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!