The top three seeds remain up for grabs after Arcadia beat Misericordia on Wednesday and then had its game at DelVal postponed until Monday night because of a power outage. The Knights sit at 7-2 and now face three road games in a six day stretch. A sweep - no easy task - should give them the top seed heading into the conference tourney, as they conclude the season with home games against the conference's cellar dwellers.

Stevens (8-2) has now won eight straight after a midweek win at King's followed by a victory over Misericordia on Saturday in Hoboken. There must be some cause for concern among the Ducks' coaches, though, after the team saw large leads shrink to one possession differences in both games, with opponents scoring more than 80 points in consecutive games for just the second time this season. The offense continues to shine, with six players in double figures on Wednesday and 21 assists on 26 made field goals yesterday.

DeSales (8-2) trailed by 10 with 6:30 remaining at LebVal on Wednesday night, before a 13-0 run gave them the lead. In that five minute stretch, LebVal missed five shots and committed two turnovers. The Bulldogs made their free throws down the stretch and hung on to win. Saturday's contest at FDU-Florham was a breeze from the start. Thomas had 58 points, 15 assists and 13 rebounds in the two games.

DeSales hosts Arcadia on Wednesday and the Ducks next Saturday.

Misericordia's two losses leave the Cougars in fourth place, a position they are likely to hold onto until the end of the season.

There is a four-way tie for first with six games remaining in the conference slate. How did we get here?

Arcadia opened league play on January 7 with a home loss to DelVal, then ran off six straight wins including road games at Stevens and Misericordia. The rematch with the Ducks took place this past Saturday in Glenside and was an absolute barnburner. Stevens shot lights out and led 48-34 at halftime, stretched that lead to 22, then yielded a 33-13 run to the Knights, who trailed by just two with 3:12 remaining in front of a raucous home crowd. The Ducks got key stops and went 6-6 from the charity stripe in the closing moments to win 82-79, overcoming a career day from Jamison Lynam, who had 37 points.

Stevens opened league play at 0-2, beginning with a lopsided loss at Misericordia (72-49), followed by a one-point loss at home to Arcadia. At that point, the Ducks made changes to the starting lineup and the result has been six straight wins. Turnovers are down, opponents are shooting fewer free throws, and the Ducks' three-point shooting percentage has risen. Balanced scoring has been a crucial part of the win streak and the Ducks have 5 of the top 25 scorers in the league since conference play began, each contributing 9.5 to 16 points a game.

DeSales was bit early by the injury bug but has hit its stride, with three straight wins including an OT victory over DelVal at home on Saturday. Jayden Thomas may be the front-runner for player of the year honors, averaging 27 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists per game in league play. He has taken more than a third of the team's shots and nearly half of their free throws since conference play began.

Misericordia's two losses in conference play include a home loss to Arcadia and a road loss at DeSales. The Cougars travel to Arcadia on Wednesday night and Stevens on Saturday afternoon, hoping for at least a split to stay in contention as their closing stretch has them playing the bottom three teams in the league before concluding with a home game against DeSales. Prociak and Gallagher are the only players averaging in double figures but the Cougars boast the best defense in the league, holding opponents below 40% and yielding just 65 points a game while achieving the largest turnover margin.

Misericordia had more turnovers (15) than field goals (12) in a 95-36 loss at #2 Randolph-Macon yesterday. That is not a typo. They lost by 59 points. The Cougars were 2-22 on 3-point attempts and gave up 17 offensive rebounds, allowing RMC to get 67 FG attempts to the Cougars' 47.

Nas Johnson was back in the lineup for the Knights at St Joe's yesterday.

Arcadia falls at home to Wilkes this afternoon, 75-71, despite 20 points from Lynam. The Knights battled foul trouble all game and were outscored 23-10 from the foul line. In the second half alone, the Colonels shot 23 free throws to just 9 attempts for Arcadia. The Knights' lack of depth showed, with four starters logging 31 minutes or more.

Stevens falls to 4-4 after a road loss to a good Union team. The Ducks looked lethargic in yielding 44 second half points. For the game, Stevens was outscored 50-20 in the paint. A road game on Sunday at Scranton is all that is left before the holiday break.

