Category: St. Francis Brooklyn

Bryant Remains in First as Favorites Dominate NEC Thursday

There were only four games on the docket in the sixth Thursday of the NEC season, as the favorites dominated the action. Let’s go through each game and break down the standings.

Sacred Heart 77, Fairleigh Dickinson 70
Shane Gibson scored 18 of his game high 25 points in the second half, as the Pioneers held on for a tighter than anticipated victory over Greg Vetrone’s hapless Knights. After trailing all night, a Trevor Charles (12 points, five rebounds, two blocks) bucket in the lane gave FDU their first lead of the game. It was short-lived however, as SHU settled down late and shot 49% from the floor. A desperate Vetrone brought seniors Kinu Rochford and Lonnie Robinson off the bench in an attempt to find a spark, but it was the same old story for the defensively challenged Knights, who have now lost seven NEC games in a row. Melquan Bolding was his usual productive self, scoring 16 points to go along with ten rebounds and three steals. But FDU couldn’t overcome a 4 of 14 performance from behind the arc and gave up 1.07 points per possession. Along with Gibson, Steve Glowiak and Louis Montes also scored in double digits for Dave Bike’s squad, who now has a record of 7-4 in the NEC.

Quinnipiac 79, Monmouth 63
If you didn’t know already, the season has basically spiraled completely out of control for King Rice’s Hawks, who have been defeated for the eighth time this season in the NEC. Monmouth’s offense was their usual stagnant self (39.6% from the field, seven assists against ten turnovers), but it was their defense tonight that led to a comfortable Quinnipiac lead of 41-30 at the half. After one stanza, the Bobcats shot an incredible 69.2% from the floor and dished out 12 assists versus only two turnovers. In the end, Ike Azotam and Shaq Shannon led Quinnipiac with 18 point apiece, while Evan Conti filled up the box score with 11 points, six rebounds, four assists, and one block. With the victory, Quinnipiac is better than 0.500 in the NEC for the first time all season as they head into a critical road matchup versus Central Connecticut on Sunday. Freshman Tyrone O’Garro had perhaps the best game of his young career tonight, scoring eight points and grabbing eight rebounds. Sadly, the rest of the season may serve as an audition for next year as the Hawks slip deeper into the bottom tier of the conference.

LIU Brooklyn 81, Central Connecticut 75
In a significant showdown between two upper tier conference teams, it was the Blackbirds who held on for a six point victory to move to 7-4 in the NEC. Jamal Olasewere was sensational – what else is new – with 25 points on 13 shots and 14 rebounds. C.J. Garner, Brandon Thompson, and E.J. Reed all scored in double figures for the victorious Blackbirds, who have now won seven of their last eight games. LIU’s 1.13 points scored per possession was impressive, but it was their defense that perhaps won the game. CCSU only mustered 0.97 points per possession against the usually defensively inept Blackbirds, as Kyle Vinales, Adonis Burbage, and Malcolm McMillan combined to make 10 of 36 shots in a lousy shooting performance. Matthew Hunter was the star for Howie Dickenman’s team, registering 25 points, 11 rebounds, three steals, and three blocks, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a -10 differential on the boards and -7% deficit in shooting percentage.

Bryant 84, St. Francis Brooklyn 77
It was another typical performance from the Bulldogs: The big four of Bryant (Alex Francis, Frankie Dobbs, Dyami Starks, and Corey Maynard) combined to score 72 of the Bulldogs 84 points, Bryant shot 53% from the floor, and handed out 19 dimes to only eight turnovers. For St. Francis, it was their worst defensive effort of the conference season with Bryant scoring 1.23 points per possession. Despite the porous defensive effort, the Terriers actually held a 67-65 lead with less than seven minutes remaining in the game. Down the stretch though, St. Francis had no answer for Starks and Francis, who scored 15 of the Bulldogs’ final 17 points. One stat that’ll surely leave Glenn Braica shaking his head was his team’s free throw percentage. The Terriers missed six out of 14 free throw attempts while Bryant only missed two out of 17 charity stripe tries. Jalen Cannon led St. Francis with 13 points, nine rebounds, and three assists in the setback. It doesn’t get any easier for the 5-6 Terriers, as they’ll host LIU Brooklyn on Sunday before embarking on a New Jersey road trip that will serve as a two must win games.

