a couple teams early on in Maine when those teams were still figuring it out.  USM won back to back Saturdays against Eastern & Western in Gorham by I believe 9 points.  They beat RIC in January at home by 7.  If they play @ Eastern in December instead of January and @ RIC in January instead of February they probably lose both of those games. As is, they should have lost @ RIC anyways and beat Keene (@ home), and Boston (twice) by single digits.  They were a good team don't get me wrong, but they got a couple of good breaks and bounces that went their way (McNamera's roller at the buzzer in Providence when she was like 1-13 up to that point), that probably won't this year and didn't in the NCAA's, but they clearly weren't a 27-1 team. 
6) Does the conference have a leader a team can rely on in crunch time?  Let's take this a couple years back: 2010 and 11 Karli Spera and Melissa Teel were the 2 headed monster that carried Western to back to back back NCAA tournament's and back to back LEC championships.  When they graduated, Cynthia Gaudet (the biggest steal EVER) and Rachel Riley carried RIC to the 2012 LEC championship.  When those 2 along with Nicole Girard left Providence they passed the baton up to USM where the front court of Jordan, grant, and Nicole Garland's uncanny ability to hit every. single. 3 pointer she took in the final 10 minutes carried the Huskies to the 2013 LEC championship.  Does anyone get the baton this year?  I've already gone through most of the teams, but the result is clear: There's a lot of great players, but is there a pure scorer put the team on my back kind of player??  Boston doesn't shoot consistently enough to have 1 or 2 players.  Bornemann isn't nearly as good or as strong as Moriarty was, USM is likely a 1 trick pony with Rebecca Knight this year since they lost everyone else and Eastern is too young and like Boston doesn't shoot consistently.  The 2 scorers I have are both have questions mark: Vandell Andrade of RIC and Caroline Brasa for Western.  Vandell probably shoots too much and can be a slight headcase so not sure I want her carrying RIC because she can just as easily shoot RIC OUT of a game then back in a game.  Brasa as stated above has the ACL injury, but if she can come back like she was last year she can fill the role Murphy & Eaniello filled on the offensive end.  As evidenced by our thud to close the season with her out, you could have just as easily made a convincing argument for Brasa to win player of the year over Moriarty last year; our offense completely changed with her out.

Standings:
1) Dartmouth
2) Western
3) USM
4) RIC
5) Boston
6) Eastern
7) Keene
8) Plymouth

Preseason player of the year:
Carolina Brasa -Western

All LEC team:
Kelsey Garrity-Dartmouth
Erika Bornemann- Dartmouth
Brasa -Western
Rebecca Knight- USM
Vandell Andrade - RIC
Kirsten Morrison - Boston

All subject to change when I make my official predictions in October/November.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on May 14, 2013, 12:54:23 AM
BTW, an erroneous report by me in my post last week said Courtney Burns was going to be playing in Eurooe next year.  That is false she's playing in Italy 11 days for a tournament then playing in a women's league on a Brockton team the rest of the summer.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on August 10, 2013, 12:46:19 PM
Western schedule:
http://wcsuathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2013-14/schedule

Farmingdale state is a pretty good team, that's a tough opening test.  Mount St. Mary another tough one.  Regis beat us in Danbury last season.  Probably gonna have a few more games added, but if that's the official schedule, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this team is 1-7 or 2-6 at the end of the first semester when you look at the schedule.  Usually they start well and end poorly but those are a some tough road games (@ Regis, @ New Paltz, @ Conn College, @ USM).
Speaking of the ending schedule that @ Boston, vs. RIC, vs. USM, vs. Eastern, @ Dartmouth, vs. Plymouth @ RIC stretch from mid January to mid February is going to be the toughest conference stretch, which could decide the conference.  Starting 3 of 4 on the road is a bonus for 2 reasons: 1) it means we have a backlong home stretch at some point to make up for those road games, and 2) it knocks out the 3 toughest road trips for us when the season is a little less than 30% old.  USM and Plymouth are the first 2 weekend trips and Keene is that incredibly long Tuesday night where they go up that afternoon and get back to school at like 12:30 in the morning.  After that, the next longest is probably Dartmouth which is always a Saturday anyways.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on August 29, 2013, 11:58:49 PM
Some news around the LEC:

Amber Litwinko transfers to Nichols college in MA.
Former RIC forward Courtney Burns an assistant coach at Johnson & Wales.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on September 18, 2013, 01:21:30 AM
Keene state's game vs. Austin college in Key Largo, FL on December 31 is listed as in-region. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on September 18, 2013, 11:56:37 AM
Looking through the schedule on d3 hoops I may have found a wrinkle on the schedule:http://d3hoops.com/conf/LEC/women/2013-14/schedule?confonly=1

It used to be every team in the conference would each play LEC games on the same day.  Now I'm not sure if the schedule dictated differently this year because of a chain of events: Thanksgiving is the latest it can possibly be, only 1 Saturday in December when schools are in session, so they had to switch things up, or if they are going to go this route more from now on, but every team in the conference plays an LEC team on a day no other school has a game.  Last year it happened once; Dartmouth played Keene on a Friday night, everyone else started the next day.  This year our solo games are:
Keene @ USM November 23 (seems a little early to be playing meaningful games, doesn't it)??
Boston @ RIC December 14
Eastern @ Plymouth January 4
Dartmouth @ Western January 9.

Now as I said in the previous paragraph this could just be a 1 year thing, since usually we have 2 LEC games the first 2 Saturday's of December, and since there is only 1 available in the first semester this year, the conference had to fit in all those games that would be on that second Saturday in different time slots.  It remains to be seen for next year.  Thought I'd share this nugget which probably no one else noticed, lol

Later today, I'll edit this to tell you how many schools are off on those days.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on September 20, 2013, 09:27:17 AM
I know people from Western, and Dartmouth read this and probably people from the other 6 schools as well.  I've been getting bombarded on twitter the past couple days (wont mention names, but you know who you are) for I guess a prediction I made earlier this year.  I picked Dartmouth back in May and I'm going to pick them again in November because: A) they have the leagues best point guard, B) the best big and C) the deepest team.  Does that mean they will win?  Of course it doesn't!  I picked them first last year too you may remember and they finished 3rd, and even though USM finished 26-2 last year I picked them to finish 3rd.  Unfortunately, all 8 teams can't all finish tied for first and all make the NCAA tournament, so I try to be as neutral as possible to rank them 1-8.  If you don't like where I picked you, go out and prove me wrong!  RIC and Eastern did that last year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on October 25, 2013, 03:52:23 PM
LEC Preview.  As usual LEC record is in parenthesis.

1) Dartmouth (12-2).  They lose the conference player of the year in Moriarty, but the rest of team returns in Kelsey Garrity (who finished percentage points behind Jordan Grant in steals per game) and Erika Bornemann who not as polished as Moriarty was, can space the floor better as she's not afraid to shoot from outside which makes the team more dangerous.  It looks like the backups to Garrity left (Shannon Singletary graduated and Melissa Daigle isn't listed on the roster), so its possible they could be in trouble if she gets in foul trouble.  Definitely want her out on the court late in the game, she'll make plays to get Corsairs wins.  The coaches likely won't pick them high (I'd say 3rd or 4th) but they have the talent to compete for yet another championship.
2) USM (11-3).  With Jordan Grant, Haley Jordan, and Nicole Garland who pretty much hit every.single. 3 pointer she attempted in the semifinals and finals all graduated, I don't think they'll be as good this season; they graduated 38.2 ppg combined between those 3 which is a huge loss.  Their bench was also atrocious last year, and was even worse when Nash Billow got injured.  They didn't need a good bench when you started 4 of the better players in the conference, but their gonna need at least a competent one this year.  They'll be tough to knock off in Maine, and Rebecca Knight will be a player of the year candidates, but there's a lot of good teams this year.  Can the bench give them points/rebounds/minutes and can this team win outside of Maine without Jordan, Grant & Garland??
3) Western (10-4).  This team was a discombobulated mess in February when Caroline Brasa injured her knee, and looks like we might have some roster turnover from the end of last season.  Not sure who we lost/gained, but I think some pretty important pieces from last years team won't be on this years team.  if Caroline Brasa can stay on the court they'll be right up there with Dartmouth & USM.  If not I see them more towards the middle in the RIC/Eastern/Boston pile.
4) Eastern (8-6).  Nice turnaround after the team mutiny in 2011 to get a home quarterfinal game last year and all of those sophmores/freshmen from last season have a year under their belt.  Offense was pretty dissaspointing last year.  Also, teams know this team can compete in the conference, so their not going to surprise anyone this year.
4) Boston (8-6).  This is the 3rd straight year I'm going to be driving the Beacons bandwagon.  They have the last 2 reigning rookies of the year (Kirtsen Morrison & Olivia Murphy) and that great freshmen class Mattingly brought in in 2011 are now upper classmen.  Last years team only had 2 seniors and only lost 6.4 ppg, and this years team only has 2 seniors, so the building blocks should be laid this season for an upper-tier finish in 13/14.  I think they'll be competitive and in the race the whole season.  Last year they beat Dartmouth, and Eastern and stayed competitive against USM (lost by 8), and Western by 9.
6) RIC (7-7).  Only graduated 1 off last years team, but that's a big one in Courtney Burns who was the team leader and heart and sole of that team, and will be tough to replace that.  Vandell Andrade and Danielle LeBlanc both had good years as freshmen, but like Eastern this was another team that just could not score at all last year.  Defense can only get you so far.
7) Keene state (4-10).  Like RIC only graduate 1 player, but that 1 will be a huge loss in Siobhan Carnall who lead the team and was second in the conference in ppg at 16.0 ppg.  Christan Wojtas and Ryenne Williams played well in spurts last year.  They have 7 new players, so this will be a rebuilding year this year.
8) Plymouth (0-14).  Krystin Corliss and Bry Bennett played well last year, but outside of those 2 they don't have much else.  Their conference record the last 3 years is a combined 2-40, and 0-14 last year.  They lost every LEC game by at least 21 points, 10 of their final 12 games had them finish with 42 points or fewer, and in 6 February games they combined to average 34.8 points, held below 40 in 5 of the 6 games and didn't crack 42, and cracked 60 points only 3 times all of last year.  Overall, I don't think the conference is as good this year as it was last year, but Plymouth still has some work to do.  If they can't beat Keene, I'm guessing it's another 0 for LEC season.   

Oops forgot to add in award winners:

Player of the year - Kelsey Garrity Dartmouth

First team:
Garrity
Caroline Brasa- Western
Vandell Andrade- RIC
Erika Bornemann- Dartmouth
Rebecca Knight - USM
Kirtsen Morrison- Boston
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 13, 2013, 01:47:44 PM
Western roster out; only 10 players, only 4 people that played meaningful minutes last year, 0 that played more than 20 minutes a game last year, and 6 of our 9 leading scorers from last year are gone.  I don't like the first half schedule. Could have be in for a struggle as we implement a whole new set of pieces.  This weekend down @ Richard Stockton (won't be there) will be fun to keep tabs on.  Farmingdale state should be the favorite in the Skyline this year; they've been second fiddle to MSM all these years before finally getting over that hump last year, and now that MSM fired their coach for some reason, who knows what will happen with them this year.  Richard Stockton is normally a decent team out of the NJAC.  Don't really know much about St. Mary's College of Maryland, but they look to be the worst team in the field.  At least we should be able to get 1 win in that tournament.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Cheesehead Henry on November 13, 2013, 09:50:25 PM
Dartmouth is just painful to watch. Didn't they get like 4 wins last year?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 14, 2013, 02:35:49 AM
Quote from: Cheesehead Henry on November 13, 2013, 09:50:25 PM
Dartmouth is just painful to watch. Didn't they get like 4 wins last year?

No??  They finished with like 20.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 14, 2013, 03:17:50 PM
Coaches poll out: http://littleeast.com/sports/wbkb/2013-14/releases/201311145u7m7j

Aside from the top spot, and spot #6 I don't really have that big of a problem with the poll.  I'll state what the coaches picked first and then my predictions second:

USM 1.  I had Dartmouth 1.  Will be tough, as always, to win in Gorham.  However, I just can't look past those losses of Jordan Grant, Haley Jordan & Nicole Garland.  Knight is going to be a 1 person show, and the bench, which was particulary troublesome for them last year (not that they needed it with that starting 5 last year) will have to fill out 3/5 of the starting 5 this year.  Your not going to be a very good team if you rely on only 1 scorer.  Yes they'll be good.  Yes, they'll be good at home.  Yes, they'll likely be in the semifinals and quite possibly the finals once again this year.  Regular season winner this year I just don't see it.
Eastern 2.  I had USM 2.  Yes, that was a very young team, most of them underclassmen, but I was wondering if they played over their heads a little bit.  Remember they had Keene & Boston at home in Willimantic to end the year, a chance to finish in 3rd place with 2 wins (since they won the tiebreaker vs. Dartmouth), and would be getting a reeling Western team who they just killed a couple weeks earlier in the semifinals.  They lose that final game to Boston, get stuck in the RIC/USM half of the draw, lose to RIC in round 1 and that was that.
Dartmouth 3.  I had Western 3.  As I stated already, I actually think Dartmouth will be better offensively without Moriarty.  Bornemann while not as tall or as strong has a wider range of weapons on the offensive end then Moriarty did as she can space the floor and take the opposition big outside the lane and take and make elbow jumpers and 3 pointers.  They also have the league's best PG in Kelsey Garrity.
RIC 4.  I had Eastern (tied with Boston).  This is where coaches look at a roster, see RIC only lost a couple seniors (I think 3), and then say "They finished tied for 4th last year.  With pretty much the whole team coming back, how can they possibly finish lower than 4th??"  Well, I'll tell you how.  Ashley O'Dell, one of those seniors in question was a great asset off the bench the last 2 years, and a 3 point specialist.  Courtney Burns, the other main senior was the heart and sole of that team both on the court and off it as well.  It's going to be tough to replace that leadership she showed.
Boston 5.  I had Boston 4 (tied with Eastern).  Can't complain too much here.
Western 6.  I had RIC 6th.  Even with the turnover, I can't see how this possibly a 6th place team.  Do they invision Caroline Brasa getting hurt again??  if that's the case, this would be an 8th place team.  If her knee is fine, and she's on the court for all 14 LEC games, there is no way this team finishes lower than 4th.
Keene 7, Plymouth 8.  Same order as I had.  Once again no complaining or arguments from me over those selections.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 14, 2013, 08:58:41 PM
Basketball has officially started, first game tomorrow and with that, here's the schedule for Friday:

Elms 45 @ Dartmouth 78.
All you need to know about Elms is that they were the 1 team that was unable to beat Plymouth last year, even though they finished the year 17-11.
Green Mountain 44 @ Keene state 65.
Green Mountain is 9-61 over the last 3 years and lost their final 13 games of 2013 en route to finishing 3-20 last year.  During their 13 game losing streak they were held to 41.7 points on average and were held below 40 7 times including scores of 20 vs. Colby-Sawyer (lost 86-20) and 18 vs. Castleton (lost 82-18).
Salve 65 vs. USM 69 (@ Maine-Farmington).
A nice matchup.  Salve is the runners up to UNE in the CCC.  They've had at least 19 wins 4 of the last 6 years.
Farmingdale 56 vs. Western 54 (@ Richard Stockton)
Farmingdale was picked to win the Skyline this season.  The only have 1 double digit returning scorer from last year and that was Nicky Young at 17.0 ppg.  Western's roster is a mess at the moment.  This should be close the majority of the game, but Farmingdale is experienced, while half of the Western team is made up of newcomers.  That's the difference in the game.
RIC 56 vs. Westfield 59 (@ UNE).
Westfield was picked to finish second in the MASCAC and return their 3 leading scorers from last season lead by Gabby Felix at 13.0 points a game.  As a team that averaged 61.4 ppg last year.  I don't think RIC is going to be able to outscore them.
Plymouth 46 vs. Brooklyn 73 (@ Vassar). 
Brooklyn is a combined 36-4 in CUNYAC play the last 3 years with 2 of those 4 defeats at the hands of Baruch an was picked second in the CUNYAC behind Baruch this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 15, 2013, 01:19:14 PM
Friday's games:

Dartmouth leads Elms 18-4 at 12:39.  Garrity and Bornemann both going work like I thought they would.  Garrity with a couple steals and assists, Bornemann 1-2 from 3.  No problems so far.  I'll update this throughout the day
30-8 Dartmouth 7:05 left in half.
Dartmouth leads 47-23 at halftime.  They were up 47-14 with about 3 minutes left, before the Blazers got some life and ended the half with a 9-0 spurt including a 3 at the halftime buzzer.
85-40 with 4:10 left.  Not sure on the exact stats, but I think Garrity has around 17 and Bornemann has about 20.
Final from Dartmouth as the Corsairs win 91-43.  Elms was never much of a threat.  I think they started the game up 5 or 6 to nothing, stretched that to 18-4, and went up as much as 33 in the first half and 45 for the game.  Kelsey Garrity finished with 16, Erika Bornemann lead the way with 18.   Dartmouth plays the winner of Framingham state/Castleton state which comes up around 3 in the final of the Fairfield Inn & Suites tournament; Elms gets the loser of that game in the consolation tomorrow afternoon.
In the afternoon's second game Keene leads Green Mountain 40-16 at halftime.  From the video it looks like Green Mountain only has 7 players dressed for this game.  Keene coach Keith Boucher is sitting on 349 career victories, unless Keene totally collapses in the second half, it looks like a pretty good bet coach Boucher gets win #350.  Hopefully the games this evening are more exciting, but I'm liking these 2 free wins to start off the season with.
Keene wins 89-36.  Missed the last 10 minutes or so.  Allison Wadsworth & Amber Heath combined for 28 of Green Mountain's 36 points.  Keene only had 2 players in double digits; Courtney Roberts with 14 and Sarah Kober with 10, but 13 of 14 players for Keene appeared on the score sheet and 14 players from Keene played at least 8 minutes.  And congrats to coach Keith Boucher win #350 a couple hours after Dartmouth coach Amanda Van Voorhis recorded career win #200.  Through 2 games, the LEC is outscoring the opposition 180-79.  Tougher opponents still to follow obviously and even some tough ones tonight (Farmingdale vs. Western; Salve vs. USM) but so far a great start.
Salve leads USM 9-6 at 13:07.  Rebecca Knight has 4 points.  USM already in foul trouble as Eric McNamera picked up 2 quick personal fouls.
USM leads 26-21 at halftime.  Rebecca Knight (10 point) and Meghan Pellitier (6 points) are the leading scorers.  Pellitier has 3 fouls and Taylor Flood & Erin McNamera each have 2 fouls for the Huskies.
Western leads Farmingdale 15-10 at 7:53.  Caroline Brasa and Chelsea Cosker I think her name is, are the leading scorers with 5 apiece.  Western 3-9 on 3 pointers so far in the early going, but if Dartmouth plays the rest of the season like they did today, they'll be challenge to Western in the "most 3's taken" department.  Usually Western is a lock for that title, they might have some company this year.
Western leads Farmingdale 26-20 halftime.  Western with an atrocious foul on a Farmingdale offensive rebound and 1 putback with 1 tenth of a second left in the half to give Farmingdale life.  Since I only know like 3 players, have no clue what the other numbers are, but looks like Caroline Brasa is the leading scorer with 8 points.
Final from Farmington, ME as a big second half from USM results in a USM blowout over Salve 67-45.
Western up 62-40 4:37 left.  Sciarra Brandt with 17 points.  The freshmen really playing a lot and some plying well.  Emily Dodson has 8 points on 4-8 shooting in 27 minutes, Kerri Stolle has 5 points (but a 1-1 assist to turnover ratio) in 30 minutes of action, Chelsea Cosker has 9 points in 22 minutes of action, and Alyssa Eannotti has 6 points and 7 rebounds in 21 minutes of action.  There is no way this is a 6th place team at seasons end.
Western beats Farmingdale 72-55.  Sciarra Brandt had a monster game with 23 points and 20 rebounds.  Western held Farmingdale to 29.2% from the floor and 16.7% from 3.
In the 7 PM game, Westfield leads RIC 32-30 at halftime.  Jen Ashton leads Westfield with 15 points on 6-10 shooting, and Gabby Felix with 8 on 4-5 shooting.  Balanced scoring for the Anchorwomen as Vandell Andrade, Stephanie Prusko, and Ashley Moore each have 6 points to lead the way for RIC.   RIC shooting 43.3%, Westfield shooting 41.2%.
RIC gets the 5 point win over Westfield 73-68.  Ashton finished with a game high 24 for the Owls while Felix finished with 16 who finished the game shooting 52.7% for the field.  Vandell Andrade lead RIC with 20 points and 11 rebounds, Stephanie Prusko added 17 on 5-7 shooting from 3, and Danielle LeBlanc had 10 points and 8 assists.  RIC finished shooting 52.7% for the game.  Moves the conference to 5-0 on the season, but with Plymouth closing out the day, it's a pretty good bet to end the day with a loss.
Speaking of Plymouth, they are trailing 39-14 at halftime to Brooklyn.  Rosalie Edmonds leads the Panthers with 6 points and has 2/3's of Plymouth's made field goals for the half, as the Panthers ended the first half a dismal 3-26 (11.2%) from the floor.  Carissa Williams has 11 points on 4-9 shooting to lead the Bulldogs who are hitting 42.1% from the floor.
Last final of the night goes final as Brooklyn defeats Plymouth 67-40.  Plymouth did a tad better in the second half as they hit on 37.9% of their shots, but overall still finished at 25.5%.  Rosalie Edmonds actually showed some promise up there in Plymouth with 11 points and 6 rebounds and DeAsia Lawrence looks like she can turn out to a decent player in 2 or 3 years fro the Panthers, but until that time comes they need veterans like Krystin Corliss and Bry Bennett to step up, and score.  Corliss had 6 points and only shot 3-10, Bry Bennett had 8 rebounds, but only scored 1 point and attempted only 2 field goals.  Carissa Williams had a game high 17 to lead the Bulldogs, and Zoe Randolph chipped in 15 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists.

5-1 for the LEC, 4-2 for me
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 15, 2013, 11:24:02 PM
Saturday schedule.  No updates as I have my final soccer game in the morning, than heading up to Eastern to catch Courtney Burns first day on the bench for Johnson & Wales, so I'll have a full recap Saturday night from all the action.

Western 67 @ Richard Stockton 65 3 PM.
Stockton defeated St. Mary's College 69-50 in the second game.  Western as noted earlier defeated Farmingdale 72-55.  Farmingdale vs. St. Mary's will be the consolation preceding this.  Stockton shot only 33.9% from the field and allowed St. Mary's to shoot 35.3% from 3.  The Western freshmen played great Friday.  I wasn't expecting much coming in this weekend, but could very well go home 2-0.
Plymouth 38 vs. Wellesley 65 (@ Vassar) 2 PM.
Wellesley lost 55-41 to Vassar; Plymouth lost 67-40 to Brooklyn.  Wellesley held Vassar All-American Cyndi Matsuoka to only 11 points on Friday.  I doubt they'll have much trouble against the Panthers even though they struggle on the offensive end.
Castleton state 67 @ Dartmouth 62.
Castleton defeated Framingham 71-50, Dartmouth dismantled Elms 91-40.  Think Dartmouth is going to have a bit of a tougher time this time around.  The Spartans finished 29-2 last year, just missing a pool C bid (at least in my opinion, not sure how far off they actually were), before settling on winning the ECAC New England tournament as a consolation prize.  However, despite their gaudy record they failed against Colby-Sawyer as they went 1-2 last against the Chargers including losing to them in the NAC final which denied the Spartans an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament.    In 2011-12 they finished 22-6, but won 16 of their final 17 regular season games in winning the NAC and advancing to the NCAAs where they lost round 1 to Juanita.  Since December 25, 2011 the Spartans have won 45 of the 48 games they've played in that time span and have lost to 1 team not named Colby-Sawyer: That was to Juanita in that NCAA game March 2 of 2012.  In those 45 wins, only 4 were decided by 6 points or less, so not only is this team consistent at winning, their consistent at winning big as well.  Think this will be a much closer affair, but 45-3 speaks for itself.
Endicott 56 @ Keene 59.
Keene downed Green Mountain 89-36, Endicott defeated MCLA 80-57.  Last year the Gulls were 16-12 overall and 8-9 on the road.  Not a particular high scoring team as they only averaged 56.0 ppg last year, and only gave up 54.0 ppg.  Luckily for them Keene wasn't scoring last season either, only averaging 57.0 ppg.  The 89 points the Owls scored against Green Mountain was their highest total since they put up 96 on a York team that went onto finish 3-23 on November 16 of last season.
RIC 57 @ UNE 71.
RIC beat Westfield 73-68; UNE beat Daniel Webster by 70 101-31.  UNE has finished with 20 wins the last 5 years and has made the NCAAs 3 of the last 4 seasons.  UNE finished last season 14-1 at home and averaged 63.5 ppg last season.  The starters got plenty of rest vs. Daniel Webster while RIC had to sweat it out against a tough Westfield team.  RIC will keep it close for a half, but this team is too good at home.  Their only loss last season at home was by 9 to USM, and this years RIC team doesn't quite match up to last year's USM team.
USM 79 @ Maine-Farmington 54.
Farmington defeated NAIA Fisher 83-70; USM defeated Salve 67-45.  Farmington hasn't had a winning season since 2008-09.  Farmington's leading returning scorer averaged only 8.5 ppg last season, and only have 4 people 5"10 or taller.
Johnson & Wales 66 @ Eastern 70.
The last time Courtney Burns was in Willimantic, she lead RIC to a win over Eastern in the quarterfinals of the LEC tournament and ended Eastern's surprising run.  This year she's back in her first game on the J&W bench as the head assistant coach to Wildcats coach Corey Boilard.  If one person on that team knows how to beat Eastern, it's her.  J&W was 5-5 in away games last year and averaged 57.2 ppg last year.   The Wildcats return leading scorer Jenna Juron (13.5 ppg) last year, but lose 3/5 of the top 5 scorers from last season.  Eastern was picked 2nd in the preseason LEC poll, but I think that may be a bit overrated since this is still a relatively young and inexperienced team.  This might be closer then most people think.  The nightcap of this tournament is Hartwick vs. Mount St. Mary, 2 of the better teams in the East region.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2013, 06:32:53 PM
Eastern leads Johnson & Wales 29-26 at halftime.  I think this is Easterns first lead if the game and it comes on a 3 off a J&W turnover.  Speaking of turnovers, according to my count J&W has 7 Eastern with 12.  Eastern with about 10,000 offensive rebounds vs a much smaller J&W team.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 17, 2013, 12:25:32 AM
Sat results:

Wellesley over Plymouth 57-34.  This team hasn't scored more than 42 points since last January, 31.
Castleton with a win @ Dartmouth 70-62.  Kelsey Garrity was pretty much invisible as she had the same amount of personal fouls (2) as she had made field goals, points + assists (2).  Erika Bornemann had 14, Meghan Ronaghan lead the Corsairs with 28.  Dartmouth was 5-22 from 3 which didn't help them much either.  And look at that, I nailed Dartmouth's score  ;D.
Western over Stockton 58-57. 
Caroline Brasa with 10 off the bench, Kerri Stolle with 20 to lead the way.  This team hit on 41.2% from 3 and after watching MSM play a zone defense tonight which allowed Hartwick making 12 3 pointers in 17 attempts, this team could literally hit 50 3's on Wednesday night.  The worst possible team to play a zone against since they make their living from outside the arc.
Endicott over Keene 69-60.  Christan Wojtas had 15 and Sarah Kober had another good game with 14.  Going 4-23 from 3 and 5-12 from the free throw line did Keene in.
UNE over RIC 67-59.  Danielle LeBlanc had 19 for the Anchorwomen, Vandell Andrade had 10 with 9 boards.
USM over Farmington 86-57.  Nothing to see here against this overmatched opponent.  Erin McNamera had a pretty efficient game: 24 points on 7-12 shooting (6-8 from 3), 6 rebounds, 4 assists.  Real teams to come for the Huskies this week: @ UNE Tuesday (UNE has a great home court advantage.  Have only lost at home 8 times since the start of the 2008/09 season), then the first conference game of the season at home next Saturday vs. Keene.
Eastern over Johnson & Wales 62-39.
The second half of this game was pretty much like the first half of Western's loss to RIC in the semifinals of the 2012 LEC tournament where Western scored 3 points and had 1 made field goal that entire first half.  No matter what you do the second half, odds are your going to lose by 20+ anyways, so you just want to hang with them.  J&W did that the first half, racing out to a 24-13 lead at 1 point.  As I stated in the last post, that 3 Eastern hit off the double dribble at midcourt with 1.5 seconds left was the beginning of the end, and J&W was ice cold in the second half.  At the 9:12 mark they had only recorded 1 second half point.  Eastern had a ridiculous 62 rebounds (33 on the offensive end), which lead them to 17 second half points.
Sunday schedule:
Only 1 game as Eastern concludes the women's tournament at Eastern.

Hartwick 72 @ Eastern 67.
I'm actually looking forward to this matchup.  If I don't have to cook anything for the family dinner tomorrow night I'll probably head back there, but worst comes to worst I'll be watching on LEC TV.  Hartwick destroyed Mount St. Mary using a devesting full court trap and a 3 point barrage on MSM's zone defense to get a comfortable 94-50 win.  Eastern came from behind to beat Johnson & Wales 62-39.  Hartwick starts 3 seniors, 1 junior and a freshmen, finished 22-6 last year (12-2 in conference) and advanced to the NCAAs.  As I said, they employed a full court trap, and if they can use it to slow down the young, inexpierienced Warriors (started 2 sophmores, 1 junior and 2 freshmen) into a bunch of turnovers, this could end up being a rout.  However, Eastern had 27 turnovers against J&W and they weren't pressing the ball like Hartwick will be doing.  Hartwick forced 25 MSM turnovers (most of them as stated in the backcourt) and converted them into 20 points.  I still think Hartwick takes this anyways because they are the more experienced team, but if Eastern keeps their cool, holds onto the ball, and can get their offense going, they'll be in until the very end.  if not, Hartwick will end another game this tournament at halftime as they lead MSM 44-19 at recess tonight.  1 last thing to keep an eye on in relationship to the Hartwick trap.  This year there is a 10 second back court rule in the women's game AND the refs are using the shot clock to decide 10 seconds, so in actually it's probably like 9.5 seconds or less, and Hartwick forced MSM into two, 10 second backcourt violations and forced an early MSM timeout on a 3rd occasion.

8-5 for the LEC, 10-3 for me
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 17, 2013, 03:40:36 PM
Hartwick leads Eastern 29-21 at halftime.  Hartwick surprisingly not going with the 1-2-2 full court press which I thought would be effective against the young Warriors squad.  Must've been a play designed just for MSM as J&W used it in the consolation game and forced MSM into 28 turnovers.    Eastern only has 7 turnovers, but is shooting only .500 from the free throw line while Hartwick is 6-6 from the line.  Krystina Forsman has 6 points for Eastern, Taylor Vonaskek has a game high 12 for Hartwick on 6-9 shooting.
Hartwick defeats Eastern 65-46.  Shannon McCourt lead Eastern with 16 and Forsman was 0-5 in the second half and finished with 6.  Hartwick placed 4 in double figures lead by Vonasek with 16.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 18, 2013, 05:26:58 PM
Tuesday predictions:

UNE 68, Southern Maine 66
Both teams won tip-off tournaments.  Southern Maine beat Salve Regina and then overmatched Maine-Farmington.  UNE crushed Daniel Webster and pulled away from Rhode Island College.  This game could really go either way in my opinion.  I would not be surprised if either team won...I would be very surprised if it was not a close game.

Rivier 70, Plymouth State 45
Rivier has not played this year and their roster isn't even on the website yet.  Looks like they bring back pretty much everyone from last year, though.  They gave up over 70 points to Plymouth last year even in a 78-71 win that was far more of a blowout than the score indicated.  I don't think it happens this time.  I will give Plymouth over 40 though.

UMass-Dartmouth 72, Worcester State 62
I think this game will be somewhat close, but the Corsairs will eventually win by double digits.  Worcester State is 1-1, losing to WPI and beating Becker.  I think UMass-Dartmouth rebounds from the loss to Castleton State.

UMass-Boston 82, Simmons 46
UMass-Boston's first game of the year probably won't be remotely close.  I seriously doubt Simmons even gets to 46, but they have scored in the 50's in both of their losses this year.

Emmanuel 64, Eastern Connecticut 60
This is another interesting game.  ECSU blew out Johnson and Wales but was then handled easily by Hartwick.  I think this will be a close game that Emmanuel wins.

Amherst 75, Keene State 48
Amherst's first game of the year.  I'm not sure this game will be very close.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 18, 2013, 05:39:43 PM
Tuesday's schedule:
USM @ University of New England 5:30
Rivier vs. Plymouth state (@ NH Tech) 6
Dartmouth vs. Worcester state (@ Clark) 6
Boston @ Simmons 7
Emmanuel @ Eastern 7
Keene @ Amherst 7
Best game is USM/UNE.

USM 54 @ UNE 59.
Each team has beaten 1 good team (USM beat Salve; UNE beat RIC) and each has clobbered a bad team (USM beat Farmington by 29; UNE beat Daniel Webster by 70) to get to 2-0 on the season.  UNE won by 9 in Gorham last year, but this team is rock solid at home in Biddeford, ME losing only 8 times in the last 6 seasons.  USM has lost their last 2 trips in Biddeford and have lost 3 of 4 to them overall.
Rivier 78 vs. Plymouth 46.
This is the 3rd of 3 straight neutral site games to begin the season for Plymouth.  Last year's meeting was a 78-71 Rivier win, but Rivier returns all 5 starters and 12 of 13 players that appeared in last season's meeting including Deanna Purcell who lead Rivier with 27 points.
Dartmouth 65 vs. Worcester 59.
Each team is 1-1.  Dartmouth beat Elms and lost to Castleton; Worcester went 1-1 in the Worcester tournament losing to WPI before beating Becker.  Last year Dartmouth won by 5 with Kelsey Garrity & Erika Bornemann combing for 28 points, 13 rebounds, 8 assists, 7 steals, and 2 blocks. 
Boston 70 @ Simmons 53.
The last LEC team to open their season.  Simmons is 0-2 losing to Maine-Maritime & Bates to begin the season, and have a combined record of 8-38 the last 2 seasons.  Boston won 8 non-LEC games last season meaning in 10 games last year, Boston equaled Simmons' win total from the previous 2 seasons.
Emmanuel 66 @ Eastern 59.
The road team has won the last 4 meetings in the series including Emmanuel picking up a 57-53 win in Willimantic last season.  Emmanuel is 2-0 beating Ohio Wesleyan & Stevenson; Eastern 1-1 beating Johnson & Wales and losing to Hartwick.
Keene 46 @ Amherst 67.
This was a 17 point Amherst win @ Keene last year.  Amherst has won no fewer than 27 games in each of G.P. Gromacki's first 6 season's on the bench including 30+ the last 4 years.  Gromacki's .869 winning % is the highest among all active coaches across any NCAA division, and his record at Amherst since coming over from Hamilton college prior to the 07-08 season is 181-14.  Their leading returning scorer is Megan Robertson who burst onto the scene last year averaging 12.1 ppg, but Amherst has to replace 3 starters from last year's 30-3 team.  This is their first game of the season while this will be Keene's 3rd game, so Amherst might be sluggish for the first half, but Amherst should pull away in the second.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 18, 2013, 05:42:21 PM
Thanks for posting the schedule here too Allstar!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 18, 2013, 05:51:07 PM
Quote from: 7express on November 18, 2013, 05:42:21 PM
Thanks for posting the schedule here too Allstar!

No problem.  I'll try to post as frequently as I can.  We will see how off all my predictions are.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 19, 2013, 08:00:13 PM
Bad night for the conference so far as USM goes down 66-62.  No shame in losing to UNE though, especially on the road.  Leaves Western as the conferences line unbeaten.
Plymouth loses 65-52 I believe.  Better showing then both me or Allstar predicted.
Dartmouth loses to Worcester 75-70.  Erika Bornemann had 24 points and 16 rebounds but Kelsey Garrity was injured which really hurt them.  Bad loss though with or without her, still a team they should have beaten.
No scores on the other games an I'm going into class.  I'll have a recap later on, unless Allstar posts the results before then
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on November 19, 2013, 09:24:42 PM
7......nice call on the Amherst vs Keene game.....Amherst wins by 15 at home.......67-52.  Amherst was sluggish in the first half and broke the game open in the second half.  Keene ralled a bit near the end with the subs in for Amherst.  Amherst's offense was terrible...but its defense was good...as both teams shot poorly.  Keene had 28 TOs!  Should be ok for Amherst going forward, imo.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 19, 2013, 11:55:50 PM
Tuesday results:

USM loses to UNE 66-62.  Erin McNamera had 20 points, but took her 20 shot attempts to get there (why is your PG shooting 20 times??)  Rebecca Knight had 10 on 3-13 shooting. 
Rivier over Plymouth 65-52.  Deanna Purcell had a game high 21 for Rivier, Kait Deering & Taylor Perry each had 12 to lead Plymouth.  The first tine since January 31 of last season they managed to crack 42 points on the scoreboard.  This 52 point outburst is an offensive explosion for them!
Worcester over Dartmouth 75-70.  I already talked about this earlier.  Erika Bornemann had 24 points & 16 boards.  No Kelsey Garrity really hurt them, but a bad loss. I watched this game for about 10 minutes in spurts during class this evening, and in all the time I was watching, I don't remember Worcester scoring a single point, so they must've been extremely efficient in the other 30 minutes I wasn't watching.
Boston clobbers Simmons 71-37.  Olivia Murphy had 20 points & 10 boards to lead the Beacons.  Luckily for Simmons, Kirtsen Morrison wasn't with the team as the Beacons volleyball team is still participating in the NCAAs, so she'll be out up until at least the end of the weekend if not longer, otherwise it would've been a lot worse.  The fact I actually gave Simmons 53 points makes me feel like a total idiot.
Eastern over Emmanuel 55-52.  A great win for the Warriors over a perennial NCAA tournament team!  Jill Ritrosky & Brianna Leonard had a combined 30 rebounds with Jordyn Nappi pouring in 15 points to lead the way on the scoring sheet for Eastern.
Amherst over Keene 67-52.  Christan Wojtas had a game high 18 on 7-10 shooting for the Owls.  Marley Giddons paced the way for Amherst with 14 who placed 3 in double figures, but the Owls held star Meghan Robertson to only 6 points on 1-8 shooting from the floor.

10-10 LEC; 15-5 me

Wednesday schedule:
Mount St. Mary @ Western 7

Mount St. Mary 44 @ Western 67.
Western won the Richard Stockton tournament beating Farmingdale & host Stockton; MSM went 0-2 in the Eastern tournament getting run over by Hartwick and losing to Johnson & Wales.  In 2 games, MSM has averaged 48 ppg, 25.5 turnovers per game, the opponent has 55 more shots from the field then MSM does (mainly because they turn the ball over so much), and the opponent has shot 36 three pointers against this MSM zone.  The only reason the game against J&W was close (MSM lost by 12) was because J&W only hit 1 of their 19 3 pointers they attempted.  As I said the other day, this 3 point shooting team of Western is the absolute worst team you can possibly play a zone against as they'll eat you alive from the behind the arc.  if they are hot from downtown like Hartwick was, and pressure MSM in the backcourt to create easy turnovers like Hartwick did, this will get very ugly, much like the Hartwick game did.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 20, 2013, 12:51:45 AM
4-2 on the predictions so far.  Missed ECSU vs. Emmanuel and UMass-Dartmouth vs. Worcester State.

Wednesday prediction:
Western Connecticut 74, Mount St. Mary 45
Really rough start to the season for Mount St. Mary.  They were dismantled by Hartwick 94-50 and lost to Johnson & Wales 58-46, both at the Eastern Connecticut Tip-Off Tournament.  That would be the same Johnson & Wales team that managed to lose to Albany Pharmacy...yes, Albany Pharmacy...51-37 tonight.  I think Western Connecticut wins easily.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 20, 2013, 08:40:39 PM
Western blows out Mount St. Mary 63-39.  Lowest scoring output of the season so far for Mount St. Mary as their rough start continues.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 20, 2013, 08:41:40 PM
Quote from: AllStar on November 20, 2013, 08:40:39 PM
Western blows out Mount St. Mary 63-39.  Lowest scoring output of the season so far for Mount St. Mary as their rough start continues.

How many 3 pointers and turnovers forced did Western have??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 20, 2013, 09:10:02 PM
Quote from: 7express on November 20, 2013, 08:41:40 PM
Quote from: AllStar on November 20, 2013, 08:40:39 PM
Western blows out Mount St. Mary 63-39.  Lowest scoring output of the season so far for Mount St. Mary as their rough start continues.

How many 3 pointers and turnovers forced did Western have??

Correction on that score - it was 60-39.  I could not find any Live Stats or Video to follow, but the Box Score is up.  Mount St. Mary had 22 turnovers.  Western was just 8-33 shooting threes and shot 35% overall.  They had 18 turnovers.  Looking at the box score it appears the game was never in doubt.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 20, 2013, 10:52:20 PM
Wednesday result:

Western over MSM 60-39.  MSM had 22 turnovers, but the Colonials only had 14 points off those turnovers.  Western attempted 33 three pointers, so that leaves a ridiculous 69 three's the opponents have attempted against MSM this year, but Western only connected on 8 of those.  Western only had 13 more field goals then MSM did, but they also turned the ball over 18 times themselves.  Natlie Canderelli lead MSM with 10 points while Rachel Parrone pulled down 9 rebounds and scored 9 points.  Colleen Kasker lead Western with 12 points.  Caroline Brasa had only 3 points on 1-11 shooting (1-9 from 3), but did pull down 8 rebounds.

11-10 LEC, 16-5 me

Thursday schedule:
Eastern @ Trinity 7:00
RIC @ Emmanuel 7:00

Eastern 65 @ Trinity 57.  I don't know why they don't play more often, as this is the first meeting in more than 12 years as I can't find any archives dating back to pre 2000 and they haven't played in that time frame, while Trinity plays Western almost every year.  Eastern is 2-1 beating Johnson & Wales & Emmanuel while losing to Hartwick.  Trinity is 1-1beating RPI and losing to Wheaton.  This is the first of 3 straight games Trinity plays against LEC teams as they play Western on Saturday and than Keene on Tuesday.
RIC 57 @ Emmanuel 67.  Emmanuel has won 3 straight in this series, and blew them out last season in Providence 60-35.  Even though the team has more experience from last year's game, I don't know how they can pick up 25 extra points on the road when this team has trouble scoring consistently.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 20, 2013, 11:10:44 PM
5-2 on predictions.

Thursday:
Eastern Connecticut 59, Trinity 54
This will probably be a low scoring game.  Trinity beat RPI but was handled easily by Wheaton 75-59.  Eastern is 2-1, most recently beating Emmanuel 55-52 in Willimantic.  I think Eastern pulls out a close road game.

Emmanuel 64, Rhode Island College 53
In a very small sample Emmanuel has been far better at home this season, beating both Stevenson and Ohio Wesleyan in Boston.  RIC beat Westfield but then lost to UNE at the UNE Tip-Off Tournament.  I think Emmanuel wins by pulling away late.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 21, 2013, 09:11:41 PM
Eastern beats Trinity on the road 79-71
RIC led Emmanuel 27-26 at the half but the Saints have blown them out in the second half, now leading 62-47 with 4:16 left.  Emmanuel on a 14-1 run to break open what was a close game.
Emmanuel wins 70-58.  Saints led by as many as 19 before RIC made the score closer during garbage time.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 22, 2013, 02:10:31 AM
Thursday results Eastern beats Trinity 79-71.  Jill Ristrosky had 20 for Eastern.  Even though Trinity shot 55.1% they turned it over 17 times compared to just 7 for Eastern.
Emmanuel over RIC 70-58.  Vandell Andrade and Stephanie Prusko had 33 of RICs 58 points.

12-11 LEC, 18-5 me

Friday schedule Boston @ Wesleyan 7

Boston 57 @ Wesleyan 63.
Wesleyan is 3-0 beating a bad WNEC team, a decent Plattsburgh team, and a perennial NCAA power that got hit by the graduation bug this past summer in Babson.  A very good win yes, but with the pieces Babson lost, is it still going to be as such when the season ends??  Since Babson just opened their conference season with a loss to Coast Guard, I'm going to guess that win isn't going to help Wesleyan much at years end.  Since I believe the Beacons will still be without Kirsten Morrison (and in think Saturday vs Albertus as well), Wesleyan gets the edge at home.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 22, 2013, 02:20:45 AM
7-2 on predictions

Friday:
Wesleyan 57, UMass-Boston 52
Wesleyan hasn't shot above 32% yet this season.  They have relied on their defense to get three wins, most recently a 9 point win over WNEU.  The Beacons beat a cupcake in Simmons to open their season.  I'll take Wesleyan in a defensive game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 22, 2013, 07:42:35 PM
Wesleyan leads UMass-Boston 30-12 with 4 minutes left in the 1st half.
Wesleyan ends up thwarting UMass-Boston 58-47.  Beacons made it interesting in the second half, getting it to a 5-point game before falling.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 23, 2013, 12:53:58 AM
Friday results:

Wesleyan 58-47.  Andrea Suffardini lead Boston with 11 points while Amber Wassells had a game high 13 for Wesleyan.  Boston had 25 turnovers and shot 14-25 from the free throw line.

12-12 LEC record, 19-5 me

Saturday schedule:
Keene @ USM 1:00
Salem state @ Dartmouth 1:00
Boston vs. Albertus (@ Wesleyan) 2:00
Trinity @ Western 2:00

Keene 54 @ USM 60.  Keene has played USM tough and last year in Gorham lost by 2.  However, the offensive won't be able to score enough to get them the win.
Salem 65 @ Dartmouth 76.  Salem is 2-2 getting a close win over New Jersey City and a blowout win over Anna Maria and suffering a close loss to Endicott and getting blown out by Bowdoin.  Dartmouth has suffered 2 close losses and I say they get back on track here at home.
Boston 59 vs. Albertus 65.  Albertus is 1-0 beating Becker and this is the first game in the Wesleyan tournament as they will conclude the tournament playing the host Cardinals Sunday afternoon, while this is Boston's second and final game of the tournament.  AMC finished last season 20-8 and lost to Castleton in the first round of the ECAC tournament.
Trinity 52 @ Western 65.  The only team in the conference both men and women that are left unbeaten after both Boston teams lost last night.  Western has won 6 of the last 7 meetings between these 2 schools, but the lone loss was in Danbury during the 2008-09 season.  This is the second of 3 straight games Trinity has against LEC opponents.  They lost to Eastern Thursday and play Keene on Tuesday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 23, 2013, 03:09:37 AM
8-2 with the predictions.

Saturday:
Southern Maine 63, Keene State 54
I think this game will be closer some people might think, but the Huskies will take advantage of their home court.  The Owls nearly beat USM last year in Gorham before falling 58-56.

UMass-Dartmouth 70, Salem State 58
I think the Corsairs win fairly easily at home despite losing their last 2 games.

UMass-Boston 63, Albertus Magnus 59
The Falcons beat winless Becker in their only previous game.  The Beacons fell behind 30-12 vs. Wesleyan before rallying to make the game interesting in the second half.  I'll take the Beacons in a close game here.

Western Connecticut 73, Trinity 64
Defense doesn't seem to be Trinity's strong point.  They've given up 68 or more points in every game, including 79 in a 79-71 home loss to Eastern Connecticut in their last game.  I think Western wins.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 23, 2013, 03:12:17 PM
Keene wins at Southern Maine 68-64 in OT.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 23, 2013, 10:29:30 PM
Sat results:

Keene in overtime over USM 68-64.  An offensively challenged team beating them in Maine??  Could end up being the biggest surprise of the season.  Amanda Petrow, Stephanie D'Annolfo and Christan Wojtas each had 13 for Keene, Mariah Callender was 1 of 4 Huskies in double figures.  After leading by as much as 19 in the second half, Keene had to hang on as USM outscored them 16-4 the last 7:30 of regulation to force OT, which included 2 free throws by Callender to force the OT period.  Keene never trailed in the overtime period.
Dartmouth survives Salem 71-68.  Nice to see Kelsey Garrity back.  Ginny Fleming lead Salem with a game high 23 and Ashley White also had 22.  Fort Dartmouth Garrity had a nice all around game: 15 points, 7 assists, 3 steals, and 6 rebounds.  Erika Bornemann had 10 points but 11 rebounds.  Dartmouth outscored Salem 17-8 the last 6 minutes of the game to sneak outta there with the win.
Boston in overtime over Albertus 84-80.  Lauren Perra had 18 to lead the way for the Beacons, while Lianne Carrero had a game high 33 to AMC.  Lindsay Karle hit a jumper with 32 seconds to go to tie the game at 69 after Boston had lead 65-52 at the 6:49 mark.  Andrea Suffardini missed 2 free throws with 10 seconds left that would've given the Beacons the win in regulation.  Boston never trailed in overtime and lead by as  many as 6.
Western 68-60 in overtime over Trinity.  Christina Raiti had 14 for Trinity while Colleen Cosker had 16 to lead Western.  Western won this game at the free throw line, outscoring Trinity 25-5 there and outshooting them 31-6 from the line overall.  Caroline Brasa hit 4 free throws the final 61 seconds of the game to force overtime.

15-12 LEC record, 21-7 me

Next games Tuesday:
RIC @ Bridgewater 5:30
Western @ Conn College 5:30
Castleton @ Plymouth 5:30
Bates @ USM 5:30
Keene @ Trinity 5:30
Eastern @ Williams 5:30
Boston @ Fitchburg state 7:00
Salve @ Dartmouth.
Eastern/Williams, RIC/Bridgewater look to be the best of the day.



Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 23, 2013, 11:19:04 PM
11-3 on the predictions so far.

Interestingly Keene State never trailed at all in Maine, jumping out to leads of 9-0 and 26-6.  If they could make a few free throws the game would have never gone to overtime and Southern Maine would not have come back.  Same thing with the men's team too...they'd have wins if they even made some free throws.

Also, 3 overtime games in the conference today.  Interesting.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 25, 2013, 04:43:35 PM
Tuesday predictions:

RIC 53 @ Bridgewater 64.
Last year in Providence Bridgewater won by 9.  This is the second of 2 straight games Bridgewater plays against LEC competition as they play Dartmouth Sunday, and also play Boston & keene later on in the season.  Bridgewater has 4/5 starters back from last year.  Megan Boutilette averaged 11.4 ppg in 5 games against LEC opponents last season. 
Western 67 @ Conn College 59.
Western has lost 2 of the last 3 times they have visted New London, but Western has a 3 game winning streak in the series, outscoring the Camels 191-148.  Conn College is 2-2 on the season, losing to Swathmore & Roger Williams while defeating St. Joseph's & cabrini.  Last year Western won 54-39, but only return 25 points from last year's game.
Castleton 86 @ Plymouth 49.
Last year Plymouth rolled them 82-48, and I'd expect this year to be about the same.  Castleton coming off their first loss to a team not named Colby-Sawyer since March 2 of 2012 with a 7 point loss to Williams last time out, and I expect them to get right back on the winning track.
Bates 56 @ USM 69.
USM won 68-54 last year.  Each team played @ Farmington; USM won by 29, Bates won by 24.  USM has played the better schedule playing UNE & Salve, so they should pull away in the second half at home.
Keene 65 @ Trinity 63.
This is Trinity's 3rd and final game against the LEC this year, and they are 0-3 suffering close losses to eastern & Western.  Keene is playing well on this road trip playing Amherst well in a 15 point loss & winning at USM.  I say they get the win on the road again.
Eastern 49 @ Williams 68.
A tough task ahead for the Warriors.  Williams made it all the way to the final 4 last season, losing to national champ and undefeated DePauw by 3 before defeating rival Amherst in the useless consolation game to conclude their season, and so far this season have already beaten 2 NCAA teams from last year (Babson & Bridgewater) a third that was probably one of the first few teams out (Castleton) and a good team out of the SUYNAC (Plattsburgh).  All 4 should be in the running for tourney bids this year.  So should Eastern, but it's gonna be too much for those freshmen & sophmores to go into Williamstown and expect to win.
Boston 68 @ Fitchburg 60.
Last year they played twice with Boston winning twice, once in Fitchburg 70-67 and then the other in Florida 76-39.  Now that the volleyball season is over, Kirsten Morrison should be back with the basketball team, but with little practice who knows how effective she'll be the rest of the first semester.  Fitchburg is 2-1 beating Colby-Sawyer and Middlebury and losing in overtime to Nichols.
Salve 67 @ Dartmouth 72.
Last year Dartmouth won by 13 in Rhode island.  In last year's meeting Erika Bornermann grabbed 13 rebounds and poured in 11 points while Kelsey Garrity had 11 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals.  After opening up with a loss to USM, Salve has won 2 straight against Fisher & Westfield. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 26, 2013, 01:24:36 AM
Tuesday:
Bridgewater State 66, Rhode Island College 55
RIC is 1-2 and has scored less than 60 points in both their losses.  In their win vs. Westfield State they scored 73.  I don't think they will score enough to beat Bridgewater, particularly on the road.

Western Connecticut 64, Connecticut College 58
This has the makings of a close game.  The Camels have a 2-2 record and have been in every game.  Their two losses (at Swarthmore and at Roger Williams) were by a combined 5 points.  Western has had close games with NESCAC foe Trinity and Richard Stockton and blew out Farmingdale State and Mount St. Mary.  I think Western wins a close game on the road.

Castleton State 78, Plymouth State 45
Even at Plymouth, I would be very surprised if this game was close.

Southern Maine 68, Bates 54
Bates is 3-2.  They beat 3 bad teams (Simmons, Husson, Maine-Farmington) and lost to 2 good/better ones (Mount Holyoke and Bowdoin).  I think Southern Maine will break it open in the second half and win by double digits.

Keene State 68, Trinity 65
The Owls would have had an easier time beating Southern Maine by making free throws last Saturday.  They were able to hold on, and I'll say they win another close game here on the road.  Trinity has given up 68 or more points in every game they've played.

Williams 64, Eastern Connecticut 51
Warriors, besides a blowout loss to Hartwick, have otherwise gotten off to a good start.  I don't think they beat Williams on the road, though, but it may be close for a while.

UMass-Boston 65, Fitchburg State 57
Hard to get much of a read on this game.  The Falcons are 2-1, beating Colby-Sawyer by 13 and Middlebury by 5.  Their most recent game was a high-scoring 86-84 loss at Nichols.  UMass-Boston beat Albertus Magnus 84-80 in their own high-scoring game, although it was in overtime.  The Beacons had their way with Fitchburg last season.

UMass-Dartmouth 68, Salve Regina 59
Salve was blown out by Southern Maine, and otherwise has wins over NAIA Fisher and Westfield by 4.  I think UMass-Dartmouth is better than either of those teams and beats Salve at home.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 27, 2013, 01:13:22 AM
Tuesday results:

RIC gets a road win @ Bridgewater 74-61.  All 5 RIC starters scored in double figures lead by Cara Paladino's 16.  Megan Boutilette had a game high 17 for Bridgewater.  Btw, nice move by Kara Williamson to move Paladino from the bench to the starting lineup.  I know you want a scorer off the bench to lead the 2nd team, but she wasn't cutting it in a bench role as she only averaged 4.7 points and 3.7 turnovers in a reserve role.  She still had 4 turnovers, but she had 16 points.  Much more comfortable in a starting role.  Leave her there!
Conn College over Western 66-50.  Tara Gabelman had 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead 1 of 4 Camel players in double figures.  Western had 0 players in double figures and finished with more turnovers (20) than made field goals (15).  After a back and forth first half which saw neither team lead by more than 4 the first 13 minutes of the game, Conn College finished the first half on a 17-0 run to take a 13 point lead at halftime and lead by as much as 26 (64-38) in the second half.
Castleton over Plymouth 64-32.  Liz Douglass had 12 points and Heather Murdough 10 points and 11 rebounds for Castleton.  Rosalie Edmonds continues to be one of the lone bright spots for the Panthers, who shot 22.9% from the field and 0% from 3, however Edmonds did have 5 of their 11 made field goals.  Castleton converted 23 Plymouth turnovers into 23 points.
USM gets back on track with a win over Bates 74-54.  Meredith Kelley had a game high 20 for Bates, and Erin McNamera had 15 points and 5 assists for the Huskies.  Nice to see Rebecca Knight make an appearance this year: 15 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists after being mostly invisible through the teams first 4 games.
Trinity completes the LEC trifecta losing to Keene 60-55.  I bet Trinity is happy they won't have to face another LEC opponent this year, or at least not scheduled to face another one anyways as they went 0-3 against Eastern, Western and Trinity.  All 3 were relatively close, but unfortunately being close only counts in grenades and horseshoes.  Moriah Sweeney lead the Bantams with 15 points, while Christan Wojtas lead Keene with 17.  Stephanie D'Annolfo just missed a triple double!!  with 10 rebounds, 8 assists and 8 points.
Williams over Eastern 68-47.  Ellen Cook had 16 points for the Ephs, while Katie Litman had 12 points and 12 rebounds off the bench for Williams.  Kristina Forsman had 16 points and 8 rebounds for Eastern, but unfortunately missed 19 shots from the field, and Jill Ritosky registered a double-double with 11 points and 11 boards.  Williams outshot the Warriors from the field 49% to 23.2% for eastern, and also blocked 14 East shot attempts.
Boston beats Fitchburg for the 3rd time in the last 48 weeks 59-47.  None of those 3 wins were in Boston as last year's meetings were in Fitchburg as well and once down in Florida, and this was @ Fitchburg this year also.  Megan Wodzinski and Brittany Payne each finished with 12 for Fitchburg.  The reining rookie of the year Olivia Murphy took a ridiculous 26 shots from the field, but made 10 of those, registering 26 points in the process, and grabbing 16 rebounds for good measure.  As predicted and expected in this space, Kirsten Morrison made her Beacons debut with a quiet 2 points, 2 steals and 8 rebounds in 14 minutes off the bench.  They have 1 game remaining against Mt. Ida before they open up LEC play against Keene on December 7, but I'd expect to see Morrison in the starting lineup by then.
Dartmouth over Salve 81-75.  Meaghen Harden lead Salve with 21 points, while Erika Bornemann and Meghan Ronagan each had almost identical lines for the Corsairs.  Each player finished with 9 field goals made, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks, 0 steals, and 23 points.  The ONLY difference in each's linescore (besides turnovers), was Ronaghan attempted 13 shots while Bornemann attempted 19 and Ronaghan ahd 5 assists while Bornemann only had 1.  Congrats to Erika Bornemann who went over the 1,000 point plateau in this game as well.  Kelsey Garrity had 12 points, and 5 assits as well.

20-15 LEC, 27-9 me.

Next games Sunday:

RIC @ Roger Williams 4 PM
USM @ St. Joseph's (ME) 5:30 PM
Dartmouth @ Bridgewater 6 PM.

Hope everyone has a good, happy, and safe Thanksgiving holiday!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 30, 2013, 09:25:57 PM
Sunday schedule:

RIC 58 @ Roger Williams 67.
RWU is 4-1 with some good wins on the year: Brandeis, Colby, and Smith.  None of those teams have great records, but all 3 will probably be in play for NCAA bids at the end of the season.  Smith might be the favorite in the NEWMAC even though they just lost to Babson.  Brandeis could compete In the UAA since Rochester seems to be a bit down.  Colby's in the tough NESCAC, but always play tough in Maine.  RWU's lone loss is to 4-1 Suffolk.  RIC won by 31 last year, I have a feeling it's a tad closer this year.
USM 73 @ St. Joseph's (ME) 65.
SJME is 4-1 with wins against St. John Fisher, Elms, Maine-Maritime, and Maine-Farmington.  They are actually 4-0 in road/neutral games and 0-1 in home contests.  USM won by 15 last year.  Think it's probably a little closer, but think USM pulls it off.
Dartmouth 73 @ Bridgewater 69.
In 2 wins Bridgewater is outscoring teams 167-88.  In 2 losses the Bears are getting outscored 152-125.  The Corsairs offense is more in line with RIC and Williams offense, 2 teams Bridgewater lost too, then Hunter or Johnson State's offense, Bridgewater's 2 blowout victories.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 02, 2013, 01:44:28 AM
Saturday results:

Roger Williams over Bridgewater 80-71.  Vandell Andrade lead RIC with 23 points and 11 rebounds, and Danielle Leblanc also chipped in 17 points while Cara Paladino had 14 points and 8 rebounds.  Kaitlyn Bovee had a game high 26 for RWU and Angelica Ariola also had 16.  Shannon Cullen had 16 points, and 7 rebounds on 7-7 shooting in 22 minutes off the bench for RWU.
USM over SJME 60-49.  Lindsey Moore was 1 of 3 SJME players in double figures with 13.  Mariah Callender and Megan Pellitier each had 14 to lead the way for USM.  Eric McNamera and Rebecca Knight finished with a combined 15 points on 5-24 shooting.
Bridgewater over Dartmouth 99-86.  Kelsey Garrity was 1 of 5 Corsairs in double figures with a team high 20 points, and also added 8 assists and 5 rebounds.  Megan Ronaghan (18 points), Ashley Brown (10), Brianna Hochwarter (12) and Marisa McCabe (16) also placed in double figures.  Megan Boutilette lead Bridgewater with 26 points and 16 rebounds.  Last year it was Michaela Crosby that owned the LEC, this year it looks she's passed that torch onto Boutilette.  In 2 games vs. LEC opposistion (RIC & Dartmouth), she is averaging 21.5 ppg and 12.5 rebounds per game.  Bridgewater still has 2 games left this year against LEC teams: January 1 vs. Keene and January 16 vs. Boston so we'll see if Boutilette can keep up those numbers.  Erica Bornemann didn't play for Dartmouth.  I have to think Dartmouth probably wins if she plays.

21-17 LEC; 29-10 me

Tuesday schedule:
Westfield @ Eastern 5:30
Plymouth @ Colby-Sawyer 5:30
Bowdoin @ USM 5:30
Mount Ida @ Boston 5:30
RPI @ Keene 6:00
Western @ New Paltz 7:00
Dartmouth @ Brandeis 7:30
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 02, 2013, 06:00:35 PM
Tuesday schedule:

Westfield 66 @ Eastern 68.
Eastern has lost to the 2 teams they were expected to lose to: Hartwick & Williams.  Westfield has lost to the only 2 good team they've faced; 5 points to RIC and 4 to Salve.  Eastern gets the edge at home.  Eastern won 72-66 at Westfield last season.
Plymouth 54 @ Colby-Sawyer 68.
Both teams are 0-4 so someone has to win right??  Colby-Sawyer is averging 46.3 ppg and giving up an average of 68.3 ppg.  The Panthers are averaging 40.3 ppg and giving up an average of 62.5 ppg.  The Panthers opponents have a combined record of 12-5, while the Chargers opponents have a combined record of 13-5.  They last played November 29 of 2011 with Colby-Sawyer coming away with a 77-65 win.
Bowdoin 67 @ USM 62.
Bowdoin is 5-0 on the year and are in the middle of their Maine gauntlet.  They defeated UNE 64-59 last week, and play their NESCAC rivals Colby on Saturday.  USM won by 14 @ Bowdoin last season.
Mt. Ida 33 @ Boston 67.
Mt. Ida has 2 wins: 1 over 0-5 Newbury and the other over 1-4 Wheelock.  Boston won 72-55 last year and shouldn't have much of a problem.
RPI 65 @ Keene 70.
This is Keene's first home game since a loss to Endicott on November 16.  RPI is 2-4 and have a few common opponents.  Each team played Trinity: RPI lost by 13 on a neutral court, Keene won by 5 @ Trinity.  Each team also played @ Amherst; Keene lost by 15, RPI lost by 23.  RPI won by 15 in Troy last year.  Keene at home gets the win.
Western 65 @ New Paltz 54.
This year hasn't been kind to New Paltz.  After winning their first 15 games of last season en route to a 24-4 season, New Paltz has struggled out of the gate so far in 2013 with a 1-4 record.  They lost their first 4 before salvaging a win over their Hudson river rivals Mount St. Mary last time out.  Western handed New Paltz one of their 4 losses, a 49-44 defeat in Danbury last season.
Dartmouth 76 @ Brandeis 82.
Brandeis is 2-3, but all of their losses are to teams at or above .500, and have played a pretty tough schedule with losses to Colby, Roger Williams and Emmanuel.  Dartmouth has had some injury trouble; first Kelsey Garrity had a knee injury, now I think Bornemann is out with an illness.  I'm not sure if they can keep up without her.  Dartmouth won 50-49 last year when Colleen Moriarty hit a jumper with 5 seconds left, then blocked Brandeis potential winner at the other end.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 02, 2013, 11:48:06 PM
Tuesday predictions:
Eastern Connecticut 69, Westfield State 59
I think Eastern wins by pulling away late at home.  Westfield is 2-2, but their two wins are against Mount Ida and Daniel Webster.

Colby-Sawyer 61, Plymouth State 49
Neither team has a win.  Neither team has even come within double digits against anybody, but Colby-Sawyer has played better competition.  Colby-Sawyer at home I'll say wins...maybe even by double digits.

Bowdoin 63, Southern Maine 62
Interesting game here.  Bowdoin is 5-0, USM is 4-2.  Bowdoin beat UNE at home by 5, USM lost at UNE by 4.  I'm tempted to pick USM at home, but have decided to take Bowdoin in a very close game that I think could go either way.

UMass-Boston 73, Mount Ida 39
This game should not be close.

Keene State 74, RPI 65
Owls have seemingly picked up some momentum with back-to-back road wins at Southern Maine and Trinity.  RPI is 2-4, and besides the game against dreadful Lesley has given up at least 75 points in every game.  Their most recent game was an 83-76 defeat at Sage.  RPI lost to Trinity for the Bantams' only win of the season so far.

Western Connecticut 60, New Paltz 47
New Paltz has one win, against a team in Mount St. Mary that has 0 wins and has struggled mightily.  Western wins even on the road.

Brandeis 73, UMass-Dartmouth 66
With apparent injury issues, I think that hurts UMass-Dartmouth.  They gave up 99 points in their last game.  I don't think they give up that many points this time, but I don't think they win this game either if the injury issues remain.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 03, 2013, 09:35:58 PM
In looking at the box score of what seemed to be a very, very ugly game, Western loses at New Paltz 46-43.  Teams combined to make 1 of 35 threes.  Western made 0 and had 33 turnovers.

Keene State drubs RPI 81-53.  Game was never really close, Keene was far better and shot 46% overall.  Keene outrebounded RPI 55-28.  Owls had 24 assists on 37 baskets.  Keene has won three games in a row to get to 4-2.

Eastern Connecticut beat Westfield 53-46.  Danyelle Rodriguez saved Eastern by hitting two threes late to help the Warriors rally back from a 46-40 deficit with a 13-0 game ending run.  Westfield's last points were scored with 2:52 left.

Olivia Murphy's 33 points helped UMass-Boston beat Mount Ida 79-41.  Mount Ida shot 29% and was 0-7 from three.  No surprise in this result.

UMass-Dartmouth beat Brandeis on the road 71-60 despite injury problems.  The Corsairs raced out to a 25-9 advantage and never trailed in the game after that.  In fact, Brandeis never got closer than 6 points.

Plymouth nearly ended their 27 game losing streak, but their rally fell short in a 53-48 loss to Colby-Sawyer.  The Panthers had their shot but could do nothing after getting within 51-48 with a couple minutes left.

Southern Maine lost another close home game, 62-56 to Bowdoin.  They never could get over the hump and take the lead in the second half as Bowdoin answered every Southern Maine threat.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 04, 2013, 12:39:34 AM
Tuesday results:

Eastern over Westfield 53-46.  Keri Doldoorian lead the Owls with 14 points.  Kristina Forsman was the only double digit scorer for Eastern with 12.  Jill Ritrosky had 12 rebounds and 9 points, and Danyelle Rodriguez also had 9 points, all on 3 pointers.  In fact, every single field goal she attempted (10) was a 3 as she went 3-10 from the floor and 3-10 from 3.
Colby-Sawyer survives Plymouth 53-48.  Kelsey Bragdon lead the Chargers with 11 points and Mari Meserve had 10 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.  Krystin Corliss finally showed up this year for Plymouth: 10 points and 10 rebounds, both team highs.  Plymouth had a valiant second half effort, but for them 32-17 down at halftime is too much to overcome.
Bowdoin over their state rivals USM 62-56.  Kirsten Prue had a game high 16 points for the Polar Bears.  Erin McNamera and Rebecca Knight each had 12 for USM who drop their second game of the season at Hill Gymnasium and it's only December 3.
Boston crushed Mount Ida 79-41.  Angelique Martinez and Abbey Ferdigan each had 10 for Mt. ida.  Olivia Murphy had 33 points and 12 rebounds, but she shot the ball 22 times (next highest shot total on the team was Andrea Suffredeni who shot only 6 times).  Kirsten Morrison had 8 points and 6 rebounds off the bench once again. 
Keene over RPI  81-53.  Ashley Clough had a game high 20 for RPI.  Christian Wojtas "only" had 13 to lead Keene, but nobody played more than 24 minutes for the Owls.  Nice conference matchup between them & Boston in Keene Saturday.  Who would've figured at the beginning of the season, that would be the best game of the day when you had Eastern/RIC and Western/USM that day as well.  Keene & Boston are playing the best in the conference as of now, should be a fun one to watch Saturday afternoon.
New Paltz over Western 46-43.  Yuck! is all I'll say.  A combined 1-35 from 3; 26-44 from the free throw line, and 54 combined turnovers (33 of them belonging to Western).  Goldie Harrison had a game high 17 for New Paltz.  Nobody scored in double figures for Western as Kerri Stolle and Caroline Brasa each had 9.  Sciarra Brandt pulled down 13 rebounds.  Need to get back on track in Maine Saturday as both teams are hurting, and Maine already has a conference loss at home to boot.
Dartmouth with a road win over Brandeis 71-60.  Janelle Rodriguez had a team high 13 for Brandeis, and Nicolina Vitale had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Judges.  Kelsey Garrity had 21 points to lead the Corsairs while Ashley Brown chipped in 14 and Megan Ronaghan 15 to pace the Corsairs.  I think Erika Bornemann came down with mono, so she could be sidelined for an indefinite period of time.  If she indeed does have mono I don't think we'll see her in action again the first semester.

25-20 LEC; 34-12 me 

Wednesday schedule:
RIC @ Conn College 7 PM

RIC 58 @ Conn College 63.
1 common opponent so far.  Both played @ Roger Williams.  Camels lost by 2; RIC lost by 9.   In between their victory over Western and this game, the Camels pasted their New London rivals Mitchell 81-36.  The Camels are 1 of the better underrated defensive teams out of the NESCAC (everything thinks Amherst or Tufts), but in actuality the Camels are only averaging 54.3 ppg this game.  That number will likely skyrocket once they get into full NESCAC play however.  RIC won by 13 in Providence last year and held the Camels to 46 points.  Think the number for RIC is 58; hold Conn College below that, RIC wins.  if the Camels break 58 they'll win.  I guess we'll find out.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 04, 2013, 10:04:45 PM
Wednesday result:

RIC over Conn College 59-53.  Tara Gabelman lead the Camels with 15 points.  Cara Paladino had 21 points and 14 rebounds for RIC. I said the number for RIC was 58: hold the Camels below that they'll win.  Well, the held the Camels below that....and they won.  Too bad I didn't on the pick.

26-20 LEC; 34-13 me

Thursday schedule:
Amherst @ Eastern 7:00

Amherst 65 @ Eastern 48.
Eastern has scored over 60 points only twice all season, and they're going to have to put up some points in order to beat the Lord Jeffs.  Eastern lost by only 10 @ Amherst last year and the Amherst team might've been slightly better.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 05, 2013, 10:16:16 PM
Thursday result:
Amherst over Eastern 58-44.  Danyelle Rodriguez had 14 points off the bench for Eastern.  Jaime Renner had 18 points, and Megan Robertson had 19 points and 16 rebounds both team highs for Amherst.

26-21 LEC; 35-13 me.

Saturday schedule sees the opening of conference play for most teams.  Remember USM & Keene have already gotten a leg up on the competition, so they each will be playing their second game while everyone else plays conference game #1.  These games count!
Western @ USM 1 PM
Keene @ Boston 1 PM
Dartmouth @ Plymouth 1 PM
RIC @ Eastern 2 PM.
My supurlatives: Best game: Keene @ Boston
Worst game: Dartmouth @ Plymouth
Most important game: Western @ USM.  As usual, I'll have predictions sometime Friday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on December 06, 2013, 04:39:34 PM
7Express...thanks for covering my back wrt to the ESCU game last night.  The Warriors has talent but lack size...size with experience, IMO.  Good road win for a very young Amherst team with a key front court player yet to play a game this season.  Hope S. Holiness returns to the court before the Las Vegas trip.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 06, 2013, 07:18:49 PM
Saturday predictions:

Western 55 @ USM 62.
A very important game.  Western, after starting the season, 4-0 have lost 2 straight not breaking 50 points in the process.  USM has already lost 2 games at home in Hill Gymnasium including the conference opener to Keene last month and really cannot afford to drop to 0-2 in the conference with those first 2 coming at home.  The teams split the season series last year with the home team winning both meetings: USM won in Maine 60-55 and the Colonials knocked off the previously unbeaten Huskies in Danbury 68-55.  Western has lost 3 straight to the Huskies in Gorham, and when you include tournament action as well they have 4 straight losses in that building.  They also have 5 straight losses in the state of Maine, dating back to a 2010 second round NCAA tournament loss @ Bowdoin to the Polar Bears, including that semifinal loss to Dartmouth last season @ USM.
Keene 62 @ Boston 60.
Game I'm most looking forward to watching, and the game I'm probably going to kick myself the most for at the end of the day Saturday when Boston wins by 40.  Really been impressed by what Keene has done so far this year with a pretty challenging schedule having their record at 4-2 at this point including 1-0 in the conference winning @ USM.  Boston is good as well and you know I drive the Beacons bandwagon, but they haven't really been tested this year as the only good team they've played to this point (Wesleyan) they lost.  However, home court brings this back to a coin flip, which came back Keene.  Boston swept them last year winning by 10 in Keene and 21in Boston.
Dartmouth 76 @ Plymouth 38.
Looks like Dartmouth will have their full compliment of players back as Erika Bornemann got cleared to play.  Whether she will or not who knows, but they could sit her, Kelsey Garrity, Megan Ronaghan, and Ashley Brown and they'd probably still win by a pretty comfortable margin.  Dartmouth swept them last year winning by at least 20 both times.
RIC 58 @ Eastern 59.
Another coin flip game, this one coming back the home teams way.  Tough to get a read on these 2 as each have played good schedules with each losing to teams you'd expect them to, and beating teams you'd expect them too.  RIC went 2-1 last season: splitting the regular season meetings (each team won at home: RIC by 15, Eastern by 2) and RIC won the rubber match in the quarterfinals in Willimantic by a 66-54 score.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 07, 2013, 01:40:41 PM
Sat results:
Boston leads Keene 22-19 5:42.  Keene had an early 11-4 lead via a 9-0 run, but that's been the largest lead for any team so far in this back and forth affair.  Christan Wojtas has 8 points to lead Keene, Olivia Murphy with 9 to lead Boston.
Keene leads Boston at halftime 31-30.  Wojtas has 11 for the Owls, Murphy has a game high 13 for the Beacons on 5-10 shooting.
Boston up 52-46 4:07 left.  Wojtas is stuck on 11 points.  Murphy now has 22 (and 17 shots to boot) and Kirsten Morrison in double figures with 10.
Boston looks to be on their way, up 65-54 with only about 13 seconds remaining.
Final: Boston 66-56.  Eastern/RIC lone game remaining. 
Western getting run over, losing 20-5 to USM 5:57.  Western shooting a dismal 2-14 and already with 9 turnovers.  Caroline Brasa and Alyssa Eannoti each have 2 points, Rebecca Knight with 8 points on 3-5 shooting.
USM 27-10 51.2 left.
USM leads 27-12 at halftime.  A brief 5-0 spurt by the Colonials to turn a 20 point deficit into a 15 point deficit at halftime, but still have plenty of digging left to do.
USM absolutely demolishing Western 61-26.  Western shooting 9-51 for 18% and have 19 turnovers.  Thank God I had didn't go up there for this monstrosity.  Rebecca Knight & Erin McNamera have more combined points (30) then Western does as a team (27).
Final: USM 67-31.
Plymouth Dartmouth tied at 27 2:32, for the most suprizing result of the afternoon: The Panthers already have 10 field goals, and they only average around 14 made per game.  Krystin Corliss has 8 for Plymouth; Kelsey Garrity & Erika Bornemann each have 6 for the Corsairs.
Plymouth leads Dartmouth 32-27 at halftime.  Plymouth with 5 more made field goals then Dartmouth.  Plymouth already with 12 shots from the field, and they only average 14.4 made field goals per game.
Dartmouth up 51-48.  15-3 run for the Corsairs over the last 7:17 to turn a 9 point deficit into a 3 point lead.  31 seconds left in that tilt.
Final: Dartmouth 52-48.
RIC and Eastern tip at 2.  No idea why they start an hour later then the rest. 
RIC at halftime 32-27.  Jill Ristrosky has a game high 11 for the Warriors, Steph Prusko with 9 for the Anchorwomen.  RIC had a big of a lead as 12 in the first, but a 7-0 Warriors run to end the first trimmed it to only 5 and made it a game again.
RIC Eastern just started the second half.
RIC up 44-43 8:10 remaining.  Jill Ritrosky with 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Warriors; Steph Prusko with 11 for RIC. 
RIC 56-55 1:10 left.
RIC 59-57 18 seconds left, but Eastern has the ball with the shot clock off, so they can play for overtime or the win with a Kristina Forsman, or Danyelle Rodriguez 3, their 2 sharp=shooters.
59-59 6 seconds left.  Jordyn Nappi jumper ties the game.  RIC has 6 seconds to go coast to coast to win, otherwise, we head to overtime.
59-59 regulation.  And on we go to overtime.  RIC couldn't get anything going as Prusko takes too much time in the back court and air balls a 3 from the left wing.
Final in overtime 69-67 Eastern.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 07, 2013, 02:47:26 PM
Sat Results:

USM runs over Western 67-31.  Western finished a dismal 18% from the floor and 1-20 from 3 point range.  After finishing 0-16 from 3 vs. New Paltz, they are 1-36 (2.8%) from 3 over the last 2 games.  As it is with this team when they make 3's they can beat anyone, when they can't hit them, they'll probably lose to anyone.  Erin McNamera (12 points) and Rebecca Knight (18) would have outscored Western on their own, if not for a Kerri Stolle layup with 5 seconds left which pushed Western's total not only above 30, but above Knight's & McNamera's total.  Western never lead in the game, and trailed by as much as 38.  Western's 31 points is the lowest they've scored since the 38 they put up on RIC in a 66-38 loss on February 14, 2012.
Boston comeback win vs. Keene 66-56.  The Beacons outscored the Owls 36-25 in the second half after trailing 31-30 at the break.  Courtney Roberts lead the Owls with 15 points, Christan Wojtas had 14 points (though only 3 in the second half), and Kelsey Cognetta had 8 points and 9 assists for the Owls. For the Beacons, their front court former rookies of the years in Kirtsen Morrison & Olivia Murphy contributed double doubles in the win: Morrison had 12 points and 10 rebounds, her best game of the season since coming back from volleyball, and Murphy had a 27-12 line with 27 shots from the floor.  It wasn't a 40 point win, but I'm definitely kicking myself for picking the Owls.
Dartmouth survives Plymouth 52-48.  The best game the Panthers have played in over a year, but it just wasn't quite good enough.  After having a 9 point lead (45-36) at 7:48, Dartmouth outscored them 17-3 the rest of the way to sneak out the back door with a win.  Not pretty, but in conference road games you'll take them any way you get them, it's not gymnastics or synchronized swimming with style points.  Erika Bornemann had 17 points in her first game back from illness, and Megan Ronaghan had 12 points and 9 rebounds.  For Plymouth Taylor Perry (13 points) and krystin Corliss (10 points) were your double digit scorers, and Tiffany Lewis had 10 rebounds and 6 points.  Plymouth shattered their field goal average with 19 made (averaged 14.4 made field goals coming in), though after hitting 12 in the first half, they only had 7 in the second.
Eastern in overtime over RIC 69-67.  Stephanie Prusko had 14 points to lead RIC, but airballed a 3 at the end of regulation.  Jill Ritrosky & Shannon McCourt each had 15 for Eastern and Ritrosky pulled down 16 rebounds to go with her 15 points.  Jordyn Nappi chipped in 12 for Eastern, as well as the jumper which forced overtime.  Danyelle Rodriguez hit a game-winning 3 pointer with 3 seconds left.

26-21 LEC; 38-14 me

Standings:
1) Boston 5-1 (1-0)
1) Eastern 5-3 (1-0)
1) Dartmouth 5-3 (1-1)
4) Keene 4-3 (1-1)
4) USM 5-3 (1-1)
6) Western 4-3 (0-1)
6) RIC 3-4 (0-1)
6) Plymouth 0-6 (0-1)

Schedule:
Tuesday, December 10:
Salve @ RIC 5:30 PM
J&W @ Dartmouth 7 PM

Upcoming conference schedule:
Saturday, December 14:

Boston @ RIC 1 PM
Saturday, January 4:
Eastern @ Plymouth 1 PM
Thursday, January 9:
Dartmouth @ Western 5:30 PM.  That'll take each team up to 2 conference games played when LEC play resumes in full swing Saturday, January 11
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 09, 2013, 11:46:16 AM
Tuesday schedule:

Salve 65 @ RIC 69
Both teams are struggling so far in the early going, with Salve at 3-3 overall and 0-2 against LEC teams, while RIC is 3-4 overall and 0-2 against Commonwealth Coast Conference teams.  Both of RIC's games against CCC opponents were true road games, while Salve played 1 home game and 1 neutral court game vs. the LEC.  RIC's games were closer than Salve's was, plus they are at home, so I'll take them.  RIC won last year in Newport 50-39.

Johnson & Wales 43 @ Dartmouth 78
J&W is 1-5, with their only win against 0-7 Mount St. Mary.  The J&W offense is still a work in process, having averaged only 44.2 ppg this year, highest total output is 58, have been held below 40 in 3 of 6 games, and have been held to 44 or less in 4 of their 5 losses.  Dartmouth has been struggling, but they should break out.  J&W lost by 28 last year at home, and wouldn't be surprised if this year was about the same margin. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 10, 2013, 10:32:05 PM
Tuesday results:

RIC over Salve 76-53.  Brianna Del Valle had 16 points & 14 rebounds, while Meaghan Harden had 16 points to lead the Seahawks.  Balanced scoring for the Anchorwoman as Cara Paladino lead them with 20 points, but Vandell Andrade had 18 points & 10 rebounds, Steph Prusko had 17 points & Danielle Leblanc had 10 points off the bench in what I think was the first game she ever appeared off the bench in her college career.
As expected Dartmouth rolls J&W 91-50.  Savannah Kresge lead the Wildcats with 13 points off the bench and D'Ana Rolle chipped in 11.  For Dartmouth Beth Castantini lead them in scoring with 14.  Amanda Van Voorhis was able to get a lot of minutes from her club, asMeghan Ronaghan played the most minutes with only 21, everyone played at least 6 minutes, and of the 14 players that played 12 of the 14 played double digit minutes.  Not much else to see here.

28-21 LEC; 40-14 me

Thursday schedule: Salem State @ Plymouth 5:30
Boston @ Westfield State 7.  I'll be back tomorrow night with predictions after I finish my paper.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 12, 2013, 12:26:17 AM
Thursday schedule:

Salem 67 @ Plymouth 62.
Plymouth has been playing very well the last couple of games losing a close game to Colby-Sawyer, and blowing a 9 point second half lead to Dartmouth in the conference opener.  Salem is 3-5 and has lost 4 of their last 5 games.  Tufts and Emmanuel are offensive juggernauts compared to Plymouth, but Salem has given up 80+ points each of it's last 2 games and in 3 of their 5 losses this year the opponent has cracked 80 points with another (Endicott) just missing the mark finishing with 79.  They are 0-1 against the LEC losing @ Dartmouth by 3 before Thanksgiving, and this is Plymouth's 1 and only game against the MASCAC this year.  Salem won 80-56 in Salem, MA last year.

Boston 65 @ Westfield 58.
The Owls are already 0-2 against the LEC this season losing to 2 teams predicted to finish above Boston in the preseason standings, however this is the first game vs. an LEC opponent on the Owls home court.  Boston has won 4 straight after starting 1-1 and is coming off an impressive victory over Keene State in their LEC opener.  Boston won at home 55-51 last season.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 12, 2013, 09:56:39 PM
Thursday results:

Salem 57-54 over Plymouth.  I say Plymouth gets their first win Saturday.  They've been oh so close the last couple games.  Each team only had 1 double digit scorer: Taylor Perry had 21 for the Panthers while Bry Bennett had 9.  Rachel Carter had a game high 24 points and a game high 14 rebounds for the Vikings, with 16 of her 24 points coming from the free throw line. 
Boston clobbers Westfield 72-49.  I really like this team.  Olivia Murphy is definitely an MVP candidate for them.  They still turn the ball over too many times as they had about 7 trillion turnovers (they actually only got credited for 30, feels like a lot more though), but when you shoot almost 47% from the floor and hold the opponent to just over 30% and just over 10% from 3, you'll win a lot of games.  Not many teams in the conference can match the Beacons pairing of Murphy & Kirsten Morrison in the frontcourt (maybe Dartmouth??) but that's what makes them dangerous.  If they can cut down on turnovers they'd be a legit threat to win the conference and or conference tournament.  Jen Ashton lead Westfield with 14 while Gaby Felix chipped in 10 for the Owls.  The aforementioned Beacon front court duo of Morrison & Murphy just abused the smaller Owls combined for 14-25 shooting, 41 points, 3 blocks, 5 steals, 22 rebounds, and Morrison had a lot of back cuts for easy layups. 

29-22 LEC; 42-14 me

Saturday schedule:
Boston @ RIC (conference game) 1 PM
USM @ Salem State 1 PM
Lasell @ Plymouth 1 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 13, 2013, 08:14:07 PM
Sat predictions:

Boston 57 @ RIC 67.
Boston is 6-1 winning their last 5, RIC comes in at 4-4 and have alternated wins and losses their last 6 games.  Since their last game was a win, if that trend continues this would be a loss.  I sang the praises of the Beacons yesterday, but winning on the road is very, very tough and RIC has completely owned them.  This maybe the best team Boston's had ever, but clearly the best team in quite a while, but on the road when they turn the ball over, I'll take the home standing Anchorwomen.  If this was @ Boston, no doubt I'd be picking the Beacons.  Boston is 1-0 beating Keene by 10, RIC is 0-1 losing in overtime to Eastern by 2.  RIC swept them last year, winning by 18 in Providence. Both are 1-1 at the end of the day.

USM 67 @ Salem 56.
This is Salem's third and final game against the LEC this year.  They are 1-1 losing a close one to Dartmouth, and winning by 3 against Plymouth on Thursday.  Plymouth is a tough road game, but Salem didn't look very good and USM is a lot better then Plymouth is.  USM won by 22 in Gorham last year.

Lasell 58 @ Plymouth 52
Plymouth has lost 30 in a row (first 7 this year and the last 23 last season), but have been playing well lately, losing their last 3 games by a combined 12 points.  The Blazers come in 5-5, but haven't played anyone of note and average 60.5 ppg.   Lasell won 69-52 last season.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 14, 2013, 01:17:40 PM
Sat games, once again I'll update these throughout the day:

RIC leads Boston 6-4 12:09.  Defensive struggle early.  Even though the Beacons lead the lead in scoring D, I have a feeling RIC will overtake them by seasons end.  RIC can win a low scoring game, Boston can't, and so far it's shaping up to be low scoring
RIC 11-9 7:58
RIC's run off 12 in a row to go up 22-9 3:41
RIC running away 46-28 1:38 left
RIC leads 26-14 at halftime
Final: RIC wins 48-30
Lasell up 9-6 13:23
Lasell 13-6 10:10
Lasell 17-8 8:16
Lasell leads at halftime 31-25
Lasell up 60-50 1:50 left
Lasell wins by 5 64-59
No live stats for USM/Plymouth only video
USM 22-15 4:35
USM leads Salem 30-18 halftime
USM won by about 25
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 14, 2013, 03:45:22 PM
7express:

I know you drive the Beacons bandwagon but I'm not sure they are anything more than a mediocre team.  Any good team will be able to control the post players...and then you get results like today where they score 30 points.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 14, 2013, 04:53:26 PM
Quote from: AllStar on December 14, 2013, 03:45:22 PM
7express:

I know you drive the Beacons bandwagon but I'm not sure they are anything more than a mediocre team.  Any good team will be able to control the post players...and then you get results like today where they score 30 points.

