WBB: GNAC Women's Hoops

[deiscanton]

Home teams should sweep tonight, with the only possible road victory comming from St. Joes (CT) over Norwich, but with a freshmen heavy class I think they'll come up short.  Suffolk and Emmanuel should be big favorites to meet in the championship game Saturday.

Suffolk's small underground home gym in Boston does give the Rams an advantage in their potential semifinal matchup with the St. Joe's Maine Monks.   I would have made the Monks the favorite over the Rams if the game was at Emmanuel.  The regular season contest between the Monks and Rams was very close-- Rams won by 6 pts over the Monks in the regular season-- that game was at Suffolk's underground Regan Gym.

[deiscanton]

Halftime score from Standish, Maine--

St Joe's Maine 44,  Emerson 16

St Joe's shot 18-30 from the field for the half, 2-6 from 3 pt land, 6-6 from the charity stripe.

Emerson shot 4 of 27 from the field for the half, 1-5 from 3 pt land, 7-10 from the charity stripe.

St. Joe's had 12 assists and 6 turnovers, while Emerson had 1 assist and 11 turnovers.

Leading scorer for St. Joe's-- Megan McDevitt-- 7 pts.

Ashley Geel and 3 other Monks have 6 pts a piece.

Leading scorer for Emerson-- Kathy Andrade-- 6 pts.

Most recent score from Andrews Hall in Northfield, VT--

St. Joe CT 39, Norwich 31  32 seconds left in first half.

Although a halftime score has not yet been posted, it looks like the Blue Jays have the lead over the Cadets going into the locker room.

(Update:  The score at halftime was St. Joe CT 39, Norwich 31-- Second half has started at Andrews Hall.)

Later games-- Tip at 7 PM Eastern

#7 Mt. Ida at #2 Suffolk
#8 Johnson & Wales at #1 Emmanuel

Second half update from Northfield, VT:  St. Joe CT 57, Norwich 43  13:10 left in regulation

Second half update from Standish, ME:  St. Joe's Maine 50, Emerson 23  14:27 left in regulation.

Update:  St Joe CT 62, Norwich 54  10:58 left in regulation

Update:  St Joe's Maine 63, Emerson 33  8:24 left in regulation

Update: St. Joe's Maine 65, Emerson 36  4:49 left in regulation

Update:  St. Joe CT 82, Norwich 67  1:27 left in regulation

[deiscanton]

Finals of the Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011  5:30 PM Eastern tips -- GNAC Quarterfinal matches

#3 St. Joe's Maine  69,  #6 Emerson 48

St. Joe's Maine advances to Thursday's GNAC semifinals-- Barring an upset later today, it looks like the Monks will be headed to Boston to play the Rams.

#5 St. Joe CT 86, #4 Norwich 70

Congrats to the Blue Jays rookie class on winning their first GNAC tournament game.

[deiscanton]

Update from Jean Yawkey Center--

Emmanuel 32,  Johnson & Wales 3  7:00 left in first half.

Emmanuel started the game on a 22-0 run.

Halo, the Emmanuel mascot, looks to be pretty animated today.... 

[deiscanton]

Halftime from the Jean Yawkey Center in Boston--

#1 seed Emmanuel 39,  #8 seed Johnson & Wales 15

From what I can hear from the videocast, it looks like Meghan Kirwan is playing today for the Saints.

The Emmanuel PA announcer has just announced the final scores of the 5:30 PM Eastern quarterfinal tips to the crowd at the Jean Yawkey Center....

Update from Regan Gym in Boston, MA--  #2 seed Suffolk 25, #7 seed Mt. Ida 20  1:55 left in first half.

Halftime from Regan Gym in Boston, MA

#2 seed Suffolk 27,  #7 seed Mt. Ida 22

[deiscanton]

Update--  Emmanuel 61,  Johnson & Wales  26  9:53 left in regulation.

Update--  Suffolk 47,  Mt. Ida 32-- 9:23 left in regulation.

Update-- Suffolk 58, Mt. Ida 47-- 3:33 left in regulation.

[deiscanton]

 Finals from the 7 PM Eastern tips-- Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011 GNAC Quarterfinals  

#1 seed Emmanuel 75,  #8 seed Johnson & Wales 29

#2 seed Suffolk 68, #7 seed Mt. Ida 55

GNAC Semfinals-- Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

#5 seed St. Joseph, CT  @  #1 seed Emmanuel

#3 seed St. Joe's Maine @  #2 seed Suffolk

(Comment:  Hopefully, the St. Joe CT bus will not break down this Thursday on the Mass Pike like what happened last Thursday-- the Blue Jays team was stuck at the Charlton, MA rest stop on the Pike last Thursday while another bus had to be sent to pick up the team and take them to Boston-- as a result, St. Joe CT did not arrive at Emmanuel until 7 PM Eastern last Thursday, and had to shorten their warm up time to 30 minutes.   The game tipped 1/2 hour late at 7:30 PM Eastern.   On the one hand, the St. Joe CT rookies should have plenty of time to warm up for this GNAC semifinal.   On the other hand, the Blue Jays will have to face Meghan Kirwan-- and Emmanuel did not need Kirwan to blow out St. Joe CT last week.)

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Final Regional Rankings before Selection Sunday: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/category/ncaa-stuff/regional-rankings/

[deiscanton]

GNAC Semifinal results

#1 Emmanuel 67 , #5 St. Joe CT 47
#2 Suffolk 71 , #3 St. Joe's Maine 62

  GNAC Championship game

Suffolk at Emmanuel-- Saturday Feb. 26, 2011-- 2 PM Eastern.