NEC Standings
1) Bryant Bulldogs, 9-2
2) Robert Morris, 8-3
3) Wagner Seahawks, 7-4
4) Sacred Heart Pioneers, 7-4
5) LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds, 7-4
6) Quinnipiac Bobcats, 6-5
7) Central Connecticut, 6-5
8) St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers, 5-6
9) Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers, 4-7
10) Monmouth Hawks, 3-8
11) Fairleigh Dickinson Knights, 2-9
12) St. Francis Red Flash, 2-9

NEC Power Rankings – Part One

We are more than halfway finished with the NEC regular season, therefore I felt it was a good time to ditch The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly recap this week for our first ever NEC Power Rankings. We ranked the teams appropriately, highlighted the good and bad from their season, and even interjected with our end of season predictions. Today, we’ll cover teams 12 through 7 and then post Part II tomorrow with our top six teams of the conference. Let’s begin… Continue reading “NEC Power Rankings – Part One” →

Tempo-free NEC: More On Quinnipiac’s Defense

What a weekend it was. Bryant raced back to the top of the NEC standings in blowout fashion and in doing so the Bulldogs reclaimed the NEC efficiency title over Robert Morris. Those two now have solidly separated from the rest of the pack.

What’s interesting though is that the team that just lost at home to what most people would assume is the worst team in the league is still in third place according to efficiency margin. Heck, they also just beat the best team in the league. If you can figure out the St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers you must have a magic eight ball that works better than mine.

Here are the full tempo-free NEC standings:

  1. Bryant: +0.12
  2. Robert Morris: +0.10
  3. St. Francis Brooklyn: +0.07
  4. LIU Brooklyn: +0.05
  5. Central Connecticut: +0.04
  6. Sacred Heart: +0.02
  7. Wagner: +0.01
  8. Quinnipiac: -0.00
  9. Mount St. Mary’s: -0.02
  10. Monmouth: -0.09
  11. St. Francis (PA): -0.14
  12. Fairleigh Dickison: -0.14

The league has tightened up a bit from last season. While Bryant is nearing the level of play LIU set in conference play last season the bottom of the league has played better overall. Thus there is a much smaller range of efficiency margins and more upsets. It makes for a much more exciting conference race. It should also make for an excellent conference tournament!

Best Offense:

  1. Bryant: 1.15 points scored per possession
  2. Robert Morris: 1.13
  3. LIU Brooklyn: 1.12
  4. Quinnipiac: 1.08

Worst Offense:

  1. Fairleigh Dickinson: 0.93
  2. Monmouth: 0.94
  3. St. Francis (PA): 0.94
  4. Wagner: 1.00

Technically Wagner is actually just barely under a point per possession, but it round up and over. Also, the Bobcats’ problem isn’t offense, it’s defense. Well and the fact that the offense just isn’t quite good enough to make up for an abnormally poor defense.

Best Defense:

  1. St. Francis Brooklyn: 0.94
  2. Wagner: 0.99
  3. Central Connecticut: 0.99
  4. Robert Morris: 1.03

The Colonials just edged out Monmouth for the fourth spot. The defense played a big factor in shutting down LIU on Saturday. If Andy Toole gets that trick back in the team’s arsenal they’ll be tough to beat.

Worst Defense:

  1. Quinnipiac: 1.08
  2. St. Francis (PA): 1.08
  3. Fairleigh Dickinson: 1.07
  4. LIU Brooklyn: 1.07

Like I said, QU’s defense is bad. It is improving. The problem before Wagner had been that the Bobcats had trouble stopping elite offenses (Bryant and RMU) gave them fits, but did a strong job against weaker ones (even better than those teams’ averages might suggest). The one exception was against depleted LIU, but there were personnel issues at play there. Here’s a graph of QU’s Points Allowed Per Possession during NEC play.