That's true, I think they can make noise though.  They actually did well against Dartmouth & Eastern last year and USM isn't nearly as good this year.  Aside from those 2 or 3, everyone else is about on even footing.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 14, 2013, 08:25:08 PM
Sat results:

RIC over Boston 48-30.  Alex Moore lead RIC with 11 points, and Vandell Andrade had 10 points and 15 rebounds for the Anchorwomen.  Andrea Suffredini had 11 for Boston and Olivia Murphy had a game high 12 points and a team high 12 rebounds.  Kirsten Morrison did grab 9 rebounds, but was held to 2 points on 1-10 shooting.  If you had told me Saturday morning, RIC would score only 48 points, I would've figured Boston would've routed them.  Boston finished shooting 12-60 (20%) from the field, but if you take out Murphy's 5-11, the rest of the team was only 7-49 (14.3%).
USM over Salem 63-34.  Guess it was worse then the 25 I thought earlier.  Abby Hanson lead the Huskies with 11 points on 4-5 shooting off the bench, and also grabbed 9 boards.  Rachel Carter lead Salem with 10 points.  The Salem starters shot a combined 5-28, and finished with only 16 points.  USM won the turnover battle 19-11, and got 19 points off those 19 Vikings turnovers, while the Vikings could only convert 11 Huskies turnovers into 2 points.
Lasell over Plymouth 64-59.  Alexis Chappel was one of 3 Blazers in double figures as she lead Lasell with teams highs of 16 points and 10 rebounds.  Danielle Autencio also chipped in 11 points and 9 rebounds for Lasell.  Krystin Corliss tried to single-handidly win the game by herself for the Panthers as she scored 34 of the 59 total points on 13-25 shooting, and all 6 of the teams 3 pointers.  When you count the 6 assists she also had, Corliss had a hand in 19 of the 23 field goals the Panthers made on the afternoon.  When the seasons over, we can look back on this performance with a "WOW" factor, as Corliss either scored or assisted on over 80% of the teams total points.  I have NEVER seen that before.  I've seen players score half of a teams points, but they usually only had a handful of assists in that game.  Unfortunately, for Corliss and the Panthers, as she was hot, the rest of the team was colder than the temperature outside as the rest of the Panthers combined to shoot 10-37 for 25 points, and nobody finishing with more than 5 points.

31-23 LEC: 45-14 me

Standings:
1) Dartmouth 6-3 (1-0)
1) Eastern 5-3 (1-0)
3) Boston 6-2 (1-1)
3) USM 6-3 (1-1)
3) Keene 4-3 (1-1)
3) RIC 5-4 (1-1)
7) Western 4-3 (0-1)
7) Plymouth 0-8 (0-1)

Conference schedule:
Eastern @ Plymouth January 4, 1 PM
Dartmouth @ Western January 9, 5:30 PM.

1 more game on the slate before Christmas vacation, and that's Western @ Regis tomorrow at 6 PM

Western 52 @ Regis 58
Regis is 4-2 and have won 4 straight after starting 0-2.  However, those 4 wins come against teams that are a combined 5-28.  Western has lost 3 straight and are averaging a dismal 41.3 ppg in that 3 game losing streak.  Western is 5-48 from 3 during that stretch, and Regis is holding teams to 24.5% from behind the arc, but if you take out an 8-20 that Sage put up in the first game that percentage is down to 20.5% since that opening game.  Regis won in Danbury in January 66-61 outscoring the Colonials 29-11 the final 13:48 to steal a win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 16, 2013, 12:44:33 AM
Sunday schedule:
Regis 59-52 over Western.  Geez, this is worse than 2011-12 when we were replacing Melissa Teel, Heather Lee & Karli Spera.  What the hell happened in the offseason that lead to so many defections.  There were ONLY 3 seniors on the team last year, and out of the 11 (I think) that finished the season last year, there's only 4 that are back, and only 3 that really play at all so something had to have happened there.   Actually, I should be happy that were actually going into vacation with a 4-4 record: we've beaten two 2-4 teams, an 0-8 team, won a game by 1 and a game in overtime, so actually we could very well be 2-6 instead of 4-4.  As for the game: Emilie Marro was 1 of 4 Regis players in double figures as she lead them with 15.  Caroline Brasa, like usually, was the only one that could points on the board for the Colonials: she had 17, nobody else had more than 8.  That and turnovers (25) were the main culprits.  Lets get a second scoring option, and cut down the turnovers, heading into the new year.  These 2 (or maybe even 3) games with Boston should be fun.  Usually I always do the "first team to _____________(x points or rebounds win)" with Boston & Western this year it'll be "first team to 50 turnovers loses."  Western is averaging 24.5 turnovers per game during this 4 game slide  :o  Yuck!!  There still averaging 20.9 on the season which isn't terrible, but they were at 17.3 per game their 4 wins to start the year. 
Edit: Damn, just realized I was 1 missed Regis free throw away from nailing this game perfectly: both the winning team (had Regis), the winning margin (6 points) AND the total points (I had 58-52, final ended up being 59-52.  Damn made free throw  >:( )

31-24 LEC; 46-14

That's it for the next 2 weeks in the LEC as ALL teams are off to finish up finals, go home and enjoy the holidays with their friends & families.  Games resume on Sunday the 29th and we have: Gwynedd-Mercy vs. Eastern in Las Vegas at 5 PM and Concordia-Chicago  vs. USM at 6 PM in Scottsdale, Arizona. Damn, the Eastern men are going to Orlando and the women are going to Vegas.

Hope everyone has a good holiday!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 28, 2013, 06:19:33 PM
Sunday schedule:

Gwynedd-Mercy 52 vs. Eastern 56 (@ Las Vegas).
Not the best game in Las Vegas this weekend (that title may go to Vassar vs. Amherst this weekend).  GMC is 3-5, but has won 2 straight after suffering a 5 game losing streak.  In 4 of 5 losses, GMC has given up 80+ points, luckily for the Griffins Eastern can't score as they been held to 62 points or less in 6 of 8 games.
USM 76 vs. Concordia-Chicago 65 (@ Scottsdale, AZ).
Concordia is 0-8, but that 0-8 is deceiving.  5 of their 8 losses have been by 4 points or less, so with a couple extra bounces they could very well be 5-3 or a respectable 4-4, it's not like their 0-8 losing 7 of 8 by 17+ points.  Just looking at the stats, this could very well be the best 0-8 team in history.  Transylvania/Pacific Lutheran is the other game in Scottsdale.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 29, 2013, 11:12:07 PM
Sunday results:

Eastern over GMC 67-60.  Natasha Matthews and Lauren Smith each had 13 for GMC.  Erin Brooks was one of 4 double digit scorers for Eastern with a game high 14; Jill Ritrosky, Jordyn Nappi and Kristina Forsman each had 12 while Ritrosky had 18 rebounds and Brooks had 10.
USM cruises over Concordia 75-44.  Well, Concordia certainly looked like an 0-8 team as they shot 24.1% from the floor.  Miranda Rodgers lead Concordia with 15 points.  Erin McNamera and Stephanie Gallagher also had 15 for USM.  Taylor Flood only had 2 points, but she pulled down a career high 19 rebounds for USM.  Rebecca Knight only played 9 minutes, injury??

33-24 LEC; 48-14 me

Monday schedule:
USM vs. Transy (@ Scottsdale, AZ) TBA
Husson @ Boston 4 PM
Marywood vs. Eastern (@ Las Vegas) 7 PM

USM 72 vs. Translyvania 65.
Transy defeated Pac Lutheran 63-52. 
Transy is 8-1 and on a 7 game winning streak.  They are located in the shadow of Kentucky, about a mile down the street from UK's main campus in Lexington and historic Rupp Arena.  The men's team plays an exhibition with UK @ Rupp every season.  Transy's conference is the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) with other schools located in Kentucky, Ohio & Indiana like Defiance (Denise Bierly's alma mater), Manchester, Rose-Hulman, and Anderson among others.
Husson 54 @ Boston 76.
Boston was held to 30 points last time out.  They should cruise past 30 easily and likely in the first half.
Marywood 54 vs. Eastern 62.
Marywood is 7-2, but is on a 2 game losing streak and coming off a 25 point beatdown at the hands of Amherst Sunday night.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 31, 2013, 12:25:04 AM
Monday result:

Boston over Husson 64-49.  Ho hum game for the Beacons: Olivia Murphy 19 points & 11 boards, Kirsten Morrison 10 & 9 off the bench.  Rebecca Young had a team high 14 for Husson.
Transylvania over USM 68-56.  No Rebecca Knight for the Huskies, so she must've gotten injured against Concordia.  Erin McNamera had 16 points and Gretchen Anderson taking the spot of Knight had 13 for the Huskies.  Alex McKenzie lead Transy with 18 points and 16 rebounds. 
Eastern clobbers Marywood 83-40.  No disrespect to Eastern, but you've gotta be pretty bad to give up 80+ points to an offensively challenged team like the Warriors.  This is Eastern's highest point total since they put up 117 on Johnson State in November of 2011.  Jordyn Nappi finished shooting 10-14 for 21 points; Jill Ristroky had 19 rebounds but only had 5 points.  Brittany Mang had 21 to lead Marywood and was the ONLY Marywood starter on the scoring sheet as the Eastern starters outscored the Marywood starters 53-21.

35-25 LEC; 50-15 me.

Next game Wednesday:
Keene vs. Bridgewater (@ Key Largo, FL) 4:00 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on December 31, 2013, 02:08:27 PM
Quote from: 7express on December 31, 2013, 12:25:04 AM
Monday result:

Boston over Husson 64-49.  Ho hum game for the Beacons: Olivia Murphy 19 points & 11 boards, Kirsten Morrison 10 & 9 off the bench.  Rebecca Young had a team high 14 for Husson.
Transylvania over USM 68-56.  No Rebecca Knight for the Huskies, so she must've gotten injured against Concordia.  Erin McNamera had 16 points and Gretchen Anderson taking the spot of Knight had 13 for the Huskies.  Alex McKenzie lead Transy with 18 points and 16 rebounds. 
Eastern clobbers Marywood 83-40.  No disrespect to Eastern, but you've gotta be pretty bad to give up 80+ points to an offensively challenged team like the Warriors.  This is Eastern's highest point total since they put up 117 on Johnson State in November of 2011.  Jordyn Nappi finished shooting 10-14 for 21 points; Jill Ristroky had 19 rebounds but only had 5 points.  Brittany Mang had 21 to lead Marywood and was the ONLY Marywood starter on the scoring sheet as the Eastern starters outscored the Marywood starters 53-21.

35-25 LEC; 50-15 me.

Next game Wednesday:
Keene vs. Bridgewater (@ Key Largo, FL) 4:00 PM

7,
Excellent summary on both games as always.

Looking forward to LEC games cranking back up and the WCSU/ECSU men's game on Jan 28 at the O'Neill Center.  Looks like the Colonials are back on track 8-)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 01, 2014, 01:52:55 AM
Wednesday schedule:

Bridgewater 65 vs. Keene 62.  Really a tossup.  Bridgewater is more expierenced, so they get the coin flip edge.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 01, 2014, 06:33:55 PM
Keene beats Bridgewater.  All I know right now.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 01, 2014, 11:08:03 PM
Keene beats Bridgewater 67-64.  Still no box score.  It appears they will play Austin College tomorrow at 5:00 pm.  Austin defeated Emmanuel 55-54 in the second game.  Emmanuel and Bridgewater will play in the consolation game at 3:00 pm.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 01, 2014, 11:12:51 PM
Wednesday results:

Keene over Bridgewater 67-64.  No boxscore

36-25 LEC; 50-16 me.

Thursday:
Boston @ Salve 1 PM
Keene vs. Austin (@ Key Largo, FL) 5 PM.

Boston 67 @ Salve 60.
Could be competitive for a while, but I'm still driving the Beacons bandwagon.
Keene 62 vs. Austin 59.
Literally have no idea.  Austin is located in Sherman, TX, where that is I have no idea, and play in the SCAC.  They bring a 4-4 record into the championship game coming off a win over perennial GNAC power Emmanuel 55-54.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 02, 2014, 11:28:00 PM
Thursday results:

Boston over Salve 60-54.  Meaghan Harden had 12 points and Brianna Del Valle had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Seahawks.  Kirsten Morrison & Olivia Murphy, like usual, were the only ones that scored more than 8 points, but they finished with 18 & 14 respectively.
Keene beats Austin over overtime 74-68.  No boxscore.

38-25 LEC; 52-16 me.

Next games Saturday:
Eastern @ Plymouth 1 PM (LEC game)
Bowdoin @ RIC 2 PM
St. Joseph's (ME) @ Western 5 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 02, 2014, 11:33:08 PM
Quote from: 7express on January 02, 2014, 11:28:00 PM
Thursday results:

Boston over Salve 60-54.  Meaghan Harden had 12 points and Brianna Del Valle had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Seahawks.  Kirsten Morrison & Olivia Murphy, like usual, were the only ones that scored more than 8 points, but they finished with 18 & 14 respectively.
Keene beats Austin over overtime 74-68.  No boxscore.

38-25 LEC; 52-16 me.

Next games Saturday:
Eastern @ Plymouth 1 PM (LEC game)
Bowdoin @ RIC 2 PM
St. Joseph's (ME) @ Western 5 PM

Boston is going to need more scoring options if they want to go anywhere or win consistently.  I know you drive their bandwagon, but I am not overly impressed.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 03, 2014, 03:57:33 PM
Yup.  That's totally true Allstar.  They can get bye with it against Wheelock, Wentworth, whatever else crap teams they play, but once you get into LEC play they'll need players like Andrea Suffradini, Shelby Buck to put some points on the board.  Murphy & Morrison can't carry them the whole year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 04, 2014, 12:30:12 PM
Quick Saturday predictions:

Eastern 63 @ Plymouth 58.
Plymouth has been playing pretty good basketball, just can't squeak out the wins.  Up there in New Hampshire are very tough, and earlier this season lead Dartmouth most of the game before Dartmouth rallied late to steal the win.  I think Eastern will be in a dog fight, but like Dartmouth, think they can pull it out late in the second.
Bowdoin 67 @ RIC 57.
Bowdoin is 11-0 and won @ USM.  That's enough for me over an up and down RIC team.
SJME 58 @ Western 63.
SJME is 6-2 with a 1 point loss to Husson (bad) and an 11 point loss to USM (not terrible).  Both losses were at home.  Western has been struggling to put points on the board.  Other game in this tournament is Scranton (7-2) vs. William Paterson (5-5).  This would have been a GREAT tournament as recently as last season, but graduation have really hit Paterson & Western hard as each team is struggling out of the gate this year.  If I had to bet, I'd say Scranton looks to be the best of the 4 teams here and should be the favorite to win the championship.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 04, 2014, 06:44:44 PM
SJME beats Western 60-41.  This is embarrassing.  Remember when they beat USM at home last year??  49 weeks and a bunch of defections later, they lose by 19 (and only a late Caroline Brasa layup got it under 20) to a team that lost to Husson College!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 04, 2014, 08:18:18 PM
Quote from: 7express on January 04, 2014, 06:44:44 PM
SJME beats Western 60-41.  This is embarrassing.  Remember when they beat USM at home last year??  49 weeks and a bunch of defections later, they lose by 19 (and only a late Caroline Brasa layup got it under 20) to a team that lost to Husson College!!

Yikes!  What's going on?  It is very rare to see them struggling this mightily.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 05, 2014, 01:35:08 AM
Quote from: AllStar on January 04, 2014, 08:18:18 PM
Yikes!  What's going on?  It is very rare to see them struggling this mightily.

Since I haven't actually seen them play yet this season I can't say for certain.  It's probably a couple of things: As usual 3 point shooting was dreadful and when they aren't hitting, they ain;t winning.  They don't score.  This was combated in recent years because we actually had a collection of players that would do just enough.  Last year's team of Jackie Zilnicki, Carly Murphy & Nicole Eanniello wasn't star-studded by any means, but Jackie would have a bunch of hustle plays that didn't show up on the score sheet (tipped passes that lead to steals for others), Murph could play inside-or-outside so you always had to respect her on the perimeter, Nicole Eanniello would nail three's.  They had more depth last year too.  They may have added a few people over Christmas, but last I checked, they had 9 ladies on the active roster and I think 4 or 5 of them are transfers/freshmen so they are still learning how to play as a team.  Losing ShaQuira Palmer to a D-2 school in North Carolina certainly didn't help either.  But this team just got obliterated with defections from last year, which as I said a couple pages back something must have gone on (and in Boston too on the men's side where 6 of the top 7 scorers [all going into their senior years or younger] are no longer with the team) because you can't lose that many kids in 1 summer unless something drastic went on.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 05, 2014, 02:29:28 AM
Saturday results:

Eastern clobbers Plymouth 59-38.  Well, so much for Plymouth keeping it close.  Taylor Perry had 15 for Plymouth; Jill Ritrosky had 27 points & 12 rebounds for Eastern and Jordyn Nappi chipped in 12 points of her own.
RIC defeats Bowdoin 72-61.  Another one I whiffed on.  Shannon Brady had a game high 25 for the Polar Bears. RIC had 4 score in double figures lead by Alex Moore's 22.  The starters for both sides combined to score more than 92% of the games total points as the 2 teams benches contributed a measley 11 of 133 total points.
SJME over Western 60-41.  2-16 for 3 from Western.  During this 5 game losing streak they are shooting 12-80 (15%) from 3 point land.  Yikes!  Morgan Cahill had a game high 23 for the Monks on 11-16 shooting.  Carolina Brasa had 15 for Western.  Can we get her in the starting lineup??  bringing her off the bench obviously isn't working.  She almost single-handidly outscored the Colonial starting 5 by herself, but Colleen Casker's 6 points was enough for the starting 5 to beat out Brasa 19-15.   Even the Plymouth starting 5 is probably better then this group.   The last time ANYONE in the Western starting 5 scored in double digits??  You have to go all the way back to November 23!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when Sciarra Brandt & Colleen Casker broke 10 with 14 & 16 respectable.  That is a joke.  That's pre-Thanksgiving we're talking about here.  When your bench player (Caroline Brasa) is the only one scoring ANY points WHY IS SHE COMING OFF THE BENCH?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?  Makes no sense to me.  Plymouth is winless this year, but somehow in 7 of the 9 games they've played this season they've managed to have at least 1 person score 10 points, and Western goes 5 straight games without someone in the starting lineup score 10+ points???????

39-26 LEC; 53-18 me

Sunday schedule:
William Paterson @ Western 2 PM

William Paterson 67 @ Western 48.
Just 2 seasons ago William Paterson was 26-3, but like Western graduation have turned them into a middle of the road NJAC team.  That's where the similarities end between Paterson & Western though.  For 1 Paterson has been competitive in their 6 losses to better teams: losing by 4 to top 7 Montclair, losing by 1 @ 7-2 TCNJ, losing to 6-3 Stevens by 10 and 7-3 Gettysburg by 4.  For another, the team they played (Scranton) is a whole lot better than the team Western played (St. Joseph's Maine) and if not for a garbage time Brasa layup, each team would've lost by 21 points.  Finally, Paterson actually scores a lot more points than Western does.  In 11 games, Paterson averages 71.5 ppg; in 6 losses they average 64 points per game.  Not much difference then their overall scoring total which gets skewed by the 95 points they scored in a win over Rowan, and the 86 they scored in a win over Frostburg.  If you take those games out of the equation, that overall ppg number goes down to 67.3.  Western's overall total is a dismal 52.8 ppg and an even worse 43.4 in their 5 losses.  If you take out Western's 1 outlier, the 72 they scored on a win over Farmingdale on opening night the overall total drops down to an even more dismal 50.5.  The only reason I took that outlier out is even though they have a 68 on their total points scored vs. Trinity, that 68 was an overtime game in which they scored 14 points in the extra session, so if that game ends in regulation, they end up with 54 points, right at their overall number and about right where their other 2 scores in wins are (59 & 60).  Western hasn't cracked 60 points in a regulation game since November 15.  Only Plymouth has failed to crack 60 points in that same time frame and their 0-9!!!! Since November 26 when Western starting this current 5 game losing streak, you can even argue Plymouth state is a better offensive team than the Colonials are (I certainly wouldn't disagree).  In that time frame while Western's ppg was 43.4, Plymouth's ppg is 46.5.  Plymouth's low water mark was 32 while Western's was 31 (a layup right at the regulation buzzer in a 38 point game got Western above 30 that game), Western has only cracked 50 points twice, and hasn't had a higher total than 52.  Plymouth meanwhile has gotten above 50 also only twice, but they managed point totals of 54 & 59 in those games.  Eastern, RIC & keene, 3 teams that couldn't score at all last season have managed multiple games scoring 60+ points.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 05, 2014, 05:55:25 PM
Sunday results:

Western gets a win, 78-69 over Paterson.  Hey, look at that.  Not only did we actually score some points, we actually got starters (notice that plural??) in double figures!!  What a novel concept that is!!  Floriana Borova lead Paterson with 16 points off the bench, Chelsea Mone had 17 for Western, and Caroline Brasa had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

40-26 LEC; 53-19 me

Monday schedule:
Boston @ Brandeis 6 PM.

Boston 55 @ Brandeis 59.
Who knows??  Knowing Boston, this is a game they'll probably lose, even though they should win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 06, 2014, 08:17:26 PM
7, ready to jump off the Beacons bandwagon?  Not only did they lose to Brandeis, they lost by almost 40.  Brandeis wins 73-35.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 06, 2014, 10:38:42 PM
Quote from: AllStar on January 06, 2014, 08:17:26 PM
7, ready to jump off the Beacons bandwagon?  Not only did they lose to Brandeis, they lost by almost 40.  Brandeis wins 73-35.

Remember what I wrote yesterday: "Who knows??  Knowing Boston, this is a game they'll probably lose, even though they should win."
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 06, 2014, 11:01:54 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 07, 2014, 02:18:55 PM
Keene never trails while easily beating Worcester State 77-54.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on January 07, 2014, 04:32:52 PM
Amherst will bee at RIC tonight in a 7PM game.  Enjoy!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 07, 2014, 10:32:14 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 08, 2014, 12:27:51 AM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 08, 2014, 08:34:52 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 09, 2014, 07:20:00 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 09, 2014, 09:49:29 PM
Keene over Lasell 108-62.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 09, 2014, 10:23:23 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 10, 2014, 08:40:29 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 11, 2014, 01:16:26 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 11, 2014, 01:49:34 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 11, 2014, 02:42:14 PM
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)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 13, 2014, 02:54:26 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 13, 2014, 02:58:01 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 13, 2014, 05:15:09 PM
Massey predictions for the games Tuesday.  I'll trade to include these when at all possible:

RIC over USM 61-56.  RIC with a 63% winning percentage.
Eastern over Dartmouth 72-61 with an 83% winning percentage
Keene over Western 65-55 with an 81% winning percentage
Boston over Plymouth 61-34 with a 98% winning percentage.

We agree on 3/4 with Eastern/Dartmouth being the only one we disagree on.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 14, 2014, 06:16:10 PM
All games at halftime or very close:

Dartmouth leads Eastern 31-25.  Live stats are down for this game
Western leads Keene 30-18.  Western started the game up 12-0.   Colleen Cosker has 11 points for Western, Jovan Kingwood & Amanda Petrow each have 6 to lead Keene.
Boston leads Plymouth 22-16.   Plymouth shooting just 8-32, but started the game up 8-0 and started the game 4-10.  Since that start, they are just 4-22.  DeAsia Lawrence, Kait Deering and Savannah Miller each have 4 for Plymouth; Olivia Murphy has 7 to lead the Beacons.  Kirsten Morrison hasn't appeared in the game yet.
RIC clubbing USM 30-11.  No Knight once again for USM, who are shooting just 10%.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on January 14, 2014, 07:16:10 PM
Eastern loses tonight  to UMD by 9 on 13-27 (48%) FT shooting ??? ::) :(
Also the referees were from outer space tonight, a joke!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 14, 2014, 07:20:53 PM
Keene State with a beyond inept performance against Western Connecticut, scoring just 39 points and looking totally confused on offense.  Several steps back in this game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 14, 2014, 07:33:51 PM
These are some ugly games this evening:
USM finished with 31, RIC with 47 (after having 30 at halftime), Boston with 42, Plymouth with 46, Keene finished with 39.  Western, with only 53 points which isn't very good in itself was the conferences 3rd highest scoring team this evening after Eastern's 65 & Dartmouth's 74.

Now that all are final, let's get to the results:
Dartmouth gets that huge win over Eastern 74-65.  Jill Ritrosky had 22 points & 10 rebounds for Eastern, who shot 50% from the floor, but turned the ball over 16 seconds.  Meghan Ronaghan lead Dartmouth with 27 points on 11-16 shooting.
RIC over USM 47-31.  Neither team had a player in double figures.  Erin McNamera lead the Huskies with 7; Vandell Andrade had 9 points & 12 rebounds for RIC.  USM finished shooting 22.9% for the game (11-48), but finished the first half with only 11 points on 10% shooting (3-30) in the first half.
Keene loses back to back at home, today to Western 53-39.  Jovan Kingwood was the lone Owl in double figures as she finished with 10; Sciarra Brandt had 11 points & 12 rebounds for RIC while Colleen Casker lead the team with 12 points.
Plymouth gets their first LEC win since February 4, 2012 with a 46-42 win @ Boston.  You hear that sound??  If you do, it's the sound of the Beacons bandwagon careening over the cliff into the Boston Harbor as Allstar is right, this team cannot score the basketball.  Olivia Murphy had a game high 13 for Boston, while DeAsia Lawrence had 12 for Plymouth and Kait Deering chipped in 9 for Plymouth.  Boston had the ball down 3 with 13 seconds to play, but Courtney Mattingly called timeout even though the Beacons had a 3-2 fast break going.  After the timeout, Lauren Perra got off a contested 3 from the corner which she airballed, Tiffany Lewis grabbed the rebound, got fouled, and made 1/2 free throws to seal coach Liz Stich's first career LEC victory, congratulations!  No matter how the men do, that's going to be a fun ride back home tonight.  Have to wonder, what happens if Mattingly doesn't call the timeout there though.  Andrea Suffredini had a 3-2 break going and she made the basket as the timeout was being called.  13 seconds is an ETERNITY in basketball so it's not like you needed the 3 and with the fast break it was even dumber.  I know Plymouth is an improving team, and had Dartmouth on the ropes there for the whole game, but at home that is a terrible loss.

2-2 on the day: 47-28 LEC; 67-22 me.

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

Schedule:
Thursday, January 16:
Boston @ Bridgewater 5:30 PM
MCLA @ Western 5:30 PM

Saturday, January 18:
Western @ Boston 1 PM
Keene @ Dartmouth 1 PM
RIC @ Plymouth 1 PM
USM @ Eastern 1 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 15, 2014, 01:51:40 AM
Congratulations to Plymouth State for winning tonight at UMass-Boston.  It is never fun to lose games, as most players and fans can attest to, so it is nice to see the Panthers enjoy a conference win tonight.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on January 15, 2014, 10:41:53 AM
ECSU....caught the last part of the Warriors game last night after watching the Amherst-Wesleyan contest.  Strange that  both games ended in a LOOOONG march to the foul line when the games were essentially over.  Others tell me that coaches put on the press, foul to get the ball back, etc.  even when a win is not available....in order to teach their players what to do for the next game.  There is truth in that point, but it is boring to watch, imo.
Oh yes...congrats to the Warriors.....still keeping an eye on your team....maybe there will be a rematch game between our schools in the post-season...in LeFrak of course :)  One can only wish on such things.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on January 15, 2014, 12:03:05 PM
amh63,
Thanks, Yes I actually watched the second half of the Eastern vs UMD womens game.  Still a bit young but has potential to really make a noise I think next year.
Would be nice to be able to meet the LJs again...always hope :)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on January 15, 2014, 02:00:11 PM
ECSU.....lost my brains....senior moment.  My posted comment earlier was in reference to MBB.  How did I get over to this WBB board.  Thanks for the understanding...probably caused you to shake your head a bit. :)
Anyway....maybe both teams will meet in the post-season somewhere.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 15, 2014, 04:16:46 PM
2 LEC vs. MASCAC games on the slate for Thursday:

Boston 43 @ Bridgewater 65.
Bridgewater has won the last 2 meetings by 14 & 10 points.  Boston's in free fall mode, and in their 3 game losing streak are averaging just over 41 points per game (41.3 ppg).
MCLA 52 @ Western 59.
Last year, MCLA was 8-5 going into their match at home against Western, lost 62-48, and finished the season......8-17 meaning they didn't win a single game after that West Conn loss.  This year isn't much better for the Trailblazers.  They are 4-10 so far in 13-14 with their 4 wins vs. Green Mount (1-8), Becker (5-8), Fisher (non-d3 institution NAIA school), and Southern Vermont (4-10).  Western has won 4 straight after a 5 game losing streak, and will push that streak to 5. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Old Man on January 15, 2014, 10:05:52 PM
I have heard from reliable sources that last nights win for Kim Rybczy was her 300th career win!!!  She is a class act as well as a GREAT PERSON!!  Very thoughtful of those at WCSU  as well as anyone she meets!  CONGRATS TO YOU AND MANY MORE except against KSU.

OM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 16, 2014, 09:21:19 PM
Thursday results:

Boston beats Bridgewater 64-39. It's nice the Beacons can win OOC games, can they win LEC games???  Remains to be seen.  Nice performance after 3 straight clunkers.  Jenna Williamson (RIC coach Kara Williamson's sister btw for useless info) lead Bridgewater with 11; Olivia Murphy had 19 points and 24 rebounds for the Beacons who were without the services of Kirsten Morrison once again.  Andrea Suffredini also put up a double-double: 17 points and 10 assists.  I'll be at the Clark Athletic Center Saturday afternoon, I'll see if I can find any info.
Western over MCLA 65-46.  Michaela Silver lead the Trailblazers with 16 points who finished shooting just 26.1% overall.  Kerri Stolle lead Western with 21 points & 10 rebounds, Maggie Eberhardt has 12 points off the bench and Sciarra Brandt was 2 assists shy of a triple double: 11 points, 15 rebounds, 8 assists.

49-28 LEC; 67-23 me

Saturday schedule:
Keene @ Dartmouth
Western @ Dartmouth
USM @ Eastern
RIC @ Plymouth.  I'd say Western/Boston is the best game.  None of them are "must watches" though.  Good weekend to get caught up on errands and stuff so you can watch the football games Sunday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 18, 2014, 09:38:55 AM
Sat predictions:

Keene 54 @ Dartmouth 63.
Dartmouth rebounded with a win vs Eastern, Keene need to get back in track, but will be tough at Dartmouth.
Western 63 @ Bostonn45.
Boston offense is hit or miss, but verses Western's defense will be tough to score against.
USM 53 @ Eastern 66.
Not good on the road, and probably still without Knight.
RIC 74 @ Plymouth 55.
Might be playing the best if any team in the conference.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 18, 2014, 01:50:01 PM
Boston leads at halftime 31-19.  Only a Maggie Eberhardt 3 at the buzzer and about 40 missed Beacons free throws is preventing this from being a total rout.  Andrea Suffradini and Olivia Murphy each have 2 fouls which bodes well for the Colonials.  Kirsten Morrison is in uniform but hasn't appeared on the court yet.  If this was hockey it looks like she would be a "healthy scratch."

In other halftime scores Dartmouth up 37-34, RIC 28-17, and Eastern 35-22
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 18, 2014, 02:44:05 PM
Beacons get a dominating and laughable 66-40 win over Western.  Olivia Murphy sat most of the second half and the Beacons were up by as many as 28.  Suffradini had a monster game, and the Beacons got contributions all around from players such as Katrina Edwards, Chantel Edwards, and Mallory Jordan, so at least today they weren't a 2 person team.   I have recovered the Beacons bandwagon from the bottom of the Boston Harbor and am currently back driving it.  Wish their game Tuesday vs the Corsairs was in Dartmouth instead of Boston.  Andrea Suffredini vs Kelsey Garrity and Olivia Murphy vs Erika Bornemann, 2 of the 3 best guards and bigs in the conference going up against each other.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 18, 2014, 03:14:41 PM
Dartmouth 70-57.  Keene continues to fold like a cheap tent.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 19, 2014, 01:28:33 AM
Dartmouth over Keene 70-57.  Christan Wojtas had 15 for Keene; Meghan Ronaghan had 17 to lead Dartmouth and Ashley Brown had 14 off the bench.  Big week coming up for both teams.  Keene has Eastern & Boston this week, Dartmouth has road games @ Boston & @ RIC sandwiched between a home win vs. Plymouth.
RIC clubs Plymouth 71-41.  Well, at least the Panthers scored more points than Western did!  DeAsia Lawrence & Krysten Corliss each had 10 for Plymouth.  Vandell Andrade with 16 points & 10 rebounds for RIC while Cara Paldino & Danielle LeBlanc each had 14.  Getting hot at the right time, not a team you want to be playing at the moment.  They have 2 losses since December 2: 1 was by 2 in overtime on a last second 3 pointer, and the other was by 11 to the #2 team in the country.  BIIIIIIIIG game vs. Eastern on Saturday at the Murray Center which I'll probably go to, assuming my basketball game at 9 AM doesn't go to 7 overtimes.  With Rebecca Knight's unspecified injury (missed her 5th straight game today), Boston's lack of scoring options outside Olivia Murphy & Andrea Suffredini, Western & Keene's offensive inefficiency and Dartmouth's inability to win on the road (remember they won @ Plymouth by only 5 after trailing the majority of the game, lost by 20 @ a Western team who got completely embarrassed by Boston, and got embarrassed @ USM who haven't looked very good without Knight and they still have yet to play the conferences top 2 [Eastern & RIC]), so the winner of that Eastern/RIC game Saturday would be a likely favorite to win the conference since I just pointed out rest of the conferences inefficiency's.    Doesn't mean they will as there's a lot of parity this year, but the winner definitely goes into the poll position heading into the home stretch of February.
Eastern over USM 75-64.  Erin McNamera with 20 for the Huskies.  Jordyn Nappi with a game high 23 for the Warriors, while Jill Ritrosky had a 20-11 line.  A couple things: 1) I wish D-3 would give out more information on injuries.  Rebecca Knight is one of USM's better players.  I'd like to know what happened, an expected time line.  In the game recap article of the game she got hurt the article says she only played 9 minutes.  Why don't you tell us why she only played 9 minutes??  Certainly, your star player is going to be playing more than 9 minutes in a game. And even in the recaps from other games following that, not one mention of why Knight is absent.  Since these are getting written straight from the USM website, certainly SOMEONE has to know. And from what I've seen of Fifield, he's not one to put someone in the doghouse for 5 straight games.  2) I jinxed Rosalie Edmonds of Plymouth earlier in the year, but Jordyn Nappi is definitely making a strong case for ROY as Edmonds has fallen off (I'd put Nappi up there with Meghan Ronaghan & Ashley Brown from Dartmouth, Colleen Cosker from Western & Stephanie D'Annolfo for Keene).  I'll have my quarter pole predictions either tomorrow or Monday, so I'll make a guess then. 3) Is Kristina Forsman injured again??  I haven't seen her name listed in an Eastern boxscore in a while.
Boston wallops Western 66-40.  Beacons shot over 50% while holding the Colonials to 30%,and forced 20 Western turnovers which they converted for 19 points.  Katrina Edwards lead the Beacons with a career high 19 points, and the Beacons big guns Suffredini & Murphy did the rest of the work: Suffredeni had 17 points, & Murphy had 14 points & 11 rebounds despite only playing 29 minutes.  Actually, Courtney Mattingly didn't even need her in the second half.  if Murphy can ever establish an outside game like Erika Bornemann did in her final 2 years, she may be unguardable.  How this team lost to Plymouth at home is beyond me.  Of course, I also have no idea how Western beat Dartmouth by 20 either.

Standings:
1) Eastern 4-1 (10-4)
1) RIC 4-1 (11-5)
3) Western 3-2 (9-6)
3) Dartmouth 3-2 (9-5)
5) Boston 2-3 (10-5)
5) USM 2-3 (9-6)
7) Keene 1-4 (8-6)
7) Plymouth 1-4 (2-11)

49-28 LEC; 3-1 on the day, 70-24 overall.

Schedule:
Tuesday, January 21:
Plymouth @ USM 5:30
RIC @ Western 5:30
Keene @ Eastern 5:30
Dartmouth @ Boston 5:30.  If Western didn't lay a T-rex sized egg today, I'd vote Western/RIC for best game on Tuesday, but I think RIC blows them out.  I'll go Dartmouth/Boston for best Tuesday.

Thursday, January 23:
Dartmouth @ Framingham 6:00

Saturday, January 25:
USM @ Western 1:00
Eastern @ RIC 1:00
Boston @ Keene 1:00
Plymouth @ Dartmouth 1:00
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on January 19, 2014, 08:39:54 PM
Quote from: 7express on January 19, 2014, 01:28:33 AM
Dartmouth over Keene 70-57.  Christan Wojtas had 15 for Keene; Meghan Ronaghan had 17 to lead Dartmouth and Ashley Brown had 14 off the bench.  Big week coming up for both teams.  Keene has Eastern & Boston this week, Dartmouth has road games @ Boston & @ RIC sandwiched between a home win vs. Plymouth.
RIC clubs Plymouth 71-41.  Well, at least the Panthers scored more points than Western did!  DeAsia Lawrence & Krysten Corliss each had 10 for Plymouth.  Vandell Andrade with 16 points & 10 rebounds for RIC while Cara Paldino & Danielle LeBlanc each had 14.  Getting hot at the right time, not a team you want to be playing at the moment.  They have 2 losses since December 2: 1 was by 2 in overtime on a last second 3 pointer, and the other was by 11 to the #2 team in the country.  BIIIIIIIIG game vs. Eastern on Saturday at the Murray Center which I'll probably go to, assuming my basketball game at 9 AM doesn't go to 7 overtimes.  With Rebecca Knight's unspecified injury (missed her 5th straight game today), Boston's lack of scoring options outside Olivia Murphy & Andrea Suffredini, Western & Keene's offensive inefficiency and Dartmouth's inability to win on the road (remember they won @ Plymouth by only 5 after trailing the majority of the game, lost by 20 @ a Western team who got completely embarrassed by Boston, and got embarrassed @ USM who haven't looked very good without Knight and they still have yet to play the conferences top 2 [Eastern & RIC]), so the winner of that Eastern/RIC game Saturday would be a likely favorite to win the conference since I just pointed out rest of the conferences inefficiency's.    Doesn't mean they will as there's a lot of parity this year, but the winner definitely goes into the poll position heading into the home stretch of February.
Eastern over USM 75-64.  Erin McNamera with 20 for the Huskies.  Jordyn Nappi with a game high 23 for the Warriors, while Jill Ritrosky had a 20-11 line.  A couple things: 1) I wish D-3 would give out more information on injuries.  Rebecca Knight is one of USM's better players.  I'd like to know what happened, an expected time line.  In the game recap article of the game she got hurt the article says she only played 9 minutes.  Why don't you tell us why she only played 9 minutes??  Certainly, your star player is going to be playing more than 9 minutes in a game. And even in the recaps from other games following that, not one mention of why Knight is absent.  Since these are getting written straight from the USM website, certainly SOMEONE has to know. And from what I've seen of Fifield, he's not one to put someone in the doghouse for 5 straight games.  2) I jinxed Rosalie Edmonds of Plymouth earlier in the year, but Jordyn Nappi is definitely making a strong case for ROY as Edmonds has fallen off (I'd put Nappi up there with Meghan Ronaghan & Ashley Brown from Dartmouth, Colleen Cosker from Western & Stephanie D'Annolfo for Keene).  I'll have my quarter pole predictions either tomorrow or Monday, so I'll make a guess then. 3) Is Kristina Forsman injured again??  I haven't seen her name listed in an Eastern boxscore in a while.
Boston wallops Western 66-40.  Beacons shot over 50% while holding the Colonials to 30%,and forced 20 Western turnovers which they converted for 19 points.  Katrina Edwards lead the Beacons with a career high 19 points, and the Beacons big guns Suffredini & Murphy did the rest of the work: Suffredeni had 17 points, & Murphy had 14 points & 11 rebounds despite only playing 29 minutes.  Actually, Courtney Mattingly didn't even need her in the second half.  if Murphy can ever establish an outside game like Erika Bornemann did in her final 2 years, she may be unguardable.  How this team lost to Plymouth at home is beyond me.  Of course, I also have no idea how Western beat Dartmouth by 20 either.

Standings:
1) Eastern 4-1 (10-4)
1) RIC 4-1 (11-5)
3) Western 3-2 (9-6)
3) Dartmouth 3-2 (9-5)
5) Boston 2-3 (10-5)
5) USM 2-3 (9-6)
7) Keene 1-4 (8-6)
7) Plymouth 1-4 (2-11)

49-28 LEC; 3-1 on the day, 70-24 overall.

Schedule:
Tuesday, January 21:
Plymouth @ USM 5:30
RIC @ Western 5:30
Keene @ Eastern 5:30
Dartmouth @ Boston 5:30.  If Western didn't lay a T-rex sized egg today, I'd vote Western/RIC for best game on Tuesday, but I think RIC blows them out.  I'll go Dartmouth/Boston for best Tuesday.

Thursday, January 23:
Dartmouth @ Framingham 6:00

Saturday, January 25:
USM @ Western 1:00
Eastern @ RIC 1:00
Boston @ Keene 1:00
Plymouth @ Dartmouth 1:00

7,
I have not heard about a Kristina Forsman injury, however, The ECSU announcers on the LECTV broadcasts may have mentioned her absence.  I have not watched/ listened to all of the ECSU women's games this year!  I think you can tweet probably more like e-mail ECSU Dir. of Broadcasting, Nick Aconfora to see if he has the info on Kristina
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 20, 2014, 11:46:39 AM
Tuesday schedule:

Plymouth 38 @ USM 64.
Not as lopsided as it would be with a healthy Rebecca Knight, but USM should get a pretty convincing and much needed win none-the-less.
RIC 65 @ Western 48.
A team that gives up only 56.5 ppg against a team that only scores 56.1 ppg, and 50.8 in the conference??  Yah, I'll take RIC, the team playing the best basketball of any team in the conference, and unlike Western, they actually have a decent offense (64+ ppg) and Vandell Andrade has been a double double machine lately.  Of course with Western this year watch them win this than score like 20 points against USM Saturday.
Keene 54 @ Eastern 67.
Don't think Keene is going to able to put up a lot of points.  Eastern knows they have a big game on Sat, may sleepwalk for a bit, but they'll pull it out.
Dartmouth 68 @ Boston 72.
The matchups of 2 of the best guards in the conference (Andrea Suffredini of Boston vs. Kelsey Garrity of Dartmouth) and 2 of the best bigs in the league (Erika Bornemann from Dartmouth and Olivia Murphy from Boston).  Dartmouth can't win on the road, but Boston can't get scoring outside of Suffredini & Murphy.  IF the Beacons can get contributions from Chantel Jordan, Mallory Nelson and Katrina Edwards like they did Saturday vs. Western I'd say the Beacons get the win at home.  if the Beacons have one of their scoring droughts which they've been having a lot this month, Dartmouth gets it.  The Beacons seem to play a lot better at home in the Clark Athletic Center then on the road, and won at home vs. Dartmouth last year, so I'll give the slight edge to the Beacons, but really, this could go either direction.  Definitely a game to watch on LEC.tv if your not going to be out at a game, and if you are, watch it on the archives when you get back.

Massey ratings:
RIC 60-49 82%
Eastern 67-59 77%
USM 64-34 99%
Boston 67-60 72%
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 21, 2014, 01:31:07 PM
Keene State doubleheader at Eastern Connecticut postponed to tomorrow due to weather.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 21, 2014, 01:53:38 PM
Some time changes for this evenings games:
No time change currently in Plymouth/USM.  That game looks to be played as scheduled at 5:30 PM
Boston/Dartmouth is also going on tonight, however, that will start 90 minutes earlier then scheduled with the game tipping off at 4 PM instead of 5:30 PM.  Dinner with the LEC tonight.
RIC/Western & Eastern/Keene both postponed to tomorrow, with the times remaining the same both starting at 5:30 PM tomorrow evening.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 21, 2014, 05:03:07 PM
In the 2 scheduled games today:
Boston leads Dartmouth 30-25 at halftime.  Erika Bornemann has 7 for Dartmouth, Olivia Murphy leads all scorers with 10 for the Beacons.  A Chantel Jordan buzzer beater 3 for Boston gave the Beacons some sort of momentum going forward as the last 7 minutes was ALL Corsairs.  Including Chantel Jordan's 3 pointer, Dartmouth ended the half on a 15-5 run as Boston had as big a lead as 25-10 a little less than 2/3 of the way through the first.
USM leads Plymouth 35-20 at halftime.  Gorham night, so halftime is taking a little longer than usual as a bunch of elementary schools were playing during the half.  Rebecca Knight with 2 points & 7 minutes off the bench in her first game action since suffering an injury December 29.  Still don't know what it was, but good to see her back on the court.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 21, 2014, 06:19:05 PM
Boston won 70-55.  Erika Bornemann had 17 for Dartmouth who according to the boxscore didn't start the Corsairs.  I didn't turn it on till about the 8 minute mark of the first, so can't confirm that for sure, but if the Boxscore says so, it must be true.  Ashley Brown also had 12 points off the bench for the Corsairs.  None of the Dartmouth starters this game hit double digits, who's road woes continue to be a hinderance and what's holding them back.  Olivia Murphy was the only Beacon in double figures, but she had one of her monster games anyway, so it didn't really matter as she scored over half of Boston's points with 32 points & 19 rebounds.  I go back to what I said Saturday, if Murphy develops ANYTHING outside of 5 feet, she'll be unguardable.  When she has the ball at the top of the key on select Beacon plays, there's not a defender within 5 feet of her and she doesn't even look to take them.  The worst that happens is you airball it, and it goes back to the other team, big friggen deal, it's not like anybody's airballed a 3 pointer before, and she certainly wouldn't be the last to airball one either.  At least make the defenders challenge you at there, if you attempt them, at least it draws Bornemann or Colleen Kane out.  That's what makes Bornemann so dangerous is that she can make the outside 3 point shot, so the opposition has to challenge them.  I think Murphy could actually be better then Bornemann or Colleen Moriarty, but she has to develop an outside game over the summer.
USM defeats Plymouth 68-31.  No big surprise there.  Rebecca Knight in her first game since December 29 played 18 minutes, just in time for the Western game Saturday.  The high scorer for Plymouth was 6 which tells you a lot about how effective they were this game as that was tied with Savannah Miller & Kait Deering (who had all 6 in the first half when Plymouth was actually somewhat competitive trailing 35-20 at the half).  Megan Pelletier had 18 for the Huskies on 6-7 shooting and Gretchen Anderson had 14.  Erin McNamers had a quiet game: only 7 points, but did rack up 6 assists.  Plymouth shot just 4-27 in the second half and scored 11 points the final 20 minutes.

49-28 LEC; 2-0 on the day; 72-24 overall:

Wednesday games the 2 postponed games from Tuesday:
RIC @ Western 5:30 PM
Keene @ Eastern 5:30 PM, and keeping the same scores from Monday.

RIC 65 @ Western 48.
A team that gives up only 56.5 ppg against a team that only scores 56.1 ppg, and 50.8 in the conference??  Yah, I'll take RIC, the team playing the best basketball of any team in the conference, and unlike Western, they actually have a decent offense (64+ ppg) and Vandell Andrade has been a double double machine lately, and the team has no one that is able to guard her, and combine her in the front court with Cara Paladino and that's a recipe for disaster for the Colonials.  Of course with Western this year watch them win this than score like 20 points against USM Saturday, which got Rebecca Knight back Tuesday, and gets Eastern at home next Tuesday night and than @ Dartmouth the following Saturday, and than @ RIC the next Tuesday.  Doesn't look too good for the Colonials upcoming.
Keene 54 @ Eastern 67.
Don't think Keene is going to able to put up a lot of points.  Eastern knows they have a big game on Sat, may sleepwalk for a bit, but they'll pull it out.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 22, 2014, 06:05:43 PM
Eastern up 26-20 at half.  Brianna Leonard, Erin Brooks, and Jill Ritrosky each have 6 for Eastern.  Jovan Kingwood leads Keene with 9, and Amanda Petrow with 12 rebounds for the Owls.
RIC leads Western 32-23.  No live stats from this game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 22, 2014, 06:10:48 PM
Quote from: 7express on January 22, 2014, 06:05:43 PM
Eastern up 26-20 at half.  Brianna Leonard, Erin Brooks, and Jill Ritrosky each have 6 for Eastern.  Jovan Kingwood leads Keene with 9, and Amanda Petrow with 12 rebounds for the Owls.
RIC leads Western 32-23.  No live stats from this game.

This should work. http://www.wcsu.edu/sports/livestats/xlive.htm
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 22, 2014, 07:17:02 PM
RIC 53-44
E CONN 71-66
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 22, 2014, 07:39:22 PM
Thanks for that link All Star!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 22, 2014, 09:29:45 PM
Both of the conferences top 2 go into their Saturday showdown with 2 closer than expected wins:

RIC 53-44 over Western.  Steph Prusko stepped up for the Anchorwoman with 18 points, including the final 7 of the game for RIC, Cara Paladino had 12 points, and Vandell Andrade had 9 points and 11 rebounds.  Western attempted two 3 pointers all game.  Remember when they used to be a 3 point shooting team??  After trailing 32-23 at the half, Western started the second half on a 13-4 run to knot the game up at 36 with 12:15 to play.  However, RIC ended the game on a 17-8 run. 
Eastern survives Keene 71-66.  Kelsey Cognetta was one of 4 Owls in double figures as she lead the way with 15 points, and Amanda Petrow had 9 points and 16 boards for the Owls.  Jordyn Nappi had a game high 22 for Eastern, and Jill Ritrosky put up another double double for the Warriors with 15 points and 12 rebounds.  This was the Jordyn Nappi show in the second half.  On back to back possessions midway through the second half, Nappi nailed back-to-back 3's to turn a 2 point Eastern defecit into a 4 point Eastern lead.  After a Kelsey Cognetta 3 tied the game, the next possession down the court Nappi gave the Warriors the lead back with a 3 of her own.  And she wasn't done yet!  With 3:50 to play and the Warriors just up 1, she hit yet another 3 to give Eastern some breathing room up 4, and she basically ended the game with a 3 pointer (to put Eastern up 5 with 1:10 to play), and jumper with 34 seconds left to go back up 5 after a Cognetta layup cut it back to a 1 possession game, and for good measure added a free throw to put Eastern up 6 with 18 seconds left which iced it.

49-28 LEC; 74-24 overall

Standings:
1) Eastern 5-1 (12-4)
1) RIC 5-1 (11-5)
3) Boston 3-3 (11-5)
3) USM 3-3 (10-6)
3) Western 3-3 (9-7)
3) Dartmouth 3-3 (9-6)
7) Keene 8-7 (1-5)
7) Plymouth 2-12 (1-5)

1 game Tuesday:
Dartmouth @ Framingham 6:00

Dartmouth 76 @ Framingham 68.
This is Framingham's first game against the LEC this year, however they did play 2 games @ Dartmouth earlier in the season: a 21 point loss to Castleton and a 15 point win vs. Elms.  Dartmouth has been very unimpressive against the MASCAC this year 0-2 losing 2 "road" games with road in qutations because one of those road games was in the same city, but at a different school.  The Corsairs have a 5 point loss to Worcester state in a game they were without Kelsey Garrity in a game that took place at Clark, and a 13 point loss @ Bridgewater state, a game they played without Erika Bornemann, but they gave up 99 points in the process.  The team is finally healthy now, but this is still an atrocious road team, but I think they get it done.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 23, 2014, 09:22:33 PM
UMass-Dartmouth squeaks by Framingham State 51-48.  Not impressive.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 23, 2014, 09:23:43 PM
7express:

That link I provided for Western live stats should work for any games I believe, even if there is not actually a Live Stats option to click on.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 23, 2014, 10:07:10 PM
Quote from: AllStar on January 23, 2014, 09:22:33 PM
UMass-Dartmouth squeaks by Framingham State 51-48.  Not impressive.

You got that right.  I think Dartmouth finished stuck on 51 for quite a while too.  I checked out the live stats when I was in class, and I think at the 7:21 mark, Dartmouth had 45 or 46 points.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 23, 2014, 10:13:59 PM
Thursday's result:

Dartmouth edges by Framingham 51-48.  Woof!  Meghan Ronaghan had a game high 21 for Dartmouth; Carlee Putnam had 11 for the Rams off the bench.  Those were your only 2 double digit scorers in the game.  Erika Bornemann had 18 rebounds, but only 7 points for the Corsairs.  Teams finished shooting a combined 31.3% (42-134), and had almost as many combined turnovers (37) than total field goals (42).  Not impressive for Dartmouth.  They were up 51-40 with 55 seconds left to play, yet the Rams had 2 attempts at the game-tying 3 pointer in the final seconds.

50-28 LEC; 75-24 overall.  Only 9 more non conference games left, so the conference is going to finish with a pretty good record, and that's with Plymouth (2-12) included as well.

Saturday schedule:
USM @ Western
Eastern @ RIC
Boston @ Keene
Plymouth @ Dartmouth.  Eastern/RIC is by far the game of the day, and probably the game of the year.  I'll be in Providence for that double header on Saturday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 24, 2014, 08:34:55 PM
Sat predictions:

USM 65 @ Western 44.
USM had been struggling along, before they got 2 wins Tuesday.  1 was a big win over Plymouth, the other was the return of Rebecca Knight.  USM beat them 67-31 in December.  Western may score a few more points this time around, but Western is averaging 49.7 ppg in 6 LEC contests with is good for 7th in the conference ahead of only Plymouth's 41 per game and USM gives up only 51 ppg, good for second in the conference behind only RIC's 44.2 per game.  If you can't score, you can't win, simple as that, and Western cannot put points on the board.
Eastern 58 @ RIC 62.
The game of the year in the conference as the winner probably ends up winning the conference since these are clearly the 2 best teams from what I've seen so far this year.  Eastern won the first meeting 69-67 in overtime after a Jordyn Nappi jumper sent it to overtime and a Danyelle Rodriguez late 3 pointer won it for the Warriors.  Matchup of the conferences #1 scoring offense (Eastern at 67.7 per game) vs. the conferences #1 scoring defense (RIC at 44.2 per game).  I know it's a cliché, but whatever style wins out, wins this.  If this gets above 120 total points, Eastern has the advantage, if this is a slow down game in the 40's or 50's that barely breaks 100 total points, RIC definitely has the advantage there.  RIC is at home, and have been playing GREAT since their 2-3 start to the season, I'll take the Anchorwomen to take control of the conference race, but I don't expect them to be finished with each other for this season.
Boston 67 @ Keene 64.
Boston's last 2 conference road games they are averaging 38.5 points, and in their last 5 road games are only averaging 47.2 points per game.  Keene has started to fall down the cliff after a hot start.  Being at home helps, and also staying close with Eastern helps, but I don't think the Owls match up well with the Beacons.  Kirsten Morrison & Olivia Murphy combined for 39 points & 22 rebounds in that 66-56 Beacons win in December, while the Owls best player from that game, Courtney Roberts (15 points & 10 rebounds) is currently out injured.
Plymouth 37 @ Dartmouth 69.
Dartmouth won 52-48 in December, but were down 9 with under 8 minutes to go before rallying to win late.  This is a totally different team at home in the friendly confines of the Tripp Athletic Center than they are on the road, so they should cruise to a victory.  Anything less than a 15 point win, and I'll start to worry.

Massey ratings:
RIC 64-56 (75%)
USM 55-48 (70%)
Keene 58-56 (54%)
Dartmouth 69-53 (93%)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 25, 2014, 01:40:28 PM
USM up 30-19, Dartmouth 30-15, Boston 22-19, RIC leads 32-25, all at or near the half.  Cara Paladino is killing Eastern on pick and rolls to the basket.  Vandell Andrade and Paladino with 2 fouls for RIC, Jill Ritrosky with 2 for Eastern.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 25, 2014, 02:34:56 PM
Western leads by 1 under 2 minutes to play, an Boston trails by 4 under 3 minutes left.  RIC wins 61-57 to take control of the conference and Dartmouth clobbers Plymouth.  Full results coming later.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 25, 2014, 06:43:08 PM
RIC 61-57
KSC 60-56
USM 57-55
UMD 85-45
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 25, 2014, 08:31:25 PM
Quote from: AllStar on January 25, 2014, 06:43:08 PM
RIC 61-57
KSC 60-56
USM 57-55
UMD 85-45

As expected, the biggest blowout was Plymouth/Dartmouth.  Nice to see Keene bounce back with a much needed W.  Surprised the Western game was that close.  I heard they actually tied it up with about 10 seconds to play, but unfortunately fouled USM which gave them 2 free throws for the win.  The person I heard that from said it was the best game they've played all season, let's see if they can build off it.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 25, 2014, 10:46:47 PM
Saturday results:

USM survives Western 57-55.  Megan Pelletier had 22 points & 13 rebounds, and Erin McNamera had 13 points for the Huskies, who are starting to reach that point in the season where their bench becomes invisible: 44 total minutes, 4 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 2 field goals made on 8 field goal attempts.  When Rebecca Knight goes back to the lineup, that stat line will be even worse.  Maggie Eberhardt had 17 for Western.  Western was down 3 before a Caroline Brasa 3 (Western's 7th made of the game after only making 1 on 2 attempts Wednesday night) tied the game at 55 with 10 seconds left, however, Chelsea Mone fouled Taylor Flood on an offensive rebound putback with 2 seconds to go in the game, and Flood knocked down both free throws for the win.
Dartmouth clubs Plymouth 85-45.  Krystin Corliss had 13 for the Panthers; Ashley Brown had 16 off the bench to lead the Corsairs who placed 4 in double figures.  Nothing else to see from that beating.
RIC takes control of the conference with a 61-57 win over Eastern.  Jordyn Nappi lead all scorers with 22 (16 in the second half) to lead Eastern.  Vandell Andrade had 18 points (12 in the second half) and 9 rebounds, while Cara Paladino chipped in 15.  2 other teams with severe depth issues like USM, but RIC was able to manage theirs better.  Andrade got hit with her second foul at about the 14:00 mark, so she sat the rest of the half after 6 quick points got RIC on the scoreboard and then even in the lead.  Eastern lead as much as 5-0 and 7-2.  When Andrade went out it was 10-7 RIC.    Eastern was still in the game only down 18-13 at the 8:45 mark before Jill Ristrosky picked up her second foul and had to go to the bench.  With her on the bench, Paladino and Michelle Lagaritta exploited Eastern's now weakness in the front court with a bunch of pick and rolls to the basket Eastern couldn't pick up and defend.  With her out, RIC went on a 12-6 run the last 6 minutes to jump out 11, and the teams for the most part traded baskets with a Taylor McBride jumper getting Eastern to within 7 at the break.  In the second half, Andrade just exploded both on the scoreboard and on the boards.    An Andrade layup at 14:10 made the score 42-31, but a 9-2 run the next 3 minutes made it 44-40.  After a RIC timeout, Steph Prusko nailed a 3 pointer from the left corner to start an 11-4  run to go back up 11 with 6:30 to play, and Eastern got it no closer than 4 points until Nappi's meaningless 3 pointer at the buzzer.  She also scored Eastern's last 11 points.
Keene over Boston 60-56.  Carly Kiernan had a game high 18 points off the bench to lead the Owls who also got 13 points off the bench from Jovan Kingwood and 6 points & 10 rebounds from Stephanie D'Annolfo.  The Beacons were lead by Kirsten Morrison's 16 points and who got nothing from Olivia Murphy (2-7 shooting, 7 rebounds, 8 points).  A good win by Keene who had suffered a couple of close road losses in recent games.

50-28 LEC; 78-25 overall

Standings:

1) RIC 6-1 (12-5)
2) 5-2 (12-5)
3) USM 4-3 (11-6)
3) Dartmouth 4-3 (11-6)
5) Boston 3-4 (11-6)
5) Western 3-4 (9-8)
7) Keene 2-5 (9-7)
8) Plymouth 1-6 (2-13).  USM beat Dartmouth & Boston beat Western, so those 2 teams would be the higher seed if the tournament started tomorrow, and that's how I'll rank them.

Schedule:
Tuesday, January 28:
Keene @ Plymouth 5:30 PM
Eastern @ Western 5:30 PM
Dartmouth @ RIC 5:30 PM
Boston @ USM 5:30 PM.  Dartmouth/RIC looks like the best game though I'd like it a lot better if it was @ Dartmouth instead.

Thursday, January 30:
Daniel Webster @ Keene State 7:00 PM

Saturday, February 1:
RIC @ Boston 1 PM
Western @ Dartmouth 1 PM
Plymouth @ Eastern 1 PM
USM @ Keene 1 PM.  I'd say Keene/USM looks like the best game that day.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 27, 2014, 02:17:24 PM
Tuesday schedule:

Keene 74 @ Plymouth 58.
Plymouth may stay close for a half, but this is a game Keene can't afford to lose....and they won't.
Eastern 64 @ Western 58.
Another one that will probably be close.  Eastern did a good job on the conference's #1 scoring defense scoring 57 points on RIC, so they should be able to match that against Western.  Western played a great second half vs. USM, and maybe that's a turnaround the last 4 weeks of the season, but this is a team that just cannot score the basketball.  As long as Eastern can get above 50, and I think they will, they'll win.
Dartmouth 56 @ RIC 67.
Probably the best game of the day.  Nobody has been able to stop Vandell Andrade this year, but Dartmouth has the height to make her and Cara Paladino a non factor.  Dartmouth is terrible on the road, so I still think RIC gets the win even with an off night from Andrade & Paladino.
Boston 53 @ USM 69.
Another one that might be close for a half.  Boston played them competitively in 2 games last year when USM lost once the whole season, and there no where as good as they are this year.  Boston may beat them in a couple weeks down in Boston, but I'll take the Huskies at home in Maine.

Massey ratings:
RIC 73-58 93%
Eastern 59-52 69%
USM 59-46 79%
Keene 64-49 91%
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 27, 2014, 04:30:51 PM
7express's annual LEC midseason report card.  Since Saturday concluded conference game #7, that means we are officially halfway through season.  Man, where does the time go??  Seems like just 2 days ago was the first practice, and just yesterday was the first game, and now we only have 7/8/9 games left in the regular season.  With that out of the way, let's go through the first half of the season, some storylines to watch, and games to watch the rest of the year:

1) RIC 6-1 (12-5)
2) 5-2 (12-5)
3) USM 4-3 (11-6)
3) Dartmouth 4-3 (11-6)
5) Boston 3-4 (11-6)
5) Western 3-4 (9-8)
7) Keene 2-5 (9-7)
8) Plymouth 1-6 (2-13)
USM beat Dartmouth so USM would get the 3 seed and Dartmouth the 4.  Likewise, Boston beat Western, so the Beacons would get the 5 seed while the Colonials would have the 6 seed.  Let's go through some awards & storylines, starting with some games to watch that could decide the conference:
Dartmouth @ RIC, Tuesday, January 28
USM @ Dartmouth, Saturday, February 8
Boston @ Dartmouth, Tuesday, February 11
Dartmouth @ Eastern, Saturday, February 15
RIC @ USM, Saturday, January 15
USM @ Boston, Tuesday, February 18
RIC @ Dartmouth, Tuesday, February 18
Eastern @ USM, Saturday, February 22.

Player of the year:
Vandell Andrade- RIC.  A double-double machine this year.

First team selections:
Andrade
Jill Ritrosky- Eastern
Jordyn Nappi- Eastern
Erika Bornemann- Dartmouth
Erin McNamera- USM
Olivia Murphy- Boston

Rookie if the year:
Jordyn Nappi- Eastern.  Has pretty much already wrapped up the award.  One of the best clutch shooters in the league, not many others I'd rather want taking the last shot.  Not just freshmen player but ANY player in the league.

All freshmen team:
Nappi
Ashley Brown-Dartmouth
Meghan Ronaghan- Dartmouth
Stephanie D'Annolfo- Keene
Amanda Petrow-Keene
Colleen Cosker- Western.

Team with the most to gain-contenders division (team in 4th or better):
USM.  Probably the best chance to unseat RIC/Eastern at the top.  Are getting healthy with Rebecca Knight back, and have games in February at home vs. Eastern & RIC on back to back Saturday's
Team with the most to gain non-contenders division (team in 5th or worse):
Boston.  Have 2 games vs. USM who they only trail by a game.  Also have home games in February vs. Eastern & RIC.
Team with the most to lose contenders division:
RIC.  Currently lead the conference, but still have yet to play Dartmouth meaning they get them twice in the final 7 games, and also have road games @ Boston & @ USM to come.
Team with the most to close non-contenders division:
Western.  They are currently closer to last (2 games up on Plymouth) than first (3 games behind RIC).  They haven't finished lower than 4th since the 2006-07 season, but with 2 games still to come vs. Eastern & road games left @ Dartmouth and @ RIC, that streak could be coming to an abrupt end this season.

NCAA teams.  Right now I say only the winner gets in.  USM & Dartmouth have been too inconsistent to make a dent in the NCAA discussion this year, and both RIC & Eastern lost to all the good teams they played OOC which hurts them, and the more Bowdoin loses in the NESCAC, the more that hurts RIC.  However, since they're done with each other, both of them could theoretically win out to the LEC championship game, and in that case I think we would see both of them in the field.   
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 28, 2014, 06:17:26 PM
Western leads Eastern 28-16 at half.  Eastern is playing AWFUL basketball, but are getting totally hosed by the zebras out there.   Not excusing their poor play because they look worse than Plymouth out there, but they definitely aren't getting help from the officials.

Keene 29-28, USM 28-21, and RIC 32-28 are the other leaders at the half.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 28, 2014, 07:16:25 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 28, 2014, 11:15:53 PM
Nice around the region article on Eastern, detailing the rebounding from the off-court incident that got Piper Chapman, and Jess Blodgett among others suspended 2 January's ago, and how they've dealt with injuries to Kristina Forsman (out for the year with an ACL injury) and Shannon McCourt with a dislocated shoulder (returned to the lineup tonight @ Western).

http://d3hoops.com/columns/around-the-region/east-northeast/2013-14/eastern-connecticut-warriors-press-on
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 29, 2014, 12:50:22 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 28, 2014, 07:16:25 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 29, 2014, 12:50:51 AM
Tuesday results:

Keene 60-57 over Plymouth.  Not pretty, but it's a road win, and moves them to 3-5 in the conference a game behind Dartmouth & Western at 4-4.  DeAsia Lawrence had 16 to lead Plymouth, Christian Wojtas had a game high 18 for the Owls, while Carly Kiernan had 15.
RIC clubbed Dartmouth 72-43.  Megan Ronaghan and Erika Bornemann each had 13 for the Corsairs, who were without the services of PG Kelsey Garrity, hopefully she's not injured.  Vandell Andrade had 12 points & 14 rebounds, while Alex Moore lead the team with 15 points.  After it was 32-28 at halftime, the Anchorwomen outscored the Corsairs 40-15 in the stanza, holding the Corsairs to 23.8% shooting, and 14 turnovers compared to only 5 made field goals.
Western gets the first battle of Connecticut, 61-36 over Eastern.  Jordyn Nappi was the lone Warrior in double figures with 10 points, while Colleen Casker had a game high 15 for Western.  I understand, the Feldman arena is a tough place to play and all with the depth perception and all, it's gotta be incredibly difficult to shoot on the baskets (I've played pick up games with the floor down, so I know about that depth perception) but Eastern was horrible.  Couldn't shoot (25.5%) and turned the ball over way to much (24 turnovers).  Not going to win you games.  That's now 3 subpar games for them dating back to the Keene game last Wednesday.  They have the perfect medication to fix that with the Panthers coming in Saturday, but they did to get back to that play they had coming into the Keene game.  But, let's see why I'm worried about the Warriors.  Take a look at their 8 LEC games so far: they played RIC twice, losing by 4, but were down by multiple possessions the entire second half, and winning in overtime by 2 on a last second 3 pointer by a person who doesn't play very often (Danyelle Rodriguez).  They played both USM & Boston at home meaning they go on the road to those teams in February.  Both are better at home than on the road anyways, but they beat Boston when the Beacons had their scoring draught when they could barely crack 45, and they beat the Huskies minus Rebecca Knight who is back and in the lineup.  Outside of the last 5 minutes or so, they looked terrible against keene, and that game was at home meaning they have to go to Keene later.  Their "signature" road game pre RIC was @ Dartmouth which was their only loss prior to the RIC setback.  It helps they do get the Corsairs in Willimantic, but they have a some really tough road games in February.  I'm not counting them out, but I'm a lot less confident today than I was 4 days ago.
USM over Boston 55-47.  Kirsten Morrison (12 points) & Olivia Murphy (13 points) had 25 of the Beacons 47 total points and Murphy grabbed 15 rebounds.  Megan Pelletier had 11 points, and Rebecca Knight had 12 points to lead USM in her first game back in the lineup since coming back from injury.  Erin McNamera did have 6 assists, but scored only 8 points, and shot 3-13 from the field including 0-7 from 3.

50-28 LEC; 81-26 overall.

Standings:
1) RIC 7-1 (13-5)
2) Eastern 5-3 (12-6)
2) USM 5-3 (12-6)
4) Western 4-4 (10-8)
4) Dartmouth 4-4 (11-7)
6) Keene 3-5 (10-7)
6) Boston 3-5 (11-7)
8) Plymouth 1-6 (2-14)
Tiebreakers: Eastern is 1-0 vs. USM, and Western is 1-0 vs. Dartmouth, so those are settled.  Keene is 1-0 vs. USM, while Boston is 0-1 vs. USM, so Keene gets the tiebreaker (since they finished 1-1 against each other).

Next game:
Daniel Webster @ Keene State January 30 7 PM

Next conference games:
All on February 1: Western @ Dartmouth, Plymouth @ Eastern, USM @ Keene, RIC @ Boston all starting at 1 PM.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 29, 2014, 12:54:03 AM
Quote from: AllStar on January 29, 2014, 12:50:22 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 28, 2014, 07:16:25 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 29, 2014, 01:03:50 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 29, 2014, 12:54:03 AM
Quote from: AllStar on January 29, 2014, 12:50:22 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 28, 2014, 07:16:25 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 30, 2014, 12:00:07 AM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 30, 2014, 10:54:07 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 31, 2014, 04:20:56 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 01, 2014, 12:59:00 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 01, 2014, 01:49:41 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 01, 2014, 03:03:15 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 03, 2014, 10:08:39 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 04, 2014, 11:04:48 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 04, 2014, 11:10:39 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 04, 2014, 11:12:06 PM
Quote from: AllStar on February 04, 2014, 11:04:48 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 04, 2014, 11:21:27 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 04, 2014, 11:12:06 PM
Quote from: AllStar on February 04, 2014, 11:04:48 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 05, 2014, 08:10:52 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 06, 2014, 09:11:31 PM
Dartmouth is falling apart, loses to Curry 75-69.  Bad bad loss.
Western beats Purchase easily, 70-43
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 06, 2014, 09:43:59 PM
Quote from: AllStar on February 06, 2014, 09:11:31 PM
Dartmouth is falling apart, loses to Curry 75-69.  Bad bad loss.
Western beats Purchase easily, 70-43

They were on the road so it's not surprising.  At this rate, if they played a high school team in the high school team's gymnasium, I doubt they would win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 06, 2014, 10:33:12 PM
Thursday results:

Western clobbers Purchase 70-43.  Chelsea Mone lead the Colonials with 14 points who finished shooting 48.2% shooting.  Jazmin Garcia had a game high 16 for the Panthers.  Western raced out to a 15 point halftime lead and was never seriously threatened in the second half.
Dartmouth continues to implode losing 69-75 at Curry.  Kelsey Garrity had maybe her best game of the year with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals, and Erika Bornemann added 17 points & rebounds, and the freshmen Megan Ronaghan & Ashley Brown added 11 & 9 points respectively, but it wasn't good enough as Ashley Assarain and Kylie Beltz each put in 25 to lead the way for the Colonels.  This is a huge make or break stretch for the Corsairs.  They have 3 of their next 4 games at home in the Tripp Athletic Center vs. USM, Boston & RIC and a road game at Eastern.  You figure they'll easily lose to Eastern, and probably lose to RIC, so I say they MUST have those 2 wins vs. USM AND Boston upcoming in order to have any chance at clinching the 3rd or 4th seed.  Even if they lose 1, I can't see how they finish in the top 4, and Dartmouth on the road is a guaranteed loss no matter who they play.  So, Bornemann, you've got 5 regular season games left in your career, it's time to rally the troops, because Saturday's game vs. USM is the most important game of the season.

No more non conference games remain, so the conference finishes 55-32 on the non-conference portion of the schedule.  My predictions go to 92-28.

Saturday schedule:
USM @ Dartmouth
Eastern @ Boston
Plymouth @ Western
Keene @ RIC.  I'll go with Eastern/Boston as the best of the day, even though I think Eastern wins by 10+.  USM also likely wins by 10+, sorry Allstar, but I got RIC by at least 15, and Western should clobber Plymouth.  Actually, none of those games look that interesting, tbh.  Good day to stay at home and catch up on the DVR/other teams in the nation, because the games on the men's side aren't very good either.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 07, 2014, 12:24:22 AM
No need to apologize.  My expectations for that team are gone.  In fact, at this point, I'm more interested to see how the young men finish than the women.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 07, 2014, 12:29:11 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 06, 2014, 10:33:12 PM
Thursday results:

Western clobbers Purchase 70-43.  Chelsea Mone lead the Colonials with 14 points who finished shooting 48.2% shooting.  Jazmin Garcia had a game high 16 for the Panthers.  Western raced out to a 15 point halftime lead and was never seriously threatened in the second half.
Dartmouth continues to implode losing 69-75 at Curry.  Kelsey Garrity had maybe her best game of the year with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals, and Erika Bornemann added 17 points & rebounds, and the freshmen Megan Ronaghan & Ashley Brown added 11 & 9 points respectively, but it wasn't good enough as Ashley Assarain and Kylie Beltz each put in 25 to lead the way for the Colonels.  This is a huge make or break stretch for the Corsairs.  They have 3 of their next 4 games at home in the Tripp Athletic Center vs. USM, Boston & RIC and a road game at Eastern.  You figure they'll easily lose to Eastern, and probably lose to RIC, so I say they MUST have those 2 wins vs. USM AND Boston upcoming in order to have any chance at clinching the 3rd or 4th seed.  Even if they lose 1, I can't see how they finish in the top 4, and Dartmouth on the road is a guaranteed loss no matter who they play.  So, Bornemann, you've got 5 regular season games left in your career, it's time to rally the troops, because Saturday's game vs. USM is the most important game of the season.

No more non conference games remain, so the conference finishes 55-32 on the non-conference portion of the schedule.  My predictions go to 92-28.

Saturday schedule:
USM @ Dartmouth
Eastern @ Boston
Plymouth @ Western
Keene @ RIC.  I'll go with Eastern/Boston as the best of the day, even though I think Eastern wins by 10+.  USM also likely wins by 10+, sorry Allstar, but I got RIC by at least 15, and Western should clobber Plymouth.  Actually, none of those games look that interesting, tbh.  Good day to stay at home and catch up on the DVR/other teams in the nation, because the games on the men's side aren't very good either.

7,
+1 for your outstanding prediction record!!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 07, 2014, 05:14:50 PM
Friday:

USM 73 @ Dartmouth 58.
A huge must win game for Dartmouth to save the floundering ship, but USM is starting to get back healthy.  They get RIC & Eastern at home the next 2 Saturday's, so they are very much still in the race for the top seed, but they can't afford to drop games like this.  They won't.  Important for both games, but USM is the more consistent team.
Eastern 65 @ Boston 53.
Probably the best game of a pretty weak slate.  Eastern had a pretty good game against a decent Conn College team on Tuesday after a week+ of subpar basketball.  The Beacons are a lot better at home, and still a very good defensive team, but the thing for them is if they are able to score points.  Magic number is 55: Eastern gets 55 or above they win, they get 54 or lower they lose.  I'll take Eastern to hit 60 and for them to win the game.
Plymouth 42 @ Western 79.
Since suffering a 19 point loss to SJME to drop Western below .500 on January 4, the Colonials have rattled off 8 wins in their last 11 games, and actually look like a competent basketball team.  Those included a big win at home vs. Eastern, and a big come from behind road win @ Dartmouth.  This team lost a bunch in the early part of the season, and have road games @ RIC & @ Eastern coming up, so they probably won't finish in the top 2, but a home game in the quarters is definitely still on the table for them.
Keene 48 @ RIC 65.
Keene is going the opposite way as Western.  As the Colonials are treading upwards, the Owls are treading downwards after a terrific start to the season losing 6 of their last 9 games.  RIC is coming off a beating at the hands of Tufts, but is still in control of the LEC.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 08, 2014, 01:45:25 PM
Halftime of all games and a bunch of blowouts.  It's sad when Plymouth/Western is your closest game.  That game has the Panthers up 4, RIC leads by 18, Eastern leads by 20, and USM leads by 8. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 08, 2014, 02:36:02 PM
Eastern wins 64-37
Dartmouth up by 1 with 2:10 left
RIC up 11 with 1:50 left
Western outscored Plymouth 30-12 in the second to win 58-44
RIC wins 70-57.
Dartmouth USM tied at 50 at the end of regulation.  Erin McNamera tied the game for the Huskies on a layup with 16 seconds to play, and Kelsey Garrity missed her own layup at the buzzer.
Dartmouth up by 2 with the ball 26 seconds left.  Last beat USM December 11, 1999.
2 free throws from Megan Ronaghan put Dartmouth up 4.
Dartmouth wins 64-59.  Only the second time ever Dartmouth has defeated USM, the first time was December 11, 1999.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 08, 2014, 09:52:42 PM
Saturday results:

RIC over Keene 70-57.  Jovan Kingwood was the only Owl in double digits with 10 points.  All 5 Anchorwomen were in double figures lead by Cara Paladino & Steph Prusko who each had a game high 14.  Vandell Andrade had 12 points and tied her career high with 22 rebounds.
Western over Plymouth 58-44.  DeAsia Lawrence had 12 for the Panthers and Sciarra brandt had 14 points & 16 rebounds both game highs for the Colonials.  Plymouth lead for most of the first half, before Western took advantage in the second half.
Eastern wallops the Beacons 64-37.  Jill Ritrosky had 12 points & 17 rebounds for Eastern, while Mallory Nelson was the only Beacon in double figures with 14.  The Beacons got a total of 8 points from their trio of Olivia Murphy (2 points), Andrea Suffredini (0 points), and Kirsten Morrison (6 points).  The Beacons were an ice cold 22.8% from the field (Murphy finished 1-13) while the Warriors finished shooting 52.2%.
Dartmouth with an overtime win over USM 64-59.  Rebecca Knight had 16 to lead the Huskies, and Erin McNamera added 11, including the baseline jumper with 16 seconds to go with tied the game and forced overtime.  For the Corsairs, Erika Bornemann had 24 points & 12 rebounds, and Kelsey Garrity added 12 points & 8 rebounds.  A huge win for Dartmouth.  According to the Dartmouth broadcast, this was Dartmouth's first win vs. USM since December 11, 1999 and only their SECOND win in the 66 game series history.  USM now owns an L1 in the series after winning 64 of the previous 65 times.  I know Dartmouth has been pretty terrible and USM has been the class of the league, but 64-1 in 65 games is pretty remarkable.  I would've thought Dartmouth would've caught them napping a couple times in the 27 years or whatever it's been.  I mean Boston has been just as bad if not worse than Dartmouth, and even the Beacons have gotten USM a couple times in that same time frame I think.

95-29 on the predictions.  In case you forgot, LEC finished 55-32 in the non conference slate, and they are done with non LEC games.

Standings:
1) RIC 9-1 (15-6)
2) Eastern 7-3 (15-6)
3) USM 6-4 (14-7)
3) Western 6-4 (13-8)
5) Dartmouth 5-5 (12-9)
6) Boston 3-7 (12-9)
6) Keene 3-7 (11-10)
8) Plymouth 1-9 (2-17)
USM swept the season series from Western, so they win that tiebreaker.  I think Boston wins the tiebreaker vs. Keene since they have a better record vs. USM/Western (1-1 50%) than Keene does (1-2 33%).

Schedule:
Tuesday, February 11:
USM @ Plymouth 5:30 PM
Boston @ Dartmouth 5:30 PM
Western @ RIC 5:30 PM
Eastern @ Keene 5:30 PM.  Boston/Dartmouth and RIC/Western are the 2 best games.  Due to Boston sliding and Western rising, Western/RIC might've taken over top billing.

Saturday, February 15:
Keene @ Western 1 PM
Dartmouth @ Eastern 1 PM
RIC @ USM 1 PM
Boston @ Plymouth 1 PM.  As of now RIC/USM is the best, but if Keene can beat Eastern, and Dartmouth beats Boston, that Dartmouth/Eastern game could take the spot.  I'll let Tuesday play out before I give top billing for Saturday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 10, 2014, 03:51:49 PM
Tuesday predictions:

USM 73 @ Plymouth 38.
Nothing to see here.  If Plymouth can keep this under 20, it'll be a miracle.

Boston 49 @ Dartmouth 66.
Dartmouth with a great OT victory over USM, and now have to sustain it in this other very important game.  Boston is in another scoring drought, losing their last 4 LEC games, scoring an average of 46 per game in those 4 games.

Western 49 @ RIC 58.
Probably the best game of the day.  This has been a roller coaster type season for Western: Started out with 4 wins to open the season, than lost 5 in a row, rebounded with 5 wins a row, than went on a modest 3 game losing streak, and now are currently on a 4 game winning streak.  Since losing at home to Western January 18, 2011, RIC has won 19 of their last 22 LEC games at the Murray center, the only 3 losses in a 3 game stretch last year where they lost to Western 58-42, Dartmouth 60-57 in overtime, and USM 56-54 in overtime. 

Eastern 67 @ Keene 44.
The wheels have started to fall off the bus for Keene.  Eastern still in the hunt with RIC & USM for the title, but have a tough closing stretch after this (home vs. Dartmouth & Western @ USM) so they can't afford to lose games like this.

Massey ratings:
USM 61-36 98% win probability
RIC 60-45 90% win probability
Dartmouth 64-62 56% win probability
Eastern 68-60 74% win probability
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2014, 06:22:02 PM
Halftime of all 4 games and some interesting scores to put it nicely:
At the game I'm at Western trails RIC by 1 28-29
Dartmouth leads Boston 45-31
Keene leads Eastern 34-33
Plymouth leads USM 23-21.

How many can hold on in second??  Western has been playing great, can they steal one??  Plymoith lead by 4 @ Western before they collapsed in second can they get enough points??  Keene has been an AWFUL second half team lately can they hold up for another 20 minutes??  Conference could be really turned upside down with wins by Plymouth, Keene, and Western.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2014, 07:18:06 PM
The games today were like Cinemax gave a tease but never went all the way.  Favorites pulled away in the second.
USM won 54-48; Dartmouth won by like 25, sorry Allstar Keene women had ANOTHER second half implosion lost by like 12.  Western fought but bad calls, bad decisions with the ball, and a significant talent gap between these 2 teams leaves Western with a 9 point loss.  I'll have a recap Wednesday as I'm going straight to bed when I get home.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 12, 2014, 12:45:06 AM
Quote from: 7express on February 11, 2014, 07:18:06 PM
The games today were like Cinemax gave a tease but never went all the way.  Favorites pulled away in the second.
USM won 54-48; Dartmouth won by like 25, sorry Allstar Keene women had ANOTHER second half implosion lost by like 12.  Western fought but bad calls, bad decisions with the ball, and a significant talent gap between these 2 teams leaves Western with a 9 point loss.  I'll have a recap Wednesday as I'm going straight to bed when I get home.

Don't worry...I'm used to these implosions now!  Included in this implosion was a ridiculous amount of fouls called against both teams.  Eastern got to the line 3 times in the first half and 28 times (!!!) in the second.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 12, 2014, 04:33:44 PM
Before I get to the results, regional rankings: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2014/02/12/2014-ncaa-regional-rankings-week-1/

RIC comes in 8th & Eastern 10th.  USUALLY the cutoff is the 5-7 range between getting in/not getting in, so with that, let's take a look:
Tufts, Williams, Bowdoin & Amherst.  All 4 are locks, but only 1 will win the NESCAC.  So there's at least 3 on the table.
Then you get to UNE & Roger Williams (5th & 7th).  They are both in the same conference, so only 1 could win the auto bid.  RIC lost head to head to both.  I don't think they neccessarly take head-to-head into account anyways.  RWU plays @ UNE to end the season the 22nd.  Hopefully UNE wins that game and wins the championship matchup between the 2 (would also be @ UNE), that's probably enough to get RIC past RWU.
Wheaton at 6th.  There;s a lot of teams playing well in the NEWMAC (Babson just beat #5 Tufts, Wellesley is #12 in region, Coast Guard has some good wins), but nobody is really that stand out good.  That tournament is wide open, but hopefully they win the auto bid to take them off the board.
Eastern definitely has to win the conference to get in, I think in the end RIC does too, but at least they have a pulse unlike Eastern.  IF UNE wins the 2 games vs. RWU & Wheaton wins the NEWMAC that may be enough to get RIC in as an at-large.  As Al Davis says, Just win baby!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 12, 2014, 11:49:04 PM
Eastern beat Keene 78-69.  Kelsey Cognetta had 18 points for Keene while Jill Ritrosky & Jordyn Nappi lead Eastern with 26 & 24 respectively, and Ritrosky added 10 rebounds. 
RIC over Western 65-56.  Colleen Cosker lead Western with 19 while RIC got 4 in double figures lead by Vandell Andrade's 21 & Steph Prusko's 17.  Western played well, but the talent gap was too big to overcome, but nice to see them fightning.
Dartmouth over Boston 76-59.  Olivia Murphy had 19 to lead the Beacons and Kirsten Morrison added 12 off the bench.  Erika Bornemann had 21 points, 6 rebounds and 8 blocks, while Kelsey Garrity added 16 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
USM over Plymouth 54-48.  DeAsia Lawrence had 12 points to lead the Panthers, while Megan Pellitier had 20 points & 15 rebounds to lead USM.  Erin McNamera played only 9 minutes, if she got injured, they're in big trouble.

99-29 predictions.  LEC finished 55-32 in non conference play.

Standings:
1) RIC 10-1 (16-6)
2) Eastern 8-3 (16-6)
3) USM 7-4 (15-7)
4) Western 6-5 (13-9)
4) Dartmouth 6-5 (13-9)
6) Keene 3-8 (11-11)
6) Boston 3-8 (12-10)
8) Plymouth 1-10 (2-18)
Tiebreakers: Western swept Dartmouth, so the Colonials win any tiebreaker over the Corsairs.  Keene is 1-1 vs. USM (50%) while the Beacons are 0-1 (0%), so the Owls win a tiebreaker over the Beacons.

Saturday schedule:
Keene @ Western 1 PM
Dartmouth @ Eastern 1 PM
Boston @ Plymouth 1 PM
RIC @ USM.  RIC/USM is the best game, but Eastern/Dartmouth is a close second.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 14, 2014, 02:11:12 PM
Sat predictions:

Keene 53 @ Western 65.
Keene will probably play well the first half, but they can't close the deal.  With a win, Western would finish no lower than 5th place.
Dartmouth 65 @ Eastern 69.
Dartmouth had 2 big wins at home last week, but I just cannot trust them on the road in a big game like this.  Dartmouth is still in the running to finish as high as second, and a win in this game would give them a head-to-head sweep over Eastern which would be great for them in case they tied USM, but since 2 of their last 3 are on the road, and the lone home game is with RIC I don't see it happening.  They probably end up in the 4/5 game with Western.  Much like Western, a win by the Corsairs would guarantee Dartmouth no worse than a 5th place finish.
Boston 54 @ Plymouth 56.
Plymouth beat them in Boston, and the Panthers have had halftime leads against Western & USM the last 2 games.  The Beacons don't quite have the offensive firepower that the Colonials or Huskies do, so if the Panthers are able to lead at half again, they should be able to hang on and win.
RIC 67 @ USM 69.
USM has been up and down and they've been an absolute killer for me this year.  After 2 awful showings on the road @ Dartmouth & @ Plymouth this past week, USM is going to be smelling blood in the water.  RIC wouldn't lock down the #1 seed, but they'd win at least a share of the title with the win.  A win by the Huskies leaves the door open ever so slightly for the Huskies, and makes it an interesting race with the Colonials.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 15, 2014, 01:30:15 PM
After taking a couple steps forward, Plymouth like usually the last couple seasons takes 5 steps backwards with a putrid offensive performance: 2-16 from the field in trailing the Beacons 19-6 with 7 minutes to play in the first.  The Panthers got the Beacons in a stretch where the Beacons couldn't hit water from a Carnival Cruise Ship traveling in the middle of the Atlantic.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 15, 2014, 01:49:07 PM
Halftime scores:

Western ended the half on a 18-4 run after Keene took a quick 17-14 lead to lead 32-21 at halftime.
Dartmouth/Eastern tied at 22.  Warriors lead by as much as 9.
Boston up 36-14.  Beacons are shooting 50%; Panthers are shooting 19%.
USM up 26-20.  RIC only shooting 21% compared to USM's 46% yet they're only down 6.

Dartmouth/Eastern and USM/RIC games are the only ones worth keeping tabs on in the second half.  Boston & Western should win pretty handedly.  Will have results later on.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 15, 2014, 01:53:06 PM
As usual Keene couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 15, 2014, 02:53:01 PM
Eastern loses at home to Dartmouth and even though RIC got killed by USM, they just clinched home court throughout the LEC.  Here's how from what I can find.
IF USM & RIC finish tied at 10-4: RIC wins based on them being 2-0 vs. Keene while USM was 1-1.
IF RIC & Eastern finish tied at 10-4: RIC wins the tiebreaker since they would have a better record against Dartmouth & Western than Eastern would.  In this scenario, RIC would be 3-1 vs. Western & Dartmouth while Eastern would be 1-3.
Eastern's loss has eliminated the possibility for the 3 way tie at 10-4 to happen since Eastern still has to play USM, though since RIC ended the year at home vs. Plymouth I had the better chance to win the lotto 6 straight years than that 10-4 3 way tie had of happening.

