From Rochester, New York, welcome to the JP Morgan Chase Scholarship Basketball Tournament.
Each winter for 42 years the colleges from this area have gathered for a men’s basketball tournament. In 1992-1993 the women’s teams joined the fun. And while the name has changed with the times and bank mergers, it’s still a great event and a good opportunity to put eyes on a slew of East region teams at once.
On the women’s side, St. John Fisher plays NAIA Division II Roberts Wesleyan in the third place game (1 pm), which we’ll broadcast live. Obviously the game has no impact on the Cardinals’ Division III season, but it does matter to Coach Phil Kahler’s quest for 800 wins. He entered the season with 784 wins and the Cardinals won 13 last year, needing a three-win improvement to get him the milestone.
The championship (5:30 pm) features No. 22 Rochester, the top seed in the tournament, and cinderella-story Nazareth, the seventh seed. Tough to see the Golden Flyers (5-7) hanging with the Yellow Jackets, but they weren’t supposed to win the first two games either. JC DeLass and WYSL do a fantastic job so we’ll just link to their broadcast below.
The men’s games should be particularly interesting given the depth of this year’s field. The third place game features two teams who are likely to see a lot of each other, Geneseo State and Brockport State. In fact, they’ll see each other again on Tuesday night to re-open conference play.
The Knights picked up their first loss last night after Nazareth rallied from a double-digit second half deficit. The Golden Eagles have played better this week after dropping three straight to start the New Year. They pushed No. 1 Rochester to the limit last night. But it’s tough to have a moral victory and lose five of six so Brockport needs the win here today against Geneseo State (3 pm). We’ll broadcast that one.
The men’s title game (8 pm) is a rematch from earlier this year, won by Rochester 68-51. The Unpronouncables (Onyiriuka and Ndubizu) combined for 42 points and 21 rebounds in that one. Nazareth is playing without injured Ryan McAdam but has already had a nice showing in the tournament. WYSL will carry that broadcast.
Webcasts
1 pm : Roberts Wesleyan 79 St. John Fisher 67 F
3 pm: Brockport State 83 Geneseo State 59 F
5:30 pm: Rochester 83 Nazareth 46 F
8:00 pm: Rochester 87 Nazareth 75 F
In addition to the broadcasts, we’ll keep the blog updated throughout the day and post coaches interviews later. So check back in between all the other big games, the NFL playoffs and whatever else your Saturday entails.
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St. John Fisher trails most of the way in the third-place game before getting as close as three in the second half. But Roberts Wesleyan pulls away with the Cardinals struggling to hit shots inside the three-point line (they were 7 for 13 from behind it).
Time for the men’s third place game, which should be a fun one. First chance to watch All-American point guard Sherod Harris who has played well since returning last week. Have the Golden Eagles come together since getting so many guys back for the second semester? This one should help answer that.
From the Geneseo side, how do they bounce back from a loss? They’ll have to do it without starter Tarik Kitson (11.4 ppg, 6.0 rpg) who is hurt.
Well, that was fast. Or more appropriately, Sherod Harris is fast.
He zips by the Geneseo defense to start the game on a 11-0 run himself and finishes the half with 19 points. He’s a different kind of a point guard. Very quick with his feet and his hands and uses the quickness to create his own shot.
Brockport maintains the double-digit lead throughout the half, incluing an 8-0 run after a time out when the Golden Eagles didn’t allow Geneseo to get a shot off.
Brockport 42 Geneseo 25 – Half
Brockport never relinquished the double-digit lead and used its depth to run away from Geneseo for a lopsided 83-59 win. Harris finished with 22 points with scoring support from Cantrel Parrish and Brandon Williams.
After the game, I caught up with Brockport State Interim Head Coach Greg Dunne. We talked about his transition from longtime assistant under Nelson Whitmore to the head of the program and why the team started the New Year 0-3. We’ll have the interview posted later.
It’s always dangerous to make too much of one game, but based on this limited sample, Brockport has a lot of talent. Sherod Harris looks like the kind of special player who can take over games. Williams has good low post moves and works well with Harris to get free for open looks near the rim. And the Golden Eagles have a lot of athletic guards who can shoot, push the ball and play tight defense.
