Well, Dave and I listened to and read about William Paterson taking teams out of their game last week in the regionals, then last night we saw it first-hand. There were nights where Kris Clarkson didn’t shoot well but still got his points, but last night the Widener center didn’t do either.
It seemed like Lincoln took itself out of its own game plan in the second half. We expected a team that would want to set the tempo, and a great way to do that is by pressing. But while the Lions pressed successfully in the first half, they went away from it in the second half. The result? A game in the low 70s, which is what Virginia Wesleyan wanted.
On the Marlins, one of the few things that the staff hoped Brandon Adair could improve on was his passing skills. While it doesn’t take Michael Crotty to find a wide-open TonTon Balenga on the perimeter, it certainly was an appropriate finish. Remember, David Macedo said on the postgame show that the final shot was improvised — the play was intended for Adair on the inside. When he was double-teamed, he made the extra pass. Game over.
Well, except for the clock screw-up and the puzzling decision by the officials to put the ball on the sideline, about 80 feet from the basket, and put 2.3 seconds on the clock. If there had been cameras and sideline video monitors like in Division I (hint, NCAA, perhaps what you did for the Stagg Bowl might be appropriate here?) then they would have seen there were 3.3 seconds left. There must be something there we don’t know.
I wonder if Hope would have shot so poorly (5-for-19) in the first half if they had been at home. And so now Transylvania reaches the Elite Eight. Perhaps we’ll see some of their fans on the site. Wittenberg still manages to win big games without points from its starting backcourt, though Gregg Hill had a nice game offensively off the bench with 13 points.
Amherst, Tufts — we better leave this to someone who saw the game, and I’m not just talking about the video clip linked on the front page. (Thanks, Steve Clay.) Sounds like another great game.
Oh yeah, and Lawrence lost. Or, Illinois Wesleyan rallied to win. Pat Cummings, Bob Quillman, folks on the scene, tell us more!
On the women’s side, comments from all sides last night about the officiating in the Bowdoin/Mary Washington game. I don’t know what to say except that I was told that both coaches referenced it in the postgame news conference. Perhaps it’s time the women’s tournament started using officials from outside the immediate area in this round. I was surprised to see so many ODAC officials last year at the Randolph-Macon sectional, when others could easily have been brought in from neighboring areas.
Listened to the last eight minutes and overtime of the Hardin-Simmons/Pacific Lutheran game (love that west coast!). It sounds like HSU did a great job maintaining its composure in a hostile environment.
More comments from our people at Scranton and Southern Maine and DePauw would be welcome!
I was at DePauw last night.
The Ebels sisters (twins?) are studs, plain and simple. I only saw the game after 59-55. Nancy Fahey is a fun coach to watch…she’s the most passionate coach I’ve seen in a long time. For a second during the midst of the Wash U comeback I thought they’d blow Hope out of the water but the Flying Dutch hung tough and made some clutch threes down the stretch. Also, Hope was a beast down low near the end of the game.
DePauw/Wheaton…at first I wondered if the winner would even get to fifty points after it was tied at 5 for what seemed like an eternity. DePauw’s run was awesome…ten straight points by Gretchen Haehl turned the game around. In the first half, Trenz didn’t play very well but the guards did a good job of keeping Wheaton in the game. In the second half, Wheaton had much more success getting the ball to Trenz. On the other side, the Thunder did a great job on Liz Bondi. The crucial point of the game was when DePauw led 55-53. Hope had three chances to tie or take the lead but all they got were two turnovers and two missed free throws by Trenz. Then Haehl hit a three and it took the wind of the Wheaton sails. DePauw’s bench came up huge scoring 39 of the Tiger’s 69 points. No starter had more than 7 points.
As for tonight’s game, Hope’s post players will be a nightmare for DePauw…Bondi and Bailey will have to play the best defensive games of their lives. Although I’m a DePauw student and hope to see the Tigers in the Final 4, I’m not so sure the Tigers can pull this one out. They’ll have to play very well to win this one.
Puget Sound took about five minutes to get into their stride last night and once they did, Augustana just couldn’t get it done. The Vikings were in a hole before the game started as leading point guard Drew Wessels just couldn’t go with the pneumonia that kept him out last week. Sophomore Jordan Delp filled in admirably, but the Puget Sound pressure was too much.
I think many believe Puget Sound runs a Grinnell style offense, but it isn’t true. They just play up-tempo, swift offense and a stifling defense. They’ll allow their points.