Edit: RIC hasn't clinched just yet.  If Plymouth & Keene finished tied RIC & USM would have to go to some obscure tiebreaker to break it which I believe would be the coin flip.  Since no one else can pass or tie Dartmouth or Western, and RIC has the head to head over Eastern on both of those teams whether they finished tied or one finishes ahead of the other Eastern is officially eliminated from hosting the tournament.
USM is still mathematically alive.....but barely hanging on by a string.  For the LEC tourney to go through Gorham they need ALL of the following to occur: 2 USM wins (@ Boston, home vs. Eastern, both likely to happen), 2 RIC losses (@ Dartmouth, home vs. Plymouth, highly doubt RIC loses them both), 2 Keene losses (home vs. Plymouth & Dartmouth, not likely), and 2 Plymouth wins (@ Keene, @ RIC.  Highly unlikely).  if this miracle scenario did happen to occur, RIC & USM would be: 1-1 vs. each other, 1-1 vs. Eastern, 1-1 vs. Dartmouth, 2-0 vs. Western and 2-0 vs. Boston.  Plymouth & Keene would be tied for 7th and each team would be 1-1 against them (RIC would've lost to Plymouth; USM lost to Keene) and since you can't break the tie that way, they would've exhausted all other tiebreakers and head straight for the coin flip like they did deciding Western/Plymouth men's 6th seed last year (1-1 vs. each other, 2-0 vs. Dartmouth, 0-10 vs. the rest of the league).  So, on top of all of the above scenerios to occur, USM would have to beat RIC in the coin flip as well.  I'll have scenario;s after I do the recap.

I'm officially penciling in RIC as the #1 seed however.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 15, 2014, 05:15:22 PM
Sat results:

Dartmouth over Eastern 54-41.  The Corsairs finally did something outside of the Tripp Athletic Center!!  Too little too late I think, but this was a killer loss for Eastern as they fall to 0-2 vs. Dartmouth this year and couple that with their loss to Western earlier in the season, and this loss has officially eliminated the Warriors from hosting the LEC tournament as even if they tie end up tied with RIC at years end, RIC would have a superior winning percentage over Western & Dartmouth than Eastern would (75% for RIC compared to 25% for Eastern).  Beth Constantini had 15 points to lead the Corsairs while Erin Fahey had 6 points & 10 rebounds off the bench.  Jordyn Nappi lead Eastern with 13 and Jill Ritrosky had 6 points and 10 rebounds but only shot 1-10 from the field.
USM over RIC 64-48.  They might've lost the game, but RIC has all but locked up the #1 seed and home court in the LEC.  Steph Prusko had 13 points, but missed 13 shots from the floor, and Vandell Andrade had 17 rebounds and 15 points for RIC and Erin McNamera had a game high 12 for the Huskies.
Western over Keene 61-56.  Kerri Stolle & Chelsea Mone each had 14 for Western while Carly Kiernan had a game high 23 for the Owls.  The Western bench with Caroline Brasa out is terrible.  The 2 players off the bench for the Colonials had as many turnovers (6) as points (6) and field goal attempts (6).
Boston over Plymouth 64-54.  Considering the Beacons were up 36-14 at halftime, the fact the Panthers only lost by 10 should be considered a minor miracle.  No boxscore for this game, think livestats went kaboom up at Plymouth today as there were no live stats for the men's game either.

101-31 on the year

Standings:
1) RIC 10-2 (16-7)
2) Eastern 8-4 (16-7)
2) USM 8-4 (16-7)
4) Western 7-5 (14-9)
4) Dartmouth 7-5 (14-9)
6) Boston 4-8 (13-10)
7) Keene 11-12 (3-9)
8) Plymouth 1-11 (2-19)

Schedule:
Tuesday, February 18:
RIC @ Dartmouth 5:30
Western @ Eastern 5:30
USM @ Boston 5:30
Plymouth @ Keene 5:30.  RIC/Dartmouth and Western/Eastern best of the day.

Saturday, February 22:
Boston @ Western 1
Dartmouth @ Keene 1
Plymouth @ RIC 1
Eastern @ USM 1.  Depending what happens Tuesday, USM/Eastern could be the best or all 4 could be meaningless.  USM/Eastern will be a battle for second, but when the bottom of the conference is so bad like this year and on a neutral court where 2 would play 3 I don't see any difference between the 2 & 3 this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 15, 2014, 07:46:42 PM
Scenerios for the final 2 games.  First I'll say which teams can occupy those spots, and the scenerio's for each team.

#1.  This will come down to either RIC or USM.  Eastern CANNOT get #1.  Eastern can still tie RIC, but they lose all tiebreakers to RIC
#2.  Can be any either RIC, Dartmouth, Western, Eastern or USM.  Basically anyone still occupying the top spot can finish here
#3.  Same as #2, except RIC CANNOT finish as the 3 seed, they'll be either 1 or 2, but won't drop below 2.
#4 & #5.  Same as #2 with Eastern, USM, Dartmouth & Western still in the running for the 2-5 seeds.  What an absolute mess the top half of the conference is!
#6.  Either Boston or Keene.
#7.  Boston, Keene or Plymouth.
#8.  Keene or Plymouth.  Now let's go for the team by team results and where they can finish:

There's too many scenerio's to figure out the top 5.  I'll try to update my blog, so I'll post that sometime in the coming days if I can figure it out. 
As I said earlier RIC only needs one of the following to happen to clinch home court: 1 win; OR 1 USM loss; OR 1 Plymouth loss OR 1 Keene win.
USM needs: 2 wins; AND 2 losses by RIC; AND 2 Plymouth wins AND 2 Keene losses AND finally a coin flip in their favor.  In this case, USM and RIC would be tied at 10-4 and would've exhausted all tiebreakers, so the conference would flip George Washington.
2-5 is a mess, not gonna try to figure that out now
to clinch the 6 seed Boston needs 1 win AND 1 Keene loss; if they are tied at the end, the spot will come down to conference standings.  Boston has wins over Dartmouth & Western while Keene is winless against them; while Keene has a win over USM while Boston is winless against them. 
To clinch no worse than the 7 seed Keene needs 1 win OR 1 Plymouth loss.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2014, 06:30:00 PM
Tuesday predictions:

RIC 59 @ Dartmouth 64.
2 more games left for Dartmouth, win out and they'll be hosting a first round game because since Eastern & USM still have to play, at least 1 of them is guaranteed a 5th loss, and Dartmouth would win a tiebreaker I believe.  At RIC in January, the Anchorwomen completely demolished the Corsairs winning by 29 points.....however, the game was a 4 point RIC lead at halftime before Dartmouth completely fell apart in the second half.  They've been inconsistent, but I don't think their 25 points worse than RIC at home which is what the second half at RIC said, and they've been playing with urgency.  They get the W to stay in the hunt for a home spot.
Western 61 @ Eastern 54.
Another "mild" upset, but in games like this you throw records out the window.  Eastern has 2 wins against a team currently sitting tied for 4th or better out 6 attempts: 1 was by 2 over RIC in overtime on a last second 3 pointer, the other was by 9 over USM without Rebecca Knight, so how much can we put in those 2 games??  The second question is whether Eastern is going to able to score??  They only got 36 a few weeks ago in Danbury, and Western isn't the best team in the world or even the best team in the conference, but their one of the better defensive teams in the conference.  Western started off slow, but is really picking up steam, and even in their losses, they've been within a couple possessions inside 3 minutes against RIC & USM.  If Eastern was only able to put 41 on the board against the Corsairs, they'll struggle against the much better defensive unit the Colonials will throw at them.
USM 57 @ Boston 53.
The Beacons are tough to read this year.  They've lost to Plymouth, and have averaged 42 points in2 games against Eastern and 37 points in 2 games against RIC, yet they've beaten Dartmouth by 15 & Western by 26 both at home in the Clark Athletic Center.  Aside from RIC (twice both in 2012) and USM (twice, once back in December and the other time in 2011), Western hadn't lost a conference game by 15 or more points to any of the other 5 teams since Keene beat them 72-57 way back on February 10, 2007.  They only lost by 8 in Maine, and seem to play a lot better at home.  The Beacons are 13-1 when they get 57 or more points and a dismal 0-9 when they get held to 57 or less.  The Huskies are still the best defensive unit in the conference giving up just a tad more than 50 ppg, and as their 2 seasons go on, the 26 point W over Western is more and more of a fluke than the team their capable of being.  Hope they can pull out, but they won't get enough points.
Plymouth 43 @ Keene 52.
Not a game to watch for the offensive minded fan.  Keene beat them by 3 in Plymouth, but every time I think the Panthers are moving forward they take 5 steps backwards.

Massey ratings:
RIC 68-61 71% win percentage
Eastern 59-50 79% win percentage
USM 55-47 73% win percentage
Keene 66-51 91% win percentage
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 18, 2014, 01:51:57 PM
Eastern/Western postponed to tomorrow with the women at 5:30 and the men at 7:30.  Other 3 games tonight, still on as scheduled at the moment.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 18, 2014, 06:21:00 PM
RIC leads 28-26 at halftime.  Dartmouth with 10 more shot attempts because RIC has turned it over 14 times already.  Vandell Andrade already with a double double: 10 points & 11 rebounds.  Erika Borneman with 7 points & 5 rebounds to lead the Corsairs.
USM leads Boston 21-19.  Erin McNamers with 12 to lead the way so far.  Olivia Murphy out for the Beacons with an illness I believe as she hasn't appeared in the half.
Keene clobbering Plymouth 31-14 at the half.  The sad part of this is that Plymouth was actually up 9-5 meaning they got outscored 26-5 to end the half.  No stats for this game, and I'm not even going to pay attention to this in the second half with such a big lead and the other two games 2 point games.  I'll have Allstar post a final later, but Keene probably wins by 20+.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 18, 2014, 07:10:03 PM
Dartmouth wins 58-54 and since Western's game was postponed, they flip in the standings.
Boston and USM tied at 47 with 27 seconds left.  USM is 61-0 all time vs. Boston.  Dartmouth was only 1-65 against USM heading into their matchup on the 8th and Dartmouth won, can the Beacons do the same??
Erin McNamera hit 1-2 free throws to put USM up 1.  Boston ball 20 seconds left, shot clock off.
Lauren Perra called for traveling, so ball goes back to USM up 1.
McNamera going back to the line for 2 free throws.  Even if she makes both, USM will still have a chance to tie with a 3.
McNamera hits 1-2 again to put USM up 2; Andrea Suffredini pushes the ball, gets fouled with 2 tenths of a second left, and misses the first free throw.  And of course she hits the second free throw trying to miss, so the Beacons fall by 1 49-48 and fall to 0-62 all time vs. the Huskies.
Plymouth ended up winning by around 30, not sure of the exact final.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 18, 2014, 07:43:18 PM
Eastern isn't officially dead yet like I declared them the other way, but USM has officially been taken off life support.  At most they'll be playing 1 game in Gorham.
IF RIC & USM both tie at 10-4: RIC wins the tiebreaker because they'd have a better record vs. Keene (2-0) while USM is 1-1.  With Keene's win over Plymouth it is mathematically impossible to for Plymouth to tie/pass Keene.  So USM is officially out.  The ones with Eastern are a bit more complicated.
IF RIC & Eastern tie at 10-4, we have 2 scenerio's: scenario A & scenario B:
Scenario A has Dartmouth beating Keene.  In this case, USM & Dartmouth would be tied for 3rd at 9-5.  Since each were 1-1 vs. each other, it goes down to record vs. conference opponents starting from the top.  Each team finished .500 vs. USM & Dartmouth, but each took different routes: RIC split with each, while Eastern would've swept USM and gotten swept by Dartmouth.  However, since they'll be tied I don't think you can use the "superior winning %" strategy, so it goes down to the next team: Western.  RIC would be 2-0, eastern 1-1.  So RIC wins the conference in scenario A
Scenario B has Keene beating Dartmouth: In this case USM would finish in sole possession of 3rd, so the superior winning % Eastern has over USM would take precedent so they'd win the conference.

Of course all of this is a moot point since RIC hosts Plymouth (I think Massey has RIC with a 100% win probability for that game).  That would be the upset of the century if Plymouth was able to win that game.   
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 18, 2014, 11:09:22 PM
Tuesday results:

Dartmouth over RIC 58-54.  Definitely peaking at the right time.  Megan Ronaghan had 16 points and 16 rebounds while Vandell Andrade filled up the stat sheet for RIC: 23 points, 18 rebounds, 6 blocks, and 6 steals.  Too bad Cara Paladino had the next highest point total which was 9.  RIC was down, but Cara Paladino missed 2 jumpers from close inside the final 15 seconds.
USM by 1 over Boston 49-48.  Kirsten Morrison, filling in for a sick Olivia Murphy had 18 points, and Andrea Suffredini added 13 for the Beacons but missed a free throw that would've forced overtime.  Erin McNamera lead all scorers with 19 points.  The Beacons had the ball in a tie game inside of 60 seconds, but turned it over.  After Erin McNamera knocked down 1-2 free throws, Lauren Parra got called for traveling with 7 seconds to go down 1.  Erin mcNamera hit 1-2 free throws again to go up 2, and Mariah Callender fouled Suffredini with 2 tenths of a second left.  Suffredini missed the first and made the second trying for a miracle put back for the 1 point margin.
Keene wallops Plymouth 66-34.  Christan Wojtas with 12 for the Owls, DeAsia Lawrence had a game high 14 for the Panthers.  No Owls player logged more than 22 minutes in this game.  In the first 4:15 of the contest, Plymouth hit 3 of their first 6 field goal attempts, and only had 2 turnovers.  The final 35:45 the Panthers shot 8-39 and committed 27 turnovers.

104-31.

Wednesday schedule:
Western @ Eastern 5:30 PM

Standings:
1) RIC 10-3 (16-8)
2) USM 9-4 (17-7)
3) Eastern 8-4 (16-7)
4) Dartmouth 8-5 (15-9)
5) Western 7-5 (14-9)
6) Keene 4-9 (12-12)
6) Boston 4-9 (13-11)
8) Plymouth 1-12 (2-20)
Note: Keene currently holds the tiebreaker (1-1 vs. USM while Boston was 0-2).

Tournament picture:
What a mess.  I'll wait for the Eastern/Western game to play out because an eastern win would make it about 10 times less cloudy. Not only do we still have scenerio's where we could see multiple teams tied, but the 4 team tie for second at 9-5 is still mathematically possible.  What a mess that would take to figure out.  The only thing we learned today:
Plymouth is locked in at #8
USM is officially OUT as running for the #1 seed
RIC would officially clinch the #1 seed with a Western win over Eastern.  I'll leave the rest alone.  Even the 6/7 seed between Keene/Boston isn't very easy to figure out especially if we get the 4 team's at 9-5.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 19, 2014, 12:38:27 AM
Some interesting results tonight in my opinion.  It is clear that this league does have some parity this year despite being down (just like the men).  However, if RIC ends up hosting the tournament I'd still favor them to win it.  I do believe however that the prospects of any teams in this league doing much damage come March is not great.  Even RIC I don't think is good enough to.  Dartmouth does seem to be playing better for the moment, getting very nice wins recently over RIC and USM.  I'm still not really sure what USM is...struggling at Boston and Plymouth (!!??) recently.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 19, 2014, 01:02:07 AM
Quote from: AllStar on February 19, 2014, 12:38:27 AM
Some interesting results tonight in my opinion.  It is clear that this league does have some parity this year despite being down (just like the men).  However, if RIC ends up hosting the tournament I'd still favor them to win it.  I do believe however that the prospects of any teams in this league doing much damage come March is not great.  Even RIC I don't think is good enough to.  Dartmouth does seem to be playing better for the moment, getting very nice wins recently over RIC and USM.  I'm still not really sure what USM is...struggling at Boston and Plymouth (!!??) recently.

RIC has been the most consistent team the whole season, and Dartmouth is playing the best basketball of anyone in the conference.
USM has been so incosnstant.  They clobber RIC, yet struggle against Plymouth & Boston.  Outside of Maine where they'll be after the quarterfinals isn't a good place for them.
Eastern is overrated.  Have eaten cupcakes this year.  IMO, it's imperative that they beat Western.  If they end up in the 4/5 game (which could still happen even with a Eastern win) I'll take the other team.  Eastern has looked terrible against the top tier teams this year.
Western is the darkhorse in this thing.  They've been playing really well, and outside of Boston (which was a fluke) and USM which took place in December when they were terrible, they've been competitive in every other LEC game they've played.  They may not have beaten RIC or USM but they were within 6 points or fewer against both of them inside of 4 minutes, so they have the capability of being either team.
Still, I'd put RIC & Dartmouth as the front runners.  Don't see anyone beating RIC in the Murray Center.  Dartmouth won't lose by 30 there again, but they likely won't win either.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 19, 2014, 04:02:38 PM
RR's.  RIC 8th, Eastern 9th, USM gets in at #12.  Neither of these 3 will be getting pool C's however, and RIC is going to take a tumble in next week's rankings since their loss to Dartmouth last night wasn't factored in this weeks:

Northeast
1 Tufts 23-1 23-1
2 Amherst 22-2 22-2
3 Williams 20-4 20-4
4 Bowdoin 20-4 20-4
5 New England 21-2 21-2
6 Wheaton (Mass.) 19-5 19-5
7 Roger Williams 19-4 19-4
8 Rhode Island College 16-7 16-7
9 Eastern Connecticut State 16-7 16-7
10 Emmanuel (Mass.) 17-6 17-6
11 Castleton 21-3 21-3
12 Southern Maine 16-7 16-7
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 19, 2014, 05:30:28 PM
A few scenerios for this evening:
A Western win would leave Eastern, Western & Dartmouth all tied for 3rd at 8-5 a game behind USM at 9-4 and still leave the 4 way tiebreaker at 9-5 possible (though I highly doubt Eastern wins @ USM).  This scenario also gives RIC the 1 seed.
An Eastern win would leave Western Connecticut somewhere in the 4/5 game (they'd be 2 games back of Eastern & USM with 1 to play).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 19, 2014, 06:14:20 PM
Eastern 32-19 at the half.  Sciarra Brant (7) and Jill Ritrosky (8) lead the way.  Western shooting 8-31 (with about 10 missed layups) and 10 turnovers.  Eastern have 4 less points in 20 minutes than they had in 40 minutes a few weeks back @ Eastern.  I think 13 points with this team that doesn't shoot the ball very well or score many points (second to last in the conference in ppg) is too many points to come back from.  Hopefully I'm wrong.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 19, 2014, 07:23:43 PM
Eastern wins 57-45.  Sciarra Brandt had 16 points for the Colonials, who was the only Colonial in double figures, while Jill Ritrosky had a game high 17 for Eastern.  Eastern outshot Western 32-7 from the fee throw line.  Locks Western in the 4/5 game and will drop the Colonials down to 5 unless the Corsairs lose @ Keene.  Assuming RIC beats Plymouth (and since the Panthers have 3 LEC wins in 4 seasons and Massey has RIC with a 99% win probability that's a pretty safe assumption), the winner of USM/Eastern on Saturday is the 2 seed and the loser (if Dartmouth beats Keene) drops all the way down to 4 and will play Western. Speaking of the Corsairs, they are the biggest winner tonight.  As long as they win @ Keene Saturday, they WILL be the 3 seed.  This loss guarantees Western cannot tie/pass Eastern and USM, so the Corsairs would win a tiebreaker over the loser of USM/Eastern Saturday.  They'd be 2-0 vs. Eastern, so they'd win head-to-head, they'd win a tiebreaker over USM because they'd be 2-0 vs. Eastern while USM would be 0-2.  I'll have full scenario's shortly.

104-32.

Standings:
1) RIC 10-3 (16-8)
2) Eastern 9-4 (17-7)
2) USM 9-4 (17-7)
4) Dartmouth 8-5 (15-9)
5) Western 7-6 (14-10)
6) Keene 4-9 (12-12)
6) Boston 4-9 (13-11)
8) Plymouth 1-12 (2-20)
Note: Eastern currently has the tiebreaker over USM (won the only meeting so far) and Keene currently holds the tiebreaker (1-1 vs. USM while Boston was 0-2). 

Tournament picture:
Much clearer now.  RIC clinches the 1 seed with a win OR Eastern loss
Dartmouth clinches the 3 seed with a win over Keene.  Don't need any other help, ball's in their court.
Assuming RIC beats Plymouth: IF Dartmouth beats Keene, the winner of USM/Eastern clinches the 2 seed and the loser falls to 4.
Western can't finish any higher than 4th: Western finishes 4th and hosts Dartmouth with: A win vs. Boston AND a Dartmouth loss vs. Keene.
Dartmouth finishes 4th with a loss AND Western loss.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 21, 2014, 01:05:32 PM
Sat Predictions:

Boston 46 @ Western 54.
What a great game we'll have here!  One team (Boston) that will open on the road, can't score (6th in points per game at 57.7), can't shoot (next to last in field goal percentage) but plays pretty good defense (3rd in the conference at 55.1 opponents ppg) vs. the other team (Western) that plays good defense (second in the conference at 54.2 ppg), but also can't shoot (next to last in field goals attempted) and can't score (next to last in points per game at 56.6) and will more than likely open on the road as well.  Boston will either end up 6/7, Western is locked in the 4/5 game, only way they'll finish 4th is with a win & Dartmouth loss.  Boston finishes 6th with a win AND Keene loss to Dartmouth, otherwise they're 7th.
Plymouth 36 @ RIC 65.
Nothing to see here.  RIC will rebound nicely after two tough home losses and will officially clinch the 1 seed.  Since this will be the 1/8 matchup (unless RIC loses and Eastern wins @ USM), even though RIC doesn't have a lot of bodies on it's bench, I'd be surprised to see Vandell Andrade, Steph Prusko, or Cara Paladino play any more than 5 or 10 minutes in the second.
Dartmouth 75 @ Keene 65.
Dartmouth has the ball in their court, win and they are the 3 seed.  Since this also has the potential to be the 3/6 game on Tuesday night, I wouldn't be that surprised if the Corsairs bench got a lot of minutes.  I know they need to win the game, but they've been pretty productive.
Eastern 57 @ USM 69.
The game of the day.  Unless Dartmouth loses to Keene, the winner of this game will be the 2 seed, while the loser falls all the way down to 4th and plays Western in the 4/5 game.  A Dartmouth loss to Keene, only drops the loser to 3rd.   Eastern won by 9 in Willimantic, but that was without Rebecca Knight for the Huskies.  They have her back and they're at home.  Huskies get the 2 seed and we get another Eastern/Western matchup at Geissler gymnasium on Tuesday night.

Massey predictions:
USM 59-53 68% win probability
RIC 69-35 100% win probability
Dartmouth 69-68 51% win probability
Western 55-48 71% win probability
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 22, 2014, 01:55:11 PM
Western leads 25-20, RIC leads 40-19, USM leads 28-17, and Dartmouth has reappeared with the Jackyl version trailing 31-25.  All games at half.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 22, 2014, 02:46:29 PM
RIC wins 70-33 to lock up home court, Western wins 49-38, USM wins 56-38 to lock up second, Dartmouth down 9 with 8 seconds to go.  That leaves:

RIC 1, USM 2, Eastern 3, Western 4, Dartmouth 5, Keene 6, Boston 7, Plymouth 8.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 22, 2014, 08:27:21 PM
Saturday results:

RIC over Plymouth 70-33.  DeAsia Lawrence had 13 to lead Plymouth; Steph Prusko had 20 points to lead RIC while Vandell Andrade filled the stat sheet: 13 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals.  Two things: 1) Since Plymouth has to play @ RIC again Tuesday, do you think they're going back to campus, or staying in Rhode Island?  2) Will Plymouth score more or less points on Tuesday??
USM gets the 2 seed with a win over 56-38 win over Eastern.  No double digit scorer for the Warriors, as Julia dePoi, Jordyn Nappi, and Shannon McCourt each lead the team with 6, while Mariah Callendar lead USM with 12 and Rebecca Knight had 11 points & 9 rebounds for USM. 
Western over Boston 49-38.  What did I say yesterday.  Two good defensive teams vs. two teams that can't shoot or score points.  Let's see how it played out.  Teams combined for: less than 90 points (87), 79 rebounds, 24 turnovers, 30 made field goals and a 29.4% field goal percentage (30-102).  Yikes!
Keene over Dartmouth 75-62.  Carly Kiernan lead the Owls with 14 points, and Stephanie D'Annolfo had  16 points and 10 rebounds.  Erika Bornemann had 16 points & 11 rebounds, megan Ronaghan had 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Kelsey Garrity had 10 points, but no one else did anything.  What an incredible disappointment.  Them & Boston by far the 2 biggest dissapointments.  And Btw, you think they want that home loss to Western back right about now??  Up by 8 points at halftime on a team that can't score the basketball at all, yet they lose the game.  At home no less!  And how do you sweep Eastern, beat RIC & beat USM, yet get swept by the worst Western team in 8 years and lose to Keene state??  Mind boggling!  When you look back on the season, the Western win @ Dartmouth February 1 is on my short list for "worst loss of any team in the conference" when you see how the standings played out.  USM losing at home to Keene state in November comes in a close second, but the Huskies still would've had to win a coin flip vs. RIC to host the tournament.

107-33.

Official tournament picture:
#8 Plymouth (2-21, 1-13)
@ 2/25
#1 RIC (17-8, 11-3)

#5 Dartmouth (15-10, 8-6)
@ 2/25
#4 Western (15-10, 8-6)

#7 Boston (13-12, 4-10)
@ 2/25
#2 USM (18-7, 10-4)

#6 Keene (13-12, 5-9)
@ 2/25
#3 Eastern (17-8, 9-5)
Dartmouth went 0-2 vs. Western which is why they get sent on the road
RIC will blow out Plymouth, Eastern should beat Keene, Boston has played USM tough 2 times this year, but in USM with Olivia Murphy out will be too much.  The final game will either be a Dartmouth win or a Western blow out.  No matter what the records and season series say, Dartmouth is the better team, it's just a matter of which Dartmouth team shows up.  If it's the one that showed up here in January, they'll get killed.  If it's the one that played back to back @ Eastern and vs. RIC they'll get the win.  Full predictions Monday.
RIC/Eastern/and Western all have double headers with the men so those games should start at 5:30 like any ordinary Tuesday night conference game.  USM just has a single home game, so that'll be a 7 PM start.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 24, 2014, 03:31:53 PM
Quarterfinal predictions:

#8 Plymouth 34 @ #1 Rhode island College 76.
RIC won the 2 meetings by 31 & 37 points this year.  No reason this shouldn't be much different.  Plymouth will be better next year, but they are overmatched here.

#7 Boston 43 @ #2 USM 57.
The only difference between this game & the Boston/Western game is unlike Western, USM actually has a decent offense.  Boston lost by 8 in Maine, and by 1 last Tuesday in Boston.  Without Olivia Murphy and going on the road, don't think they can keep it.

#6 Keene 57 @ #3 Eastern 69.
Keene lost by 5 in Willimantic and by 9 at home in Keene.  Think Keene can keep it close for a while, but Eastern gets the win at home.

#5 Dartmouth 56 @ #4 Western 72.
Western won by 20 in Danbury in January, and won by 3 @ Dartmouth in February after trailing by 8 at halftime.  As I said the other day this will either be a Dartmouth win or a Western blowout.  Dartmouth has been an absolute dog on the road the last 2 years and an incredible disappointment, so let's cap their disappointing season with a stinker on the road.  Had they either: A) beaten Keene Saturday or B) held onto their 8 point halftime lead vs. Western, both of which would've sent Western to Dartmouth, the Corsairs would win easily at the Tripp.

Edit: Actually scratch that.  Winning EITHER of those 2 games would've sent Keene to Dartmouth instead an even easier win for the Corsairs.  Sure, they just lost @ Keene, but they beat the Owls by like 13 or 15 at home earlier in the season.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 25, 2014, 06:22:23 PM
Halftime scores:

Eastern leads 34-18.  They ended the half on a 17-2 run after Keene had it at 17-16.  Eastern already has 34 rebounds including 12 on offense and Ritrosky has 13.  Carly Kiernan and Sarah Kober each have 6 for Keene; Jordyn Nappi leads Eastern with 11.
RIC up 38-25.  DeAsia Lawrence has 7 for Plymouth, Vandell Andrade has 18 of RIC's 38 to lead the way for the Anchorwomen
Dartmouth up 28-27.  Beth Castantini has 10 for the Corsairs while Colleen Cosker leads Western with 8.  Western completely dominating the taller Corsairs on the glass 31-19 and 16-6 on the offensive end.  Western only shooting 28.6% and has committed 8 turnovers, so the second chance points keeping them in the game.
USM/Boston starts at 7
USM/Boston tied at 29 with 15:22 left.

Eastern, Western, and RIC are your early winners and all 3 are advancing to RIC next Friday.  RIC gets Western in the early game Friday, Eastern gets the winner of USM/Boston in the night cap.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2014, 01:07:41 AM
Quarterfinal results:

Eastern over Keene 67-53.  Courtney Roberts was the lone Owl in double figures as she finished with 13.  Jordyn Nappi lead Eastern with 23 and Jill Ritrosky had 14 points and 19 rebounds.  Keene lost, when they got outscored 19-2 the final 8:25 of the first to go from up 1 at 8:25 (16-15) to down 16 at halftime (34-18).  Keene never really threatened in the second.  They got it down to 7 at one point, but Eastern held them at bay most of the way.
USM over Boston 53-45.  Kirsten Morrison lead the Beacons with 13 points and Andrea Suffredini had 12 in her final college game, while Rebecca Knight had 15 to lead USM.  That leaves the Beacons at 0-63 overall vs. USM and 0 for in the LEC tournament.  I think if they have Olivia Murphy for either of their 2 games vs. USM the past week, they get at least 1 win.
Western over Dartmouth 64-57.  Colleen Cosker lead Western with 16 and Caroline Brasa had 14 off the bench for the Colonials.  Erika Bornemann had 16 for the Corsairs in her final game and Kelsey Garrity had 14.  Corsairs bench combined for 5 rebounds, 2 field goal attempts and 0 points on the day.  Ends their up and down roller coaster season on a down note.
RIC over Plymouth 56-45.  Vandell Andrade and Cara Paladino combined for 37 points & 24 rebounds for RIC.  The rest of the team combined for  19 points and 9 rebounds.  Suffice to say without those 2 they would have lost??  That's what makes tournaments so great, you rarely ever see a total blowout, and if you do, it's a game you never expect.  Games like this & Emmanuel's loss to Norwich in the GNAC 1 vs. 8 game (Emmanuel had an 80-4 record vs. GNAC opponents dating back to 2006 and hadn't lost to a GNAC team since February 9, 2010 a span of 38 games) are what make this kind of year great.  Expect the unexpected.  Don't take a team seriously because you beat them by 30 & 37 points during the season, and you know what's gonna happen??  You're going to lose, because really, what does Plymouth have to lose in this game??  Nothing!  RIC is the team playing for everything.

Sets up the semifinals as #4 Western @ #1 RIC and #2 USM vs. #3 RIC.  Game times are TBA, but I believe it's going to be 5:30 & 7:30 with the home team playing first.

111-33.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 27, 2014, 01:41:29 PM
Semifinal predictions:

#4 Western 54 @ #1 RIC 59.
RIC has won 6 of the last 7 meetings in the series between these 2 schools dating back to the beginning of the 11/12 season including getting 2 wins this year: 55-44 in Danbury and 65-56 in Providence.  Western has really come on at the end of the season, winning 7 of their last 9 games, and have played the top teams fairly tough this year.  Their downfall will be their lack of offense.  Even though the Western team in the 2012 semifinals got totally blown out @ RIC (I think they lost by about 30 points and the score was 37-3 at halftime I believe) and the 2012 team is a lot better then this years team, I think they can keep it close until the final couple minutes or so.  But RIC at home gets it done.

#2 USM 65 vs. #3 Eastern 54.
The teams split the season series with Eastern winning by 9 at home, and USM winning by 18 at home last Saturday.  The Eastern win in January was without Rebecca Knight for the Huskies.  Both teams are question marks, but the Huskies with Knight are a lot better than the Huskies without Knight, so I'll take USM again, but in a closer game, mainly because USM sucks outside of Maine.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 01, 2014, 01:16:04 AM
Friday results:

USM over Eastern 58-49.  Jordyn Nappi lead Eastern with 16 points, but she only shot 6-20.  Erin McNamera and Megan Pellitier each had 19 to lead the Huskies.
RIC over Western 56-46.  Sciarra Brandt was the lone double figure scorer from Western as she puts in 11 points in her final college game.  Steph Prusko lead the Anchorwomen with 17 points and Vandell Andrade had 11 points & 11 rebounds.  Western lead for about 25 minutes, but a killer 17-5 run for RIC spanning about 10 minutes of the second half turned a 7 point Western lead into a 5 point RIC lead with about 2:45 to play and Western couldn't get closer the rest of the way.  Good team this year.  Couldn't score at all, which was their major downfall, but at least they put up a fight each game and played competitive which is about all you can ask for.

113-33.

Saturday schedule:

#2 USM @ #1 RIC 4 PM

#2 USM 54 @ #1 RIC 51.
Race to 50!  First team there wins.  RIC has failed to crack 50 points in either of their 2 games vs. USM this year getting held to 47 in Providence and 48 in Maine.  The teams split during the regular season with 2 home blowouts (RIC by 16 in Providence, USM by 16 in Maine) so why I am picking the Huskies??  The game in Maine I can forgot about because everyone in the conference loses up there, but the game in Providence was especially troubling.  That Anchorwomen game vs. the Huskies occurred with Rebecca Knight out of the lineup, and as we know the Huskies with Knight are 10 times better then the Huskies without Knight.  Second of all, USM could not have played a more worse game that night then they did: They were held to a season low 31 points, shot only 22.9% for the game (10% in the first half), had 20 turnovers  and nobody scored more than 7 points.  Yet they held to RIC to only 47 points of their own.  With Knight in the offense this time around, I doubt USM is going to score 31 points or get held to 22.9% shooting.  Championship game can bring out early jitters, and when RIC has had trouble putting points on the board this season vs. USM, and the Huskies with Gary Fifield have more big game expierence I'm thinking the Huskies can get a head start and build up enough of a lead to fend up a RIC run, because you know there will be one.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 02, 2014, 02:15:22 AM
Sat results:

RIC 64-59 over USM.  Vandell Andrade lead RIC with 19, Steph Prusko had 15, and Cara Paladino had 14 points & 10 rebounds for the Anchorwomen.  Erin McNamera (23) & Rebecca Knight (21) combined for 44 of USM's 59 points.  I believed USM declared for the ECACs, so they'll still have a couple more games left in their season.  RIC will be the only LEC team in the NCAAs.  I can't see Eastern (at #8) or USM (@ #10) jumping Roger Williams (@ #6), and RWU will either be blocking the rest of the region and the last team on the board when the selection ends, or they'll be 1 of the last teams off in which case Eastern would be next in line but their won't be many, if any rounds left as RWU could very well be the last pool C pick.

113-34 overall.

ECACs start Wednesday, we'll have matchups for those by Monday evening.  We'll know RICs opponent in the NCAA tournament on Monday afternoon.  Nobody else in the conference declared for the ECAC, so those are still the only 2 teams still playing (since I assume USM will be getting an ECAC bid).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ramfan on March 02, 2014, 09:05:42 AM
According to ECAC site declared teams are listed and USM is not listed as having declared as of 3/1/14 12:28 pm....
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on March 03, 2014, 03:25:12 PM
RIC gets Haverford in the first round with the game being played at Ithaca.  Haverford is 23-3 and won the Centennial Conference tournament.  It's impossible to tell regarding this game...I know nothing about Haverford or the Centennial Conference.  It does look like the Centennial Conference has 3-4 really pathetic teams at the bottom.  Even if RIC wins, Ithaca at Ithaca in the second round would be a hard game to win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 03, 2014, 04:31:02 PM
2 of their 3 losses are to Johns Hopkins, forgot who the other one was against (McDaniel maybe??), and they've been hovering in the top 40 of the poll since New Years.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 04, 2014, 02:21:46 PM
Awards handed out in the LEC.  Unlike last year I really have no complaints with the awards this year:

http://littleeast.com/sports/wbkb/2013-14/releases/20140304k9urxi

Only thing I'd say is I would've taken Jordyn Nappi for ROY over Megan Ronaghan, but you really could go either way with that.  The rest of the picks were pretty much slam dunks.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 06, 2014, 10:09:11 PM
The LEC's lone conference teams kicks off NCAA play tomorrow night as RIC takes on Haverford in Ithaca Friday at 5 PM

RIC 56 vs. Haverford 62 (@ Ithaca).
Haverford finished 22-3 on the year, but if you take out Johns Hopkins, they were 21-1 against teams not named Johns Hopkins as they only went 1-2 against the Blue Jays but went 21-1 against everyone else.  The Fords are lead by Nina Voith with 14.5 ppg and Elizabeth Lynch with 13.1 ppg.  They average 62.6 ppg on the year and give up 51.3 opponents ppg.  2 reasons why Haverford gets the edge.  Haverford not only averages more points per game (62,6 to 62.0) but gives up less per game (51.3 to 54.1).  Haverford also has a very good 12-1 road/neutral record.  You'd expect a pretty good road/neutral record with only 3 losses, but the fact they have more losses at home (2) than on the road/at neutral sites (1) is a pretty big factor in coin flip games like this.  RIC's road/neutral record is a dismal 7-6.  Haverford also has 9 players that are 5"8 or taller compared to only 4 active players RIC has.  The size for Haverford, the road/neutral record between the 2, and RIC's offensive inability outside of Vandell Andrade gives the edge to the Fords.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on March 07, 2014, 07:58:31 PM
Haverford eliminates RIC 53-48.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 07, 2014, 11:48:06 PM
Friday results:

Haverford over RIC 53-48.  Back and forth game as the largest lead for any team was 8 points.  Cara Paladino & Steph Prusko had 13 and 12 points respectively in their final game while Vandell Andrade had 11 points and 18 rebounds.  Nina Voith had a game high 16 to lead Haverford.  As usual, RICs inability to shoot the ball did them in, even though the defense was spectacular, holding Haverford to 30.2% shooting.  15 turnovers for RIC (compared to 11 for Haverford) was likely the difference in the game.

LEC finishes the year 55-33 against non conference opponents, and my predictions finished 114-34.  Hopefully the conference has a bounce back next season.  Keene, Western & Boston have the pieces in place to take step forwards next year, Plymouth should probably win a handful of conference games, Dartmouth should go backwards, USM & RIC are the 2 question marks heading into next season.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on August 21, 2014, 01:32:45 AM
Western's schedule for 2014-15:

http://wcsuathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule

Can't really say much about the OOC portion of the schedule.  NYU starts out hot and usually fades, but is coached by ex-Sacred Heart assistant Lauren Hall-Gregory so I always like to see them do well.  Conn College & Trinity are perennial state punching bags but both are on the rise.  Staten Island had a pretty good year last year (won the CUNYAC regular season title) but who knows whether they can sustain that for another year.  Anna Maria & Green Mountain are jokes, Purchase is a mediocre team in a horrible conference (I think last year we beat them by almost 30 points), and Regis is the "big fish in the small pond" team in the NECC.  Regis is the coin-flip game (because it's at home), Trinity is another coin flip game (because it's on the road.  Last year Western won in like 2 or 3 overtimes at home, iirc), NYU they probably lose too if I had to guess.  Rest of the teams should be a piece of cake.

As for the LEC portion: That 4 game stretch at the end of January consisting of: @ RIC, @ USM, @ Eastern & vs. Dartmouth is probably the toughest challenge of the LEC portion.  End isn't nearly as bad for the women as it is for the men because we got Eastern & RIC at home, and they play both of those teams better at home then they do on the road.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 11, 2014, 06:44:37 PM
Let's start the LEC preview with a breakdown of the team-by-team schedules: Will give each school a grade and the most important of the non LEC games as well as the most important LEC game for each squad.  Usually I do this in what I think my predicted order would be but since I haven't done that yet, we'll go alphabetically instead:

Eastern Connecticut: http://gowarriorathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 win loss record 198-123 (61.7 winning percentage).  The Colonials getting a big bite out of the NESCAC this year as they face off against 5 of the 10 teams in the conference (could be 6 however) including the powerhouses if Amherst (26-4 last season), Tufts (30-3 last year) & Williams (20-6 last year).  Also have their annual game against GNAC power Emmanuel (19-8 last year).  Of their 10 scheduled OOC games only St. Joseph's (12-14), Clark (11-14) and Newbury (5-19) finished under .500 last year.  They could get a 6th NESCAC team as Wesleyan (12-12 in '14) faces off against Framingham State (18-12) in the other game at the Eastern Conference.  Four of 11 oppoents finished with a winning percentage of 70 or above last year so the Warriors will be tested before LEC play.  However, that could work one of 2 ways (and I've seen it happen both ways): 1) the tough schedule, especially if you don't win can take it's toll towards the middle of January, so even though they won't see as good of a team after December 4 when they play Amherst, the losses can pile up.  I think that happened to them last year.  2) Even if you win those games vs. a Tufts, a Williams, Emmanuel, etc you can lose momentum from them.  Their schedule in November-December could be one of the hardest in the Northeast: in a 4 game stretch they play Tufts, Williams, Amherst & the LEC opener @ RIC all in a row.  They won't have a 4 game stretch even as remotely tough as that was, but the 4 game stretch could really take it's toll win OR lose.  I'll give the Warriors an A in the scheduling department
Most important non LEC game: November 30 vs. Williams.  Williams struggled on the road last season, but is still a quality NESCAC team and would be a nice win for the Warriors.  The game preceding that they play Tufts and the next 2 games are @ Amherst and @ RIC.  I doubt they win either of the 2 road games and Tufts will be tough. 
Most important LEC game: January 13 vs. Dartmouth.  Between December 1 and January 23 they have 7 of 10 games (4 of 6 LEC games) away from home.  They finish up with RIC relatively early once again and have the Maine trip to USM after the Dartmouth game so they get those 2 trips out of the way.  Dartmouth has always been a bad road team and Eastern has a challenging opening slate to the year.
Keene state: http://keeneowls.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 221-135 (62.1 winning percentage).  Much like the Warriors, the Owls are preparing themselves well.  Unlike the Warriors, however, the Owls are still a relatively young team, so I'm not sure this is quite the schedule you want the kids to jump into.  I doubt they'll be favored in many of these games against the likes of Tufts, Amherst, or Smith (18-12 last year).  The Owls are participating in 2 tournaments this year and each is packed with talented ball clubs.  They open the year in the UNE tournament taking on a Tufts team that finished with 30 wins last season and is ranked in the top 5 preseason this year then either the host squad UNE (27-3 last season; ranked top 20 this year) or Wellesley (who ONLY finished 16-10 last season).  They host their own tournament taking on Anna Maria in the first game (11-14 last season) and then either William Paterson (18-10 last year) or Regis (23-5 last season).  Even the 2 potential gimme's on the Owls schedule RPI (7-18) and Middlebury (7-17) aren't gimme's because both take place on the road.  8 of the Owls potential 13 opponents finished 2013/14 with at least 16 wins.  Tough hill to climb and even though I don't think they should be doing it, they are so the Owls get an A+ in the SOS department.
Most important non LEC game: December 2 @ RPI.  The Owls could very well be winless heading into this matchup, but this game could give them some momentum.  RPI finished 7-18 last year, and their next 2 games are both home LEC dates, and as we all know the only thing that matters is winning the conference and the more conference games you win during the season, the more likely you are to win the conference tournament. 
Most important LEC game: December 6 vs. Boston.  They open up with 2 straight at home and 4 of their first 6 LEC games are at home before ending with 4 of 5 on the road.  Boston's only won twice in the last 8 years in Spaulding, and even though USM is the next weekend, the Owls usually play them well at home and aside from 2 seasons ago when the Huskies ran out to an undefeated record and number 9 in the country, they seem to start the LEC season slow; last year the Owls beat them in Maine in the LEC opener, and the Huskies open up @ Western before traveling to Keene.  1-1 seems more likely, but 2-0 really isn't out of the question for the Owls.
Mass-Boston: http://www.beaconsathletics.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 131-178 (42.4 winning percentage).  Really, THIS is the schedule Keene should be playing and Boston should be playing Keene's schedule.  There's really only one good team on here and that's Bridgewater, but they only finished 16-12 last season.  Luckily for the Beacons all the tough games: Salve Regina (14-13 last year), Brandeis (14-13), Bridgewater, Westfield (15-11) and Suffolk (16-10) are at home, so pretty much that's the only positive but it downgrades the SOS even worse than it was already.  Out of that foursome I'd say Bridgewater is the only legit NCAA tournament team.  Last year's 16-12 was a disappointment.  They had 4 starters back from 2013's 27-4 team but lost 1 with via injury halfway through 2014, never recovered after that, and lost 3 others to graduation in May, so they'll have to implement pretty much an entire new starting 5.  Brandeis is stuck behind Wash U, Rochester & Emory in the UAA and if NYU or Chicago can put together good squads that's 2 others they have to jump.  Add in the fact there's no conference tournament in the UAA for Brandeis to steal a win or 2 puts them even further behind the 8 ball.  Likewise, Suffolk is stuck behind GNAC monster Emmanuel in that conference.  Even though they do have a conference tournament unlike the UAA they only play 1 conference game each, and the GNAC game between the 2 this year is @ Emmanuel.  To add onto this trio Salve is stuck behind perennial CCC power UNE in that conference.  Unless UNE or Emmanuel finish with 0 or 1 losses in their conference regular season, neither of those 2 conferences is getting a pool C slot, and the MASCAC is usually another conference where the tourney winner is the only one advancing to the NCAA tournament.  Powder puff schedule with all the good games at home leaves the Beacons with a D in the SOS department. 
Most important non LEC game: tough to say with all the cupcakes here but I'll go with January 6 vs. Brandeis.  Last year they lost by almost 40!
Most important LEC game: December 13 vs. RIC.  RIC still has Cara Paladino & Vandell Andrade back so they should be one of the favorites even though it will be a tight race between them, Eastern, Western (probably my preseason pick), Boston (volleyball team got eliminated in the LEC semi's over the weekend so Morrison has basketball only now, and her & Olivia Murphy can still form a dynamic duo that will be tough to stop especially since Dartmouth lost all their height.)  Just checked the Beacons roster and found out Colleen Moriarty is now an assistant coach, bodes even better for them.  Actually, Mattingly put together a pretty impressive coaching staff for this year: Moriarty to work with Morrison, Murphy (I'm still going by what I've been saying the last 2 years she'd be unguardable with an outside shot) and the rest of the bigs and recent graduates Shelby Buck & Andrea Suffredini to work with the guards.  The OOC schedule still sucks, but I think they can compete this year.
UMass-Dartmouth: http://www.corsairathletics.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 144-125 (53.5 winning percentage).  Blah is all I'll say.  Obviously better then Boston's is, but not quite as good as Keene's or Eastern's is.  Williams is their marquee game, but even on the road it's still a game the Corsairs can win.  They have another full season of Kelsey Garrity who with McNamera from USM gone is the best PG in the conference if she wasn't already.  Meghan Ronagan was the LEC rookie of the year, and Colleen kane, Beth Constantini & Erin Fahey are good in spurts.  Mentioned Bridgewater above with Boston a team that was better than their 16-12 record showed but is implementing an entire new starting lineup.  Take Coast Guard out of this, who had a career year last year finishing 19-7 and this is about a .500 schedule (123-118), Colby-Sawyer (18-10 last year) is another good team out of a bad conference, but overall I give the Corsairs a C+, right at average.
Most important non LEC game: @ Williams January 5.  Most of the teams are still on holidays, so this will be bright and center.  In the 4 years I've been at Western and started following the conference, the LEC has been looking for that marquee non-conference victory.  Even if the Corsairs do manage the victory it's probably still not enough to lock them into a pool C spot, but would definitely put them on the track and put that losers mentality on the road behind them.  Obviously since it's Christmas break Williams won't get as many students as they would if the game was on December 5 or February 5, but would still be an excellent win!
Most important LEC game: January 8 vs. Western Connecticut.  Dartmouth starts off the LEC season with 4 of 5 on the road with this being the lone home game.  The Corsairs went 0-3 vs. the Colonials last season, and in the home meeting blew an 8 point halftime lead to a Western that finished in the bottom 3 in points scored.  They ultimately ended up tied for 4th, that golden spot between playing the 4/5 game at home and playing the 4/5 game on the road, lost the tiebreaker due to the 0-2 head-to-head season series record and lost the 3rd matchup in the 4/5 game of the first round of the LEC tournament.  This wouldn't be revenge entirely,  but it will probably be pretty big for Dartmouth regardless as the road trip to start the year takes them to Plymouth (tough trip and even though they'll still be terrible may actually get a couple wins), Eastern & USM so could be must win.  Even though they'll finish with 6 of 9 at home they'll still have the road game @ Western and 2 games each against Boston & RIC.  2-3 after those first 5 and going home for 6 of the last 9 is a lot better than 1-4 or 0-5 and going home.  Pretty much you're done if you start 1-4.
Plymouth State: http://athletics.plymouth.edu/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 165-148 (52.7 winning percentage).  5 of 12 opponents have 18 or more wins but they likely only play 4 of those games: Suffolk plays Yeshiva (6-12) in the Wheaton tournament and even with Wheaton being 20-8 I doubt both the Panthers & Suffolk have the same result in the first game, so the panthers should get a pass on playing the Rams.  Other than that, Castleton (27-4), Rivier (20-8) and Colby-Sawyer (18-10) look to be the only guaranteed losses for the Panthers.  The rest of the OOC slate is a bunch of average to bad teams in terrible conferences.  Since this is a team that is only 16-82 the last 5 years I'll be generous and give them a B and say they built their schedule to get some wins early in the season.
Most important non LEC game: January 6 @ Johnson State.  Plymouth started the 2013 season 1-1 before losing the final 23 games to finish 1-24 for the year.  They weren't competitive to end the year they lost 23 of 25 by 10 or more and 18 of 25 by 20 or more points.  However, the 1 game they were competitive in, was a 63-62 double overtime loss to the Badgers of Johnson state.  The Panthers started the 2014 season with 9 straight losses, so dating back to 2013 they had lost 32 straight games AND dating back to the end of 2012 they had lost 36 of their last 37 games.  However, they broke the streak defeating the Badgers 89-72 in a laugher.  They were able to parlay that into a LEC road win @ Boston the next week, only their second road win in conference since the 2010/11 season.
Most important LEC game: December 6 vs. Dartmouth.  The conference opener for both teams.  When you are 3-53 in conference in the last 4 games, getting off to a fast start was good.  Dartmouth is a good team, but the Panthers had them on the ropes last year in the opener, up 8 with 8 minutes to go before falling in the end.  They were competitive in the first half or even first 30 minutes of games last year.  Including the Dartmouth Game they had halftime leads on Southern Maine & Western Connecticut last year before faltering in the second half.  If they can keep these teams close but than finish the deal unlike last year they could be a surprise.

I have to go out to dinner & do work later so I'll edit the rest of this tomorrow at some point with the final 3 teams: USM, RIC & Western.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 11, 2014, 10:27:43 PM
USM: http://southernmainehuskies.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 178-165 (51.9 winning percentage).  B.  As usual, the Huskies barely leave Maine in the OOC portion of the schedule.  They just lucked out in that all the local area teams were good: UNE, Bowdoin (21-6), SJME (23-6), Husson (15-12) and a tournament at Westfield State.  RPI isn't officially on their schedule, but the Engineers are on the opposite side of the Huskies of both tournaments they are at, so it's possible the Huskies could end up facing them twice.
Most important non LEC game: November 30 vs. St. Joseph's (ME).  UNE is the ranked team coming into Hill gymnasium, the Bowdoin/USM games are always great, even better between the women's teams, but the Monks are the true rivalry game of the 3 right up the road.  USM has owned the recent history, but the Monks went into Western Connecticut last January and just dismantled the Colonials which started a stretch where the Monks won 17 of their last 20 regular season games to win the GNAC tournament and make the tournament.  The Monks 3 regular season losses in that stretch (Scranton, Emmanuel, UNE) came against teams that were a combined 72-15.
Most important LEC game: December 6 @ Western Connecticut.  I know it's a long trip for them, but the Huskies really struggle in Danbury.  Western's been the worst team the last 3 seasons, while even though USM has won 2 of the 3 games, the 2 games were close and the Western win was a blowout.  In 2012 the season after Western graduated the big 3 of Karli Spera, Heather Lee & Melissa Teel, USM won by 1 in overtime after Stephanie Slonski missed 2 free throws at the end of regulation which would have won it for the Colonials.  In 2013, USM came into the game unbeaten, ranked #9 in the nation and got run out of the building.  Last year with Western's offensive ineptitude, USM won by 2 on two late free throws inside of 10 seconds.
RIC: http://www.goanchormen.com/index.html
Combined 2013/14 record: 202-102 (66.4 winning percentage).  Record gets weighed down with Babson (14-13) who struggled at times last year but is usually a quality club.  All 11 of their opponents finished with double digit wins last season, and 9 of 11 finished the season with a winning record.  They couldn't get a marquee win last season which would have left them squarely on the fence last year had they lost to USM in the title game or Western in the semifinals.   They'll get ample opportunity to pick up that marquee win or 2 this year, and for that I give them an A
Most important non LEC game: November 15 vs. Williams (@ Babson).  They'll be tested right out of the gate.  Getting the Ephs on a neutral court is better than playing them @ Williams, but a win is a win over a quality NESCAC team.
Most important LEC game: February 10 @ Western Connecticut.  This is road game number 6 of 7 in the conference for the Anchorwomen, who after this game have 2 straight at home vs. USM & vs. Dartmouth and a road game @ Plymouth to end the season.  This could potential decide that coveted 4 spot.
Western Connecticut: http://wcsuathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 201-137 (59.5 winning percentage).  I talked about this schedule back in August when I first saw it, but it gets bumped due to a bunch of bad teams in bad conference that had good seasons which are probably unlikely to sustain them the following season: Sage finished last year 17-10, but was only the second season they finished with double digit wins.  Another Skyline team Purchase finished 16-10 but Western beat them by almost 40 points!  Farmingdale, who's not officially on the schedule (they play 9-16 NJCU in the other game of the hat city classic) finished 16-9 but took advantage of a down Mount St. Mary in the Skyline.  Staten Island was 21-8, but still lost to Baruch in the CUNY tournament.  The best team (Regis) comes in February in the middle of LEC play.  NYU starts off well, but falters late, Plattsburgh (23-6) is on the other side of the NYU tournament I hope we play them.  I know they lost in the first round last year but there has to be someone more competitive than 1-21 Green Mountain to play in the first game of your tournament!  C'mon!  There's probably high schools in Connecticut that would give them a better game.  C- on the SOS.  Would be a C if they replaced Green Mountain with Danbury High school.  Would be a C+ if Regis was earlier in the season and or we were guaranteed to play Plattsburgh.
Most important non LEC game: November 15 @ NYU.  Like Boston, not a lot of good options to choose from.  It was basically between this game & Regis.  However, Regis on February 3 when they each should be more concerned about their respective conference play than notching a win against a good New England team, that gets downgraded a notch.
Most important LEC game: January 20 @ RIC.  Western starts with 4 of their first 5 LEC games at home, so they can get out to a nice clubhouse lead in the early going.  However, this is the start of 3 straight road games: @ RIC, @ USM @ Eastern and then a home game vs. Dartmouth ends the 4 game stretch.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 11, 2014, 11:42:58 PM
Excellent previews, 7.  I'm posting here (as opposed to the men's board) since you have schedule previews up.  It's always nice to see the LEC teams (men and women) put together tough schedules and play several NESCAC teams...what would be even nicer would be to see some of these games turn into wins at some point to help the conference as a whole.  Otherwise, they will not be able to help their overall reputation.  It caught my eye while reading...UMass-Boston women really have a joke of a non-conference schedule.  I understand teams like Mount Ida, Simmons, Suffolk, etc. are close by, easy to schedule, and likely save travel money, but those playing all of those teams year after year does nothing for them and inflates their win total.  Mount Ida and Simmons, in particular, are perennial tomato cans and beating them by 30 or 40 points does nothing in my opinion.  I've always been a proponent of making a tough schedule, as that can give your team a good indication of where they really are and where they need to get better.  I'm not saying don't have any gimme games, but UMass-Boston seems to go over the top with this schedule.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 12, 2014, 11:42:57 PM
2nd part of the preview; the projected standings.  This was difficult as there's s crop of 4 or 5 teams that are pretty good, but each with a different weakness: Eastern can't win big road games, Dartmouth can't win on the road period, Western can't score, Boston REALLY can't score, RIC lost the coach of the year AND the MVP, and what happens to USM this year should Rebecca Knight get hurt again??  The Huskies fell off the cliff last January in the 3 weeks Knight was out and they don't have McNamera this year anymore.  With that said, I'll take my best shot, but I'm not feeling confident at all in these selections:

1) USM (11-3).  Unlike the other teams vs. each other, USM hardly (ever) loses at home to those teams.  They've never lost to Boston, they lost once to Dartmouth, RIC hasn't beaten them in Maine in forever, neither has Western.  They'll struggle on the road, but so will all the other candidates however.  They only averaged 61 points per game as a team last year, and Erin McNamera lead the team in points and assists and was second in steal.  Rebecca Knight, Stephanie Gallagher & Taylor Flood look like their only offense weapons this year: who will they go to if one of those 3 gets hurt and do they have a bench??  What really helps them this year is they have the Connecticut trips on the bookends of the season (@ Western December 6 opening day, @ eastern February 21 final day) and the RIC trip is on a Saturday as well.  All the other weeknight & weekend trips are relatively close
2) Eastern (10-4).  The Warriors had a taste of success last year: they got off to an early lead in the conference as they beat RIC in the LEC opener and stayed ahead of the pack until they lost the rematch in Providence, and faded in February culminating in a semifinal loss to USM.  Eastern has everyone back that played major minutes included hopefully having Krystina Forsman back for the whole year.  I think overall the Warriors are better then the Huskies, I just don't trust their ability to win a big game on the road, so I'm weary.  I know the Huskies can win a game @ RIC or @ Western or @ Eastern.  I'm not sure the Warriors can win @ Western, @ RIC or @ USM.
2) Dartmouth (10-4).  Another very talented team that is probably better then the team predicted in first, but like the eastern counterparts cannot trust them on the road.  Last year they had the 4 seed in the bag, all they had to do was beat 4-9 Keene state on the road.  Couldn't do it.  Kelsey Garrity is the best PG in the conference, Meghan Ronagan is reigning rookie of the year.  Amanda VanVoorhis resigned her post as coach to become the full time AD at Dartmouth.  Much like Eastern, I'm not entirely sold on their ability to win @ RIC, @ USM or @ Western, they got crushed at all 3 places the past year.
4) Boston (8-6).  I said in the schedule preview last night I love the staff Courtney Mattingly put together.  All 3 are familiar with the conference as all 3 played in the conference, 2 of the 3 as recently as last season.  And what I found out last year the Beacons are a lot more than just Kirsten Morrison & Olivia Murphy.  Chantal Jordan, Katrina Edwards and Mallory Nelson were all freshmen last year but still stepped up in January when Morrison was out with a foot injury.  If they can get balanced scoring they can be good.
5) RIC (7-7).  Their 4 leading scorers are all gone including reigning MVP Vandell Andrade.  Another team that can't score but plays good defense.   They only have 1 senior who hasn't played before but should rebound next year.
5) Western (7-7).  Like RIC the Colonials have a very young team as they only have 2 upper classmen currently on the roster: 1 senior and 1 junior so the future is definitely bright, I'm just not sure if it's bright this year.  They didn't have 1 player average double digit points last year and only averaged 56.2 points as a team
7) Keene (5-9).  Owls have some talent there.  Stephanie D'Annolfo came out on fire last year as a freshmen, Christan Wojtas disappointed but has the track record, Ryanne Williams disappeared last year after a strong season, Amanda Petrow had some good games last year so there's promise there.  They'll steal a couple from the top 6 at home, but not enough to make a dent.
8) Plymouth (3-11).  Still a few years away but were competitive last year.  Tiffany Lewis is a senior so obviously she'll be gone next year but Savannah Miller (SO), Rosalie Edmonds (SO), and DeAsia Lawrence (SO) is a good trio for Liz Stitch to build around.  Add in junior Taylor Perry to that mix, the fact they were so close a number of times last year and the conference is lacking a true "dominant" team and I think it's time for the Panthers to pick up more than 1 LEC win for the first time since 2010.

Player of the year:
Rebecca Knight-USM

First team:
Knight
Kelsey Garrity-Dartmouth
Jill Ritrosky-Eastern
Jordyn Nappi- Eastern
Meghan Ronaghan-Dartmouth
Olivia Murphy-Boston

LEC tournament final:
Dartmouth over USM in the final.  I just think in a 1 game win and advance lose or go home, the team with better talent advances.  That's why if these standings do play out the winner of Eastern/Dartmouth wins the tournament.  Both of them have better talent then USM does.

NCAA tournament:
Since the conference doesn't have a very good team, and the top 5 or 6 will beat up on each other I don't see how the conference get more than 1 team in the tournament.  Of all the teams I'd say Eastern has the best shot to land a pool C bid with Emmanuel, Williams, Amherst & Tufts on the schedule as marquee games.  Split those 4 and they are in the discussion (they were in discussion last year and lost all 3 of them [didn't play Tufts, but had a 4th loss to NCAA participant Hartwick instead).  Win 3 of those 4 and I think they get in.  Sweep all 4 and they are definitely in unless they completely fall apart during LEC play which I can't see happening.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 14, 2014, 12:08:32 AM
Saturday schedule:

Norwich (+14) @ Dartmouth 12:00
Maine-Farmington (+30) @ Southern Maine 1:00
Western (+8.5) @ NYU 1:00
Newbury (+50) @ Eastern 1:00
Boston (pick 'em) @ Colby 2:00
Williams (-2) vs. RIC (@ Babson) 3:00
Plymouth (+21.5) @ Wheaton (MA) 6:00
Tufts (19.5) vs. Keene (@ UNE) 8:00

Plymouth & Keene should lose, Norwich, USM & Eastern look like sure fire winners, RIC, Boston & Western are the 3 toss ups.  Boston probably has the best chance but they are on the road.  I'd probably expect 3-5 to start, but hopefully they can get out to a 4-4 .500 record.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 14, 2014, 05:07:14 PM
All 8 teams in action on Saturday:

Norwich @ Dartmouth:
The Cadets made a surprising run to the GNAC finals last year as the 8 seed and finished with an overall record of 15-13.  However, the conference as a whole only had 4 winning teams (Norwich, Emmanuel, SJME & Rivier) and of Norwich's 15 wins last year 13 came against teams with losing records.  The only 2 wins they got vs. winning opponents incidentaly came on the road: 3 points @ 18-10 Colby-Sawyer and the GNAC quarterfinals where they knocked off #1 seed Emmanuel (19-8) by 7.  Dartmouth graduated Erika Bornemann and lost Ashley Brown, but still has a quality group lead by Kelsey Garrity.  Oddsmakers have the Corsairs listed as a 14 point favorite.  I think Norwich will keep it close for a while, but Dartmouth wins 69-62.

Maine-Farmington @ Southern Maine.
USm won by 29 on the road last year and now are at home which is why they are 30 point favorites.  Farmington has 4 of 5 starters back and all 5 of their leading scorers off of last year's team, so I think 30 is a little too high of a number.  USM 68-44.

Western Connecticut @ NYU.
NYU started off last year 18-2 and got as high as the mid teen's in the poll, before dropping 4 of their last 6 to finish the year 20-6 but it still propelled them to a second place finish in the UAA and an NCAA tourney bid.  They return all 5 starters from that 2014 team, and got their due to begin the season: they are #15 in the D3 hoops poll and #17 in the WCBA pool, and have 2 first team UAA players: Megan Dawe and Kaitlyn Read.  Even though Western is a good defensive unit they struggle to score the ball and will have a hard time keeping up with the Violets in this one.  NYU is an 8.5 point favorite and I say they get a double digit victory 64-50.

Newbury @ Eastern.
Newbury comes in off a 5-19 finish in 2014 losers of 9 of their last 11 games to extinguish the flame out of any remote NECC tournament hopes they may have had.  Eastern returns all 5 starters and pretty much their entire team that finished in 3rd place last year hence why they got tabbed as the preseason favorite.  The Warriors are favored by a whopping 50 points!  Since Eastern also struggles to score the ball consistently, 50 points is a lot to ask for.  They may only end up scoring 60 or 70 and in that case they'll have to hold Newbury to about 15 points to cover the 50 point margin.  I know Boston has done it in years past, but that is just way to many points.  Eastern wins easily, but by 35 or less.  Lot of bench minutes in this one.  Eastern 66-38.

Boston @ Colby.
Colby had a disappointing season in which they finished tied for last in the NESCAC and only 8 wins overall.  Boston could be a surprise team in the LEC, but not quite sure they are ready to win road games.  They better be if they want to compete this year.  This is a virtual pick em as Boston would be about a 5-7 point favorite at home, the oddsmakers also question their ability to win on the road.  I say the Beacons get it done, 69-65.

RIC vs. Williams (@ Babson).
Intriguing game.  The bad news for Williams??  They lost 4 of 5 to end 2014 after starting 19-2 to finish 20-6.  The good news for Williams??  They have their entire starting lineup back and their entire team back from last season save for 2 minor reserves off the bench.  The bad news for RIC??  They lost their head coach Kara Williamson who was the reining LEC coach of the year as well as the reining MVP & defensive POY Vandell Andrade.  The good news for RIC (which is also bad news)??  This tournament is STACKED with RIC, Williams & Vassar joining the field along with the host Beavers.  3 of the 4 teams made the NCAAs last, and the only team that missed out (Babson) has a great history.  The matchups are already preset which is a shame as RIC will play Babson on Sunday because I would have loved to see Vassar & RIC go out it as Vassar might be a tad down due to the graduation of All American Cyndi Matsuoka.  And Williams gets a bad draw too not playing Babson (they get Vassar on Sunday) as getting Babson on the road would give them a good early season road test.  The oddsmakers have installed the Ephs as a 2 point favorite which I think is a bit too low.  You know what your going to get with Williams, RIC is the question mark and will likely struggle without Andrade out there.  Williams by double digits 74-59.

Plymouth @ Wheaton (MA).
Wheaton returns all 5 starters from the team that finished with 20 wins a season ago.  Plymouth will probably be improved a bit this year, but it's definitely a loss for the Panthers, only question is by how much?? Oddsmakers have the Lyons favored by 21.5, I think Plymouth can get it under 20.  As I said they were competitive and in a lot of games last year.  Wheaton 66-51.

Keene vs. Tufts (@ UNE).
Tufts had a historic season last year: 30 wins a perfect NESCAC record, sweeping the NESCAC regular season and tournament titles, a trip to the semifinals and a 19-1 home record including 7-0 in the NCAAs & NESCAC tournaments.  They had 3 of 5 starters back and their top 4 scorers from last year looking to make it all the way to the championship or the tournament title.  The Jumbos are favored by 19.5.  Keene like most teams in the LEC struggle to score but play good defense, last year the Jumbos were 1 of the better teams not only in the Northeast but the entire country!  Keene will have even more trouble scoring then they normally would, and even with Liz Moynihan & Ali Rocchi lost to graduation, Hayley Kanner & Hannah Foley will make up for the loss.  Tufts 73-48
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 15, 2014, 09:05:46 PM
I'd like to nominate Newbury for "worst women's team in the country."  Maybe not the worst but likely in the top 5 or 10.  Lost 96-20 to Eastern meaning the +50 for Newbury wasn't even close!  If you had bet Newbury at +75 you still would have lost!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 15, 2014, 11:23:48 PM
Quote from: 7express on November 15, 2014, 09:05:46 PM
I'd like to nominate Newbury for "worst women's team in the country."  Maybe not the worst but likely in the top 5 or 10.  Lost 96-20 to Eastern meaning the +50 for Newbury wasn't even close!  If you had bet Newbury at +75 you still would have lost!

The real question is why would you play such an awful team?  Newbury played six players and shot 13.5%.  Newbury went 5-19 last year and lost to teams such as Maine-Presque Isle, Maine-Fort Kent, Bay Path, Mitchell, etc.  Yikes.  Although, believe it or not...you never know how many teams might be worse.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2014, 12:18:02 AM
Saturday results:

USM clobbers Farmington 81-42
Nobody for Farmington recorded double figures as they were lead by Bianca Stoutomeyer's 8 points.  USM recorded 4 players in double digits lead by Rebecca Knight's 12.  None of the Husky 5 starters played more 26 minutes as 11 Huskies players saw action.  They will take on Bridgewater state who was a 4 point winner over RPI while Farmington takes on RPI in the losers game.

NYU pounds Western 71-49. 
The Colonials were lead by Caroline Brasa's 11 points & 10 rebounds while also getting 9 points from Emily Dobson.  Megan Dawe had a game high 20 for NYU who also had 15 off the bench from Maya Wazowics.  The Violets held the Colonials to 28.6% shooting and turned the Colonials over 24 times in the contest.  Western takes on Juniata who was a 76-66 loser to Plattsburgh in the consolation game while the Cardinals & Violets play for the championship.

Eastern blows past Newbury 96-20.
Shannon McCourt outscored Newbury by herself with 21 points & 16 rebounds off the bench and Jill Ritrosky just missed a double-double with 15 points & 9 rebounds.  Jovanna Sandifer lead Newbury with 7 points.  Newbury went only 6 deep in this game.  I'm guessing they don't have many bodies if they only play 1 sub in a 76 point game.  Eastern was up 65-9 at the half and doubt they broke much of a sweat in this one.  Eastern plays Framingham who beat Wesleyan 55-37 while Newbury takes on Wesleyan, the first of 2 games they'll play against each other in the next 5 days as they play each other on Friday as well in a regularly scheduled game.

Colby edges past Boston 79-74.
Mia Doplock lead all scorers with 19 points off the bench for the Mules who put 5 players in double figures.  The Beacons put 4 in double figures lead by Olivia Murphy with 18 points & 13 rebounds and Katrina Edwards also recorded a double-double with 13 points & 10 rebounds.  The Beacons were down 16 at halftime but bounced back strongly in the 2nd half as they took their one and only lead with 2:26 to play, but ultimately fell short.  2 things looked to have been the difference in this game: Beacons only hit 5-21 from 3 (Colby wasn't much better at 7-21 but if Boston finished 7-21 as well they win the game.  Likewise if Colby finishes 5-21 like Boston did, Boston wins).  Also, Kirsten Morrison only played for 5 minutes.  Boston is off until Friday when they take on Lasell, while the Mules play Lasell on Sunday.

Williams runs past RIC 59-47.
The game was tied at halftime before the Ephs outscored the Anchorwomen by 12 in the second half.  The Anchorwomen did a good job for the most part as they held down the big 3 of the Ephs of MaryKate O'Brien (5 points), Kellie Macdonald (4 points) and Ellen Cook (8 points) to a combined 17 points but Katie Litman made up for the loss with a team high 11 points & game high 13 rebounds.  Jess Korzec lead RIC off the bench with a game high 12 points.  RIC plays the host Babson beavers who recorded a 66-55 win over Vassar, while the Ephs will look to head back to Williamstown with a 2-0 record vs. the Brewers of Vassar.

Wheaton defeats Plymouth 67-48.
DeAsia Lawrence & Taylor Perry each tied for a game high with 17 points to lead the Panthers who only got 14 combined points from the other 8 players that suited up.  Kiley Shoemaker had a team high 16 points for the Lyons, while Abbie Brickley added in 14 points of her own.  Wheaton plays Suffolk who was a 96-49 winner of Yeshiva, while Plymouth plays Yeshiva looking to even their record at 1-1.

Tufts over Keene 78-49.
The Jumbos put 3 in double figures lead by Hayler Kanner's 17 points & Hannah Foley's 16 points.  Kelsey Santagata was the only Owl in double figures with 16 who shot only 2 of 12 from 3.  Keene will play Wellesley who was a 66-51 loser to the host Nor'Easters while the championship will be between 2 teams that are in the top 20 in Tufts & UNE.

Dartmouth survives Norwich 75-73 in overtime.
Aliah Curry had a game high 32 to lead the Cadets who also got 19 points from Kelsey Lotti.  Megan Ronaghan had 24 points to lead the Corsairs & Beth Castatini chipped in 19 points.  Kelsey Garrity only had 11 points but had 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals.  The Cadets were down 16 points with 3:12 left, but outscored the Corsairs 18-2 and forced overtime on 3 Lotti free throws at the end of regulation.  Ronaghan won the game for the Corsairs with 2 free throws with 3 seconds to play and Garrity blocked a potential game-winning 3 point attempt from Curry as the buzzer sounded.  Norwich will play Maine-Presque Isle who was a 93-39 loser to Colby-Sawyer while Dartmouth takes on the chargers

LEC falls to 3-5 on the young season, but I start off 7-1 as the only game I missed was the Colby/Boston game.

Sunday schedule:
Colby-Sawyer (+10) @ Dartmouth.
The Chargers had a cake walk 93-39 win, but this game will likely be much more difficult for them.  Dartmouth was up 16 points with 3:12 to play but got taken to overtime.  I'll take the points with the Chargers, but the Corsairs prevail 73-65.

Keene (+13.5) vs. Wellesley (@ UNE).
The appetizer to the main course of Tufts (-3.5) vs. UNE for the championship.  The Blue finished 16-10 overall and 13-7 in the NEWMAC last year.  At least the Blue aren't as good as the Jumbos are, but I'll still take Wellesley 68-46.

Juniata (-5) vs. Western (@ NYU).
Juniata ONLY finished 14-12 last year out the Landmark conference who had 3 teams finish with 20 wins.  The Eagles are only 3 seasons removed from a year they finished 26-3 and a perfect 14-0 in the Landmark.  Juniata 58-55

Framingham (+6) @ Eastern.
I know I'm going out on a limb here but I'm sure Eastern will have a much more difficult time in this game.  The Rams finished 18-12, and a 3 way tie for first in the MESCAC last year before ultimately falling to Bridgewater in the MASCAC title game last year.  Eastern 79-63

Plymouth (-10) vs. Yeshiva (@ Wheaton).
This could be one of the easiest teams on Plymouth's schedule this year which is why I gave the Panthers such a high number.  Even though the Yeshiva men's team plays in the Skyline, the women's team is an independent outfit and has compiled a 27-128 record the last 7 years.  Plymouth 65-38

Bridgewater (+12.5) @ Southern Maine.
The Bears have made the NCAA tournament the last 4 seasons, but got hit hard by graduation over the winter, but by the time MASCAC action rolls around they should be in contention for a 5th straight MASCAC championship.  USM 78-68

RIC (+7.5) @ Babson.
RIC played Williams well on a neutral court, but a true road game at Babson will be tough for the Anchorwomen to achieve who are still coming together as a team.  Babson 65-52
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 16, 2014, 12:26:21 AM
I see the same old problems for Keene.  They can't score.  Very hard to win against any team, let alone #4, when your starters can't even muster 25 points combined!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2014, 11:36:38 PM
Sunday results:

Western gets in the win column 59-52 over Juniata. 
Kelsey Livotti had 19 for the Eagles; Caroline Brasa lead the Colonials with 25 points & 15 rebounds for the Colonials.  Colonials held the Eagles to 29% shooting.  Both teams return to action Wednesday: Juniata @ Frostburg State, Western in their home opener vs. Sage.

Plymouth demolishes Yeshiva 81-43.
Won't have an easier game then this one for the Panthers.  Julie Owen led Yeshiva with 10 points; Taylor Perry had 19 points off the bench for the Panthers.  Yeshiva meanwhile got 0 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 1 foul from their bench combined.  Plymouth turned Yeshiva over 20 times and hit 43.6% from the floor.  Yeshiva returns to action Wednesday against York college of New York; Plymouth gets right back out there Tuesday night vs. Rivier.

Dartmouth over Colby-Sawyer 84-62.
Beth Castantini lead the Corsairs once again with 16 points and Erin Fahey added 13 points and a team high 10 rebounds.  Kelsey Garrity added 12 points, 5 rebounds & 4 assists for the Corsairs.  Kelsey Cahill added game highs of 18 points & 13 rebounds to set the pace for the Chargers, and Amanda Calvo added 15 points off the bench.  Dartmouth raced out to a 25 point lead at halftime and just cruised from there.   Colby-Sawyer is off until Saturday when they play Suffolk, Dartmouth returns to the court Wednesday vs. WPI.

USM over Bridgewater 67-49.
Chantelle Melton lead Bridgewater with 14 points & 8 rebounds while Megan Pelitier had a game high 21 to lead the Huskies who also got 18 from Rebecca Knight.   Bridgewater shot under 30% from the floor, while the Huskies finished over 50% from the floor.  The Bears return to action Wednesday night @ Elms, while the Huskies host #15 UNE on Wednesday evening.

Babson runs over RIC 95-56.
Colleen McLaughlin lead RIC with 9 points; Linnett Graber & taylor Russel each had 14 for the Beavers.  Nobody from RIC finished with more than 9 points or 5 rebounds.  Babson is off until Friday when they go to a tournament @ Williams hosted by the Ephs featuring Babson, Williams, Misericordia & Worcester State.  Much like this tournament, those matches are already preset as the Beavers will face Misericordia & Williams the 2 games.  RIC returns to action Thursday vs. Emmanuel.

Eastern runs over Framingham 74-47.
Monta Connolly was the only Ram in double figures as she recorded 10.  Warriors put 5 in double figures lead by Kristina Forsman with 21.  Shannon McCourt had 12 points & 11 rebounds off the bench, and Jill Ritrosky pulled down 17 rebounds.  Both teams return to action Tuesday: Framingham hosts Eastern Nazarene, Eastern goes to Emmanuel.

Keene over Wellesley 74-35.
Morgyne Weaver lead the Blue with 11 points and Chelsi Scott joiner her in double figures with 10.  Sandi Purcell lead the Owls with 23 points off the bench and Christan Wojtas put in 16 as well for the Owls.  The Owls held the Blue to 25% shooting and Weaver & Scott hit 6 of the 11 total field goals the Blue made in this game.  Tufts won a close game over UNE in a battle of top 15 teams in the championship 63-58.  Keene returns to the hardwood against another NESCAC powerhouse as they open the home campaign against the Amherst Lord Jeffs on Tuesday night, and Wellesley goes to GNAC fodder Simmons on Wednesday evening.

6-1 day for the LEC brings them to 9-6 on the season; and I go to 12-3 as I miss on the Keene & Western picks.

LEC off on Monday, so the next slate of games Tuesday:

Amherst (-17.5) @ Keene State 6:00
Rivier (-10) vs. Plymouth (@ NH Tech) 6:00
Eastern (+3.5) @ Emmanuel
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 17, 2014, 08:20:20 PM
Tuesday schedule:

Amherst @ keene.
The thing going for the Owls is that they have already played 2 games while the Jeffs have yet to play this year.  That and the fact the Owls are at home may keep them close for a bit, but the Jeffs are 17.5 point favorites for a reason, as once the Jeffs find their feet, they should cruise past the Owls.  Amherst 74-51.

Plymouth vs. Rivier (@ NH tech).
Panthers are 1-1 losing to a tough Wheaton team and beating up hapless Yeshiva.  Raiders come in 0-2 getting swept @ Smith's season opening tournament: 9 point loss to Smith and 11 point loss to Endicott.  Last year Rivier won by 13.  I don't think Plymouth wins, but I think the Panthers keep it competitive and under the 10 points for Rivier; Rivier 65-56

Eastern @ Emmanuel.
This is one of 4 big OOC games in the next 3 weeks for the Warriors.  Warriors broke a 2 game losing streak in the series with a win in Willimantic last year, but haven't beaten the Saints in Boston since 2010.  That changes here, Eastern 65-59
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 18, 2014, 09:51:22 PM
Amherst races past Keene, 84-67.  The Owls need to make some adjustments to their starting lineup.  Amherst shot extremely well and Keene looked disjointed and paid for it again with another lopsided loss to a very good team.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 19, 2014, 12:00:00 AM
Tuesday results:

Amherst over Keene 84-67.
Sandi Purcell & Christan Wojtas each had 15 to tie for the game high; Marley Giddins had a game high 20 off the bench for the Jeffs while Cheyenne Pritchard had 18 off the bench.  Both teams off until Saturday: Amherst is at home vs. Mount Holyoke, Keene also takes a drive to the Amherst area, but travels to the next town over as they go to Northampton to take on Smith.

Eastern over Emmanuel 76-63.
An excellent road win for the Warriors over the top dog of the GNAC.  No boxscore from this game however.  Emmanuel is @ RIC Thursday, while Eastern hosts Connecticut rival Trinity also on Thursday.

Plymouth wins.......again! 46-41.
Not pretty but if your Plymouth you take it!  Deanna Purcell lead the Raiders with 15 points and grabbed 7 rebounds while Savannah Butterfield lead the team with 10 rebounds and chipped in 14 points.  DeAsia Lawrence lead the Panthers with 14 points while Savannah Miller had 10 points & 10 rebounds.  Rivier finished 4-22 from 3 with Caitlin perry 0-7 from downtown; she was only 1-16 shooting for the game.  That's back-to-back wins for Plymouth, the first time that's happened since January 31-February 4 2012 when they won 3 straight.  They have now equaled last seasons win total through 3 games.  Their next win this year would equal '14 AND '13's combined win total.  Plymouth looks to continue their winning ways Saturday @ Lyndon State while the Raiders return to action Thursday @ Fitchburg State.

11-7 for the LEC; 14-4 for me on the year.

Wednesday schedule:

UNE (+2.5) @ USM
The Nor'Easters come in as a top 25 team coming off a tough home loss to top 5 Tufts on Sunday.  UNE has won 4 of the last 5 of the series with the only Huskies win coming in Rebecca Knight's first season when the Huskies finished 27-2.  This is a chance for USM to grab a win against a top 25 team while UNE plays a road game at a very tough place to play.  I'll take the Huskies at home, though I'll probably be punching myself around 7:15 tomorrow evening when I see UNE has won by 20  ::)  USM 67-66

Sage (+17) @ Western.
Sage finished last year 17-10 one of their greatest seasons in school history.  Their coach took off for greener pastures and now is run by former Eastern assistant Allison Coleman who knows Kim Rybczyk & Western inside-and-out as she was a coach & former player @ Eastern.  That's not enough for Sage to get the win, but should keep them within the 17 points; Western 66-49

Dartmouth (+2) @ WPI.
Both teams are 2-0 by beating 4 bad teams each.  WPI's 2 wins were over Worcester opponents who both finished .500 last year.  Dartmouth's opponents were only slightly better as they finished a combined 33-23 last year.  As usual with the Corsairs: can they win on the road??  I say yes, at least for this game.  Dartmouth 74-67
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 19, 2014, 08:31:42 PM
Wednesday results:

UNE in overtime over USM 77-73.
Sadie DiPierro had 22 to lead UNE who also got 15 points from Alicia Brown and 14 points from Kelly Coleman.  Megan Pelletier lead USM as she tied for a game high with 22 and the Huskies also put Rebecca Knight (12 points + 14 rebounds), Ella Ramonas (10) and Lauren Rousseau (15) in double figures.  Both benches were putrid as the teams combined for a measly 18 bench points but the Nor'Easters recorded 13 of the 18 however.  Meghan Gribbin hit a jumper for the Nor'easters to force overtime and after Knight scored the first 2 points of the OT period, the Nor'Easters hit 8 of the final 10 points of OT to pull away.  USM is off for the rest of the week as they don't play again until Tuesday night at Maine rival Bates; UNE is also off until Tuesday night and they also play a Maine NESCAC rival as they get the Polar Bears of Bowdoin in Biddeford.

Western over Sage 51-47.
Frankie Pearson lead the Gators with a game-high 18 while Amie Jefferson chipped in 8 points and a game high 13 rebounds for the Gators.  Alyssa Eannotti, Kerri Stolle & Carolina Brasa each had 10 points to lead the way for the Colonials.  Another game with bad bench output as this game saw only 12 combined points from the reserves.  Western returns to the court Saturday @ Trinity; Sage returns to the court also on Saturday vs. SUNY-Cobleskill.

Dartmouth leads 52-49 with 5:30 to go as of this writing.  I'll edit this later when that game goes final.
Dartmouth wins in double overtime 73-71.  Dani Davis lead the Engineers in scoring with 22 and grabbed 12 rebounds; Amaia Gritsko had a game high 16 rebounds and chipped in 12 points as well.  Megan Ronaghan had a game high 29 for the Corsairs.  Ronaghan made 1 of 2 free throws at the end of regulation to force the first overtime and Alicia Kutil forced the second overtime which tied the game for the Corsairs at 65

Thursday schedule:

Emmanuel (+2) @ RIC.
Emmanuel has had 2 tough games they both lost vs. William Paterson and Eastern.  RIC still has some work to do as a team before they can compete against a team like this.  Anchorwomen have lost 3 straight to the Saints losing by an average of 15 points.  Emmanuel 69-56

Trinity (CT) (+ 8.5) @ Eastern.
The Bantams are 1-1 beating Skidmore on the road and losing by 20 to the Cortland State Red Dragons on the home court of the Thoroughbreds.  This is the start of Eastern's 4 game gauntlet through the top 4 of the NESCAC.  In this stretch between now and December 4, the Warriors will face off against 4 of the top 5 finishers in the NESCAC last year, and if you include the game they play @ Conn College in February, the Warriors face off against 5 of the top 6 finishers in the NESCAC from last season.  Eastern 78-70.

13-8 LEC; 16-5 me
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 21, 2014, 01:07:43 AM
Thursday results:

Emmanuel handles Rhode Island College again, 72-56.  The game was tied 30-30 at halftime and was 55-53 Emmanuel with 6:42 left, but the Saints closed the game on a 17-3 run.  The Anchorwomen made just 6 field goals and shot 24% in the second half.  The teams combined for 57 turnovers in the game, the Saints committing 29.  Emmanuel was also whistled for 25 fouls...hard to turn the ball over 29 times and commit 25 fouls and win, let alone by 16...but Emmanuel did just that against a struggling RIC team.  The Anchorwomen have WPI at home on Saturday.  The Engineers are 2-1, losing to LEC foe UMass-Dartmouth 73-71 in double overtime last time out.  Emmanuel travels to nearby Endicott on Saturday to take on the Gulls.

Eastern Connecticut plows over hapless Trinity, 60-27.  Fourth lopsided win in a row to open the season for the Warriors, who are living up to their preseason conference pick so far.  Trinity shot a pathetic 20% for the game (making 9 field goals) and placed nobody in double figures while committing 22 turnovers.  Jill Ritrosky scored 24 points for Eastern, who shot just 31% themselves and made just 3-of-24 from three.  Shannon McCourt pulled down 19 rebounds.  The Bantams mustered 14 points in the first half and 13 in the second half.  Eastern faces a much tougher test next Tuesday against top five-ranked Tufts at home.  It doesn't stop there...Williams and Amherst are on the schedule after that.  Trinity gets the second of three straight games vs. the LEC next with their home-opener vs. Western.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 21, 2014, 11:16:47 AM
14-9 LEC; 18-5 for me after Thursday's games.

Rapid fire Friday:

Boston 67-62 over Lasell
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 21, 2014, 10:58:07 PM
In the lone Friday game, UMass Boston expectedly had no trouble beating lowly Lasell.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 22, 2014, 12:09:19 AM
Quote from: AllStar on November 21, 2014, 10:58:07 PM
In the lone Friday game, UMass Boston expectedly had no trouble beating lowly Lasell.

You wanna continue doing the recaps.  You did better ones than I did, LOL.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 22, 2014, 12:12:40 AM
Quote from: 7express on November 22, 2014, 12:09:19 AM
Quote from: AllStar on November 21, 2014, 10:58:07 PM
In the lone Friday game, UMass Boston expectedly had no trouble beating lowly Lasell.

You wanna continue doing the recaps.  You did better ones than I did, LOL.

I could as long as I don't forget.  LOL.  Although, yours seem fine to me! 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 22, 2014, 12:16:16 AM
LOL i'll do the women's game & Plymouth/Endicott men's game (since the other 2 men's games were covered already)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 22, 2014, 01:03:40 AM
Boston over Lasell 82-53.
Katie Stopera lead the way for lasell with 26 points while Olivia Murphy lead all scorers with 28 points and also pulled down 13 rebounds.  Beacons bench outscored the Lasers bench 39-3.  Beacons now get the host Salem State Vikings while the Lasers get the pitiful Thomas Terriers who were scorching hot against Salem State Friday night scoring.......25 points and losing by 46.  Their only other game, they lost by double digits to a USCAA school.

15-9 LEC; 19-5 me

Saturday schedule:

Coast Guard (+4) @ Dartmouth 1:00
Plymouth (-10) @ Lyndon State 1:00
Western (+3.5) @ Trinity (CT) 1:00
Keene (+3.5) @ Smith 2:00
WPI (+11.5) @ RIC 3:00
Boston (+6) @ Salem 3:00
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 22, 2014, 12:09:36 PM
Dartmouth 75-66.  At home they'll get it done.
Plymouth 65-44.  3 straight for the Panthers!
Trinity 65-61.  Last year the game went to overtime so this one should be close as well.
Smith 68-54.  Smith isn't as good as 2 years ago when they beat USM in the NCAAs, but I don't think Keene can score enough
RIC 59-55.  Ex RIC post player Rachel Riley makes her return to the Murray Center as top assistant for the Engineers.  Both teams are struggling, I'll take RIC at home.
Salem 76-73.  Still don't think the Beacons can win on the road.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 22, 2014, 06:10:59 PM
Sat results:

Dartmouth over Coast Guard 68-58.
Dani Knox had a game high 23 for Coast Guard.  Beth Castantini had 18 to lead Dartmouth.  Kelsey Garrity was held off the score sheet, but finished with 7 rebounds & 6 assists but also 8 of Dartmouth's 20 turnovers.  Bears are off until December 3 when they open up the NEWMAC schedule at WPI; Dartmouth goes to Salve regina on Tuesday night.

Plymouth over Lyndon 62-56.
Aimee Thompson and Emily Gray each had 16 to lead the Hornets.  DeAsia Lawrence had a game high 25 for the Panthers who committed only 5 turnovers in the game.  It was closer than I thought it would be, but the Panthers have now matched their win total from the last 2 years combined.  Hornets are playing a back-to-back as they go to Southern Vermont on Sunday afternoon; Plymouth plays @ Castleton State Tuesday.

Western clobbers trinity 86-57.
Mackenzie Griffin lead the Bantams with 13 points while Colleen Cosker paced the Colonials with 18 points while Alyssa Eannotti finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.  30 of the Colonials 65 attempted field goals were from behind the arc.  Bantams finished up the LEC slate Tuesday @ Keene, while the Colonials continue with the NESCAC as well on Tuesday as they take their shot vs. the Camels on Conn College.