 

Quinnipiac is playing teams that are worse at offense, making the defense look better.
Quinnipiac is playing teams that are worse at offense, making the defense look better.

There’s not much to say in the luck column except that NEC teams have pretty much performed as their in-conference efficiency margins would predict with one major exception: SFC. The Terriers are 1.8 wins behind the pace their efficiency would expect. Let’s see if they can win some close games and turn things around.

NEC Thursday: Bryant All Alone in First Place With Four Teams Right Behind

In what amounted to another wild night of NEC hoops, Bryant pulled back ahead into first place all by themselves, after their road win and Sacred Heart and Robert Morris’ losses. Let’s dive into all the action from the fifth Thursday of the NEC schedule.

LIU Brooklyn 82, St. Francis (PA) 62
In easily the most predictable game of the night, LIU Brooklyn took care of business and cruised to an easy 20 point victory at the WRAC. The Blackbirds jumped out to a 13-0 lead and never trailed during the contest. To the Red Flash’s credit, two Earl Brown free throws cut LIU’s advantage to six early in the second half, but then a subsequent 24-8 run by LIU sealed the deal. The loss was St. Francis’ 15th straight road loss. LIU was uncharacteristically sloppy with 20 turnovers, but their 22 assists on 29 made baskets was enough to pull away. Booker Hucks made a career high five three-pointers to tie a career high of 20 points. In the last two games, the senior is absolutely scorching from downtown, draining 9 of 13 three-pointers. Jamal Olasewere, C.J. Garner, and Brandon Thompson also scored in double figures for LIU Brooklyn’s sixth straight NEC victory. Umar Shannon and Stephon Mosley returned from injury for St. Francis, yet both struggled in the defeat. Earl Brown led the Red Flash with 22 points.

Bryant 78, Fairleigh Dickinson 63
After an 8-0 run by FDU to begin the second half gave the Knights a brief 37-36 lead, Bryant outscored FDU 42-26 the rest of way. FDU was unable to take advantage of recently porous Bulldog defense, as they only shot 45.3% from the floor versus a team that was in the bottom 15% of the nation in effective field goal percentage defense. 17 Knight turnovers also didn’t help, but Bryant got terrific, efficient production out of Alex Francis (27 points on 13 shots, 9 rebounds). Usually the forgotten man outside of Bryant’s big three, Corey Maynard chipped in with an excellent line of 16 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Bryant won the rebounding battle (36-24), turnover margin (15-17), and made 12 more FTs than FDU. Just an overall solid effort to move back into first place all by their lonesome once again.

Central Connecticut 78, Monmouth 58
Kyle Vinales, Matthew Hunter, and Adonis Burbage combined for 59 points on 50 shots, while never once taking a break during the game. The relatively fasted pace game (142 total possessions) got out of hand late in the first half for Monmouth, as the Blue Devils raced out to a 16 point lead. From that point forward, Monmouth never got any closer than 12 points, despite Marcus Ware scoring a season high 16 points. The Blue Devils shot 52% from the floor in this one, but it was their assist-to-turnover ratio of 6.5 in the first half that was most impressive, especially against a team that’s fourth in the nation in turning opponents over. Christian White missed the game with an injured ankle and it showed as the Hawks made 27.0% of their three-point attempts.

Wagner 84, Sacred Heart 78
Although Wagner controlled the game for much of the second half, two fade away threes by Shane Gibson and two Phil Gaetano free throws improbably sent the game into overtime. In the extra frame, however, Wagner regained their composure and held on for their third straight conference victory. Kenny Ortiz had perhaps the game of the night registering 17 points, six rebounds, eight assists, and three steals. Phil Gaetano, after receiving heavy praise from John and I this week, had the worst half of his career committing six turnovers. To his credit though, the 5’10” floor general recovered to finish with 12 points and 11 assists. The bounce back effort wasn’t enough, as Shane Gibson struggled all night thanks to Wagner’s stingy defense that gave up 0.96 points per possession. The Pioneers shot 36% from the floor and gave the ball up 22 times, but it was their 29 free throws that kept them in the game in the second half. But late, Jonathan Williams was clutch, scoring ten points in the final eight plus minutes of the game. Wagner now find themselves in a four-way tie for second place with SHU, Robert Morris, and LIU Brooklyn.

