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Saturday, November 18, 2006
There will be games this season where Lafayette's lack of size inside will not be a problem. There will be games where the Leopards will be able to compensate by packing a zone around some team's big man, games when the opposition does not have the firepower to blow up that tactic by dropping laser guided three-bombs. There will be others where the foes shoot well enough from the arc but don't have a big man capable of disrupting things in the paint.
There will be games Lafayette will win despite being badly outrebounded. Games in which shooting nearly 53 percent from the field will make up for a host of other shortcomings.
Friday night's game with St. Joseph's was none of those, though. Friday's 81-73 setback against Saint Joe's was pretty much a butt-kickin' disguised as a close score. The final margin might have been in single digits, but from the last six minutes of the first half, when Saint Joe's used a 16-5 spurt to build a double-digits lead, the outcome was never in doubt. Not even when Lafayette forced four turnovers in the final three of the game to cut that lead to single digits.
Saint Joe's lead was 12 (44-32) at the half and grew as large as 18 in the second half. It was still 14 when Rob Ferguson, one of those troublsesome big men, drained his third three-pointer of the game with 2:42 to play.Turnovers on four of the Hawks' next five possessions allowed Lafayette to make it closer. Visions of miracle comebacks doing the Watusi in the heads of what was left of the crowd of 2,876 in the Kirby Sports Center.when Paul Cummins' old-fashioned three-point made it a 78-73 game with 28 seconds to play.
That was as close as they would get.Saint Joe's held on to the ball long enough to get fouled its last two possessions, knocking down 3 of the 4 shots they were awarded in the process, and Lafayette misfired on its last three shots.
The late game stuff, though, seemed more the result of a young Saint Joe's team letting off the gas a little than Lafayette suddenly finding an answer. When it really mattered, St. Joseph's was able to athletically dominate the Leopards, who are a scholarship team in name, but not yet in reality.
Athleticism was the key difference. Saint Joe's is a very young team, with two freshmen starting at the guard spots and a sophomore and two juniors up front. That inexperience will cost the Hawks some games the way it nearly did in the final three minutes of this one. But the athleticism ought to win more than a few for St. Joseph's.
Rob Ferguson is a matchup nightmare. The 6-8 junior is strong enough to play in the post, nimble enough to play the perimeter. He has three-point range, as his 3 for 5 from the arc against Lafayette showed and his 5 offensive rebounds (6 tital) are testament to his ability to crash the boards. Ferguson's 19 points tied him with frontcourt mate Ahmad Nivins for game honors.
Nivins was near unstoppable down low -- 8 for 11 from the field, 8 boards. In simple terms, he was more horse than any of Lafayette's frontcourt types are equipped to handle alone. Problem was, with Ferguson and his backcourt buddies knocking down threes at a 53-percent clip, nobody could leave their man to help.
"(Nivins and Ferguson) are good basketball players. They don't just have size. It was hard to double them because their guards shot so well," Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon said.
"We shot the ball pretty well in the beginning against the zone," said Saint Joe's coach Phil Martelli. "There's not a lot of teams that will have an answer for Ahmad."
Not when Ferguson and Jawan Carter are hitting at a 7 of 11 clip from the arc the way they were last night. Carter, a six-foot freshman guard from Chester, was 5 for 8 from the field, 4 of 6 at the arc, for 18 points. He also had five assists and a steal. Another freshman, 6-5 Garrett Williamson came off the bench to go 4 for 4, including two treys, finishing with 11 points.
The inability to get stops negated a fine offensive night by the Leopards. Perhaps the most telling stat: in the first half, Lafayette shot 61.9 percent from the field and still trailed by 12 at the break. For the game, Lafayette shot 28 for 53 (52.8 percent) from the floor. The 'Pards 16 turnovers were five fewer than Saint Joe's and Lafayette had 19 assists, to 13 for the Hawks.
Matt Betley led Lafayette with 17 points, including two of the Leopards' 7 treys. Betley's 5 rebounds also topped Lafayette. Betley also had 4 assists and three steals. Only one other Leopard -- forward Everest Schmidt (3) had more than 2 rebounds for the 'Pards. Jamaal Hilliard (11) and Bilal Abdullah (13) also reached double figures for Lafayette.
The boards were a tremendous trouble spot for smallish Lafayette, with nobody taller than 6-7 in the rotation. Saint Joe's 32-21 final margin includes 6 Lafayette offensive rebounds in the final 3:02. That accounted for all but one of Lafayette's 7 offensive boards in the game. Saint Joe's, on the other hand, had second chances all night -- 12 of the Hawks' 32 boards came off their own misfires.
"We're giving up a height advantage almost every game," said the 6-5 Betley, who was Lafayette's most effective player, but was limited to 24 minutes by foul trouble caused by guarding the likes of Nivins, Ferguson and junior not-so-small small forward Pat Calathes. Calathes, a 6-10 kid with three-point range, contributed 10 points and 9 rebounds (for those keeping score at home, that makes five Hawks in double figures).