Keene over Smith 77-63.
Tia Karapoulios and Alyssa Barrett each had 16 points for the Pioneers.  Sandi Purcell paced the Owls with 15 points who outrebounded the Pioneers 54-33 (22-9 on the offensive end) and got double-doubles from both Amanda Petrow (11 points, 10 rebounds) and Ryanne Williams (11 points, 16 rebounds).  The Owls got 15 rebounds as well from Stephanie D'Annolfo but she only recorded 6 points.  Both teams return to action Tuesday: Smith @ Wentworth, and as mention previous the Owls host Trinity College.

WPI over RIC 56-35.
Lisa Mendez and Rachel Pineda each had 11 points to lead the Engineers.  Devin Hill lead RIC with 9 points who didn't get a player in double figures, shot only 20.9% from the field, turned the ball over 18 times and never lead in the game.  RIC will shoot for that first win Tuesday at home vs. Bridgewater, while the Engineers will hit the road again as they travel down 395 and take on the Nichols Bisons.

Boston over Salem 63-41.
Rachel Carter lead the Vikings with a game high 21 points while Olivia Murphy was the only Beacon in double figures with 14.  The Beacons forced the Vikings into 18 turnovers and held them to 24.1% shooting.  Both teams return to action Tuesday: Salem faces local area rival Gordon on the road while the Beacons face another MASCAC school as they take a shot at Fitchburg State.

20-10 LEC; 2-4 day drops me to 21-9.

Conference off until Tuesday when all 8 teams return to action:

trinity (+1) @ Keene 5:00
USM (-10) @ Bates 5:30
Bridgewater (+6.5) @ RIC 5:30
Dartmouth (pick em) @ Salve 5:30
Boston (-4) @ Fitchburg 5:30
Conn College (+3) @ Western 5:30
Plymouth (+15.5) @ Castleton State 5:30
Tufts (-8.5) @ Eastern in the game of the day and season so far at 6

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 25, 2014, 04:41:29 PM
Cutting it close here with the picks for the first game:

Keene 68-65.  Keene is worse than Western & Eastern are, but the Bantams got demolished by both of those teams.  Neither games were close at all.
USM 78-59
Bridgewater 65-58.  RIC will win at some point, don't think it's here though.
Dartmouth 73-65.  So far they are winning away from the Tripp Athletic Center.
Boston 73-59
Western 76-54.  Last year the Camels ended a 3 game losing streak in the series in which they lost by an average of 14.3 points.   Western has won 4 straight at home since the series resumed by an average of 16.8 points
Castleton 78-54.  Plymouth has been playing well, but the Spartans take control of it.
Tufts 65-61.  2 good defensive teams, points at a premium.  I look at this something like the UConn women playing a road game @ Oklahoma State who is ranked #20 in the division 1 poll.  Tufts, much like UConn is clearly the better team, but if some things can break right and they get a couple of lucky bounces, OK State may be within a possession or 2 with 3 minutes to play and you take your chances.  Tufts should win this by double digits but if the Warriors can hang around for 35 minutes, they can give themselves a chance.  I don't think that'll happen, but I do think Eastern plays them close.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 25, 2014, 11:19:12 PM
Tuesday results:

Keene clubs Trinity 66-46.
Sheena Landy had 12 for the only bantam in double figures and Christan Wojtas had 13 to lead the Owls.  Keene is off until next Tuesday when they go to Rennselaer, NY to take on RPI; Trinity host local area rival Conn College next Thursday December 4 in a non NESCAC match for their next game.

Bates edges USM 61-60.
Molly Brown had 27 to lead the Bobcats and also pulled down 11 rebounds while Allie Coppola had 11 rebounds and 7 points for the Bobcats; Meghan Pellitier had 15 to lead the Huskies while Rebecca Knight had 8 points and 10 rebounds and Ella Ramonas had 14 points and 13 rebounds.  The Huskies were up 14 with 6:32 to play and got outscored 16-1 to end it, bad loss.  Rebecca Knight ended the game with an offensive foul called.  USM will look to bounce back on Sunday night vs. local rival St. Joseph's (ME) while the Bates will look to take this momentum and carry it into the non NESCAC encounter vs. Colby on Sunday.  Bates, Bowdoin & Colby all play each other twice a season, but only the second game counts in the NESCAC standings.  Bates has both of the Bowdoin & Colby NESCAC games at home.

Bridgewater in OT over RIC 68-67.
Michelle Lagrotteria had 18 to lead RIC and Jess Korzec had 17 off the bench for the Anchorwomen.  Devil Hill added 10 rebounds and 8 points and Alex Moore added 10 points & 10 rebounds for the Anchorwomen as well.  Chanelle Melton had 15 to lead the Bears and Christina Jaros lead the Bears with 15 rebounds.   Bridgewater hit 2 free throws with 7 seconds left to win.  Bridgewater is off until next Tuesday when they take on another LEC team in the Corsairs while the Anchorwomen are off until next Thursday when they take on city rival Johnson & Wales.

Dartmouth over Salve 73-50.
Meaghan Harden had 15 points & 12 rebounds for the Seahawks; Megan Ronaghan had a career high 33 points to lead the Corsairs who also got 16 points from Erin Fahey.  Kelsey Garrity continues to commit too many turnovers as she had 8 this game as well and is averaging 4.4 turnovers a game through 5 games.  The odd thing is, she's had 2 games when she's committed 0, so when she commits them, she commits them in bunches (6, 8 & 8).  Salve next plays Bowdoin on Saturday, Dartmouth is off for Thanksgiving when they play Bridgewater.

Boston chokes, loses to Fitchburg 60-57.
Megan Wodzinski lead the Falcons with 14 points and Britney Payne added 10 points and 11 rebounds.  Olivia Murphy once again lead the Beacons charge with 17 points & 18 rebounds while Katrina Edwards added 12 points & 12 rebounds for Boston.  The Beacons actually held a 3 point lead AND the ball with under 40 seconds to play in overtime, and not only did they not just lose on a buzzer beater, they lost with the opponent padding the lead with free throws!  :o  1 Beacon turnover lead to a layup for the Falcons to put them down 1, and the beacons turned it over again to lead to the winner.  Boston added a 3rd turnover which lead to 2 Falcon free throws for the final margin and added a 4th for good measure on the inbounds.  When you take into account the time and situation (Beacons up 3 with the ball and under 45 seconds to play), this maybe just as bad as the USM loss.  Not good.  Both teams are off until next Tuesday: Boston plays Mt. Ida, Fitchburg plays Lasell

Castleton over Plymouth 67-52.
Taylor Perry had a game high 17 off the bench for the panthers, while Jade Deroches lead the Spartans with 16, and Bryanna DuPont had 13 points & 20 rebounds.  Plymouth is off until next Tuesday when they play Colby-Sawyer; Castleton State is off until December 3 when they open up NAC play against Lyndon State.

Western over Conn College 55-51.
Caroline Brasa lead the Colonials with 16 points and Alyssa Eannotti had 6 points & 10 rebounds.  Mairead Hynes had a game high 24 off the bench for the Camels.  Camels resume action Monday night against Albertus; Colonials are off until next Wednesday when they travel to Staten Island.

Tufts defeats Eastern 63-51.
Hayley Kanner had a game high 20 for the Jumbos while Jordyn Nappi finished with a team high 13 for the Warriors.  Tufts next plays Wheaton (MA) Monday evening, Eastern continues the NESCAC gauntlet welcoming Williams into Willimantic on Sunday afternoon.

Overall not a very good day for the conference.  Eastern lost the marquee game of the day, and USM & Boston completely folded down the stretch and were left defeated when both probably had close to a 90%+ win probability at a specific point in time.  I would think the Beacons having the ball up 3 with under 45 seconds would have about a 95% win probability in that case.  How can we start tracking this for college sports & D-3 basketball??  3-5 day leaves the conference 23-15 in OOC play; 6-2 for me leaves me 27-11.

Conference off until Sunday:
Williams @ Eastern 3:00
St. Joseph's (ME) @ USM 5:30.

Hope everyone has a good holiday!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 25, 2014, 11:50:06 PM
Nice job nailing UMD's point total in your prediction!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 25, 2014, 11:53:14 PM
Have a good holiday, 7!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 30, 2014, 10:50:03 AM
Williams 66-53.  Eastern is still a notch below the 3 NESCAC powers.
USM 58-54 in the US-202 rivalry game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 01, 2014, 12:24:50 AM
Sunday results:

RIC over Roger Williams 71-61 in overtime.
Alex Moore lead RIC with a game-high 24 points.  Katie Lowerre lead the Seahawks with 14 points off the bench while Mariah Nichols had 11 points & 17 rebounds and Bridget Quilty added 10 points and 13 rebounds.  Somehow this eluded me on Tuesday.  Seahawks are back in action Wednesday evening when they open CCC play vs. Nichols, RIC is @ city rival Johnson & Wales Thursday night.

Eastern fails part 2, loses to Williams 70-64.
Erin Brooks lead Eastern with 21 off the bench and Jill Ritrosky added 17 points and 12 rebounds.  Ellen Cook lead the Ephs with 21 points and Kellie Macdonald added 19.  Williams is back in action Tuesday evening vs. Skidmore, Eastern finishes up the NESCAC gauntlet with a trip to Amherst Thursday evening.

USM in OT over SJME 65-57.
Ella Ramonas lead the Huskies with 18 points and Megan Pelletier added 14 points and a game high 13 rebounds.  Morgan Cahill lead the Monks with 22 points and 10 rebounds.  Both teams return to the court Wednesday vs. state NESCAC opponents: Monks host Colby, Huskies go to Bowdoin.

25-16 LEC; 29-11 me

Next games Tuesday:
Bridgewater @ Dartmouth 5:30
Keene @ RPI 6:00
Boston @ Mt. Ida 6:00
Colby-Sawyer @ Plymouth State 6:00
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 02, 2014, 05:05:46 PM
Tuesday predictions:

Dartmouth 67-58
Keene 65-64
Boston 78-32.  Why are they playing this cupcake??
Colby-Sawyer 67-54
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 02, 2014, 10:51:13 PM
Keene was lucky to win against RPI with that miserable box score!  Probably says something about RPI.  The Owls shot in the low 30's for a percentage overall (34.8% to be exact)...made 1-of-17 from three point range...and 12-of-27 free throws!  Hard to tell what's the worst of those numbers!  My goodness.  Awful.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 03, 2014, 12:15:20 AM
Tuesday results:

Bridgewater edges Dartmouth 57-56.
Beth Castantini lead all scorers with 14 for the Corsairs, Vanessa Conceicao lead Bridgewater with 11 points and 10 rebounds.  Not a good look for the Corsairs at home.   Megan Boutilette had the game-winning layup with 29 seconds left, and Kelsey Garrity turned it over on the other end.  Bears are back in action Saturday afternoon vs. Amherst, Corsairs play Thursday vs. Worcester State.

Keene over RPI 61-57.
Amanda Lynch had 17 for the Red Hawks to lead all scorers; Stephanie D'Annolfo and Courtney Robers each lead the Owls with 14 points and Sarah Kober had a game high 11 rebounds.  Owls shot 1-17 from 3 and 12-27 from the free throw line, but somehow were able to win.  This was the Red Hawks final game of the fall semester as they are off for finals and resume action after the Christmas holiday December 29 @ Westfield State, Owls have the LEC opener at home vs. Boston Saturday afternoon.

Boston clobbers Mt. ida 76-45.
Katelyn Jesse lead the Mustangs with 10 points; Grace geary lead the Beacons with 24 points off the bench.  Mt. Ida is back in action Saturday against NAIA Fisher College of Boston; Beacons will have a much tougher test than the Mustangs Saturday @ Keene in the LEC opener.

Colby-Sawyer over Plymouth 53-38.
Kelsey Bragdon lead the Chargers with a game high 14 points and team high 12 rebounds; Panthers were lead by Tiffany Lewis who had a team high of 8 points and a game high 13 rebounds.  Both teams open up conference play at home Saturday; Chargers vs. Green Mountain, Panthers vs. Dartmouth.

27-18 LEC; 32-12 me

Wednesday games:
Western @ Staten Island 7 PM
USM @ Bowdoin 7 PM

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 03, 2014, 04:42:34 PM
Wednesday picks:

Bowdoin over USM 63-58
Western 74-58 over CSI
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 03, 2014, 10:22:46 PM
Wednesday results:

Western by 10 over CSI 60-50.
Ashley Iannacone was the lone Dolphin in double figures with 10 points; Caroline Brasa had a game high 21 for the Colonials.  CSI next plays next Tuesday in the CUNY opener vs. Baruch; Western has their LEC opener vs. USM on Saturday.

Bowdoin clubs USM 65-44
Megan Pelletier had 16 to lead the Huskies while the Polar Bears were lead by Sara Binkhorst who put in a game high 19.  Polar Bears return to action Saturday afternoon against state & conference rival Colby in the non NESCAC game between the 2; USM is @ Western in the LEC opener for each team Saturday afternoon.

28-19 LEC; 34-12 me

Thursday schedule:

Eastern @ Amherst 5:30
RIC @ Johnson & Wales 7 PM
Worcester @ Dartmouth 7 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 04, 2014, 05:26:53 PM
Thursday:

Amherst 74-56
RIC 61-57
Dartmouth 76-65
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on December 04, 2014, 08:29:40 PM
7-express...you are getting real good at this.  Amherst wins over ECSU today 66-51 in LeFrak.  Sort of the same pattern by the Warriors against the CAC teams....get way behind by double digits only to make a strong recovery in the 2nd half...only to fall short.  Harder to win away from Home..ergo bigger point spread.  Warriors have a good team.  Should do fine in the conference.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 04, 2014, 08:50:08 PM
Quote from: amh63 on December 04, 2014, 08:29:40 PM
7-express...you are getting real good at this.  Amherst wins over ECSU today 66-51 in LeFrak.  Sort of the same pattern by the Warriors against the CAC teams....get way behind by double digits only to make a strong recovery in the 2nd half...only to fall short.  Harder to win away from Home..ergo bigger point spread.  Warriors have a good team.  Should do fine in the conference.

Conference is officially a 1 bid league this year.  Not even at the first Saturday of December and I already know this, smh.  I know it would've been hard-pressed for Eastern to win 2, yet alone 3 of those games, but c'mon, win one!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 04, 2014, 11:15:53 PM
Amherst flunks Eastern, beats the Warriors 66-51.
Ali Doswell had 21 to lead the Jeffs and Marley Giddins had 10 points and 12 rebounds.  Jill Ritrosky had a team high 20 for Eastern.   Amherst is @ Bridgewater Saturday, while the Warriors are @ RIC for the conference opener for each team.

J&W over RIC 69-56. 
Raquel Pederzani had a game high 22 points for the Wildcats; Devin Hill had 17 to lead the Anchorwomen.  Wildcats are @ Brandeis Saturday, RIC host Eastern

Dartmouth over Worcester 70-50.
Shannen El-Qasem had 12 points & 10 rebounds, both team highs for the Lancers.  Megan Ronaghan had a game high 22 for the Corsairs who also got 10 points & 11 rebounds from Erin Fahey and 11 points & 8 assists from Kelsey Garrity.  Lancers play Mount St. Vincent Saturday, while the Corsairs are at Plymouth State Saturday.

29-21 LEC; 36-13

Saturday schedule, LEC opening day, all games at 1 PM.

Boston @ Keene
USM @ Western
Eastern @ RIC
Dartmouth @ Plymouth

Superlatives:
Best game: USM @ Western.  Games in Danbury the last few years have always been very exciting.  Last year USM won by 2 with 2 free throws inside of 10 seconds, 2 years ago USM was unbeaten ranked #11 and suffered their first and only regular season loss that year in Feldman arena, the year before that USM won by 1 in overtime.
Most important game: Eastern @ RIC.  Eastern has lost 3 in a row, getting a big fat "F" on their 3 tests; RIC is struggling at 1-6 and the season is starting to slip away.
Worst game: Don't think either Boston/Keene or Dartmouth/Plymouth is that terrible.  However, if Dartmouth was playing at home this would be a slam-dunk choice.  As it is, I'll go Keene/Boston, if only because Dartmouth only won by 4 up there last year, Plymouth is definitely better than last year, and I'm still not sold on the Corsairs winning important road games.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 05, 2014, 12:38:57 AM
The women in the LEC are having major problems in the non-conference this year.  While all of Keene and Eastern's defeats are by upper echelon teams in the NESCAC and the country, very few of the games were actually competitive.  If this never changes, neither will the 1-bid league.  The league has also suffered some dreadful losses, as evidenced tonight with Rhode Island College's defeat against Johnson and Wales.  Additionally, Southern Maine was flattened by Bowdoin and blew a game against Bates badly.  UMass Boston saw a similar fate in wasting a lead against Fitchburg State.  Overall the Beacons in general have a lousy non-conference slate anyway, as they again played Mount Ida the other night.  Also, while Plymouth's wins are no doubt good for the coach and players, they are against nobody with remotely any significance. 

To edit and further this point, I have calculated the combined overall record of the teams each team in the conference has beaten and the combined overall record of the teams each team in the conference has lost to.

Eastern Connecticut:  4-3 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Newbury, Framingham State, Emmanuel, Trinity (CT)):  10-18 (.357); Overall record of teams lost to (Tufts, Williams, Amherst):  19-0 (1.000)

Western Connecticut:  5-1 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Juniata, Sage, Trinity (CT), Connecticut College, Staten Island):  15-18 (.455); Overall record of team lost to (New York University):  6-0 (1.000)

UMass-Dartmouth:  6-1 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Norwich, Colby-Sawyer, WPI, Coast Guard, Salve Regina, Worcester State):  22-12 (.647); Overall record of team lost to (Bridgewater State):  5-1 (.833)

UMass-Boston:  3-2 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Lasell, Salem State, Mount Ida):  7-13 (.350); Overall record of teams lost to (Colby, Fitchburg State):  13-0 (1.000)

Keene State:  4-2 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Wellesley, Smith, Trinity (CT), RPI):  7-18 (.280); Overall record of teams lost to (Tufts, Amherst):  11-0 (1.000)

Southern Maine:  3-3 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Maine-Farmington, Bridgewater State, St. Joseph's (ME)):  11-7 (.611); Overall record of teams lost to (University of New England, Bates, Bowdoin):  15-6 (.714)

Rhode Island College:  1-6 overall - Overall record of team beaten (Roger Williams):  3-4 (.429); Overall record of teams lost to (Williams, Babson, Emmanuel, WPI, Bridgewater State, Johnson and Wales):  28-10 (.737)

Plymouth State:  3-3 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Yeshiva, Rivier, Lyndon State):  4-16 (.200); Overall record of teams lost to (Wheaton (MA), Castleton State, Colby-Sawyer):  12-3 (.800)

Conference overall record:  29-21 - Combined overall record of teams the conference has beaten:  79-106 (.427); Combined overall record of teams the conference has lost to:  109-20 (.845)

In the end, beating bad teams and losing to good ones.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 05, 2014, 12:50:48 PM
Quote from: AllStar on December 05, 2014, 12:38:57 AM
The women in the LEC are having major problems in the non-conference this year.  While all of Keene and Eastern's defeats are by upper echelon teams in the NESCAC and the country, very few of the games were actually competitive.  If this never changes, neither will the 1-bid league.  The league has also suffered some dreadful losses, as evidenced tonight with Rhode Island College's defeat against Johnson and Wales.  Additionally, Southern Maine was flattened by Bowdoin and blew a game against Bates badly.  UMass Boston saw a similar fate in wasting a lead against Fitchburg State.  Overall the Beacons in general have a lousy non-conference slate anyway, as they again played Mount Ida the other night.  Also, while Plymouth's wins are no doubt good for the coach and players, they are against nobody with remotely any significance. 

To edit and further this point, I have calculated the combined overall record of the teams each team in the conference has beaten and the combined overall record of the teams each team in the conference has lost to.

Eastern Connecticut:  4-3 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Newbury, Framingham State, Emmanuel, Trinity (CT)):  10-18 (.357); Overall record of teams lost to (Tufts, Williams, Amherst):  19-0 (1.000)

Western Connecticut:  5-1 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Juniata, Sage, Trinity (CT), Connecticut College, Staten Island):  15-18 (.455); Overall record of team lost to (New York University):  6-0 (1.000)

UMass-Dartmouth:  6-1 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Norwich, Colby-Sawyer, WPI, Coast Guard, Salve Regina, Worcester State):  22-12 (.647); Overall record of team lost to (Bridgewater State):  5-1 (.833)

UMass-Boston:  3-2 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Lasell, Salem State, Mount Ida):  7-13 (.350); Overall record of teams lost to (Colby, Fitchburg State):  13-0 (1.000)

Keene State:  4-2 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Wellesley, Smith, Trinity (CT), RPI):  7-18 (.280); Overall record of teams lost to (Tufts, Amherst):  11-0 (1.000)

Southern Maine:  3-3 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Maine-Farmington, Bridgewater State, St. Joseph's (ME)):  11-7 (.611); Overall record of teams lost to (University of New England, Bates, Bowdoin):  15-6 (.714)

Rhode Island College:  1-6 overall - Overall record of team beaten (Roger Williams):  3-4 (.429); Overall record of teams lost to (Williams, Babson, Emmanuel, WPI, Bridgewater State, Johnson and Wales):  28-10 (.737)

Plymouth State:  3-3 overall - Overall record of teams beaten (Yeshiva, Rivier, Lyndon State):  4-16 (.200); Overall record of teams lost to (Wheaton (MA), Castleton State, Colby-Sawyer):  12-3 (.800)

Conference overall record:  29-21 - Combined overall record of teams the conference has beaten:  79-106 (.427); Combined overall record of teams the conference has lost to:  109-20 (.845)

In the end, beating bad teams and losing to good ones.

And that's unfortunately is what's going to keep the league a 1 bid league this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 06, 2014, 01:28:47 AM
Saturday's conference games:

Eastern Connecticut at Rhode Island College
The Warriors, who were picked to win the league in the preseason poll, will open their conference slate on the road against struggling Rhode Island College.  After winning their first four games of the season, Eastern Connecticut is coming off getting swept in the three game gauntlet against now-No. 4 Tufts (63-51), No. 12 Williams (70-64), and at 2nd-ranked Amherst (66-51).  In the most recent game against the Jeffs, Eastern trailed 44-21 before rattling off a 27-8 surge to make it 52-48.  Amherst then reestablished control and pulled away in the final minutes.  The Warriors are led offensively by Jill Ritrosky at 15.1 ppg, but seem to use their defense to win games.  In three of their four victories, they have held the opponents to under 47 points.  Rhode Island College has struggled mightily, opening the season 1-6.  The Anchorwomen's lone win came on November 30th, a 71-61 overtime win at home against Roger Williams.  They will enter this game fresh off a bad 69-56 loss at city rival Johnson and Wales.  Nobody on RIC averages double-figures in points, and overall they have been outscored by 13 points per game and dominated on the boards by 12 rebounds per game.  The teams split the season series last year, with each time winning at home.  ECSU won in Connecticut, 69-67 in overtime and RIC won in Providence, 61-57.

UMass-Dartmouth at Plymouth State
UMass-Dartmouth rebounded from their first loss with a 70-50 beating of Worcester State in their last game.  Now the Corsairs get to make the trek up to Plymouth to take on the Panthers, a team who has not won more than 1 conference game since the 2009-10 season.  UMD should be careful in this spot, however, as last year in this exact situation they trailed for most of the game and needed to rally late to post a 52-48 victory at Foley Gymnasium.  The Corsairs struggled mightly on the road last year, but are 2-0 away from the Tripp Center so far this year, beating WPI and Salve Regina.  UMass-Dartmouth has scored 68 points or more in each of their six victories, while being held to 56 points in their lone loss.  Plymouth enters this game off a 53-38 home loss to impotent Colby-Sawyer, a game in which they never lead and shot just 27.5% in.  They trailed 27-12 at halftime.  The Corsairs won both matchups last year, the aforementioned game in Plymouth and an 85-45 rout at home.

Southern Maine at Western Connecticut
Southern Maine will make the long trip down to Danbury fresh off being pounded 65-44 at in-state rival Bowdoin.  The Huskies shot just 29% and trailed by 20 at halftime and 26 midway through the second half in the game against the Polar Bears.  USM has lost three of four overall and is shooting just 28% from three point range this season.  Western Connecticut has won five straight since their season-opening loss to New York University.  Included in the five game streak is their most recent victory, 60-50 at Staten Island.  Western led for the majority of the game against the poor-shooting Dolphins and was never seriously threatened in the second half after having an 8-point advantage at the half.  The Colonials have relied on their defense, giving up just 51.4 ppg in their five victories (they gave up 71 to NYU).  Caroline Brasa is averaging 16 points per game for Western.  Southern Maine won both games last year, 67-31 in Gorham and 57-55 in a much more competitive game at the Feldman Arena.  The Huskies quickly blew an 11-point second half advantage in the game in Danbury and fell behind before Taylor Flood made two free throws with a second left to win the game.

UMass-Boston at Keene State
The Owls return home after somehow squeaking out a 61-57 win at RPI in a game that saw them make just 1-of-17 threes and 12-of-27 from free throw line.  Keene State will no doubt need to shoot better from both areas going forward, beginning with the conference opener against UMass-Boston.  The Beacons have gone 3-2 against a weak schedule thus far and are coming off a 76-45 win over perennial punching bag Mount Ida.  In what is no secret, in order to beat the Beacons you have to stop Olivia Murphy.  Murphy has averaged 17 points and 12 rebounds per game thus far.  Only one other Beacon player (Grace Geary) averages in double-figures for points (13).  No other Beacons players average more than 8 rebounds per game.  The teams split the season series last year, each team winning at home.  Keene State won 60-56 at Spaulding Gym, while UMass-Boston beat the Owls 66-56 at the Clark Athletic Center.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 06, 2014, 12:09:08 PM
I'll take Eastern 73-58
Keene 73-69
Dartmouth 54-51
Western 63-54
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 06, 2014, 03:24:23 PM
USM defeats Western 52-40.
Rebecca Knight lead the Huskies with 14 points and also pulled down 12 rebounds, while Megan Pelletier had a team high 12 rebounds and chipped in 10 points.  Carolina Brasa lead the Colonials with 11 points who only shot 26.7% from the field, 10.5% from 3, and 70% from the line.  Both teams return to action Tuesday: Colonials are @ Anna Maria, Huskies play Salem State in Maine.

RIC over Eastern 64-60.
Jordyn Nappi lead the Warriors with 16 points while Jill Ritrosky had 11 points and 19 rebounds.  Jess Korzec had a game high 26 to lead the Anchorwomen, while Alex Moore also finished with a 20 point outing as she finished with 22.   Korzec and Moore contributed 75% of RIC's total output (rest of the team finished with a combined 16) but it was good enough for the win.  RIC returns to the court Wednesday night @ Amherst, Eastern will look to end their 4 game slide Tuesday night @ Clark.

Dartmouth clobbers Plymouth 83-46.
Alicia Kutil lead the Corsairs with 21 points off the bench, while Megan Ronaghan had 16 points and 12 rebounds.  Savannah Miller lead the Panthers with 10 points.  Both teams are on the road Tuesday evening; Panthers are @ Lasell; Corsairs are @ Johnson & Wales.

Keene over Boston 58-47.
Kirsten Morrison with 13 off the bench to lead the Becons; Kelsey Cognetta lead the Owls with 19 points while Steph D'Annolfo had 17 rebounds and 9 points.  Beacons return home to face another city punching bag Simmons on Tuesday evening, Keene is off until next Saturday when they host USM.

29-21 LEC; 38-15 me

Standings:

1) Dartmouth 1-0 (7-1)
1) Keene 1-0 (4-3)
1) USM 1-0 (4-3)
1) RIC 1-0 (2-6)
5) Western 0-1 (5-2)
5) Eastern 0-1 (4-4)
5) Boston 0-1 (3-3)
5) Plymouth 0-1 (3-4)

Schedule:

Saturday, December 13:
USM @ Keene 1 PM
RIC @ Boston 1 PM

Saturday, January 3:
Plymouth @ Eastern 1 PM

Thursday, January 8:
Western @ Dartmouth 5:30 PM.  That'll take all conference teams up to 2 conference games.

Upcoming schedule:

Tuesday, December 9:
Eastern @ Clark 5 PM
Salem State @ USM 5:30 PM
Dartmouth @ Johnson & Wales 5:30 PM
Simmons @ Boston 7 PM
Western @ Anna Maria 7 PM
Plymouth @ Lasell 7 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 09, 2014, 01:56:35 PM
Eastern 74-57
USM 78-62
Dartmouth 78-64
Boston 81-48
Western 63-46
Lasell 65-57

Looks like some real blowouts on the schedule today.  5 of the 6 opponents are awful basketball teams, and you know it's a bad slate when Plymouth looks to be your closest game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 10, 2014, 05:25:59 PM
Tuesday results:

Eastern destroys Clark 74-34.
Julia DePoi had a game high 16 for the Warriors, who got 11 points and 12 rebounds from Jill Ritrosky to end the slide.  Cougars were lead by Brooke Brennan who had 10.  Both teams are off until Christmas; Clark returns to the court December 30 @ Bowdoin; Eastern is off until after New years when they play LEC game #2 @ Plymouth State January 3.

USM clobbers Salem 77-37.
Rebecca Knight had a game high 13 for the Huskies; Rachel Carter lead the Vikings with a team high 12 points and game high 16 rebounds.  Salem plays Plymouth Thursday, while USM plays @ Keene Saturday.

J&W edges Dartmouth 61-58.
Bobbie Whitehead and Ashley Thompson each finished with a team high 13 points for the Wildcats; Megan Ronaghan had a game high 21 points and 13 rebounds while Kelsey Garrity added 10 assists for the Corsairs.  Atrocious loss for the Corsairs, who now have almost a month off as they don't play again until January 5 @ Williams.  Wildcats go to a J&W tournament in Miami, FL this weekend.  They start off with J&W of Colorado on Friday, then either play J&W Florida or J&W NC in the finals/consolation on Saturday.

Boston clubs Simmons 78-38.
Olivia Murphy lead the Beacons with a game high 16 points.  Nobody for the Sharks finished in double figures as they shot 25% and turned it over 30 times, but Jennifer Janiak had a team high 8 points, and Liz Brasa, the younger sister of Western Connecticut's Caroline Brasa had 5 points, but pulled down a game high 9 rebounds.  Sharks are off until after New Years where they play WPI on January 3; Boston hosts RIC Saturday.

Western over Anna Maria 55-49.
Carolina Brasa had 12 points to lead the Colonials; Trafficia Warburton had 27 points, 12 rebounds and 4 steals all game high's to lead the AMcats.  AMcats return to action Saturday with a game against Framingham State, while the Colonials break for the holidays.  They return on Friday, January 2 when they open up the 2nd annual Hat City Classic.  They play Green Mountain in the first game while Farmingdale State plays New Jersey City to round out the field.

Plymouth vs. Lasell was postponed to be made up February 5.  Plymouth is back in action Thursday @ Salem State; the Lasers play Saturday vs. Gordon.

33-22-1 LEC; 42-16-1 me

Wednesday's schedule:

RIC @ Amherst 6 PM

Amherst 79-47.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 11, 2014, 12:29:14 AM
Amherst clobbers RIC 74-37.
Ali Doswell scored a game high 19 points for the Jeffs; Michelle Logrotteria had 18 for the Anchorwomen.   Jeffs are off until after Christmas when they play Drew University on December 29, Anchorwomen are back in action Saturday @ Boston.

33-23-1 LEC; 43-16-1 me

Thursday schedule:
Westfield @ Boston 5:30
Plymouth @ Salem 5:30
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 11, 2014, 05:09:25 PM
Boston 61-57
Salem 64-57
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 12, 2014, 12:58:30 AM
Westfield over Plymouth 62-56.
Forbasaw Nkamebo lead the Owls with 13 points and 11 rebounds off the bench; Olivia Murphy lead the Beacons with a game high 16.  Owls are off until December 29 when they play RPI; Boston plays RIC Saturday.

Plymouth clubs Salem 70-50.
Rachael Carter lead the Vikings with a game high 29 points and 16 rebounds (10 on the offensive end); Kayla Wyland lead the Panthers with 15 points and a game high 17 rebounds.  Vikings play local area rival Endicott on Saturday; Panthers are off until 2015 where they'll take on Eastern just after the calendar flips to 2015 on January 3.

34-24-1 LEC; 43-18-1 me.

Saturday schedule:
RIC @ Boston
USM @ Keene.  Last slate of games until after Christmas.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 13, 2014, 01:03:03 AM
Saturday's conference games:

Southern Maine at Keene State
Both teams will look to go into the break at 2-0 in the conference as Southern Maine travels to Spaulding Gymnasium and plays Keene State.  Southern Maine comes in at 5-3 and on a two-game winning streak since a loss on December 3rd against Bowdoin.  The Huskies won their conference opener, 52-40 in Danbury last week against Western and destroyed a bad Salem State team 77-37 last Tuesday in Gorham.  USM led 35-15 at halftime and for good measure pounded the Vikings 42-22 in the second half to win by 40.  Strangely, 4 of the 5 starters for the Huskies played more than 30 minutes even with the game never being in doubt in the second half.  Rebecca Knight scored 13 and Megan Pelletier added 11 for Southern Maine against Salem State, who shot just 21% from the floor in the game.  Keene State will have to play better than they did last weekend to win this game.  In their conference opener last Saturday against UMass-Boston, the Owls quickly blew a double-digit halftime lead (32-20) and actually fell behind by a point.  They were able to recover and beat the Beacons with a late scoring burst.  Kelsey Cognetta scored 19 points and Christan Wojtas added 13 points (...though it took 16 shots to get them).  Keene shot a lousy 32% in the contest and made just 8-of-25 threes (UMass-Boston shot an even worse at 29%).  The Owls were able to win in part by outrebounding UMB 48-36.  The Owls and Huskies split the regular season series last year with both teams winning on the road.  Keene State won 68-64 in overtime in Gorham.  Southern Maine won 56-40 in Keene.

Rhode Island College at UMass-Boston
The Anchorwomen enter this game at 2-7 and off a 74-35 road drubbing at the hands of 3rd-ranked Amherst on Wednesday.  The Jeffs led for the entire game and dominated nearly every statistical category.  Rhode Island College shot 26% from the floor and 1-of-9 from three.  Michelle Lagrotteria scored 18 of the Anchorwomen's 35 points (51.4% of the team's points).  Before losing to Amherst, RIC pulled off a surprising 64-60 home win over preseason favorite Eastern Connecticut last Saturday.  The game against the Anchorwomen will mark UMass-Boston's third game (all at home) this week.  The Beacons beat punching bag Simmons 78-38 on Tuesday before losing 62-56 to Westfield State on Thursday.  In the loss to the Owls, UMB coughed the ball up 26 times.  Olivia Murphy and Kirsten Morrison combined to score 30, while the entire rest of the team only scored 26 points.  If the Beacons ever want to get over the hump, they have to have more depth and balance than that.  This game is both teams' last until January, and for UMass-Boston it is critical to avoid falling to 0-2 in the conference.  A much different Rhode Island College team swept the Beacons last year, suffocating the Beacons 48-30 in Providence and 55-44 in Boston.  Much like the men's team, the UMass-Boston women haven't beaten Rhode Island College in a long time.  The last time the Beacons beat the Anchorwomen was January 13, 2007, an 80-76 decision in Rhode Island.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 13, 2014, 12:58:21 PM
I've got:
Boston 54-48.  First to 50 wins this game if it gets that high
USM 68-66.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 13, 2014, 11:46:18 PM
USM over Keene 71-66.
Megan Pelletier was one of 4 Huskies in double figures with 18; Sandi Purcell lead the Owls with 10 points, and Courtney Roberts had 10 points & 10 rebounds.  Both teams are now on the Christmas break:  USM plays WPI @ Westfield state tournament on Monday, December 29; Owls play Anna Maria at their holiday tournament on Tuesday, December 30.

Boston over RIC 63-58.
Olivia Murphy had a game high 21 points and 12 rebounds, Kirsten Morrison had 10 points and a game high 13 rebounds, and Grace Geary added 16 points to pace the Beacons attack.  Alex Moore had 16 to lead the way for RIC.  Both teams are off until 2015: Boston hosts Salve Regina on Saturday, January 3; RIC goes to Bowdoin to square off against the Polar Bears on Sunday, January 4.

34-24-1 LEC; 45-18-1.

Standings:
1) USM 2-0 (6-3)
1) Dartmouth 1-0 (7-2)
3) Keene 1-1 (5-3)
3) Boston 1-1 (5-4)
3) RIC 1-1 (2-8)
6) Western 0-1 (6-2)
6) Eastern 0-1 (6-2)
6) Plymouth 0-1 (4-4)

Schedule:

Saturday, January 3:
Eastern @ Plymouth 1 PM

Thursday, January 8:
Western @ Dartmouth 5:30 PM

Conference has a 16 day break as the next game isn't until Monday, December 29 (just think, not 1 playoff spot has been clinched yet in the NFL, and by the time a conference team resumes play will be the start of Wildcard Card week in the NFL  :o)

Next game Monday, December 29:

WPI vs. USM (@ Westfield) 7 PM

Have a good holiday Allstar, and all the other lurkers on this board!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 29, 2014, 03:14:30 PM
Conferenced teams resume action this evening with USM taking on WPI at 7 PM.  The Engineers come in at 6-2 with only a 2 point loss vs. Dartmouth and a 3 point loss vs. Fitchburg keeping them from being 8-0.  I'll still pick USM by a 73-69 final.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 30, 2014, 12:26:48 PM
WPI in a dog fight over USM 49-44.
Dani Davis had a game high 14 for the Engineers, while Stephanie Gallagher had a team high 12 for the Huskies and Megan Pelletier had 10 points & 10 rebounds.  USM gets Rochester Tech today while WPI gets the host Owls.

34-25-1 LEC; 45-19-1 me

Tuesday predictions:
Keene over Anna Maria 74-43
USM 56-47 over Rochester Tech
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 31, 2014, 12:08:28 AM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 31, 2014, 12:38:55 PM
Paterson 65-63 vs. Keene today
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 03, 2015, 12:11:02 AM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 03, 2015, 01:16:15 AM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 03, 2015, 02:34:02 AM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 03, 2015, 03:02:58 AM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 04, 2015, 01:54:56 AM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 04, 2015, 02:17:33 PM
I'll take Bowdoin over RIC 65-43
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 05, 2015, 12:38:53 AM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 05, 2015, 04:16:02 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 06, 2015, 01:56:24 PM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 06, 2015, 03:23:56 PM
Plymouth 65-54
Boston 73-59.  Maybe this year is different...
Fitchburg 65-62
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 07, 2015, 12:15:25 AM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 07, 2015, 05:59:03 PM
Wednesday prediction:

USM 65-58.  Even without Knight, I think USM gets a much needed win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 07, 2015, 10:13:53 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 07, 2015, 11:09:33 PM
Quote from: AllStar on January 07, 2015, 10:13:53 PM
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.

Chandler Guerrette had 21 points off the bench for the Eagles (5-4) while Megan Pelletier lead all scorers with 33 points.  Too bad no other Husky was in double figures, and the other 4 starters contributed just 32 points total (all 4 had 8 each).  Eagles are back in action Saturday vs. Maine-Maritime, while the Huskies (6-6) host Dartmouth on Saturday in LEC play.

41-24-1 LEC; 54-24-1 me.

Thursday schedule:
Fisher @ Plymouth 2 PM
Western @ Dartmouth 5:30 PM (LEC game)
Eastern @ St. Joseph's (CT) 6 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 08, 2015, 01:55:36 PM
Thurs predictions:

Fisher 54-48
Eastern 74-53
Dartmouth 65-63.  Last year the Colonials went 3-0 vs. the Corsairs.  The Colonials, a team that really struggled to score the ball consistently last year trailed by 7 in the regular season meeting @ Dartmouth but outscored the Corsairs by 11 in the second half to win by 4.  The 2 teams would finish tied for 4th at seasons end, but because Western got the season series sweep they got the all important last home spot and beat the Corsairs again in the quarterfinals to end Erika Bornemann's career.  Dartmouth should still finish in the upper half, but they need to win games like this.  I think they pull it off.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 09, 2015, 12:55:33 AM
Plymouth in a total laugher 90-41 over Fisher.
Haven't had much of these for the Plymouth in the last half-decade.  And what an incredibly stupid pick my me, smh.  Easily my worst pick selection in the 3 years I've been posting on here.  Avi Morrison had 16 off the bench to lead Plymouth (6-5), while Alexis Akridge had a game high 18 to lead Fisher (1-11).  Plymouth resumes LEC play Saturday afternoon @ Western.

Eastern beat SJCT 76-55.
Heather Framski had 16 to lead the Blue Jays (5-7) while Jill Ritrosky and Shannon McCourt each had 16 to lead Eastern (7-5) and Ritrosky also pulled down 18 rebounds.  Blue Jays who have lost 6 of 7 are back in action Saturday @ Mt. Holyoke while the Warriors travel to Boston Saturday afternoon.

Dartmouth over Western 61-46.
Megan Ronaghan recorded game-high honers with 24 points to lead the Corsairs (8-3, 2-0) while Western returned to their scoring drought as Colleen Cosker was the leading scorer.....with 9 points.  Tough to win games that way!  Corsairs have a showdown @ USM Saturday in a matchup of the conferences last 2 unbeaten's, while the Colonials (8-3, 0-2) host a vastly improved Panthers squad on Saturday afternoon.

43-24-1 LEC; 56-25-1 men.

Standings:
1) Dartmouth 2-0 (8-3)
1) USM 2-0 (6-6)
3) Keene 1-1 (7-4)
3) Boston 1-1 (7-4)
3) RIC 1-1 (2-9)
3) Eastern 7-5 (7-5)
7) Western 0-2 (8-3)
7) Plymouth 0-2 (6-5)
Raise your hand if you had RIC & USM with the conference's 2 worst records on January 9!

Schedule:

Saturday, January 10:
Plymouth @ Western 1 PM
Eastern @ Boston 1 PM
Dartmouth @ USM 1 PM
Keene @ RIC 1 PM.  Eastern/Boston looks to be the best game since USM has injury & scoring issues. 

Tuesday, January 13:
Boston @ Plymouth 5:30 PM
Keene @ Western 5:30 PM
Dartmouth @ Eastern 5:30 PM
RIC @ USM 5:30 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 09, 2015, 01:15:23 AM
It's nice to see the Panthers getting some wins, but they are coming against teams that are more or less completely inept.  Fisher came in 1-10 and featured embarrassing losses such as 107-39 against Maine-Fort Kent and 94-61 against Albany Pharmacy.

Regarding Saturday's slate of games, here's UMass-Dartmouth's golden opportunity to go to Gorham and beat a Huskies team that is struggling mightily and far from what they used to be.  It will be interesting to see what the Beacons can do at home against Eastern.  The league may feature some parity this year, but the quality of basketball is going the wrong direction.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 10, 2015, 01:08:49 PM
Western 63-41 over Plymouth.
Each team comes in 0-2 with the Panthers losers to Dartmouth & Eastern, while the Colonials losses are to USM & Dartmouth.  Pretty important game as 0-3 would likely take you out of the running for top spot.  Plymouth has won 2 straight and 3 of 4 but they've lost both LEC games by a combined 33 points, scoring an average of only 39 points in those 2 losses.  Against the Colonials & Kim Rybczyk's defense will be hard pressed to score a lot of points.  Panthers have also only averaged 41.9 points in their 7 trips down to Danbury.  The Colonials also have a 15 game winning streak in the series.  Their last loss to the Panthers was January 21 of 2006.

Eastern over Boston 65-52.
Each team comes in 1-1 with the Warriors beating Plymouth and losing to RIC, while the Beacons losing to Keene but beating RIC.  The Warriors swept them last year and have won 2 straight games in Boston.  I like what the Beacons are doing, but like Western they struggle to score and since Eastern can put up points, I think it's going to be tough for Beacons to match them.  If this gets into the 60's, Boston is in trouble.

Dartmouth 65-58 over USM.
Teams split the season series 1-1 last year with Dartmouth ending like a 20 year USM winning streak with a 5 point win at home.  These are the conferences last 2 remaining unbeaten, but USM has taken a hit since their last conference game December 13 @ Keene.  They are without Rebecca Knight and are 0-3 without her in the lineup, scoring an average of 57.7 points per game.

Keene 54 @ RIC 47.
Each is 1-1 with RIC beating Eastern and losing to Boston while the Owls beat Boston and lost to USM.  Owls have lost 9 straight to the Anchorwomen dating back to January 9, 2010, but this looks to be the first time since then that the Owls actually have a better team then the Anchorwomen do.  However, road games in conference are extremely tough, and the Anchorwomen already knocked off preseason favorite Eastern at home in the Murray Center, but I think the Owls pull away late and snap the skid.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 13, 2015, 01:36:56 AM
Sat results:

Dartmouth wins in Maine 77-68.
Bri Hochwater had 24 off the bench to lead the Corsairs (9-3, 3-0) who also got 22 from Megan Ronaghan.  Huskies (6-7, 2-1) were lead by Megan Pelletier who had game highs of 32 points and 11 rebounds.  Rebecca Knight made her return to the lineup, and even though she grabbed 9 rebounds, she only scored 2 points on 1-8 shooting.  An absolute huge road win for Dartmouth, maybe the best in program history??  If they can follow that up with a win in Willimantic on Tuesday, no doubt they'd jump to the front of the line in terms of conference favorite.  Dartmouth is @ Eastern, USM hosts RIC

Keene over RIC 59-50.
Devil Hill lead the Anchorwomen (2-10, 1-2) with a game high 19 points while Sandi Purcell and Kelsey Cognetta paced the Owls attack with 16 & 15 points respectably and Sarah Kober pulled down a game high 16 rebounds.  Anchorwomen travel up to USM to face the struggling Huskies, while the Owls (8-4, 2-1) go back on the road to Western both on Tuesday.

Western over Plymouth 60-39.
There was only 1 double digit scorer in this game....that was the Colonials (9-3, 1-2) Caroline Brasa who finished with game highs of 26 points and 10 rebounds.  Tiffany Lewis had a team high 9 points for the Panthers (6-6, 0-3).  Panthers are home vs. the Beacons, while the Colonials host Keene both on Tuesday.

Eastern edges Boston 63-59.
Katie Mathieu, Kirsten Morrison, and Olivia Murphy each had 14 for the Beacons (7-5, 1-2) and Murphy added a game high 15 rebounds.  Julia DePoi had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Jill Ritrosky had a team high 22 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Warriors (8-5, 2-1).  Beacons are @ Plymouth Tuesday, Eastern hosts Dartmouth in a very important game, winner goes out in the front of the pack.

43-24-1 LEC; 60-25-1 me

Standings:
1) Dartmouth 3-0 (9-3)
2) USM 2-1 (6-7)
2) Keene 2-1 (8-4)
2) Eastern 2-1 (8-5)
5) Boston 1-2 (7-5)
5) RIC 1-2 (2-10)
5) Western 1-2 (9-3)
8) Plymouth 0-3 (6-6)

Schedule:

Tuesday, January 13:
Keene @ Western 5:30 PM
Boston @ Plymouth 5:30 PM
RIC @ USM 5:30 PM
Dartmouth @ Eastern 5:30 PM.  Dartmouth/Eastern the best of the day.

Thursday, January 15:
Bridgewater @ Boston 5:30 PM
Worcester @ Keene 6 PM

Saturday, January 17:
Boston @ Western 1 PM
Plymouth @ RIC 1 PM
Keene @ Dartmouth 1 PM
Eastern @ USM 1 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 13, 2015, 05:30:14 PM
Western 56-50.
Both teams struggle to score, play good defense, beat up bad teams, and struggle vs. good team (USM was actually good when both teams lost to them even though they aren't good now).  Not sure how quite good either team is, as both played a bunch of cupcakes OOC, but Western is at home and have completely owned the Owls lately in Danbury, so I'll take the Colonials.

Plymouth 54-48.
Last year in Boston, the Beacons fell victim to the Panthers first LEC win in almost 2 years.  This years Panthers are improving but have struggled mightly on the offensive side of the ball in conference games.  Luckily the Beacons have too.  First team to 50 wins this low scoring-grind-it-out game but I'll take the Panthers in a mild upset.

USM 74-57.
Just what the doctor ordered for a struggling Huskies team: a bad team making a loooong 1 day trip.  If RIC wins this game, there are serious problems in Gorham.

Eastern 65-64.
Eastern has won 2 straight LEC game after falling at RIC in the opener.  Dartmouth is the conference's lone remaining unbeaten.  Dartmouth has struggled on the road in recent years, but the win Saturday @ USM was only the program's 3rd ever vs. the Huskies and the first ever win against them in Maine so they are definitely feeling it.  A win here would definitely cement their status at conference favorite.  Even though the records say otherwise, these are the 2 best teams the conference has, and no matter who wins, I think both will show it in the end.  I'll take Eastern late at home.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 13, 2015, 10:04:54 PM
Tuesday results:

USM over RIC 56-49.
Jess Korzec had 13 to lead the Anchorwomen (2-11, 1-3); Megan Pelletier had a game high 22 for the Huskies (7-7, 3-1) and Ella Ramonas had 13 points and a game high 10 rebounds.  Rebecca Knight had 7 points on just 3-10 shooting; she's combined for 9 points on 4-18 shooting her last 2 games since returning to the lineup, but did have 9 rebounds for the second straight game.  Both teams are off until Saturday: USM plays Eastern, RIC plays Plymouth.

Western over Keene 50-43.
Kelsey Cognetta had 11 for the Owls (8-5, 2-2), Caroline Brasa had a game high 12 for the Colonials (10-3, 2-2).  Those were your only 2 double digit scorers.   Western plays Boston on Saturday, while the Owls have a midweek game vs. Worcester State on Thursday

Boston clobbers Plymouth 74-49.
Grace geary had 27 to lead the Beacons (8-5, 2-2); DeAsia Lawrence had 12 to lead the Panthers (6-7, 0-4).   Panthers are @ RIC Saturday, Beacons have a midweek game Thursday vs. Bridgewater.

Eastern pulls away from Dartmouth 64-41.
Megan Ronaghan lead the Corsairs (9-4, 3-1) with 15 points.  Kristina Forsman had a game high 22 and Jill Ritrosky had 16 rebounds and 14 points.  Dartmouth is @ Keene, while the Warriors are @ USM Sunday.

43-24-1 LEC; 63-26-1 me

Standings:
1) Eastern 3-1 (9-5)
1) Dartmouth 3-1 (9-4)
1) USM 3-1 (7-7)
4) Western 2-2 (10-3)
4) Keene 2-2 (8-5)
4) Boston 2-2 (8-5)
7) RIC 1-3 (2-11)
8) Plymouth 0-4 (6-7)

Schedule:

Thursday, January 15:
Bridgewater @ Boston 5:30 PM
Worcester @ Keene 6 PM

Saturday, January 17:
Boston @ Western 1 PM
Plymouth @ RIC 1 PM
Dartmouth @ Keene 1 PM
Eastern @ USM 1 PM

Tuesday, January 20:
Western @ RIC 5:30 PM
USM @ Plymouth 5:30 PM
Eastern @ Keene 5:30 PM
Boston @ Dartmouth 5:30 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 15, 2015, 05:52:37 PM
Bridgewater 67-65
Keene 74-64
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 15, 2015, 10:44:31 PM
Boston over Bridgewater 64-37.
Grace geary lead the Beacons (9-5) with 13 points and Olivia Murphy had 10 points and 10 rebounds.  Chanelle Melton had 13 to lead the way for the Bears (8-7).  Bears play Worcester state, Boston is @ Western, both on Saturday afternoon.

Keene over Worcester 60-53.
Bianca Langford had game highs of 21 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Lancers (11-4) while the Owls (9-5) were lead by Kelsey Cognetta with 15.  Owls converted 23 Lancer turnovers into 20 points.  Owls host Dartmouth Saturday, while Worcester travels to Bridgewater on Saturday.

45-24-1 LEC; 64-27-1 me

Next games Saturday:
Dartmouth @ Keene 1 PM
Eastern @ USM 1 PM
Plymouth @ RIC 1 PM
Boston @ Western 1 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 17, 2015, 01:29:31 PM
Sat predictions:

Keene 54-50
Eastern 73-69
RIC 64-61
Western 54-43
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 17, 2015, 03:33:48 PM
Sat results:
Eastern continues USM's tailspin, crushes USM 62-44.
Eastern was lead by Kristina Forsman with 14 points while the Huskies (7-8, 3-2) were lead by Ella Ramonas who had 12.  The Warriors (10-5, 4-1) who shot 52.2% for the game went into halftime up 14 and were never seriously threatened in the second half.  USM who have played 4 straight home games overall posting a dismal 1-3 record in those 4 games goes on the road to Plymouth Tuesday, while the Warriors hit the road again to face Keene.

Beacons run over the Colonials 57-42.
Beacons (10-5, 3-2) were lead by Grace Geary who had 16 while Olivia Murphy pulled down a game high 14 rebounds and added 15 points.  Caroline Brasa added team highs of 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Colonials (10-4, 2-3).  Beacons held the Colonials to 24.1% shooting while shooting 44.4% themselves, went into halftime up 15 and like Eastern was never seriously threatened in the second half leading by as many as 25.  Western is @ RIC, while Boston is @ Dartmouth, both on Tuesday.

RIC over Plymouth 70-28.
No boxscore available yet, but doesn't look too pretty.  Anchorwomen (3-11, 2-3) host Western Tuesday, while Plymouth (6-8, 0-5) hosts USM Tuesday.

Dartmouth edges Keene 74-72.
Beth Castantini had a game high 24 points for the Corsairs (10-4, 4-1) and Kelsey Garrity added 19 points and was a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line; Kelsey Gognetta had a team high 23 for the Owls (9-6, 2-3).  Dartmouth finished 80% from the free throw line overall, and was 9-10 from the charity stripe inside the final 50 seconds to extinguish any hope of an Owls comeback.  Finally, a team that wins the game via free throws!

45-24-1 LEC; 66-29-1 me.

Standings:
1) Eastern 4-1 (10-5)
1) Dartmouth 4-1 (10-4)
3) USM 3-2 (7-8)
3) Boston 3-2 (10-5)
5) Western 2-3 (10-4)
5) Keene 2-3 (9-6)
5) RIC 2-3 (3-11)
8) Plymouth 0-5 (6-8)
tiebreakers: Eastern beat Dartmouth head to head so they will get the top spot for now until they meet again next month.  USM's win over Keene gives them the edge over Boston for now, both teams still play twice.  RIC gets eliminated first in the USM/Western/RIC tiebreaker since they lost to Keene and haven't played Western yet, and since Western beat Keene, they'll have the advantage over the Owls until they play again in February.

Schedule:
Tuesday, January 20:

Western @ RIC 5:30 PM
USM @ Plymouth 5:30 PM
Eastern @ Keene 5:30 PM
Boston @ Dartmouth 5:30 PM

Thursday, January 22:
Keene @ Middlebury 6 PM
Framingham @ Dartmouth 7 PM
Conn College @ RIC 7 PM

Saturday, January 24:
Keene @ Boston 1 PM
Western @ USM 1 PM
Plymouth @ Dartmouth 1 PM
RIC @ Eastern 1 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 21, 2015, 02:04:50 AM
RIC runs over Western 70-53.
Caroline Brasa and Colleen Cosker each had 13 to lead Western (10-5, 2-4) while Alex Moore had a game high 25 for RIC (4-11, 3-3).  Well, that's 2 straight embarrassing defeats for the Colonials who now go on the road up to USM & eastern before coming home to host the Corsairs.  Doesn't look good over the next 2 weeks, hopefully they can steal a game or 2 here or there in those next 4.  Boston & RIC were supposed to be the soft spot in this part of the schedule  :(.  Anchorwomen have a Thursday night game vs. Conn College while the Colonials travel to USM Saturday.

USM edges Plymouth 67-61 in overtime.
Ace Lawrence had a game high 24 to lead the Panthers (6-9, 0-6) while Ella Ramonas had 18 to lead the Huskies (8-8, 4-2) and Stephanie Gallagher chipped in 17.  Weird boxscore for this game as Gallagher is credited with playing 55 minutes in a 45 minute game and Ace Lawrence has 52 minutes listed.  Both are off until the weekend; Huskies host the Colonials, Panthers travel down to Dartmouth.

Eastern over Keene 62-55.
Jill Ritrosky and Shannon McCourt both added double-doubles for the Warriors (11-5, 5-1) with Ritrosky putting up 14 points and 11 rebounds and McCourt adding 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Kristina Forsman lead them in scoring with 17.  Courtney Roberts had a game high 19 for the Owls (9-7, 2-4) who also got 12 points off the bench from Sandi Purcell.  Owls are at Middlebury on Thursday while the Warriors have the rest of the week off before hosting RIC on Saturday.

Dartmouth over Boston 85-75.
Megan Ronaghan lead the Corsairs (11-4, 5-1) with 26 points and had 10 rebounds; Grace Geary had a game high 28 for the Beacons (10-6, 3-3).  Corsairs play Framingham State Thursday evening while the Beacons are off until Saturday when they play Plymouth.

45-24-1 LEC;  66-29-1.  Forgot to make picks for Tuesday though I know I would've gone 3-1 as I would've taken USM (won), Eastern (won), Dartmouth (won) and Western (lost).

Standings:
1) eastern 5-1 (11-5)
1) Dartmouth 5-1 (11-4)
3) USM 4-2 (8-8)
4) Boston 3-3 (10-6)
4) RIC 3-3 (4-11)
6) Western 2-4 (10-5)
6) Keene 2-4 (9-7)
8) Plymouth 0-6 (6-9)

Schedule:

Thursday, January 22:
Keene @ Middlebury 6 PM
Framingham @ Dartmouth 7 PM
Conn College @ RIC 7 PM

Saturday, January 24:
Keene @ Boston 1 PM
RIC @ Eastern 1 PM
Western @ USM 1 PM
Plymouth @ Dartmouth 1 PM

Tuesday, January 27:
Plymouth @ Keene 5:30 PM
USM @ Boston 5:30 PM
RIC @ Dartmouth 5:30 PM
Western @ Eastern 5:30 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 22, 2015, 04:29:56 PM
Middlebury 68-62
Dartmouth 71-63
RIC 64-60
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 22, 2015, 10:59:40 PM
Keene defeats Middlebury 60-56.
Sarah Kaufman lead all scorers with 23 to lead the Panthers (10-8), while Kelsey Cognetta had a game high 18 to lead the Owls (10-7) and Courtney Roberts had 11 points & 11 rebounds.  This was the final OOC game for both teams: Keene finished the non LEC portion of their schedule a respectable 8-3 while the Panthers finished the non NESCAC portion 8-6.  Panthers, which have no travel partner in the NESCAC this year have a full week off now and aren't back in action until next Friday the 30th vs. Williams (this is the weekend the NESCAC travel partners play each other so only 1 conference game) while the Owls go to Boston to play the Beacons on Saturday.

Dartmouth crushed Framingham 86-47.
Sarah Palace was the only Ram (11-5) in double figures as she finished with 14; Corsairs (12-4) put 4 in double figures lead by Megan Ronaghan's 21.  Framingham has a bye this weekend and resumes play Tuesday night vs. Worcester while the Corsairs host Plymouth state Saturday.

RIC in overtime over Conn College 87-76.
Alex Moore lead the Anchorwomen (5-11) with 35 points, Jess Korzec added 20, and Devil Hill had 17 points and 12 rebounds.  Mairead Hynes had game highs of 36 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Camels (12-4).  After cracking 70 points only once through the first 13 games, the Anchorwomen have hit 70+ in their last 3 games, coincidently all 3 games they've won while they went 2-11 through the first 13.  RIC plays @ Eastern Saturday, while the Camels travel to NESCAC travel partner Wesleyan for a CT showdown on Saturday afternoon.

48-24-1 LEC; 68-30-1 me
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 24, 2015, 12:40:51 PM
Eastern 65-58
USM 74-66
Dartmouth 78-52
Boston 73-65
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 24, 2015, 02:47:47 PM
Western Connecticut goes to Gorham and pounds Southern Maine, 73-52.  Caroline Brasa scored 29 points and Colleen Cosker added 20 more, as the Colonials shot 50% as a team.  It's been a long time since Southern Maine has been this bad.  They've lost 4 out of 5 home games, the last two by double digits.  Additionally, last Tuesday they needed overtime to beat a dreadful Plymouth team.  Western is now 11-5, 3-4 in the conference.  Southern Maine is 8-9 and 4-3 in the LEC but sinking rapidly.

UMass-Dartmouth rolls over Plymouth again, 76-41.  They beat the Panthers by 36 in the first meeting in New Hampshire, and by 35 this time.  Megan Ronaghan and Kelsey Garrity each had double-doubles for the Corsairs.  Nobody scored in double-figures for Plymouth, who shot a dreadful 26%.  UMass-Dartmouth is now 13-4 and 6-1 in conference, while Plymouth is 6-10 and 0-7 in the LEC.

Rhode Island College seemed to trail all game, but has taken a late 58-57 lead at Eastern Connecticut.
Rhode Island College wins at Eastern Connecticut, 61-59, to sweep the season series from the Warriors.  Awful loss for Eastern Connecticut.  Warriors led by 13 with 12 minutes left and lost.  Each team featured balanced scoring attacks, placing four in double-figures apiece.  Jess Korzec scored 18 points and Devin Hill added 16 for RIC.  Alex Moore scored 13, including a critical basket and two free throws late for the lead.  Julia DePoi and Kristina Forsman each had 12 points for East Conn.  The Anchorwomen are now 6-11, 4-3 in the conference, and the Warriors are 11-6 and 5-2 in the Little East.

Some surprising results today...although its hard to tell if its parity or a lot of mediocre to bad basketball.


Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 24, 2015, 07:19:24 PM
Hey AllStar, was the keene/Boston games postponed today??  Still no score from the ladies game which started at 1  ???
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 24, 2015, 08:15:46 PM
Quote from: 7express on January 24, 2015, 07:19:24 PM
Hey AllStar, was the keene/Boston games postponed today??  Still no score from the ladies game which started at 1  ???

It was.  It will be played tomorrow at 1:00.  Men at 3:00.

...and now it looks like a major snowstorm for Tuesday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 25, 2015, 05:50:52 PM
UMass-Boston 75 Keene State 56

Terrible showing by the Owls in Boston as they fall behind by 16, then come back to within 3, before losing by 19.  Keene (9-8, 2-5) continues their annual fade down the stretch.  A mediocre Beacons team is now 11-6, 4-3.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 25, 2015, 08:56:03 PM
Quote from: AllStar on January 25, 2015, 05:50:52 PM
UMass-Boston 75 Keene State 56

Terrible showing by the Owls in Boston as they fall behind by 16, then come back to within 3, before losing by 19.  Keene (9-8, 2-5) continues their annual fade down the stretch.  A mediocre Beacons team is now 11-6, 4-3.

Nobody in the conference is that good.  I thought Eastern was good, but you can't lose at home to that RIC team (I know they are playing well however).  Next up for the RIC machine is Dartmouth.  If RIC can beat them (@ Dartmouth) than it's officially a mediocre conference.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on January 26, 2015, 11:32:41 AM
7Express...real late in congrats to you for reaching the 3000 level.  Plus K for your efforts.  Getting a little "blunt" in your evaluations. :)
Want to point out that Amherst played both ECSU and RIC in Le Frak this season.  RIC does have a short bench.  Sometimes scores are impacted by travel, match ups, etc.  I know, preaching to the Preacher here ;D
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 26, 2015, 05:06:01 PM
LOL thanks Amh!  Unfortunately work life and running these contests (posters poll, Little East pick em) causes these "blunt" evaluations.

Btw LEC schedule changes this week: Keene/Plymouth postponed to Wednesday, USM/Boston, Eastern/Western, RIC/Dartmouth all pushed back 2 days to Thursday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 29, 2015, 02:11:12 PM
So I missed Keene State's 77-40 pounding of the Panthers last night.  For today:

Boston over USM 74-67.  2 teams trending in opposite directions.  USM, coming off getting trounced at home by a mediocre West Conn team, has only lost to Boston I think once ever.  Beacons can make it twice.
Dartmouth 77-67.  RIC has been playing well against tough opponents, but I think going into RIC and beating the Corsairs is a little too much to ask, though I think they'll keep it competitive.
Eastern 76-71.  Who knows with these 2 in this rivalry.  Eastern beats Dartmouth but then loses to a 4 win RIC; Western loses to a than 3 win RIC by 17 and the next game slaughters USM in Maine.  The home team generally has had the upper hand in this series lately, so that's who I will go with.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 30, 2015, 12:52:10 AM
Eastern edges past Western 58-46.
Very frustrating game for the Colonials.  The Colonials either lead or were tied for about 30 minutes of this game, and just could not muster enough offense in the second half to get a much needed win.  2nd half offensive production was beyond pitiful.  After the teams seesawed the lead through the first 5 and a half minutes, 2 baskets from Sam Smith gave the Colonials a lead at 14:10 they would not relinquish until the 11:00 mark of the 2nd half, and even that Western & Eastern traded baskets over the next couple minutes until 7:40 when Kristina Forsman hit 1 of 2 free throws to give Eastern a 36-35 lead they would not relinquish the final 7:40 and the game wasn't even tied again after that.  Colonials were outscored 40-22 in the second half after leading 24-18 at halftime, shot 29.0% from the field, 0-7 from 3, and 4-10 (40%) from the line, all dismal second half numbers.  For the game, the Colonials weren't much better: 30.6% overall, 6.2% from 3 (1-16), and only 50% from the line (7-14).  Both teams didn't shoot well: a combined 31.1% overall (37-119), 4.0% from 3 (1-25 combined), and 65.9% from the line (29-44).  That's what you get in a Western game.  Neither team is going to shoot well, but you'd think with as good a defense as Western plays they wouldn't get outscored 37-17 after getting to their high water mark of +8 in the second.  Incredibly disappointing!  That's a win that definitely got away!

Dartmouth beats RIC, not a surprise, USM beats Boston which is a surprise given USM's recent play, but not a surprise due to Boston's history vs. the Huskies now 0-63 all time vs. USM which now brings up a good question, will Boston EVER beat USM??  Remember last year the beacons were down by 1 and the ball with the shot clock turned off, but they turned it over on a travel with 7 seconds left.  After Erin mcNamera hit 1 of 2 free throws the Beacons still had a chance to force OT after Andrea Suffredini got fouled with less than a second remaining but only hit 1 of 2 to lose by 1.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 30, 2015, 01:54:40 PM
In the Dartmouth/RIC game last night, Corsairs point guard Kelsey Garrity joined the 1,000 point club. 

Saturday's games:

Eastern @ Plymouth.
Plymouth may hang around for a bit, but Eastern pulls away late 77-48

Keene @ USM.
Huskies are 4-0 on the road in conference play scoring an average of 60.5 points per game and winning by almost 7 points, but are just 1-3 at home in conference play, scoring an average of 55 points and losing by an average of 10.25 points.  Take out the lone win vs. RIC and those numbers drop to 54.7 ppg in the 3 losses and an average margin of defeat of 16 points.  Keene, for the second straight year, has collapsed in LEC play and a loss here would all but guarantee that they'll open up on the road in the LEC quarters.  USM 65-58

Boston @ RIC.
Intruiging game as the winner keeps themselves alive for the 4 spot and final home playoff game.  Boston won the first game in Boston 63-58, but hasn't done very well on the road in recent years.  Last year @ RIC they only gave up 48 points, but still lost by double figures because they only managed 30 themselves.  They've been scoring more proficiently this year, as they scored 57 on Western, 75 on Dartmouth (in a losing cause) and 63 on Eastern (also in a losing cause).  RIC has been playing better over the last couple weeks, and I'll take them at the Murray Center, RIC 62-58

Dartmouth @ Western.
Having not seen Dartmouth yet in person this year (hoping to see them either tomorrow afternoon, vs. USM next weekend, vs. Eastern the following weekend, or when they play RIC @ RIC in a couple weeks) so it's tough to say whether they are really as good as they look on paper, or whether it's just a bad year overall for the conference.  The Corsairs get the Warriors at home in February which is big, and even though they still have stumbling blocks in February @ RIC, @ Boston, and home vs. USM (have only beaten the Huskies twice in history....both coming in the last 2 meetings), this looks to probably be their last stumbling block in the season.  After this game, the Colonials are only at home in the O'Neil Center twice the rest of the year (vs. Eastern & RIC), have already lost once to Dartmouth, Eastern, RIC and lost to Boston at home and play them on the road in the finale, so much like Keene if Western loses this game you can pretty much think they'll start on the road in the quarters.  Dartmouth really beat them up in MA a couple weeks ago, but I like the Colonials to really clamp down on the defensive end and score just enough to eek out with a much needed victory.  Western 51-48.

On the tournament front:
Plymouth state is already eliminated from hosting the LEC tournament, while a Panthers loss coupled with a RIC win over Boston would also eliminate the Panthers from hosting a quarterfinal game.
A Dartmouth win over Western AND a Keene loss to USM would also eliminate BOTH the Owls & the Colonials from hosting the tournament.  Both the Colonials and Owls have a tragic number of 2 from getting eliminated from claiming the #1 seed.  Even if the Owls beat the Huskies, a Corsairs win would eliminate Western from that discussion.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 30, 2015, 05:08:50 PM
Quote from: 7express on November 12, 2014, 11:42:57 PM
2nd part of the preview; the projected standings.  This was difficult as there's s crop of 4 or 5 teams that are pretty good, but each with a different weakness: Eastern can't win big road games, Dartmouth can't win on the road period, Western can't score, Boston REALLY can't score, RIC lost the coach of the year AND the MVP, and what happens to USM this year should Rebecca Knight get hurt again??  The Huskies fell off the cliff last January in the 3 weeks Knight was out and they don't have McNamera this year anymore.  With that said, I'll take my best shot, but I'm not feeling confident at all in these selections:

1) USM (11-3).  Unlike the other teams vs. each other, USM hardly (ever) loses at home to those teams.  They've never lost to Boston, they lost once to Dartmouth, RIC hasn't beaten them in Maine in forever, neither has Western.  They'll struggle on the road, but so will all the other candidates however.  They only averaged 61 points per game as a team last year, and Erin McNamera lead the team in points and assists and was second in steal.  Rebecca Knight, Stephanie Gallagher & Taylor Flood look like their only offense weapons this year: who will they go to if one of those 3 gets hurt and do they have a bench??  What really helps them this year is they have the Connecticut trips on the bookends of the season (@ Western December 6 opening day, @ eastern February 21 final day) and the RIC trip is on a Saturday as well.  All the other weeknight & weekend trips are relatively close
2) Eastern (10-4).  The Warriors had a taste of success last year: they got off to an early lead in the conference as they beat RIC in the LEC opener and stayed ahead of the pack until they lost the rematch in Providence, and faded in February culminating in a semifinal loss to USM.  Eastern has everyone back that played major minutes included hopefully having Krystina Forsman back for the whole year.  I think overall the Warriors are better then the Huskies, I just don't trust their ability to win a big game on the road, so I'm weary.  I know the Huskies can win a game @ RIC or @ Western or @ Eastern.  I'm not sure the Warriors can win @ Western, @ RIC or @ USM.
2) Dartmouth (10-4).  Another very talented team that is probably better then the team predicted in first, but like the eastern counterparts cannot trust them on the road.  Last year they had the 4 seed in the bag, all they had to do was beat 4-9 Keene state on the road.  Couldn't do it.  Kelsey Garrity is the best PG in the conference, Meghan Ronagan is reigning rookie of the year.  Amanda VanVoorhis resigned her post as coach to become the full time AD at Dartmouth.  Much like Eastern, I'm not entirely sold on their ability to win @ RIC, @ USM or @ Western, they got crushed at all 3 places the past year.
4) Boston (8-6).  I said in the schedule preview last night I love the staff Courtney Mattingly put together.  All 3 are familiar with the conference as all 3 played in the conference, 2 of the 3 as recently as last season.  And what I found out last year the Beacons are a lot more than just Kirsten Morrison & Olivia Murphy.  Chantal Jordan, Katrina Edwards and Mallory Nelson were all freshmen last year but still stepped up in January when Morrison was out with a foot injury.  If they can get balanced scoring they can be good.
5) RIC (7-7).  Their 4 leading scorers are all gone including reigning MVP Vandell Andrade.  Another team that can't score but plays good defense.   They only have 1 senior who hasn't played before but should rebound next year.
5) Western (7-7).  Like RIC the Colonials have a very young team as they only have 2 upper classmen currently on the roster: 1 senior and 1 junior so the future is definitely bright, I'm just not sure if it's bright this year.  They didn't have 1 player average double digit points last year and only averaged 56.2 points as a team
7) Keene (5-9).  Owls have some talent there.  Stephanie D'Annolfo came out on fire last year as a freshmen, Christan Wojtas disappointed but has the track record, Ryanne Williams disappeared last year after a strong season, Amanda Petrow had some good games last year so there's promise there.  They'll steal a couple from the top 6 at home, but not enough to make a dent.
8) Plymouth (3-11).  Still a few years away but were competitive last year.  Tiffany Lewis is a senior so obviously she'll be gone next year but Savannah Miller (SO), Rosalie Edmonds (SO), and DeAsia Lawrence (SO) is a good trio for Liz Stitch to build around.  Add in junior Taylor Perry to that mix, the fact they were so close a number of times last year and the conference is lacking a true "dominant" team and I think it's time for the Panthers to pick up more than 1 LEC win for the first time since 2010.

Player of the year:
Rebecca Knight-USM

First team:
Knight

Kelsey Garrity-Dartmouth
Jill Ritrosky-Eastern
Jordyn Nappi- Eastern
Meghan Ronaghan-Dartmouth
Olivia Murphy-Boston

LEC tournament final:
Dartmouth over USM in the final.  I just think in a 1 game win and advance lose or go home, the team with better talent advances.  That's why if these standings do play out the winner of Eastern/Dartmouth wins the tournament.  Both of them have better talent then USM does.

NCAA tournament:
Since the conference doesn't have a very good team, and the top 5 or 6 will beat up on each other I don't see how the conference get more than 1 team in the tournament.  Of all the teams I'd say Eastern has the best shot to land a pool C bid with Emmanuel, Williams, Amherst & Tufts on the schedule as marquee games.  Split those 4 and they are in the discussion (they were in discussion last year and lost all 3 of them [didn't play Tufts, but had a 4th loss to NCAA participant Hartwick instead).  Win 3 of those 4 and I think they get in.  Sweep all 4 and they are definitely in unless they completely fall apart during LEC play which I can't see happening.

Can we get Knight & Nappi on a milk carton??  Nappi has been so bad this year that she doesn't even start for Eastern anymore!!!
Title: FRe: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 31, 2015, 02:00:46 PM
Halftime scores:
Dartmouth leads 33-32.  Little higher scoring then I thought.  Neither team can do much: Dartmouth has gotten about 15 points combined between Bri Hochwater and Beth Constanti from outside, which is keeping them in the game.  Colonials shutting down Garrity as she has been pretty much a non factor only a couple points.  Colonials meanwhile have gotten most of their points via second chances & fast break.  Can't score at all in a half court set, but still a good game we got here. Other scores
Eastern 37-24, Keene leads USM 40-35 and Boston over RIC 35-23 all at the half.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 31, 2015, 02:58:36 PM
Finals: Dartmouth wins by 14 79-65.  Dartmouth went on a 23-4 run to open the second and go up 20 and they pretty much cruised from there as the Colonials never got closer than 8 the rest of the game.
Eastern wins 78-49, Keene leads USM by 8 under a minute, looks like the Owls will steal one in Maine for the second season in a row, and Boston wins @ RIC 62-55.  The UMass schools really made a statement today, I know RIC doesn't have a good record but they play teams tough at home good road win for the Beacons, who like the Corsairs look to be ending their major road woes.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 03, 2015, 03:32:33 PM
Tuesday predictions:

USM 68 @ Colby 65.
Remember when USM couldn't win on the road and couldn't lose at home??  It's now been exactly 2 months since they lost last a road game (December 3 @ Bowdoin) and have won once at home since December 9.  I've given up trying to predict this yo-yo team.  I flipped a coin and came up USM, let's see what happens.

Suffolk 64 @ Boston 75.
Suffolk has finished with at least 14 wins every year since 2003 and also in that same time frame have also finished with a winning record.  Both of those streaks are in major jeopardy as the Rams currently sit at 7-11 with 6 more games remaining after this, plus however many they play in the GNAC tournament.

Dartmouth 65 @ Salem State 61.
Salem State is 2-16, who wants to place a bet that Dartmouth losses??  Classic trap game, which on the road is always brutal.  Dartmouth just won @ Western for the first time in 11 games and their next 3 LEC games: home vs. USM Saturday (3-62 all time against), at Boston next Tuesday (rivalry game) then home vs. Eastern Connecticut the following Saturday which probably decides the conference.  Yah, Dartmouth isn't going to be very interested in playing.  Let's just say if Salem has 3 wins at 10 PM tonight I wouldn't be very surprised, that's why I picked the close game.

Plymouth 53 @ Norwich 74.
A Plymouth loss would guarantee* the Panthers a non-winning season for the 5th straight year.  Actually, it's possible the Panthers could still technically finish 15-14, but that would involve sweeping through their remaining games, winning the LEC tournament as the 7 or 8 seed (depening on how many more games Western lost.  I don't think Plymouth can finish higher than 7th since Keene has 4 wins, & they still play Western who has 3 so at least 1 team will finish with 4).  That'll put them into the opening round game of the NCAA tournament 15-13 and so long as they lost that first game they'd end the year 15-14, but I'm trying to be realistic here.  Pretty much only the top 3 have a prayer at winning the conference tournament.

Regis 61 @ Western 57.
Regis has won 9 straight games since starting 4-4 and has NEVER lost an NECC game since coming over from the CCC prior to the 2011-12 season.  Western, meanwhile at 3-6 in the LEC is facing their first losing LEC season since 2006/07 and at 11-7 overall is facing their first losing record since finishing 12-14 in 2004-05.

RIC 40 @ Tufts 68.
This would've been a good game had this been in Providence AND Vandell Andrade was still playing here instead of @ Lemoyne in Syracuse
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 05, 2015, 06:29:03 PM
Thursday predictions:

Plymouth State @ Lasell.
A makeup from December 9.  The teams are a combined 11-26 overall, 1-14 in their respective conference play, and have lost a combined 13 straight games.  is it too late to postpone this game and just cancel it all together??  Why are they playing??  Lasell 67-49

Purchase @ Western.
Last year when Purchase finished 16-10, they lost by 27 at home.  This year the Panthers are a dismal 3-15 and going on the road.  Western plays Plymouth on Saturday, hopefully they can gain some momentum for the last 2 weeks of LEC play, with a 3-0 week.  Western 78-48
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 06, 2015, 06:10:10 PM
Saturday's LEC schedule:

Western @ Plymouth
Boston @ Eastern
USM @ Dartmouth
RIC @ Keene.  All 4 games are good in some regard, but I'll nominate Boston/Eastern for the best of the day.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 07, 2015, 01:27:35 AM
Saturday predictions:

Western @ Plymouth.
Western sits alone in 7th place in the LEC but if you go by overall winning percentage they are tied with Boston for the best overall mark with a .650 winning percentage behind only Eastern (700 wp%) and Dartmouth (.800 wp%) so this is still a good team even though the results in the LEC aren't proving it.  Colonials have won 16 straight in the series, and with the Colonials upcoming schedule to end the year (at home vs. improving RIC, @ a tough keene, home vs. Eastern & @ Boston) this is a game the Colonials MUST win....and they do!  Western 67-39

Boston @ Eastern.
Very intruiging game.  This is what I wrote in the Beacons scheduling preview, "Actually, Mattingly put together a pretty impressive coaching staff for this year: Moriarty to work with Morrison, Murphy (I'm still going by what I've been saying the last 2 years she'd be unguardable with an outside shot) and the rest of the bigs and recent graduates Shelby Buck & Andrea Suffredini to work with the guards.  The OOC schedule still sucks, but I think they can compete this year."  As usual, the OOC schedule sucked, but unlike in years past following them once LEC play rolled around for good, they've folded like a lawn chair after Labor Day they are holding their own this season.  The road has always been a difficult place for them to perform well, but they are holding their own this year as well.  Granted RIC & Western aren't very good, but winning at those 2 places is extremely tough, as evidence it was the Beacons first win in Danbury since 2004 and they completely ran them out of the O'Neil Center, they also only lost by 10 @ Dartmouth.  Key for this game for a Beacons victory could be Grace Geary.  She had only 13 in the Beacons 4 point home loss to the Warriors back in January, and in 8 games since than she is averaging more than 17 ppg.  The Warriors are 2 games up on the Beacons, and even though the Warriors still have to play @ Dartmouth @ Western, and home vs. USM where the Huskies are much better on the road surprisingly, the Warriors can pretty much salt away no worse than a 2 seed with the win since they'd win the head-to-head tiebreaker with the season series sweep over the Beacons.  Beacons can make the race for second very interesting with a win: they only play once more on the road (@ USM), get Dartmouth at home, where the Beacons have beaten them the last 2 years, get Western at home to end the year, and still have a gimme with a home game remaining vs. Plymouth which Eastern doesn't have anymore.  I know the Beacons lost to Plymouth at home last year, but this Beacons team this year is so much better than last year's team, it's hard to see that happening again.  I still haven't abandoned the Beacons bandwagon, I think they steal one in Willi, 68-65.

USM @ Dartmouth.
This is only gonna be the second time since 2000 the Huskies will finish with less than 20 wins, and unless they go on a major run the first time since at least 2000 they'll finish with under 18 wins; they currently have 9 with at best 8 more regular seasons to go.  Winning out the rest of the year would get them to 17 and it's possible with a good first round opponent they can win that game to finish with 18 but I have a hard time seeing them win two more after that to reach that 20 win plateau.  Before February, 2014, the Corsairs have won once in their history against the Huskies; on February 7, 2015, the Corsairs have won 3 times in their history against the Huskies, by virtue of winning 2 straight.  Dartmouth is setting all kinds of school records this season for the women's basketball program (first win in Danbury in 7 years, first win in Maine ever, unless the wheels completely fall off probably their most victories in the school history, quite possibly the first LEC regular season/postseason title in history, and by far the most wins by a senior class in history [66 and counting].  By comparision, Erika Bornemann's class had only 58 wins, and Colleen Moriarty's only had 53.  Let's add another record to the Corsairs history book this year, first sweep of USM in school history.  Dartmouth 78-69

RIC @ Keene.
Keene's win in Providence back in January broke a 9 game losing streak to the Anchorwomen.  However, since that game the 2 teams have gone in different directions: RIC is trending upwards, while the Owls are trending downwards (though they did pick up a much needed win @ USM last weekend).  Important game for seeding purposes as the 2 teams are tied for 5th at 4-5, 1 back of USM and Boston who are tied for 3rd.  A Keene win would give them the head to head sweep of the Anchorwomen and the all important tiebreaker, but a RIC win would give them a decisive tiebreaker in their back pocket.  Both teams still have Dartmouth left to play and at best each can finish 1-1 against the Corsairs, while the Owls still play Eastern, and can get to 1-1 against the Warriors.  However, since the Anchorwomen swept the Warriors during the season they have that impending tiebreaker hanging like a low hanging fruit.  It's also important for RIC in the impeding 3 way tie for 5-5 we could have at the end of the day: they are 0-3 vs. Boston & USM this year while the Owls split with both the Huskies & Beacons and have finished 2-2 against those 3 teams.  May not look it on the standings page, but this is a very big game for both squads.  Loser of this will have a hard time finishing in the top 4.  Keene 63-58
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 07, 2015, 09:34:37 AM
A Dartmouth win over USM coupled with a Boston loss to Eastern would guarantee the Corsairs no worse than the 2 seed in the conference tournament.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 07, 2015, 09:57:00 AM

Congrats to Jill Ritrowski for her award!!!

WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Eastern Connecticut State University junior women's basketball forward Jill Ritrosky (Pittsfield, MA) has become the first player in program history to receive a spot on the Capital One Academic Division III All-District Team, selected by  the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDs)

http://gowarriorathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/releases/ritrosky-capital_One
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on February 07, 2015, 10:17:20 AM
ECSU.....saw Jill Ritrosky play against Conn.  Quite a player.  Pittsfield,HS.  Is an school that both Amherst and Williams  goes after students.  Surprised that Amherst did not get her :).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 07, 2015, 01:50:25 PM
Keene blowing the doors off RIC 44-26.  RIC started off up 8-2, got out scored 42-18 the last 17 minutes.  The Anchorwomen also lost Alex Moore to an injury.  It looked like a knee injury and if that's the case her season is probably over.  Tough break as she was really carrying the team, that's a big loss.  In any case her days likely over, but hopefully she gets back to the court this year hopefully Tuesday.
In other scores Eastern up 31-15, Western demolishing Plymouth 36-14, and the good road version of USM has showed up as they lead Dartmouth 29-21.  All games at half
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 07, 2015, 02:50:02 PM
Keene wins by 40.  RIC had no offensive rhythm after Moore's injury
USM held onto win by 4, the other 2 games were blowouts with Eastern winning by 28 and Western by 40.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 07, 2015, 05:29:58 PM
Quote from: amh63 on February 07, 2015, 10:17:20 AM
ECSU.....saw Jill Ritrosky play against Conn.  Quite a player.  Pittsfield,HS.  Is an school that both Amherst and Williams  goes after students.  Surprised that Amherst did not get her :).
amh63,
Yes she is a class act and excellent forward for Coach Bierly.  I always admire these student athletes who excel on and off the court, it takes soo much focus, hard work, effort and intelligence!!  Thanks for your comments +k
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 09, 2015, 10:34:13 PM
Tuesday schedule:

RIC @ Western
Plymouth @ USM
Keene @ Eastern
Dartmouth @ Boston.  Boston/Dartmouth gets my top billing of the day.  Predictions tomorrow.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on February 10, 2015, 12:38:23 PM
Was going to watch the Keene vs Eastern game in Williamatic....but is is now postponed!  Must be the hills in town that strain the snow movers.  Did watch the UConn vs USC game in Storrs last night...the pics of the snow outside show have given me a clue.....Storrs just up the road abit.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 10, 2015, 04:01:26 PM
Game will be tomorrow night at 5:30 PM Amh if you are still in town.  I may be up there for that now
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 10, 2015, 04:34:31 PM
Keene/Eastern, Dartmouth/Boston postponed to tomorrow.  For Tuesday:

RIC @ Western.  With Alex Moore's injury RIC will struggle to score and definitely won't be putting up 70 like they did in January.  RIC won the first meeting 70-53 but even if they lose this they are still in pretty good shape with the tiebreaker since they have the sweep of Eastern in their back pockets.  Western 58-41

Plymouth @ USM.  The Huskies have really struggled at home this year, and won by 6 in overtime in Plymouth last month.  Huskies shouldn't have a problem in this one.  USM 78-42
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 10, 2015, 08:06:29 PM
USM beats Plymouth 52-43.  Panthers have officially clinched last place overall for the 5th straight season.  They will now officially be the 8th seed in the upcoming LEC tourney, and will play the conference winner in the opening round 2 weeks from today, likely whoever wins Saturday's Dartmouth/Eastern showdown.  Plymouth actually lead by 2 at halftime, but USM pulled away in the 2nd.

Western beats RIC 66-45.  Sam Smith had 21 off the bench for a game high and Caroline Brasa added 18.  Jess Korzec had 12 and Devin Hill had 11 for the Anchorwomen but nobody else scored more than 5.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2015, 02:31:00 PM
Keene @ Eastern.
Last time the Owls were in Willimantic last January was the game before the RIC/Eastern showdown in Providence which even taking place the last Saturday of January was for the title since those 2 were heads and shoulders above else at that time.  This time the Owls come into Willimantic also the game before the Eastern/Dartmouth showdown Saturday which at this place in the season will likely determine the regular season champ.  The Warriors swept them last year, but in the game in Willi last year in what the Warriors were probably looking ahead to RIC, the Owls hung with them for the entire game and even lead with under 5:30 to play.  Owls probably get another sluggish Warriors showing who are looking ahead to Saturday, but the Warriors pull it out, 74-64

Dartmouth @ Boston.
Big game in Boston for both teams.  With a Corsairs loss here it would put even more pressure on Saturdays game since the Corsairs lost the first meeting, and would lose the tiebreaker with a sweep.  In Bostons case, they are still in the running for a home quarterfinal game which would be a huge accomplishment to this program.  Wins by Dartmouth & Eastern this evening would leave a 3 team tie for 4th between Keene, Boston, & Western, though I believe the Beacons would still own the tiebreaker.  This is the biggest week in the history of UMass-Dartmouth women's basketball, how will they handle pressure??  They didn't look so good Saturday at home vs. USM, and the Corsairs have lost 2 straight at the Clark Athletic Center.  Boston 71-69
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2015, 06:23:00 PM
Eastern leads Keene 23-19 at the half with Dartmouth up at the 10:30 mark.  Very fast first half in Willi with only 10 combined fouls and 10 combined turnovers.  Steph D'Annolfo leads all scorers with 11 of Keene's 19 total points and she's probably assisted on 2 or 3 other Keene baskets.  Neither team shooting very well.  I've seen each team live for 30 minutes this year and let me tell you I am a lot more impressed with Keene than Eastern this year.  Could be the defensive style ground you up styles of Western & Keene but Eastern sure as hell don't look like a team that's tied for the conference lead.  D'Annolfo and Kelsey Cognetta back next year for the Owls will I think catapult them back into the upper half next year there's a lot of youg, raw talent sitting there in Keene.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2015, 07:03:56 PM
Eastern finishes with an embarrassing 12 second half points and only 35 overall.  Well at least I now know how they lost twice to RIC.  To paraphrase AllStar here Eastern looked beyond confused against the Owls zone and like the Owls the Anchorwomen also employ a zone look on defense.
Dartmouth leads by 1 37 seconds left this would be a huge break for USM if the Beacons pull it off.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2015, 07:11:47 PM
Apparently Boston hit a game-winning 3 pointer to knock off Dartmouth 63-61.  Bad day for the first place teams, USM wins by not a playing as they jump to 1 back and assuming they win @ RIC they'll finish Saturday tied for second with the Eastern/Dartmouth loser with a game remaining next weekend vs the Warriors in Connecticut.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 12, 2015, 12:37:41 AM
http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-women/d3/regional-rankings-0

Dartmouth 5, Eastern 10.  Both of these losses tonight will ding them next week, but whoever sits at the #5 in New England in the final unpublished rankings is golden.  You have to think Tufts, Amherst & Bowdoin will be snatched up pretty quickly maybe within the first 5 rounds and then you have Williams the only team left and I'm sure they'd get picked by round 14 or 15, so you've still got 6 rounds to go for Northeast.  Williams actually winning the NESCAC tournament probably expedites the #5 team to the board a good 6 or 7 rounds earlier too.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 12, 2015, 04:37:49 PM
So, watching the Boston/Dartmouth game on video it turns out it was worse for the Corsairs than I thought.  They actually lead by 15 with under 5 minutes to play in the second half, and were still up 14 with a minute left in the 1st half.  Beacons outscored the Corsairs 39-23 the last 21 minutes.  Bad loss, but luckily for them Eastern lost too.