Mount St. Mary’s 77, Quinnipiac 73
Quinnipiac may have evened their record to 4-4 last Saturday, but it never truly felt like the team was completely back. Tonight’s result was indicative of that. After trailing 6-5 early, the Mount took the lead and never was behind again, although the Bobcats cut the deficit to one point late before Julian Norfleet’s three extended the lead for good. Quinnipiac’s negative turnover differential and awful foul shooting ultimately did the Bobcats in, with the Bobcats committing 13 more turnovers and missing half of their 32 attempts at the charity stripe. Yikes… It was a balanced scoring effort with nine Mountaineers scoring, led by Shivaughn Wiggins 17 points. The freshman has taken advantage of Josh Castellanos’ injury, as he’s now averaging 14.6 points in his past five games. For Quinnipiac, the defense continues to struggle, as the Mount scored 1.04 points per possession. It was the sixth time in nine conference games that Tom Moore’s squad has given up more than 1 point per possession this conference season. Last year that happened only seven times in 18 NEC contests. Sophomore center Ousmane Drame did have a career game with 19 points and 20 rebounds in the loss.

St. Francis Brooklyn 71, Robert Morris 61
The Colonial’s six-game winning streak was snapped after falling to the streaky Terriers at the Pope Education Center. Velton Jones injured his shoulder early and only played two minutes. It has been a tough season injury wise for Jones, who missed zero games in his first three seasons at RMU. Brent Jones was sensational for St. Francis, who scored 1.15 points per possession against a solid defense. Jones had 16 points, three rebounds, and six assists against only three turnovers. John has the complete recap of the game here.

NEC Standings
1) Bryant, 7-2
2) Wagner, 6-3
3) Robert Morris, 6-3
4) Sacred Heart, 6-3
5) LIU Brooklyn, 6-3
6) Central Connecticut, 5-4
7) St. Francis Brooklyn, 5-4
8) Quinnipiac, 4-5
9) Mount St. Mary’s, 3-6
10) Monmouth, 3-6
11) Fairleigh Dickinson, 2-7
12) St. Francis (PA), 1-8

Velton Jones Goes Down, Brent Jones Steps Up In SFC Win

Just 1:41 into St. Francis Brooklyn’s game against Robert Morris everything changed. In an NEC season full of injuries down went RMU’s star point guard Velton Jones. He was clutching his shoulder. Jones, one of the toughest players in the NEC, tried to return but couldn’t go. Without him the Colonials’ defense struggled and the Terriers got back into the NEC race with a 71-61 victory. Continue reading “Velton Jones Goes Down, Brent Jones Steps Up In SFC Win” →

Awards/Thoughts from a Whirlwind Day of NEC Hoops

It’s midnight, but I’m wide awake after attending three NEC games in nine hours time. I drank 6 bottles of water, ate a banana and clif bar, drove nearly 100 miles for approximately two hours, and finally gorged myself at the diner all while taking in some excellent basketball in between. Rather than offering up a recap for all three outcomes, I decided to hand out some awards. The six teams I saw today – Quinnipiac, FDU, St. Francis Brooklyn, Central Connecticut, Sacred Heart, and Monmouth – are all eligible for these distinguished honors, as are the players. Let’s begin…

Best Player Performance
Shane Gibson – (I can already feel you rolling your eyes.) In my defense, Gibson netted a game high 33 points on 17 shots to go along with 15 made free throws. As I’ll explain later, the referees called the Monmouth/Sacred Heart game way too tight, but Sacred Heart made their freebies while Monmouth didn’t. Gibson was a major part of that, plus his 24 second half points guided the Pioneers to their first place tying victory Saturday night. In fact, Gibson scored 19 straight points for his team in the second half. 19 straight! Can you say “NEC Player of the Year?” Time to start the campaign! (Ok, I’m kidding. Sort of.)