Hurley's team will need to find some kind of defensive identity prior to conference play. His previous squads have thrived on the defensive end, typically yielding an average of 64-65 points per contest over the last decade or so. In the last five games, Ducks' opponents have averaged 79 points.

Two of the league's top teams lost in Reading, PA yesterday, making it more unlikely that the MACF will earn an at-large bid this season.

Arcadia shot just 6-31 from deep in a loss at Alvernia, giving up 19 fast break points in a game in which they trailed by just 3 at halftime. A 10-2 Alvernia run to open the second half extended the lead to 39-28 and the Knights never got closer than five. For the game, Arcadia shot just 21-70 from the field and missed nine free throws.

Four miles north of there, Stevens lost to Albright. The Ducks trailed by six at half but took a 64-57 lead with 6:52 to play. From that point on, Albright outscored Stevens 22-10. The Ducks' starting guards were 2-15 on three point attempts and the Ducks coughed it up 17 times, leading to 24 points off turnovers for Albright.

Early December update:

Only three MACF teams have winning records to date and all three faced off with opponents from the Centennial Conference on Wednesday night.

Misericordia (5-1) picked up an impressive road win at Swarthmore, keyed by a 9-2 run in the middle of the second half that pushed their lead to 59-50. The Cougars held Swat to just 39% shooting on the night and placed four players in double figures, lead by Matt Prociak with 17 and Jack Gallagher with 16.

In Hoboken, Stevens (4-2) jumped out to a quick 19-point lead over a very good Franklin & Marshall squad on the strength of seven made 3's in the first 11:30. The lead dwindled to 10 at half as the Diplomats tightened up things on the defensive end. The Ducks' failure to rebound effectively in the second half proved costly in an overtime loss in which F&M recorded 25 second chance points.

Arcadia (5-2) cruised to an easy home victory over a Haverford team that is likely to finish in the bottom half of the CC. Jamison Lynam had 21 points on 9-15 from the field.

Coming up:

The Knights have two good tests before the break, traveling to Alvernia this weekend and hosting Wilkes on 12/14.

The Ducks will test their mettle on the road at Albright (12/6), Union (12/10), and Scranton (12/14).

The Cougars have a pair of cupcakes before going to Randolph-Macon (12/29) and Hood (1/3).

Next up: Lebanon Valley

The Dutchmen do not have a single out-of-conference opponent that finished in the top 100 of NPI last year. Their toughest game may be at home against Albright College on December 3. They also travel to Stevenson on November 11 and Muhlenberg (PA) on December 6.

Half of the MAC Freedom schedules have been posted. First up - Arcadia.

The Knights have four out-of-conference opponents who finished among the top 80 in NPI last year and three of those games happen during an eight-day stretch in November.

On November 12, they'll host Gwynedd Mercy. On November 14, they will travel to Chester, PA to face Washington & Jefferson on the first day of the Widener tournament. Five days later, on November 19, they will play at York (PA). The other top 80 opponent is Wilkes, which will travel to Glenside on December 14, in the final game for the Knights before the two-week break.

Stretch4's post nailed the key points, as usual. I love his insights.

For all the talk of Redding's offense (which deserves every bit of credit), the key to DelVal's late season run was its team defense. In their last eight games, only one opponent shot better than 40% from the field. Stevens led the league in three-pointers per game and 3PT% for the season. Entering the title game, the Ducks were 15-0 when holding opponents to 64 or fewer points but could not overcome such poor shooting yesterday. Their starting guards, who shoot 40% from distance, were just 4 for 20. Despite that, they had a clean look to win the game and the ball didn't bounce their way.

I would have liked to see Stevens' best defensive unit on the floor together a whole lot more. By my count, they had seven defensive possessions as a group - one in the first half and six in the final 3:30. Here is what DelVal did against them:

Turnover
Turnover
Missed layup
Turnover
Turnover
Breakaway dunk
Game-winner

For the game, that group outscored DelVal 10-4 in five minutes. It is not clear to me why they did not get more time as a unit. Redding had no 3's and no FT's against them.