Saturday's schedule:
USM @ RIC
Western @ Keene
Plymouth @ Boston
Eastern @ Dartmouth.  All games have some importance.
Due to Keene's win over Southern Maine, they currently hold the tiebreaker over Boston for the 4th spot and last home spot in the quarterfinals.  They also lost the first game to Western, and would therefore lose the head-to-head tiebreaker with another loss.  Boston, meanwhile would jump Keene if the Owls lost, still remain a game up on Western, who they play at home next weekend.  USM, assuming they can beat a short-handed RIC team will finish the day tied for second with the Eastern/Dartmouth loser and they have Eastern left next weekend.  Neither the Warriors or Corsairs will officially win the conference with a win, but the winner definitely gets a huge leg up on the rest of the competition.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 14, 2015, 12:25:33 AM
Sat predictions:

USM @ RIC
Before the Huskies bat Plymouth on Tuesday night, the Anchorwomen were the only LEC team the Huskies have defeated in Gorham this year, while the Huskies are currently unbeaten on the road in conference play, the last game knocking off first place Dartmouth.  RIC is playing short-handed without Alex Moore, so USM should continue the winning ways on the road.  USM 76-62

Western @ Keene
A HUGE game in terms of seeding for the upcoming LEC tournament.  The Owls haven't hosted a home quarterfinal game since 2012 when they finished 3rd, meanwhile the Colonials haven't opened on the road since 2007 when they won as the 6 seed @ Boston (coincidently the only time the Beacons have played a home game in the LEC tourney).  The Owls currently sit tied for 4th with Boston, but own the tiebreaker over the Beacons so would get that final home quarterfinal spot.  The Colonials currently reside in 6th and would all but be eliminated from a home game in the quarters.  Western won the first meeting in Danbury last month and would win the head-to-head tiebreak with the season series sweep.  Keene could still jump up into the top 4 with a loss since Boston & Western have tough closing schedules, but the loser is almost certainly done in regards to playing at home in the LEC tournament.  This is how much 1 week can change in the end of February.  Last Friday, this seemed like a regular ordinary game between the 5th & 6th place teams in the conference, but due to Keene scoring the upset victory @ Eastern during the week, it becomes 100 thousand times more important than it seemed 168 hours ago.  This year Keene swept RIC for the first time since 2009, last week they beat Eastern for the first time since 2012, the last time they beat Western was 2012.  Coincidence??  I say yes!  Watching this Owls team for the last 2 games they have a swagger to them and they really get at it at the defensive end.  I'm probably gonna shoot myself when Western ends up winning by 20, but I really like the way the Owls are playing, they are playing inspired basketball, and there's magic in the air in Keene with this team; Keene 53-48

Plymouth @ Boston.
Boston's final 2 games: @ USM vs. Western.  Luckily for the Beacons they already beat the Colonials in Danbury and now get them at home in the regular season finale.  They also have a win over Dartmouth which Western doesn't have and Keene doesn't have (yet anyways, though Keene plays @ Dartmouth next Saturday) which will almost certainly come in handy for the tiebreaker scenario's.  The bad news for the Beacons however is that Eastern can still finish in first, and in that case, they have 0 wins vs. the Warriors this year, and even though the Colonials also have 0 wins they've only played once and still get them at home Tuesday night, while the Owls just defeated them on Wednesday, so that's a big tiebreak the Owls have in their back pocket.  The Owls also have a win over USM, which is how the Owls currently hold the tiebreaker over the Beacons.  More bad news for the Beacons??  Tuesday they play @ Southern Maine a team they have never beaten, and they close the season vs. Western.  Even though they have won 2 of the last 3 against the Colonials including January's meeting in Danbury where the Beacons completely blew them out, in the history, the Beacons haven't had much success against Western.  This is a MUST win for the Beacons.  The only Panthers win the last 3 years in LEC play was @ the Clark, last January.  Not happening this time!  Though if Grace Geary is still out (she didn't play vs. Dartmouth) Plymouth may make it interesting: Boston 65-43.

Eastern @ Dartmouth.
Lost a little bit of it's luster with Dartmouth losing twice to USM & Boston the past week, and Eastern becoming an upset victim to Keene and had Keene/Western pass it in the "importance" race, but this is still a big game none-the-less.  Teams come in tied for first, and even though neither team would officially clinch the #1 seed, the winner gets a leg up.  Since Eastern won the first meeting in Willimantic, they would theoretically go 2 up with 2 to play with the sweep of the Corsairs.  From what I've seen of the 2 teams this year, Dartmouth looks so much better than Eastern, and I think they get the win at home where they are a better team.  Dartmouth 75-71
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 14, 2015, 01:47:49 PM
Keene's up 27-24.  They were up 21-12 at 1 point, so not a good close out for the Owls
Dartmouth leads by 1 27-26
Boston leads 29-16.  Plymouth went the first 9:50 with 3 points and 0 field goals, but have managed to hang around.  Think 13 points is too much for them, but Boston trailed by 11 at half vs. Dartmouth and won by 2.
USM leads RIC 20-16.  Great to see Alex Moore back in uniform and in action vs. USM, but she is only 1-8 from the field (1-5 from 3) for 5 points.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 14, 2015, 02:27:00 PM
Is anyone else having problems with UMD's stream freezing every 5 sec ??? >:(?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 14, 2015, 02:38:45 PM
Quote from: ECSUalum on February 14, 2015, 02:27:00 PM
Is anyone else having problems with UMD's stream freezing every 5 sec ??? >:(?

Yup.  That stream, Western/keene stream and Boston/Plymouth have all given me trouble.  Only game that hasn't frozen is USM/RIC.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 14, 2015, 03:03:04 PM
USM holds of RIC 55-51.
Eastern falls to Dartmouth 48-56
Looks like Western beats Keene by 1
Boston beats Plymouth by double digits.

What this all means: Boston jumps Keene for the 4th spot: Keene & Western are tied for 5th but Western has the tiebreaker with the season series sweep, both are still 1 back of Beacons.  Boston currently holds the tiebreaker over BOTH Keene & Western (due to them beating Dartmouth), while Western holds the tiebreaker over Keene (head-to-head sweep).  USM & Eastern are now tied for 2nd and still are both alive for the #1 seed.  RIC can still get caught by Western for the 7 seed, but they need 2 Colonials losses (vs. Eastern @ Boston) AND 2 RIC wins (vs. Dartmouth @ Plymouth) which is not likely to happen.

Tuesday's schedule:
Eastern @ Western
Boston @ USM
Dartmouth @ RIC
Keene @ Plymouth.  The top 2 are the 2 most important games of the day.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2015, 12:50:46 PM
Women's side is a mess in regards to the tournament.  There still in lies the possibility for a 4 way tie for first at 9-5 between Dartmouth, Eastern, Boston & USM.  There lies the possibility for a 4 way tie for 3rd at 8-6 between USM/Eastern (since they play each other its impossible for both to finish 8-6), Keene, Boston & Western.  A 3 way tie for 5th at 6-8 can occur between RIC, Western & Keene.

Only thing I know: Plymouth has locked down the 8 seed; Dartmouth can lock down the 1 seed with a win, Eastern loss AND USM loss.  I believe Eastern has the tiebreaker over Dartmouth regardless of how their game vs. Southern Maine ends and if Eastern beats Western I believe they'd own the tiebreaker over USM too even if they lose.  Also tonight, Boston clinches the 4 seed with a win OR Western loss.  Boston owns the tiebreaker vs. Western regardless of whether they win or lose on Saturday, so as long as the Beacons are still a game up on Western heading into that game, they'll get no worse than the 4th seed.  RIC clinches the 7 seed with a loss OR Western win.  Since Keene swept RIC, Westerns the only team that can grab the 7 seed from RIC.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2015, 01:18:23 PM
Tues schedule:

Eastern @ Western.
The Warriors haven't beaten the Colonials in Danbury since February 10, 2009 when the Warriors ended the regular season 25-4 and 13-1 in LEC play.  Last year the Warriors were a better team overall and couldn't even put up 40 points in a 23 point loss.   Western has won 5 straight games, but aside from opening that streak against Regis, none of the other teams were really that good.  From what I've seen of Eastern this year hasn't been really good struggling for 30 minutes before pulling away in the first game vs. Western and putting up a dismal 12 second half points last week against Keene looking utterly lost and confused on the offensive end of the floor.  If Eastern is a serious threat to be a contender this year this is a game the Warriors MUST win, no excuses for them.  Boston won in Danbury for like the first time ever, Dartmouth won there for the first time in 11 meetings, no excuse why Eastern shouldn't win there.  But I'm not sold on them, so I'll take the Colonials.  Western 57-43

Boston @ USM.
A) I don't think Boston will win the 4 way 9-5 tiebreaker anyways and B) I can't see Dartmouth losing at home to Keene anyways (sorry AllStar) but it's remarkable that the Beacons are even still in contention for a share of the regular season title.  The Huskies meanwhile have gotten second life due to the struggles Dartmouth & Eastern have had the last 10 days, but they really must be kicking themselves.  if not for home losses to Dartmouth, Keene, & blowout home losses to Western & Eastern they'd have the title and #1 seed sewn up and would be almost unbeatable in Maine.  USM won the first matchup by 4 in Boston.  Even though they play better on the road, I'll take the Huskies here, 74-58.

Dartmouth @ RIC.
Unless USM AND Eastern both lose tonight, the biggest game in Dartmouth's women's basketball history will come on Saturday when they host Keene, so not much for the Corsairs to play for here besides pool C chances which I don't think they have a chance for anymore.  RIC has lost 6 straight and that streak started with a 20 point loss @ Dartmouth.  It'll be closer, but I still like Dartmouth to pull it out 67-59

Keene @ Plymouth.
Keene is still alive for the 4 seed and final home spot, but they need to win twice (which includes beating Dartmouth), have Boston lose twice and have Western split; beating Boston and losing to Eastern.  I can see Boston losing twice and Western splitting but Keene getting 2-0 could be tough....unless Dartmouth gets the title tonight.  However with that said, they get halfway there with the win over the Panthers 54-37
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2015, 06:09:18 PM
Eastern leads 34-27 at half, Eastern has 18 of their 34 points off of turnovers
Dartmouth up 30-22 with about 2:30 left.  Somebody should call the Providence fire department to the Murray Center; Bri Hochwater is on fire shooting 5-5 from the field (4-4 from 3) for a game high 14 points.
Boston leads 29-18.  USM's play in Maine is sooooooooooooooooo bad this year.  I can understand being good at home and bad on the road, but how can one team be soooooooooooooo bad at home and so good on the road??
Keene leads 35-20 with about 1 minute to play
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2015, 06:18:06 PM
At least Stretch Internet is working today.  I've got the Western/Eastern and USM/Boston games on and both games are functioning today without continuous buffering like on Saturday
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2015, 07:02:12 PM
Eastern beats Western 66-50.  Jill Ritrosky finished with a game high 28 points.
Unless Western beats Boston AND Keene wins @ Dartmouth, Western will be on the road.  Eastern's still alive for the conference.  if they beat USM AND Dartmouth loses to Keene (or RIC for that matter, they are only up 4 with 3 minutes to play) Eastern gets the 1 seed on tiebreaker vs. Dartmouth
Keene up 30 with 3 minutes to play, they'll move ahead of Western but still need help to get the 4 seed.
USM's up by 1 49-48.  If they beat Eastern AND Dartmouth loses 1 of the 2 I believe they also win the tiebreaker over Dartmouth.
Dartmouth up 47-43 with about 3 minutes left.
Boston up 4 55-51 with 3:27 left.  Boston win gives them the 4th seed.
Dartmouth still up 4 under 1 minute to play.
Dartmouth holds off RIC 49-45
Boston still leads by 4 with under 1:50 to play.
USM ties up Boston 58-58 and Boston had 2 straight possessions with a missed layup up 2 and a turnover with the game tied.
Boston beats USM 62-60.  The video froze with 19 seconds left with Boston up 1 shooting free throws; so they probably went 1-2 USM tied it at 60, and then Boston won it at the buzzer.  Either way, that was the programs first ever victory vs. USM, they have officially knocked USM out of the title chase (probably better for them anyways vs. how they play on the road vs. playing at home) and have officially eliminated the Colonials from hosting a home game.  IF Boston beats Western, they'll host a game, finishing no worse than 4th.  Keene is also still alive as if they beat Dartmouth and Boston loses to Western, the Owls will win on tiebreaker.  USM can also get knocked out of a home game entirely if they lose and Keene wins; Keene would win a tiebreaker over USM.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2015, 10:36:27 PM
Sat schedule in terms of game importance:

Keene @ Dartmouth 1 PM
Dartmouth clinches their first regular season LEC title in program history with a win OR Eastern loss to Southern Maine.  In the event Eastern wins and Dartmouth loses, the teams tie for the crown, but Eastern gets the 1 seed on tiebreaker.  Meanwhile, after being left for dead by me.....twice in the last 2 weeks, the Owls can still end up hosting a quarterfinal game.  They can actually get as high as #3 with a win and losses by USM (@ Eastern) AND Boston (vs. Western).  They'd win a 3 way tiebreaker between Boston at 8-6 (both would be 1-1 vs. each other, 1-1 vs. Dartmouth in this scenario, but Keene would be the only team that would've defeated Eastern).  Since the Owls currently hold the tiebreaker against BOTH Boston and USM due to having the victory against Eastern in their pocket, they just need either the Beacons OR Huskies to lose while winning.  Both scenario's for the Owls to have a home game require them to beat Dartmouth on the road, but it's a miracle they are even in that position right now.

Western @ Boston 1 PM
No matter what happens in the games around them Western WILL BE opening on the road; they'll be finishing either 5th or 6th.  IF Keene beats Dartmouth, Western will be the 6 seed.  IF both teams lose, Western is also stuck in 5th.  Since the Colonials hold the season-series head to head sweep of the Owls if Western wins AND Keene loses Western is 5th.  Boston can finish anywhere from 3rd to 5th.  No matter what happens elsewhere a Beacons win will GUARANTEE them at least the 4 seed, and a quarterfinal home game which would be their second in program history.  As it stands now, the Beacons hold the tiebreaker over the Owls however if USM beats Eastern the Huskies would nab that tiebreaker.  In the 3 way tie at 8-6 between Keene, USM and Boston, I believe Boston would be the last team out due to having less conference road wins then USM would but I'm not sure what exactly is the next tiebreaker after results vs. the conference since they would've exhausted all measures there. Boston also finishes 5th with a USM win AND Keene win; as mentioned above Keene currently holds the tiebreaker on thee Beacons.  Boston doesn't have to worry about what happens around them, win the  game, they play in Boston next Tuesday.  Lose the game and that's where things get interesting for them!  Remember, Dartmouth was in the same boat last year (beat Keene and they were at home as the 3 seed, lose and they were sent to Western as the 5 seed where they hadn't won in 10 prior meetings and were 0-2 that year against).  I know USM has been AWFUL at home in 2015 but when I'm 1-67 for my career against the Huskies I DO NOT want to go back up there!

USM @ Eastern 1 PM.
A Dartmouth loss to Keene would give the Warriors a chance to capture a share of the regular season title, the 1 seed on tiebreaker vs. Dartmouth and a chance for LEC history as I believe that would be the first time since the LEC was formed that the same school would hold the 1 seed on both the men's and women's side of the tournament, and assuming both the Eastern men and women won their first round games, the first time the same school would host both the men's and women's semifinals and finals.  USM is shooting for history of their own.  A win at Eastern would give them a perfect 7-0 road mark in conference, the first time an LEC team has completed an undefeated road record through conference play since USM accomplished the same feat in the 2007/08 season when they finished 13-1 with the lone conference loss coming at home to Eastern.  It's too bad the team finished a subpar 2-5 at home which will go down as the second worst home record in the conference this year behind winless Plymouth state who currently sports an 0-6 home record with 1 game remaining.  Since Eastern swept the Beacons the Warriors can't finish any lower then 2nd as the Warriors will win a 3 way tiebreak between the Huskies and Beacons due to being a combined 3-1 against those 2 if all 3 finishes the season at 9-5.  The Huskies can finish anywhere from 3rd to 5th.  Like with the Beacons, they win the game and they are at home (but do they really want to play at home??)  Like the Beacons they will lose a tiebreaker to the Owls if Keene wins and USM loses; in that case they'd finish 5th.

RIC @ Plymouth.
Panthers looking to avoid their second 0-14 LEC season in 3 years and are locked in at 8th.  RIC is locked in at 7th and is looking likely they'll get another game against Eastern in the 2/7 matchup.  I know it's tough to beat a team, especially a good team 3 times in 1 season, but the styles RIC and Eastern play RIC is a bad, bad matchup for them.  If I'm the Warriors I'm praying Keene can put up a defensive effort like they did the second half vs. the Warriors last week and are able to score just enough to beat the Corsairs because if I'm a Warriors fan I want nothing to do with RIC again.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 18, 2015, 01:10:48 AM
Quote from: 7express on November 12, 2014, 11:42:57 PM
2nd part of the preview; the projected standings.  This was difficult as there's s crop of 4 or 5 teams that are pretty good, but each with a different weakness: Eastern can't win big road games, Dartmouth can't win on the road period, Western can't score, Boston REALLY can't score, RIC lost the coach of the year AND the MVP, and what happens to USM this year should Rebecca Knight get hurt again??  The Huskies fell off the cliff last January in the 3 weeks Knight was out and they don't have McNamera this year anymore.  With that said, I'll take my best shot, but I'm not feeling confident at all in these selections:

1) USM (11-3).  Unlike the other teams vs. each other, USM hardly (ever) loses at home to those teams.  They've never lost to Boston, they lost once to Dartmouth, RIC hasn't beaten them in Maine in forever, neither has Western.  They'll struggle on the road, but so will all the other candidates however.  They only averaged 61 points per game as a team last year, and Erin McNamera lead the team in points and assists and was second in steal.  Rebecca Knight, Stephanie Gallagher & Taylor Flood look like their only offense weapons this year: who will they go to if one of those 3 gets hurt and do they have a bench??  What really helps them this year is they have the Connecticut trips on the bookends of the season (@ Western December 6 opening day, @ eastern February 21 final day) and the RIC trip is on a Saturday as well.  All the other weeknight & weekend trips are relatively close
2) Eastern (10-4).  The Warriors had a taste of success last year: they got off to an early lead in the conference as they beat RIC in the LEC opener and stayed ahead of the pack until they lost the rematch in Providence, and faded in February culminating in a semifinal loss to USM.  Eastern has everyone back that played major minutes included hopefully having Krystina Forsman back for the whole year.  I think overall the Warriors are better then the Huskies, I just don't trust their ability to win a big game on the road, so I'm weary.  I know the Huskies can win a game @ RIC or @ Western or @ Eastern.  I'm not sure the Warriors can win @ Western, @ RIC or @ USM.
2) Dartmouth (10-4).  Another very talented team that is probably better then the team predicted in first, but like the eastern counterparts cannot trust them on the road.  Last year they had the 4 seed in the bag, all they had to do was beat 4-9 Keene state on the road.  Couldn't do it.  Kelsey Garrity is the best PG in the conference, Meghan Ronagan is reigning rookie of the year.  Amanda VanVoorhis resigned her post as coach to become the full time AD at Dartmouth.  Much like Eastern, I'm not entirely sold on their ability to win @ RIC, @ USM or @ Western, they got crushed at all 3 places the past year.
4) Boston (8-6).  I said in the schedule preview last night I love the staff Courtney Mattingly put together.  All 3 are familiar with the conference as all 3 played in the conference, 2 of the 3 as recently as last season.  And what I found out last year the Beacons are a lot more than just Kirsten Morrison & Olivia Murphy.  Chantal Jordan, Katrina Edwards and Mallory Nelson were all freshmen last year but still stepped up in January when Morrison was out with a foot injury.  If they can get balanced scoring they can be good.
5) RIC (7-7).  Their 4 leading scorers are all gone including reigning MVP Vandell Andrade.  Another team that can't score but plays good defense.   They only have 1 senior who hasn't played before but should rebound next year.
5) Western (7-7).  Like RIC the Colonials have a very young team as they only have 2 upper classmen currently on the roster: 1 senior and 1 junior so the future is definitely bright, I'm just not sure if it's bright this year.  They didn't have 1 player average double digit points last year and only averaged 56.2 points as a team
7) Keene (5-9).  Owls have some talent there.  Stephanie D'Annolfo came out on fire last year as a freshmen, Christan Wojtas disappointed but has the track record, Ryanne Williams disappeared last year after a strong season, Amanda Petrow had some good games last year so there's promise there.  They'll steal a couple from the top 6 at home, but not enough to make a dent.
8) Plymouth (3-11).  Still a few years away but were competitive last year.  Tiffany Lewis is a senior so obviously she'll be gone next year but Savannah Miller (SO), Rosalie Edmonds (SO), and DeAsia Lawrence (SO) is a good trio for Liz Stitch to build around.  Add in junior Taylor Perry to that mix, the fact they were so close a number of times last year and the conference is lacking a true "dominant" team and I think it's time for the Panthers to pick up more than 1 LEC win for the first time since 2010.

Player of the year:
Rebecca Knight-USM


First team:
Knight
Kelsey Garrity-Dartmouth
Jill Ritrosky-Eastern
Jordyn Nappi- Eastern
Meghan Ronaghan-Dartmouth
Olivia Murphy-Boston

LEC tournament final:
Dartmouth over USM in the final.  I just think in a 1 game win and advance lose or go home, the team with better talent advances.  That's why if these standings do play out the winner of Eastern/Dartmouth wins the tournament.  Both of them have better talent then USM does.

NCAA tournament:
Since the conference doesn't have a very good team, and the top 5 or 6 will beat up on each other I don't see how the conference get more than 1 team in the tournament.  Of all the teams I'd say Eastern has the best shot to land a pool C bid with Emmanuel, Williams, Amherst & Tufts on the schedule as marquee games.  Split those 4 and they are in the discussion (they were in discussion last year and lost all 3 of them [didn't play Tufts, but had a 4th loss to NCAA participant Hartwick instead).  Win 3 of those 4 and I think they get in.  Sweep all 4 and they are definitely in unless they completely fall apart during LEC play which I can't see happening.

Always like to bring out these.  The USM & Keene picks were a disaster!  I had no clue at all USM would be 6-0 on the road but winless at home, save for beating the 7th & 8th place teams.  Keene surprised me.  Both Eastern & Dartmouth can end up 10-4 so that wasn't bad.  Boston can also end up 8-6 and in 4th, so that wasn't really bad either.  By far my worst selections were Knight for player of the year and Jordyn Nappi on the first team
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 21, 2015, 12:55:10 PM
Had a really long message last night and my internet crapped out before I could post it:

Dartmouth 77-48.  They'll start fast and pull away late for the crown.
Boston 63-58.  Caroline Brasa I think is still out for Western which hurts their chances.  Beacons clinch a home game.
USM 73-64.  Play much better on the road and still have that undefeated road mark going for them.
RIC 62-47.  2 teams playing out the string on the season
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 21, 2015, 02:04:22 PM
Keene leads 40-29 with about 15:50 to play
Eastern rolling USM 45-25 with about 10 minutes to go
RIC up 35-26 just starting 2nd half
Western's bus broke down on the way up to Boston this morning, so that game is just getting started.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 21, 2015, 03:04:59 PM
Eastern wins 56-41.  Nobody for USM scored more than 8 points as Miranda Nicely had 8 points off the bench for the Huskies.  Shannon McCourt lead the Warriors with 12 points and Lindsay Lagenauer had a game high 11 rebounds.  Where this leaves both teams: Eastern finishes first with a Dartmouth loss; USM finishes 3rd with a Keene loss AND Boston loss.  USM finishes 4th with a Keene loss and Boston win; USM finishes 5th with a Keene win AND Boston win.

Keene beats Dartmouth 70-55  :o  Yikes!  Kelsey Cognetta had a game high 20 for the Owls.  The Corsairs, who did not have a player record double digit points were lead by Kelsey Garrity, who had a team high 9 and also pulled down a team high 10 rebounds.  What this means for both teams:  Keene guarantees themselves a home game in the quarterfinals since they won the tiebreaker over USM.  They will finish 3rd if Boston loses to Western since I believe they win a 3 team tiebreaker between Boston & USM at 8-6; The Owls will finish in 4th with a Boston win.  Since Eastern won, Dartmouth now finishes as the 2 seed and will be playing RIC at home Tuesday night.

RIC beats Plymouth 66-53.  Devin Hill had a game high 22 for RIC, Alex Moore added 20 as well and Jessica Patalano added 12 points and a team high 10 rebounds off the bench.  Tiffany Lewis lead the Panthers with 13 points and 12 rebounds.  What this means for both teams: RIC was locked in an #7 going in and will now travel to the 2 seed Dartmouth.  Plymouth was locked in at #8 and will now be traveling to the 1 seed Eastern.

Boston leads 45-32 with 12 minutes left.  A Boston win would leave the Beacons 3rd, Keene 4th, & USM 5th.  A Western win would leave Keene 3rd, USM 4th and Boston 5th.  With Keene's win over Dartmouth that has officially locked the Colonials in as the 6 seed regardless of whether they win or lose.

Boston wins 64-48.  No boxscore but I believe the Beacons were up by about 7 or 8 at the half and cruised from there.  Boston clinches the 3 seed and we will have this exact same matchup on Tuesday night in the exact same place as Western was locked into the 6 seed after Dartmouth's loss to Keene.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 23, 2015, 10:55:26 PM
Quarterfinal picks:

#8 Plymouth @ #1 Eastern 5:30.
Shouldn't be much of a contest as Plymouth is 2-67 in their last 69 LEC games (2-69 in their last 71 conference games if you include the tournament).  Eastern won both meetings by 29 and should be right around that number again as the oddsmakers are banking on the Panthers having a better showing, as the Warriors are only a 27 point favorite.  No matter the number, Eastern wins by 20+ 66-38

#7 RIC @ #2 Dartmouth 5:30.
The Anchorwomen snapped a 7 game losing streak with a win over the Plymouth Panthers last time out.  Meanwhile, the Corsairs have to recover....they lost by 15 at home to Keene with the title on the line, so how they bounceback will be key.  Dartmouth swept them during the regular season, but only won by in Providence last week scoring less than 50 points.  Dartmouth is a 12.5 point favorite since they won @ Dartmouth by 20.  RIC can be a scary team when healthy: they did sweep Eastern, beat Western, and lost to USM & Dartmouth by only 4.  However, those games were all at home and they are going on the road.  I think they'll keep it close because they have nothing to lose, but Dartmouth pulls away late to win 72-55

#6 Western @ #3 Boston 7.
The lone game that starts at 7.  Like the previous first 2, the Beacons swept the season series winning by 15 in Danbury and by 16 in Boston on Saturday.  The win on Saturday gave the Beacons both a program high 17th win AND a program high 9 LEC victories.  The problem, like usual for the Colonials is they just cannot score.  Against the top 5 scoring offenses (which the Beacons reside) the Colonials are a meager 3-7.  Even though they are #2 in scoring defense, I've mentioned time-and-time again with RIC in 2013 and Western & Keene the last few years, that defense can only get you so far, you actually have to score some points.  And I don't think the Colonials can do that, especially if Caroline Brasa is still out.  The Beacons are a 6.5 point favorite.  I've been singing the Beacons praises all season long, why would I change my tune now??  Boston 63-47

#5 USM @ #4 Keene.
2-6; 6-1.  2-6 is USM's record in LEC games in Gorham; 6-1 in USM's record in conference road games.  Good news for USM??  This game is on the road.  Bad news for USM??  Megan Pelletier got hurt in Boston game, and they looked flat out awful against Eastern on Saturday without her.  Keene meanwhile wins @ Dartmouth and @ Eastern but they got swept by Western, and like the Huskies the Owls had more wins on the road in conference play (5) than at home in Spaulding (3), so who knows??  The oddsmakers agree which is why Keene is only a 2 point favorite.  Even though the Huskies are sub .500, and the Owls are at 16-9, I actually do think the Huskies are a slightly better team and have a couple streaks to uphold; The Huskies aren't getting to 18 wins, so this year will be their lowest win total since they won 18 in 2011....however since the LEC was formed the Huskies have NEVER finished below .500.  They have to win 2 straight in the tournament to keep that streak alive for another year and beating Eastern will be tough to achieve but they at least keep it alive for another day as they win in Keene 66-58
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 24, 2015, 06:24:11 PM
Keene leads 30-19 at the half.  Apparently Steph D'Annolfo is out for Keene as she didn't start and hasn't appeared in the game but looks like she's in uniform so maybe just a first half thing who knows??
Eastern up 44-14 at halftime.  Plymouth will lucky to end the game with 44 points so I'm calling that.  Women's semifinals will be at Eastern on Friday
Dartmouth leads RIC 38-23 and Boston/Western starts at 7
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 24, 2015, 07:31:48 PM
Eastern wins by about 40.  If the Eastern men win I believe the semifinals are at 1 & 3 on Friday; if the Eastern men lose semifinals are at 5:30 & 7:30
Dartmouth rebounds wins by 18
USM loses 46-63; clinches their first losing season since the LEC was formed
Boston is currently up 16-9 in the late starting game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 26, 2015, 01:34:06 AM
With the change in the schedule...the semifinals will now happen Saturday evening and the final on Sunday afternoon (all at ECSU)

Saturday:

5:00 pm - Keene State at Eastern Connecticut

7:00 pm - UMass-Boston vs UMass-Dartmouth (UMass-Dartmouth plays as home team)

Sunday:

2:00 pm - Championship game
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on February 26, 2015, 03:43:34 PM
Just found out the NESCAC semi-finals/finals hosted by Trinity will be broadcasted by NSN vice the Trinity host...an upgrade!  To the point here...there seems to have been a change in the company that does the video broadcast of ECSU.  I find the new set-up to be a downgrade from the old one.  Is there a chance that the LEC will make a change for the upcoming Tourny?
Hope to catch a few games after the Amherst games on Sat.  Will be close for the ECSU game.

Watched the MBB LEC broadcast...seems the webcast has gone back to former days!  Answered my question. :)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 27, 2015, 09:02:10 PM
On the ECAC declared list: http://static.psbin.com/l/c/kebrv9xz8szs9r/2015_DIII_W_Basketball_Declared_Teams.pd

Keene should be an absolute lock for the tournament with at worst a 17-10 record, and will probably get a pretty high seed.  Outside of Westfield State, Regis (both 1 seed's in their respective conferences and playing in the conference championship game at home) and Roger Williams (lost in round 1) I think Keene has the 4th best record of all the NE teams and since Keene is willing to host throughout unlike Roger Williams, Regis or Westfield Keene has a pretty good opportunity to play every game at home.  Sad to see Boston or Western didn't declare though.  I know Caroline Brasa is injured but the rest of the team is coming back next year; meanwhile for the Beacons Kirsten Morrison is graduating, but they get back Olivia Murphy, Taje Burston, Grace Geary and pretty much every other major contributor from this year's historic team.  Western is 16-10 Boston will be at worst 18-9 so both likely would've made it, and both teams could've used the couple extra days of practice and another postseason game or 2.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 28, 2015, 03:10:25 AM
Making my picks now since I'll be at a wedding when the games start tomorrow (who schedules a wedding on Championship Saturday anyways  >:()

#4 Keene @ #1 Eastern 5 PM,
Interesting game we've got going on here.  The season series was tied 1-1 with the road team winning both games; Eastern won by 7 in Keene, and the Owls won by 13 in Willimantic, holding the Warriors to 20% shooting and 35 points (12 in the second half).  That game they only managed 48 on their own, and even though they are the 3rd highest scoring team in the conference (yah I was shocked too when I saw that) they have been held to an average of 51.5 points in 2 games vs. Eastern this year so like I usually say with Keene defense can only get you so far you actually have to score some points.  Eastern isn't very likely to get held to 35 points again (almost 30 points lower than their 63 per game average) OR get held to 12 points in 1 half again OR get held to 20.6% shooting again (the Warriors average about 37% shooting), so Keene will have to score more than 48 points to give themselves a chance.  Will they do it??  I think so.  Will it be enough to win??  I don't think so.  Warriors are a big 8 point favorite in this game, but I like the Owls to keep it close with Eastern winning 57-51.  Since Keene declared for the ECAC they will have at least 1 more game left win or lose (since they'll be a lock for the ECAC) while it's boom or bust for Eastern sitting at #10 in the Northeast in the final regional rankings.

#2 Dartmouth vs. #3 Boston 7:30 PM.
Do I really have to pick a loser for this game??  The 2 bandwagons I've been driving the last 3 years and the one game I was most looking forward to watching this weekend turns out I won't be doing much if any watching (I gotta go scout out a corner where I won't be seen so I can watch is).  Season series was tied 1-1 with the home team winning both games; Dartmouth won by 10 at home, Boston erased a 13 point deficit and knocked off Dartmouth on a buzzer-beating 3 pointer in Boston.  Both have had banner seasons for their respective programs: Dartmouth clinching a share of their first LEC regular season title, and with 2 more wins would set a new program high for victories.  Boston has already set school records with victories in a season (18), LEC victories in a season (9) and LEC tournament victories in a season (1).  Yup, they were 0-25 in the tournament before knocking off Western the other night.  Oddsmakers have made this a pick 'em game.  I really like both teams but I'm giving the slightest edge to Dartmouth.....mainly because they were in the Beacons shoes 2 years ago up in Maine when they made the LEC semifinals for the first time in forever, survived Western missing 2 bunnies at the end of regulation and then winning in overtime.  Even though they got completely slaughtered in the finals against USM, I'm guessing for Dartmouth it was a "we're just happy to be here moment" and it layed the foundation for what should've been a banner year in 2014 (whoops that didn't happen!) but they had enough key pieces for one last run in 2015.  That enough is going to get the Corsairs the win.  I'm thinking the Beacons will just be happy to get out of the first round for once, get their feet wet and THAN next year when they'll really be good (only lose Kirsten Morrison, get everyone else back) they'll have this experience to lean back on.  Unlike Boston, the Corsairs window is going to run out the next time they lose when Kelsey Garrity will lose eligibility, and unlike Eastern Dartmouth is very much still in play for a Pool C bid.  So, that's why I'll take the Corsairs 65-64 but should be an excellent game, both Matt Duchene and Courtney Mattingly had the UMass programs heading in the right direction and both should be leading candidates for coach of the year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 28, 2015, 06:00:03 PM
Eastern leads 22-13 at halftime.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 28, 2015, 11:46:07 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 28, 2015, 06:00:03 PM
Eastern leads 22-13 at halftime.

Eastern won 51-30 in a horrible basketball game.  Scoring 30 points is embarrassing....and shooting BELOW 20% while doing so is even more so.  I guess Keene will play in the ECAC's after all...that may be good after that debacle.

UMass-Boston broke from a halftime tie to throttle UMass-Dartmouth 71-48.  I'm happy for UMass-Boston...Mattingly has that program turning around after they used to be a complete punching bag.  UMass-Dartmouth struggled mightily at the end of the season.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 01, 2015, 02:53:16 AM
I'm on my phone so can't copy things I posted earlier but I vaguely remember, in the Beacons preview talking about the coaching staff Courtney Mattingly and the program assembled this off season would be a key for them.  This program was even deeper than the depth at the bottom of the Boston Bay when Mattingly took over, completely remarkable what she's been able to do with them.  And I'll go on record and say they actually peaked a year to early to boot.  They only lose Kirsten Morrison from this years team so get Olivia Murphy back, Grace Geary back (maybe another rookie of the year from Boston), so next year should be pretty good.  Taking a look next year looks to be a pretty good year for returning players, take a look:

Eastern loses 2 guards in Taylor McBride and Kristina Forsman, but gets back Jill Ritrosky who was probably their best player.
Western loses Caroline Brasa, returns everyone else from a 16-10 team.
Not sure who RIC is graduating, but I know Michelle Lagorriteria, Devin Hill and Alex Moore all have eligibility left for next year.
USM has Megan Pelletier back, but loses Rebecca Knight and Taylor Flood.
Dartmouth probably has the biggest loss in Kelsey Garrity, but Megan Ronaghan (2014 ROY) is back as well as 3 point specialists Beth Castanti back.
Plymouth I never saw so no idea who's back/returns but they look hopeless for next year anyways.
Keene has Kelsey Cognetta (she's know the best PG in the conference now since Garrity is graduating) Stephanie D'Annolfo, Sarah Kuber, Amanda Petrow.  If Christan Wojtas was back I'd REALLY like them next year, but shouid still be good and the extra practices for the ECACs they'll have definitely won't hurt them.
As mentioned Boston loses Morrison, but has Murphy, Geary, Taje Burston, Mallory Nelson, Chantal Jordan.

Looking at that list you could make a compelling case for 5 or even 6 teams to be the preseason champ.  Right now I'd say Eastern or Boston look like the 2 best but a lot of time between now and November that can change that stance but from
What I'm seeing  I'm really looking forward to 2016.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ramfan on March 01, 2015, 08:58:53 AM
Wouldn't consider Keene St a "lock" for the ECAC. If Westfield doesn't receive an At-large to the NCAA they will go to the ECAC and Keene may not even be selected. With a 17-10 record they will be in the pool with Curry and Western New England, who both have 17 wins. Even if they are selected they will be probably be a road team as Westfield ( if selected) Norwich, New England College, Roger Williams, Emmanuel and Elms have more wins.....
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ramfan on March 01, 2015, 09:04:04 AM
Also add Southern Vermont to the mix with their 17 wins..........
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 01, 2015, 11:26:03 AM
#3 Boston @ #1 Eastern 2 PM.

This is Bostons first ever time playing for an LEC championship in women's basketball while Eastern is 3 seasons removed from the team mutiny which resulted in the dismissal of 4 upper classman, but Taylor McBride and Kristina Forsman, and Shannon McCourt who joined afterwards all took their lumps the rest of that season, but it made them a better team today.  Oddsmakers have made the Warriors a 4 point favorite with an over/under of 119.5 points.  I'll take the Warriors to put on their dancing shoes for the first time since 2011 with a 63-52 win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 01, 2015, 04:28:01 PM
Boston loses a heartbreaker to Eastern 62-64 in overtime.  Grace Geary tied it at 50 and forced OT (remember only a freshmen!) with the biggest 3 in Beacons history with 15 seconds left to force OT and the 2 teams went back and forth in the OT with Eastern making 1 or 2 more plays then the Beacons did.  One of the better games I've seen this year in men's OR women's basketball, such a shame someone had to lose that game :(. With that said here are 2 thoughts as we head into selection Monday:

1) for the life of me I can't figure out why Boston didn't take an ECAC bid.  It would've been tough to bounce back from a loss like that, but even the extra 2 days of practice would have been worth it for them, a team that is even younger then Keene is!  Now me and ramfan might disagree on Keene being an ECAC lock (I still say yes they get in) but I think we can BOTH agree that a Boston team that is 19-9 would be a stone cold lock for the ECAC's.

2) looking at the final standings there were 5 LEC teams that finished at least 6 games over .500.  When I get home I'll have to run the numbers but I have a hard time seeing any other conference this year where at least 60% of the conference finished at least 6+ games over .500.  With that statistic, Dartmouth should very much be in the NCAA tournament! They tied for the conference, would be a travesty if they missed out.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on March 01, 2015, 05:42:49 PM
Congratulations to the women Warriors and Coach Bierly  on their LEC regular season and LEC tournament championship.  A huge turnaround over the last 4 years after the disastrous loss of top players for team and school misconduct and the desertion of others >:(.  A tribute to all the 2014/5 Warrior players and coaches but specifically to seniors Shannon MacCourt, Taylor McBride, and Christina Foresman for their loyalty, hard work and leadership in bringing the ECSU women's basketball team back to prominence.  Enjoy all your 2015 accomplishments, (Shannon your 1000 point mark as well ;D), and best of luck in the NCAA tournament!!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 01, 2015, 09:01:43 PM
Going back to something I posted earlier:

Of all the entire women's conferences this year the LEC was matched by the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in placing 5/8 teams (62.5% of the conference) at 6 games over .500 or better.  However, the IIAC placed 6 teams over .500 (one finished at 15-11 a measly 4 games over .500) while the next highest in the LEC was Southern Maine who finished a disappointing 12-14.  The ODAC placed 50% of the conference at 6 games over .500 or more (6/12), the NESCAC had 54.5% of the conference finish 6 games over .500 (6/11) and the MASCAC finished with 57.1% of the conference over .500.  Those were the only 5 conferences in division 3 that had at least half of the conference finish at 6 games above .500 or better.  Tell me why the LEC should be a 1 bid league this year??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: CasualFan2 on March 01, 2015, 11:40:33 PM
Easy, strength of schedule.  Wins over ranked teams.  None of that is present for Boston or anyone else.  It is too bad, as i would love to see Boston in, but it won't happen.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ramfan on March 02, 2015, 04:09:29 PM
Yes, definitely agree....with 19 wins and a runner-up in the LEC, Boston would have been a "lock" for the ECAC....
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 04, 2015, 12:10:26 PM
Awards handed out:  http://littleeast.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/releases/0303-WBKB-AllConf

POY I would've gone with Ritrosky of Eastern and I would've given COY to Courtney Mattingly of Boston, but the rest of it is pretty good.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 06, 2015, 06:22:49 PM
Sorry I had wrist surgery this morning, so a little late making the picks:

Eastern @ Scranton.
Scranton was a top 25 team most of the year and handed Tufts their only loss of the year back in December.  Scranton got upset by Catholic in the Landmark finals but that is still a very good team.  Winner plays Stevens/Baruch.  Scranton is a big 17.5 point favorite with an over/under of 141.5.  I'll take Scranton 75-61
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on March 06, 2015, 09:02:15 PM
Congrats to the lady Warriors on their NCAA upset win over #15 Scranton University!!!! Taylor McBride was outstanding together with a rugged D by ECSU ;D
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on March 06, 2015, 09:57:39 PM
Congrats to your Lady Warriors!...ECSU :). Everyone was talking about how Scranton had won over Tufts in the regular season.  As they often say...do not look too far ahead and defense will allow you the opportunity to win.....or something like that. ;D
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on March 07, 2015, 09:23:24 AM
Quote from: amh63 on March 06, 2015, 09:57:39 PM
Congrats to your Lady Warriors!...ECSU :). Everyone was talking about how Scranton had won over Tufts in the regular season.  As they often say...do not look too far ahead and defense will allow you the opportunity to win.....or something like that. ;D
Thanks amh63, best of luck to both the men and women Jeffs in the NCAA Tournaments!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 07, 2015, 01:01:51 PM
Sat picks.

#1 Westfield vs #5 Keene (@ Brandeis).
Westfield is the #1 seed after just missing out on the NCAAs.  They went through the MASCAC undefeated before losing to Bridgewater in the finals and are lead by MASCAC player of the year Jen Ashton and have a really good front court with Gabby Felix.  Owls are favored by 8 with an over/under of 114.5.  Don't think Keene can keep up, and Westfield wins late 69-55.

Eastern vs. Baruch (@ Scranton).
Baruch went 16-0 in the CUNYAC and hasn't lost since December 28, but the CUNYAC is a bad league, and Eastern should be riding higher after winning @ nationally ranked Scranton.  If you rank the teams in the pod these are probably the 3rd and 4th ranked teams.  On neutral courts, the better team usually wins, and Eastern looks like the better team.  They are a 3 point favorite with an  over/under of 130.5; they get the W and a regional semifinal trip 64-60
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ronk on March 07, 2015, 04:28:36 PM
Quote from: 7express on March 07, 2015, 01:01:51 PM
Sat picks.

#1 Westfield vs #5 Keene (@ Brandeis).
Westfield is the #1 seed after just missing out on the NCAAs.  They went through the MASCAC undefeated before losing to Bridgewater in the finals and are lead by MASCAC player of the year Jen Ashton and have a really good front court with Gabby Felix.  Owls are favored by 8 with an over/under of 114.5.  Don't think Keene can keep up, and Westfield wins late 69-55.

Eastern vs. Baruch (@ Scranton).
Baruch went 16-0 in the CUNYAC and hasn't lost since December 28, but the CUNYAC is a bad league, and Eastern should be riding higher after winning @ nationally ranked Scranton.  If you rank the teams in the pod these are probably the 3rd and 4th ranked teams.  On neutral courts, the better team usually wins, and Eastern looks like the better team.  They are a 3 point favorite with an  over/under of 130.5; they get the W and a regional semifinal trip 64-60


  Baruch had an effective full-court zone press that built up a big lead vs Stevens; Eastern has a good PG but she's short and will need some help against the zone press. Eastern executed their game plan well against Scranton; also gave lesson in defensive blocking out.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 07, 2015, 10:21:00 PM
Eastern beats Baruch to advance to the sweet 16.
Keene totally imploded vs Westfield.  They were up by 8 at halftime lead the entire second half and lost at the buzzer by 1.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: remsleep on March 10, 2015, 12:27:32 PM
7....what are you hearing about the USM vacancy?   Names out there as a possible successor to Coach Fifield?   
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on March 10, 2015, 12:54:58 PM
Quote from: remsleep on March 10, 2015, 12:27:32 PM
7....what are you hearing about the USM vacancy?   Names out there as a possible successor to Coach Fifield?

Somebody I'd keep an eye on is the Regis (MA) coach who played at Southern Maine.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: remsleep on March 10, 2015, 02:30:18 PM
not that there is a requirement that future coach has Maine ties but there is a collection of coaches out there who do have in-state ties:

the aforementioned  Angela Santa Fe at Regis
Mandy King at Kean
Christine Clancy at Washington & Lee
Sara Akashian at MIT
Julie Plant at St A's
....and of course Amy Vachon at UMO
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 11, 2015, 01:43:26 PM
Wasn't Julie Plant the former coach at Regis??  I doubt she'd go backwards from division 2 St. Anselm to division 3 USM.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on March 12, 2015, 07:49:04 PM
Some wouldn't call it going backwards... to be honest.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Roundball999 on March 12, 2015, 09:11:10 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on March 12, 2015, 07:49:04 PM
Some wouldn't call it going backwards... to be honest.

I definitely agree.  I know at least two very successful D3 coaches that have turned down multiple offers from D1 or D2 programs because they felt their D3 situations were better.  Dave you must know many such examples. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on March 12, 2015, 09:22:52 PM
Yes... there are plenty. And there are some who were assistants in D1 and decided they really wanted to coach and stay in D3. There are others who have been higher up and come down... Emerson men's basketball comes to mind! Jim O'Brien anyone?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 13, 2015, 04:39:48 PM
Eastern @ Tufts.
They won @ Scranton, but beating the Jumbos in Medford is a whole different animal.  they played earlier this year in Willimantic with the Jumbos winning by 13, I'd expect around the same score this time around.  Jumbos are favored by 14.5 with an over/under of 114.5; I'll take Tufts 63-50.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 13, 2015, 09:04:19 PM
Eastern loses 45-31.  Not gonna win many games scoring 31 points overall, but this was a really ugly game as the score at halftime was 20-11.  Cant imagine you win many games scoring 45 points, Tufts will need to play a lot better vs. Florham tomorrow to advance to Grand Rapids.  Congrats to  Kristina Forsman, Taylor McBride and Shannon McCourt!  What they battled through their freshmen year to advance to sweet 16 is remarkable achievement and those 3 should hold their heads up high.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: remsleep on March 30, 2015, 03:38:28 PM
Quote from: remsleep on March 10, 2015, 12:27:32 PM
7....what are you hearing about the USM vacancy?   Names out there as a possible successor to Coach Fifield?


Any more updates on this question?  Surprised there has not been any announcement....times awasting!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: cantdothat on April 14, 2015, 06:13:45 AM
Hearing Sam Allen, Angela Santa Fe, and Gavin Kane with Allen the frontrunner.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: remsleep on April 15, 2015, 02:00:39 PM
hmmmm...very interesting...could be a good match with Allen.   Can USM pay anybody?....current view of the school is that it is in serious decline financially...not sure if this is true or not..would be shocked if Gavin Kane took this job....why would he do that?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: remsleep on April 15, 2015, 02:05:02 PM
of course now we get to see what will happen at Bates....that could be an attractive opportunity for somebody with the ability to out-recruit Shibles and Veilleux...will be VERY interesting to see if Bates thinks a little outside the box in this search...hope they do
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on April 30, 2015, 05:52:38 PM
Any news regarding USM??

Btw, Liz Stritch is out at Plymouth.  She got a raw deal there as when she came in there was absolutely no talent to speak of she inherited.  Interesting development for coaches in the Northeast since Jim Murphy at Bates is out too.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: cantdothat on May 14, 2015, 11:26:21 AM
Sam Allen HC University of Southern Maine. ;)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 09, 2015, 02:28:15 PM
The expresses' preseason predictions.    Let's see how badly these turn out to be in February  ::)

1) Eastern.  They won the conference and made the made the sweet 16 last year, and have most of the roster in tact for 1 last run with this current edition before the window shuts when Jill Ritrosky gets her diploma in May.
2) Boston.  The Beacons graduated Morrison, but they have Olivia Murphy back for her senior year, and a nice nucleus of freshmen players Grace Geary, Chantal Jordan & Katrina Edwards to surround her with.  Like the Beacons (and most teams in this conference) is simple: the defense is going to be good enough, can they score consistently enough to improve upon what they did last season??  I think they can.   
3) USM.  Sam Allen takes over for a team that lost it's most consistently player, Rebecca Knight, and has virtually no bench scoring.  What they still do well is win games in Maine, however the easy gimme wins against Dartmouth & Boston are no longer in the bag for them.
4) Dartmouth.  They've disapointmented me in recent years as I believe this is the first time in 3 years (maybe even 4??) I'm not picking them to win the conference.  Kelsey Garrity is gone, but they still have Meghan Ronaghan remaining, I'm just not sure how many complimentary pieces they have.
5) Keene.  The Owls like the Beacons will be a good defensive unit, and have most of the roster back.  I just don't think they can score enough to compete for the top half of the conference.  With Garrity out of the picture, the title of best PG in the conference goes to Kelsey Cognetta.
6) Western.  See: Boston, & Keene, with the only minor exception Caroline Brasa is no longer eligible and she's probably the biggest loss of those 3.  Like USM, they seem to win almost every time out at home which will keep them afloat.  If they can manage a 4-3 road record to go along with their 5-2/6-1/7-0 home record this will definitely be a top 4 team.
7) RIC.  Ground hog day.  Defense will be good, scoring the ball not nearly so good.
8) Plymouth.  Liz Stritch never stood a chance up there, and neither will the person that replaced her.

Player of the year:
Jill Ritrosky- Eastern

First team:
Ritrosky
Grace Geary- Boston
Meghan Ronaghan-Dartmouth
Megan Pelletier-USM
Olivia Murphy-Boston
Steph D'Annolfo-Keene

LEC final: Eastern over Boston

NCAA tournament teams: Eastern as Boston plays another soft schedule and I don't think USM will reach that 18/19/20 win threshold.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ronk on November 10, 2015, 04:14:18 PM
Quote from: 7express on November 09, 2015, 02:28:15 PM
The expresses' preseason predictions.    Let's see how badly these turn out to be in February  ::)

1) Eastern.  They won the conference and made the made the sweet 16 last year, and have most of the roster in tact for 1 last run with this current edition before the window shuts when Jill Ritrosky gets her diploma in May.
2) Boston.  The Beacons graduated Morrison, but they have Olivia Murphy back for her senior year, and a nice nucleus of freshmen players Grace Geary, Chantal Jordan & Katrina Edwards to surround her with.  Like the Beacons (and most teams in this conference) is simple: the defense is going to be good enough, can they score consistently enough to improve upon what they did last season??  I think they can.   
3) USM.  Sam Allen takes over for a team that lost it's most consistently player, Rebecca Knight, and has virtually no bench scoring.  What they still do well is win games in Maine, however the easy gimme wins against Dartmouth & Boston are no longer in the bag for them.
4) Dartmouth.  They've disapointmented me in recent years as I believe this is the first time in 3 years (maybe even 4??) I'm not picking them to win the conference.  Kelsey Garrity is gone, but they still have Meghan Ronaghan remaining, I'm just not sure how many complimentary pieces they have.
5) Keene.  The Owls like the Beacons will be a good defensive unit, and have most of the roster back.  I just don't think they can score enough to compete for the top half of the conference.  With Garrity out of the picture, the title of best PG in the conference goes to Kelsey Cognetta.
6) Western.  See: Boston, & Keene, with the only minor exception Caroline Brasa is no longer eligible and she's probably the biggest loss of those 3.  Like USM, they seem to win almost every time out at home which will keep them afloat.  If they can manage a 4-3 road record to go along with their 5-2/6-1/7-0 home record this will definitely be a top 4 team.
7) RIC.  Ground hog day.  Defense will be good, scoring the ball not nearly so good.
8) Plymouth.  Liz Stritch never stood a chance up there, and neither will the person that replaced her.

Player of the year:
Jill Ritrosky- Eastern

First team:
Ritrosky
Grace Geary- Boston
Meghan Ronaghan-Dartmouth
Megan Pelletier-USM
Olivia Murphy-Boston
Steph D'Annolfo-Keene

LEC final: Eastern over Boston

NCAA tournament teams: Eastern as Boston plays another soft schedule and I don't think USM will reach that 18/19/20 win threshold.

They will be missing McBride and McCourt, however; they were big contributors in the NCAA win over Scranton that I saw. More importantly, the team seemed to be well-coached.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 11, 2015, 03:42:05 PM
Opening night just around the corner, let's get started with the predictions:

SUNY Cobleskill @ Keene State.
I'm not sure this is any better then playing Green Mountain.  Cobleskill was 2-21 last year and 1-17 in the NEAC which is probably the worst conference in division 3.  The other game in this tournament is Sage vs. Mt. Ida.  The Owls are favored by 60 points over the Tigers, and I'll actually take the points.  Keene 95-31

Southern Maine vs. Castleton State (@ Salem State).
Southern Maine plays @ Salem State later on in the year, so this is a set field as whether they win or lose USM will play Thomas Saturday, while Castleton will play the host Vikings on Saturday.  The Spartans have won at least 22 games each of the last 4 years, while winning at least 17 games each of the last 8 years.  This will be the Huskies first game without Gary Fifield on the bench, who will look to improve on last year's sub .500 team, the first time they have ever finished a season under .500 I believe.  The Huskies are favored by 6.5 points.  This is the old adage where Castleton is probably the better team, but USM plays in the better conference, so which one plays out??  I'll take the Huskies to win, but for the Spartans to beat the spread.  USM 63-60

Farmingdale State vs. RIC (@ St. Joseph's CT).
Rams finished last season 18-9 and with the disappearing act Mt. St. Mary's has taken in the Skyline the last 3 years, the Rams have seized control from the Skyline for the lone bid from the Knights.  RIC played well in spurts last year, actually swept an Eastern team that made it to the sweet 16, and were tied for 5th in the conference staring February.  Then they lost Alex Moore to an knee injury for 2 weeks, and they took a dive after that second win over Eastern losing 8 of their final 9 games to end the year.  Anchorwomen are an 8 point favorite, I'll take them to win and for the LEC to complete a 3 game sweep, but the Rams keep it close.  RIC 59-53.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 14, 2015, 02:03:39 AM
Friday results:

Keene pounds Cobleskill 91-45.
Congrats AllStar, Keene won't have another easier game all season, I hope they enjoyed it!  Shelby Preston was the only Tiger in double figures as she finished with 17 points; Sandi Purcell lead the Owls with 17 points as well, and Valerie Martin added 14 for the Owls reserves.  Steph D'Annolfo finished with 5 points and 10 rebounds.  Owls bench outscored the Tigers bench 48-13.  Sage beat Mt. Ida in game 1, so Cobleskill gets Mt. Ida, while the Owls get the Gators who are now coached by a familiar face who's very familiar with Keene & the LEC....Allison Coleman who was top assistant #1 to Denise Bierly at Eastern.

Castleton over USM 43-28.
Yup 28 points for USM.  Castleton is an ok team, so losing to them isn't a problem, but 28 points??  They had 10 at halftime!!!  That's not USM basketball, and not a very good debut for Sam Allen, maybe this is looking like a tough year in Maine.  There was only 1 double digit scorer in the game and that was Jade Deroches for the Spartans who had 14.  But this wasn't good.....for either side.  Teams shot a combined 23.7% overall (22-93), 32.1% from 3 (9-28 [USM was 2-14]), 53.3% from the free throw line  :o, and combined to turn it over 44 times.  So yah.  Castleton should be happy USM only shot 8-44.  Salem State was a 62-40 win over Thomas, so USM gets Thomas while Castleton plays the host Vikings.

RIC over Farmingdale 71-47.
Tyra Harrison was the lone Ram in double figures as she finished with 11 points.  Devin Hill had a game high 22 for the Anchorwomen, and Rybecca Gonzalez added 16.  Alex Moore finished with 0 points on 0-9 shooting (0-8 from 3), but she lead the team with 7 assists.  What's with all these missed free throws??  These are free points teams are giving away.  Not that it would have mattered in this game, but RIC was 15-22 and Farmingdale was 10-22.  Western New England beat St. Joseph's (CT), so Farmingdale gets SJCT, while RIC gets WNE.

2-1 LEC; 2-1 me.

Saturday schedule:
Rivier @ Dartmouth 12 noon
Thomas vs. USM (@ Salem State) 1 PM
Nichols @ Eastern 1 PM
Plymouth State @ New England College 1 PM
RIC vs. Western New England 3 PM
Sage @ Keene State 3 PM
Boston vs. Endicott (@ Maine-Maritime) 4 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 14, 2015, 03:55:37 AM
I'm a firm believer that a non-conference schedule filled with tomato cans does nothing to help anybody get better, nor does it prepare anybody to play good teams....or even mediocre ones, really.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 14, 2015, 11:51:40 AM
Sat schedule.  7 of the 8 teams in action today as Western is the lone school that doesn't play:

River @ Dartmouth.
What more can Megan Ronaghan do for the Corsairs??  As a freshmen in 13-14 she won the rookie of the year and last year in 14-15 she won the player of the year, so kind of difficult to improve on those 2 awards.  The Corsairs are coming off a tie for the regular season LEC crown, their first in program history.  Raiders were a disappointing 11-14 last year after winning 20 games 2 seasons ago.  Corsairs are a 15 point favorite, and I think they'll get the win by more then that. Other game in this tournament is a dandy with 25-4 Westfield State taking on 19-8 Coast Guard. Dartmouth 79-60.  I'll get the rest in a bit.

Thomas vs. USM.
Both teams coming off losses in the season opener.  Thomas lost by 22 to Salem, USM lost by 15 to Castleton.  Thomas scored only 40, USM managed only 28 points last night.  Despite those offensive numbers, the oddsmakers have the Huskies as a huge 45.5 point favorite.  If the same team that shot 8-44 shoots the same way today I'm not even sure they'll win, yet alone by 46!  USM 67-38.

Nichols @ Eastern.
Eastern opens up defense of their LEC championship and sweet 16 title team from last year.  Nichols finished 6-19 and 3-13 in the CCC last year and this will be the only time they'll play an LEC team this year.  Other game in this tournament is the marquee game of the night between 2 NCAA teams from last year: Regis (MA) vs. Bridgewater State.  Eastern is a 30 point favorite.  Big number, which I think Nichols beats late in the game.  Eastern 77-49.

Plymouth State @ New England College.
First game for new Panthers coach Allison Foley, and a tough matchup as they take on a team that finished 21-7 overall last year.  Hopefully this is a better result then Sam Allen had for USM last night.  Pilgrims are an 8 point favorite, and I think they cruise to the victory.  NEC 67-39.

RIC vs. Western New England (@ St. Joseph's CT).
The Golden Bears finished 17-11 out of the Commonwealth Coast Conference a year ago, and this will be their only meeting against an LEC team this year, while the Anchorwomen will play CCC team Roger Williams later this month.  Western New England is a 5.5 point favorite, but I think RIC gets the win and the championship; 63-61.

Sage @ Keene.
The Gators have finished with back to back winning seasons for the first time in program history as Allison Coleman has kept them in the NCAA discussion since taking over for Jackie Craft who lead the Gators to their first ever trip to the NCAA's in 2014.  Coleman was the top assistant and the all time leading scorer @ Eastern, so she knows a thing or 2 about the LEC & Keene State.   The Gators next game will be vs. LEC conference foe Western on Tuesday night, while the Owls will not be playing another Skyline team this season.  Owls are a 10 point favorite, but I think Sage keeps it close.  Not winning, but losing by less than double digits.  Keene 68-61.

Boston vs. Endicott (@ Maine-Maritime).
Another first, this time for coach Kristina Baugh, taking over on an interim basis for Courtney Mattingly, and really Mattingly left her in a pretty good spot.  She has to replace Kirsten Morrison, but really everyone else from last season's 19-9 squad which set school records for overall wins (19), LEC wins (9) and LEC tournament wins (2) and was about 45 seconds away from clinching the schools first NCAA bid, so the talent is there for the Beacons to improve on last year's success and make the next step: get an LEC championship, and get the program it's first NCAA bid.  It's been a long 4.5 years, but looks like I finally got the Beacons bandwagon on the straight and narrow.   This will be a tough test for the Beacons, as the Gulls are usually up there at the top in the CCC competing for second place with Salve behind UNE, but after finishing 23-7 in 13/14, the Gulls dipped to a 12-15 record last season.  Odds makers have made the Beacons a 7.5 point favorite, and I say they cover the spread.  if everyone stays healthy and on the court this year, this could be a dangerous out.  Boston 76-68
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 15, 2015, 12:02:48 AM
Sat results:

Dartmouth over Rivier 79-42. 
Caitlyn Perry lead the Raiders with 17 points while Beth Constantini had a game high 22 for the Corsairs, and Nakira Examund added 20 points and 10 rebounds.  This was an 18-16 lead after the first quarter (remember women are now playing quarters), but a 26-7 Dartmouth bulge in the 2nd quarter blew the game open and they rolled from there.  Coast Guard beat Westfield 96-93, so the Corsairs play the Bears, while the Raiders get the Owls.

USM cruises past Thomas 64-24.
Katie McAlister lead the Terriers with 7 points while Kelly Macomber had 10 rebounds.  Ella Ramonas lead the Huskies with 16 points while Megan Pelletier added 11 points.  Thomas finished shooting 8-50 from the floor, 1-12 from 3, 7-14 from the free throw line, and turned the ball over 27 times.  Thomas is off until the 24th when they play @ Colby, while USM plays @ nationally ranked UNE Tuesday evening.

Eastern crushes Nichols 86-48.
Brooke Packard (13) and Taylor Daniels (17) combined for over 60% of the Bisons total output.  Lexis Foster lead the Warriors with a game high 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Jull Ritrosky had 13 points and a game high 12 rebounds, and Erin Brooks had 11 points and 11 rebounds off the bench.   Eastern lead 23-4 after the first quarter and wasn't severely threatened the rest of the game.  Bridgewater beat Regis 60-56, so Eastern gets the Bears, while the Bison and the Pride square off in the first game.

NEC beats Plymouth 76-59.
The Panthers only conference men's or women's team that lost on Saturday.  They played 13 games (6 men & 7 women) and the conference went 12-1 in those 13 games.  Most of them were against bad teams so take that for what it's worth, but 12 of 13 is pretty good for an afternoon.  Taylor Perry (14) and Ace Lawrence (13) were the high scorers for the Panthers.  Mikala Malboeuf lead the Pilgrims with 17 points off the bench, and Laquil McKnight lead the Pilgrim starters with 13 points.  Plymouth was in this after the first only trailing 18-13 after the first 10 minutes, but the next 10 minutes saw the Pilgrims outscore the Panthers 20-6, so that was all she wrote for the Panthers.  Pilgrims next play Daniel Webster Monday evening, while the Panthers face Rivier on Tuesday evening.

RIC cruises past WNE 71-45.
Devin Hill had a career high 33 points on 12-18 shooting and Alex Moore had 21 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists.  Dorothy O'Neil lead the Golden Bears with 18 points.  After hitting only 15-22 from the free throw line Friday, RIC finished this game 15-16.   Golden Bears have the big Springfield rivalry game with Springfield on Tuesday, while RIC plays @ Emmanuel on Thursday.

Keene over Sage 81-65.
Genevieve Schoff lead the Gators with 22 points, though the Gators put 5 players in double figures.  Emily McPadden lead the Owls with 20 points off the bench, and Valerie Martin also had 18 points off the bench, those 2 a big reason the Owl bench outscored the Gators bench 44-10.  Steph D'annolfo padded the stat sheet: 11 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 6 steals, 5 turnovers, and 4 fouls.  Jump up in competition coming on Wednesday for the Owls as they head down 91 to take on MASCAC power Westfield State, while the Gators have their home opener Tuesday night against Western Connecticut.

Boston edges Endicott 66-63.
Hannah Kiernan lead the Gulls with 15 points and Kelsey Guddy had 14 points and 10 rebounds.  Taje Burston had 13 for the Beacons while Olivia Murphy had game highs of 23 rebounds and 19 points.  Boston plays Maine Maritime who was a 75-28 winner over Maine Presque Isle (I'm guessing they'll have a tougher time against the Beacons...I know really going out on a limb there  :P) while the Gulls should get out of Maine with a split as they should dispatch Presque Isle.

8-2 LEC; 9-1 me.

Sunday schedule:
Coast Guard @ Dartmouth 2 PM
Boston @ Maritime 2 PM
Bridgewater @ Eastern 3 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 15, 2015, 11:34:35 PM
Sunday schedule:

Dartmouth over Coast Guard 73-59.
Meghan Fornaro lead the Bears with 23 points, and Gill Gerton just missed a double double with 10 points and 9 rebounds.  Megan Ronaghan lead the Corsairs with 27 points and pulled down 9 rebounds, Beth Castantini had 21 points of her own, and Nakira Examond had 8 points and a game high 13 rebounds.  Teams shot a combined 7-39 from 3.  Game was tied after 3, but Corsairs pulled away in the 4th outscoring the Bears by 14 in the final 10 minutes.  Bears are next in action Friday night when they play Dickinson at Ithaca, while the Corsairs resume play on Wednesday night hosting WPI.

Boston over Maine-Maritime 55-37.
Alayne Felix lead the Mariners with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Olivia Murphy had her usual game: 18 points and 16 rebounds, through 2 games she's at 18.5 points and 19.5 rebounds per game.  Beacons held the Mariners to 10 points or fewer in 3 of the 4 quarters.  Both teams are off until Saturday: Mariners play St. Joseph's (ME), while the Beacons have their home opener at the Clark Athletic Center vs. Framingham State.

Eastern pounds Bridgewater 70-49.
Sara Dasilva lead the Bears with 16 points off the bench, and Chanelle Melton lead the Bears starters with 15 points.  The rest of the team combined for 18 total.  Jordyn Nappi lead the Warriors with 29 points on 11-22 shooting, and Jill Ritrosky had 19 points and a game high 11 rebounds.   Another game with dreadful shooting from beyond the arc as they combined for only 7-38 for 3.  Bears next play William Smith on Friday night,  while the Warriors host Emmanuel on Tuesday.

11-2 LEC; 9-1 me (forgot to pick these 3 but probably would've gone with all 3 LEC teams).

Next games Tuesday:
Western (-7) @ Sage 5:30 PM
Rivier (-6.5) vs. Plymouth (@ New Hampshire Tech) 6 PM
Emmanuel (+11) @ Eastern 7 PM
Southern Maine (+10.5) @ UNE 7:30 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 17, 2015, 02:23:08 PM
Tuesday predictions:

Western @ Sage.
This is the opening game of the season for the Colonials, while the Gators come in at 1-1.  This is the second straight games against an LEC team for the Gators who are coming off an 81-65 loss to the Keene Owls over the weekend.  Last season in Allison Coleman's season debut at Sage, the Gators lost a close one in Danbury 51-47.  Western 50-48.

Rivier vs. Plymouth.
Last year the Panthers won 46-41 which was one of their 6 wins last year, their highest win total since 2010-11 when they won 8 games.  Rivier 57-51.

Emmanuel @ Eastern.
The Warriors got the 13 point win in Boston last year.  Even though the Saints haven't lost a regular season conference GNAC game since 2010, they got upset in the 1/8 game in 2014, and lost in the finals last year.  Eastern 68-58.

USM @ UNE.
This is the season opener for the Nor'Easters who are ranked #17 in the country, while the Huskies had an embarrassing showing against Castleton in their season opener, before rebounding and devouring the cupcake known as Thomas.  They lost at home 77-73 last year and have somehow lost 5 of 6 in this season series with the lone win coming in USM's 27-2 season in 2013.  UNE 67-54
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 17, 2015, 09:50:39 PM
Tues results:

Western over Sage 79-72.
Emily Parslow was one of 4 Gators starters in double figures as she lead all scorers with 17 points.  Emily Dobson lead the Colonials with 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Alecia Dulaire had 11 points off the bench.  Western lead by 10 after the first, and trailed by 2 after 3, before outscoring Sage by 9 in the 4th.  Gators are next in action Thursday night @ Albertus, while the Colonials next play Friday against Elms in the opener of the Hat City tournament.

Rivier edges Plymouth 63-59.
Caitlyn Perry and Kaylee Kacavas each had 17 to lead the Raiders, while Savannah Butterfield added 11 points and a team high 10 rebounds.  Ace Lawrence lead the Panthers with 15 points, Annaliese Schmidt added 14, and Jess Conant added 12 points and 11 rebounds.  Only 6 Raiders scored, but 3 players accounted for over 75% of their total points.  Raiders back in action Thursday night @ Fitchburg, while the Panthers start the LEC season when they travel to Dartmouth on Saturday.  Seems a little too early to playing conference games, doesn't it??

Eastern over Emmanuel 67-62.
Sarah Higgins lead the Saints with 28 points, while Lena Negri lead the team in rebounds with 10.  For the Warriors, Jill Ritrosky had a team high 18 points and grabbed 8 rebounds, Jordyn Nappi and Erin Brooks each added 13, and Lexis Foster had a game high 12 rebounds.  Emmanuel was up by 5 at halftime, but a 21-9 Eastern splurge in the 3rd put them in the lead they never relinquished.  Emmanuel next plays Thursday night @ RIC, while Eastern is off until next Tuesday when they head to Medford, MA to take on the Tufts Jumbos.

UNE over USM 74-62.
No boxscore out yet, but this was tied at 32 at the half, so it looks like the Huskies hung around for a bit.  Both teams play Bates next: UNE plays them Saturday, USM is off until next Tuesday when they play the Bobcats.

13-4 LEC; 13-1 me.

Next games Wednesday:
Keene State (-2.5) @ Westfield 7 PM
WPI (+11) @ Dartmouth 8 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 18, 2015, 05:15:03 PM
Wed predictions:

Keene @ Westfield.
Keene Owls are 2-0 beating cream puffs Cobleskill & Sage while the Westfield Owls are 1-1 beating a cream puff in Rivier and losing a close game to a good Coast Guard team.  Westfield is a better team and is at home, so I'll give them the edge, even though the oddsmakers favor the Keene Owls.  Westfield 67-64.

WPI @ Dartmouth.
Both teams come in 2-0, but the Corsairs have played the better teams.  The Engineers are only allowing 27 ppg this year as they gave up 17 to Becker and 37 to Clark, 2 awful teams, and I'm guessing the Engineers will have a hard time maintaining that average, as the opponents ppg could sky rocket.  The Corsairs pounded cream puff Rivier, and beat a good Coast Guard team by double digits.  Dartmouth 75-57
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 18, 2015, 09:38:01 PM
WOW Keene blows out a really good Westfield team 93-64.  I don't think they'll be able to score 73 every night much less 93, but I think they can be this year's Boston.

Wed results:
Keene clobbers Westfield 93-64.
Keene put 6 players in double figures lead by Emily McPadden with 17 off the bench, Amanda Petrow added 10 points and 11 rebounds, Steph D'Annolfo added 13 points and 8 rebounds, and Kelsey Cognetta had 6 assists.  Jill Valley lead Westfield with a game high 18 points.  Westfield (1-2) is back in action Saturday when they travel to local rival Western New England, while Keene (3-0) hosts Smith on Saturday afternoon.

Dartmouth edges WPI 67-65 in overtime.
Engineers were lead by Ama Biney who had 17 points, and Stasha Greenalch who had 14 points both off the bench, while the Corsairs were paced by Megan Ronaghan as usual who put in a game high 22, and Chelsea Houlihan just missed a double-double with 9 points and 9 rebounds.  WPI trailed by 7 after the 3rd quarter, but Greenalch missed 2 free throws at the closing end of the 4th quarter, which would have won the Engineers the game.  Engineers (2-1) are back in action Saturday when they take on RIC, while the Corsairs (3-0) open the LEC conference portion of the schedule when they host Plymouth on Saturday.

15-4 LEC; 14-2 me.

1 game on Thursday:
RIC (+4.5) @ Emmanuel 7 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 20, 2015, 01:08:34 AM
Thursday results:

Emmanuel over RIC 57-51.
Sarah Higgins lead the Saints with 12 points and Lena Negri added 11 points and 12 rebounds.  Devin Hill lead the Anchorwomen with 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Alex Moore added 12 points and 6 rebounds.  Saints even their record at 2-2 and host Skidmore on Saturday afternoon, while the Anchorwomen (2-1) travel to Worcester to play WPI Saturday night.

1 game Friday:
Elms (+30) @ Western 5 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 21, 2015, 09:43:24 AM
Western clobbers Elms 87-60.
Emily Burr lead all scorers with 23 to pace the Blazers; Kaitlyn Labonte lead the Colonials with 17, and Alyssa Eannotii had 10 points and 13 rebounds.  Blazers (0-3) get Purchase who got doubled up by Roger Williams 88-44, while the Colonials (2-0) get the Hawks.  The Colonials men also get Roger Williams in the men's tip off tournament @ Roger Williams.

15-2 LEC.

Sat schedule:
Plymouth (+26) @ Dartmouth 1 PM
Framingham (+8) @ Boston 1 PM
Smith (+9.5) @ Keene 2 PM
Roger Williams (+4.5) @ Western 4 PM
RIC (+3) @ WPI 5 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 22, 2015, 12:12:03 AM
Sat results:

Dartmouth over Plymouth 85-43.
Ace Lawrence lead the Panthers with 13 points, Megan Ronaghan had a game high 22 for the Corsairs, who were up 43-19 at halftime and rolled from there.  Both teams resume non conference action on Tuesday: Plymouth (0-3, 0-1) is at Castleton while the Corsairs (4-0, 1-0) are home to Salve.

Boston over Framingham 61-51.
Monta Connolly (17 points 14 rebounds) and Alycia Rackliff (15 and 15) paced the Rams, while Olivia Murphy had 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Beacons, and Katie Matheiu had 17 points and 17 rebounds.  2 teams combined for 94 rebounds, 40 of which were on the offensive end.  Rams (2-2) take on Mt. Ida Tuesday while the Beacons (3-0) host Fitchburg Tuesday night.

Keene over Smith 77-55.
Lauren Biondi had 11 for the Pioneers while Amanda Petrow lead the Owls with 17 and Kelsey Cognetta got into double figures for the first time this year as she poured in 14.  Steph D'Annolfo had 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists.  Remember last year when they couldn't score at all??  Cobleskill is a bad team, but Sage, Westfield & Smith aren't terrible, but their averaging 85.5 points per game so far.  Pioneers (1-2) face Wentworth Tuesday night while the Owls (4-0) head to Endicott Tuesday.

Roger Williams pounds Western 89-67.
Emily Dobson lead the Colonials with 15 points, and Angelica Ariola and Rachel Battista shared game high scoring honors for the Hawks with 22 apiece, and Bridget Quilty had 16 points and 14 rebounds.   Hawks had an 18 point halftime lead, Colonials cut it to 9 at the end of the 3rd, but the Hawks outscored them by 13 in the 4th to win going away.   Hawks (2-2) host Conn College on Tuesday, while the Colonials (2-1) head up to suburban Boston to take on Regis on Tuesday.  The Pride haven't lost a conference game since February 5, 2011, 76 games & and a conference later.

WPI over RIC 57-43.
Devin Hill had 16 points and 10 rebounds and Amy Assad finished with 12 points off the bench.  Ama Biney lead the Engineers with 11 points off the bench.  Engineers held the Anchorwomen to 12 second half points.  WPI (3-1) host Nichols Tuesday, while the Anchorwomen (2-2) travel to Bridgewater Tuesday night.

19-6 LEC:

Next games on Tuesday when all 8 teams play their final games before Thanksgiving:

Eastern (+15.5) @ Tufts 5 PM.  I actually ended up sitting next to coach Bierly at the Brandeis/Tufts game today.
Keene (-10) @ Endicott 5 PM.
Salve (+15) @ Dartmouth 5 PM
RIC (-1) @ Bridgewater 5:30 PM
Fitchburg (+23.3) @ Boston 5:30 PM
Castleton (-14) @ Plymouth 5:30 PM
Bates (+8.5) @ USM 5:30 PM
Western (-7.5) @ Regis 7 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 25, 2015, 01:03:30 PM
Tuesday results:

Tufts clobbers Eastern 71-43.
I get it, Tufts is a great team, but Eastern is ranked in the top 25, at least make it a competitive game!  Jill Ritrosky had a game high 18 for the Warriors, while Emma Roberson had a team high 13 to lead the way for the Jumbos.   Outside of Ritrosky (who finished with 18 points on 6-13 shooting), the rest of the Warriors lineup combined for 12 points on 5-20 shooting.  Jumbos (2-0) are back in action against another ranked team on Monday evening when they host the Nor'easters of UNE, while the Warriors (3-1) host cupcake St. Joes of CT on Tuesday evening.

Keene over Endicott 60-56.
Kelsey Cuddy lead the Gulls with 21, while Sandi Purcell had a game high 28 to lead the way for the Owls, while Sarah KOber had a game high 11 rebounds.  Wasn't pretty as the Owls were up 16 with 30 seconds to play in the 3rd, and still up 14 going into the 4th and had to hold on, but it's a win that gets them to 5-0, so I'm guessing they'll take it any way they can get it.  Gulls (1-2) open up CCC play next Wednesday @ Nichols, while the Owls will host RPI on Tuesday.

Dartmouth crushes Salve 73-40.
Meaghan Harden lead the Seahawks with a game high 22, and Alicia Kutil paced the Corsairs with 21, Beth Constantini had 15, and Megan Ronaghan finished with 12 points and a game high 11 rebounds.    Corsairs held the Seahawks to 16 points in the 2nd half and turned what was a close game at half (8 points) into a rout.  Doesn't get much easier for the Seahawks (1-4) as they'll host an angry set of Polar Bears from Bowdoin coming off getting blasted at home by state rival UNE on Saturday, while the Corsairs (5-0) will travel to Bridgewater state on Tuesday.

Boston clobbers Fitchburg 65-31.
Stephanie Leveillee and Melissa Guglielmello each shared team high scoring honers with a whopping 8 points each!  Olivia Murphy (17 points) and Katrina Edwards (12 points) almost single-handily outscored the entire Fitchburg team by themselves and they grabbed 18 rebounds and 14 rebounds respectively.  Time for the Beacons to step up the quality competition, these games & the Mt. Ida cupcakes they regularly schedule don't cut it for them anymore.  I know why they schedule these cupcake local area teams, but Tufts is in the area & MIT isn't terrible and they are in the area.  Fitchburg who falls to 0-6 have lost by an average of 40 points per game this year (they look worse then Plymouth!) Why is Boston playing this cupcake??  They were within 45 seconds from playing in the NCAA tournament last year, play some decent teams!!!  Fitchburg next plays Becker Saturday in what looks to be the pillow fight of the season so far: the teams are a combined 0-10, both losing by an average of 40 points.  I'm sure there will still be plenty of good seats left by the time Saturday afternoon rolls around, and the Beacons (4-0) host Mt. Ida on Tuesday.   Why???

Castleton over Plymouth 63-42.
Jade Desroches, Lindsay Sabo, and Bryanna duPont each had 14 for the Spartans.  Ace Lawrence lead the Panthers with 11 points and Annaliese Schmidt had 10 rebounds.   Spartans (4-0) open up NAC play at New England College next Wednesday, while the Panthers (0-4) head to Colby-Sawyer on Tuesday.

USM over Bates 65-56.
Nina Davenport had 15 points and 10 rebounds, both team highs for the Bobcats, while Ella Ramones had 16 to lead the Huskies, and Megan Pelletier came off the bench and added 11 points of her own.  Bates (0-3), is off until December 4 when they head to a tournament at Williams where they'll open up with Clarkson, while the Huskies (2-2) have the 202 rivalry game vs St. Joes (ME) on Sunday.

Regis defeats Western 69-56.
Kayla Croswell had 13 to lead the Colonials, and Jancy Sherwood had 11 points off the bench.  Amanda Hawkesworth paced the Pride with a game high 18 points, and Brittany Stone pulled down a game high 12 rebounds.   Both teams back in action on Tuesday night: Pride (3-1) put their 4 year unbeaten NECC record, and 76 straight conference games overall dating back to the last 4 games of the 2011 season when they were still in the CCC as they open up NECC play @ Mitchell while the Colonials (2-2) host Trinity.

Bridgewater and RIC was cancelled for some reason even though the men played.  Bears (2-2) will host the Corsairs on Tuesday, and the Anchorwomen (2-2) play local rival Roger Williams Sunday.

23-9 LEC

Next games not until Sunday:
RIC (+4) @ Roger Williams 4 PM
USM (pick 'em) @ St. Joseph's (ME) 5:30 PM

Happy & safe Thanksgiving everyone!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 30, 2015, 12:01:46 AM
Sunday results:

Roger Williams pounds RIC 84-59.
Bridget Quilty, Katie Lowerre, and Rachel Battista each had 16 to lead the Hawks while Quilty pulled down 14 rebounds.  Alex Moore lead the Anchorwomen with a game high 18 points while Devin Hill added 16.  Hawks (3-3) who would be at the top of the LEC as they have beaten Western & RIC by a combined 23.5 points this year get one last shot at the LEC as they face Dartmouth in January.  Both teams have rivalry games next time out: Hawks have the CCC opener vs. local rival Salve Regina on Wednesday, while the Anchorwomen (2-3) face Providence rival Johnson & Wales on Thursday night.

SJME defeats USM 74-67.
Megan Pelletier had a team high 18 to lead the Huskies, while Kelsi McNamera (not sure if related to Huskies guard Erin) lead all scorers with 35 to lead the way for the Monks.   Huskies lead 20-9 after 1 and got outscored 65-47 the rest of the way, including a dismal 26-9 in the 2nd quarter.  Monks (4-1) are off until Saturday when they play Maine-Fort Kent @ Colby tournament, while the Huskies (2-3) host top 10 Bowdoin Tuesday night.

23-11 LEC.

Next games Tuesday where 7 of the 8 teams, only team dark on the schedule is RIC:
Mt. Ida (+42) @ Boston 5:30 PM
RPI (+8.5) @ Keene 6 PM
Dartmouth (-9.5) @ Bridgewater 7 PM
St. Joseph's (CT) (+41) @ Eastern 7 PM
Plymouth (+12) @ Colby-Sawyer 7 PM
Trinity (+4) @ Western 7 PM
Bowdoin (-10.5) @ USM 7:30 PM
Some pretty terrible games on Tuesday.  About the only ones I can see being within 10 points are: Keene/RPI (both teams look good in early going), Trinity/Western (those games are usually close) and Bridgewater/Dartmouth (Bears are a tough out at home).  Even at home, USM should get blown out by the Polar Bears, can't see Plymouth keeping it within 10, and instrasquad scrimmages would be better then games against Mt. Ida & SJCT.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on November 30, 2015, 04:09:30 PM
Believe Amherst has a game at ECSU that you should look into.  Right now, only stats is listed.  Have seen the Lady Jeffs on-line at home so far...against overmatched opponents and that included the Wesleyan Cardinals.  The Warriors at home maybe a good test.  Would like your opinion here 7express.  The three FYs look good to date.
Wait! Just checked....there will be video for the game on Thursday.  Still would like your opinion 7.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 30, 2015, 04:38:36 PM
Yah, I think the Eastern game is Thursday, I was thinking about going up there for that one.  Tough call for Eastern/Amherst, about the only real quality opponent Eastern has played this year is Tufts and they got steamrolled by the Jumbos.  Played Bridgewater in a tournament which is usually a good contest, but Bridgewater is starting slow.  Play Westfield next week (next Tuesday I think), usually another good test, but they aren't as good as they've been the last 3 or 4 years.  Scoring the ball has always been a problem for 5, 6 of the teams on the women's side of the conference and that's the case which Eastern.  They scored like 40 points against Tufts last weekend, and unless you are playing a cupcake 40 points usually isn't enough to win, and against those great defensive CAC teams like Tufts, Amherst, Bowdoin and to a lesser extent Williams (not on the Eastern schedule this year) Eastern isn't going to get enough offensive help outside of the big (Jill Ritrosky) to upset any of those CAC teams.  I'd take Amherst by 10 to 20.  Eastern plays them close for a while, maybe even the half or 5 to 10 minutes into the second, but the Jeffs break down the Warriors D, and the Jeffs hold the Warriors at bay on their end to pull away.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 01, 2015, 10:34:23 PM
Tuesday results:

Boston over Mt. Ida 77-57.
Angelica Martinez lead the Mustangs with a game high 26 points and tied for a game high with 17 rebounds.  Olivia Murphy lead the Beacons with 24 points, and tied Martinez for a game high 17 rebounds, while Grace Geary had 21 off the bench for the Beacons.  Beacons only lead by 2 at halftime, and outscored the Mustangs by 18 in the second half to win going away.   Mustangs (1-6) are off until next Tuesday when they Emerson, while the Beacons (5-0) will actually face a real opponent as they face Bridgewater on Thursday.

Keene over RPI 88-73.
Ashley Clough lead the Engineers with 16, while Kelsey Cognetta had a game high 17 for the Owls, and Sarah Kober added 14 points and 9 rebounds.  Engineers held a 1 point lead at halftime, but got outscored by 16 in the second half.  Engineers (2-4) head down to a tournament @ Wesleyan over the weekend to play Anna Maria on Saturday, while the Owls (6-0) open up LEC play Saturday against Dartmouth.

Dartmouth over Bridgewater 76-58.
Jennifer Whyte lead the Bears with 16 points off the bench, while Nakira Exmund tied for a game high with 23 points and a game high 11 rebounds off the bench for the Corsairs, Beth Constanti added 23, and Chelsea Houlihan added 10 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists for the Corsairs.   Bears (2-3) host their second straight undefeated LEC team as they play Boston on Thursday, while the Corsairs (6-0) play a neutral court game at Assumption vs. Worcester state.

Eastern clobbers SJCT 83-39.
Rajeen Mayo lead the Blue Jays with 13 points, while Jill Ritrosky and Julia DePoi each had 14 to lead the Warriors and Erin Brooks added 12 points and a game high 11 rebounds off the bench.  Blue Jays (0-7) play 1 last game before the Christmas break as they play @ Conn College on Saturday, while the Warriors (4-1) host Amherst on Thursday evening.

Plymouth over Colby-Sawyer 70-56.
Congrats to Allison Flynn, her first career victory!  Jessica Shenkel had 16 points to lead the Chargers, while Kristen Ellis had 10 points and a game high 17 rebounds.  For the Panthers, Ace Lawrence had a game high 26 points, while Kayla Wyland had 19 points and 14 rebounds.  Chargers (1-2) are back in action Wednesday night as they open up NAC play vs. Green Mountain while the Panthers who recorded their first win of the season (1-4) will look to make it 2 straight when they play Lyndon State on Thursday.

Western clobbers Trinity 87-68.
Mackenzie Griffin had game highs of both 26 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Bantams, while Emily Dobson had 15 to lead the Colonials.  Bantams (4-1) will head up to a tournament at Norwich over the weekend playing the first game on Friday vs. Maine-Presque Isle while the Colonials (3-2) head to Conn College on Thursday night.

Bowdoin clobbers USM 77-46.
Abigail Kelly had 13 points off the bench to lead the Polar Bears while Megan Pelletier had 13 to lead the Huskies.  Polar Bears (3-2) have a non-conference game vs. #3 Tufts at home on Saturday afternoon (The NESCAC game is also at Bowdoin, so that's weird), Huskies (2-4) open up LEC play at conference favorite Eastern on Saturday.