[deiscanton]

GNAC Women's Teams who have filed declaration papers for the ECAC New England Tournament for 2010-2011 season

1.)  Emerson
2.)  Emmanuel
3.)  Norwich
4.)  St. Joseph, CT
5.)  Suffolk

Note: I am glad to see that the St. Joseph CT Blue Jays decided to put their team into consideration for ECAC selection.  It would have been a shame to see their school record season come to an end last night at Emmanuel.  The Jays have a chance of being picked on Monday to continue their season-- we will have to see if their winning pct, in balance with their SOS, gets them in.

I think that the loser of the Suffolk at Emmanuel game on Saturday has a good chance of being selected for ECACs as well.

[deiscanton]

It's been two years since I last posted on this board.   Time for a quick update while waiting for the 2013 selection show later today.

Once again, Emmanuel is trying to make a run in the NCAAs.   Saints seemed very good in the GNAC tournament-- not the best defensive effort on Tuesday vs St. Joseph, CT-- but played great ball all around on Thursday and Saturday to defeat Albertus Magnus and Suffolk.

The second half defensive effort vs Suffolk on Emmanuel's Senior Day was very intense.   That level of effort in the NCAA tourney will lead to a deep run for the Saints again.

Stumbling blocks this season for the Saints-- 3 game losing streak vs UC Santa Cruz, Scranton, and Bowdoin.   Of those games, Bowdoin was the game that the Saints should have been able to win.

The only 2 GNAC games that the Saints were trailing at the half and had to come from behind to win were the game at St. Joseph's (Maine)-- a rematch from the 2012 GNAC title game, and the game at Rivier-- which was delayed 1 day due to Winter Storm "Nemo."

Emmanuel made to the Elite Eight in the 2012 NCAA tournament.   We will see what draw the Saints get today. 

[deiscanton]

Other GNAC Women's Basketball highlights this season from other GNAC teams--

Rivier's Deanna Purcell and Norwich's Aliah Curry got their 1,000th points in college basketball as sophomores.

Suffolk and Albertus Magnus got 20 win seasons-- but will be looking for ECAC New England tournament bids as they were not regionally ranked this season.

Suffolk's Shelby Santini transferred in to Suffolk over mid-semester from DII Southern New Hampshire, and looks to be one of the future rising stars of Suffolk WBB.

Albertus Magnus's Kendrea Walker had a 38 pt game vs Johnson & Wales, and a 28 pt, 14 rebound perfomance in the GNAC Quarterfinal at Rivier.

Albertus Magnus's Lianna Carrero was named a Capital One Academic All-American.

[deiscanton]

Really yelled OMG when Emmanuel got picked to go to the Palestra in Rochester, NY to face U. of Rochester Yellowjackets in first round!!!

Williams is also in the pod.

Rochester is an excellent team.  Emmanuel does match up well with Rochester players height-wise-- Rochester is 6-1 at home in the UAA this season-- UAA Champion Emory Eagles, with their quick guards, won at Rochester in double OT.

Scranton and Ithaca also won at the Palestra over Rochester earlier this season in non-league play.

Rochester's best 7 players:

5-6 G So #13 Ally Zywicki-- Brandeis D held her to 1 pt at Auerbach Arena in Waltham.
5-5 G So #24 Breana Madrazo-- Leading scorer for 'Jackets in 62-49 loss at Brandeis-- 11 pts in that game.
5-10 G/F Sr #14 Jackie Walker
6-0 F/C  Sr #5 Amy Woods
6-0 F/C Jr #42 Loren Wagner
6-1 G/F Jr #31 Danielle McNabb
5-7 G Jr #32 Paige Aleski

The juniors and seniors are great players-- but the sophomores Madrazo and Zywicki are the X-factors and both sophomores cannot have big games for Emmanuel to have a shot at the upset.

Emmanuel will need to have the defensive effort that they used in the second half vs Suffolk on Senior Day-- and score pts on offense to beat Rochester.

In UAA play at the Palestra, Rochester defense only held 2 teams to under 50 pts-- Chicago and Wash U.   Brandeis lost, 72-58 at the Palestra, but won the rematch at Auerbach Arena, 62-49.  Rochester was very tired after barely winning in overtime at NYU the game before.

The Sunday after the loss at Brandeis, Rochester shot lights out at Wash U and won, 93-74.

[pjunito]

Good luck to the Saints as they represent the GNAC in the NCAA's!!!

Albertus's season comes to an end with a lost at Castleton in the first round of the ECAC.. Great season for the falcons and first year head coach Fredette.

[deiscanton]

Game Day!

Good luck, Emmanuel College Saints!  In the 2000-2001 season, my greatest NCAA moment was seeing the Saints beat UAA Co-Champion (and the #1 team in the WBCA poll) NYU at Coles Center in New York, NY for a trip to the DIII Final Four in Danbury, CT.  Emmanuel then played fearless ball against the other UAA Co-Champion, Wash U (the #1 team in the D3hoops.com poll) in what was the national semifinal, but felt like a national championship game to me.

In the 2006-2007 season, Emmanuel defeated my alma mater, Brandeis, in the second round.   As a result, I got to see DePauw play Emmanuel in the Sweet 16 at the Jean Yawkey Center.  DePauw would win the national championship that year-- but it was great to see the DePauw vs Calvin Elite Eight game in the Jean Yawkey Center.

Today, Emmanuel plays in the Palestra in Rochester NY for the first time in the modern era-- at least in my memory.  I am rooting for Emmanuel to get the win today-- but just like in 2001, I will root for the winner of tonight's game to win the pod-- just like I rooted for Wash U to beat Messiah after the result in the national semifinal did not go the way I hoped. 

I am watching the game tonight from the Tufts library, but I have my Kindle Fire with me for wifi.