Best Player Performance in a Losing Effort
Jalen Cannon – The 6’6″ immovable object in the paint had himself a dominant first half against the Blue Devils, as he scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds. It was so dominant, however, that every time Cannon touched the ball in the second stanza down low, Howie Dickenman would scream out “Help, help, help!” (No really, he did that every single time.) But his pupils listened and made life quite uncomfortable for Cannon, even though he ended up with an excellent final line of 18 points, 14 rebounds, and two steals. Cannon’s Terriers may have lost the game in heartbreaking fashion, but it certainly wasn’t Cannon’s fault.

Best Player Performance in a Supporting Role
The Central Connecticut Supporting Cast – Allow me to partially cop out here, as I nominate the CCSU threesome of Malcolm McMillan, Adonis Burbage, and Terrell Allen. They combined for 39 of the Blue Devils’ 72 points while draining six of nine from long range. McMillan was impressive both from the perimeter (2-3 from 3PT range) and attacking off the dribble, Burbage was his usual sharpshooting self, and Allen scored a career high 15 points off the bench. Kyle Vinales and Matthew Hunter may be a terrific twosome, but Dickenman has to be pleased with the effort from the rest of his supporting cast.

Best Player Performance in a Defensive Role
Jamee Jackson – I’ll begin with this Tom Moore quote about Jackson after their win over FDU: “I’m going to push him for [NEC] Defensive Player of the Year. I’ll really push for him to get that, and I know people judge [the award] by steals, blocks, and that type of stuff. I just know he can guard in the post. He can guard on the perimeter. He can help defend and he just plays at an elite level defensively … He’s come up with huge blocks in big situations for us, because he plays with so much energy.”

In the victory, Jackson recorded two steals and two blocks, but it was his effort on Kinu Rochford that was the most impressive. After Rochford got going early in the second half, Jackson did an excellent job pushing him off the low block and making life extremely difficult at all times. His block on Sidney Sanders final shot attempt of the game sealed the Bobcat’s two point victory. Say what you want about Jackson’s free throw shooting, but the athletic power forward is a beast on the defensive end.

Best Team Performance
Central Connecticut – Sacred Heart and Quinnipiac may have won their respective games, but CCSU was easily the most impressive of the victorious teams Saturday. With the ankle injury of Brandon Peel, Dickenman practically had six players at his disposal with five of them logging a cramp inducing 38 minutes or more. Those five were responsible for all 72 points, while their up-tempo attack kept St. Francis on their heels for a majority of the contest. Really, it’s remarkable how fast this team continues to play – eighth fastest in the country at 72.8 possessions per game – even though they are two injuries away from asking fans to suit up.

Best Postgame Quotes
King Rice – Who else did you expect?! King Rice and Andy Toole have to be the best NEC quote machines after a losing effort because neither of them hold back. Here’s what Rice had to say when I asked him about the increased role of his freshmen, in particular Christian White and Tyrone O’Garro.

“Contrary to what everybody thought when we signed those guys, and everybody all across the country was like ‘oh man [Monmouth] can’t get the right dudes’ and all this stuff, but you know what? Those kids (White, O’Garro, Jalen Palm) probably could have started from day one. I’m the type of coach that gives older guys more of a chance and now it’s time for [my freshman] to get some playing time. They’ve earned it, they are the best guys at those positions – that’s why they’re playing – and now we’re going to have those guys for three to four years.”