29-12 LEC

Next games up Thursday:
Lyndon (+16) @ Plymouth 5:30 PM
Johnson & Wales (+5) @ RIC 5:30 PM
Worcester (-14) vs. Dartmouth (@ Assumption) 7 PM
Amherst (-10.5) @ Eastern 7 PM
Boston (-8.5) @ Bridgewater 7 PM
Western (+12.5) @ Conn College 7:30 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: gordonmann on December 02, 2015, 11:36:10 AM
I love these recaps. +k
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 02, 2015, 01:19:14 PM
Quote from: gordonmann on December 02, 2015, 11:36:10 AM
I love these recaps. +k

Thanks Gordon, at least I know I'm not talking to myself, and that someone actually reads and likes them, lol
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: gordonmann on December 02, 2015, 02:34:32 PM
Yeah, that's why I posted. The voice in my head told me it would be a good idea.  ;)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 03, 2015, 10:52:10 PM
Thursday results:

Plymouth over Lyndon 50-44.
Aimee Thompson lead the Hornets with 13 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, while Mikayla Hodge had 10 points and a game high 13 rebounds.  Ace Lawrence had a game high 15 points for the Panthers, and Taylor Perry added 14.  The Panthers won despite scoring 2 points on 1-19 shooting in the second quarter.  Hornets (1-4) have their NAC opener vs. Colby-Sawyer on Saturday while the Panthers (2-4) host RIC in their second LEC game of the year on Saturday.

J&W edges RIC 62-58.
Ashley Thompson lead the Wildcats with both game highs of 27 points and 13 rebounds, while Devin Hill lead the Anchorwomen with 18 points.    The Wildcats were able to win this close game (no team lead by more than 8) despite Thompson being the only scorer in double figures AND the Wildcats were down 6 with 5 minutes to play, and outscored the Anchorwomen 16-6 the final 4:11 with Thompson scoring 13 of those 16 points.  Wildcats (4-0) host Brandeis on Saturday, while the Anchorwomen (2-4) take the long trek up to Plymouth, NH to take on the Panthers in their LEC opener Saturday.

Dartmouth over Worcester 65-50.
Megan Ronaghan lead the Corsairs with 28 points, and Beth Castantini added 13.  Britt Herring lead the Lancers, who just played 8 players with 12 points.  Lancers scored the first basket of the game, never lead again after that and trailed by as many as 25.  Lancers (3-4) are off until December 11 when they play Springfield, while the Corsairs (7-0) resume LEC play when they travel up to Keene to take on the undefeated Owls in a battle of 2 of the conference's 3 remaining unbeaten (with Boston being the last remaining unbeaten).

Amherst over Eastern 63-46.
Ali Doswell lead the Jeffs with a game high 22 points, and Meredith Doswell added a team high 12 rebounds.  Jill Ritrosky lead the Warriors with a team high 11 points and a game high 15 rebounds and Erin Brooks chipped in 10 points off the bench.  Just like I assumed would happen, Eastern would play them close for a while (they were only down 4 at halftime), but over time the Jeffs better offensive players would wear down the Warriors D, and the Warriors offense outside of Ritrosky wouldn't be available to match the Jeffs on the offensive side of the ball for the whole game.  They managed just 46 points, shot 30.8% from the field, and scored single digit points in 3 of the 4 quarters.  Not enough to beat a quality opponent, and a great coach like GP Gromacki who always comes prepared with an excellent game plan.  Jeffs (5-0) host Bridgewater on Saturday, while the Warriors (4-2) open up LEC play vs. USM Saturday.

Boston survives Bridgewater in overtime 84-80.
Jennifer Whyte lead the Bears with 19 points, and Channelle Melton had 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Vanesa Conceicao added 13 points and a game high 10 assists.  Olivia Murphy lead the Beacons with a game high 28 points, Katrina Edwards added 14 points and a game high 17 rebounds, and Grace Geary had 19 points and a team high 7 assists off the bench.  This was another close game throughout as neither team lead by more than 6 points in regulation.  Bears (2-4) head to Amherst on Saturday, while the Beacons (6-0) host Western on Saturday.

Conn College clobbers Western 93-65.
Emily Dobson and Kerri Stolle shared team high honors with 10 points for the Colonials, while Mairead Hynes lead the Camels with a game high 25 points and Peyton Ouimette had a game high 11 rebounds.  Camels (5-0) host the cupcake known as St. Joseph's (CT) on Saturday afternoon, while the Colonials (3-3) open up LEC play at the same place they ended last season....Boston against the Beacons.

32-15 LEC

Full slate of LEC games on Saturday, all beginning at 1 PM eastern.
RIC (-14) @ Plymouth
USM (+17) @ Eastern
Dartmouth (+3.5) @ Keene
Western (+7.5) @ Boston. 
My Saturday superlatives for the day: Best game: Dartmouth vs. Keene.  How can it not be??  Both are unbeaten, and the Corsairs have to remember the last time they played the Owls.  In case you've forgotten, that was the final day of last season, February 21 I believe, when the Owls won @ Dartmouth to deny the Corsairs the outright LEC regular season crown and the LEC semifinals and finals at Tripp Athletic Center in Dartmouth.  As is, they had to settle for a tie with Eastern (though granted, still the first title in program history though), but lost the #1 seed on a tiebreaker, had to settle for the #2 seed in the tournament where they promptly got blasted by their state rivals Boston in the semifinals.
Most intriguing game: I was going to say Western vs. Boston, but at this point I just think the Beacons are an overall better team then the Colonials are, and have beaten the Colonials 4 of the last 5 times they've played so instead I'll nominate Plymouth vs. RIC.  Panthers have won 2 straight after losing 4 in a row (and 19 in a row dating to last year) while the Anchorwomen have lost 4 straight after winning their first 2.  Panthers have gone 3-67 in conference the last 5 years.  I though the Panthers might win a couple this year, and while the bottom of the conference teams don't look as strong as I thought they would be (RIC, USM & Western) the teams at the top (Keene, Dartmouth, Boston) are better then I thought they would be, and of the teams at the bottom of the conference so far in the last 5 years the Panthers are a combined 0-32 against those teams in the 5 year period, so if the Panthers want to exceed 1 conference win for the first time since 2010, RIC is a team they should beat, because the Anchorwomen are easily beatable, especially at home with the long travel.  Whoever loses this game could have a long winter upcoming....and I'm not even talking about the upcoming snow in Northern New Hampshire.
Worst game: Western vs. Boston.  The last 3 regular season Boston wins have been by an average of 19 points (add in the LEC quarterfinal Beacons win, and the Beacons have won those 4 by an average of 17.25 points).  Combined those facts with this is probably the worst Western team in those 3 years and this could get ugly.  Boston won by 26 in a year the Colonials had Carolina Brasa, Chelsea Mone & Sciarra Brandt, and by 16 in a year they still had Brasa.   This year they have none of them, how many points will Boston beat them by this time??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on December 04, 2015, 04:14:14 PM
Quote from: 7express on December 03, 2015, 10:52:10 PM
Thursday results:

Plymouth over Lyndon 50-44.
Aimee Thompson lead the Hornets with 13 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, while Mikayla Hodge had 10 points and a game high 13 rebounds.  Ace Lawrence had a game high 15 points for the Panthers, and Taylor Perry added 14.  The Panthers won despite scoring 2 points on 1-19 shooting in the second quarter.  Hornets (1-4) have their NAC opener vs. Colby-Sawyer on Saturday while the Panthers (2-4) host RIC in their second LEC game of the year on Saturday.

J&W edges RIC 62-58.
Ashley Thompson lead the Wildcats with both game highs of 27 points and 13 rebounds, while Devin Hill lead the Anchorwomen with 18 points.    The Wildcats were able to win this close game (no team lead by more than 8) despite Thompson being the only scorer in double figures AND the Wildcats were down 6 with 5 minutes to play, and outscored the Anchorwomen 16-6 the final 4:11 with Thompson scoring 13 of those 16 points.  Wildcats (4-0) host Brandeis on Saturday, while the Anchorwomen (2-4) take the long trek up to Plymouth, NH to take on the Panthers in their LEC opener Saturday.

Dartmouth over Worcester 65-50.
Megan Ronaghan lead the Corsairs with 28 points, and Beth Castantini added 13.  Britt Herring lead the Lancers, who just played 8 players with 12 points.  Lancers scored the first basket of the game, never lead again after that and trailed by as many as 25.  Lancers (3-4) are off until December 11 when they play Springfield, while the Corsairs (7-0) resume LEC play when they travel up to Keene to take on the undefeated Owls in a battle of 2 of the conference's 3 remaining unbeaten (with Boston being the last remaining unbeaten).

Amherst over Eastern 63-46.
Ali Doswell lead the Jeffs with a game high 22 points, and Meredith Doswell added a team high 12 rebounds.  Jill Ritrosky lead the Warriors with a team high 11 points and a game high 15 rebounds and Erin Brooks chipped in 10 points off the bench.  Just like I assumed would happen, Eastern would play them close for a while (they were only down 4 at halftime), but over time the Jeffs better offensive players would wear down the Warriors D, and the Warriors offense outside of Ritrosky wouldn't be available to match the Jeffs on the offensive side of the ball for the whole game.  They managed just 46 points, shot 30.8% from the field, and scored single digit points in 3 of the 4 quarters.  Not enough to beat a quality opponent, and a great coach like GP Gromacki who always comes prepared with an excellent game plan.  Jeffs (5-0) host Bridgewater on Saturday, while the Warriors (4-2) open up LEC play vs. USM Saturday.

Boston survives Bridgewater in overtime 84-80.
Jennifer Whyte lead the Bears with 19 points, and Channelle Melton had 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Vanesa Conceicao added 13 points and a game high 10 assists.  Olivia Murphy lead the Beacons with a game high 28 points, Katrina Edwards added 14 points and a game high 17 rebounds, and Grace Geary had 19 points and a team high 7 assists off the bench.  This was another close game throughout as neither team lead by more than 6 points in regulation.  Bears (2-4) head to Amherst on Saturday, while the Beacons (6-0) host Western on Saturday.

Conn College clobbers Western 93-65.
Emily Dobson and Kerri Stolle shared team high honors with 10 points for the Colonials, while Mairead Hynes lead the Camels with a game high 25 points and Peyton Ouimette had a game high 11 rebounds.  Camels (5-0) host the cupcake known as St. Joseph's (CT) on Saturday afternoon, while the Colonials (3-3) open up LEC play at the same place they ended last season....Boston against the Beacons.

32-15 LEC

Full slate of LEC games on Saturday, all beginning at 1 PM eastern.
RIC (-14) @ Plymouth
USM (+17) @ Eastern
Dartmouth (+3.5) @ Keene
Western (+7.5) @ Boston. 
My Saturday superlatives for the day: Best game: Dartmouth vs. Keene.  How can it not be??  Both are unbeaten, and the Corsairs have to remember the last time they played the Owls.  In case you've forgotten, that was the final day of last season, February 21 I believe, when the Owls won @ Dartmouth to deny the Corsairs the outright LEC regular season crown and the LEC semifinals and finals at Tripp Athletic Center in Dartmouth.  As is, they had to settle for a tie with Eastern (though granted, still the first title in program history though), but lost the #1 seed on a tiebreaker, had to settle for the #2 seed in the tournament where they promptly got blasted by their state rivals Boston in the semifinals.
Most intriguing game: I was going to say Western vs. Boston, but at this point I just think the Beacons are an overall better team then the Colonials are, and have beaten the Colonials 4 of the last 5 times they've played so instead I'll nominate Plymouth vs. RIC.  Panthers have won 2 straight after losing 4 in a row (and 19 in a row dating to last year) while the Anchorwomen have lost 4 straight after winning their first 2.  Panthers have gone 3-67 in conference the last 5 years.  I though the Panthers might win a couple this year, and while the bottom of the conference teams don't look as strong as I thought they would be (RIC, USM & Western) the teams at the top (Keene, Dartmouth, Boston) are better then I thought they would be, and of the teams at the bottom of the conference so far in the last 5 years the Panthers are a combined 0-32 against those teams in the 5 year period, so if the Panthers want to exceed 1 conference win for the first time since 2010, RIC is a team they should beat, because the Anchorwomen are easily beatable, especially at home with the long travel.  Whoever loses this game could have a long winter upcoming....and I'm not even talking about the upcoming snow in Northern New Hampshire.
Worst game: Western vs. Boston.  The last 3 regular season Boston wins have been by an average of 19 points (add in the LEC quarterfinal Beacons win, and the Beacons have won those 4 by an average of 17.25 points).  Combined those facts with this is probably the worst Western team in those 3 years and this could get ugly.  Boston won by 26 in a year the Colonials had Carolina Brasa, Chelsea Mone & Sciarra Brandt, and by 16 in a year they still had Brasa.   This year they have none of them, how many points will Boston beat them by this time??


                           Amherst          Eastern Conn. St.
Field Goal %      38.0% (19-50)  30.8% (16-52)
Turnovers                  8                      19
Pts off Turnovers      21                        4

It is easy to see, (above), why ECSU lost this game.  As long as they give up 19 TO's and opponents capitalize on the TOs to this extent, Eastern will never beat excellent teams like Amherst, Tufts, etc, etc!!  Coach Bierly need to work on this TO problem at every practice ???  Additionally Eastern's 3 point game, (3 of 13 or 23% vs Amherst), always seems to be very poor when they play good defensive teams!! YIKES?!?!?  With deficiencies like these they will have a very low chance of getting anywhere in post season play.  Hopefully they improve on these aspects as the season progresses.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on December 04, 2015, 04:41:19 PM
ECSUalum.....I watched the game and was also frustrated with a number of things wrt to Amherst's play.  Amherst wanted to work the ball inside and had trouble ....probably because of your Warriors.  Your players out rebounded Amherst, while being overall shorter, etc.  Your star senior from Pittsfield looked taller than listed but played bigger than everyone.  How did Williams and Amherst let her get away!  Amherst only player from CT....East Lyme HS...was in street clothes for the second straight game.  Finally saw her play for the first time this year as she was injured most of her FY. 
Bottom line...For both coaches and teams....it is why you schedule these early games against quality opponents!  To see what you need to work on...to change defenses, etc.  I'm well and still have hair left.  Long season ahead for both our teams...women and men.  I'm not going to watch Amherst men's soccer game in its Final 4 match tonight....want to keep my sanity. :)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on December 04, 2015, 08:21:30 PM
Quote from: amh63 on December 04, 2015, 04:41:19 PM
ECSUalum.....I watched the game and was also frustrated with a number of things wrt to Amherst's play.  Amherst seemed to wanted to work the ball inside and had trouble too often....probably because of your Warriors.  Your players out rebounded Amherst, while being overall shorter, etc.  Your star senior from Pittsfield seemed taller than listed but played bigger than everyone.  How did Williams and Amherst let her get away!  Amherst only player from CT....East Lyme HS...was in street clothes for the second straight game.  Finally saw her play for the first time this year as she was injuries most of her FY. 
Bottom line...For both coaches and teams....it is why you schedule these early games against quality opponents!  To see what you need to work on...to change defenses, etc.  I'm well and still have hair left to date.  Long season ahead for both our teams...women and men.  I'm not going to watch Amherst men's soccer game in its Final 4 match tonight....want to keep my sanity. :)
Hey amh63
It is just frustrating, because every year you hope that an Eastern basketball team, men or women would be up to par or superior and come out victorious over the excellent NESCAC teams, but, to no avail!  You must know by now that TOs are a pet peeve of mine!!  They drive me nuts!  I don't know if its mental toughness, or it just comes with the individual, but statistically low TOs/game are one of the key parameter in developing a championship quality team. I have not been commenting on the women Warriors, as I fully agreed with what 7express stated earlier on this thread re Eastern vs Amherst or Tufts.  I did not see the game last night, but when I checked the box score this morning and saw 19 TO, (and Amherst points off of), I just said to myself this is just unacceptable, and decided to comment!  Some aspects of a team you just cannot sugarcoat. If they had played a respectable game and lost by 10 points, it wouldn't have been so bad, but it was a blowout!!!
I fondly remember when ECSU had 4 year All America Allison Coleman and her teamates  What a fantastic athlete Allison was!! One shot from an ECSU Women's National Championship. Those were the days when it was fun to watch the women's game.
Any way enough of the rant,....another wonderful game produced by the Lady Jeffs.  It seems they will again go deep into the NCAA this year.
BTW I will be rooting for LJ men's soccer this evening... 97 minutes and stilled tied 0-0!!!!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 04, 2015, 09:03:07 PM
The problem with Eastern against these quality CAC opponents is they just can't score enough points to give themselves a chance to win.  19 turnovers, 3 of 23 (24??) from 3, 9 points or less in 3 of 4 quarters, sorry, that's just not going to get the job done.  And when you're a one dimensional team like Eastern is with Ritrosky & Brooks, but no outside shooting or perimeter game to speak of, then these are going to be the results that happen.  Same with the 2014 RIC team with Vandell Andrade that got trounced by Tufts & Amherst even though they finished that season I believe in the top 20 or 30 in opponents points per game.

The only LEC team I remember having success against the CAC was USM in 2013 (with Hayley Jordan in the middle, Rebecca Knight & Jordan Grant as the slashers, and Nicole Garland shooting from 3).  Of course they only played Bowdoin & Bates (and both were terrible that season [Bowdoin got ruined with injury IIRC], so really how much success could they have had against Tufts or Amherst??
Likewise I would've liked to see the Karli Spera, Heather Lee & Melissa Teel Western team's play Amherst & Tufts, because with those 3 they could beat you inside or out.  Same with the Piper Chapman, Taniesha Carter, Jess Moriarty, Britt Whaley Eastern teams, another inside/outside combo team that could beat you multiple ways.  Unfortunately, I only remember them playing Amherst and not Tufts those years.  Maybe playing Tufts in the regular season instead of playing some New England cupcake would've prepared them better for when they played Amherst in the tournament??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 05, 2015, 12:32:39 AM
Sat predictions:

RIC @ Plymouth.
RIC has lost 4 straight while the Panthers have won 2 straight after snapping a 19 game losing streak.  The last Panthers win in this lopsided season series was January 6, 2010 (ironically the last time the Panthers men beat the RIC men as well).  Both teams look to be in the bottom half of the conference, and why not I'll take Plymouth at home, even though they are a 14 point underdog at home.  I don't think they have anyone to matchup with Devin Hill, but if Ace Lawrence can at least match her point wise I think the Panthers can get enough secondary points from Taylor Perry to pull out the win.  Plymouth 56-53.

USM @ Eastern.
Both teams coming off home blowout losses to top tier NESCAC teams.  Huskies at home to state rival Bowdoin, Eastern to Amherst.  Huskies are the worst team, and this their night trip weekend, so I'll take Eastern.  17 points is a bit too much as I don't think Ritrosky can get them to +17 herself, but they should still win by double figures fairly easily.  Eastern 63-49.

Dartmouth @ Keene.
Last time they played, the Owls won in Dartmouth to deny the Corsairs the regular season title, and both teams come into this game unbeaten.  Since that game February 21, the Corsairs have seen the eligibility expire on PG Kelsey Garrity, and have seen sharp shooter 3 point specialist Bri Hochwater transfer (to Wheelock I think), while the Owls have lost basically no one of note since that game in February, combined with the fact they are at home, and that's why the oddsmakers have listed the Owls as a slight favorite.  However, I'm taking the Corsairs......who will have the best player on the court in Megan Ronaghan (no disrespect to D'Annolfo or Kelsey Cognetta for Keene) and if the season ended today the LEC rookie of the year in Nakira Exmond coming off the bench, combined with a dark horse for first team all LEC Beth Castantini.  Dartmouth 76-75.

Western @ Boston.
Beacons swept all 3 meetings with the Colonials last season.  Both lost key pieces from last year: Colonials lost Caroline Brasa, while the Beacons lost Kirsten Morrison, however the talent is still there in Boston with reigning LEC rookie of the year Grace Geary, Katrine Edwards, and as usually Olivia Murphy who is about an automatic double-double as there is in the conference.  Beacons have the better team then the Colonials do, and no doubt should cover the 7.5 point spread the oddsmakers have them listed as.  Boston 79-65
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on December 05, 2015, 10:36:30 AM
7 agree with everything you said! +k
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 05, 2015, 02:09:21 PM
First quarter of Eastern/USM: 12 combined points (Eastern lead 8-4).  Yuck!  The fact that Eastern only has 35 points with about 6 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter isn't very good.
Once again poor shooting looks to be the downfall of the Warriors: 12.9% from 3, and 25.9% overall.  And we can't even use the "they played a great team excuse" this time either as the Huskies are far from being even a good team.  Despite scoring 4 total points in the 1st quarter, they lead by double digits with 4:45 to play.
In other games: Western leads by 3 over Boston at halftime, Keene by double figures over Dartmouth, and Plymouth leads RIC early.  That game didn't start until 1:45 due to bus trouble with RIC on the trip up.
Eastern loses to USM 51-43.  Eastern's point total by quarters: 1st- 8, 2nd- 13, 3rd- 12, 4th- 10.  Sorry, but that's not good enough!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 05, 2015, 05:38:49 PM
Saturday results:

RIC over Plymouth 52-47.
0-1!  Welp, I was half right: Devin Hill (21 points) & Ace Lawrence (17) did play right with each other and the Panthers did get those "secondary" points from Taylor Perry (15).  However, that was it for Plymouth as those were 32 of their 47 total points, while the Anchorwomen got 18 points from Alex Moore, and 13 points and 10 rebounds from Rybecca Gonzalez.  Panthers (2-5, 0-2) host Lasell on Tuesday, while the Anchorwomen (3-4, 1-0) will likely get run over by Amherst in the Murray Center on Wednesday night.

Western over Boston 83-73.
Didn't see that 1 coming: Western scoring 83 points, or them even winning, 0-2!  Colonials put 5 in double figures lead by Kayla Crowell and Emily Dobson, while Grace Geary lead the Beacons with 25 points off the bench, and Olivia Murphy had 11 points & 16 rebounds for yet another double-double.  Colonials (4-3, 1-0) are off until next Saturday when they host USM while the Beacons (6-1, 0-1) play @ Westfield on Tuesday.

USM over Eastern 51-43.
0-3!  I wrote about this above, but Ritrosky got only held to 4 points (pulled down a game high 15 rebounds), while Jordyn Nappi finished with a game high 13 points, and Gretchen Anderson and Alex Srolovitz tied for the Huskies lead with 12.  Bowdoin and UNE are good teams I get that, but Bates (1-5), and St. Joseph's (ME) (5-1 but in a weak conference) scored 56 & 74 points on the Huskies respectively.  I stand by what I wrote above and on the last page: Score. Some. More. Points.  This was the preseason #24 team in the country, and they've scored 43, 46 & 43 points against the 3 probably best teams they've played.  At this rate Keene (who's averaging 82.3 ppg and has scored 75+ in 6 of 7 games) is going to completely wipe the floor with them.  Warriors (4-3, 0-1) play Westfield on Tuesday, while the Huskies (3-4, 1-0) head to Salem State on Tuesday.

Keene over Dartmouth 86-71.
Oooops, 0-4!  Yup, I'll admit, Keene is a pretty good team.  Every team has played at least 1 conference game and I think they are definitely the best team in the league so far.  82.3 ppg on the season, scoring 77 or more in 6 of 7 games.  They have had a pretty easy schedule, but they don't really play anyone the rest of the season, and can definitely outscore Eastern.  There problem the last couple of seasons is that they've worn down as the season has gone on, but this is now an expierenced group, they managed to weather that storm last year, and I think they'll be near the top of the conference standings the whole season.  Megan Ronaghan lead the Corsairs with a game high 24 while Beth Castantini had 16.  For the Owls Sandi Purcell and Kelsey Cognetta each had 23, Amanda Petrow had 12 points and a game high 10 rebounds and Steph D'Annolfo filled up the stat sheet once again: 16 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals & 2 blocks.  She goes underappreciated, doesn't usually lead the Owls in points or rebounds, but she's usually 2 or 3 in rebounds & points on a given night, and gives the Owls about 5 assists, 2 blocks, and 4 steals, great all around player!  Only a junior too so could very well be my preseason LEC player of the year next season....and speaking of next season, next season the Owls will be loaded.  The only 2 seniors on their roster are Cognetta (the PG) and Ryanne Williams (a bench player that hasn't done anything outside of her freshmen year), so next year should be the real big season.  Owls (7-0, 1-0) head to Boston to play the Beacons next Saturday while the Corsairs (7-1, 1-1) play their final game of the first semester when they host Johnson & Wales Tuesday.

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

Upcoming LEC Schedule:
Saturday, December 12:
USM @ Western 1 PM
RIC @ Eastern 1 PM
Keene @ Boston 1 PM

Next games Tuesday:
Lasell (+3) @ Plymouth 6 PM
Johnson & Wales (+8.5) @ Dartmouth 7 PM
USM (-14) @ Salem State 7 PM
Westfield (+12.5) @ Eastern 7 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 07, 2015, 03:15:11 PM
Tuesday predictions:

Lasell @ Plymouth.
The Lasers are 4-4 but have only played 2 teams with a winning record including an 0-8 team, and an 0-10 team they only beat by 4 points scoring 45 points against.  Panthers had a tough game against RIC, but I think they'll bounce back here.  Plymouth 53-48

J&W @ Dartmouth.
Corsairs coming off their 1st loss of the season Saturday, while the Wildcats are 5-0 on the season.  Oddsmakers have the Corsairs as a big 8.5 point favorite.  I think Dartmouth wins, but should be close.  Dartmouth 66-61

USM @ Salem State.
This is actually the Huskies second trip to Salem State this year as they opened the season with a tournament at Salem.  The matchups were preset with each team playing Castleton & Thomas: Huskies lost by 15 to Castleton, and beat Thomas by 40, Vikings also lost to Castleton by 15 but only beat Thomas by 22.  Those are the only common opponents on the season.  Oddsmakers have made the Huskies a large 14 point favorite, and I'm not even sure they'll even have a lead by 14 in the game, much less win by 14.  Salem 62-59

Westfield/Eastern has been postponed for reasons unknown with the makeup scheduled for December 17.  Second LEC game this year that has been postponed for "mysterious circumstances" after RIC @ Bridgewater was postponed right before Thanksgiving
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 08, 2015, 10:31:30 PM
Tues results, short results as I have to catch up on a lot of work by 3:30 PM tomorrow  :(

Lasell over Plymouth 57-53.  Katie Wyland 23 and 14 for Plymouth; Katie Stopera 19 for Lasell.  Lazers (5-4) at Emerson Thursday, Panthers (2-6) vs. Salem Thursday.

USM crushes Salem 81-46.
Emily Nicholson 15 for the Huskies, Sarah Callahan 10 for the Vikings.  Vikings (3-4) up to Plymouth Thursday; Huskies (4-4) down to Western Saturday.

J&W over Dartmouth in overtime 81-72.  Megan Ronaghan 25 & 14 for the Corsairs, while Bobbie Whitehead lead the Wildcats with 32 & 16.  Wildcats (6-0) host Curry Saturday, while Dartmouth (7-2) are done for the semester as they don't play again until January 4 when they play Salem.

Wednesday schedule:
Amherst (-26.5) @ RIC 7 PM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 10, 2015, 08:57:19 PM
I'm not going to able to do the recap tonight's (and probably tomorrow night either), so hopefully someone can pick up for me today.  If not I'll get tonight's and Saturday's over the weekend.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 11, 2015, 01:18:55 AM
Wednesday:

No. 2 Amherst beats Rhode Island College easily, 63-39
Amherst handed overmatched RIC their sixth loss in seven games.  Predictably, the Jeffs had no trouble in this game.  Ali Doswell had 15 points to lead Amherst, while Jackie Nagle had 13 off the bench.  Alex Moore scored 14 points to lead Rhode Island College's pathetic offensive effort which saw the Anchorwomen shoot just 28.6%.  Rhode Island College travels to play struggling Eastern Connecticut on Saturday.  Strangely, the Anchorwomen swept ECSU in the season series last year.  Amherst is off until December 28th when they play Adrian at Daytona, FL.

Thursday:

Westfield handles UMass-Boston, 91-79
Second straight loss for the Beacons, and also the second straight game they have given up over 80 points.  UMB also turned the ball over 34 times.  Very hard to win doing that.  Olivia Murphy had another double-double for UMass-Boston with 21 points and 14 rebounds (10 offensive).  Grace Geary and Ariana Rivera each had 13 points off the bench.  Forbasaw Nkamebo had 22 points and 13 boards for the Owls, while Jill Valley and Kirsy Segarra each added 13 points.  Westfield won despite being outrebounded, 64-47.  The Beacons close out the first semester by hosting Keene State on Saturday.  Westfield travels to Northampton to play Smith on Saturday.

Plymouth beats Salem State, 77-63
Kayla Wyland had 25 points for the Panthers and Ace Lawrence added 20 (on 4-of-15 from three).  Kailyn Aguiar had 12 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.  Kia Fernandes had 22 points for Salem State, who got clobbered by a Little East foe for the second straight game.  The Vikings travel to play Endicott on Saturday afternoon, while the Panthers are done until January 2nd when they play an absolutely dreadful Mount Holyoke team.

Saturday's Schedule:
Southern Maine at Western Connecticut, 1:00 pm
Rhode Island College at Eastern Connecticut, 1:00 pm
Keene State at UMass-Boston, 1:00 pm
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 30, 2015, 05:55:26 PM
Arizona Shootout results:

Tuesday:
Keene State 80, Worcester State 49
Eastern Connecticut 56, SUNY Poly 45

Wednesday:
Eastern Connecticut 64, Worcester State 40
Keene State 75, SUNY Poly 43
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 31, 2015, 01:19:49 AM
I just noticed Keene plays Worcester in the annual "math madness" midweek noon game in a couple weeks.  Why were they playing again in Phoenix when they were going to be playing each other in 14 or so days time??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 31, 2015, 06:43:01 PM
Quote from: 7express on December 31, 2015, 01:19:49 AM
I just noticed Keene plays Worcester in the annual "math madness" midweek noon game in a couple weeks.  Why were they playing again in Phoenix when they were going to be playing each other in 14 or so days time??

I'm not sure there was a choice, especially considering Eastern Connecticut was also out in Arizona.  Also, I'm sure they knew they were going to Arizona well in advance and probably didn't know the opponents until after.  Those are just a few guesses.  If Eastern wasn't there and another non-LEC team was, they certainly could and probably would have played them rather than Worcester State.  Both Eastern and Keene would have been benefitted if that field was better...the competition wasn't very good to say the least.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 09, 2016, 01:45:23 AM
So, it looks like conference play resumes tomorrow.  Haven't been following the action much since mid December but Keene still looks like the team to beat, and they get a bad USM team, though in Maine it's always dangerous.  Western plays Dartmouth in what could be one of the better games.  Eastern should slaughter Plymouth and RIC/Boston maybe good as well.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 09, 2016, 03:55:14 PM
This conference stinks.  Keene loses to USM after winning in Maine each of the last 2 years, and this year was their best team of the 3.  Western beats Dartmouth, Boston beats RIC & Eastern beats Plymouth.  Western is the only 3-0 team; Keene, USM & Eastern all go to 2-1; Dartmouth, Boston & RIC are 1-2 and Plymouth 0-3.  Nobody's getting a pool C from this conference this year, so the final 11 LEC games will just come down to tournament seeding and putting each team in the best position to make the NCAAs, and the best chance to get there is to host the semi's and finals and that means winning the league.  USM probably has the edge as they've already played the two Connecticut schools (Eastern & Western) on the road and their longest road trip remaining is RIC, and won @ Eastern.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 09, 2016, 05:09:23 PM
There is no excuse for that brutal loss by Keene.  Same for the men, too.  Pretty bad!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 09, 2016, 10:19:13 PM
Quote from: AllStar on January 09, 2016, 05:09:23 PM
There is no excuse for that brutal loss by Keene.  Same for the men, too.  Pretty bad!

The men lost too??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 13, 2016, 11:34:00 PM
Keene hands Western their first LEC loss, Eastern beats Dartmouth & USM beats RIC so all 4 are 3-1.  Still think Keene is the best team of the bunch, but if I had to pick a winner today I'd pick USM because their 3 farthest trips (Eastern, Western & RIC) are all done and have a backloaded home stretch of conference games coming up as they've already played 3 conference games on the road.  Don't think Eastern & Western are gonna score enough against the other 3, though Eastern has done fairly well since they got beat up by Amherst, Tufts & USM the end of November.  Keene doesn't have the marquee victories, so even with their gaudy 13-1 record, this is a 1 bid league regardless of which of the 8 teams wins.

Boston & Dartmouth are by far the 2 biggest disappointments.  Not even close in that department either.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 14, 2016, 12:15:37 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 13, 2016, 11:34:00 PM
Keene hands Western their first LEC loss, Eastern beats Dartmouth & USM beats RIC so all 4 are 3-1.  Still think Keene is the best team of the bunch, but if I had to pick a winner today I'd pick USM because their 3 farthest trips (Eastern, Western & RIC) are all done and have a backloaded home stretch of conference games coming up as they've already played 3 conference games on the road.  Don't think Eastern & Western are gonna score enough against the other 3, though Eastern has done fairly well since they got beat up by Amherst, Tufts & USM the end of November.  Keene doesn't have the marquee victories, so even with their gaudy 13-1 record, this is a 1 bid league regardless of which of the 8 teams wins.

Boston & Dartmouth are by far the 2 biggest disappointments.  Not even close in that department either.

I think there will be a lot of congestion at the top of the standings this year.  Every time you think one team is playing better, they go backwards.  I would say the top four will be some order of Eastern, Western, Keene, and Southern Maine.  Then you have the UMass schools Boston and Dartmouth sort of in the middle, followed by RIC and Plymouth at the bottom.  Plymouth is better to some degree, but still has work to do to move up. Obviously, though, you are right...only 1 bid again this year.  The conference one of these years needs to actually get a few marquee non conference wins, otherwise it will never change from what it is now.  Keene is better, sure...but they have played several tomato cans, so I'm not really sure what they actually are (and blowing a 17-point lead with two minutes left in the 3rd the other day at USM is a bad look).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 21, 2016, 01:07:07 PM
Eastern beats Western, while the Owls & Huskies beat their tomato can conference opponents last night, so Keene/USM/Eastern are all 5-1 while Western falls to 4-2.  Still think those will be the top 4 at seasons end in some order.  Dartmouth & Boston are talented clubs playing lousy, but they may have dug themselves too big of a hole to dig themselves out of.  Dartmouth & Boston play conference leaders this weekend (Dartmouth home vs. Keene, Boston @ Western) before they play each other @ Dartmouth next Wednesday.  If one of those teams can finish 2-0 those 2 games they'll give themselves a chance to crash the top 4 party.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 23, 2016, 06:12:43 PM
Keene's dreadful loss to UMass Dartmouth and Eastern Connecticut's win over Southern Maine means ECSU is in control at the top of the standings.  Overall, though, this league is thoroughly mediocre.  Keene seems to be getting worse as the season goes on...and they played a weak non conference schedule, too.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 23, 2016, 09:02:24 PM
They (Keene) still play Eastern twice, but those are 2 bad losses to USM and Dartmouth.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 23, 2016, 09:08:48 PM
Quote from: 7express on January 23, 2016, 09:02:24 PM
They (Keene) still play Eastern twice, but those are 2 bad losses to USM and Dartmouth.

Quite bad.  To put it simply, if a team is even remotely good, you don't lose those games.  Particularly when in one game (USM) you are up 17 points late in the 3rd and in the other the opposition shoots a pathetic 33% (UMD).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 28, 2016, 12:17:11 AM
Keene loses again, this time to Eastern.  Western (over RIC) & USM (vs. the hapless Plymouth Panthers) also get wins to pass the Owls in the standings.  In one of the bigger games of the day Boston wins @ Dartmouth.  IF Keene can beat Boston on Saturday, the top 4 could be pretty much set.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 28, 2016, 12:21:31 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 28, 2016, 12:17:11 AM
Keene loses again, this time to Eastern.  Western (over RIC) & USM (vs. the hapless Plymouth Panthers) also get wins to pass the Owls in the standings.  In one of the bigger games of the day Boston wins @ Dartmouth.  IF Keene can beat Boston on Saturday, the top 4 could be pretty much set.

This league is pretty pathetic right now.  The men's side is better overall from top to bottom, but not by much.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 30, 2016, 12:50:33 AM
Only interesting game on the schedule for Saturday is Western @ USM for the 2/3 spot.  Loser (especially if it's USM) is probably out of the running for the top spot in the conference.
Eastern will run away from RIC, Dartmouth should beat Plymouth, but they've had trouble up in Plymouth with Colleen Moriarty, Erica Bornemann & Kelsey Garrity on the team though, while Boston/Keene could be interesting, but Boston is disappointing and Keene is sliding.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 30, 2016, 02:55:59 PM
So Eastern loses to RIC, 3rd time in the last 4 games the Anchorwomen have beaten the Warriors.  Last 2 years the Warriors are 17-3 against the other 6 conference teams but just 1-3 against RIC.
Western wins at USM, WOW!  Now tied with Eastern at the top but Eastern won the only meeting so they'll hold the tiebreaker for now.  However, Western swept the Huskies while the Warriors only split with them, so if Western can win the rematch in a few weeks, they'll hold the tiebreaker.
Keene will beat Boston, up 13 with 2:30 to play
Dartmouth wins @ Plymouth, no real surprise there.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 03, 2016, 04:54:41 PM
For the third consecutive year, Hoopsville (http://www.d3hoopsville.com) will air for 12 hours as the regular season enters the final four weeks. Dave McHugh will chat with coaches, administrators, student-athletes, and others involved in Division III basketball from around the country. Other guests will include those who have Division III roots or appreciate the division and the game along with the student-athletes who play the sport.

Hoopsville will air from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (and maybe later) on Thursday, February 4 live from the WBCA/NABC Studio. You can see what guests are scheduled, get more information, and watch the show here: http://www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2015-16/feb4

You can also read the press release about the show: http://www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/hoopsville-marathon-2016

Here is the guest list as we speak. All times are Eastern and subject to change. Additional guests to be added if and when necessary:


   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
TimeGuestSchool
10:15amConnie TilleySt. Norbert (WBB) - WBCA Center Court
10:40amJamie PurdyPeidmont (WBB)
11:00amKeri CarolloUW-Whitewater (WBB) - Nat'l Committee Chair
11:20amBrent PollariSaint Mary's (Minn.) (WBB)
11:40amKent MadsenNo. 21 Wheaton (Ill.) (WBB)
12:00pmRussell LoydRose-Hulman (MBB)
12:20pmKevin BroderickNazareth (MBB)
12:40pmJustin ScottArcadia (MBB)
1:00pmSam HargravesNo. 12 Alma (MBB)
1:20pmLenny ReichMount Union (SID)
1:40pmMaureen WebsterClarkson (WBB)
2:00pmBetsy WitmanYork (Pa.) (WBB)
2:20pmSara LeeDenison (WBB)
2:40pmKlay KneuppelWisconsin Lutheran (MBB)
3:00pmBrian Van HaaftenBuena Vista (MBB) - Nat'l Committee Chair
3:30pmSydney MossNo. 1 Thomas More (WBB)
3:45pmAaron RousellBucknell (WBB) - former Chicago coach
4:00pmTim ShanahanStaten Island (WBB)
4:20Pat CunninghamTrinity (Texas) (MBB) - NABC Coach's Corner
4:50pmBubba SmithSewanee (MBB)
5:15pmBen StrongFormer Guilford All-American
5:30pmKevin ConnorsESPN SportsCenter Anchor - Ithaca alumnus
6:00pmKristen DowlingClaremont-Mudd-Scripps (WBB)
6:20pmAllison ColemanSage (WBB)
6:40pmLandry KosmalskiSwarthmore (MBB)
7:00pmDave NilandNo. 23 Penn State-Behrend (MBB)
7:20pmAaron GallettaLasell (MBB)
7:40pmJohn BaronGwynedd-Mercy (MBB)
8:00pm
8:20pm
8:40pmMelissa HodgdonWheaton (Mass.) (WBB)
9:00pmG.P. GromackiNo. 2 Amherst (WBB)
9:20pmJames Wagner
9:40pmHAPPY HOURFree-for-all of calls, tweets, and fun!

We hope to get at least the full show on a podcast, or several podcast, during the on Friday. You can find it here:
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/hoopsville
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hoopsville/id1059517087

Don't forget you can always interact with us:
Website: www.d3hoopsville.com
Twitter: @d3hoopsville (http://www.twitter.com/d3hoopsville) or #Hoopsville
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Hoopsville
Email: hoopsville@d3hoops.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/d3hoopsville

And a reminder the Hoopsville Fundraising Project has begun yet again. Please consider helping us cover Division III basketball the way it deserves to be covered. If you can not donate, please don't worry about - we understand. At least share the campaign with anyone you think might be interested: http://igg.me/at/hoopsville-fundraiser/x/6029509

Also, if you know any advertisers interested in promoting their company or products on the show, send them our way: hoopsville@d3hoops.com

Thanks!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 10, 2016, 01:59:48 AM
So, Western plays Eastern Wednesday & Keene Saturday, both at home
Eastern has a home game vs. Dartmouth Saturday sandwiched between 2 road games (@ Western this Wednesday, @ Keene next Wednesday)
Keene eats the Plymouth cupcake tonight and will tie the loser of Eastern/Western in the standings before playing those 2 teams the next 2 games.
USM has lost a couple games here to drop themselves off the pace, but their remaining schedule is a joke the rest of the way (home vs. Boston, RIC & Plymouth, @ Dartmouth).  Don't think it's gonna be enough to give them the title, considering they'll be basically 3 games back of Eastern/Western since BOTH teams hold the tiebreaker on them (Eastern would win the tiebreaker against them due to a better record they would've had against Western [worst they will finish is 1-1 while USM went 0-2] while Western has the head-to-head sweep in their pocket), but they'll easily get themselves in the top 4.  Those 4 will be your home teams in the quarterfinals a couple weeks from today, in some order.  To round out the rest:
The winner of Boston/Dartmouth next week probably gets the 5 seed and the loser is 6th, RIC will finish 7th, Plymouth 8th.  I don't like any road teams advancing, but I'm still drinking the Boston & Dartmouth Kool-Aid.  Neither team can win in Maine in the 4/5 or 3/6 game, but I think they can give Western or Keene problems.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on February 10, 2016, 02:32:45 PM
Alright, folks -- the NCAA's first women's basketball regional rankings are posted. Check out the full list from D3hoops.com:
http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2016/02/10/first-2016-regional-rankings-released-today/
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 10, 2016, 04:19:06 PM
Eastern #8, Keene #9 in the first regional rankings.  Not good enough for either team to grab a pool A.  Eastern can probably move up to #6 by the time the season ends if they win out, but the problem is they'll be stuck behind at least 3 NESCAC teams in the rankings.  Keene probably can't move much with their weak out of conference schedule.  That's why these next 3 games for Eastern, Keene & Western (not ranked) will go a long way to determining who gets the conference's lone selection.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2016, 01:27:44 AM
So apparently USM loses again at home to Boston.  They were like 69-0 or something career vs. Boston before last season when Boston edged them at home, and this year they did it again.
Keene eats the Plymouth cupcake, but hopefully AllStar can tell us whether it was close or not (my guess would be no).
Eastern beats Western, and sweeps the series from the Colonials.  They still have to play @ Keene, but they look good especially since they own the tiebreaker against Western, and I believe would own the tiebreaker against Keene as well even if they lose next week.
Who cares about RIC vs. Dartmouth, but I think RIC ended up winning (WTF happened to Dartmouth??)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2016, 01:36:42 AM
Grace Geary with 33 points.  Unfortunately I don't see them winning again in Maine, but that's why I could see them winning on the road.  After starting slow they have won 3 straight.
Dartmouth is now tied with RIC at 4-7, and would be the #7 seed in the LEC tournament if the season ended today as RIC owns the tiebreaker.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 11, 2016, 10:01:39 AM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 14, 2016, 12:46:44 AM
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??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 17, 2016, 06:55:16 PM
Keene with a laughable performance against Eastern Connecticut...playing like this they wouldn't beat a middle school team.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2016, 10:24:57 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 20, 2016, 01:38:16 AM
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
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 24, 2016, 02:34:30 AM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 24, 2016, 11:50:25 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2016, 01:54:28 PM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 27, 2016, 12:42:32 AM
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!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 27, 2016, 01:47:05 AM
Quote from: 7express on February 27, 2016, 12:42:32 AM
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.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 28, 2016, 05:22:15 PM
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!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on February 29, 2016, 03:20:18 PM
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. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 29, 2016, 03:22:34 PM
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  ;D) make it a long weekend trip.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on February 29, 2016, 05:05:45 PM
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 :D. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 15, 2016, 02:44:46 PM
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!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 19, 2016, 07:40:46 PM
So Mya Villard, Emma Belcourt and Cromwell finished the season unbeaten, and both players won their second state title with a 43-20 win over Notre Dame-Fairfield today.  Villard & Belcourt finished their high school careers at Cromwell 104-7.  Yes, they won 104 of 111 games they've played in their 4 seasons.  As I said the other day both Eastern & Western are getting proven winners in these 2.  Villard will continue the winning tradition at Eastern, while Belcourt will look to get the Colonials back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on March 20, 2016, 09:14:59 AM
Well Done 7!  Plus K
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 11, 2016, 09:50:53 PM
Here's my preseason predictions, so when March (err....February) roll around I can bump this, and remind myself how much of an idiot I really am.  As usual, projected conference record in parenthesis.

1) Keene (11-3).  Kelsey Cognetta used up all her eligibility, but Steph D'Annalfo, who will average close to 11 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists and Sandi Purcell will probably get the reigns at the point.  Once again, they used Connecticut, getting guard/forward Nicole Johnson out of Windsor Locks (isn't that where they found Courtney Cirillo??) Rachel Bonnanzizo from a good Pomperaug team, and Jasmin Mitchell from Meriden.  Returning players include forwards Amanda Petrow and Sarah Kober.  With Eastern losing Jill Ritorsky, and the Owls finishing 10-4 in conference last year, I think the Owls are the favorite.
2) Eastern (10-4).  Ritorsky is a big loss, but they return Jordyn Nappi, who has done nothing since her first 2 months of her freshmen season, Lexis Foster, and Julie DePoi.  As mentioned back in March they get forward Mya Villard who went 104-7 in her Cromwell high school career, and also Lizzie Cretella who played at St. Paul Catholic whose coach is Joe Mone, the father of ex-Colonial Chelsea.
3) Western (9-5).  Haven't been good the last couple of years, but coach Rybczyk brought in some winners in high school: Emma Belcourt a left shooting guard from that Cromwell team that won 2 state titles.  Gabby Hurlbert, a guard/forward came out of Thomaston, and she also won 2 state titles while in high school.  Emily Dobson is the leading returning scorer, and she is surrounded by Sam Smith & Alecia Dulaire who I believe has a brother, Stan, that played at division 1 Sacred Heart.  I know that name definitely sounded familiar!  Whether they can translate that talent, some of it raw, into wins remains to be seen, but it looks like this year the 2 Eastern/Western games have some meaning for the first time since about 2011-12.
4) Dartmouth (8-6).  Megan Ronaghan is out for at least the first semester as she is not listed on the Corsairs roster......though is listed as a captain, so that's odd ???.  If she was injured, you'd have to think she'd be on the roster from the start, if she got suspended, why would you want her to be a captain??  If something doesn't make sense, it's usually not true, and that seems like one of these times.  They also graduated Beth Castantini, so between Ronaghan and Castantini, they lost over 32 points per game for at least the first semester.  Add in Colleen Kane (at 6.6 ppg) who graduated, that's almost 40 points per game the Corsairs have to replace.  And even if Ronaghan does come back for the 2nd semester, there are still 2 LEC games the first half of the year, and the first 2 LEC games count the same as the last 2.  Really don't know where to place them.  With Ronaghan they are probably a 1st, 2nd, 3rd place team, but there's a drop off from there, so even if she is out for the whole year I don't think they finish below 6th.
5) Boston (7-7).  Olivia Murphy isn't there anymore, but they have great role players in Taje Burston, Grace Geary, Chantal Jordan, and Katrina Edwards.  Also, this team has played in 2 straight LEC championship games, so even though they may look weak on paper, and they are going to struggle on the boards, don't count them out.  They used to be automatic wins for USM, Western & Eastern, and that is totally not the case anymore.
6) USM (6-8).  They used to be automatic in Maine, now it seems like they are automatic on the road instead.  They graduated their top 3 scorers and rebounders from a 14-12 team.  This years team has 0 seniors and 9 underclassmen, so looks like in professional sports what we call a "rebuilding" year in Maine.
7) RIC (4-10).  Aside from Alex Moore, they don't really have a lot to work with in Providence.
8) Plymouth (2-12).  Speaking of rebuilds from previous, year 6 of the 3 year rebuild in Plymouth.  Luckily for the Panthers they've got some decent scorers in Ace Lawrence, & Rosalie Edmonds and USM & RIC look pathetic this year, but this is a team that hasn't won more than 2 LEC games since 2009, and has lost 38 straight LEC games, so I have to pretty much put them last by default.  In this space I've given credit to the Panthers before and as they say fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me 3 times??  Not a chance.

LEC player of the year:
Steph D'Annalfo- Keene

LEC first team:
Emily Dobson- Western
Grace Geary- Boston
Alex Moore- RIC
Julie DePoi-Western
Ace Lawrence- Plymouth
D'Annalfo

LEC final:
Dartmouth over Western.  I'm taking a huge gamble and pegging Ronaghan to only be out the first semester (or that the Corsairs website made a mistake).  Even if they struggle in the regular season, I'll always take the team with the better talent & better players overall, and if by some miracle these teams all end up in these respective spots, and ALL teams are healthy in late February Keene & Dartmouth look to have the best teams this season, so that semifinal should be the defacto LEC championship.  Since this conference doesn't look very good, especially at the bottom, I don't see a second team cracking the NCAA's.  Too bad 2016 Keene couldn't play this year.....or hell get Cognetta an extra year.

Here's the official predictions:
http://littleeast.com/sports/wbkb/2016-17/releases/20161109_WBBpoll
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 11, 2016, 10:02:11 PM
A word of caution...Stephanie D'Annolfo has some kind of injury.  I don't know the severity or how much time she will miss, but others will have to step up if she can't play.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 14, 2016, 01:13:28 PM
Let's get the ball rolling on the season.  6 of the 8 teams in action Tuesday only teams not in action are Eastern (they open Wednesday) and RIC who doesn't have their opener until Friday.

UNE @ USM.
This recent Southern Maine rivalry has been dominated by the N'orEasters with UNE winning 3 straight and 6 of the last 7 overall.  The only game USM won in this stretch was the '13 outfit with Rebecca Knight, Hayley Jordan, Jordan Grant, Nicole Garland and Erin McNamera that started the season 18-0 got as high as #10 or #11 and finished 27-2.  This years team will be lucky to have less than 2 losses by Thanksgiving.  UNE is favored by 5.5 and I think they'll clear 6 points easily.  UNE 67-53.

Suffolk @ Boston.
Another rivalry that's been dominated by 1 team recently.  The Beacons have won 3 straight in this city rivalry, and are favored in this by 13, and once again I think the Beacons will clear 13 points pretty easily.  Boston 82-58.

Westfield @ Keene.
The Owls won last year's meeting by 29 points which put them on the map, and at home are an 8 point favorite as the odds have dropped overnight with some injury concerns for the Owls.  Injuries or not, this is my preseason pick for the conference who will start off 1-0 with a 75-70 win.

Rivier vs. Plymouth (@ NHTI).
Another rivalry, and another rivalry that's been dominated by 1 team.  Since the series resumed at NHTI prior to the 2012-13 season, the Raiders have won 3 of the 4 matchups including last year's 63-59 games.  Panthers are actually a 4.5 point favorite which seems awfully generous considering I don't even think the Panthers win as I'll take the Raiders in a close 64-63 win.

Sage @ Western.
This is the 3rd straight year playing each other, and despite the Colonials picking up 2 wins, both games have been relatively close with them pulling out a 51-47 win in Danbury in 2014 and then winning on the road 79-72 last year.  I'll have to questions the oddsmakers again as they have made the Colonials a 10 point favorite despite the fact they've only won the first 2 by a combined 11 points and I'd like to know what they know about Sage that I don't know.  I'll take the Colonials in once again a close game with a 75-68 final.

Dartmouth @ WPI.
The Corsairs won by 2 at home last year and last year they got a combined 34 points from Beth Constantini (graduated) and Megan Ronaghan (not playing) and scored only 67 total, so good luck getting those 34 points back from last year.  Engineers are a 1.5 point favorite and I say they win easily with the production lost from the Corsairs; 79-64 WPI.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 15, 2016, 07:53:12 PM
Keene wins 78-74, but didnt like what I saw.  Westfield shot like 3-30 from 3, their guards can't shoot free throws, and their freshman back up PG looked completely flustered against the press.  Westfield will be a good team, and they made sure they stayed fresh throughout as they played like a poor man's Grinnell with hockey line suns every minute or so, and really looked to push tempo and like Grinnell shoot the 3 ball.  Unfortunately, 74 points ain't gonna win in that offense.  Keene should've definitely won by more than 4.
Boston loses at home to Suffolk REALLY not a good look there.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 16, 2016, 02:44:26 AM
Quote from: 7express on November 15, 2016, 07:53:12 PM
Keene wins 78-74, but didnt like what I saw.  Westfield shot like 3-30 from 3, their guards can't shoot free throws, and their freshman back up PG looked completely flustered against the press.  Westfield will be a good team, and they made sure they stayed fresh throughout as they played like a poor man's Grinnell with hockey line suns every minute or so, and really looked to push tempo and like Grinnell shoot the 3 ball.  Unfortunately, 74 points ain't gonna win in that offense.  Keene should've definitely won by more than 4.
Boston loses at home to Suffolk REALLY not a good look there.

Really shaky performance from Keene.  Nevermind the turnovers (which were really bad), the free throw shooting was abysmal.  That game was a close but not particularly well-played contest and Keene has plenty to work on in the coming weeks, that's for sure.  You take the win, but they better see the need for improvement.  Emily McPadden led the Owls in scoring with 24 points (9-of-20 shooting, 6-for-16 from three).  Sandi Purcell had 14 points, but on an unsightly 4-of-16 (2-of-8 from three) shooting performance.  Westfield State may run some weak teams off the court, but that line change up-and-down style may hurt them against good competition.  If I recall, last year was the first time they utilized this style of play.

Suffolk beat UMB, 73-70.  Bad loss for the Beacons.  Grace Geary scored 21 points, but nobody else scored in double-figures for UMass-Boston.  The Beacons led by six with six minutes left, but couldn't hang on.  Kelsey Schiebel scored 15 and Alexandra Nagri added 14 for Suffolk, who was a brutal 14-of-28 from the free throw line.

University of New England clamped down on Southern Maine, winning 62-46.  The Huskies scored just 11 points in the first half and trailed 25-11 at the break.  They cut the deficit to 9 after three, but UNE pulled away in the 4th.  Alicia Brown scored 14 for the Nor'easters and Ashley Coneys added 13.  UNE won comfortably despite shooting 3-for-18 from behind the arc and 7-of-14 from the free throw line.  Emily Nicholson led the Huskies with 17 points in an impressive performance, but Kayla Stacy needed 14 shots to get 10 points and was the only other person in double-figures.

RIC beat Salem State 60-53 in overtime in an ugly contest.  Alex Moore led the Anchorwomen with 17 points, but was just 4-of-25 shooting.  Victoria Demers scored 12 for RIC.  Amazingly, the Anchorwomen won despite 23% (17-75) shooting.  Salem State wasn't much better at 27% (20-73).  The Vikings blew a 10 point lead in the final 5:53 of the 4th.

Plymouth State beat Rivier 71-61.  DeAsia Lawrence scored 21 points (8-13, 3-6 from three) for the Panthers, who shot 50% and led by as many as 21.  Sure, it was against Rivier, but when was the last time that happened?

Western Connecticut got a three from Jancy Sherwood with six seconds left to beat Sage 69-67.  The Colonials led by four in the final minute, but the Gators rallied.  Western shot just 9-of-20 from the free throw line.  Emily Dobson scored 16 points off the bench.  Kaitlyn Labonte added 12 points.  Kaitlyn Bowman scored 23 points for Sage.

UMass-Dartmouth opened their season with a 56-47 road win at WPI.  Chelsea Houlihan scored 13 and Leah Douty scored 11.  Nakira Examond led UMD with 13 rebounds.  The Corsairs didn't exactly torch the nets, but the Engineers were worse, shooting just 29% (19-62).  Ama Biney led WPI with 16 points, but the next best scorers only had 8 points.

There is a game on the schedule tomorrow, as Eastern Connecticut will likely get a win against Fisher in their season opener.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2016, 03:38:30 PM
No odds on ECSU/Fisher since Fisher is non d-3 so that is off the board.  However, I will take Eastern to roll to a 93-36 win, shouldn't have much difficulty with this NAIA foe.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 17, 2016, 10:47:35 PM
4-3 through Tuesday & Wednesday (somehow missed the RIC/Salem game) while the conference is a pretty good 6-2.....though the competition has been mostly a flaming pile of $#!t!  And it's only marginally better on Friday:

Salve (+15.5) @ Dartmouth.  I believe WPI was actually pegged preseason #1 in the NEWMAC, so if they can win that game on the road I don't think they'll have a problem.  Of course this is Dartmouth we are talking about and seems like there are always problems with them when it looks too good to be true....Dartmouth 78-60.
New England College (+12) vs. Eastern (@ Gordon).  Luckily they are playing NEC and not Houghton like I thought they were, so the SOS jumps up slightly but not too much.  Eastern 85-65
RIC (+2) vs. Westfield (@ Brandeis).  Westfield playing another conference team that can't score.  Let's see if the hockey lineup & up-tempo style win this one....I think it does.  Westfield 92-76.  The Owls scored over 90 15 times last year, the first year playing the up-tempo style and they had only reached 90 once the previous 4 seasons.  If RIC can't put up at least 75 on them, they are in big trouble this year.
Tufts (-22) vs. Keene (@ Skidmore).  The Jumbos are preseason #1 for a reason......they are a hell of a team.  Tufts/Amherst in February is my early game of the year nominee.  And yah sorry AllStar, Keene has absolutely no chance in this one, they'll be lucky if they can break 45 points on this defense.  When they last played in 2014 Tufts won 79-48....and the team this year might even be better than that 14/15 team that lost in the semifinals and lost only 2 games all season was.  Tufts 77-41
Western (+9.5) @ Stockton.  Western won the tournament @ Stockton 3 years ago, including beating Stockton at the buzzer in the championship game, but not seeing a repeat here.  Stockton has won 22 games each of the past 2 years, and with Rowan making the NCAA's last year and Montclair always a regional semifinal & final threat, the NJAC is a lot better than the LEC is, so Stockton is tested.  I'll lay the points, but pick the Ospreys by a 68-61 final.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 19, 2016, 01:11:38 AM
Friday: Dartmouth & Eastern won.  RIC got clobbered by the Westfield tempo, Keene couldn't crack even 40 points against Tufts and lost big, while Western got crushed by Stockton.  Conference falls to 8-5 while I nailed all 5 games correctly and go to 9-3.  Onto Saturday:

Gettysburg (-3) vs. Western (@ Stockton).  Gettysburg lost by 16 to a team (FDU-Florham) that's gone 86-6 the last 3 years including a national title in 2015.  Stockton is good, but losing by 16 to a 29-2 team is a lot better than losing by 32 to a 22-7 team.  Gettysburg 67-61
RIC (pick em) vs. Wentworth (@ Brandeis).  Both teams were bad last year, I'll go with the LEC team and RIC 63-58.
Endicott (+8) vs. Keene (@ Skidmore).  Really odd tournaments for Keene to play in.  In this tournament they already had a scheduled matchup with Endicott which is taking place on Tuesday.  And for those wondering why they didn't set the matchups in advance with Keene playing Skidmore regardless of result, well, that's because they'll be playing each other in the Wesleyan tournament in December.  And for those STILL wondering why the Wesleyan matchups aren't preset.....well.....you guessed it!  Worcester state is also in that tournament, and they also have a regularly scheduled game against Keene.  That matchup if it takes place will be 3 days before the regularly scheduled game.  With New England such a furtile ground for d-3 basketball, why is Keene going to 2 tournaments where they have a regularly scheduled game against at least 1 of the teams in the field??  Makes no sense!  USM is heading to a tournament in Plattsburgh, why couldn't USM head to Skidmore (I don't think USM plays any of those 3 teams) and than Keene heads up to Plattsburgh where they don't have a scheduled meeting with those 3 teams this year??  I'll take Keene 67-57
Eastern (-28) @ Gordon.  Oh please!  Gordon hasn't finished better than 8-16 in 10 years, and if you want a common opponent I'll give you this: Both played Fisher (The NAIA/USCAA foe) at home: Eastern won 84-40, Gordon lost 78-74.  I think the 28 point spread is about 30 points too low.  Eastern 95-42.
Coast Guard (+12.5) @ Dartmouth.  Coast Guard lost by 10 @ Dartmouth last year, and this year edge Salve by 4 (Dartmouth beat them by 9) and Rivier a team they beat by the same margin that Plymouth did.  Dartmouth 74-62
USM (-7.5) vs. Sage (@ Plattsburgh).  Other game in this tournament is the host Cardinals squaring off against Southern Vermont.  Sage 67-62
St. Catherine (-9.5) vs. Boston (@ NYU).  I'd like to know why a team, from Minnesota is coming out to New York right at the end of the semester (or does St. Catherine have trimesters??)  St. Catherine 72-65
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 19, 2016, 02:28:10 AM
Yikes.  This conference is off to an ugly start.  Keene State was predictably non-competitive against No. 1 Tufts in a 60-38 loss.  The Jumbos shot poorly in the 1st half, but Keene's offense was even worse.  This was easily forseeable after a very shaky game against Westfield State earlier in the week, combined with Tufts being ranked No. 1.  Westfield State flattened RIC 103-68 (losing by 35 to Westfield is a really bad look) and Stockton beat Western 77-45.  Even the wins on Friday weren't all that impressive.  UMass-Dartmouth knocked off middling Salve Regina 71-62 and Eastern Connecticut scraped by against New England College 63-59.

To sum up the season so far, teams in the Little East have wins over Westfield State 78-74, Salem State 60-53 in overtime, Rivier 71-61, Sage 69-67, WPI 56-47, Fisher 84-40, Salve Regina 71-62 and New England College 63-59.  Several close games there and no world-beating opponents.

Meanwhile, the losses have come against University of New England 62-46, Suffolk 73-70, Westfield State 103-68, Tufts 60-38 and Stockton 77-45.  While losing to teams such as Tufts, Stockton and University of New England is not embarrassing, those games were not really competitive.  Throw in a bad home loss to Suffolk by UMB and Westfield beating RIC by 35, the start to the season for the LEC has been forgettable.

7express...my only guess as to the very odd scheduling is that they agreed to the tournaments a while ago and did not know who the opponents would be at the tournaments.  Therefore, the regularly scheduled games have been on there for a while and the tournament games weren't known until relatively recently.  Nonetheless, I don't particularly like it.  What's the point of playing the same team back-to-back?  It's not baseball.  Particularly the potential for playing Worcester State twice in a row...the Lancers are mediocre at best.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 19, 2016, 10:05:57 PM
RIC, Keene & Eastern get squash wins vs. their overmatched opponents.  Western gets clobbered for the 2nd straight day in New Jersey, horrible weekend for the Colonials.  USM loses a tough one to Sage by 2, don't think they are going to be anything this year.  Boston ended up beating St. Catherine's by 10, but since St. Catherine's plays out in Minnesota, who the hell knows how good of a team they are??  Dartmouth got a 12 point win over a so-so Coast Guard team.  13-7 for the conference; 15-4 for me.

2 Sunday games:

Southern Vermont (+15) vs. USM (@ Plattsburgh).  I GUARANTEE a team with "Southern" in their name is going to win  ;D.  The VT version has been blown out by 32 (RPI) and 42 (Plattsburgh).  USM has the same 0-2 record but both games have been close, and this USM team will probably be the best team SVC has played this year.  USM 69-41
Boston (+8.5) @ NYU.  NYU coming in flying high playing 2 NCAA tourney teams from last year (Stevens & Baruch) and winning both games by an average of 22 points.  Tough to expect Boston to win that, and frankly I don't think they'll come close to winning it.  NYU 82-61
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 20, 2016, 02:29:26 AM
Nothing much noteworthy on Saturday.  None of the wins were surprising or overly impressive.  RIC struggled for a half, but managed to pull away from lousy Wentworth 62-52.  The Anchorwomen shot just 29%, but won anyway.  UMass-Dartmouth trailed by 1 after three quarters, but outscored Coast Guard 22-9 in the fourth to win 76-64.  The Bears were 2-0, but their wins were by 4 over Salve Regina and 10 over Rivier.  Keene State salvaged something in Saratoga Springs, beating Endicott 72-60.  Keene actually shot free throws well in the contest, helping them to keep the struggling Gulls (0-3) at bay.  Eastern Connecticut ran over a bad Gordon team, 79-51.  The Fighting Scots are 1-2 this year, with a narrow win over Mount Ida and an embarrassing loss to Fisher.  Gordon was just 6-19, 2-6 in the CCC last year and 3-22, 1-17 in the CCC two years ago.  UMass-Boston rebounded from their home loss to Suffolk to beat St. Catherine (MN) 65-55 in Manhattan, NY.  The Wildcats are located in St. Paul, Minnesota and appear to be middling at best.

Gettysburg shot a sizzling 57%, including 12-of-16 from three in a 91-67 win over Western Connecticut at Galloway, NJ.  The Colonials had a very rough weekend at Stockton.  The much more confounding loss was Southern Maine falling to Sage 59-57 at Plattsburgh, NY.  The Huskies had a 17-point lead with 1:51 left before halftime, but fell apart thereafter.  Sage is certainly not a bad team, but they play in a terrible conference.  The good news for USM is they get a Southern Vermont team who has lost their first two games by a combined 74 points tomorrow.

Overall, the women's side is lacking any real positive wins in the first week, with a lot of wins coming against overmatched foes.

Sunday:
Southern Vermont vs Southern Maine (at Plattsburgh, NY), 1:00 pm
UMass-Boston at New York University, 5:00 pm

Tuesday:
Endicott at Keene State, 5:00 pm
Southern Maine at Bates, 5:30 pm
Bridgewater State at Rhode Island College, 5:30 pm
Plymouth State at Castleton, 5:30 pm
Roger Williams at UMass-Dartmouth, 6:00 pm
UMass-Boston at Fitchburg State, 8:00 pm
Connecticut College at Western Connecticut, 8:00 pm
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 22, 2016, 03:19:26 PM
Just as expected and predicted here USM wins and Boston loses Sunday.  Brings the conference to 14-8 and me to 17-4.  Onto Tuesday:

Endicott (+11) @ Keene.  They just played on a neutral court 3 days earlier with Keene winning by 12.  You'd have to think they'd have to win by at least 12 at home, wouldn't you??  Keene 74-61
USM (-2.5) @ Bates.  Really don't know which way to go here.  USM is probably better, but they are on the road.  Bates is 1-1 losing to Norwich by 14 (not good) and beating Central Maine Community College by only 6 (really not good).  Last time the Huskies were at Bates they got outscored 15 or 16-1 to 1 the final 7 minutes or so and ended up losing by 1 after leading most of the 2nd half by double digits.  USM 67-59
Bridgewater (pick em) @ RIC.  RIC rebounded nicely from the drubbing at the hands of Westfield on Friday night.  Bears are 1-1 beating Hamilton by 2 and losing @ Williams by 11, not terrible.  Bears won by 1 @ RIC in 2014 the last time they played (the game last year between the 2 got cancelled even though the men's game got played.  I'm still trying to find out a reason for that).  Bridgewater 63-62
Plymouth (+19) @ Castleton.  Step up in competition for the Panthers from Rivier to Castleton as Castleton has won 21+ games each of the last 5 season, and clobbered them by 19 in Plymouth last season.  Castleton 73-48
Roger Williams (+10) @ Dartmouth.  Hawks are 0-1 losing by 15 in their opener to Brandeis and have been off since last Tuesday.  Dartmouth 78-63
Boston (-38) @ Fitchburg.  I was wondering why Boston was such a gigantic favorite than I saw Fitchburg has lost 31 of their last 32 games dating back to 2014: The final 4 games of the 2014 season, all 25 games last year, and 2 of the first 3 this season.  Of course Boston knows all about ending big streaks as they were the last LEC team to lose a game to Plymouth back in January of 2014.  Boston 86-43
Conn College (-9.5) @ Western.  This will (hopefully) be the first of at least 4 matchups between Connecticut High school conference rivals Emma Belcourt (Western) and Sami Ashton (Conn College).  I've already talked about Belcourt on this board back in March, so let me give a little love to Sami: Conn College got an absolute steal with her as that was a d-1 caliber athlete and one of the better scorers I've seen.  May not be this year or even next year but come 2019/2020 if she's still in school there and doesn't transfer out that's going to be a dangerous team that Tufts/Williams/Amherst better watch out for.  Camels won by 22 in New London last season.  Think it's a lot closer this time around, but unfortunately it looks like to me, the Camels have a better team.  Conn College 78-67
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 22, 2016, 10:28:06 PM
Went to my first Western game this evening in about 2 or 3 years (I've actually been to more Keene State games since the start of last season then Western games believe it or not) and suffice to say the same things that plagued them when I was in school there are still plaguing them which is mainly their lack of offensive production.  The defense wasn't terrible, as they lead for the entire first half and managed to score just enough in the first half to lead by 1, but when you have a team with the offensive threats that the Camels have, especially with Ashton (who iced the game on a coast to coast layup with less than 40 seconds to play) you just have to score more consistently.  They had 38 in the first half (20 first, 18 second) but that dropped to 7 in the 3rd quarter where the game was basically lost, and than finally 15 in the 4th.  Also the sense of urgency really has to improve: after getting a shot blocked out of bounds with 19 seconds to play in a 70-65 final, they didn't get enough shot off until there was about 2 seconds left, at which point the Camels grabbed the rebound and dribbled out about the last 0.8 seconds.  Have to get something there right away you are down 2 possessions can't be dribbling around the top of the key for 16 seconds waiting for a 3 opportunity.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 23, 2016, 01:56:51 AM
Brutal night for the conference on the women's side.

Keene State trailed for the vast majority of the game in a 67-57 loss to Endicott.  The Gulls must have made some adjustments...either that or the Owls got worse in the last three days, as KSC just beat Endicott 72-60 on Saturday in Saratoga Springs, NY.  Keene State lost Sandi Purcell to some kind of injury in this game.  The Owls (2-2) look discombobulated on offense and it will be a long season if they don't get things fixed quickly.

Southern Maine lost by 15 (!) to a Bates team that had to squeak out a six point win over Central Maine Community College.  The Bobcats, who beat the Huskies 75-60, also had an embarrassing 55-39 loss to Norwich to open the season.  USM led at the half against Bates, but was outscored 43-25 in the second half and lost easily.  The Huskies are 1-3.

Bridgewater State beat Rhode Island College 43-37.  No, that's not a typo.  The Anchorwomen led 6-2 after one, but trailed 19-17 at the break.  Rhiana Page scored 16 of Bridgewater's 43 points.  Meanwhile, a futile RIC offense shot just 28%.  The Anchorwomen are 2-2, with only wins over lowly foes Salem State and Wentworth.

Plymouth stayed competitive, but lost at Castleton 58-49.  The Panthers never had a lead in the game, but were in it in the 4th
quarter.  Plymouth was hurt by making just 3-of-15 free throws (20%).  That is unconscionable.

UMass-Dartmouth remains unbeaten after nipping Roger Williams 64-61.  The game was tied 35-35 at the half and 53-53 after three.  The Corsairs got a huge game from Alicia Kutil (29 points on 11-of-18 shooting) in the win, and dominated paint points 40-20.

UMass-Boston needed a 4th quarter rally to knock off Fitchburg State 81-75.  The Falcons appear to be improved this year after not winning a game last year, but still do not appear to be a terrific team at this point.  Chantel Jordan scored 21 points for the Beacons.  Katrina Edwards and Raven Kelsey each had 12 rebounds.  Fitchburg stayed close thanks to Kyra Rose's 32 points.

Connecticut College staved off Western Connecticut 70-65.  Both teams shot about the same, but the Camels outrebounded WCSU 54-40.  Mairead Hynes had 23 points and 12 rebounds for Connecticut College.  Alecia Dulaire and  Gabrielle Hurlbert each had 14 points for Western Connecticut.

A forgettable non-conference slate for the LEC so far.  Next game is not until Sunday, when Southern Maine hosts rival St. Joseph's (ME).

Happy Thanksgiving to any readers on this board!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 24, 2016, 11:15:29 PM
Happy Thanksgiving AllStar and everyone else on this board!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 26, 2016, 06:36:56 PM
16-13 record for the conference after a dismal 2-5 Tuesday, but I went 5-2 which brings my total 22-6.  Oh how I would gladly switch those results!  Onto Sunday's lone game after the mini Thanksgiving recess:

St. Joseph's (ME) (+1.5) @ USM.  The annual Thanksgiving weekend for the Costello Cup, which the Huskies lost in Standish by 7 last season.  Huskies 65-61.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 29, 2016, 01:02:53 AM
LEC 0-2 on Sunday which includes USM losing the Costello Cup to St. Joseph's for the 2nd straight year, and RIC losing by double figures to Roger Williams which didn't appear on the schedule Saturday.  Conference falls to a dismal 16-15 overall with me 22-7.  All 8 teams in action Tuesday the last day the conference will have 8 games on the schedule:

USM (+31.5) @ Bowdoin.  Woof!  They lost by 31 at home last year, probably not any better this year.  Bowdoin 79-43
Boston (+6.5) @ Colby.  Beacons won by 10 at home last season.  This should come down to the wire.  Colby 69-65
Colby-Sawyer (+3) @ Plymouth State.  Panthers won by 14 on the road last year, but the Chargers have finished over .500 9 of the last 10 years while the Panthers haven't cleared the 8 win total since 2010.  Colby-Sawyer 63-61.
Lyndon State (+26) @ RIC.  Why the hell are they playing this game??  RIC 78-53
Keene (-10) @ RPI.  Second time in 2.5 weeks the Owls are taking a trip to the Albany area.  Owls won by 15 last year in Keene and in 14 won by 4 in Troy.  Keene 67-61
Bridgewater (+12.5) @ Dartmouth.  Bridgewater's last game they set basketball back 50 years with the 43-37 slugfest vs. RIC.  Bears lost at home by 21 last year, but won @ Tripp in 2014.  Dartmouth 77-69
Eastern (-2.5) @ Westfield.  Tough part of the schedule coming up here for the Warriors (who seem like they've been off since July; their last game was November 19).  They have Amherst, Williams & Tufts, along with the USM trip coming here within the next 6 games.  Last year Eastern held Westfield to 73 points, it's 4th lowest point total last season.  Eastern 96-85
Western (-7) @ Albertus.  Alburtus' 3 wins this season have come against teams that are a combined 1-11.  Yes, Western is a 1-2 team as well, but unlike Mitchell & Medgar Evers (who are both awful) and SUNY-Purchase (whos is pretty bad), Western's 1-2 record is the result of a difficult opening stretch.  They'll break through with win #2.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on November 29, 2016, 01:35:50 PM
7express....thanks for the background info....helps me on my picks ;D.  plus K
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 01, 2016, 12:45:34 AM
5-3 on Tuesday gets the conference to 21-18, while I whiffed on the Boston/Colby game (predicted Colby, Boston won), and Eastern/Westfield game (picked Eastern, Westfield won) so that gets me to 28-9.

Westfield State (pick em) @ Dartmouth.  Owls have won 4 straight since coming off the opening night loss at Keene including a 101-94 win over Eastern.  That game was at home, this one is not, which is why I am picking the Corsairs 97-93
Eastern (+25.5) @ Amherst.  The actual result isn't going to be a question, Amherst will win, the 2 questions for this game is: 1) Eastern scored 94 on Tuesday will they get even half of that this game?? (47, Amherst is allowing only 42.5 points per game and if you take out the 62 Babson scored that number is down to 36 points per game) and 2) What will the final result be??  Amherst won by 17 (allowing 46) in Willi last year, and 2 years ago won by 14 (allowing 51) in Amherst, and those Eastern teams were probably slightly better.  Amherst 65-46
RIC (+11) @ Johnson & Wales.  The annual battle of Providence hasn't been won by the Anchorwomen since the 2013 season.  J&W 67-58
Plymouth (-10) @ Lyndon State.  WOW, Lyndon must be horrible to have the Panthers as a double digit road favorite!!  They haven't beaten the Panthers since the 2013 season either.  Plymouth 64-61
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 01, 2016, 11:10:27 PM
Conference takes a step backwards to 1 game over .500 at 22-21 as 3 of the 4 teams on the schedule lost with me 31-10 as I correctly predicted 3 of the 4.  Special shout out to the RIC/J&W game: 49 points for the winner?!?!?!?  That must have been a GREAT game to sit through!!  Hopefully AllStar does a recap because I would LOVE to see the stats on that game ;D

1 game Friday as LEC play opens on Saturday:

Keene (-3.5) vs. Skidmore (@ Wesleyan).  2 common opponents Tufts & Endicott as Keene played at the Skidmore tournament a couple weekends back.   Both lost to Tufts, but Skidmore lost by 5 (take away 10 or 12 points for home court for a more accurate result) and Keene lost by 2.  Both also played Endicott, Skidmore beat them by 13 at home, Keene beat them by 12 on a neutral floor, but then lost by 10 to them at home ???.  I don't even know why Keene is favored, as I will pick Skidmore to win 63-59
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 02, 2016, 01:57:53 AM
Thursday's results:

UMass-Dartmouth led wire-to-wire in an 80-63 win over Westfield State.  The Corsairs raced out to a 30-12 lead after one quarter and were up by 21 early in the 4th.  Westfield was never really in this game.  UMass-Dartmouth improved to 6-0 and 5-0 at the Tripp Center and is clearly playing the best of anyone in the LEC right now, though they haven't beaten any world beaters.  Decent teams, sure, but not great ones.  Nakira Examond led UMD with 15 points and Alicia Kutil had 12.  The Corsairs outrebounded Westfield by an astounding 57-28 margin.  UMass-Dartmouth hosts Keene State a week from tonight, while Westfield will host Western New England on the same night.

No. 2 Amherst obliterated Eastern Connecticut 86-47.  While the Warriors did not come close to winning the last few years, the scores were certainly not this embarrassing.  Amherst led 57-24 at halftime and it was over then...though I guess it was over before it started.  Amherst, who shot a sizzling 16-of-30 from deep in the win, was led by Hannah Hackley's 18 points.  Ali Doswell had 13.  Jordyn Nappi was the only Warrior in double-figures, with 10 points.  ECSU shot just 31% and turned the ball over 22 times.  The Warriors fell to 3-2...and it is not a very strong 3-2.  They overwhelmed NAIA Fisher, squeaked by New England College and blew past lowly Gordon.  Eastern Connecticut travels to Gorham to take on struggling Southern Maine on Saturday.  Amherst will go to Ashland, VA and play Randolph-Macon on the same day.

Johnson and Wales beat Rhode Island College 49-48.  Normally, this low of a score would be a little surprising...but RIC has already played in a 43-37 game this year.  The Anchorwomen led 8-7 after one and 24-15 at the break, but wilted in the 2nd half against their Providence rival.  Victoria Demers scored 11 points for RIC, while Alex Moore had 10 (2-of-11 FG, 5-6 FT).  Ally Mishol and Ashley Thompson had 14 points each for the Wildcats.  Mishol added 10 rebounds.  The Wildcats won despite shooting a dismal 32.7%.  RIC wasn't much better at 37.5%.  In a one-point game, often little fundamentals can be the difference...and the Anchorwomen made just 8-of-16 at the free throw line, while J&W made 7-of-9.  There you go, that's the difference.  The Anchorwomen host Plymouth State in their conference opener on Saturday.  PSU is coming off an embarrassing loss to Lyndon State.  Johnson & Wales travels to Brandeis on Saturday.

Plymouth State lost their third straight after their opening night win, losing to Lyndon State 67-52.  Simply put, this is an embarrassing result, even for a team who has struggled the last several years.  I thought they may be improving...but this result puts a halt to that.  The Hornets were up 27-23 at halftime and stretched it out with a 23-12 3rd quarter.  Plymouth shot a feeble 18-of-70 from the floor (25.7%) and did not make a three in the contest (0-for-14).  The Panthers were led by DeAsia Lawrence's 19 points (6-of-18 FG, 7-10 FT).  Kayla Wyland had 11.  Mikayla Hodge led Lyndon State with 20 points and 12 rebounds.  Gabrielle Foy had 12 points.  The Panthers travel to RIC on Saturday in a battle of last year's 7th and 8th place teams.  Lyndon State travels to Colby-Sawyer for a NAC game on Saturday.

Another set of dismal results.  UMD is off to a nice start, but mostly at home.  ECSU wasn't close, RIC lost 49-48 and Plymouth lost to a seemingly lousy team out of the NAC.

Tomorrow night's lone game is Keene State against Skidmore at Middletown, CT (Wesleyan) in the Courtyard at Marriott Tournament.  I'd be stunned if the Owls won.  KSC will then play either Wesleyan or Worcester State on Saturday (they play Worcester State on Tuesday as well, so it could be another senseless back-to-backer).  The other three games are conference tilts, as UMB goes to Western, ECSU goes to USM and PSU visits RIC.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on December 02, 2016, 01:04:27 PM
ALLSTAR and 7express...nice cover of the Amherst vs ECSU game in LeFrak.  Plus K
I watched the game that I knew would be a blowout..the Amherst team is loaded and determined to return to the Final 4 and further.  It has 4 senior starters.  I was interested to see if two injured forwards, both 6' plus, would be available for the first time and how well two other talented players that were injured most of last year would play.  Looking over the scoring by quarters, it looked like the Amherst bench played EConn even in the last quarter.  Amherst finished with a FY PG, a Soph G and three new front court players.  At one time, Amherst had as many CT players on the floor as EConn.  Two were FYs' and CT. All staters in HS.
Yes, Amherst next game is a trip to Va....Ashland.  My take of that game is a "thank you" type trip for the Doswell twins, two senior 3-year plus starters from Richmond, Va. Both had D1 offers.  Their father has a town named for his family just down the road off 95.  Their mother's family is from NE and the mother went to Mt Holyoke and MIT.  Amherst was lucky to get the twins, imho.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 02, 2016, 11:02:41 PM
Friday's result was Skidmore over Keene State 53-51.  The Owls led 49-47 with 7:49 left, but managed a measly two free throws the rest of the way in an embarrassing display of offense.  They blew ample chances in the final minute when Skidmore was begging to throw the game away.  Nothing impressive here.  The two teams shot miserably.  Keene plays a Worcester State team that struggles mightily to score tomorrow...and again on Tuesday in what turns out to be another senseless back-to-backer.  Skidmore plays Wesleyan tomorrow.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 03, 2016, 01:03:15 AM
Is nice to know that Keene STILL can't score points.  As I've said time and again here Allstar, good defense can only get you so far. Unless you have an exceptional defense like Amherst or Tufts employ than you can get by with less on the offensive end, but the Jumbos, with Michaela North are pretty good on that end of the floor too, and the Jeffs with the Doswell sisters (twins??) are pretty good on that end of the floor as well.

Conference officially hits the .500 mark at 22-22, me at 32-10.

Saturday's games:
Worcester State (+5) vs. Keene (@ Wesleyan).  Another useless back-to-back.  Hopefully the Owls can actually sweep this bad team.  Keene 68-59
Boston (-2.5) @ Western.  The Colonials swept them in the regular season, but the Beacons won the game that counted winning in the conference tournament.  Beacons will be a lot better in January & February than they are now, so luckily we get this one at home which I think the Colonials can squeeze a victory out of 64-62.
Eastern (-6) @ USM.  They split last year with each team winning on the road, but the Warriors have won 3 of the last 4 in the series.  This USM team is so bad that I think Plymouth can beat them, they'll certainly have a chance to.   Eastern 72-54
Plymouth (+9.5) @ RIC.  They've lost 38 conference games in a row and 79 of their last 81 LEC games but Plymouth will win an LEC game this year, maybe even two.  RIC & USM aren't good, Western doesn't look good, and that's the farthest road trip in the conference, Boston & Dartmouth don't travel well, Keene can't score, so yah that's 6 of the 7 remaining teams.  Add in the fact Keene, RIC, Western & USM aren't very proficient at scoring the ball, so yah I think Plymouth's gotta couple wins in them this year.  I doubt they win 1 on the road, and I doubt they win more than 3 overall, but they should easily win 1, and more than likely should win 2 or 3.  RIC 54-48
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 03, 2016, 01:37:25 AM
Quote from: 7express on December 03, 2016, 01:03:15 AM
Is nice to know that Keene STILL can't score points.  As I've said time and again here Allstar, good defense can only get you so far. Unless you have an exceptional defense like Amherst or Tufts employ than you can get by with less on the offensive end, but the Jumbos, with Michaela North are pretty good on that end of the floor too, and the Jeffs with the Doswell sisters (twins??) are pretty good on that end of the floor as well.

Conference officially hits the .500 mark at 22-22, me at 32-10.

Saturday's games:
Worcester State (+5) vs. Keene (@ Wesleyan).  Another useless back-to-back.  Hopefully the Owls can actually sweep this bad team.  Keene 68-59
Boston (-2.5) @ Western.  The Colonials swept them in the regular season, but the Beacons won the game that counted winning in the conference tournament.  Beacons will be a lot better in January & February than they are now, so luckily we get this one at home which I think the Colonials can squeeze a victory out of 64-62.
Eastern (-6) @ USM.  They split last year with each team winning on the road, but the Warriors have won 3 of the last 4 in the series.  This USM team is so bad that I think Plymouth can beat them, they'll certainly have a chance to.   Eastern 72-54
Plymouth (+9.5) @ RIC.  They've lost 38 conference games in a row and 79 of their last 81 LEC games but Plymouth will win an LEC game this year, maybe even two.  RIC & USM aren't good, Western doesn't look good, and that's the farthest road trip in the conference, Boston & Dartmouth don't travel well, Keene can't score, so yah that's 6 of the 7 remaining teams.  Add in the fact Keene, RIC, Western & USM aren't very proficient at scoring the ball, so yah I think Plymouth's gotta couple wins in them this year.  I doubt they win 1 on the road, and I doubt they win more than 3 overall, but they should easily win 1, and more than likely should win 2 or 3.  RIC 54-48

Well I guess one positive is Stephanie D'Annolfo played for Keene.  Anyway, I'm not even sure their defense is all that great either.  But their offense is painful.  The main problem is they are a perimeter-oriented team, and if those shots don't go in, they have no chance against most teams, let alone a very good one (as was seen vs. Tufts earlier this year).  They seem to miss an inordinate amount of layups and struggle mightily at the free throw line.  So, when the main source of offense is from the perimeter, that's not really a good thing.  They are not a versatile offense and are predictable and easy to stop.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on December 03, 2016, 10:36:24 AM
7express....yes the Doswell sisters are twins, but not identical.  The shorter, 5'10" shooter and high scorer can play inside like her taller sister who is the rebounder and blocker.  When one is off from outside, the other can go outside and take the three.  Being twins, they play well together ;).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 04, 2016, 08:42:47 PM
Keene beat Worcester State in the OOC game while RIC, USM, and Western start 1-0 in conference.  Those 4 results get the conference to 23-22 and me to 35-11.

Monday's lone game has RIC (+50) @ Amherst.  50 points is a lot to win by, even against a bad team like RIC, but Massey has RIC with a 0% chance of winning, so this is a double digit victory easy.  Ouch RIC goes to Tufts this year too?!?!?  Why the hell did they play those 2 this year??  If RIC can miraculously win either of those 2 games (RIC should be at least a 40 point underdog vs. Tufts), I'll walk to Providence myself and get a tattoo of the RIC logo.  Amherst 67-32.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 07, 2016, 12:41:32 AM
RIC game was even worse than I thought it would be.  80-25  ???  Sheesh!  Congrats, if you had RIC (+50) like I did, you lose!!  Luckily no real money exchanging hands.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 07, 2016, 01:39:04 AM
Boy is this conference taking on water fast.  Another lousy slate of games on Tuesday.  Southern Maine fell to 2-6, losing at home to a middling at best Salem State team 78-69...USM trailed by 21 midway through the 4th quarter.  The Huskies' only two wins are against a lousy Southern Vermont team and Eastern Connecticut, which becomes more suspect by the day.  Keene State was not impressive in a 56-49 home win over a futile Worcester State team.  The Owls have no wins to write home about, as they have come against Westfield State, Endicott, RPI, and Worcester State (twice).  Plymouth State lost 49-47 to a Lasell team that scored 36 points in each of the last two games (one being against MCLA).  The Panthers have lost five straight, with those coming against Castleton, Colby-Sawyer, Lyndon State, Rhode Island College, and Lasell.  Their lone win is over Rivier.  Western Connecticut was able to collect a 62-32 blowout win over cupcake Mitchell.  The Colonials have turned things around somewhat since a difficult weekend in New Jersey earlier this season.

I'm not sure it will get any better tomorrow.  Eastern Connecticut, coming off a loss to 2-6 Southern Maine, hosts Williams.  Rhode Island College is home against Emmanuel and UMass-Boston travels to play Framingham State.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 07, 2016, 11:22:48 PM
Boston loses to Framingham State.  Meh.  Rams are 7-0, but I don't think they are an impressive 7-0
RIC gets blown out by Emmanuel.  Who didn't see that coming??
Eastern beats Williams.  That's surprising!  Williams is obviously a notch below the Amherst/Tufts heavyweights, but still it should've been a matchup the Ephs should have won pretty easily.  Good win for Eastern.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on December 08, 2016, 01:22:11 PM
Agree, 7express wrt to EConn' s win at home.  ECSU did not look good in LeFrak against Amherst.  Their play against Williams was much better in the part, I watched late in the 2nd half when the Ephs surged back.  Williams had their star guard back from an injury and I expected more from their players.  ECSU may have gained more than just a win....self confidence, especially among the young players.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 03, 2017, 11:59:08 PM
Nearly a month since the last comment on this board!  Needless to say, not much going on this year with this conference.  Happy New Year!  (if anyone visits this board)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 04, 2017, 12:16:16 AM
Western is the only unbeaten left on the women's side and they have won 8 straight since their 1-3 start.  They aren't a flashy team: nobody averages more than 11 points per game, but they have 6 that average between 10.9 points per game and 5.2 points per game, and like always are getting it done on the defensive end of the floor only giving up 59.5 opponents points per game, good enough for 2nd in the conference.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 04, 2017, 01:18:07 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 04, 2017, 12:16:16 AM
Western is the only unbeaten left on the women's side and they have won 8 straight since their 1-3 start.  They aren't a flashy team: nobody averages more than 11 points per game, but they have 6 that average between 10.9 points per game and 5.2 points per game, and like always are getting it done on the defensive end of the floor only giving up 59.5 opponents points per game, good enough for 2nd in the conference.