The gym has filled out a little for the women’s title game between Nazareth and home-standing No. 22 Rochester. The students are on break until Wednesday, so “the Hive” is probably only filled to about 40% capacity.
Rochester leads Nazareth 41-23. The most telling stat is assist to turnovers. The Yellow Jackets are 13:3 in the right direction, the Golden Flyers are 5:12 in the wrong one. Julie Marriott (UR) leads all scorers with 15 points.
Seated next to the Nazareth bench, Head Coach Devin Gotham just walked by me. Then he walked by me again.
What the…
Ahhh. His twin brother Kerry is the assistant.
The interview with Coach Dunne is posted above in the main story.
UR still dominating, 51-33. There’s a decent Naz contingent on hand, which makes sense given that this is Naz-UR double header. Driving around the area a little, I wonder why Keuka (who replaced William Smith) participates but nearby Medaille does not. That would’ve made the women’s field a little deeper.
The UR media guide says “Yellowjackets” won out as mascot over Genesseeans (for Geneseo region), Dandelions, Gold Bugs and Rivermen.
Too bad Dandelion didn’t win. It would’ve added a whole new element to the games against the NYU violets.
Then again, we never would’ve been blessed with this expirational story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQgTxNtJWrc
The clock strikes 12 for cindarella Nazareth and Rochester cruises past them 83-46.
Rochester forward Julie Marriott is named the Tournament MVP on the women’s side. We’ll post an interview with her later where she talks about life as a student athlete in the travel-heavy UAA.
Kelly Dunne, sister of Brockport basketball coach Greg, is also named to the All-Tournament team. This tournament is certainly a family affair. Twin brothers as Nazareth coaches…Marissa (St. John Fisher) and Joe (Nazareth) Canori as players…the McAdams brothers on the Naz roster.
Say hi to J.C. DeLass for us.
Already did, or more appropriately he said hi to me when he arrived. He thanked us for the kind words. At least someone is reading this thing. I feel like Tom Hanks in “Castaway.” Wilson and I will hunker in for the men’s final.
We’re well past that 40% capacity I posted earlier (which was probably a little low). The crowd is full on the far side with a lot of purple and gold for Flyer fans.
Nazareth guards are trying to emulate what Brockport did last night — press tempo, force the guards to make plays and not let the Unpronouncables kill them inside.
Naz 16 Rochester 9 — 14:01
Rochester answers with a run as their guards work free for a couple threes. I know he was big but Onyiriuka is impressive to see in person. He likes the weight room apparently, like a mini-David Robinson.
Rochester 20 Naz 18 — 9:29
Rochester comes out of the halftime break down 36-35 and bolts to a 47-43 lead. They don’t seem to be feeding Onyiriuka the ball — in fact it looks like they are looking guard first — but the numbers tell another story.
Rebounds: UR 21, Naz 7
For Naz, they had a stretch where they pushed the tempo and forced turnovers (16 for UR in first half). Corey McAdam is as good as advertised and is the talk of the town here. More on him later.
Onyiriuka makes a circus shot to extend the lead to 49-45 and then follows that with a dunk that makes the Naz coaches look away.
Both shots sounded great on the radio. 🙂
Nazareth plays the Yellowjackets close until about the 3 minute mark when UR starts to pull away. Uche Ndubizu, who shoots 55.6 percent at the line and looks like he can barely watch his own shot, goes 8 for 10 from the line to keep the Golden Flyers at arm’s length. “Uuuuuuuche” Ndubizu is the Tourney MVP.
Rochester outrebounds Nazareth 38-16 (!). The Unpronouncables combine for 32 points and 22 rebounds. Dominiak and Chmielowiec provide the firepower from outside. All they need is a point guard with a six syllable last name. 🙂
The atmosphere was very good here, better than I’ve seen for some tournament games. It was an older crowd, partly because UR isn’t in session, but one that really enjoys the community element of basketball.
I’ll have more podcasts laster, including Onyiriuka.
Rochester 87 Nazareth 75 F
Very good job tonight, and an excellent tournament (certainly on the men’s side).