Also I’d like to throw in a brief exchange I had with Dave Bike last night.
Me: Have you ever seen this much parity in the NEC before?
Bike: You guys are the experts, but right now you wouldn’t have picked in the beginning, after 8 games, Robert Morris, Bryant and us tied for first place.
Me: I wouldn’t have put Bryant and Sacred Heart in there, that’s for sure.
Bike: Well, thank you. (laughter)

Oh, things are so much more jovial postgame when the Pioneers are winning! Anyway, moving along…

Most Disappointing Performance
Fairleigh Dickinson – Yeah, I couldn’t keep this entire post positive, because I did after all see some negative things in my six hours of hoops. For example, FDU absolutely gave a game away yesterday to Quinnipiac by consistently shooting themselves in the foot late. There were bonehead turnovers, missed free throws on the front end of one and one opportunities, and bricked open looks. The Knights easily threw away about seven or eight possession in the final five minutes, and when you lose that game by two points (and shoot a paltry 8-18 from the free throw line), it will surely drive the head coach nutty. Without a doubt, Greg Vetrone has to be sick with this loss, especially when you throw in the late lead they blew to LIU Brooklyn over a week ago. Those two games are the difference between 4-4 and 2-6.

Best Crowd
Sacred Heart’s Pitt Center – The “upset” of the day belongs to the Sacred Heart fans – 1,614 of them to be exact – who came out and filled up the makeshift gym to give the Pioneers a nice home court advantage. Thanks to the students, the Pitt Center was loud and very much into the game. It was a pleasant surprise and frankly cool to see.

Most Shameful Performance
The Officials for the Monmouth/Sacred Heart game – Talk about a tightly officiated game; the evening showdown at the Pitt Center was ground to a halt in the second half thanks to a comically refereed contest. Both teams were in the bonus by the under 12 minute timeout and ended up accumulating a mind-blowing 32 personal fouls, in the second half alone! Everything was being called: hand checks, minimal arm taps, hell some were led to believe breathing on a player was an offense. It was truly shameful how the officials took the game over.

I’ve run out of awards, thus I’d like to conclude with some important random thoughts:

  • The aforementioned Monmouth freshman Christian White has a beautiful outside shot. It’s one of the prettiest rainbow arcs you’ll see in the NEC, and so far the freshman is making the most of his playing time. For the season, the diminutive White has drained exactly 50% (16 of 32) of his three-point attempts. Given Monmouth’s past outside shooting woes, White’s production is sorely needed.
  • Quinnipiac’s backcourt continues to serve as a revolving door of guards, whether it’s Shaq Shannon, Zaid Hearst, Evan Conti, Kendrick Ray, or James Ford. As Tom Moore explained in his press conference, not even he knows which player(s) will perform on a given night. Yesterday, Conti gave Moore a strong first half of eight points and four assists. On Thursday night, Shannon scored 18 points exclusively on three-pointers to give the Bobcats a much needed spark over CCSU. Zaid Hearst has been in-and-out with his production. Moore is still searching for the right guy(s) to mix and match, although he certainly would prefer leaning on one or two players for the NEC stretch. Will someone eventually elevate their play? No one really knows the answer.
  • The curious case of Travis Nichols continues. On Saturday, Nichols had another double digit point effort as he scored 10 points, which sounds awesome when you realize St. Francis was 5-1 in those games. But yesterday, St. Francis lost in part because Nichols found himself in foul trouble for much of the second half. The versatile forward missed critical stretches late and it inevitability cost his team as CCSU pulled away in Nichols’ absence. I’m certainly not placing all of the blame on Nichols, but it’s hard to dispute the effect he has on the team when he’s logging quality minutes on the floor for Glenn Braica’s group.
  • I know I brought this up in last week’s edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but it bears repeating. Phil Gaetano, through eight NEC games, now has dished out 75 assists versus only 21 turnovers. He holds a league best A/TO ratio of 3.6. Not bad for a player who only attempts four shots per game.

It was a great day of college hoops, one I’m extremely thankful to be a part of. Perhaps there will be more Connecticut tripleheaders in my future. I just have to run it by the wife next time…

Ryan Peters covers Northeast Conference men’s basketball for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @pioneer_pride

NEC Thursday Recap: Rivalry Night

The final unbeaten has fallen in the NEC and the race is looking more wide open than ever. Bryant now has a slim one-game lead over Sacred Heart and Robert Morris, while defending champion LIU had a terrific second half to claim the Battle of Brooklyn on NEC Rivalry Thursday. A recap of all the night’s action.

Continue reading “NEC Thursday Recap: Rivalry Night” →