Right now they certainly look the best...though perhaps Eastern is playing a bit better as well, but they still have a confounding loss to Southern Maine.  UMass-Dartmouth has a gaudy record, but not much of substance other than a nice win over Babson the other day.  The bottom of the league is quite bad, which weighs it down even more.  You would hope a middling team like UMass-Boston would put up more of a representative effort against the likes of Brandeis, but they were pounded.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 07, 2017, 12:10:20 AM
Western @ Dartmouth
Plymouth @ Eastern
USM @ Keene
RIC @ Boston.  The 4 conference games tomorrow.

Western/Dartmouth is the best game by a mile (both are 9 win teams), and may not even get played as that part of MA is supposed to be the bulls eye of this snow storm (I've seen snowfall maps that predict 18-24 inches in that area  :o)  and I can't find a single redeeming quality as to why you'd want to watch the other 3 games.  Maybe AllStar can find something worth watching in RIC/Boston or Keene/USM??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 07, 2017, 12:22:42 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 07, 2017, 12:10:20 AM
Western @ Dartmouth
Plymouth @ Eastern
USM @ Keene
RIC @ Boston.  The 4 conference games tomorrow.

Western/Dartmouth is the best game by a mile (both are 9 win teams), and may not even get played as that part of MA is supposed to be the bulls eye of this snow storm (I've seen snowfall maps that predict 18-24 inches in that area  :o)  and I can't find a single redeeming quality as to why you'd want to watch the other 3 games.  Maybe AllStar can find something worth watching in RIC/Boston or Keene/USM??

Maybe if you want to fall asleep?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 07, 2017, 01:01:02 AM
Western @ Dartmouth, as correctly predicted here 50 minutes ago, has been postponed:

http://www.corsairathletics.com/sports/general/2016-17/0106-bkb-postponement

Both the Colonial men & Corsair women play Monday, so Sunday doesn't seem like a viable makeup date.  They can't reschedule for a Saturday as all other Saturday's are full, so this looks like a Monday trip somewhere down the line.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 08, 2017, 01:53:58 AM
Brief Saturday results:

Eastern Connecticut trailed 19-14 at halftime (after a 3-3 second quarter), but did enough in the second half to beat Plymouth 47-39 in a battle of futile offenses.  You could ADD the shooting percentages together and still not get to 50%.

Keene State took until the fourth quarter to wake up against Southern Maine, as the Owls used a 22-3 run over a five minute span to erase a 50-41 deficit and take a 63-53 lead.  Keene held on 68-63, giving USM a sixth straight loss and a dismal 2-11 record.

UMass-Boston ended a three-game losing streak with a 67-45 win over Rhode Island College.  RIC has lost four in a row, all in blowout fashion.   The Beacons featured a balanced scoring attack, but only shot 33% in the lopsided win.  RIC made just 1-of-17 threes.  The teams combined for 52 turnovers.

Western Connecticut and UMass-Dartmouth was postponed due to the winter storm and will be played Sunday at 2:00.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 15, 2017, 12:21:36 AM
Plymouth only lost by 8 at Eastern (instead of by 25), lost by 14 @ Western (instead of losing by 20) and beat Boston.  So, defactoly they are already better than they've been the last 5 years.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 15, 2017, 01:36:37 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 15, 2017, 12:21:36 AM
Plymouth only lost by 8 at Eastern (instead of by 25), lost by 14 @ Western (instead of losing by 20) and beat Boston.  So, defactoly they are already better than they've been the last 5 years.

That Plymouth/Eastern game must have been scintillating.  47-39 final score.  Plymouth led 19-14 at halftime after the 2nd quarter was 3-3.  If you added the shooting percentages together from both teams, it still doesn't equal 50%.

Anyway, they are better to some extent.

Saturday results:
Western Connecticut 62, Plymouth State 48
Keene State 70, Rhode Island College 44
Eastern Connecticut 90, UMass-Boston 67
UMass-Dartmouth 74, Southern Maine 50
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 19, 2017, 12:38:26 AM
Wednesday's results:

UMass-Dartmouth 83, Rhode Island College 49 - The Corsairs (13-3, 4-2 LEC) led by 13 at halftime and then outscored Rhode Island College (5-11, 2-4 LEC) 44-23 in the second half to win easily.  Rachel McCarron scored 20 points (6-of-9 from three) for UMD, while Nakira Examond had 18 points and 10 rebounds.  The Corsairs shot 12-of-24 from three and led by as many as 37.  Alex Moore scored 19 and Jordyn Gauvin 14 for the Anchorwomen, who only played 7 players.

UMass-Boston 61, Southern Maine 43 - A miserable season continues for Southern Maine (2-14, 1-5 LEC), who has lost nine games in a row and hasn't won since December 3rd.  The Beacons (7-9, 3-3 LEC) led 37-14 at halftime and by 32 in the third quarter before Southern Maine made a cosmetic run late in the fourth.  Raven Kelsey and Martiza Scott each scored 10 points for UMass-Boston.  Nobody scored in double-figures for the Huskies, as Miranda Nicely and Mychaela Harton each scored 8 off the bench to lead the team.  USM shot an abysmal 24% (12-for-50) and made just 2-of-17 threes.  17 of their 43 points came from the free throw line.

Eastern Connecticut 75, Western Connecticut 73 (OT) - Eastern Connecticut (10-5, 5-1 LEC) won a wild overtime affair despite blowing a 15-point third quarter lead.  Western (10-6, 3-3 LEC) trailed 43-28 at one point and still was down by eight points with three minutes remaining, but furiously rallied and actually had a chance to take the lead with 16 seconds left in the game, but missed the free throw and was unable to capitalize despite getting an offensive rebound off the miss.  Eastern capitalized at the free throw line to escape in OT, as 10 of their 14 points came from the charity stripe.  Western had a chance at the end of the back-and-forth overtime to either tie it or win it, but turned the ball over and Eastern escaped.

Keene State 63, Plymouth State 47 - The game was not as close as the score indicates, as Keene (11-5, 5-1 LEC) was up 38-17 at halftime after outscoring the Panthers (4-10, 1-5 LEC) 21-4 in the second quarter.  The Owls, who never trailed, scored 12 of the first 14 points after halftime and went up 49-19.  Sandi Purcell scored 15 points and Stephanie D'Annolfo scored 13 for KSC.  Kayla Wyland scored 14 for the Panthers and was the only one who reached double-figures.  Plymouth shot just 29.6% and was outrebounded 45-31.

Saturday marks the first repeat opponent of the conference season.
Southern Maine at Eastern Connecticut (first meeting:  USM 66-59....one of the most confounding results of the season)
Western Connecticut at UMass-Boston (first meeting:  WCSU 63-55, OT)
Rhode Island College at Plymouth State (first meeting:  RIC 73-62)
UMass-Dartmouth at Keene State (first meeting:  KSC 67-54)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 19, 2017, 11:10:17 AM
Looking again, like, for the 2nd straight season the Owls & Warriors are the cream of the crop in the conference.  Last year I believe the Owls got swept in the season series and than bowed out in the semifinals, so there wasn't even a 3rd game between the 2 last year.  Where's the game on Tuesday AllStar @ Keene or @ Eastern??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 19, 2017, 04:12:56 PM
Quote from: 7express on January 19, 2017, 11:10:17 AM
Looking again, like, for the 2nd straight season the Owls & Warriors are the cream of the crop in the conference.  Last year I believe the Owls got swept in the season series and than bowed out in the semifinals, so there wasn't even a 3rd game between the 2 last year.  Where's the game on Tuesday AllStar @ Keene or @ Eastern??

Wednesday in Keene.  The Owls did get swept by them last year, which included not showing up in a home loss that more or less would have clinched the No. 1 seed.  Until they prove differently, it's hard to take Keene seriously against ECSU.  We'll see if that changes.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 22, 2017, 02:58:39 AM
Plymouth beats RIC this afternoon, gets a second LEC conference win for the first time since the 2009/10 season.  The sad thing is, and I'm sure AllStar can attest to this more is that I don't really think Plymouth is that much better than they've been the previous 7 years, its the conference overall is sinking faster than the Titantic!  Outside of Eastern and maybe Dartmouth everyone else is on a range from middling to average to bad to in USM's case horrific.  I'd be interested to see how many more games Plymouth can win this year because I think they are winning at least 1 more, and quite likely 2, 3, or even 4 more.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 22, 2017, 03:54:09 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 22, 2017, 02:58:39 AM
Plymouth beats RIC this afternoon, gets a second LEC conference win for the first time since the 2009/10 season.  The sad thing is, and I'm sure AllStar can attest to this more is that I don't really think Plymouth is that much better than they've been the previous 7 years, its the conference overall is sinking faster than the Titantic!  Outside of Eastern and maybe Dartmouth everyone else is on a range from middling to average to bad to in USM's case horrific.  I'd be interested to see how many more games Plymouth can win this year because I think they are winning at least 1 more, and quite likely 2, 3, or even 4 more.

Agree with what you've said there.  There were very few, if any, noteworthy wins in the non-conference.  A very lousy non-conference season to say the least.

Plymouth has a chance to beat Southern Maine at least once.  The Huskies are having an awful season.

Keene with an unsurprising sad performance at home against UMass Dartmouth on Saturday...nothing new at this point.  I expect another dud against Eastern on Wednesday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 25, 2017, 07:31:23 PM
A really pathetic loss for Keene against Eastern.  The race for first appears to be over already...and we aren't yet to February.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 26, 2017, 03:47:12 AM
Quote from: AllStar on January 25, 2017, 07:31:23 PM
A really pathetic loss for Keene against Eastern.  The race for first appears to be over already...and we aren't yet to February.

For Keene it probably is.  Luckily for Dartmouth, Eastern somehow lost to USM which gives them at least a pulse, especially since they get them at home in a couple weeks.  Keene, Boston & Western still play them again, but I believe all 3 have the second game in Willi after losing the first game at home, so we can probably stick a fork in those 3.

As for the bottom of the conference: Woof!  What a complete dumpster fire, and a total anchor!  Is it too late for the LEC to leave RIC, Plymouth & USM at home, and make the LEC tourney 5 teams this year??  1, 2 & 3 get a bye to the semifinals, #5 plays @ #4 for the last semifinal spot.  RIC, Plymouth or USM won't come within 15 points of Dartmouth or Eastern.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 29, 2017, 09:10:42 PM
I did this for the men, so I'll do it here too.  Just trying something new.
(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Foi65.tinypic.com%2F2gt9f0x.jpg&hash=00e34464586b0f4a0b2692f7a3dbce3addb17eed)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 01, 2017, 06:03:53 PM
Non-conference play is wrapping up, and the women's side of the Little East has hardly done anything impressive.  Last night, the league went 2-3, with Keene State clobbering Middlebury 59-37 and UMass-Dartmouth edging Regis 86-77 in overtime.  Both of those games were on the road.  A middling Colby team limited Southern Maine to just 46 points while winning by 7.  The Huskies are now just 3-17, but two of those wins are over conference foes (Eastern Connecticut and Plymouth), meaning they only have one win outside of the league, and that was against 1-16 Southern Vermont.  No. 23 Bowdoin beat up UMass-Boston 83-59 and Connecticut College ran away from Eastern Connecticut after halftime, winning 72-59.  The league-leading Warriors are 8-1 in league play, but an unimpressive 5-5 in the non-conference.  Not usually a good sign when the first place team is only .500 out of conference.  The conference was saved from Rhode Island College being pounded by Tufts last night, as that game was postponed.  With only three (four if the RIC game is made up) non-league games left, the Little East is just 40-43 in the non-conference schedule (ECSU 5-5, UMD 10-1, KSC 7-4, WCSU 7-3, UMB 4-7, PSU 3-6, RIC 3-7, USM 1-10).  Maybe I'm wrong, but that has to be one of the worst records I can remember.  The only remaining non-conference games are New Rochelle at Western Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut at Western New England and Plymouth State at Johnson State.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 04, 2017, 11:01:14 PM
Eastern & Dartmouth have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the pack as the conference favorites.  Whoever wins next Saturday's game @ Dartmouth likely hosts the tournament.  Keene is a step behind......only because they are 1-2 against Dartmouth & Eastern, and lost the home to Eastern and still have to play them on the road.  Boston & Western (5-5) are about 10 steps behind Keene, while the trailers (Plymouth, RIC, & USM) are so far behind they are halfway around the world in the Middle East.  This looks like an extremely chalky LEC tournament with probably only the 4/5 Western/Boston being a remotely close game until the finals.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 09, 2017, 12:18:25 AM
Wednesday, 2/8:
ECSU 57, WCSU 52
UMD 69, RIC 47
KSC 73, PSU 54
USM 46, UMB 42  :o

Big game on Saturday, as UMass-Dartmouth hosts Eastern Connecticut.  The Warriors won the first matchup in Connecticut 74-68.  ECSU is currently 10-1, while UMass-Dartmouth is 9-2.  If ECSU wins, it's pretty much over.  If UMD wins, it becomes a tie at the top and much more muddled, as the two teams would have split.  Eastern still has a home game against Keene too, so if UMD beat them, that game would also become very important.  We'll see.  Western and Boston are battling for the 4 and 5 spots right now, while Southern Maine, Plymouth, and RIC round out the bottom.  The Huskies surprisingly beat UMass-Boston, so they move into 6th at 3-8.  Plymouth and Rhode Island College are tied at 2-9 for 7th and 8th.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 09, 2017, 12:21:02 AM
Eastern, Keene & Dartmouth all beat their cupcake bottom of the conference opponents, while USM shows a pulse with a road win at Boston.  Doesn't change anything in the conference standings: Dartmouth & Eastern have already clinched home games in the quarterfinals, and are clearly the top 2 teams in the league.  Keene I believe has also clinched a home game.  Boston is still leading for the last home spot in the quarterfinal as they own the tiebreaker on Western even though they are only 5-6 in conference.  The bottom 3 teams we can just forget about it.  I don't see either Western or Boston beating any of the top 3 (though Keene has lost to Boston) while the bottom 3 certainly aren't beating any of the top 3.  I say we just leave the bottom 5 at home, give Eastern/Dartmouth whoever wins on Saturday to win the conference a bye to the final and than have Keene play that loser for the right to play the winner in the championship game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 09, 2017, 12:25:03 AM
Quote from: AllStar on February 09, 2017, 12:18:25 AM
Wednesday, 2/8:
ECSU 57, WCSU 52
UMD 69, RIC 47
KSC 73, PSU 54
USM 46, UMB 42  :o

Big game on Saturday, as UMass-Dartmouth hosts Eastern Connecticut.  The Warriors won the first matchup in Connecticut 74-68.  ECSU is currently 10-1, while UMass-Dartmouth is 9-2.  If ECSU wins, it's pretty much over. If UMD wins, it becomes a tie at the top and much more muddled, as the two teams would have split.  Eastern still has a home game against Keene too, so if UMD beat them, that game would also become very important.  We'll see.  Western and Boston are battling for the 4 and 5 spots right now, while Southern Maine, Plymouth, and RIC round out the bottom.  The Huskies surprisingly beat UMass-Boston, so they move into 6th at 3-8.  Plymouth and Rhode Island College are tied at 2-9 for 7th and 8th.

If ECSU wins, I believe its officially over.  ECSU would own the tiebreaker over Dartmouth since they swept the season series, and since Eastern won the first game against Keene, they'd win a tiebreaker with the Owls too, and would also win a 3 team tiebreaker if Dartmouth, Keene & Eastern all finish tied.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 11, 2017, 04:56:52 PM
Eastern wins over Dartmouth, Keene squeaks out a win over Western, USM wins for the 2nd straight game beating RIC and Plymouth sweeps their first opponent since the 2009-10 season as they completed their second victory of the season over Boston.

Eastern has officially wrapped up the #1 seed.  They'll win tiebreakers over both Keene (Eastern would be 2-0 against Dartmouth while Keene finished 1-1), and Dartmouth (swept the season series) if either one of those schools finish tied, and they'll also win a 3 team tiebreaker between the 2 because the Warriors would have a superior winning percentage (75% for Eastern [3-1], 50% for Keene [2-2] and 25% for Dartmouth [1-3]).
Keene & Dartmouth will finish 2-3 in some order.  They are tied currently and currently Dartmouth owns the tiebreaker since they are 1-0 against Boston while Keene only finished 1-1 against the Beacons.  HOWEVER, if Keene beats Eastern Tuesday and they finished, Keene would win the tiebreaker.
The 4 seed is guaranteed no better than a 7-7 conference record, and currently Boston holds that spot due to a win over Keene.  Its not likely to happen but Plymouth can still finish 4th: All that needs to happen is for them to win out (home vs. USM & Western), Western to lose out (home vs. RIC, @ Plymouth) and Boston to lose out (@ Dartmouth, @ Eastern) and they'll win a tiebreaker between Western & Boston due to superior winning percentage (75% in common games, Western would be 50%, Boston would be 25%).  USM can also finish in 4th: If they beat Dartmouth & Plymouth, they need Boston to lose at least once (they'll win a tiebreaker with Boston if they finish tied with a win over Dartmouth), while Western has to lose twice, since Western swept the season-series Western owns the tiebreak. There still in lies the possibility of a 4 way tie for 4th at 5-9 (how pathetic would that be AllStar??), in which I believe the 4 seed would be Plymouth, the 5 seed would be Western, the 6 seed would be USM and the 7 seed would be Boston. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on February 11, 2017, 05:38:47 PM
ECSU...congrats to your ladies team.  Hope they follow thru with a conference title.  When they get into the NCAA, here is hoping they do not have to go through Amherst in LeFrak.
Amherst won again today by 40plus and finished the regular season undefeated.! No.1 seed for Nescac tourny.  Should meet Tufts in the finals...yes Should is a key since Bowdoin will provide a challenge...to Tufts...did earlier in the season.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 16, 2017, 12:39:48 AM
There's not much intrigue here, as the standings are pretty well set and it has not been a good year in the conference.  Amazingly, despite that, there were three teams from the conference in the latest regional rankings:  Eastern 5th, UMass-Dartmouth 6th and Keene State 8th.  Yet, on Wednesday, Keene throttled Eastern Connecticut 80-51.  The Owls have played reasonably well recently, and look like they'll finish 2nd.  UMass-Dartmouth had to come from 15-down in the 4th quarter to beat UMass-Boston tonight.  This is the second time the Corsairs needed a furious rally to win at home, with the other coming a few weeks ago when they barely escaped Plymouth. 

For the tournament, Eastern is 1st.  Keene will be the 2-seed as long as they don't lose at home to last-place RIC.  Dartmouth will be the 3-seed unless they win AND Keene loses on Saturday.  Western, unless they stumble at Plymouth, will finish 4th.  Boston is 5th right now, but can't finish tied with 6th-place USM because the Huskies have the tiebreaker.  Therefore, the Beacons need Southern Maine to lose one of their remaining two games.  Southern Maine is 6th at 4-8.  Plymouth is 7th at 3-9 right now, but they play Southern Maine on Thursday, so that could change depending on the result.  Rhode Island College is in last at 2-11, and it would be a big surprise if that wasn't where they finished.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 16, 2017, 12:55:43 PM
Quote from: amh63 on February 11, 2017, 05:38:47 PM
ECSU...congrats to your ladies team.  Hope they follow thru with a conference title.  When they get into the NCAA, here is hoping they do not have to go through Amherst in LeFrak.
Amherst won again today by 40plus and finished the regular season undefeated.! No.1 seed for Nescac tourny.  Should meet Tufts in the finals...yes Should is a key since Bowdoin will provide a challenge...to Tufts...did earlier in the season.

Thanks amh63,
After watching them last night, I am not sure if they will win the LEC tournament! A blow out by Keene at home :-[ !! I don't follow them as much as the men but when I see TO/game in the high teens, and, a .270 3pt % I think an average team at best from a national standpoint.  They have some good players, but they turn the ball over too too many times  ???.  If they face the Lady Jeffs, I am afraid it will be another embarrassment!!

I really followed and enjoyed watching the ECSU women back when they had Allison Coleman (00-04)! I have never seen a better player at the D-III level.  ECSU have never really regained the stature of this period!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 16, 2017, 07:27:33 PM
Will post this on the men's side as well, but am waiting until the conclusion of tonight's lone conference game.
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/256/32128129943_e04d2a82b5_b.jpg)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 18, 2017, 07:44:42 PM
(https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2908/32825234242_cc42ce54f7_b.jpg)
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3719/32938788386_1fb9bbfa6b_c.jpg)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 19, 2017, 12:34:54 AM
You know the conference sucks when Plymouth wins the 5th seed on a tiebreaker!  Good grief!  None of the quarterfinal games will be close, wake me up on Friday in time for the Keene/Dartmouth game!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 19, 2017, 08:22:11 PM
Ran out of time today to get this out before the show started, but taking care if it now while I have the opportunity (during the show).

The time is now. Teams who want or think they should be playing in March need to get the job done now. This week all conferences, except the UAA, will dive into conference tournaments to determine who will win an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament. For those who can't win the AQ, then they have to make sure to present the best resume possible to the national committees and that means taking care of business the best they can.

Who is in and who is out? We will figure that out over the course of next week and on next week's Hoopsville Special. In the meantime on tonight's Hoopsville (http://www.d3hoopsville.com), Dave McHugh talks to a few teams who are looking to position themselves to be in the conversation. We also preview many of the conference races and look at who may already be in trouble when it comes to playing basketball in March.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio starting LIVE at 7:00 PM ET. You can watch the show in the video player above or via the simulcast on Facebook Live. If you missed the show, you can catch up On Demand in the video player or listen to the podcasts located to the right (available after the show is off the air).

A reminder the Sunday edition of Hoopsville primarily covers the Northeast, Atlantic, South, and Central regions, but we will answer any questions about all of Division III throughout the show. You can also send your questions to the show and have them featured on the Hoopsville Mailbag segment. Email them to hoopsville@d3hoops.com.

And please consider helping Hoopsville stay on the air like you might help your public television station. The annual fundraising campaign has less than three weeks remaining, but we are no where close to reaching our goal. Click here for more information:  Hoopsville Fundraising Page (https://igg.me/at/hoopsville-fundraiser-2017/x/6029509)

Guests scheduled (in order of appearance):
- Mia Smith, Illinois Wesleyan women's coach
- Stan Bonewitz, Concordia (Texas) men's coach
- Matt Ducharme, Mass-Dartmouth women's coach
- Andrea Kendall, Randolph women's coach (WBCA Center Court)
- Tim McDonald, Cabrini men's coach

You can also tune into the podcast(s) after the show has aired:
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/hoopsville
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hoopsville/id1059517087

Don't forget you can always interact with us:
Website: www.d3hoopsville.com
Twitter: @d3hoopsville (http://www.twitter.com/d3hoopsville) or #Hoopsville
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Hoopsville
Email: hoopsville@d3hoops.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/d3hoopsville
Fundraiser: https://igg.me/at/hoopsville-fundraiser-2017

(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdnak1.psbin.com%2Fimg%2Fmw%3D710%2Fcr%3Dn%2Fd%3Dln4m3%2Fi1j4ezki4963qtmg.jpg&hash=e73df38ca84148ed8b0d8152604441c2ab195c8b)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 20, 2017, 12:01:59 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 19, 2017, 08:22:11 PM
Ran out of time today to get this out before the show started, but taking care if it now while I have the opportunity (during the show).

The time is now. Teams who want or think they should be playing in March need to get the job done now. This week all conferences, except the UAA, will dive into conference tournaments to determine who will win an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament. For those who can't win the AQ, then they have to make sure to present the best resume possible to the national committees and that means taking care of business the best they can.

Who is in and who is out? We will figure that out over the course of next week and on next week's Hoopsville Special. In the meantime on tonight's Hoopsville (http://www.d3hoopsville.com), Dave McHugh talks to a few teams who are looking to position themselves to be in the conversation. We also preview many of the conference races and look at who may already be in trouble when it comes to playing basketball in March.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio starting LIVE at 7:00 PM ET. You can watch the show in the video player above or via the simulcast on Facebook Live. If you missed the show, you can catch up On Demand in the video player or listen to the podcasts located to the right (available after the show is off the air).

A reminder the Sunday edition of Hoopsville primarily covers the Northeast, Atlantic, South, and Central regions, but we will answer any questions about all of Division III throughout the show. You can also send your questions to the show and have them featured on the Hoopsville Mailbag segment. Email them to hoopsville@d3hoops.com.

And please consider helping Hoopsville stay on the air like you might help your public television station. The annual fundraising campaign has less than three weeks remaining, but we are no where close to reaching our goal. Click here for more information:  Hoopsville Fundraising Page (https://igg.me/at/hoopsville-fundraiser-2017/x/6029509)

Guests scheduled (in order of appearance):
- Mia Smith, Illinois Wesleyan women's coach
- Stan Bonewitz, Concordia (Texas) men's coach
- Matt Ducharme, Mass-Dartmouth women's coach
- Andrea Kendall, Randolph women's coach (WBCA Center Court)
- Tim McDonald, Cabrini men's coach

You can also tune into the podcast(s) after the show has aired:
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/hoopsville
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hoopsville/id1059517087

Don't forget you can always interact with us:
Website: www.d3hoopsville.com
Twitter: @d3hoopsville (http://www.twitter.com/d3hoopsville) or #Hoopsville
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Hoopsville
Email: hoopsville@d3hoops.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/d3hoopsville
Fundraiser: https://igg.me/at/hoopsville-fundraiser-2017

(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdnak1.psbin.com%2Fimg%2Fmw%3D710%2Fcr%3Dn%2Fd%3Dln4m3%2Fi1j4ezki4963qtmg.jpg&hash=e73df38ca84148ed8b0d8152604441c2ab195c8b)
Dave, Thanks for all your, (and your staffs), hard work on putting together Hoopsville !!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 20, 2017, 12:56:35 PM
Quote from: ECSUalum on February 20, 2017, 12:01:59 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 19, 2017, 08:22:11 PM
Ran out of time today to get this out before the show started, but taking care if it now while I have the opportunity (during the show).

The time is now. Teams who want or think they should be playing in March need to get the job done now. This week all conferences, except the UAA, will dive into conference tournaments to determine who will win an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament. For those who can't win the AQ, then they have to make sure to present the best resume possible to the national committees and that means taking care of business the best they can.

Who is in and who is out? We will figure that out over the course of next week and on next week's Hoopsville Special. In the meantime on tonight's Hoopsville (http://www.d3hoopsville.com), Dave McHugh talks to a few teams who are looking to position themselves to be in the conversation. We also preview many of the conference races and look at who may already be in trouble when it comes to playing basketball in March.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio starting LIVE at 7:00 PM ET. You can watch the show in the video player above or via the simulcast on Facebook Live. If you missed the show, you can catch up On Demand in the video player or listen to the podcasts located to the right (available after the show is off the air).

A reminder the Sunday edition of Hoopsville primarily covers the Northeast, Atlantic, South, and Central regions, but we will answer any questions about all of Division III throughout the show. You can also send your questions to the show and have them featured on the Hoopsville Mailbag segment. Email them to hoopsville@d3hoops.com.

And please consider helping Hoopsville stay on the air like you might help your public television station. The annual fundraising campaign has less than three weeks remaining, but we are no where close to reaching our goal. Click here for more information:  Hoopsville Fundraising Page (https://igg.me/at/hoopsville-fundraiser-2017/x/6029509)

Guests scheduled (in order of appearance):
- Mia Smith, Illinois Wesleyan women's coach
- Stan Bonewitz, Concordia (Texas) men's coach
- Matt Ducharme, Mass-Dartmouth women's coach
- Andrea Kendall, Randolph women's coach (WBCA Center Court)
- Tim McDonald, Cabrini men's coach

You can also tune into the podcast(s) after the show has aired:
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/hoopsville
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hoopsville/id1059517087

Don't forget you can always interact with us:
Website: www.d3hoopsville.com
Twitter: @d3hoopsville (http://www.twitter.com/d3hoopsville) or #Hoopsville
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Hoopsville
Email: hoopsville@d3hoops.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/d3hoopsville
Fundraiser: https://igg.me/at/hoopsville-fundraiser-2017

(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdnak1.psbin.com%2Fimg%2Fmw%3D710%2Fcr%3Dn%2Fd%3Dln4m3%2Fi1j4ezki4963qtmg.jpg&hash=e73df38ca84148ed8b0d8152604441c2ab195c8b)
Dave, Thanks for all your, (and your staffs), hard work on putting together Hoopsville !!!

Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate it. I will pass it along to the staff - me. LOL I'm kidding. The D3hoops guys also help out especially as a wall for me to bounce ideas off of.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 20, 2017, 09:08:50 PM
I echo ECSUalum.  Tremendous coverage of D3, Dave!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 22, 2017, 01:06:46 AM
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/632/32664687990_948617c8e6_c.jpg)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 26, 2017, 01:01:23 AM
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3879/32738544520_7e38428701_c.jpg)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2017, 02:17:12 AM
Dartmouth is officially out after that semifinal loss.  Keene is likely still out too.  Depending on what happened in other conferences today Eastern may make it with a loss. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 26, 2017, 04:05:34 PM
Congrats to the Keene St Women on their 2016/17 LEC Tournament Championship!! Stefanie D'Annolfo was outstanding and the Keene women were definitely the better team!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2017, 07:47:32 PM
Quote from: ECSUalum on February 26, 2017, 04:05:34 PM
Congrats to the Keene St Women on their 2016/17 LEC Tournament Championship!! Stefanie D'Annolfo was outstanding and the Keene women were definitely the better team!!

After the first couple minutes at least.  Congrats to Keene, every time I thought Eastern was going to make a run, Keene came up with a basket from Petrow off a feed from D'Annolfo, a D'Annolfo basket or a Sandi Purcell 3 pointer to basically keep the Warriors at bay around 8 points.  Freshmen Mya Villard had a huge game, leading Eastern with 20 points (15 after halftime) and keeping them in the game.  Kelly Reardon finished with 14, but of those 14, 9 came in the first half, and of the 9 first half points, 6 were in the first quarter when she scored 6 of Eastern's 8 points.  So really, you only basically had for Eastern a first half shooter (Reardon) and a second half post presence (Villard) and then got almost nothing else from the rest of the team.  Jordyn Nappi almost had as many offense fouls called against her as made field goals.  Keene meanwhile had two 20 point scorers in D'Annolfo & Purcell (21 & 23 respectively) who were each efficient in both halves of play which ultimately, in my opinion, was the difference: Of D'Annolfo's points she scored 9 in the first half, 12 in the second, Purcell had 10 first half points and 13 second half points.  It's going to be a long night & morning for Eastern as they await their tournament fate.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 26, 2017, 08:09:11 PM
Congratulations to Coach Boucher and his team!
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3905/32756198600_12d75b8b1b_c.jpg)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2017, 10:57:46 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 26, 2017, 07:47:32 PM
Quote from: ECSUalum on February 26, 2017, 04:05:34 PM
Congrats to the Keene St Women on their 2016/17 LEC Tournament Championship!! Stefanie D'Annolfo was outstanding and the Keene women were definitely the better team!!

After the first couple minutes at least.  Congrats to Keene, every time I thought Eastern was going to make a run, Keene came up with a basket from Petrow off a feed from D'Annolfo, a D'Annolfo basket or a Sandi Purcell 3 pointer to basically keep the Warriors at bay around 8 points.  Freshmen Mya Villard had a huge game, leading Eastern with 20 points (15 after halftime) and keeping them in the game.  Kelly Reardon finished with 14, but of those 14, 9 came in the first half, and of the 9 first half points, 6 were in the first quarter when she scored 6 of Eastern's 8 points.  So really, you only basically had for Eastern a first half shooter (Reardon) and a second half post presence (Villard) and then got almost nothing else from the rest of the team.  Jordyn Nappi almost had as many offense fouls called against her as made field goals.  Keene meanwhile had two 20 point scorers in D'Annolfo & Purcell (21 & 23 respectively) who were each efficient in both halves of play which ultimately, in my opinion, was the difference: Of D'Annolfo's points she scored 9 in the first half, 12 in the second, Purcell had 10 first half points and 13 second half points.  It's going to be a long night & morning for Eastern as they await their tournament fate.

Also in that game Purcell scored her 1,000th career point.  Talk about putting icing on the cake!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 27, 2017, 03:02:02 PM
ECSU Women make the big dance and will play SUNY Polytechnic Institute!  Congrats to the Women Warriors!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 27, 2017, 03:03:29 PM
Quote from: ECSUalum on February 27, 2017, 03:02:02 PM
ECSU Women make the big dance and will play SUNY Polytechnic Institute!  Congrats to the Women Warriors!!

Good luck in the tournament!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 27, 2017, 03:18:11 PM
Quote from: AllStar on February 27, 2017, 03:03:29 PM
Quote from: ECSUalum on February 27, 2017, 03:02:02 PM
ECSU Women make the big dance and will play SUNY Polytechnic Institute!  Congrats to the Women Warriors!!

Good luck in the tournament!

UMD Women also get in play Laroche in Montclair St NJ!  Good Luck to all!!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 27, 2017, 06:59:06 PM
LOL the Keene state win got 3 teams from this conference this year in the tournament??  Good luck to Dartmouth, Keene & Eastern in the tournament.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 27, 2017, 07:08:11 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 27, 2017, 06:59:06 PM
LOL the Keene state win got 3 teams from this conference this year in the tournament??  Good luck to Dartmouth, Keene & Eastern in the tournament.

I was surprised UMass-Dartmouth got in, but now that they are, good luck to them!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 28, 2017, 06:43:31 PM
Quote from: AllStar on February 27, 2017, 07:08:11 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 27, 2017, 06:59:06 PM
LOL the Keene state win got 3 teams from this conference this year in the tournament??  Good luck to Dartmouth, Keene & Eastern in the tournament.

I was surprised UMass-Dartmouth got in, but now that they are, good luck to them!

Not sure why you are surprised... our mock selections had them in as well. They had good numbers.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 28, 2017, 06:55:59 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 28, 2017, 06:43:31 PM
Quote from: AllStar on February 27, 2017, 07:08:11 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 27, 2017, 06:59:06 PM
LOL the Keene state win got 3 teams from this conference this year in the tournament??  Good luck to Dartmouth, Keene & Eastern in the tournament.

I was surprised UMass-Dartmouth got in, but now that they are, good luck to them!

Not sure why you are surprised... our mock selections had them in as well. They had good numbers.

I have to make an honest confession...I hadn't looked at those before I posted that.  I had looked at the men's ones, though.  Thank you for your coverage!  Obviously the wins over WPI and Babson were two that really helped UMass Dartmouth get in.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 01, 2017, 12:37:02 AM
Quote from: AllStar on February 28, 2017, 06:55:59 PM
I have to make an honest confession...I hadn't looked at those before I posted that.  I had looked at the men's ones, though.  Thank you for your coverage!  Obviously the wins over WPI and Babson were two that really helped UMass Dartmouth get in.

I only watched about 6 minutes of the selection show because I was working during that time frame, and then my internet crapped out when I watched it at home, but the way they announced the brackets and showed UMass-Dartmouth as the first LEC team, I knew from that point that the LEC was also getting in Eastern as well as Keene who won the auto bid.  Sure, the wins over WPI & Babson helped a lot.....but they were probably cancelled out finishing 1-4 against Eastern & Keene in the conference.  No way they were putting Dartmouth in the field without Eastern also being in the field, especially when Eastern swept the head-to-head series......pretty convincingly too.  So, at least the NCAA ended that suspense fairly quickly and early on.

The better question I have is a 2, actually 3 parter and probably can't be answered, but am going to try.  Hopefully Dave can come up with a reasonable explantion or reasoning for at least 2 of the questions posed:

For what we know now, it was fairly obvious Eastern was going to be in the tournament anyways once they won Saturday, no matter whether they won or lost in the championship game, and no matter whether the opponent was Dartmouth or Keene.  Dartmouth also looked like a pretty safe bet seeing as if they really were a "bubble" team like I thought, the Keene pool A bid really could have knocked them out, but it obviously didn't so let me ask:
1) IF the result Sunday is switched, and Eastern ends up winning, I assume Keene would be out & Dartmouth would still be in anyways, but instead of the conference getting 3 teams it only gets 2 in this case.  True or false?
2) Since I can't imagine Keene getting a pool C bid their win popped a bubble.  Who's ultimate bubble did that win pop?
3) I'd assume if Keene loses on Saturday to Dartmouth, the team who's bubble ultimately popped on Sunday would be in the tournament field today since Dartmouth & Eastern would still be in the tournament anyways?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on March 01, 2017, 12:46:42 AM
Quote from: 7express on March 01, 2017, 12:37:02 AM
For what we know now, it was fairly obvious Eastern was going to be in the tournament anyways once they won Saturday, no matter whether they won or lost in the championship game, and no matter whether the opponent was Dartmouth or Keene.  Dartmouth also looked like a pretty safe bet seeing as if they really were a "bubble" team like I thought, the Keene pool A bid really could have knocked them out, but it obviously didn't so let me ask:
1) IF the result Sunday is switched, and Eastern ends up winning, I assume Keene would be out & Dartmouth would still be in anyways, but instead of the conference getting 3 teams it only gets 2 in this case.  True or false?

Yeah, I think that might be fair. Keene did jump to 5th in the regional rankings (Eastern was 6, Dartmouth 7), so this does get tricky. Without that win I don't think Keene jumps as high. Eastern is probably 5 and Dartmouth 6 or 7. So I think it would have been a very interesting discussion.

Quote from: 7express on March 01, 2017, 12:37:02 AM
2) Since I can't imagine Keene getting a pool C bid their win popped a bubble.  Who's ultimate bubble did that win pop?

If it popped a bubble... Carnegie Mellon or Maryville. Though, that is a tricky question considering Keene wasn't the only team from "no chance" to "AQ" that allowed the "already in" to take a Pool C bid. One in particular was SUNY Geneseo... there were probably a couple more I just can't remember off the top of my head.

Quote from: 7express on March 01, 2017, 12:37:02 AM
3) I'd assume if Keene loses on Saturday to Dartmouth, the team who's bubble ultimately popped on Sunday would be in the tournament field today since Dartmouth & Eastern would still be in the tournament anyways?

Probably. I don't think Keene jumps in the rankings if they had lost that game at all.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on March 03, 2017, 10:11:40 PM
Unlike the men, a rough night for the conference in the first round.  UMass-Dartmouth beat La Roche by 7 to advance (will play Montclair State), but Eastern Connecticut and Keene State both lost.  The Warriors fell to SUNY Poly 80-72, falling victim to a 43-point performance by Stevie Ray.  SUNY Poly will play Scranton, who led for all of 0.6 seconds in a 49-48 win over University of New England.  Keene State struggled mightily on offense, losing 67-55 to Rochester.  The Owls trailed 27-23 at halftime, but slipped in the third quarter and that was their downfall.  When your top two players go 12-for-39, you probably won't win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 04, 2017, 09:25:13 PM
Great win for Dartmouth over a very good Montclair team to advance to the sweet 16.  Alicia Kutail was a complete monster in the paint with a game high 23 points I think, with 15 coming in the first half when they built an 11 point halftime lead.  Unfortunately, in the 3rd quarter they went away from Kutail and started forcing jump shots which allowed Montclair to come back from 14 down with about 5 minutes left in the 3rd to only down 5 at the end of the quarter, and the Corsairs looked like they were going to pull an Atlanta Falcons as the Red Hawks got to within 2 late in the 4th on 2 or 3 occasions, but luckily for the Corsairs they were able to get a couple stops, and were able to break the Montclair press for layups as outside of the first couple minutes of the game I don't think the Corsairs ever trailed, at least they never did after the 3 minute mark of the first quarter.  I believe this is Dartmouth's first ever sectional semifinal appearance, and with the bottom half of this bracket not being very strong they can very likely make the elite 8.  Even though they'd have to play Amherst @ Amherst which isn't good, Amherst did only beat Babson by 5 while Dartmouth beat Babson by 8.  It'll probably be a complete miracle if the Corsairs were to make the Final 4, but all you need is 1 more win with a chance, albeit very slight chance, to knock off goliath, and the Corsairs have a very good chance at getting that opportunity.  Hoping their run can continue for at least 2 more games.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on March 04, 2017, 11:03:31 PM
Tremendous accomplishment for UMass-Dartmouth, especially given that it's their first NCAA Tournament.  Congratulations on the Sweet 16 run!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on March 05, 2017, 11:07:04 AM
7Express...nice post on UMass-Dart. chances to advance.  Do take exception to comparative scores wrt Babson.  Until last night's win over Mary Washington' s in LeFrak, , Babson was the only team to lose to Amherst under double digits...other than Tufts. 
In the Mary Washington game, the Amherst lead was in double digits until MWU decided to foul with about a minute to go.  Amherst was slowing the game down.  Amherst missed their foul shots and did not challenge MWU layups as the game ended.  MWU HC wanted a paper close win, imo.
The Amherst win over Babson was an early season win.  Amherst had two front court players out with injuries at the time.  They are back and contributing well.  Amherst has a ROY player coming off the bench now.  Yes, in the post season, anything can happen, etc.  Amherst is playing well and now has a very deep bench.  In the Sage win, Amherst basically played all its starters less than 12 minutes.
Having said all that and picking on you a bit, my friend...good luck to the LEC teams ahead!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on March 10, 2017, 08:28:11 PM
CONGRATS to UMass Dartmouth for advancing to the Elite 8 in their first NCAA appearance.  Tremendous accomplishment, and it helps the league too!  Matt Ducharme has done a great job.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 10, 2017, 11:21:37 PM
They've got absolutely no chance to beat Amherst, but what an awesome job they have done this year.  Probably one of the last teams in the field if not the last, and out of 440+ teams they are one of the final 8 standing.  Even losing by 60 to the Jeffs, and this is a banner year for the Corsairs and the school & conference.

Also, that's a great way to validate your entry into the field.  Hey even I questioned and laughed at it as I didn't think they had a prayer to get in after the semifinal loss to Keene, but not only did they get in, they've won 3 games.  Whatever happens Saturday, even if they score less than 5 points, is complete gravy.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on March 21, 2017, 04:25:41 PM
Denise Bierly to Gain Induction into Connecticut Hall of Fame
http://gowarriorathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2016-17/releases/bierly-conn_HOF
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2017, 01:10:46 AM
2018 LEC predictions:

1) Dartmouth (12-2)
2) Eastern (11-3)
3) Keene (10-4)
4) Western (8-6)
5) Boston (7-7)
6) Plymouth (5-9)
7) USM (3-11)
8) RI College (2-14)

Dartmouth should be the clear runaway favorite with them coming off the elite 8 combined the fact with what Eastern & Keene lost from last year's team.  Western still has a young team, and they'll be in the mix.  The Boston coach recruited Connecticut hard for this class bringing in players with winning pedigree's from the top high school programs in the state, and then all but stole Lydia Vital out from under the nose of a conference rival.  Like last year there's a pretty big drop off from 1 to 2/3, and even bigger drop off from 3 to 4/5 and than an even BIGGER drop off from 5 to 6/7/8, so much like last year I don't see the regular season or the first round LEC tournament being all that meaningful.  Yah Plymouth & USM could steal a game here or there, but I don't see them as threats to win title.  Looks like a fairly chalk tournament as well as I will take all 4 home teams advancing to the semifinals (Dartmouth 1, Eastern 2, Keene 3, Western 4) with Dartmouth beating Keene in the finals.  Unlike last year when the conference got 3 teams in the tournament, I only see 1 team (Dartmouth) returning to the field this year.

MVP:
Nakira Examond- Dartmouth

First team:
Examond- Dartmouth
Mya Villard- Eastern
Sandi Purcell- Keene
Lydia Vital- Boston
Alicia Kutil- Dartmouth
Kaitlyn LaBonte- Western
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 17, 2017, 11:05:16 PM
2 atrocious performances by Keene State to open the season.  30+ point loss to Westfield State while not surprising they lost they shouldn't have lost by 30.  Now today they lose at home to Framingham State by almost 20!!  Now THAT's a bad loss!  They should rack up loss number 3 Saturday afternoon against the Monks of St. Joseph (ME) who was the preseason favorite to win the GNAC.  The question is, can the Owls keep this under 10??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on November 18, 2017, 11:17:43 AM
I feel your "pain" 7!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on November 18, 2017, 11:34:47 AM
After seeing how successful the women's basketball version of the Grinnell system has been for Westfield State the past few seasons, the Western Connecticut women's basketball coach decided to implement it starting this season for her team.  In their first game using the System, Western Connecticut lost to Eastern Nazarene by a score of 102 pts for the Lions vs 94 points for the Colonials.  WestConn plays Mitchell at noon in the consolation game of the Brandeis Invitational, but Keene State and the rest of the league will have to get used to playing against the Grinnell System at least twice in conference play.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on November 18, 2017, 12:31:12 PM
Quote from: deiscanton on November 18, 2017, 11:34:47 AM
After seeing how successful the women's basketball version of the Grinnell system has been for Westfield State the past few seasons, the Western Connecticut women's basketball coach decided to implement it starting this season for her team.  In their first game using the System, Western Connecticut lost to Eastern Nazarene by a score of 102 pts for the Lions vs 94 points for the Colonials.  WestConn plays Mitchell at noon in the consolation game of the Brandeis Invitational, but Keene State and the rest of the league will have to get used to playing against the Grinnell System at least twice in conference play.

The System in the women's game is really a different beast from the men's side.  There are some unique quirks that sort of developed independently from what they did at GC.  Incidently, Grinnell is not adhering to the System through their first two games this year.  They're playing more like the Houston Rockets than the Grinnell we've all come to expect.

There's at least an intro to some of these changes in my column from last year - http://www.d3hoops.com/columns/around-the-nation/2016-17/system-here-to-stay
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 18, 2017, 06:58:36 PM
Conference begins this season right where they left off last year......shooting themselves in the foot with incredibly poor out of league results.  As correctly predicted in this space just last night Keene State did indeed lose to St. Joes of Maine to fall on 0-3 on the year with Sandi Purcell starting the season shooting only 14-56.  As I've been saying for the last handful of years unless you have an incredible stout D (think Tufts, Amherst, maybe Whitman and or Newport) that is capable of winning multiple games in the 30's and low 40's you have got to be able to score the basketball.  And even those stout D teams can points up, that's why those are 4 of the top 10 teams in the country if not 4 of the top 5.  For a team that doesn't have many scoring threats (and even less this year after D'Analfo graduated and Vital transfered out) your top scoring threat (Purcell) has to shoot a lot better than 14-56 if you want to win.

Western sounds like they have a bit of the Grinnel system this year, and HoopsFans alma mater Eastern Nazarene isn't terrible now by any means; actually they are quite good, but it's a game the Colonials should win none-the-less.  At last check Eastern was losing at home to a terrible NESCAC team (Trinity).  About the only saving grace comes from 2 of the projected worst teams.  RIC and Plymouth are a combined 5-1, with RIC winning at an OK Manhattanville team, and Plymouth winning on the road at Magicman State University (aka Plattsburgh State). And a special shout out to Rivier for not making the conference record any worse than it already is: they are 0-3 against the conference (Plymouth, Boston, Dartmouth) and have lost by an average margin of 55 points.  Luckily for them, but unfortunately for the rest of the conference Rivier plays conference opponents the remainder of the season.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on November 19, 2017, 10:37:33 PM
Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on November 18, 2017, 12:31:12 PM
Quote from: deiscanton on November 18, 2017, 11:34:47 AM
After seeing how successful the women's basketball version of the Grinnell system has been for Westfield State the past few seasons, the Western Connecticut women's basketball coach decided to implement it starting this season for her team.  In their first game using the System, Western Connecticut lost to Eastern Nazarene by a score of 102 pts for the Lions vs 94 points for the Colonials.  WestConn plays Mitchell at noon in the consolation game of the Brandeis Invitational, but Keene State and the rest of the league will have to get used to playing against the Grinnell System at least twice in conference play.

The System in the women's game is really a different beast from the men's side.  There are some unique quirks that sort of developed independently from what they did at GC.  Incidently, Grinnell is not adhering to the System through their first two games this year.  They're playing more like the Houston Rockets than the Grinnell we've all come to expect.

There's at least an intro to some of these changes in my column from last year - http://www.d3hoops.com/columns/around-the-nation/2016-17/system-here-to-stay

To be fair.. anyone who runs The System do it their own way. There are "principals" and "basics," but everyone does it to their own team's abilities. Grinnel's is different each year one would argue and their's is different than Greenville's. While I understand what you are saying about women's teams playing it different, I don't think it is a gender thing where it is a personnel thing. I am sure if we looked at some men's and women's programs with similar talents running The System, they may look more alike.

Anyway, my point is each program that decides to use The System for offense (and defense) will run it differently as any offense runs slightly differently depending on the team.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on November 20, 2017, 08:04:58 AM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on November 19, 2017, 10:37:33 PM
Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on November 18, 2017, 12:31:12 PM
Quote from: deiscanton on November 18, 2017, 11:34:47 AM
After seeing how successful the women's basketball version of the Grinnell system has been for Westfield State the past few seasons, the Western Connecticut women's basketball coach decided to implement it starting this season for her team.  In their first game using the System, Western Connecticut lost to Eastern Nazarene by a score of 102 pts for the Lions vs 94 points for the Colonials.  WestConn plays Mitchell at noon in the consolation game of the Brandeis Invitational, but Keene State and the rest of the league will have to get used to playing against the Grinnell System at least twice in conference play.

The System in the women's game is really a different beast from the men's side.  There are some unique quirks that sort of developed independently from what they did at GC.  Incidently, Grinnell is not adhering to the System through their first two games this year.  They're playing more like the Houston Rockets than the Grinnell we've all come to expect.

There's at least an intro to some of these changes in my column from last year - http://www.d3hoops.com/columns/around-the-nation/2016-17/system-here-to-stay

To be fair.. anyone who runs The System do it their own way. There are "principals" and "basics," but everyone does it to their own team's abilities. Grinnel's is different each year one would argue and their's is different than Greenville's. While I understand what you are saying about women's teams playing it different, I don't think it is a gender thing where it is a personnel thing. I am sure if we looked at some men's and women's programs with similar talents running The System, they may look more alike.

Anyway, my point is each program that decides to use The System for offense (and defense) will run it differently as any offense runs slightly differently depending on the team.

None of the women's coaches who run it talk about Grinnell.  They talk about Bunky Harkleroad and North Central.  I'm just reporting what the coaches talk about and the specific ways the women do it differently.

It's all interesting this year, since Grinnell doesn't seem to be running the System at all, but a new offense that Arseneault Jr is bringing in that looks a lot more like the Houston Rockets than what he played in college.  It will really be interesting to see the different variations that develop now that not everyone is sticking to the same principles in the same way.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on November 20, 2017, 08:34:12 AM
I have been enjoying the discussion about the aspects of how Bunky Harkleroad helped current North Central women's basketball asst coach Doug Porter to adapt the Grinnell principles to create a version of "the System" for women's basketball, but I wanted to note that Western Connecticut scored a school record 128 pts in Saturday's victory over Mitchell in the consolation game of the Brandeis Invitational.  In their second game using their version of "the System", the Colonials shot 41 of 116 from the field-- 19 of 68 from 3 pt range:

http://wcsuathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2017-18/releases/20171118mlh0zo
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on November 20, 2017, 02:25:17 PM
What is really funny.. Ron Rohn at Muhlenberg STILL gets calls about his women's team running "The System" a decade or so after he stopped running it LOL.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: gordonmann on November 20, 2017, 03:50:57 PM
Trinity ended up beating Westfield State and Eastern Conn.  Maybe they will be better this year?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 20, 2017, 10:33:15 PM
Eastern & Keene both end up finishing in last in tournaments that they host.  Yikes, not good!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on November 21, 2017, 12:14:37 PM
gordonmann.....your question wrt Trinity's success is a relative one:)   This young season has had some surprises,,BUT,,,,Trinity does play in the NESCAC conference.  To date, Tufts and Amherst have been winning big and indicating that they are still the big dogs in their conference.
Oh yes, a big front court player from Glastonbury, Ct....Cam Hendricks..appears like she will be a major contributor this her soph year at Amherst.
Did you check her out in HS, 7 ?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on November 22, 2017, 07:22:09 AM
Last night, Western Connecticut broke their own school record of 128 points set the previous game.  The new school record is now 129 points, set in a 129-63 victory over Purchase in the home opener for the Colonials.  WestConn shot 47-108 from the field, 17-61 from 3 pt range.  Albertus Magnus faces WestConn's "System" offense in the next game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 29, 2017, 11:35:42 PM
The women's side is taking on water badly.

Last year's tourney winners Keene State are 1-5 losing 4 of their 5 games by double digits including an embarrassing 30 point loss to Endicott pre Thanksgiving.  Their lone win is over a bad 3-3 RPI team who's 3 wins have come against two division 3 teams that have combined for 1 win and a USCAA team.  USM is 0-6 but unlike Keene they have actually played a difficult schedule (their usual Maine teams in St. Joes, Bowdoin, UNE) and before their last 2 games have played them close but their last 2 they lost by an aggregate 163-94 score to St. Joes & Bowdoin.  Their only really bad loss is Bates, but it's a rivalry game so you throw the records out the window.  Smith is not horrible by any stretch, and Castleton has won at least 21 games 5 straight years (well on their way to 6 straight off to a 5-0 start) AND they will be a conference opponent next season, so tough to label that as "bad" either even at home.  Preseason #2 Eastern Connecticut has only played 2 games (how have they played 2 while USM & Keene have already played 6??) but they are 0-2 in those 2 games losing both at home, and now their next 3 games are against Amherst, Williams, and the conference opener @ RIC on Saturday.  Now even when RIC was in the toilet the last couple of seasons and the Warriors were winning league titles the Anchorwomen ALWAYS gave the Warriors problems, and with this being at the Murray Center in Providence Eastern is looking at an 0-5 start to the season.  Plymouth at 2-3 is a meh.  You expected them to beat Rivier (which they did) and you expected them to lose to UNE, Castleton, & Westfield (which they did).  They did win a true road game @ Plattsburgh, but magicman state university is 0-3 so far so that looks devalued some what.
That took care of the losing records, now let's analyze the winning records see if we've got something here (which I doubt):
RIC is the surprise so far at 5-1, but the teams they beat have only combined for 7 wins.  The best of those wins (Manhattanville at 3-1) was on a neutral court while the best team they've played overall (Roger Williams at 5-1) they lost by 12.  Even with these bad teams they are not winning going away (only won one game by more than 11 points) and still aren't scoring (have scored more than 55 points the same number of times they've been held in the 40's [twice each]).  With the schedule tightening up with conference play (as well as Emmanuel & Amherst out of conference) I don't see RIC hanging around, but they only have 3 upper classmen on the roster with only 2 having played so far.
Dartmouth & Western are both 3-1 but neither have played anyone so far.  Dartmouth plays Bowdoin on Thursday and than has the tough trip to Plymouth over the weekend before hosting Western the following Saturday.  Dartmouth's only loss is to that 5-1 RWU team, but Dartmouth had the lead with 7 seconds to play before they fouled and then gave up an offensive rebound on a missed free throw which lead to the game deciding free throws.  So far Western hasn't played anyone, but with the new offense they are averaging 118.5 points a game with the run and gun chuck it up.  The Dartmouth/Western game looks like it'll be for the top in the conference, and so far I will take the team that can actually score points.  Nobody in the conference has seen it (Eastern & Keene both played Westfield who runs it last year & Keene played Westfield again this year but that hardly counts) so until someone actually stops it, or shows they can stop it, pick the team that can score points!  I don't think any of the other 7 teams can score.  Good luck to the Owls or RIC getting to 90 points when they play Western!  Their only hope is the Colonials missing a bunch and finishing below 90 because there's no way RIC or Keene win if Western gets above 90.
The last team on the list we haven't digested is Boston at 4-1.  As usual, they've played next to no one, and really have no one of note on their schedule before New Years (since Keene, their opponent Saturday stinks) as both games against Eastern, Western & Dartmouth are on the second half portion of the schedule.  They only have 2 really toss up games left before January 6 when they play Eastern for the first time: @ MIT and @ Bridgewater State.  They should be no worse than 9-3 (and 2-0 in conference play) heading into the January 6 game.  I know this team was picked 5th in the preseason, but this might be the biggest challenger threat to Dartmouth/Western.  And Boston has a division 1 caliber big currently out with an MCL injury she suffered in high school last January, so if she gets cleared to resume basketball activities in January that would be a big boost for the Beacons.

It can change next month but my top 4 would be in order: Western, Dartmouth, Boston, Eastern.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 30, 2017, 01:18:30 AM
7,

Your summary is accurate.  This league is really, really down right now.  I don't see very many contenders for anything - and that is only on the regional scale, nevermind the national scale.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 30, 2017, 01:31:58 AM
Quote from: AllStar on November 30, 2017, 01:18:30 AM
7,

Your summary is accurate.  This league is really, really down right now.  I don't see very many contenders for anything - and that is only on the regional scale, nevermind the national scale.

Of course I'm pretty sure I said the same thing last year and Dartmouth went all the way to the elite 8.  Don't see it happening this year though.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 02, 2017, 02:06:18 AM
First round of conference play begins Saturday.....and let's just say it's severely lacking:

Boston @ Keene
Dartmouth @ Plymouth
USM @ Western
Eastern @ RIC

Best game: Eastern @ RIC by default I guess??  The games are usually close, and this Eastern team so far hasn't looked very good in the early going.
Most important game: Boston @ Keene.  This season has the potential of going down the tubes fast for Keene.  The snowball has already formed, and it's sitting on the ledge waiting to get pushed off, which I think is exactly what happens with a loss to the Beacons.  Probably as close to a "must win" game you can have on December 2.
Worst game: USM @ Western.  USM is 0-6 losing by an average of 18.3 point while Western's margin of victory in their 3 wins has been 54.7 points.  Western is also tops throughout all 3 NCAA division's in scoring with a sizzling 118.5 points per game total (only 1 other  team has a PPG total in the 100's [D2 Carson-Newman at 102.3) This is going to get ugly in a hurry for the Huskies.

Boston 56 @ Keene 58.  Think the Owls manage to salvage their season and for the umpteenth time in a row the Beacons disappoint.
Dartmouth 69 @ Plymouth 49.  Dartmouth really shouldn't have much trouble.
USM 89 @ Western 137.  I wonder if Western's Jancy Shearwood (D-3's leading scorer) will have more points than what the margin of victory is.
Eastern 58 @ RIC 55.  Eastern records their first win of the season.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on December 03, 2017, 08:50:06 AM
S. Maine defeated W. Conn yesterday, 86-67, for their first win of the season.

W. Conn only took 23 more FGAs than S. Maine yesterday-- in all 3 W.Conn wins with the System, the Colonials achieved the goal of taking 30 or more FGAs than the opponent.  In their wins over Mitchell and Purchase, the Colonials outshot their opponent by more than 50 FGAs.

S. Maine turned the ball over 32 times yesterday to W.Conn's 29.  While the number of turnovers forced meets one of the goals of the System, W.Conn turned the ball over too many times to win. 

W.Conn still has to adjust to using the System in league play.

Game recap:

http://www.wcsuathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2017-18/releases/20171202njxf58
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on December 03, 2017, 09:52:28 AM
The other final scores from yesterday:

UMass-Dartmouth 87, Plymouth State 69

UMass-Boston 56, Keene State 47

Eastern Connecticut 59, RIC 42

I will let 7express comment on those results and any other comments on S.Maine's stunning upset over the Western Conn system yesterday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 07, 2017, 01:17:17 PM
So my player from High school played her first game for the Beacons yesterday after a knee injury.  8 points, 2-2 shooting, 3-4 from the line, 2 blocks in 10 minutes as the Beacons win again to improve to 7-1.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 09, 2017, 06:37:24 PM
Keene STINKS!!!!!  16 point loss AT HOME to USM  ???

For the second consecutive conference game Western is held below 70 points in an almost 30 point loss to Dartmouth.
Eastern can only beat conference teams it seems as they improve to 2-0 in the conference but only 2-5 overall as they are 0-5 in non LEC games.  of course they've played RIC & Plymouth so take that 2-0 for what it's worth.  Speaking of RIC they like Western, also go to 0-2 in the conference with a loss to Boston.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on December 21, 2017, 10:42:31 PM
Tough break for Eastern as Lizzy Cretella who was having a very good sophomore season after playing minimal minutes as a freshmen suffered a knee injury the other day and will be out for the remainder of the season.  Wishing her a speedy recovery!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 18, 2018, 02:08:39 PM
Dartmouth beats Boston in a matchup of unbeatens last night.  Saw the Beacons last weekend in Danbury against Western. Built an 11 point first quarter lead as they looked like horses beating the Western press for layups before they became a turnover machine ion the 2nd, 3rd & 4th quarters.  Forgot the final numbers, but I believe they finished with 42 total turnovers  ??? which is just atrocious.  Anyways, after leading by 11 in the first, they had an 8 point halftime lead and trailed by 4 after the 3rd quarter, and was ready to write a piece on how they a product of an absolutely atrocious and grade-school level schedule as the conference is again another total anchor.  And even with Boston's gaudy record (14-2 will probably get to 20+ wins), do you really trust this team to get a pool C bid should they lose again to Dartmouth in the LEC tournament or lose to eastern/Western in the LEC tournament??  They've only played 2 good teams: MIT (10-5 a win), and than the 30 point loss @ Dartmouth last night.  They'll get another game with Dartmouth in a couple weeks at home, and maybe another one in the tournament but I doubt they make up 30 points just because the game is at home or on a neutral court, so let's add 2 more losses to the Beacons.  So that will mean they've only played 2 good teams and gone 1-3 in those 4 games.  As for their other OOC schedule, I think a high school freshmen team would be jealous with this schedule:
Coast Guard (7-7), Colby (7-7 a loss :o), Rivier (0-10), Fisher (10-7 but an NAIA team), Becker (8-6), Fitchburg (5-9), Framingham (9-7), Clark (8-9), MIT (10-5), Bridgewater (4-11), and than they have a game with D3 newcomer Dean College (7-5) later in the year.  That's their OOC schedule and I believe if I counted right the opponents winning percentage is 8 games under .500.  That's a complete joke!  And then we look at the crappy conference results only Dartmouth (12-3) is a good team while Western (9-7) is the only other team above .500 and USM (8-8) and RIC (7-7) are both right at .500, and the only team they have yet to play is Southern Maine.  Boston likely has to win out beating Dartmouth in the process, win the conference, and get to the LEC championship game before they even sniff a pool C selection.  You're in freaking Boston, how the hell can your schedule be so bad year after year after year??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on January 18, 2018, 02:18:50 PM
Quote from: 7express on January 18, 2018, 02:08:39 PM
Dartmouth beats Boston in a matchup of unbeatens last night.  Saw the Beacons last weekend in Danbury against Western. Built an 11 point first quarter lead as they looked like horses beating the Western press for layups before they became a turnover machine ion the 2nd, 3rd & 4th quarters.  Forgot the final numbers, but I believe they finished with 42 total turnovers  ??? which is just atrocious.  Anyways, after leading by 11 in the first, they had an 8 point halftime lead and trailed by 4 after the 3rd quarter, and was ready to write a piece on how they a product of an absolutely atrocious and grade-school level schedule as the conference is again another total anchor.  And even with Boston's gaudy record (14-2 will probably get to 20+ wins), do you really trust this team to get a pool C bid should they lose again to Dartmouth in the LEC tournament or lose to eastern/Western in the LEC tournament??  They've only played 2 good teams: MIT (10-5 a win), and than the 30 point loss @ Dartmouth last night.  They'll get another game with Dartmouth in a couple weeks at home, and maybe another one in the tournament but I doubt they make up 30 points just because the game is at home or on a neutral court, so let's add 2 more losses to the Beacons.  So that will mean they've only played 2 good teams and gone 1-3 in those 4 games.  As for their other OOC schedule, I think a high school freshmen team would be jealous with this schedule:
Coast Guard (7-7), Colby (7-7 a loss :o), Rivier (0-10), Fisher (10-7 but an NAIA team), Becker (8-6), Fitchburg (5-9), Framingham (9-7), Clark (8-9), MIT (10-5), Bridgewater (4-11), and than they have a game with D3 newcomer Dean College (7-5) later in the year.  That's their OOC schedule and I believe if I counted right the opponents winning percentage is 8 games under .500.  That's a complete joke!  And then we look at the crappy conference results only Dartmouth (12-3) is a good team while Western (9-7) is the only other team above .500 and USM (8-8) and RIC (7-7) are both right at .500, and the only team they have yet to play is Southern Maine.  Boston likely has to beat Dartmouth, win the conference, and get to the LEC championship game before they even sniff a pool C selection.  You're in freaking Boston, how the hell can your schedule be so bad year after year after year??

I was wondering why Brandeis no longer had UMass-Boston on the non-conference schedule.   Oh well, 12-12 still makes Brandeis eligible for the ECAC Tournament, but I would like the Judges to go over .500 this year at a minimum....
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on January 19, 2018, 04:55:16 PM
7& dies a ton....appreciate you two are keeping this board alive! ;D
Keep up the fine work.  Me, I tend to post Amherst WBB news on the MBB board these days.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 28, 2018, 12:18:36 AM
This conference has been the have's vs. the have nots this year.  We are not even in February yet and already 3 teams (RIC, Plymouth & Keene) are already eliminated from winning the conference.  Western could tie for the conference title but they already got swept in the season series by both Dartmouth & Southern Maine, and lost the first game at home to Boston, so they likely lose any tiebreakers should they somehow miraculously finished tied with one of those schools so we can probably say 4 teams are already eliminated from winning the conference.  The top of the conference is pretty competitive with Dartmouth leading the pack, Boston 1 back (lone loss to Dartmouth), USM 2 back (losses to Boston & Dartmouth) and Eastern 3 back (as you can guess they lost to Dartmouth, Boston & USM).  None of those 4 have finished the season series with each other and all 4 have a second game against the other 3 coming up within the final 5 games, so even though Eastern is 3 back and lost the first game to all 3 teams they are still in the mix as 2 of those 3 were on the road, so they get the second matchup at home.  For the final home playoff game Eastern has a commanding 3 game lead with 5 to play (4 with the tiebreaker since Eastern won the first game between the 2) on Western, and owns a 5 game lead with 5 to play on Plymouth, Keene & RIC.  Eastern already swept the season series with RIC & Plymouth, so those 2 are already eliminated from hosting any games in the LEC tournament.  And I have I mentioned it's only January 27??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 03, 2018, 02:57:28 PM
Seeing Boston for the 2nd time today and seeing Dartmouth win in Maine by about 25 it's clearly obvious those are the best 2 teams in the conference and really it's not even close.  I'd be SHOCKED if the championship game wasn't Dartmouth @ Boston.  I still stand by what I said a couple weeks ago Boston has to win sweep the regular season, which includes a win over Dartmouth at home (they lost on the road by 30) and avoid a slip up to Eastern/Western/USM in the semifinals before they even sniff a pool C bid.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 07, 2018, 02:37:12 PM
Women's first regional rankings of the season are out: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-first
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 07, 2018, 03:38:24 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 07, 2018, 02:37:12 PM
Women's first regional rankings of the season are out: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-first

Just like I said despite being 19-2 Boston isn't even in the top 12 in New England.  As I said 3 weeks ago they'll have to beat Boston tonight, win their final 3 games (against Plymouth, USM & Western) and than win their quarterfinal & semifinal game in the LEC tournament and even then it's probably not enough to get the Beacons in.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 08, 2018, 12:23:28 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 07, 2018, 02:37:12 PM
Women's first regional rankings of the season are out: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-first

What are your thoughts on Roger Williams being ranked 5th ahead of Mass Dartmouth?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 08, 2018, 12:32:37 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 08, 2018, 12:23:28 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 07, 2018, 02:37:12 PM
Women's first regional rankings of the season are out: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-first

What are your thoughts on Roger Williams being ranked 5th ahead of Mass Dartmouth?

Off the top of my head, Roger Williams has a head-to-head win over Mass Darthmouth... records are pretty equal, UMD has a slightly better SOS... don't know the rest of the data off the top of my head, but that head-to-head seems to be the deciding factor there.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 11, 2018, 03:54:39 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 11, 2018, 03:51:39 PM
Hi Dave. That RWU loss to Curry yesterday has to hurt the Hawks Northeast ranking?

It won't help. The big thing this week is that other data is now in play, like Results vs. Regionally Ranked Opponents (vRRO) that couldn't be used last week. As a result, even with a win or loss, teams will move around anyway.

The loss to Curry hurts the WL% and it is going to hurt comparable numbers. At this point in the season, to keep one's position, winning is the best option. Losing happens and the opponent usually matters less than the fact it was a loss.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 11, 2018, 03:58:08 PM
RWU has the head to head victory very early on in the year and the Hawks are having a great season, no doubt.  With that being said, Mass Dartmouth has a tougher schedule with better victories under their belt. Mean while Roger Williams lost to Curry.  I agree with the top four in the rankings but I think Mass Dartmouth has to be Fifth in the region. RWU would be close behind MassD. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 11, 2018, 04:11:11 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 11, 2018, 03:58:08 PM
RWU has the head to head victory very early on in the year and the Hawks are having a great season, no doubt.  With that being said, Mass Dartmouth has a tougher schedule with better victories under their belt. Mean while Roger Williams lost to Curry.  I agree with the top four in the rankings but I think Mass Dartmouth has to be Fifth in the region. RWU would be close behind MassD.

So a few things...
- Mass Dartmouth has a stronger SOS than Roger Williams
- Roger Williams has a head-to-head win over Mass Dartmouth
- WL is equal

That makes things a push and will force the committee to look at comparable opponents and vRRO. Remember, the vRRO was NOT part of the conversation last week as the data didn't exist.

Why would you have Mass Darthmouth higher than RWU based on the data for last week?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 11, 2018, 06:35:37 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 11, 2018, 03:54:39 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 11, 2018, 03:51:39 PM
Hi Dave. That RWU loss to Curry yesterday has to hurt the Hawks Northeast ranking?

It won't help. The big thing this week is that other data is now in play, like Results vs. Regionally Ranked Opponents (vRRO) that couldn't be used last week. As a result, even with a win or loss, teams will move around anyway.

The loss to Curry hurts the WL% and it is going to hurt comparable numbers. At this point in the season, to keep one's position, winning is the best option. Losing happens and the opponent usually matters less than the fact it was a loss.

To clarify things, Curry beat Roger Williams back in January, in Milton, MA.  The Hawks won the rematch in Bristol, RI yesterday.  The RWU loss to Curry in January would have already been reflected in the Feb. 7 rankings.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 11, 2018, 06:45:01 PM
Results vs RRO

Data to be used for the Feb. 14 rankings

Roger Williams is currently 2-1 vs RRO

Roger Williams (#5 in Northeast)

Lost to Tufts (#3 in Northeast)
Defeated UMass-Dartmouth (#6 in Northeast)
Defeated Conn College (#10 in Northeast)

UMass-Dartmouth is currently 0-3 vs RRO

UMass-Dartmouth (#6 in Northeast)

Lost to Roger Williams (#5 in Northeast)
Lost to Bowdoin (#2 in Northeast)
Lost to Tufts (#3 in Northeast)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 11, 2018, 10:38:15 PM
Quote from: deiscanton on February 11, 2018, 06:35:37 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 11, 2018, 03:54:39 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 11, 2018, 03:51:39 PM
Hi Dave. That RWU loss to Curry yesterday has to hurt the Hawks Northeast ranking?

It won't help. The big thing this week is that other data is now in play, like Results vs. Regionally Ranked Opponents (vRRO) that couldn't be used last week. As a result, even with a win or loss, teams will move around anyway.

The loss to Curry hurts the WL% and it is going to hurt comparable numbers. At this point in the season, to keep one's position, winning is the best option. Losing happens and the opponent usually matters less than the fact it was a loss.

To clarify things, Curry beat Roger Williams back in January, in Milton, MA.  The Hawks won the rematch in Bristol, RI yesterday.  The RWU loss to Curry in January would have already been reflected in the Feb. 7 rankings.

Yes - I had another thought in my head prior and when I saw this quote, I went with it. My later response takes into account Curry game being awhile ago.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 12, 2018, 11:49:58 AM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 11, 2018, 04:11:11 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 11, 2018, 03:58:08 PM
RWU has the head to head victory very early on in the year and the Hawks are having a great season, no doubt.  With that being said, Mass Dartmouth has a tougher schedule with better victories under their belt. Mean while Roger Williams lost to Curry.  I agree with the top four in the rankings but I think Mass Dartmouth has to be Fifth in the region. RWU would be close behind MassD.

So a few things...
- Mass Dartmouth has a stronger SOS than Roger Williams
- Roger Williams has a head-to-head win over Mass Dartmouth
- WL is equal

That makes things a push and will force the committee to look at comparable opponents and vRRO. Remember, the vRRO was NOT part of the conversation last week as the data didn't exist.

Why would you have Mass Darthmouth higher than RWU based on the data for last week?

Okay...Why I have Mass Dartmouth ahead of Roger Williams:

1)SOS MassD rank: 44 RWU rank 143

2)Common opponents: RWU vs. Tufts L by 29 (11/17/17)
                                  RWU vs Rhode Island W by 12 (11/26/17)
                                  MassD vs Tufs L by 8 (12/15/17)
                                  MassD vs Rhode Island W by 34 (1/24/18)

3)In Conference record: RWU: 14 - 2
                                   MassD: 12 - 0

4) Record of opponents that each team lost to:  RWU lost to opponents with a combined record of 39 - 29
                                                                     MassD lost to opponents with a combined record of 64 - 7

5)RWU lost to Curry and RIC who are both unranked in the Northeast region.  MassD has only lost to teams that were regionally ranked.  In fact MassD has losses to Tufts and Bowdoin who are top ten in the national rankings.

6)Eyeball test....MassD is better.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 12, 2018, 01:11:55 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 12, 2018, 11:49:58 AM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 11, 2018, 04:11:11 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 11, 2018, 03:58:08 PM
RWU has the head to head victory very early on in the year and the Hawks are having a great season, no doubt.  With that being said, Mass Dartmouth has a tougher schedule with better victories under their belt. Mean while Roger Williams lost to Curry.  I agree with the top four in the rankings but I think Mass Dartmouth has to be Fifth in the region. RWU would be close behind MassD.

So a few things...
- Mass Dartmouth has a stronger SOS than Roger Williams
- Roger Williams has a head-to-head win over Mass Dartmouth
- WL is equal

That makes things a push and will force the committee to look at comparable opponents and vRRO. Remember, the vRRO was NOT part of the conversation last week as the data didn't exist.

Why would you have Mass Darthmouth higher than RWU based on the data for last week?

Okay...Why I have Mass Dartmouth ahead of Roger Williams:

1)SOS MassD rank: 44 RWU rank 143

2)Common opponents: RWU vs. Tufts L by 29 (11/17/17)
                                  RWU vs Rhode Island W by 12 (11/26/17)
                                  MassD vs Tufs L by 8 (12/15/17)
                                  MassD vs Rhode Island W by 34 (1/24/18)

3)In Conference record: RWU: 14 - 2
                                   MassD: 12 - 0

4) Record of opponents that each team lost to:  RWU lost to opponents with a combined record of 39 - 29
                                                                     MassD lost to opponents with a combined record of 64 - 7

5)RWU lost to Curry and RIC who are both unranked in the Northeast region.  MassD has only lost to teams that were regionally ranked.  In fact MassD has losses to Tufts and Bowdoin who are top ten in the national rankings.

6)Eyeball test....MassD is better.

Just a reminder--

DIII Primary selection criteria contains the following things, and these things only (not in priority order)

1.). DIII Win/loss percentage
2.). DIII Strength of schedule
3.). Results in DIII Head to Head competition
4.). Results vs DIII common opponents
5.). Results vs DIII teams ranked by the DIII Women's Basketball Committee.  For selection purposes, ranked teams are those teams appearing in the final regional rankings, and the rankings immediately preceding the final rankings.

If a decision cannot be made by the primary criteria, we go to the secondary criteria-- (not in priority order).

1.). Non DIII Win Loss percentage (this includes 1st and 2nd year provisional and reclassifying opponents.)
2.). Results vs common non DIII opponents
3.). Non-conference strength of schedule

In addition, the DIII Women's Basketball Committee can take additional advice and information from the regional advisory committees to the extent that the primary and secondary criteria support this information and/or advice.

Coaches polls and/or any outside polls or rankings are not used as selection criteria by the DIII Women's Basketball Committee.  Neither is the DI eyeball test.

I hate it when people try to use DI selection criteria or outside information or make up their own criteria to come up with an answer that they want to get.

Roger Williams beat UMass Dartmouth on the court.  The committee got it right in week 1.

Also--

Roger Williams defeated RI College in non-conf play.

Roger Williams losses were:

1.). At Tufts
2.). At Univ of New England (RWU won rematch)
3.). At Curry (RWU won rematch)

UMass Dartmouth losses were:

1.). at Roger Williams
2.). vs Tufts
3.). vs Bowdoin

So as to common opponents, both teams lost to Tufts and defeated RI College.

Roger Williams got correctly ranked ahead of UMass-Dartmouth in the Feb. 7 rankings, based on the head to head win.




Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 12, 2018, 02:55:15 PM
BTW, why are UMass Dartmouth supporters even arguing about their position in the Week 1 regional rankings?  The Corsairs are definitely good enough to win the Little East tournament-- UMass-Dartmouth even has home court advantage.

Go out and win the conference tournament, and you will not have to worry about the selection committee.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 12, 2018, 03:30:03 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 12, 2018, 11:49:58 AM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 11, 2018, 04:11:11 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 11, 2018, 03:58:08 PM
RWU has the head to head victory very early on in the year and the Hawks are having a great season, no doubt.  With that being said, Mass Dartmouth has a tougher schedule with better victories under their belt. Mean while Roger Williams lost to Curry.  I agree with the top four in the rankings but I think Mass Dartmouth has to be Fifth in the region. RWU would be close behind MassD.

So a few things...
- Mass Dartmouth has a stronger SOS than Roger Williams
- Roger Williams has a head-to-head win over Mass Dartmouth
- WL is equal

That makes things a push and will force the committee to look at comparable opponents and vRRO. Remember, the vRRO was NOT part of the conversation last week as the data didn't exist.

Why would you have Mass Darthmouth higher than RWU based on the data for last week?

Okay...Why I have Mass Dartmouth ahead of Roger Williams:

1)SOS MassD rank: 44 RWU rank 143

2)Common opponents: RWU vs. Tufts L by 29 (11/17/17)
                                  RWU vs Rhode Island W by 12 (11/26/17)
                                  MassD vs Tufs L by 8 (12/15/17)
                                  MassD vs Rhode Island W by 34 (1/24/18)

3)In Conference record: RWU: 14 - 2
                                   MassD: 12 - 0

4) Record of opponents that each team lost to:  RWU lost to opponents with a combined record of 39 - 29
                                                                     MassD lost to opponents with a combined record of 64 - 7

5)RWU lost to Curry and RIC who are both unranked in the Northeast region.  MassD has only lost to teams that were regionally ranked.  In fact MassD has losses to Tufts and Bowdoin who are top ten in the national rankings.

6)Eyeball test....MassD is better.

As deiscanton has already explained, we can eliminate numbers 3, 4, and at least 6 in your criteria from the conversation for regional rankings. They are not part of the conversation.

As for 1 - the "rank" doesn't matter. The "number" matters. I already said, UMD has the edge there.

As for 2 - common opponents is basically a wash. Not sure the committee is going to go too deep into that since they have wins and losses against the same squads.

Again... 3, doesn't matter. We aren't going to get into comparing conferences and thus why that idea is not part of the criteria.

4 - the committee might dive this deep, but I am not sure they will. The only way they might is when talking "results" versus Regionally Ranked opponents... but that's where it ends. The committee is fully aware of who the teams they play are, but only will go direct in comparison on actual compared opponents. The SOS takes care of the rest.

5 - This isn't an item that was part of the first week's regional rankings, so using it to make your argument for the first week's isn't relevant. Results versus Regionally Ranked Opponents (vRRO) is taken into account this week for the first time. You couldn't even compile that data until the first regional rankings were released, anyway. Thus why it isn't a factor until the RACs meet Tuesday and the national committee chats on Wednesday.

BTW - in 2 you point out that RWU beat RIC... but than in 5 you say RWU lost to RIC. Nope. They beat RIC. Did you mean UNE?

The irony of your argument in 5 is "UMD has only lost to teams who are regionally ranked" which happens to include a head-to-head loss to RWU. Your argument only works because RWU is regionally ranked, ahead of UMD.

Also, wins matter as much as losses especially in DIII. vRRO is "results" and not just wins, losses, WL%, etc.

Oh... and we aren't even going to go into 6 and the eye test. Welcome to DIII... the eye test isn't part of this. If you would like to include the eye test, feel free to enjoy DI.

You may want to read this article on D3hoops.com last week: http://www.d3hoops.com/columns/around-the-nation/2017-18/ncaa-tournament-committees. It is very helpful to understand how things work. You are also welcome to click on the Hoopsville Marathon link early in that article. The first interview that day was with the national committee chair Bobbi Morgan.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 13, 2018, 11:14:13 AM
Dartmouth is far & away the best team in the conference so they handle their business and wrap up the auto bid and not have to leave it in the hands of Indianapolis.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 13, 2018, 11:19:11 AM
Dartmouth has locked up the 1 seed in the upcoming LEC tournament, Boston can't finish lower than 3rd, USM can't finish lower than 4th and I believe Eastern has locked up the 4 seed (they can still tie USM but I'm pretty sure USM wins the tiebreaker).  All 4 will be hosting quarterfinal games and all 4 will be in the semifinals more than likely.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 13, 2018, 12:53:45 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 13, 2018, 11:14:13 AM
Dartmouth is far & away the best team in the conference so they handle their business and wrap up the auto bid and not have to leave it in the hands of Indianapolis.

Luckily for everyone, Indianapolis has nothing to do with the selections. ;)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 14, 2018, 03:13:07 PM
New women's regional rankings: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-second
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 15, 2018, 10:59:41 PM
As the regular season draws ever closer to the end, the intensity of conference races increases. There are very few teams in both the men's and women's side of Division III basketball that seem comfortable at the top. With conference tournaments starting, being at the top is important, but it also comes with a big target.

This Thursday's Hoopsville (http://www.d3hoopsville.com) is a special podcast edition - not live.

On the show, Dave talks to several coaches who teams seem like they have wrapped up their conferences races and one who may not be able to take the top spot, but is in great position to win it all their first time in the league.

We also talk to a coach who has more time than it seems anyone else. How she is using that time to help her school's SAAC in many ways and how that help is allowing the student-athletes at Southern Maine to give back to the school, the community, and many more.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio. You can listen to this week's podcast here: http://bit.ly/2EtvKH0

If you have questions, be sure to email them to hoopsville@d3hoops.com or interact with the show via the social media avenues.

A reminder, Hoopsville will return to live shows on Sunday, February 18, starting at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Guests include (in order of appearance):
- Pete Moran, No. 18 John Carroll men's coach
- Allison Coleman, Sage women's coach
- Samantha Allen, Southern Maine women's coach (WBCA Center Court)
- Trevor Woodruff, No. 13 Scranton women's coach

To get access to all the podcasts during the season, there are three ways (click on the images when necessary):
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Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 16, 2018, 01:01:35 AM
So, the top 4 is officially set after Boston beats Maine and Eastern loses to Western: Dartmouth is 1, Boston is 2, Southern Maine is 3, Eastern is 4.  On the bottom half of the bracket, Western & Keene are tied, but due to Western's win over Eastern they currently own the tiebreaker so if both win or both lose Saturday (Western @ Boston, Keene @ Dartmouth) Western wins the 5th seed & Keene will wind up 6.  Plymouth & RIC are currently tied for 7th, but since the 2 teams play each other on Saturday the winner gets the 7 seed, loser to 8th.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 16, 2018, 08:56:42 AM
New question: How is Mass Boston not regionally ranked at this point?  They should at least be ahead of UNE.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 16, 2018, 09:54:48 AM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 16, 2018, 08:56:42 AM
New question: How is Mass Boston not regionally ranked at this point?  They should at least be ahead of UNE.

Data from Feb. 14 rankings--

UMass Boston's d3 w/l record through Feb. 11 was 18-3 (.857) (Fisher is NAIA, Dean is a 1st yr provisional school-- wins vs Fisher and Dean are not counted in primary criteria.)

UMass Boston's SOS is .489 in Feb. 14 data sheet.

UMass Boston was 0-2 vs d3 teams ranked in Feb. 7 rankings (both losses to #6 NE UMass Dartmouth)

Univ of New England was 18-5 (.783) through games of Feb. 11, with all of their games counted in primary criteria.

Univ of New England's SOS is .524 in Feb. 14 rankings.

Univ of New England is 1-4 vs d3 teams ranked in Feb. 7 rankings. (1-1 v Roger Williams, losses vs Bowdoin, Tufts, and St Joe's Maine)

No head to head between these two, and both teams beat the same common opponents on their schedules.

Univ of New England gets the edge with a result vs a regionally ranked opponent, plus an SOS above .500

Keep in mind, though, that Univ of New England is ranked #11 in Northeast this week-- therefore, Univ of New England will have to win their conf tournament to get into NCAAs, as would UMass Boston.

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 16, 2018, 01:26:13 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 16, 2018, 08:56:42 AM
New question: How is Mass Boston not regionally ranked at this point?  They should at least be ahead of UNE.

Because their schedule is atrocious.  They've really only played 1 good team all season (UMass-Dartmouth) and got crushed twice and their 3rd loss is to a bad Colby team.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 17, 2018, 08:31:16 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/yT5yXE8.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/NjzT870.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2018, 10:07:20 PM
This tournament isn't even worth paying attention to.  The top team (Dartmouth) is just so completely far and away better than the others there is absolutely no intrigue at all, and really the 2nd team (Boston) has a big leg up on the other 6 as well that it may not even make 1 of the semifinals worth paying attention to.  The only intrigue worth paying attention to is whether Western or Eastern gets the 4th semifinal spot. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 21, 2018, 02:03:22 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/CQZPkEb.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 21, 2018, 11:26:40 AM
What a complete surprise, the top 4 seeds all won.  Who didn't see that??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 21, 2018, 03:00:03 PM
The NCAA released the third set of women's basketball regional rankings with few changes from last week's version. This is the final set that we'll see before the Tournament bracket is released on Monday. Full list here: http://d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-third

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Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 22, 2018, 11:06:28 AM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 21, 2018, 03:00:03 PM
The NCAA released the third set of women's basketball regional rankings with few changes from last week's version. This is the final set that we'll see before the Tournament bracket is released on Monday. Full list here: http://d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-third

(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdnak1.psbin.com%2Fimg%2Fmw%3D600%2Fmh%3D600%2Fcr%3Dn%2Fd%3D0begr%2Fubzdidgxaify2q9n.jpg&hash=68b1f68498c4a6922677a000ef21ce5f57ae4bbb)

How Roger Williams is still ranked ahead of MassDartmouth at this point is beyond me.  If you tell me, "the data..." then guess what?  The algorithm applied to the data is wrong.  MassDartmouth's record is better with a higher SOS.  They have only lost to RRO's.  RWU has three losses now to unranked opp's.  They need to tweak how the criteria is applied!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 22, 2018, 12:09:10 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 22, 2018, 11:06:28 AM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 21, 2018, 03:00:03 PM
The NCAA released the third set of women's basketball regional rankings with few changes from last week's version. This is the final set that we'll see before the Tournament bracket is released on Monday. Full list here: http://d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-third

(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdnak1.psbin.com%2Fimg%2Fmw%3D600%2Fmh%3D600%2Fcr%3Dn%2Fd%3D0begr%2Fubzdidgxaify2q9n.jpg&hash=68b1f68498c4a6922677a000ef21ce5f57ae4bbb)

How Roger Williams is still ranked ahead of MassDartmouth at this point is beyond me.  If you tell me, "the data..." then guess what?  The algorithm applied to the data is wrong.  MassDartmouth's record is better with a higher SOS.  They have only lost to RRO's.  RWU has three losses now to unranked opp's.  They need to tweak how the criteria is applied!

The criteria is determined by the DIII Championships Committee and is not just specific to basketball.  It applies to all d3 team sports across the board.

The NCAA has always made it clear that some championship caliber teams may be left out with this criteria.  It is not that the team is not deserving to make the tournament-- it is quite clear to me that both Roger Williams and UMass Dartmouth belong in the field of 64.  However, the ratings percentage index number is not part of the d3 selection criteria. . If we ranked both teams by RPI, both teams RPI numbers would be above .595, and UMass Dartmouth would have a higher RPI number than Roger Williams.

However, one cannot ignore the fact that Roger Williams defeated UMass-Dartmouth in head to head competition this year.  UMass Dartmouth's higher winning pct and SOS numbers are not so significantly higher so as to outweigh the head to head result.

UMass Dartmouth is 2 wins away from their first Little East AQ.  Win on Friday and Saturday-- so that the order of the ranking will not matter.

BTW, only 2 RWU losses of their 4 overall losses are to teams not in this week's regional rankings.  Tufts and Univ of New England are regionally ranked.

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 22, 2018, 12:57:05 PM
What deiscanton said... and you can remove "algorithm" from the conversation... there isn't one applied to anything. They look at the primary, and secondary if necessary, criteria and make a determination.