'It's going to be something we have to deal with -- the size factor," O'Hanlon said.
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There will be games Lafayette will win despite being badly outrebounded. Games in which shooting nearly 53 percent from the field will make up for a host of other shortcomings.
Friday night's game with St. Joseph's was none of those, though. Friday's 81-73 setback against Saint Joe's was pretty much a butt-kickin' disguised as a close score. The final margin might have been in single digits, but from the last six minutes of the first half, when Saint Joe's used a 16-5 spurt to build a double-digits lead, the outcome was never in doubt. Not even when Lafayette forced four turnovers in the final three of the game to cut that lead to single digits.
Saint Joe's lead was 12 (44-32) at the half and grew as large as 18 in the second half. It was still 14 when Rob Ferguson, one of those troublsesome big men, drained his third three-pointer of the game with 2:42 to play.Turnovers on four of the Hawks' next five possessions allowed Lafayette to make it closer. Visions of miracle comebacks doing the Watusi in the heads of what was left of the crowd of 2,876 in the Kirby Sports Center.when Paul Cummins' old-fashioned three-point made it a 78-73 game with 28 seconds to play.
That was as close as they would get.Saint Joe's held on to the ball long enough to get fouled its last two possessions, knocking down 3 of the 4 shots they were awarded in the process, and Lafayette misfired on its last three shots.
The late game stuff, though, seemed more the result of a young Saint Joe's team letting off the gas a little than Lafayette suddenly finding an answer. When it really mattered, St. Joseph's was able to athletically dominate the Leopards, who are a scholarship team in name, but not yet in reality.
Athleticism was the key difference. Saint Joe's is a very young team, with two freshmen starting at the guard spots and a sophomore and two juniors up front. That inexperience will cost the Hawks some games the way it nearly did in the final three minutes of this one. But the athleticism ought to win more than a few for St. Joseph's.
Rob Ferguson is a matchup nightmare. The 6-8 junior is strong enough to play in the post, nimble enough to play the perimeter. He has three-point range, as his 3 for 5 from the arc against Lafayette showed and his 5 offensive rebounds (6 tital) are testament to his ability to crash the boards. Ferguson's 19 points tied him with frontcourt mate Ahmad Nivins for game honors.
Nivins was near unstoppable down low -- 8 for 11 from the field, 8 boards. In simple terms, he was more horse than any of Lafayette's frontcourt types are equipped to handle alone. Problem was, with Ferguson and his backcourt buddies knocking down threes at a 53-percent clip, nobody could leave their man to help.
"(Nivins and Ferguson) are good basketball players. They don't just have size. It was hard to double them because their guards shot so well," Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon said.
"We shot the ball pretty well in the beginning against the zone," said Saint Joe's coach Phil Martelli. "There's not a lot of teams that will have an answer for Ahmad."
Not when Ferguson and Jawan Carter are hitting at a 7 of 11 clip from the arc the way they were last night. Carter, a six-foot freshman guard from Chester, was 5 for 8 from the field, 4 of 6 at the arc, for 18 points. He also had five assists and a steal. Another freshman, 6-5 Garrett Williamson came off the bench to go 4 for 4, including two treys, finishing with 11 points.
The inability to get stops negated a fine offensive night by the Leopards. Perhaps the most telling stat: in the first half, Lafayette shot 61.9 percent from the field and still trailed by 12 at the break. For the game, Lafayette shot 28 for 53 (52.8 percent) from the floor. The 'Pards 16 turnovers were five fewer than Saint Joe's and Lafayette had 19 assists, to 13 for the Hawks.
Matt Betley led Lafayette with 17 points, including two of the Leopards' 7 treys. Betley's 5 rebounds also topped Lafayette. Betley also had 4 assists and three steals. Only one other Leopard -- forward Everest Schmidt (3) had more than 2 rebounds for the 'Pards. Jamaal Hilliard (11) and Bilal Abdullah (13) also reached double figures for Lafayette.
The boards were a tremendous trouble spot for smallish Lafayette, with nobody taller than 6-7 in the rotation. Saint Joe's 32-21 final margin includes 6 Lafayette offensive rebounds in the final 3:02. That accounted for all but one of Lafayette's 7 offensive boards in the game. Saint Joe's, on the other hand, had second chances all night -- 12 of the Hawks' 32 boards came off their own misfires.
"We're giving up a height advantage almost every game," said the 6-5 Betley, who was Lafayette's most effective player, but was limited to 24 minutes by foul trouble caused by guarding the likes of Nivins, Ferguson and junior not-so-small small forward Pat Calathes. Calathes, a 6-10 kid with three-point range, contributed 10 points and 9 rebounds (for those keeping score at home, that makes five Hawks in double figures).
'It's going to be something we have to deal with -- the size factor," O'Hanlon said.
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