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Monday, December 12, 2005
Long, short of tonight's matchups
Patriot League scoreboards
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Monmouth at LEHIGH 7 p.m.: Hawks vs. Hawks when 1-6 Monmouth comes to town. Mascots are not all these two have in common. Both are also without the services of their starting point guard. Senior Tyler Azzarelli, who started 90 straight games for Monmouth, went down with a stress fracture in his foot after two games. Lehigh's Joe Knight remains ineligible until Jan. 11 due to an NCAA ruling about his transfer credits.

Monmouth has played a decent schedule and four of the six losses were by single-digit margins. Only in a loss to Seton Hall of the Big East has Monmouth not been competitive.

The Hawks, who prefer a Princeton=style of halfcourt offense, have been undermanned. In addition to missing Azzarelli, four other players were suspended for a violation of team rules and have been rotating, two sitting out each game so as to not leave the team completely shorthanded. Nothing on the Monmouth site indicates how long that will continue or who might miss tonight's game.

If 7-2 work-in-progress junior John Bunch is available (he is one of the four serving the suspensions), there is a good chance we could see a matchup of two 7-footers when Lehigh's 7-0 freshman John Gourlay is on the floor.Lehigh notes | Monmouth Web site | USA Today matchup

Howard at AMERICAN 7:30 p.m.: Ater starting the season 0-6, all on the road, American can extend its win streak to three in a row, all at home, with a win over the Bison of the MEAC. Howard knows a little about losing streaks, too. The Bison's win Saturday over Maryland-Eastern Shore came in their first home game of the season and snapped a 21-game losing streak that dated back to early January.

Junior guard Daryl Hudson (6-4) leads Howard in scoring (13.2 ppg) and rebounding. Also averaging in double figures is Darek Mitchell, a 6-0 guard who averages 10.6 ppg.

One matchup that should be fun to watch will be American's freshman point guard Derrick Mercer and Howard's senior Louis Ford. Ford will be a handful for the freshman. He averages 9.8 points, 6.2 assists and nearly 3 steals per game. But the matchup we want a report on is not how Ford and Mercer compare statistically. What we want to know is if Mercer, who is listed at 5-8, is actually two inches taller than Ford, who is listed at 5-6.
AU notes | Howard Web site | USA Today matchup | AU radio
Published at 8:50 AM by Hoop Time.
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