The SOS is significant, but so is the head-to-head result. UMD is 0-3 vRRO as Roger Williams is 2-1... that is significant as well. And yes, your only losses are to vRRO teams, but that also means you haven't beaten ranked teams. You have only beaten unranked teams. While Roger Williams may have lost to unranked teams, they have also beaten ranked teams... INCLUDING UMD (again, that's part of the criteria).

Eye test... doesn't matter... a damn bit.

Win the conference and it doesn't matter where they are ranked.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 22, 2018, 03:23:04 PM
Quote from: deiscanton on February 22, 2018, 12:09:10 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 22, 2018, 11:06:28 AM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 21, 2018, 03:00:03 PM
The NCAA released the third set of women's basketball regional rankings with few changes from last week's version. This is the final set that we'll see before the Tournament bracket is released on Monday. Full list here: http://d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-third

(https://www.d3boards.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdnak1.psbin.com%2Fimg%2Fmw%3D600%2Fmh%3D600%2Fcr%3Dn%2Fd%3D0begr%2Fubzdidgxaify2q9n.jpg&hash=68b1f68498c4a6922677a000ef21ce5f57ae4bbb)

How Roger Williams is still ranked ahead of MassDartmouth at this point is beyond me.  If you tell me, "the data..." then guess what?  The algorithm applied to the data is wrong.  MassDartmouth's record is better with a higher SOS.  They have only lost to RRO's.  RWU has three losses now to unranked opp's.  They need to tweak how the criteria is applied!

The criteria is determined by the DIII Championships Committee and is not just specific to basketball.  It applies to all d3 team sports across the board.

The NCAA has always made it clear that some championship caliber teams may be left out with this criteria.  It is not that the team is not deserving to make the tournament-- it is quite clear to me that both Roger Williams and UMass Dartmouth belong in the field of 64.  However, the ratings percentage index number is not part of the d3 selection criteria. . If we ranked both teams by RPI, both teams RPI numbers would be above .595, and UMass Dartmouth would have a higher RPI number than Roger Williams.

However, one cannot ignore the fact that Roger Williams defeated UMass-Dartmouth in head to head competition this year.  UMass Dartmouth's higher winning pct and SOS numbers are not so significantly higher so as to outweigh the head to head result.

UMass Dartmouth is 2 wins away from their first Little East AQ.  Win on Friday and Saturday-- so that the order of the ranking will not matter.

BTW, only 2 RWU losses of their 4 overall losses are to teams not in this week's regional rankings.  Tufts and Univ of New England are regionally ranked.

Where you and I differ is that to me the SOS is significantly different.  RWU's is equivalent to MassBoston's.  Also RWU now has another loss which now gives MassD an edge in overall record while playing a more difficult schedule.  As for the head to head, yes, RWU won but by two points AT Roger Williams.  Not exactly decisive.  I stand by analysis.  Those who decide got it wrong.  All that being said, I am also happy for RWU and the season they are having. Maybe the Bball gods will set up a rematch. Hmmmmmm
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 22, 2018, 04:48:05 PM
I don't think you understand.. what we are explaining to you is how the committee is reading it. They aren't wrong if they are the ones making the decisions based on a system they have been fine-tuning for years. You are reading it how you wish, but you have to understand how it is actually being read.

The head-to-head might have been two points, but it still favors RWU whether you want to understand that or not.

The SOS is significant by the margin of being over .030 and that is an advantage to UMD. However, it doesn't just trump all of the other criteria points. It has the same weight as the head-to-head in RWU's favor.

All five criteria in the primary criteria are equal. If you look across the board, RWU has more criteria in their favor than UMD. Thus, the committee is going to hand this to RWU has they have for several weeks now. And trust me, they are looking over this criteria every single week from scratch. However, the criteria hasn't swung in UMD's favor as of yet, especially not with a 0-3 vRRO and they can't take that loss in head-to-head away.

WL - a wash
SOS - UMD
vRRO - RWU
Comparable games - RWU

It is close, but it is RWU by how the criteria is to be read and factored in. If they were wrong, I would be saying it as well and I would break it down the same way. I don't see how you can give it to UMD when they lead one... ONE category in the primary criteria.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 22, 2018, 04:48:33 PM
It is down to the final week of the regular season. It is now or never. Win the conference tournament, earn the automatic qualifier, and a team will be playing in March. Don't win it and either hold out hope for an at-large selection or the season is over.

The season continues or ends on the bounce of a ball from here on out.

So who may be in jeopardy and who is sitting pretty? On Thursday's edition of Hoopsville (http://www.d3hoopsville.com), we start to read the tea leaves while also chatting with teams who are hoping to punch their ticket for the Road to Salem or Rochester themselves. Plus, we get a preview of what could be a fascinating weekend of NESCAC tournament action at Amherst.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio. You can watch the show LIVE starting at 7:00 p.m. ET here: http://bit.ly/2BIbiUe

If you have questions, be sure to email them to hoopsville@d3hoops.com or interact with the show via the social media avenues located to the right.

Guests include (in order of appearance):
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- Matt Ducharme, UMass-Dartmouth women's coach
- Jamie Purdy, Piedmont women's coach
- Grey Giovanine, No. 9 Augustana men's coach
- Michele Durand, No. 24 Ohio Northern women's coach (WBCA Center Court)
- Howard Herman, Berkshire Eagle writer (NESCAC tournaments preview)

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Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 22, 2018, 05:18:47 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 22, 2018, 04:48:33 PM
It is down to the final week of the regular season. It is now or never. Win the conference tournament, earn the automatic qualifier, and a team will be playing in March. Don't win it and either hold out hope for an at-large selection or the season is over.

The season continues or ends on the bounce of a ball from here on out.

So who may be in jeopardy and who is sitting pretty? On Thursday's edition of Hoopsville (http://www.d3hoopsville.com), we start to read the tea leaves while also chatting with teams who are hoping to punch their ticket for the Road to Salem or Rochester themselves. Plus, we get a preview of what could be a fascinating weekend of NESCAC tournament action at Amherst.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio. You can watch the show LIVE starting at 7:00 p.m. ET here: http://bit.ly/2BIbiUe

If you have questions, be sure to email them to hoopsville@d3hoops.com or interact with the show via the social media avenues located to the right.

Guests include (in order of appearance):
- Steve Schulman, Lehman men's coach
- Matt Ducharme, UMass-Dartmouth women's coach
- Jamie Purdy, Piedmont women's coach
- Grey Giovanine, No. 9 Augustana men's coach
- Michele Durand, No. 24 Ohio Northern women's coach (WBCA Center Court)
- Howard Herman, Berkshire Eagle writer (NESCAC tournaments preview)

If you enjoy the show via the podcasts instead, you can get access to them or subscribe one of the three following ways (click on the images when necessary):
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Looking forward to tonight's show!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 23, 2018, 06:38:44 PM
Little East semifinals-- North Dartmouth, MA

Final-- UMass-Dartmouth 76, Eastern Conn St. 63

UMass-Dartmouth is 1 win away from the Little East AQ. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 24, 2018, 01:54:39 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/bTgCMpQ.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 24, 2018, 06:26:45 PM
UMass Boston captures the Little East AQ, and sends UMass-Dartmouth to the Pool C bubble.

UMass-Dartmouth should still be ranked in the final regional rankings.  Does UMass-Boston enter the final regional rankings?  If the Beacons end up ranked, that would give the Corsairs 2 wins v RRO.  The Corsairs started this week 0-3 v RRO-- if UMass Boston gets regionally ranked, the Corsairs would end up at least 2-4 v RRO.

Roger Williams is third from the Northeast to go to the table, with UMass-Dartmouth fourth from that region to go to the table.

I expect Roger Williams to get a Pool C bid (RWU now 3-3 v RRO), along with at least 2 NESCAC teams.

UMass-Dartmouth has an excellent winning pct and SOS-- their results v RRO concern me.  The committee will take a deep dive into UMass-Dartmouth's resume, and hopefully the Corsairs will be on the good side of the bubble on Monday.

St Joe's Maine captured the GNAC AQ today.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 25, 2018, 12:04:47 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/2y0Geu9.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 25, 2018, 03:24:23 AM
So, usually the cut off for New England is about 5 or 6.  IF Boston can get into the New England rankings I think Dartmouth gets in, if Boston still fails to make the RR's I think Dartmouth will be out.  Also, depends on how far/if Dartmouth drops.  #2 (Bowdoin) and whoever loses the NESCAC finals between #1 (Amherst) and #3 (Tufts) is a lock for the tournament.  Roger Williams (#4) last week will be the 3rd team at the table for New England after those first 2, and will likely get off the table.  I doubt anyone jumps Dartmouth which means they should be the 4th team to the table.  I think they'll get in. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 25, 2018, 06:49:33 AM
Quote from: 7express on February 25, 2018, 03:24:23 AM
So, usually the cut off for New England is about 5 or 6.  IF Boston can get into the New England rankings I think Dartmouth gets in, if Boston still fails to make the RR's I think Dartmouth will be out.  Also, depends on how far/if Dartmouth drops.  #2 (Bowdoin) and whoever loses the NESCAC finals between #1 (Amherst) and #3 (Tufts) is a lock for the tournament.  Roger Williams (#4) last week will be the 3rd team at the table for New England after those first 2, and will likely get off the table.  I doubt anyone jumps Dartmouth which means they should be the 4th team to the table.  I think they'll get in.

UMass Boston also now has a case to make to jump to #12 in the Northeast in the final regional rankings:

1.). Exceptionally high winning pct at 23-3 (.885)
2.). UMass- Boston's SOS has now improved to .507, according to unofficial d3hoops.com/PrestoSports calculations-- up from .494 in the Feb. 21 regional rankings.
3.). UMass-Boston now has 1 win vs a RRO, which would be UMass-Dartmouth.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on February 25, 2018, 04:35:13 PM
FYI, Amherst wins the Nescac title and probably get positioned to host deep into the post season.  60 straight wins to date.  Let's hope the LEC TEAMS DO NOT get to play in LeFrak...just saying.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2018, 03:50:25 PM
Boston will play St. Joseph's of Maine who ran roughshod through the GNAC and has won 26 straight games.

Dartmouth looked like they got left at the alter.  Too bad for a team that went unbeaten in conference play (and really, none of the games were that close.  I think their closest win was 15 points), and who made the regional finals last year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 26, 2018, 05:35:11 PM
Absolute bull spit that MassD does not make the tourney!?  This reeks of favoritism.  How does a team that made the elite eight last year, which bettered themselves this year get left out?!!!!!!!! Shameful and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 26, 2018, 06:58:52 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 26, 2018, 05:35:11 PM
Absolute bull spit that MassD does not make the tourney!?  This reeks of favoritism.  How does a team that made the elite eight last year, which bettered themselves this year get left out?!!!!!!!! Shameful and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Nothing you mentioned is in the criteria... and how do you see favoritism in any way shape or form?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 26, 2018, 07:17:50 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 26, 2018, 06:58:52 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 26, 2018, 05:35:11 PM.


Absolute bull spit that MassD does not make the tourney!?  This reeks of favoritism.  How does a team that made the elite eight last year, which bettered themselves this year get left out?!!!!!!!! Shameful and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Nothing you mentioned is in the criteria... and how do you see favoritism in any way shape or form?

Start with Haverford getting in and work back from there.  Also Roger Williams getting in ahead of MassD when MassD had one more win, a stronger SOS and if MassB got regionally ranked, then also two wins against a RRO.  RWU loses to Endicott and Curry and still gets in ahead of MassD.....favoritism.  MassD gets votes for top 25 three weeks in a row And RWU never sniffed the 25.  MassD has a 24-4 record and is ousted by teams with far less impressive resumes.  MassD was better than they were last year by a decent margin and is somehow outside looking in after an elite eight run last year. Add to that, D3hoops also projecting MaasD into the tournament so let's not act like you are not picking up what I am putting down.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 26, 2018, 07:48:49 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 26, 2018, 07:17:50 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 26, 2018, 06:58:52 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 26, 2018, 05:35:11 PM.


Absolute bull spit that MassD does not make the tourney!?  This reeks of favoritism.  How does a team that made the elite eight last year, which bettered themselves this year get left out?!!!!!!!! Shameful and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Nothing you mentioned is in the criteria... and how do you see favoritism in any way shape or form?

Start with Haverford getting in and work back from there.  Also Roger Williams getting in ahead of MassD when MassD had one more win, a stronger SOS and if MassB got regionally ranked, then also two wins against a RRO.  RWU loses to Endicott and Curry and still gets in ahead of MassD.....favoritism.  MassD gets votes for top 25 three weeks in a row And RWU never sniffed the 25.  MassD has a 24-4 record and is ousted by teams with far less impressive resumes.  MassD was better than they were last year by a decent margin and is somehow outside looking in after an elite eight run last year. Add to that, D3hoops also projecting MaasD into the tournament so let's not act like you are not picking up what I am putting down.

You can start with Haverford, but considering the committee chair was off the call from the moment her team got to the table... you are reaching. I can show you plenty of examples when committee member teams have been parked and never made the tournament despite being at the table.

We have talked about the RWU and UMD comparison until we have beaten a dead horse... RWU had better criteria overall than UMD even with Boston in the rankings (possibly). That didn't change this week. RWU remained ahead of UMD as it should be... remember, RWU beat UMD which is equal criteria to the difference in WL.

Being better than last year only counts for talking about it on post up boards and at the bar. It means nothing to this year. No where in the criteria is there a line that reads "how did they do this year compared to last year?" Nor is there a line, "how far did they get last year?"

We did predict UMD into the tournament ... as one of our very last picks. If you are thinking you should be in the tournament based on our very last picks, then you are way over confident. As much as we try and get the picks right, we have done that for one gender in four years. We usually miss two or three because we a) don't have the final regional rankings, b) don't have all the data accurate, c) aren't privy to the conversations that determine rankings and selections. We do our best, but we always say when we get to the very last picks... we easily could be wrong.

I am not surprised UMD didn't make it. Said that to an official in the Northeast Region on Saturday night. I said the bubble was a little too fragile for UMD considering their criteria. Win the AQ and this is a moot point..

... and considering what I wrote, no I do not get what you are throwing down.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 26, 2018, 08:32:29 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 26, 2018, 07:48:49 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 26, 2018, 07:17:50 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 26, 2018, 06:58:52 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 26, 2018, 05:35:11 PM.


Absolute bull spit that MassD does not make the tourney!?  This reeks of favoritism.  How does a team that made the elite eight last year, which bettered themselves this year get left out?!!!!!!!! Shameful and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Nothing you mentioned is in the criteria... and how do you see favoritism in any way shape or form?

Start with Haverford getting in and work back from there.  Also Roger Williams getting in ahead of MassD when MassD had one more win, a stronger SOS and if MassB got regionally ranked, then also two wins against a RRO.  RWU loses to Endicott and Curry and still gets in ahead of MassD.....favoritism.  MassD gets votes for top 25 three weeks in a row And RWU never sniffed the 25.  MassD has a 24-4 record and is ousted by teams with far less impressive resumes.  MassD was better than they were last year by a decent margin and is somehow outside looking in after an elite eight run last year. Add to that, D3hoops also projecting MaasD into the tournament so let's not act like you are not picking up what I am putting down.

You can start with Haverford, but considering the committee chair was off the call from the moment her team got to the table... you are reaching. I can show you plenty of examples when committee member teams have been parked and never made the tournament despite being at the table.

We have talked about the RWU and UMD comparison until we have beaten a dead horse... RWU had better criteria overall than UMD even with Boston in the rankings (possibly). That didn't change this week. RWU remained ahead of UMD as it should be... remember, RWU beat UMD which is equal criteria to the difference in WL.

Being better than last year only counts for talking about it on post up boards and at the bar. It means nothing to this year. No where in the criteria is there a line that reads "how did they do this year compared to last year?" Nor is there a line, "how far did they get last year?"

We did predict UMD into the tournament ... as one of our very last picks. If you are thinking you should be in the tournament based on our very last picks, then you are way over confident. As much as we try and get the picks right, we have done that for one gender in four years. We usually miss two or three because we a) don't have the final regional rankings, b) don't have all the data accurate, c) aren't privy to the conversations that determine rankings and selections. We do our best, but we always say when we get to the very last picks... we easily could be wrong.

I am not surprised UMD didn't make it. Said that to an official in the Northeast Region on Saturday night. I said the bubble was a little too fragile for UMD considering their criteria. Win the AQ and this is a moot point..

... and considering what I wrote, no I do not get what you are throwing down.

Apparently you are just as stubborn as I am.  I can respect that and I love your shows and overall coverage of D3hoops.  I am not changing my mind though.  The committee got this one wrong in my opinion.  Of course it matters not now that the picks are in but I am not moving off RWU being overrated and UmassD and UMassB being underrated since the RR's came out. Had MassB been regionally ranked in the first place as they should have been, this conversation never takes place. (Sigh)  We have reached an impasse, I believe.  Please keep up your quality coverage of Division 3 basketball.  I'm glad we even have a place to discuss these topics.

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 27, 2018, 12:42:09 AM
Quote from: SidelineHero on February 26, 2018, 05:35:11 PM
Absolute bull spit that MassD does not make the tourney!?  This reeks of favoritism.  How does a team that made the elite eight last year, which bettered themselves this year get left out?!!!!!!!! Shameful and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Last year's record, last year's elite 8 run has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on this year's team.  Does it suck??  Absolutely if you are a Dartmouth player or fan, especially a senior, but this team did it to themselves.  They swept every team in the league.  Beat the team they were playing in the finals by 30 points at home in the regular season, and by 15 on the road.  They didn't have to worry about whether or not they would get a pool C selection, and the team just blew it.  Simple as that.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 27, 2018, 12:52:53 AM
AFAIK Roger Williams actually beat Dartmouth during the season, so that seems to be grasping at straws.  I don't think head-to-head is an "official" criteria (Dave or someone else correct me if I'm wrong here), but I'm pretty sure its a part of the secondary criteria they use to select teams.  RWU was ahead of Dartmouth in the regional rankings the previous week, maybe because of the head-to-head, maybe because of something else, maybe a combination of things, but it would have seemed unlikely if both lost in the conference tournament that Dartmouth would have jumped, and that looks to be the case.  Obviously, I don't know the exact order they were picked, but Tufts got 1 bid out of New England (my guess would be the 1st), Bowdoin got the second bid, likely 1 right after the other, and than Roger Williams was next in line at the table, and than either 1 of 2 things happened since Dartmouth should have been right after Mr. Roger Williams.

1) RWU got picked so late in the selection process there wasn't enough rounds left to evaluate Dartmouth vs. the other Pool C contenders from the other 6 or 7 regions.
2) Dartmouth was on the table for a good length of time, but their numbers never quite stacked up to the other contenders, hence why NE never got a 3rd team in the field.

If I had to guess, since I don't know what the official order of pool C selections was, but I'm guessing it was more the former than the latter which RWU selected about rounds 17-19, and by that point there are only a handful of teams left to be selected.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 27, 2018, 04:25:15 AM
Results in d3 "Head to head" are definitely one of the five primary selection criteria used to rank and select teams.

UMass-Dartmouth got a tough beat.  Why did the Ivy League hold on for so-long to their belief that the regular season champion should get the AQ (with a 1 game playoff at a neutral site if there are co-champions) instead of having a conference tournament?  There is a case to be made that regular season conference performance (especially going undefeated in regular season conference play) makes a team more deserving of a bid in a 1 bid league than having a team get some good breaks in a 1 week tournament and earning the AQ that way.

However, most of d3 adopted the belief that the conference tournaments are the fairest way to determine AQs-- primarily due to the situation that the d3 presidents and chancellors do not have the finances or are not willing to have athletic teams sacrifice academic class time for a national secondary postseason tournament (d3 philosophy of emphasizing the "student" in student- athlete something to do with it?).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 27, 2018, 05:04:55 AM
Here is some honorable mention recognition from the outside polls:

1.). UMass-Dartmouth did receive some votes in the d3hoops.com Top 25 this week.

2.). Noontime Sports Top 10 DIII New England teams (just a regional top 10 outside poll-- similar to the top 25 national poll) for Feb. 26, 2018--

1.). Amherst
2.). Tufts
3.). Bowdoin
4.). St. Joe's Maine
5.). U New England
6.). MIT
7.). UMass-Dartmouth
8.) UMass-Boston

9.) Roger Williams
10.) WPI

On the rise:  Husson, Smith, Wesleyan, Westfield State

Source:   noontimesports.com  (http://noontimesports.com)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on February 28, 2018, 11:49:28 AM
7Express....will support your judgement wrt UMass-Dart.  However, they may have been in the same path as UMass-Boston...where Amherst awaits.  Have a classmate that started his career in higher ed. as the Prez of UMass- Boston.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on March 03, 2018, 01:01:56 AM
St. Joseph's (ME) overcame a 38-25 halftime deficit and defeated UMass-Boston 61-56 at Amherst's LeFrak Gymnasium tonight in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.  With the Beacons' loss, the Little East women's season comes to an end as they were the only team playing in the postseason.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on March 03, 2018, 10:36:32 AM
Watched the first half of the early game in LeFrak...dinner awaited.  Did not see the comeback by the players from Maine.  Was more concerned with the UMass- Boston team wrt the size.
Amherst won big last night in spite of playing everyone and slowing the game down.  Opponent only scored 3 points in the 2nd half and 12 for the entire game.  Amherst is the top defensive team in the nation.  Should be a better matchup tonight.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on November 15, 2018, 08:25:59 AM
So far the LEC is 14-2 against out of conference opponents! Let's keep the momentum going.


Does anyone know what happened to Curley from USM?  She didn't play last night against UNE. However, USM looked real good even without her.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 15, 2018, 07:21:35 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on November 15, 2018, 08:25:59 AM
So far the LEC is 14-2 against out of conference opponents! Let's keep the momentum going.


Does anyone know what happened to Curley from USM?  She didn't play last night against UNE. However, USM looked real good even without her.

If she's still on the USM roster she probably just got hurt, if she's not it's probably academic related.

As to who they've played it really hasn't been much of a schedule.  Western opened the season with a 17 point loss at home to Stevens.  The Ducks are pretty good, so no problem losing that, but would've liked to see that be a little closer at least, and than won by 40 over a Purchase team that is horrible.  Castleton, Plymouth, & USM haven't played anyone of note.  Keene lost to Westfield and Maine-Maritime.  Not sure how good the Maritime is, but they play in a conference probably worse than the LEC (they are in Castleton's old conference I believe).  The 2 best wins are USM over UNE and Dartmouth over Bridgewater.  Good start yes, but let's see how they stack up against the power teams: Eastern hasn't played yet their first game is tomorrow against a Roger Williams team that made the NCAA's last year and added a couple impact freshmen, and than play Amherst & Williams next week, and also before the month ends the Owls will play Regis a great program the last 5 years plus, and USM gets a home game against St. Joseph's (ME) a team that ended last regular season on like a 23 game winning streak.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on November 16, 2018, 06:47:24 AM
Quote from: 7express on November 15, 2018, 07:21:35 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on November 15, 2018, 08:25:59 AM
So far the LEC is 14-2 against out of conference opponents! Let's keep the momentum going.


Does anyone know what happened to Curley from USM?  She didn't play last night against UNE. However, USM looked real good even without her.

If she's still on the USM roster she probably just got hurt, if she's not it's probably academic related.

As to who they've played it really hasn't been much of a schedule.  Western opened the season with a 17 point loss at home to Stevens.  The Ducks are pretty good, so no problem losing that, but would've liked to see that be a little closer at least, and than won by 40 over a Purchase team that is horrible.  Castleton, Plymouth, & USM haven't played anyone of note.  Keene lost to Westfield and Maine-Maritime.  Not sure how good the Maritime is, but they play in a conference probably worse than the LEC (they are in Castleton's old conference I believe).  The 2 best wins are USM over UNE and Dartmouth over Bridgewater.  Good start yes, but let's see how they stack up against the power teams: Eastern hasn't played yet their first game is tomorrow against a Roger Williams team that made the NCAA's last year and added a couple impact freshmen, and than play Amherst & Williams next week, and also before the month ends the Owls will play Regis a great program the last 5 years plus, and USM gets a home game against St. Joseph's (ME) a team that ended last regular season on like a 23 game winning streak.

Curley is still listed on the roster.  The Huskies' win over UNE was definitely a quality victory.  They led start to finish. Their game vs. St. Joseph's is an intriguing one.  If E. Conn is competitive in either the Amherst or Williams game then it looks good for the depth of quality teams in the LEC this year.  UMB did not look that great against Coast Guard but Coach Baugh always does a good job of coaching her team up as the season progresses.  RIC continues to improve.  Their coach has things turned around and going in a good direction quickly. You are right, Plymouth hasn't played anyone yet but they have won the games on their schedule so far, something they have struggled with in the past. If you were to ask my opinion on W. Conn, I would tell you they are going in the wrong direction. 

I am excited for the weekend.  We will know more on Monday.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2018, 02:04:22 PM
It's nice there's actually some noise on this board besides me, AllStar & Alumn occasionally so welcome aboard!

I'm not sure about Western.  I knew they employed some of the "Grinell" offense tendacies last year but weren't all in on it.  Through 2 games it's tough to see if coach Rybyczk is going back to it or not.
Plymouth won those games last year too and got killed once conference play started, I've said this for seemingly 6 years but they seem a couple years away.
Same with RIC, though I love the coach and she has a couple good assistants that were league players for the RIC in Vandell Andrade and Alex Moore.
Keene I'm not sure but they should be better than they were last year.
I don't have a clue either about the newbie Castleton State.  They've dominated their conference, but as mentioned last night that conference was pretty bad so I doubt they'll be quite as dominant.  Plus, the conference schedule will be completely different.  Their old conference (the NAC) most of the teams were in Southern to Central Maine, Vermont & New Hampshire, so even if you were an outlier for a conference like Castleton was (outside of Rutland, VT), the travel wasn't that terrible.  In the LEC outside of Keene, Plymouth, and USM the rest of their trips might be further than any trip they took in the NAC.  Plus, in the NAC they played back-to-back Friday and Saturday's and now will be doing a Wednesday-Saturday schedule.  I don't think they'll be as bad as the conference picked them preseason (I think 7th or 8th) but I also don't see them finishing higher than 3rd.
Boston should still be a player, but once again for the billionth year in a row they have NOBODY on their OOC schedule, so once again when they get out to a 20-4 record and aren't even receiving votes for the top 25 or ranked in the regional rankings don't be surprised, and once again will likely need to win the auto bid to get into the tournament even if they finish with 20+ wins.  Even at 22-3 in the regular season last year that Boston team is NOT going to the tournament if they end up losing to Dartmouth.  And with the graduation/transfer losses the Beacons had they aren't going to be nearly as good as they were last year.
USM had a rough couple year transition stretches in between the Erin McNamera & Rebecca Knight years but seemed to have found a gem in Curley and look to be on the rebound.
My preseason favorites come down to Dartmouth & Eastern.  Both have good coaches in Matt Ducharne and Denise Bierly so those cancel out.  Dartmouth has the best player between the 2 (Examond), Eastern probably has more depth than the Corsairs, but most of them are freshmen.  I'll give Dartmouth the edge because they have been the more consistent team the last couple of years....they've shed the choking dog moniker that they had with Erika Borneman, Colleen Moriarty and Kelsey Garrity teams earlier this decade but through no fault of their own.
BTW, with the addition of Castleton any idea how the conference is going to make the playoffs??  Stay with the top 8 and only the bottom team misses??  Give the top 7 a bye to the quarters and have 8 & 9 play a play-in game??  Give the top 5 a bye and have 6 play 9 and 7 play 8??  Go back to the top 6 only they used prior to I think 13 or 14??  Other??  I think giving the top 5 the bye and having 6 play 9 and 7 play 8 seems like the best way to go.

Here's my predicted order of finish:
1) Dartmouth
2) Eastern
3) USM
4) Boston
5) Castleton
6) Western
7) Keene
8) RIC
9) Plymouth

Player of the year:
Nakira Examond- Dartmouth

All LEC team:
Examond-Dartmouth
Joie Grassi- Boston
Kristen Curley- USM
Brooke Raiche- Castleton
Mya Villard- Eastern
Ornela Livramento- RIC

Rookie of the year:
Julie Keckler- Eastern
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ronk on November 16, 2018, 02:11:24 PM
 I remember Joie Grassi from AAU ball a few years ago. Scranton could play Boston on the 2nd day of the WPI New Years tourney.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on November 16, 2018, 04:56:56 PM
QuoteBTW, with the addition of Castleton any idea how the conference is going to make the playoffs??  Stay with the top 8 and only the bottom team misses??  Give the top 7 a bye to the quarters and have 8 & 9 play a play-in game??  Give the top 5 a bye and have 6 play 9 and 7 play 8??  Go back to the top 6 only they used prior to I think 13 or 14??  Other??  I think giving the top 5 the bye and having 6 play 9 and 7 play 8 seems like the best way to go.

Hi, 7.  The conference has gone to a 6-team tournament format for several sports now, including both basketballs and soccers.  The 1 and 2 seeds will get byes (with 1 hosting the semifinals and finals).  3 will host 6 and 4 will host 5 in the first round, with the 3/6 winner playing 2 and the 4/5 winner playing 1.  Baseball is still the same double-elimination, 6 team format.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2018, 09:06:40 PM
May actually make the regular season worth watching now AllStar.
And Grassi was a great player for Boston last year Ronk and I only look for her to improve even more.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on November 18, 2018, 09:37:52 PM
Just checked the Amherst schedule....seems there will be a game this Tuesday worth watching.  Believe Amherst will meet ECSU in LeFrak.  Amherst's first two games were blowouts in spite of inserting five FYs throughout the games.
Hope the Lady Warriors are as good as 7 predicts.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 19, 2018, 07:57:27 PM
They'll be better as the season wears on, hard to fathom that team going into Amherst and winning, but who knows??  That's why they play the game.  I don't think anyone predicted Furman to beat Villanova the other day, but they did.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on November 20, 2018, 08:57:20 PM
Quote from: 7express on November 19, 2018, 07:57:27 PM
They'll be better as the season wears on, hard to fathom that team going into Amherst and winning, but who knows??  That's why they play the game.  I don't think anyone predicted Furman to beat Villanova the other day, but they did.

It won't be a factor probably this year, but Tufts or Bowdoin at Amherst could make things interesting, but those games will be at Tufts and Bowdoin this year. I think Amherst could take a bump if the right team comes along, but it may not happen until far later in the year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 20, 2018, 09:13:52 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on November 20, 2018, 08:57:20 PM
Quote from: 7express on November 19, 2018, 07:57:27 PM
They'll be better as the season wears on, hard to fathom that team going into Amherst and winning, but who knows??  That's why they play the game.  I don't think anyone predicted Furman to beat Villanova the other day, but they did.

It won't be a factor probably this year, but Tufts or Bowdoin at Amherst could make things interesting, but those games will be at Tufts and Bowdoin this year. I think Amherst could take a bump if the right team comes along, but it may not happen until far later in the year.

And......of course goes to show what I know smh!  Eastern was down 63-47 at one point in the 4th quarter, outscored the Mammoths 26-8 in the quarter and end Amherst's 2+ year win streak at 68 games.  Signature win for the conference that they've been searching for, for the last 5-10 years.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on November 20, 2018, 09:23:22 PM
Yep. No sooner than I finish my post ... wow.

BTW - I am stealing some of that description for Twitter :)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on November 20, 2018, 09:35:06 PM
Congrats to The Warriors!  Yes 7 pointed out Amherst's lead in the 4th....it was with 8 plus minutes to go.  The young Amherst front court could not get the rebounds late in the game....nah, Amherst was out rebounded late in the game...period.  ECSU, made their foul shots.  Amherst missed their experienced front court players from past years.  Their FY players will learn and the team will win the Nescac...again.  How far will they go in the post season??  As far as the FY's will take them against bigger more experienced front court players. 
ECSU won by a combo of experienced front court players plus a FY player!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ronk on November 21, 2018, 12:29:01 AM
 You can add to the factors contributing to the win the coaching of the E. CT. HC; I was impressed with her 4 years ago when she beat Scranton on Scranton's court in the 1st round of the NCAA with a squad that was less talented.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on November 21, 2018, 08:20:42 AM
The LEC is 32-7 in OOC play with a huge win by East Conn (congratulations).  Bet no one is sleeping on this conference now! Woooooohhhh.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: gordonmann on November 21, 2018, 01:23:20 PM
I wondered when you would appear to remind us about this. :)

Does this mean that Trinity (Conn.) is a top 25 team? I'm okay with that if so.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 21, 2018, 03:15:09 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on November 21, 2018, 08:20:42 AM
The LEC is 32-7 in OOC play with a huge win by East Conn (congratulations).  Bet no one is sleeping on this conference now! Woooooohhhh.

Its the first marquee win the conference has had in what at least 6 years (and I don't even think the teams USM played in 13-14 were that good)??  And let's see what Eastern does this week.  They could just as easily lose to Williams (have lost 3 of the last 4 games against the Ephs) on Sunday, RIC on Wednesday and than Boston next Saturday to eliminate all that good will from the Amherst win.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on November 23, 2018, 08:41:44 AM
Quote from: gordonmann on November 21, 2018, 01:23:20 PM
I wondered when you would appear to remind us about this. :)

Does this mean that Trinity (Conn.) is a top 25 team? I'm okay with that if so.

Lol. I couldn't contain myself. I had to say something. I think maybe as of right this moment, Trinity (CT) could be considered in the top 25.  As usual things will start to shake out just after thanksgiving. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on November 23, 2018, 08:46:05 AM
Quote from: 7express on November 21, 2018, 03:15:09 PM
Quote from: SidelineHero on November 21, 2018, 08:20:42 AM
The LEC is 32-7 in OOC play with a huge win by East Conn (congratulations).  Bet no one is sleeping on this conference now! Woooooohhhh.

Its the first marquee win the conference has had in what at least 6 years (and I don't even think the teams USM played in 13-14 were that good)??  And let's see what Eastern does this week.  They could just as easily lose to Williams (have lost 3 of the last 4 games against the Ephs) on Sunday, RIC on Wednesday and than Boston next Saturday to eliminate all that good will from the Amherst win.

Tisk, tisk. So negative.  I keep telling you the conference is better than folks suspect.  RIC will give E Conn a game but the Warriors should win.   UMB will find themselves in the same situation as RIC.  USM is, in my opinion better than E Conn even though that doesn't seem to be the case presently.  I think the pressure shifts to UMD now. Can they show that they are the number one team in the LEC still?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on November 24, 2018, 12:10:31 PM
The future looks really bright for the Warriors as they recruited 5 all state players this year, who with the current upperclasswomen will produce a lot of wins going forward!  However, I do not think we will ever see another 4 year period of ECSU womens basketball like the years when 4x All American Allison Coleman was playing!!
http://gowarriorathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2018-19/roster
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on November 25, 2018, 10:45:17 AM
ECSU....which game are you going to follow today?....the MBB game in Middletown or the WBB game at EastConn :).  If you are attending in person be careful.  We are having sunshine here in Md.  but have a flood watch till noon today.  Was thinking of designing an Ark this Fall.  Thought of you while picking up some cannolis at the Blue Heron on the way up to Homecoming.  Stayed up at Fishkill for the night to have dinner with my younger son and his wife the night before.  My sons live in the NY state area now near Danbury.  Chances to catch a game at WSCU with you and 7 improving :)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on November 25, 2018, 03:03:55 PM
Quote from: amh63 on November 25, 2018, 10:45:17 AM
ECSU....which game are you going to follow today?....the MBB game in Middletown or the WBB game at EastConn :).  If you are attending in person be careful.  We are having sunshine here in Md.  but have a flood watch till noon today.  Was thinking of designing an Ark this Fall.  Thought of you while picking up some cannolis at the Blue Heron on the way up to Homecoming.  Stayed up at Fishkill for the night to have dinner with my younger son and his wife the night before.  My sons live in the NY state area now near Danbury.  Chances to catch a game at WSCU with you and 7 improving :)
Hello amh63  Just finished watching the Warriors take down the Wesleyan Cardinals on the mens side and will now start watching the Women and Williams.  Will def be at the ECSU @WCSU game in Danbury as we are only 15 minutes away.  Let me know what to look for.  I'll have my Easter baseball cap and one of many ECSU athletics shirts and be with my wife!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on November 25, 2018, 04:37:23 PM
Williams catches fire on 3s in 3/4 periods and blow out the Warriors 74-59.  Played close in 1st half!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 29, 2018, 02:52:15 AM
Dave/Pat/Gordan: I'm not sure if it's the code but everything on the Little East Conference women's standings page is wrong: https://d3hoops.com/conf/LEC/women/2018-19/standings

It looks like the same formula/link got copied from the men's LEC standings page to the women's LEC standings page.

Meanwhile here's the men's page: https://d3hoops.com/conf/LEC/men/2018-19/standings

The men's page is indeed correct with conference scores & overall records, the women's page is the one that needs editing.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on November 29, 2018, 06:17:31 PM
Thanks for the catch. A corrected version will be available shortly.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 02, 2018, 03:12:26 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/L41P96E.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 06, 2018, 01:23:20 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/zRKJyYR.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on December 06, 2018, 06:51:27 AM
My rankings so far:

1)Mass Dartmouth

2)East Connecticut

3)USM (could be interchanged with ECSU but they seem to be struggling with their identity)

4)Rhode Island (going to be tough to beat all season)

5)Mass Boston (could be 4, time will tell)

6)Plymouth State

7)Castleton

8)West Conn

9)Keene State
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 09, 2018, 02:07:25 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/Pasmr3Q.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on December 10, 2018, 07:11:37 AM
My updated rankings as of 12/10/18:

1)Mass Dartmouth

2)East Connecticut

3)USM

4)Mass Boston (looked shaky against West Conn)

5)Rhode Island

6)Castleton

7)Plymouth State

8)West Conn

9)Keene State
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on December 17, 2018, 08:22:39 AM
Rankings as of 12/17/18:

1)Mass Dartmouth

2)East Connecticut

3)USM

4)Mass Boston

5)Rhode Island

6)Castleton

7)Plymouth State

8)West Conn

9)Keene State
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Rofrog on December 31, 2018, 09:23:49 PM
Was that a knock to Scranton the article written by the beacons on there womens page.The beacons were short handed it looks like there roster was all in tack unless I'm missing something?Article boy Quote from Assistant Coach to me (You guys have one hell of a team)Thanks coach for the respect
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 08, 2019, 11:53:35 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/qTwh9au.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 11, 2019, 01:46:44 AM
Three teams at 5-1, two at 4-2.
(https://i.imgur.com/dhbBVVn.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 11, 2019, 12:19:56 PM
Some very lopsided losses for the Colonials this year.

18 to Oneonta & Stevens (both at home)
29 to Eastern
26 @ RIC
and than 36 @ Dartmouth last night.  At this rate Plymouth won't even be a guaranteed victory like they usually are.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 12, 2019, 08:04:44 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/8yos2Ji.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on January 15, 2019, 06:33:41 AM
Rankings as of 1/15/19:

1)Mass Boston

2)Mass Dartmouth

3)USM

4)Eastern Connecticut

5)Castleton

6)Rhode Island College

7)West Conn

8)Plymouth State

9)Keene State
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 16, 2019, 12:31:52 AM
Let's see what Dartmouth does in their 2 games against Eastern, and Boston does in their 2 games against Southern Maine, with round 1 encounters starting Wednesday.  Boston's lone conference loss is @ Eastern, and just because they won on the road @ Dartmouth I wouldn't necessarily put them in front of Dartmouth yet.  And don't rule out the Huskies of USM quite yet: they had the first game on the road @ Boston, @ Dartmouth & @ Eastern, meaning all 3 of those top tier teams come to Maine for the second half of the season (and already won @ Eastern), could be a key to who ultimately wins the league/clinches the 1 seed with a tie.  The Huskies are notoriously tough in Gorham, and usually have hometown zebra's, especially in big games.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 17, 2019, 12:16:35 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/9cEPbuB.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on January 17, 2019, 06:36:03 AM
Quote from: 7express on January 16, 2019, 12:31:52 AM
Let's see what Dartmouth does in their 2 games against Eastern, and Boston does in their 2 games against Southern Maine, with round 1 encounters starting Wednesday.  Boston's lone conference loss is @ Eastern, and just because they won on the road @ Dartmouth I wouldn't necessarily put them in front of Dartmouth yet.  And don't rule out the Huskies of USM quite yet: they had the first game on the road @ Boston, @ Dartmouth & @ Eastern, meaning all 3 of those top tier teams come to Maine for the second half of the season (and already won @ Eastern), could be a key to who ultimately wins the league/clinches the 1 seed with a tie.  The Huskies are notoriously tough in Gorham, and usually have hometown zebra's, especially in big games.

I agree with everything you are saying.  However, as of right now, UMB is the top dog with their win over Mass Dartmouth. Also, you are right that this next week or two will be more pivotal on determining who's real and who is not real. My rankings next week will reflect whatever happens this week.  I am sure there will be changes.  ;)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on January 17, 2019, 06:42:20 AM
Congratulations to Coach Ducharme on his 100th career win last night. He got it at home in a thrilling game against East Conn.  His team pulled through for him in an uphill battle all game.

On a side note, it is good to see a lot of parody in the top 4 teams in the LEC.  I am going to say this again, the LEC is becoming a much stronger conference!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 17, 2019, 11:49:57 PM
You know the Beacons have come a long way when you can say a loss to a team they were winless against up until 2014 or 2015 is a "bad loss."  But that's where the Beacons are right now.  Followed up the win @ Dartmouth with a home loss to USM.  Just bases on what I said the other day with USM getting the 2nd games against Dartmouth, Eastern & Boston in Maine, they would be my favorite, especially with USM winning 2 of those 3 games on the road.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 19, 2019, 09:00:32 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/jsKEZv8.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 20, 2019, 12:16:42 PM
And than USM follows that up by losing to Keene, SMFH.  I give up!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on January 22, 2019, 08:22:42 AM
My rankings as of 1/22/19

1)UMassD

2)USM

3)UMassB

4)East Conn

5)Rhode Island College

6)Castleton

7)West Conn

8)Plymouth St

9)Keene St

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 24, 2019, 12:47:44 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/LkAuLmU.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 26, 2019, 09:07:58 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/RFGvSqv.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on January 28, 2019, 10:36:06 AM
My rankings as of 1/28/19

1)UMassD

2)USM

3)UMassB

4)East Conn

5)Rhode Island College

6)Castleton

7)West Conn

8)Plymouth St

9)Keene St

Nothing changes this week
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on January 30, 2019, 01:49:56 PM
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The Hoopsville Marathon Show ... is tomorrow!

Tune in starting at 12:00 p.m. ET as we talk to guests from around the country about nothing but #d3hoops.

It is all about celebrating the season, student-athletes, coaches, and an exciting season.

For more information, click here: http://bit.ly/2HGx0N3

We will share more about the show a little later.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 31, 2019, 01:51:57 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/QoPEqEA.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 03, 2019, 12:59:01 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/oLpXgu5.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 05, 2019, 06:25:56 AM
My rankings as of 2/5/19

1)UMassD

2)UMassB

3)USM

4)East Conn

5)Rhode Island College

6)Castleton

7)West Conn

8)Plymouth St

9)Keene St

UMB and USM change places due to UMB winning as USM
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 06, 2019, 02:39:11 PM
First women's regional rankings are out: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-first
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 07, 2019, 01:26:46 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/2H5hsV0.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 08, 2019, 09:56:20 AM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 06, 2019, 02:39:11 PM
First women's regional rankings are out: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-first

I think Dartmouth is in decent shape for a pool C.  Once again like last year, the 2 losers in the NESCAC of: Tufts, Bowdoin, Amherst will come off the board fairly quickly, likely within the first 5 picks, if not top 2 or even top 3, and unlike last year where they started ranked like 7 or 8, this year they are 5.  Assuming they keep winning into the LEC semifinals or even better the LEC finals, and Joes of Maine and Babson win the pool A, they could be the 3rd team at the table from the Northeast, and could possibly be there at the start of the 3rd round.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 08, 2019, 10:44:26 AM
Quote from: 7express on February 08, 2019, 09:56:20 AM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 06, 2019, 02:39:11 PM
First women's regional rankings are out: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-first

I think Dartmouth is in decent shape for a pool C.  Once again like last year, the 2 losers in the NESCAC of: Tufts, Bowdoin, Amherst will come off the board fairly quickly, likely within the first 5 picks, if not top 2 or even top 3, and unlike last year where they started ranked like 7 or 8, this year they are 5.  Assuming they keep winning into the LEC semifinals or even better the LEC finals, and Joes of Maine and Babson win the pool A, they could be the 3rd team at the table from the Northeast, and could possibly be there at the start of the 3rd round.

It appears that way so far. I have my eye on UMassD at UmassB next week.  UMD HAS to win that game to have a chance in pool C.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 09, 2019, 10:48:02 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/0V7cz4A.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 10, 2019, 04:36:35 PM
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The 2018-19 season has entered it's final weeks. For some teams, their final games are this week. For others, they are fighting to hopefully still be playing next week and maybe beyond. While others hope their season stretches into March, as long as they take care of business this week and next.

The season can really all boil down to a couple of games. While November is just as important, February games seem to have a different feel to them. Regional Rankings coming out gives everyone a new sense of where they stand if they have postseason plans. Conference tournaments getting ready to start also gives gives teams more incentive to lock up seedings or berths.

As a result: A lot of craziness and games to watch on any given night.

On Sunday's Hoopsville (http://www.d3hoopsville.com), Dave and guests try and take the temperature of these final few weeks. Who has turned heads, who seems to be stumbling down the stretch, and who should we be talking about while we've been distracted by the usual suspects.

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Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 13, 2019, 02:53:11 PM
Regional Rankings Week 2 released: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-second
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 13, 2019, 10:14:24 PM
I believe the only thing to be decided is the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds.  UMD is 1, ECSU is 2, RIC is 5, CU is 6.  WCSU, PSU, KSC are out.
(https://i.imgur.com/M2JirtL.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 14, 2019, 03:57:36 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 13, 2019, 02:53:11 PM
Regional Rankings Week 2 released: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-second

Good news: 3 LEC teams in the regional rankings.
Bad news: Those 3 LEC teams are all placed 7th or lower meaning this is likely a 1 bid league IF everything plays out as is.  Plus, the Wednesday night Dartmouth win over Boston isn't included in these rankings, so they will probably be knocked out next week.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 16, 2019, 11:29:53 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/Hofx0I2.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/PfSBrbn.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 17, 2019, 01:14:58 AM
I think the Dartmouth/Boston semifinal winner is ultimately taking home the title.  I'd go Dartmouth now but that could change.

Boston really disappointed this year.  According to AllStar's chart they were the only playoff team to beat Dartmouth but have a few perplexing losses like Castleton & RIC they really shouldn't be losing.
Eastern lost 3 games at home but only 1 on the road, plus remember have the road win over Amherst this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ronk on February 17, 2019, 01:24:40 AM
 Boston's coach said on hoopsville that losing their SG(Dixon?) in the beginning of the WPI holiday tourney was something that took time to adjust to new roles for the team.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 20, 2019, 12:44:56 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/vFrI9Rp.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 20, 2019, 09:44:54 AM
And.......just what I thought might happen Boston loses by 22  ::).  What a disappointment!

I can't see Dartmouth losing at home to the rest of these teams, though USM and Eastern both lost to the Corsairs closer on the road than at home, and RIC lost by 1 at the Murray Center.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 20, 2019, 03:00:17 PM
The new NCAA Division III women's basketball regional rankings are posted: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-third
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 20, 2019, 06:23:52 PM
I know Boston's loss last night wasn't included in this week's rankings but I'm very surprised Boston stayed in the rankings at #12 despite losing twice whereabouts Dartmouth wins twice including over #12 Boston but DROPS in the rankings.  Something doesn't seem right.

And how bad is the Northeast region that a team that is 17-6, #12, last on the board, loses twice yet still remains in the rankings??  They've got to have someone better don't they??
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 20, 2019, 11:58:35 PM
Quote from: 7express on February 20, 2019, 06:23:52 PM
I know Boston's loss last night wasn't included in this week's rankings but I'm very surprised Boston stayed in the rankings at #12 despite losing twice whereabouts Dartmouth wins twice including over #12 Boston but DROPS in the rankings.  Something doesn't seem right.

And how bad is the Northeast region that a team that is 17-6, #12, last on the board, loses twice yet still remains in the rankings??  They've got to have someone better don't they??

You can't look at rankings at just how two teams do. There are so many moving parts. Data is constantly changing. SOS, vRRO, WL%, etc. And this time of year, losses are far more prevalent due to end of season pushes and conference tournaments. If you look at what else is changing, who is moving in and out of rankings - along with who is moving up and down (affecting vRRO), plus other items, you will see how teams can drop when winning and stay the same despite losing.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 22, 2019, 08:16:43 PM
Barring a huge second half turnaround Dartmouth, a 71-65 winner over RIC will be playing Eastern tomorrow for the right to go dancing.  Eastern currently up on USM at the half 44-21 😳🤦🏻‍♂️
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 22, 2019, 11:16:24 PM
Eastern beats Southern Maine by about 35 to play Dartmouth for the title on Saturday.  I think the loser ends up just missing out on a tourney spot so this looks to be a winner take all game.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 23, 2019, 07:42:22 PM
Congrats to the ECSU women for a wonderful season, and the LEC Championship, especially as they did it with substantial minutes from a bunch of very special freshman players!  Anna Berry et al will be huge for Eastern in the next 3 years!!  Special shout out to Mya Villard who was outstanding all year!!

Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ronk on February 23, 2019, 10:21:22 PM
 Saw Anna Barry play a few times in AAU 2 seasons ago; thought she'd be a factor in D3.
Bad NCAA experience for Scranton with ECSU and Coach Bierly 4 years ago; wouldn't mind skipping the opportunity to play them again in the 1st weekend this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 23, 2019, 11:21:47 PM
For the second straight year Dartmouth shoots itself in the foot in the LEC championship game against a team it had beaten twice during the regular season.  Last year I think they had better numbers and missed will definitely be a stressful 36 hours or so for the Corsairs.  I'm guessing they do not make the cut again this year.  Tufts/Bowdoin loser will get 1 in the region, Amherst will get a second.  St. Joes will likely be next up and should get a bid.  I doubt Middlebury drops below Dartmouth in the next rankings (they were 6 last week, Dartmouth was 8) and they will be next in line.  I think that's where the cut off in the region is.  In the Pool C thread I said the region gets 3 pool C bids and I'm sticking to that: the NESCAC final loser, Amherst & St. Joes.  I'm guessing Dartmouth isn't even at the table for consideration as I see Middlebury as the team up when selecton ends.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 24, 2019, 05:24:40 PM
It will be interesting to see where they put Eastern in the field.  Dartmouth has to sweat it out again.
(https://i.imgur.com/MIohBFR.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 25, 2019, 06:22:28 AM
Quote from: 7express on February 23, 2019, 11:21:47 PM
For the second straight year Dartmouth shoots itself in the foot in the LEC championship game against a team it had beaten twice during the regular season.  Last year I think they had better numbers and missed will definitely be a stressful 36 hours or so for the Corsairs.  I'm guessing they do not make the cut again this year.  Tufts/Bowdoin loser will get 1 in the region, Amherst will get a second.  St. Joes will likely be next up and should get a bid.  I doubt Middlebury drops below Dartmouth in the next rankings (they were 6 last week, Dartmouth was 8) and they will be next in line.  I think that's where the cut off in the region is.  In the Pool C thread I said the region gets 3 pool C bids and I'm sticking to that: the NESCAC final loser, Amherst & St. Joes.  I'm guessing Dartmouth isn't even at the table for consideration as I see Middlebury as the team up when selecton ends.

I disagree with you saying that UMassD shot themselves in the foot.  This loss falls squarely and unequivocally at the feet of the referees in this game and one in particular that I will not single out. If you watched the game in it's entirety then you know which Ref I am referring to.  You don't make a call every trip down the floor.  It was so bad that the other Ref's were speaking to this Ref, asking to calm down on the calls as this was a playoff game.  East Conn is a great team and they capitalized but they did not win this game without external help.  Dartmouth did noting to lose this game.

Saint Josephs lost and will drop like a rock in the Regional Rankings.  They may drop right out as their strength of schedule.  Smith and Middlebury also lost as well as Babson.  UMassD has a chance and it would be good to see two teams from the LEC get into the tourney.  The LEC is really becoming a strong conference, worthy of being a two team entrant.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on February 25, 2019, 10:55:35 AM
This ref you refer to made some pretty crappy calls against Eastern as well so he was an equal craportunity ref!  Eastern's played good D and scored enough to beat Dartmouth!  The Dartmouth coach and bench looked like spoiled brats as ECSU players received their medals, ie not one clap for the Warriors!  Show some sportsmanship!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 25, 2019, 01:18:58 PM
Quote from: ECSUalum on February 25, 2019, 10:55:35 AM
This ref you refer to made some pretty crappy calls against Eastern as well so he was an equal craportunity ref!  Eastern's played good D and scored enough to beat Dartmouth!  The Dartmouth coach and bench looked like spoiled brats as ECSU players received their medals, ie not one clap for the Warriors!  Show some sportsmanship!

We are in agreement on how the end of the game played out.  Both teams should have lined up after the game.  Dartmouth players definitely did not take the loss well and it showed.  I was not referring to the same ref you are referring to.  Eastern did play good D.  Absolutely was max effort out of both teams.  The Refs fouled out too many players and made a call every trip down the floor.  They need to understand that this is the playoffs at the college level.  They treated this game like a regular season high school game.  Mya V is an amazing player BTW. I love watching her play.  She seems like a great person as well.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 25, 2019, 04:22:08 PM
Welp just as I predicted Dartmouth is stranded at the alter for the second straight year.  Sucks, but you beat them twice during the season, and are playing at home, win the damn game!  It was pretty apparent from where they were in the rankings that there was no way this conference was getting a pool C entrant into the field.  Too bad we'll likely never know how far into it the Middlebury selection was because as I correctly pointed out I had Mid sandwiched between the Joes Monks and Dartmouth (or maybe it was vice versa??) I'm guessing neither got selected until late in the process with whoever was lower between the Monks and Mid Panthers likely one of the last teams in the field.  I had my region cut off line at Middlebury (3 pool C's for the region) and they took Mid, so it was likely a last 2 or 3 team.  It's very possible the Monks loss in the GNAC title game kept the Corsairs out.  Not saying they still take 4 region teams, but if everything else plays out the way it does suddenly opens up an extra pool C for the region which would've probably been Dartmouth but both Smith & Babson were in front as well, and we might not ever know what the final regional rankings were.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 26, 2019, 06:33:06 AM
Quote from: 7express on February 25, 2019, 04:22:08 PM
Welp just as I predicted Dartmouth is stranded at the alter for the second straight year.  Sucks, but you beat them twice during the season, and are playing at home, win the damn game!  It was pretty apparent from where they were in the rankings that there was no way this conference was getting a pool C entrant into the field.  Too bad we'll likely never know how far into it the Middlebury selection was because as I correctly pointed out I had Mid sandwiched between the Joes Monks and Dartmouth (or maybe it was vice versa??) I'm guessing neither got selected until late in the process with whoever was lower between the Monks and Mid Panthers likely one of the last teams in the field.  I had my region cut off line at Middlebury (3 pool C's for the region) and they took Mid, so it was likely a last 2 or 3 team.  It's very possible the Monks loss in the GNAC title game kept the Corsairs out.  Not saying they still take 4 region teams, but if everything else plays out the way it does suddenly opens up an extra pool C for the region which would've probably been Dartmouth but both Smith & Babson were in front as well, and we might not ever know what the final regional rankings were.

I just want to know how in the world Smith AND Middlebury got in ahead of UMassD.  Dartmouth had a better record.  Had a higher strength of schedule.  They had a winning record (assuming here but I think I am accurate) against regionally ranked opponents, which was the knock on them last year.  They checked off every box and still got snubbed for 4 teams out of the NESCAC and 2! out of the NEWMAC.  The LEC is far better than they are getting credit for.  Dartmouth beat East Conn twice.  That is the team that beat Amherest in Amherst.  Top 5 teams in the conference had winning records.  Where is the respect?
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 26, 2019, 09:42:35 AM
I didn't realize Smith got in as well. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Caz Bombers on February 26, 2019, 09:59:09 AM
I think your ire should be directed two places; 1) the Northeast RAC for leaving UMD behind all 3 of Smith, Midd and SJC (I would have jumped them over Smith definitely, SJC maybe, but probably not Midd) and 2) the national committee for using what was probably the last Pool C on out-of-left-field selection Mount Saint Mary.

However, 2) requires that MSMC was the last pick and that UMD was on the table at the time. If MSMC was picked before Smith, then return to 1).
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 26, 2019, 11:16:58 AM
Quote from: Caz Bombers on February 26, 2019, 09:59:09 AM
I think your ire should be directed two places; 1) the Northeast RAC for leaving UMD behind all 3 of Smith, Midd and SJC (I would have jumped them over Smith definitely, SJC maybe, but probably not Midd) and 2) the national committee for using what was probably the last Pool C on out-of-left-field selection Mount Saint Mary.

However, 2) requires that MSMC was the last pick and that UMD was on the table at the time. If MSMC was picked before Smith, then return to 1).

This makes sense.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 26, 2019, 02:21:21 PM
FYI - the Northeast RAC only advises. Rankings are ultimately the responsibility of the national committee. The RACs can give them suggestions they eventually toss out and do completely different. People keep pointing towards RACs as the cause when most RACs versions of rankings are not the final versions.

Finally, there are actually two rankings done in the final weekend. The first is the one the RACs advise on, but the second is a final set that once the first are set the vRRO data is run again and the national committee adjusts again.

Finally, Dartmouth didn't have any data that indicated they should be above either Middlebury or Smith. They were behind Babson who didn't even make the tournament.

Dartmouth's numbers weren't bad ... but their loss to Babson kept them behind the Beavers.

I don't have the brain resources right now to dive into why they weren't ahead of Smith or Middlebury, but again they still probably would have been behind Babson.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 27, 2019, 07:09:02 AM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 26, 2019, 02:21:21 PM
FYI - the Northeast RAC only advises. Rankings are ultimately the responsibility of the national committee. The RACs can give them suggestions they eventually toss out and do completely different. People keep pointing towards RACs as the cause when most RACs versions of rankings are not the final versions.

Finally, there are actually two rankings done in the final weekend. The first is the one the RACs advise on, but the second is a final set that once the first are set the vRRO data is run again and the national committee adjusts again.

Finally, Dartmouth didn't have any data that indicated they should be above either Middlebury or Smith. They were behind Babson who didn't even make the tournament.

Dartmouth's numbers weren't bad ... but their loss to Babson kept them behind the Beavers.

I don't have the brain resources right now to dive into why they weren't ahead of Smith or Middlebury, but again they still probably would have been behind Babson.

How did Babson fair against Regionally Ranked opponents? What was their strength of Schedule?  How did Babson do in their tournament?  Darmouth was better in all of these categories.  So other than the head to head Dartmouth is ahead of Babson.  Not to mention opponents opponents where Dartmouth beat East Conn twice this year.  The same East Conn that beat Amherst in Amherst.  Too many other factors in Dartmouth's favor to say that they belonged behind Babson especially when that loss came early.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 27, 2019, 02:19:32 PM
So you are more than welcome to look these things up yourself and answer your own questions as well: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-final

But they were actually pretty close in all the categories (even the ones you made up):

Babson:   21-5 (.808) / 3-4 vRRO / SOS .543
UMD:   22-5 (.815) / 3-4 vRRO / SOS .562


- So the WL is pretty even. Committee probably considers that a draw.
- The vRRO hard number of 3-4 is even, but that isn't a hard number to the committee. "Results" allows them to dive in deeper. Babson may have an edge because their top ranked win in that category is higher ranked (slightly) than UMD. The committee could have also considered this a draw.
- The SOS does favor UMD a bit.
- However, another part of the Primary Criteria is head-to-head and Babson has a win in that category.
- Common opponents: Coast Guard (B 2-0; UMD 1-0). Probably a draw in that category.

All of those are Primary Criteria items. If the committee stopped there, the head-to-head probably tipped the scales. However, if the head-to-head and SOS was considered a win for both and left them "even" in the committee's mind, then they would have gone to Secondary Criteria and the non-conference SOS (since nothing else in Secondary is relevant). That might favor Babson. I don't have the non-conf SOS numbers, but looking at the schedules that could favor Babson.

BTW - "how did Babson do in their their tournament" is not a criteria in the at-large, rankings conversation. So not worth discussing. That option was reflected in the one more win in the WL category for UMD, but, again, I don't think that tips the scales.

I am absolutely not following the "opponents opponents." Because Eastern Connecticut beat Amherst and UMD beat ECSU twice (and lost to them in the one game that guarantees entrance to the tournament), UMD is somehow better? That isn't how this works. Babson would have had to play ECSU for that to matter (and the Amherst game still isn't a factor) and would have had to lose that game for something even close to that to matter.

So looking at it objectively with the facts ... I don't see how Darthmouth is "favored" what so ever.

And while you may not like the "loss" that "came early," newsflash: all games count the same. As we always say, "games played in November mean the same as games played in February." So a loss to Babson on December 31 (which, btw, is NOT early; it is six weeks into the season) is not going to be diminished in any way.

Finally "other factors" are outside the criteria and just your opinion. Committees don't make decisions on "other factors."

You can see all the info here: https://www.d3hoops.com/interactive/faq/ncaatournament
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 27, 2019, 08:44:29 PM
Dartmouth last year (2018) probably missed out due to the head-to-head loss against Roger Williams, which allowed the Hawks to stay in front the final rankings, and get the bid.

2019 Dartmouth hurt themselves with 2 very bad losses: Boston & Plymouth State.  The Boston loss you can probably get by with because Boston was hanging around at the bottom of the rankings for a while, but the Plymouth is a killer.  I'm not sure even if you win the Plymouth game and lose the Boston game is enough to get you in, as I'm not sure if the SOS would be improved (I'll let the experts like Dave, Pat, Gordan and Ryan Scott tabulate the SOS) but the WP would be slightly improved.  You win both of those games like Dartmouth should have, once again I won't comment on if that has any effects on the SOS, I'll let the experts explain that, but that greatly improves your winning percentage.  Instead of an 815 winning percentage, you are looking at a winning percentage of almost 90 (889%).  That improved winning percentage likely jumps them Babson in the rankings even with the head-to-head loss, and that improved winning percentage combined with what could be an improved SOS may as well jump them the St. Joes Monks as well.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 28, 2019, 12:07:24 AM
The trick with the SOS is the game between opponents isn't tabulated. You would be hurt by beating a team if their WL% went down because of it and dinged their SOS as a result. So, the direct game is not tabulated into the math. Winning that game is more about WL%, rankings, etc.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 28, 2019, 06:28:24 AM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 27, 2019, 02:19:32 PM
So you are more than welcome to look these things up yourself and answer your own questions as well: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-final

But they were actually pretty close in all the categories (even the ones you made up):

Babson:   21-5 (.808) / 3-4 vRRO / SOS .543
UMD:   22-5 (.815) / 3-4 vRRO / SOS .562


- So the WL is pretty even. Committee probably considers that a draw.
- The vRRO hard number of 3-4 is even, but that isn't a hard number to the committee. "Results" allows them to dive in deeper. Babson may have an edge because their top ranked win in that category is higher ranked (slightly) than UMD. The committee could have also considered this a draw.
- The SOS does favor UMD a bit.
- However, another part of the Primary Criteria is head-to-head and Babson has a win in that category.
- Common opponents: Coast Guard (B 2-0; UMD 1-0). Probably a draw in that category.

All of those are Primary Criteria items. If the committee stopped there, the head-to-head probably tipped the scales. However, if the head-to-head and SOS was considered a win for both and left them "even" in the committee's mind, then they would have gone to Secondary Criteria and the non-conference SOS (since nothing else in Secondary is relevant). That might favor Babson. I don't have the non-conf SOS numbers, but looking at the schedules that could favor Babson.

BTW - "how did Babson do in their their tournament" is not a criteria in the at-large, rankings conversation. So not worth discussing. That option was reflected in the one more win in the WL category for UMD, but, again, I don't think that tips the scales.

I am absolutely not following the "opponents opponents." Because Eastern Connecticut beat Amherst and UMD beat ECSU twice (and lost to them in the one game that guarantees entrance to the tournament), UMD is somehow better? That isn't how this works. Babson would have had to play ECSU for that to matter (and the Amherst game still isn't a factor) and would have had to lose that game for something even close to that to matter.

So looking at it objectively with the facts ... I don't see how Darthmouth is "favored" what so ever.

And while you may not like the "loss" that "came early," newsflash: all games count the same. As we always say, "games played in November mean the same as games played in February." So a loss to Babson on December 31 (which, btw, is NOT early; it is six weeks into the season) is not going to be diminished in any way.

Finally "other factors" are outside the criteria and just your opinion. Committees don't make decisions on "other factors."

You can see all the info here: https://www.d3hoops.com/interactive/faq/ncaatournament

with all that being said....Babson should have gotten in ahead of Middlebury.  Dartmouth ahead of Mount St Mary's.  Or Middlebury ahead of Dartmouth and Mount St Mary's.  The point is the selections are very questionable.  My second point is that the LEC is not being taken seriously enough. On that, you will not change my mind. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 28, 2019, 12:23:56 PM
Go ahead and prove your point ... all you do is throw around theories and ideas, but you don't back them. Back up that Babson should have been in ahead of Smith and Middlebury and use only the criteria to do it.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 01, 2019, 10:10:38 PM
Preseason poll:

https://www.gowarriorathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2019-20/releases/lec_hoop_polls

No shock Eastern is the class.  Western is the only school I've currently looked at that actually has the updated roster for 2019-20; they've got a bunch of freshmen & sophomores.  They'll compete as they always do under coach Kim, but not sure they have staying power.  Preseason #1 selection Eastern doesn't have a roster updated, and I'm not sure how many players left from last years team, but I know of one incoming freshmen, Jaclyn Santella, from RHAM, will be a player for them.  I believe they still have PG Julie Keckler who played very well as a freshmen, and of course the last year for Mya Villard.  When I see rosters for all 9 teams I'll make a prediction which will probably turn out horribly, like most of them do.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on November 02, 2019, 07:15:30 PM
Quote from: 7express on November 01, 2019, 10:10:38 PM
Preseason poll:

https://www.gowarriorathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2019-20/releases/lec_hoop_polls

No shock Eastern is the class.  Western is the only school I've currently looked at that actually has the updated roster for 2019-20; they've got a bunch of freshmen & sophomores.  They'll compete as they always do under coach Kim, but not sure they have staying power.  Preseason #1 selection Eastern doesn't have a roster updated, and I'm not sure how many players left from last years team, but I know of one incoming freshmen, Jaclyn Santella, from RHAM, will be a player for them.  I believe they still have PG Julie Keckler who played very well as a freshmen, and of course the last year for Mya Villard.  When I see rosters for all 9 teams I'll make a prediction which will probably turn out horribly, like most of them do.

Anna Berry who was a  top freshman last year was not included in the ECSU women's preseason write-up.  She is currently a star on the volleyball team and played both sports last year.  She may be looking to stay with volleyball this year.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ronk on November 02, 2019, 10:01:17 PM
Quote from: ECSUalum on November 02, 2019, 07:15:30 PM
Quote from: 7express on November 01, 2019, 10:10:38 PM
Preseason poll:

https://www.gowarriorathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2019-20/releases/lec_hoop_polls

No shock Eastern is the class.  Western is the only school I've currently looked at that actually has the updated roster for 2019-20; they've got a bunch of freshmen & sophomores.  They'll compete as they always do under coach Kim, but not sure they have staying power.  Preseason #1 selection Eastern doesn't have a roster updated, and I'm not sure how many players left from last years team, but I know of one incoming freshmen, Jaclyn Santella, from RHAM, will be a player for them.  I believe they still have PG Julie Keckler who played very well as a freshmen, and of course the last year for Mya Villard.  When I see rosters for all 9 teams I'll make a prediction which will probably turn out horribly, like most of them do.

Anna Berry who was a  top freshman last year was not included in the ECSU women's preseason write-up.  She is currently a star on the volleyball team and played both sports last year.  She may be looking to say with volleyball this year.

Saw Anna play AAU ball 3 summers ago and thought that she'd be a factor for ECSU.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: cantdothat on November 11, 2019, 04:15:55 PM
Maine Maritime Academy Women's Tournament 11/9 & 11/10 at The Pit Orono, Maine

Sunday results

Wheaton (2-0) 64
Thomas (0-2) 48

UMass Boston (2-0) 64
Maine Maritime (0-2) 51

Beacon's Jalani Jackson 32 points
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on November 11, 2019, 09:50:50 PM
Quote from: ronk on November 02, 2019, 10:01:17 PM
Quote from: ECSUalum on November 02, 2019, 07:15:30 PM
Quote from: 7express on November 01, 2019, 10:10:38 PM
Preseason poll:

https://www.gowarriorathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2019-20/releases/lec_hoop_polls

No shock Eastern is the class.  Western is the only school I've currently looked at that actually has the updated roster for 2019-20; they've got a bunch of freshmen & sophomores.  They'll compete as they always do under coach Kim, but not sure they have staying power.  Preseason #1 selection Eastern doesn't have a roster updated, and I'm not sure how many players left from last years team, but I know of one incoming freshmen, Jaclyn Santella, from RHAM, will be a player for them.  I believe they still have PG Julie Keckler who played very well as a freshmen, and of course the last year for Mya Villard.  When I see rosters for all 9 teams I'll make a prediction which will probably turn out horribly, like most of them do.

Anna Berry who was a  top freshman last year was not included in the ECSU women's preseason write-up.  She is currently a star on the volleyball team and played both sports last year.  She may be looking to say with volleyball this year.

Saw Anna play AAU ball 3 summers ago and thought that she'd be a factor for ECSU.

ECSU 2019-20 roster is out and Anna Barry  is on the roster.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: amh63 on November 13, 2019, 03:47:52 PM
ECSU....glad your dual sport player has returned to play basketball.  Amherst has a player from Ct. that plays volleyball and basketball...both very well.  Now a senior, at 6'2", she is a returning starter in the front court were her experience and skills provide stability to the younger front court players.
Good luck this season.  Have not checked the WBB schedule yet to see if our teams will meet during the season.  See the regular season MBB schedule does not have our teams meeting.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on November 13, 2019, 06:33:56 PM
Quote from: amh63 on November 13, 2019, 03:47:52 PM
ECSU....glad your dual sport player has returned to play basketball.  Amherst has a player from Ct. that plays volleyball and basketball...both very well.  Now a senior, at 6'2", she is a returning starter in the front court were her experience and skills provide stability to the younger front court players.
Good luck this season.  Have not checked the WBB schedule yet to see if our teams will meet during the season.  See the regular season MBB schedule does not have our teams meeting.

amh63
Saturday Dec 7 in Willi!  Good Luck to the men and women Mammoths! (still strange to use the new name lol :D )!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on November 16, 2019, 10:54:29 AM
Quote from: 7express on November 01, 2019, 10:10:38 PM
Preseason poll:

https://www.gowarriorathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2019-20/releases/lec_hoop_polls

No shock Eastern is the class.  Western is the only school I've currently looked at that actually has the updated roster for 2019-20; they've got a bunch of freshmen & sophomores.  They'll compete as they always do under coach Kim, but not sure they have staying power.  Preseason #1 selection Eastern doesn't have a roster updated, and I'm not sure how many players left from last years team, but I know of one incoming freshmen, Jaclyn Santella, from RHAM, will be a player for them.  I believe they still have PG Julie Keckler who played very well as a freshmen, and of course the last year for Mya Villard.  When I see rosters for all 9 teams I'll make a prediction which will probably turn out horribly, like most of them do.

Everyone is sleeping on UMassD.....again.  Yes, they lost Nakira Eximond but they will have the "Player of the Year" again in Ashley Brown.  UMD's back court will be the best in the LEC and possibly in the Northeast (Yes, I know it is a bold statement). Take a look at UMD vs. MIT stat sheet.  Jordan Moretti did all her damage in 3 quarters before going out with a sprained ankle.  At that time Ashley Brown stepped up and took over game.  They combined for 48 points and won against a potential top 10 in the region.  UMD has 5 6 footers on the team (all of whom can shoot from outside and play inside).  They have a short bench but every player is capable of starting.  Don't forget they have a multiple "Coach of the Year" award winner in Ducharme.  Being ranked fourth in the preseason LEC pole just goes to show you that nobody does their homework when they submit their rankings, not that they mean anything.  Let the season play out and we will see.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on November 16, 2019, 02:03:16 PM
Eastern has the best player in the conference (Mya Villard) along with valuable role players both in the starting lineup (Julie Keckler) and off the bench (Anna Berry, Jaclyn Santella) so that's why they get my nod as the favorite.  Denise Bierly can probably role 9 or 10 deep with that group she has this year while coach Ducharme probably only has about a 7 or 8 rotation group, those couple extra bodies that Eastern can rely on for important minutes very well could be the difference.

I don't know much about Boston or RIC's rosters from last year to this year to make an educated guess on them.  Boston usually seems to have a high roster turnover from year to year though.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on November 17, 2019, 09:20:43 AM
Quote from: 7express on November 16, 2019, 02:03:16 PM
Eastern has the best player in the conference (Mya Villard) along with valuable role players both in the starting lineup (Julie Keckler) and off the bench (Anna Berry, Jaclyn Santella) so that's why they get my nod as the favorite.  Denise Bierly can probably role 9 or 10 deep with that group she has this year while coach Ducharme probably only has about a 7 or 8 rotation group, those couple extra bodies that Eastern can rely on for important minutes very well could be the difference.

I don't know much about Boston or RIC's rosters from last year to this year to make an educated guess on them.  Boston usually seems to have a high roster turnover from year to year though.

No disagreement from me that ECU is the team to beat this year.  Depth will be an issue for UMD but they are being underrated. They will be there in the end. I disagree with you on Mya being the best player in the conference.  Brown from UMD is head and shoulders better than anyone in the conference. Don't forget Grassi from UMB will also be in the mix. Mya will have to have a special season to finish ahead of either of those two.  Not taking anything away from Villard.  I love watching her play and she is a great young lady.  No doubt this will be a great season for the LEC as there seems to be more parity this year and a lot of talented players.  Kudos to all the coaches for recruiting well and raising the bar for overall expectations for the Little East Conference.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 08, 2020, 01:50:18 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/hcQyf0f.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 11, 2020, 11:35:29 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/mqzJv3B.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 18, 2020, 06:53:53 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/gpJyR10.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 18, 2020, 07:59:47 PM
Looks like this is Eastern's and RIC's conference to lose.  Castleton is protecting the home fort quite nicely, but they still have to play at the 2 Connecticut schools a very long trip for them, as well as playing @ USM.  Doesn't seem like very long since you don't think Vermont and New Hampshire are that big, but it's actually about 190 miles between the 2 schools. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on January 19, 2020, 02:38:34 PM
(https://cdn.prestosports.com/action/cdn/img/mw=710/cr=n/d=4dbb8/j2b42qfyvio73k22.jpg)

With conference action always comes surprises. There are teams who upset those at the top of the conference and make the races a bit more interesting. That is especially true for programs who look to distance themselves from the rest of the conference, but a surprising loss keeps those plans at bay.

Sunday night on Hoopsville, we continue to dive into conferences races across the country and look at how the last week's results have either helped clear up races or made them more messy. Plus we talk to several conference leaders to find out how they are faring.

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Title: Re: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 04, 2020, 05:22:48 PM
Wednesday's game between UMass Boston and W. Connecticut, which is to be played at W. Conn, has been postponed to Monday, February 17 at 2 PM, as a precaution.  There is a confirmed case of a UMass Boston student with the novel coronavirus.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on February 05, 2020, 12:24:40 PM
Quote from: 7express on January 18, 2020, 07:59:47 PM
Looks like this is Eastern's and RIC's conference to lose.  Castleton is protecting the home fort quite nicely, but they still have to play at the 2 Connecticut schools a very long trip for them, as well as playing @ USM.  Doesn't seem like very long since you don't think Vermont and New Hampshire are that big, but it's actually about 190 miles between the 2 schools.

I am going to go with ECU for the regular season.  UMD will take over second place by the end of the season.  Don't sleep on them being the eventual playoff champion. They continue to improve with every game now. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 08, 2020, 09:40:08 PM
Updated chart:
(https://i.imgur.com/eGIanNd.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 12, 2020, 03:36:44 PM
Women's first Regional Rankings released.

https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2020/02/women-regional-rankings-first
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 14, 2020, 02:12:19 AM
Looks like a decent chance for the LEC to get a 2nd team and IF (and believe me that's a very big if) things break just right possibly sneak a 3rd team in at the very late round for this year.

Boston is about done, I say they need to win the LEC tournament to get in.  RIC is hanging on by a string, right about where that cutoff line normally is.  They played and beat Eastern last night (completing the season sweep) which I believe was not factored into this week's rankings so hopefully they can move up a couple spots.  They still have a bye and only have 2 games before the season ends, both of which they should win (@ Keene, home vs. Western).  Assuming they win both AND make the LEC final, which would mean beating either Dartmouth (if they finish 2nd) or hopefully Boston (if eastern loses again and they finish 1st) should be enough to get RIC into the dance.
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 15, 2020, 12:32:38 PM
Remember ... a lot changes in Week 2's rankings. Results versus Regionally Ranked Opponents (vRRO) makes it's first appearance ... changes the landscape considerably for teams.

Let's take a look at things Wednesday and then see how the LEC shapes up. (Not saying they aren't in good shape, but I find trying to read the tea leaves off of Week 1 to be challenging.)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 19, 2020, 03:09:21 PM
The second week Regional Rankings are out: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2020/02/women-regional-rankings-second
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: AllStar on February 20, 2020, 01:27:46 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/xAcB2ki.png)
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 26, 2020, 02:25:19 PM
Women's third regional rankings are out: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2020/02/women-regional-rankings-third
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on March 01, 2020, 03:21:03 PM
Congratulations to the ECSU Denise Bierly, (one of the best coaches in the game), and the  Warrior women's basketball team for their regular season, and their 4th LEC championship in 6 years!  Sophomore Anna Barry was outstanding the whole year, (and tournament MVP), and today with So Danielle O'Brien hitting crucial 3 point baskets, Sr Mya Villard scoring her money in the bank free throw shooting and a tenacious defense played by So Julie Keckler and Sr Lizzie Cretella, Eastern were able to defeat Rhode Island College 49-44! 
Best of Luck in the NCAA tourney and looking forward to the dynasty continuing ;D
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: 7express on March 02, 2020, 11:09:51 AM
Would've been better for the conference had RI College won since I think Eastern would've gotten in regardless.  Congrats to the Warriors, and best of luck in the NCAA's!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on March 07, 2020, 07:43:09 PM
Congrats to ECSU on a great season!  Tough last 3 minutes presented Messiah with the win in an otherwise back and forth game!
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: cantdothat on June 25, 2020, 03:06:49 PM
Hearing UMass Boston HC Kristina Baugh to D2 Barry University
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: Jester1390 on July 07, 2020, 11:46:31 AM
Barry University my daughter worked out for them at a camp and talked to head coach they were interested in her as maybe a redshirt. Its a program though that relied heavily on oversee player and D1 player transfers unhappy with playing time.  My daughter was turned off by the head coach who was very nice but in over 2 hours of talking never once brought up her education.  Their facilities are very nice. they have great living quarters the only ones we saw better were at Colorado Christian and their dorms made my first apartment look like crap.

Barry had been a successful program but i know they lost the assistant coach who brought in my kid last year and i think she was the glue for him. It will be interesting to see if the new coach relys as heavily on transfers. 
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: cantdothat on July 12, 2020, 04:21:03 PM
Thanks Jester
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: jaybird44 on October 29, 2020, 11:14:22 PM
It seems that I have been the only member of the only (unofficial) fall sport at WashU, with my 100-mile ultramarathon attempt earlier this month to promote the fight for a cure during Rett Syndrome Awareness Month.  That attempt fell a bit short in miles and fundraising, so I'm going into overtime to try and reach $5,000 in donations.

Rett Gets Rocked 50K for $5K will commence Friday, October 30 at 8 pm Central, and end at 8 am Halloween morning.  Counting donations received (thanks to retired WashU men's basketball coach Mark Edwards and his wife Mary, and to Mike McGrath and his  University of Chicago men's basketball program for their donations!) and those yet to be sent and processed, I am at $4,440.53.  Very, very close to my goal...which will fund a researcher's work for a month.  Wouldn't it be cool if he or she cracked the code for a cure of Rett syndrome, on our dime?!

I reached 86 miles in my "Rett Gets Rocked Virtual Ultra Weekend" October 3-4.  I'm very proud of that result, but there's more work to be done.  Proceeds from the event will be split between Rettsyndrome.org (the only national organization spearheading research and providing resources for affected patients and their families) and the Rett Spectrum Clinic--a collaboration between the WashU School of Medicine and St. Louis Children's Hospital.

Rett syndrome is a rare, non-inherited neurological disorder that is caused by a gene mutation in the brain.  It primarily affects girls (1 in every 10,000 girls develop Rett).  It strikes typically when a child is 6-18 months old, and it has the characteristics of ALS, autism, epilepsy, and Parkinson's...all rolled into one sinister disorder.  It takes away the child's ability to move and communicate. 

In essence, Rett does to a child what Lucy in the "Peanuts" comic strip does to Charlie Brown when he tries to kick the football that she is holding.  The only difference is that Charlie Brown can get back up to try again.  Those who are afflicted with Rett syndrome don't get another chance to enjoy a vibrant life.

Researchers are working to re-engineer the gene mutation that turns on Rett, so it can be forever turned off.  Four drug therapies are in the FDA review pipeline, with one (trofanitide) one level away from review.  And, iPad tablets with retinal scan technology are giving those with Rett a voice they haven't had since they were toddlers.

The full court press on Rett is paying off.  You can help keep the pressure on Rett, by going to my Rett Racers donation page:  https://rettracer.everydayhero.com/us/rett-gets-rocked-2020

Thanks for your time and consideration, and hopefully there will be basketball to play and broadcast at the start of 2021!

Jay Murry
Play-By-Play Announcer, Washington University in St. Louis
Event Director, Rett Gets Rocked 50K for $5K
Title: Re: Little East
Post by: cantdothat on May 05, 2021, 06:15:01 AM
https://whoopdirt.com/heather-jacobs-named-head-womens-basketball-coach-at-umass-boston/
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: SidelineHero on December 07, 2021, 07:35:43 AM
Jordan Moretti will be LEC Player of the year. I think she could be overall POY in D3.
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: AllStar on December 18, 2021, 11:28:28 PM
Here is the league through the first semester.  Happy Holidays!
(https://i.imgur.com/fXEjxn5.png)
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 09, 2022, 02:15:18 AM
Woof!  What a bad year on the women's side.  Only 3 teams (RIC, Dartmouth & Castleton) have winning overall records, but I doubt any of the trio will register in the pool C scale.  So at least this will make the tournament exciting: The one team that gets hot for 3 days is likely going to be the only team that makes it to the NCAA tournament.  I think RIC is the only one that has a chance to sniff a Pool C but they can't lose probably more than 2 games the rest of the way.
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 16, 2022, 07:45:42 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/aIri7xe.png)
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 22, 2022, 10:33:55 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/PAesjMN.png)
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: 7express on January 24, 2022, 01:27:46 AM
Looks like RIC is rolling everyone.
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: ECSUalum on January 25, 2022, 09:21:22 AM
Congratulations to Coach Denise Bierly on her 500th win!

Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: AllStar on January 29, 2022, 02:02:04 PM
Quote from: ECSUalum on January 25, 2022, 09:21:22 AM
Congratulations to Coach Denise Bierly on her 500th win!

Very successful career...congratulations to her!

(https://i.imgur.com/W46wvin.png)
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: Pat Coleman on February 02, 2022, 05:46:27 PM
Quote from: 7express on January 24, 2022, 01:27:46 AM
Looks like RIC is rolling everyone.

Never gonna give you ... the satisfaction of knowing someone noticed this.
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 14, 2022, 05:06:39 PM
After several weeks of midday shows, we are back to our regularly scheduled time of 7:00 PM ET - and we are super-sizing the show tonight to make up for not being able to be on air Thursday AND the craziness that has happened in the last week!

(https://cdn.prestosports.com/action/cdn/img/mw=710/cr=n/d=7bd24/9722xr4mzg4hms67.jpg)

Today is a day we celebrate those we love and for many of us that includes the student-athletes, coaches, administrators, and programs in Division III.

On Monday's Hoopsville, we super-size the show to cover everything that has happened in the last week while also trying to look ahead at conference tournaments which start soon. After all, we are just two weeks away from talking about who is in or out of the NCAA Tournaments.

Plus, we look at the latest Top 25 polls which will be released Monday evening and react to the men's poll which will clearly undergo some shakeup.

Guests included:

Watch the show here: www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2021-22/feb14
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 19, 2022, 01:20:20 AM
So it looks like RIC, Eastern & Dartmouth are the top 3 seeds in that order.  RIC and Eastern could still tie at 14-2, but since Eastern lost to Dartmouth RIC would win that tiebreaker.  Boston, USM, Keene & Castleton will be 4 through 7 in some order though USM is gonna have 2 less games played so they can only finish as low as 5th and Castleton will have 1 less so they can only go as high as 6th, and Western & Plymouth are locked in at 8 & 9.
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 22, 2022, 06:53:13 PM
Halftime in Providence, RI-- Little East quarterfinal--

Rhode Island College 25, Western Conn State 22

For RIC-- Angelina Nardolillo with a team high 7 points, followed by Willcia McBorrough with 4 points.  Antonia Corsinetti and Abby Phelan each have 3 points for the Anchorwomen.

Izabelle Booth leads RIC with a game high 5 rebounds, and Ashanti Frazier has 2 assists to lead RIC in that category.

For WCSU-- Katelyn Fanning leads with a game high 8 points, followed by Nicole Vivian with 5 points and Jasmine Caldwell with 3 points and a team high 4 rebounds.

Gabrielle Franks has 2 assists to lead WCSU in that category.

RIC shot 9-28 from the field (32.1%), 2-11 from 3 pt range (18.2%), and 5-6 from the FT line (83.3%).

WCSU shot 9-24 from the field (37.5%), 1-2 from 3 pt range (50%), and 3-7 from the FT line (42.9%).

RIC outrebounding WCSU 20-17 so far, 5-3 on the offensive glass.

RIC made 3 assists and committed 10 turnovers-- 4 of which were as a result of WCSU steals.

WCSU made 5 assists and committed 11 turnovers-- 8 of which were as a result of RIC steals.

Points off turnovers-- RIC leads 12-7

Points in the paint-- WCSU leads 16-14

Second chance points-- RIC leads 7-4.

Bench points-- WCSU leads 10-9.

Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: NEHoopsFan on November 02, 2022, 02:01:51 PM
Preseason poll is up, and I am sure nobody is surprised RIC is #1

https://littleeast.com/news/2022/11/2/rhode-island-college-picked-to-repeat-as-lec-womens-basketball-champion-in-2022-23.aspx

2022 LEC Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll
1. Rhode Island College - 60 points (5 FPV)
2. Eastern Connecticut - 56 points (2 FPV)
3. UMass Dartmouth - 55 points (2 FPV)
4. Castleton - 37 points
5. UMass Boston - 31 points
6. Keene State - 30 points
7. Southern Maine - 27 points
8. Western Connecticut - 19 points
9. Plymouth State - 9 points
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 18, 2023, 12:36:48 PM
At the conclusion of Little East women's basketball play today, we most likely will have a coin flip to determine the #1 seed in the Little East women's basketball between Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island College.   Eastern Connecticut finished at 15-1 in Little East play and has a bye today.   Rhode Island College is playing this afternoon at last place Plymouth State.   The Anchorwomen defeated Plymouth State earlier this season by a score of 87-47 in Providence, Ri, and there is no reason to believe that the rematch in Plymouth, NH starting at 1 PM Eastern today will turn out any differently.

Should RI College win, they will have ended the Little East regular season also at 15-1 in the Little East.  Since the Warriors and the Anchorwomen split the season series vs each other 1-1 (with the home team winning each game), and since E. Conn and RI Colllege will have swept all other Little East teams, it would come down to a coin flip to see which team gets home court advantage throughout the Little East.

Both the E. Conn St. Warriors and the RI College Anchorwomen have first round byes in the Little East tournament and will host conference semifinal games.
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 18, 2023, 01:52:34 PM
Halftime in Plymouth, NH--

RI College 45, Plymouth State 22

If this result holds, we will be heading for a coin flip between Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island College to determine the #1 seed in the Little East women's basketball tournament.
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 18, 2023, 02:51:31 PM
Final score from Plymouth, NH--

RI College 74, Plymouth State 49

RI College and Eastern Connecticut finish tied for first place in the Little East at 15-1 in Little East play, and a series split of 1-1 vs each other.

A coin toss will determine the #1 seed in the Little East women's basketball tournament.
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: deiscanton on February 18, 2023, 05:17:22 PM
From the game recap of today's RI College vs Plymouth State game--

Eastern Connecticut State won the coin flip today and will be the #1 seed in the Little East women's basketball tournament.

Rhode Island College will be the #2 seed in the Little East tournament.
Title: Re: WBB: Little East
Post by: 7express on February 29, 2024, 12:04:28 AM
Hopefully RIC can make a good run in this tournament, make a run back to the final 4 and go a step forward and potentially win the whole thing.  Jenna Cosgrove has done a fantastic job with this program.  She won only 9 games her first season in charge, went up to 18 wins her second year, and not counting the shortened Covid year haven't finished with fewer than 22 wins.  Only Transylvania has a longer winning streak in the sport (they are tied with Webster at 27 wins in a row [NYU is only only on 25 since no UAA conference tournament] and since starting last year 1-2 they have reeled off 54 wins in their last 56 games.