MBB: Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Darryl Nester]

5 games left in conference play and half the conference is tied for 1st. Anderson, Franklin, Mount St Joseph, Rose-Hulman, and Transylvania are all 9-4 while Hanover is a game behind at 8-5 but all the way down in 6th.
 

It will be interesting to see where things end up.

In the 2000-01 season, when the HCAC had only 7 teams, the final standings were:

Defiance, Hanover, Manchester 7-5
Bluffton 6-6
Anderson, Franklin, MSJ 5-7

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

1) Transylvania* 14-4
2) Anderson* 14-4
3) Rose-Hulman 13-5
4) Mount St Joseph 12-6
5) Franklin 11-7
6) Hanover 9-9
7) Bluffton 7-11
8) Berea 5-13

9) Manchester 4-14
10) Earlham 1-17

*The tiebreaker between Anderson and Transylvania goes to the NPI released tomorrow. The Pioneers were ahead in the last rankings and I'm expecting they will be the 1 seed.

Quarterfinals are this Saturday at the higher seed in each matchup. Semifinals and finals will be nest Friday/Saturday at the highest remaining seed

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Men and women are doing identical things. 1 vs 5 and 2 vs 3 in the semifinals at Transylvania on Friday. Three of the four teams will be the same. Transylvania, Franklin, and Anderson have both in the semifinal, MSJ women and Rose men will also head to Lexington.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

After nearly a week, we finally have the semifinals.

The Grizzlies and Pioneers saw the women both win earlier and now meet on the mens side. Franklin lead by as many as 15 early but Transylvania has caught back up before halftime. Conference Player of the Year Hunter Barr went out with an ankle injury when he landed on a Franklin player's foot after a dunk but has returned to the game. Pioneers lead at halftime 35-34
Transylvania kept up the run into the 2nd half and built a double digit lead that Franklin could never cut into. Pioneers head to the title game 86-75. Barr led all scorers with 22 and 7 rebounds.

I'm hoping this isn't a preview of the womens final tomorrow.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

2nd semi was a back and forth game most of the way. In the first 30 minutes neither team led by more than 4. Then Anderson built up a 10 point lead before Rose-Hulman charged back for a wild finish.
Rose got the ball down 1 with 28 seconds left, missed a corner 3 but got an offensive rebound and a layup to take the lead with 7 seconds left. Anderson quickly went the length of the floor and found a man wide open in the lane for a layup with less than a second left to retake the lead and the Ravens will head to the finals.

[Greek Tragedy]

I watched the last minute or so. Definitely seemed like a huge defensive miscommunication on the open layup. Guy followed the ball and left his man just walk down the lane. Other defender guarding the corner 3 had no chance to cover. Credit on the pass as everyone was converging on him.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Forget the Monster Mash, they're going back to the Transylvania Twist as the men beat Anderson 91-79 to join the women in the NCAA tournament. Hunter Barr led the way with 27 points on 12 of 16 shooting and named Tournament MVP/