Congratulations to Coach Kaba, who ought to be coach of the year based on his team's performance. DelVal hosts Misericordia on Wednesday night in what should be a fantastic semifinal. Arcadia heads to Hoboken to face Stevens in the other semi.

Redding had a great game. Really fun to watch and certainly among the top 10 players in the league this year. He can light it up.

Your observation provides more evidence of why the deep reserves should not have been on the floor. When they were, Redding scored 24 points in less than 16 minutes. The freshman and sophomore from Stevens could simply not stay with him.

When some combination of the top 7 for Stevens were defending, with Goodall handling much of the assignment vs Redding, he was limited to less than one point per minute (23 in 24+). Still blazing but a significant drop from what he produced against the younger, shorter guards. A review of the game tape shows he got very little against Goodall.

What happened to Stevens?

In last night's game, the coaching staff inexplicably went way down the bench on two occasions (once each half) that turned out to be very costly. In those 8 and a half minutes of the game, with deep reserves getting time in a key contest, they were outscored 19-3. Details below.

Having built a 19-10 lead thanks to a 10-0 run, Stevens' staff inserted a first-year guard who entered the game with 18 turnovers in 63 minutes of playing time. They could have reinserted fifth-year starter Mike Goodall, who had been subbed out a couple of minutes before that. In just two minutes of playing time, the first-year guard turned it over and missed a 3, and suddenly it was 19-16 and the momentum had swung. He did not play again.

In the second half, the Ducks led 51-48 after a 12-2 run. Here, they opted to insert lightly used Loscalzo (instead of Leming) and even more lightly used Scott (instead of Coughlan) at the 13:06 mark.

In two and a half minutes of playing time, Scott committed two fouls, the Ducks turned it over three times, and they lost the lead because of a 5-0 run before sending Leming in to replace Scott. Notably, fifth-year starter Mike Goodall continued to sit while the run grew to 11-3, leaving the Ducks down 5 before he entered again.

Another two minutes passed without a Ducks point as Coughlan remained on the bench. He finally re-entered the game with the Ducks down 7 and less than seven minutes remaining. It was his first action of the second half, a stretch in which Stevens scored just 19 points in more than 13 minutes.

All told, in the 8 and a half minutes in which some combination of the 8th, 9th and 10th best guys were on the floor, the Ducks were outscored 19-3. In the other 31.5 minutes of the game, the Ducks outscored DelVal 69-59. Both the offense and the defense suffered considerably when Stevens went deep down its bench.

As postseason looms, I suspect they will shorten the bench, play guys who will not turn the ball over and take bad shots, and use their timeouts occasionally if one of the regulars needs a breather.

Arcadia and Stevens both lost last night. With the Knights' loss, the Ducks backed into clinching first place and will host one semifinal next Wednesday. There is now a four-way tie for second with Arcadia, Misericordia, DeSales and DelVal sitting at 7-6.

Arcadia has clinched a bid (although the MAC website does not yet indicate that). The Knights control their destiny for second place. A win at LebVal on Saturday secures home court for the semifinal. Beyond that, it is absolute chaos. I have tried to make sense of the tiebreakers. See below...

If Saturday's winners are...final seeding would be...

Arcadia, DeSales and Mis... (2) Arcadia; (3) DeSales; (4) Mis
Arcadia, DeSales and Kings... (2) Arcadia; (3) DeSales; (4) DelVal
Arcadia, DelVal and Mis... (2) Arcadia; (3) DelVal; (4) Mis
Arcadia, DelVal and Kings... (2) Arcadia; (3) DelVal; (4) DeSales
LebVal, DeSales and Mis... (2) DeSales, (3) Mis, (4) Arcadia
LebVal, DeSales and Kings... (2) DeSales; (3) Arcadia; (4) King's
LebVal, DelVal and Mis...(2) DelVal; (3) Mis; (4) Arcadia
LebVal, DelVal and Kings... (2) DelVal; (3) Arcadia; (4) King's