Bob Quillman is one of the few out there to have seen IWU play Puget Sound this year. In his words, this is a different team. Freshmen Antwan Williams, Jason Foster, and others have improved with time and are now major parts of the Loggers play.
Lawrence self-destructed and IWU kept playing as they had been in the first half – even. Lawrence shot an impossible 72% (16 for 21) in the first half and just 9 for 27 in the second half. IWU outrebounded Lawrence, had 13 more free throw attempts (hitting 11 of them), and turned the ball over five times fewer. An even effort from IWU won the game as Lawrence fell back to reality.
Alexander Gym was, with absolute certainty, the craziest scene I’ve witnessed in D3. I hope the upcoming ESPN “Outside the Lines” captures it well. Every seat in the building was occupied. Fans were on the floor in front of the bleachers, just inches from the court. Fans stood throughout the game, chanted, jeered, and cheered. I expect half of Bloomington is on the road up to Appleton.
That being said, Puget Sound can pull out any cliche they want tonight…
“No one gave us a chance…”
“We have nothing to lose…”
“The crowd was against us…”
Whatever they want…it’ll apply. Because 93% of Alexander Gym will be IWU fans. I definitely believe Puget Sound has a real shot at pulling the upset. Last night’s game should give the Loggers some confidence they can play off the west coast.
No doubt, IWU is heavily favored on a far-from-neutral court. Tip is 8pm ET.
Pat mentioned somewhat in passing the key difference in the Lawrence-IWU game: the Titans went to the line twenty times, the Vikings, seven.
The Vikings didn’t play well in the second half, granted, but did so ridiculously well in the first (part of why they shot 79% from the field was that they had 15 assists on 16 FGs) that the game stats were almost even across the board, except in FTs. In a game as physical as this one, there’s no way Lawrence should’ve had so few chances from the stripe. I’ll grant I’m not neutral but even those near me who WERE neutral (mainly Augustana fans who stuck around for the nightcap) were disappointed in the officials, who made some calls I didn’t even recognize, much less agree with. The errors went both ways but clearly favored IWU on balance.
I think we might’ve seen a different outcome if the UPS-Augustana crew (which called more fouls than there were field goals in the game) had worked the LU-IWU game, since the officials lost control about as much as Lawrence did in the second half.
FYI…
Game one last night were Midwest Conference officials.
Game two were IIAC refs…
Tonight will be SLIAC refs.
The first half of the LU/IWU game was exactly like the first half of the UWW/IWU game the previous week, but the complete opposite for IWU. Instead of Dauksas hitting everything in sight, he was missing everything and LU was hitting everything. At 24-9, the IWU AD grabbed my arm and threatened to throw me over the railing! Funny stuff.
IWU knew sooner or later that their shots would start falling and LU’s would stop going in. Even with the lopsided scoreline in the first half, LU was hardly dominating: Simply put, their shots went in and IWU’s didn’t…that was the difference.
Lawrence hardly self-detructed or choked or anything, IWU just played better defense in the second half and LU’s looks at the hoop weren’t as good as they were in the first half. Do you really expect them to shoot 72% for the game?
It was a great atmosphere at the Alex. The LU student section was standing the whole game and IWU’s main section stood a lot, but not constantly.
Emptying the gym was a trainwreck. After the first game, we had to go to the end of the line, which was out to the street. No offense to the IWU faithful, but their supporters are a bit older and I really felt sorry for the ones who had to stand in line. They were lucky that it wasn’t 40 below standing out there.
Great game and I hope there are tickets left since I want to get my friend one for tonight.
The two Ebels’ are cousins.
I want to thank all of the USM fans that tuned into our coverage of this weekend’s Atlantic Sectional Championship on WMPG.ORG and USM Internet Sports Broadcasting.
I am looking forward to going down to Springfield this week and taking all of the events happening at the Final Four.
Congratulations to all the teams that are going to be joining us at the “Birthplace of Basketball!”
I want to that d3hoops.com’s Mark Simon for the great conversations about the tourney and the awesome interview yesterday!
Special thanks also the Pat and d3hoops.com for giving us the fans and broadcasters an awesome outlet to follow all of the D-3 Tourney action.
Thanks and good luck to all! See you in Springfield!
Jim Ward
WMPG-FM Sports Director
Play-By-Play Voice of the USM Huskies
http://www.wmpg.org
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and proud to be the radio home of the USM Huskies!