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Friday, December 02, 2005
(Originally posted Thursday night, updated at 8:07 a.m.)
Tough night for the Patriot League, with a Kevin Hamilton-less Holy Cross falling on teh road and Lafayette losing at home. Both were close games. Both still count as L's.
Siena 68, Holy Cross 63 -- You won't convince Ralph Willard that there's much good to losing for the fourth straight game after starting the season 2-0. But given the absence of reigning PL layer of the year Kevin Hamilton, this is not such a bad showing. Keith Simmons had 20 points for the Crusaders. Freshman forward Colin Cunningham added 16, a very positive sign for a team that has not gotten much offensive production out of its frontline. Cunningham also had 9 rebounds.
Alex Vander Baan, the other freshman starter at Siena, fouled out with 4 points in 31 minutes.
Torey Thomas, the Crusaders 5-11 point man had a team-high 11 boards while playing all 40 minutes (Sophomore Pat Doherty, who has been struggling with a foot injury, was a DNP). Thomas singlehandedly pulled down as many caroms as 6-8 Vander Baan (6) and 6-7 Kevin Hyland (5) combined. Thomas also had 5 steals and 5 assists, with just 1 turnover. But he also shot just 1-of-7 from the field, finishing with 5 points.
Tim Clifford, the 6-10 sophomore who was expected to be the Crusaders starting center this season, played only 5 minutes, finishing with 1 rebound and 3 turnovers while going 0-for-2 from the floor. Clifford, who showed great potential at times last season, appears to have caught whatever it is that has ailed Lehigh's Jason Mgebroff since the Mountain Hawks big man had a solid freshman season, then began a fade as a sophomore that has continued in this, his junior season.
Holy Cross outrebounded Siena 42-28 and held the Saints to 37 percent shooting from the field overall. Unfortunately, Siena shot better from outside the arc than inside, going 10-for-22 (45.5 percent) from three-point range. The Saints also had a huge edge in free throws, hitting 18-of-25 while HC only went to the line 8 times, making 6.
After the Vermont game, HC coach Ralph Willard talked about a similar disparity in that game. But it seems a pattern could be developing, which would not be surprising given the less than stellar play teh Crusaders have been getting from their big men.
You might recall Colgate's Emmitt Davis had the same complaint a lot of last season, when the Raiders had little inside game and lived and died by the jumpshooting of its guards.
St. Peter's 79, Lafayette 76 -- Lafayette's three-game win streak ends at the hands of St. Peter's and guard Keydren Clark, the nation's leading scorer the past two seasons, who finished with a game-high 24 points.
Lafayette trailed by as many as 18 points in the second half before battling back to tie the game at 76-76 with 45 seconds to play. St. Peter's retook the lead on a pair of free throws by Raul Orta, who was fouled after getting the offensive rebound of his own miss.
At the other end, the Leopards turned the ball over on what sounds like a questionable, at best, charging call on Matt Betley.
Corky Blake of the Express-Times was there. We will let him tell :
Tough night for the Patriot League, with a Kevin Hamilton-less Holy Cross falling on teh road and Lafayette losing at home. Both were close games. Both still count as L's.
Siena 68, Holy Cross 63 -- You won't convince Ralph Willard that there's much good to losing for the fourth straight game after starting the season 2-0. But given the absence of reigning PL layer of the year Kevin Hamilton, this is not such a bad showing. Keith Simmons had 20 points for the Crusaders. Freshman forward Colin Cunningham added 16, a very positive sign for a team that has not gotten much offensive production out of its frontline. Cunningham also had 9 rebounds.
Alex Vander Baan, the other freshman starter at Siena, fouled out with 4 points in 31 minutes.
Torey Thomas, the Crusaders 5-11 point man had a team-high 11 boards while playing all 40 minutes (Sophomore Pat Doherty, who has been struggling with a foot injury, was a DNP). Thomas singlehandedly pulled down as many caroms as 6-8 Vander Baan (6) and 6-7 Kevin Hyland (5) combined. Thomas also had 5 steals and 5 assists, with just 1 turnover. But he also shot just 1-of-7 from the field, finishing with 5 points.
Tim Clifford, the 6-10 sophomore who was expected to be the Crusaders starting center this season, played only 5 minutes, finishing with 1 rebound and 3 turnovers while going 0-for-2 from the floor. Clifford, who showed great potential at times last season, appears to have caught whatever it is that has ailed Lehigh's Jason Mgebroff since the Mountain Hawks big man had a solid freshman season, then began a fade as a sophomore that has continued in this, his junior season.
Holy Cross outrebounded Siena 42-28 and held the Saints to 37 percent shooting from the field overall. Unfortunately, Siena shot better from outside the arc than inside, going 10-for-22 (45.5 percent) from three-point range. The Saints also had a huge edge in free throws, hitting 18-of-25 while HC only went to the line 8 times, making 6.
After the Vermont game, HC coach Ralph Willard talked about a similar disparity in that game. But it seems a pattern could be developing, which would not be surprising given the less than stellar play teh Crusaders have been getting from their big men.
You might recall Colgate's Emmitt Davis had the same complaint a lot of last season, when the Raiders had little inside game and lived and died by the jumpshooting of its guards.
St. Peter's 79, Lafayette 76 -- Lafayette's three-game win streak ends at the hands of St. Peter's and guard Keydren Clark, the nation's leading scorer the past two seasons, who finished with a game-high 24 points.
Lafayette trailed by as many as 18 points in the second half before battling back to tie the game at 76-76 with 45 seconds to play. St. Peter's retook the lead on a pair of free throws by Raul Orta, who was fouled after getting the offensive rebound of his own miss.
At the other end, the Leopards turned the ball over on what sounds like a questionable, at best, charging call on Matt Betley.
Corky Blake of the Express-Times was there. We will let him tell :
After the free throws, the Leopards called a timeout. Brown received the inbounds pass and then handed to Matt Betley at the top of the foul line.The 'Pards still had a desperation chance to tie after St. Peter's Kevin Spann missed one of his two free throws at the other end with one second left. Marcus Harley's three-point try from the backcourt at the buzzer clanged off the backboard.
As Betley turned off the screen, Clark stepped in and flopped. Official Larry Scirotto bought the act, and called Betley for the game-ending charge.
"You don't see that call made on the road, do you?" said (St. Peter's coach Bob) Leckie with a smile
"He (Scirotto) made the call so it must've been a foul," Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon said in resignation.
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