Co-Conspirators
• Mid Majority• Basketball U
• Blue Ribbon
• Yoco Hoops
• Ken Pomeroy
• College Hoops Net
• Coach Ralph
• Hoops Junkie
• ACC Basketblog
• Hawkeye Hoops
Talk Hoops
• Basketball U. boards• Army board
• Bucknell Board
• Colgate Board
• HC Hoops Board
• Lafayette Board
• Lehigh Board
• PL Hoops Board
Official Sites
• Patriot League men• American
• Army
• Bucknell
• Colgate
• Holy Cross
• Lafayette
• Lehigh
• Navy
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Seven seconds and 4 points seperate Lehigh and American after the Mountain Hawks completed a series sweep Saturday in D.C.
By CHRIS A. COUROGEN
American and Lehigh have played 80 minutes of basketball this season, and after Lehigh's 56-54 win Saturday in Bender Arena, the difference between the two in the combined box score comes down to this: 4 points and 7 seconds.
It's ever so slight an advantage on the scoreboard for the Mountain Hawks, who won the first game in Bethlehem by the same margin on a Phil Anderson putback with less than three seconds to play and completed the sweep thanks to a pair of Jose Olivero free throws Saturday with 4.5 showing on the clock. The difference in the league standings, though, is far more significant.
Instead of being tied with Lehigh for third, each a game ahead of Army and Colgate in the race for one of the four first round home games in the postseason playoffs, American (11-12 overall, 3-6 Patriot) now finds itself in a virtual tie with the Raiders and Black Knights (who actually have a half-game lead with a game in hand) for the fourth and final home spot, while Lehigh has a two-game edge on the whole bunch.
At the end of the regular season, if the Eagles find themselves one win shy of staying home for the first round, chances are they will spend a lot of their bus ride looking back at this one as the game that sent them packing. After squandering a six-point lead, at home, with Lehigh's best player stuck on the bench with foul trouble, it would be hard to look at it any other way. Adding to that misery will be the knowledge that had a trio of guys who are normally pretty fair foul shooters knocked down a few free throws against Lehigh, they'd be sleeping in their own beds instead of heading to some distant hotel.
"It's frustrating," said AU coach Jeff Jones. "It's not easy. It's discouraging."
Jones' sentiments are understandable. Here was a game in which his team shot the ball well (24 of 46, 52.2 percent from the field), played solid defense (Lehigh shot 34.9 percent, 15 of 43), and outrebounded the opposition by a healthy 32-23 margin. yet the Eagles wasted that good play by only making 5 of 10 free throws. It was a game where American held Lehigh to 7 first half field goals (7 of 26, 26.9 percent), yet trailed by two -- the same as the final margin -- at the half, after turning the ball over more times (12) than they put it in the hole (9 field goals on 21 tries -- 42.9 percent).
"Statistics aren't everything, but when you look at the statistics, and you look at the 12 turnovers in the first half, and you look at the missed free throws of our guys who usually are very reliable free throw shooters, you can pretty much sum it up and say that is the difference in the game," Jones said.
That was a big difference in the game, but far from the only one. Another key difference was the play of Lehigh freshman Zahir Carrington during the almost six minute stretch of the second half when Olivero was sitting next to Billy Taylor, saddled with four personals. When Olivero, who led Lehigh with 14 points, sat down, American was up 38-32 with Linas Lekavicius -- a 71 percent free throw shooter -- at the line for a one-and-one and a chance to extend the lead to 8.
"That was at least a chance for us, while their big gun was on the bench, to maybe extend that lead a little, but we weren't able to do that," Jones said.
Lekavicius missed the front end; 21 seconds later AU's lead was cut in half thanks to a three-point play by Carrington and the tide was changed. By the time Olivero returned with 4:39 to play, Lehigh was up 49-44, a cushion that proved to be enough down the stretch. Carrington finished with 9 points, all three of his field goals coming during that game-changing stretch.
"(Carrington) was terrific. His ability to catch and finish in the paint," Lehigh coach Billy Taylor said. "We needed him and he stepped up for us."
American didn't go down easily. trailing by 4 with 50 seconds left, they managed to draw even. First 5-8 sophomore point guard Derrick Mercer took matters into his own hands, driving right the left baseline for a layup to cut the Lehigh lead to 54-52. Then at the other end, Andre Ingram made a huge defensive play on a Lehigh inbounds play under their own basket. Ingram managed to knock the ball out of Olivero's hands and off Olivero's leg out of bounds, giving the Eagles possession with 24 seconds to go.
With Taylor subbing sophomore Matt Szalachowski for Olivero on defense to protect Olivero from fouling out in case the game went to overtime, American was able to take advantage of a mismatch by giving the ball to Arvydas Eitutavicius (13 points), who beat Szalachowski in the paint for a four-foot jumper to tie the game with 14 seconds left.
With the possible exception of the host of Girl Scouts on hand for some sort of promotion, every one of the 1,828 folks in Bender knew where tthe ball was going when Olivero checked back.
"(Olivero) is a guy who has done it so many times in the clutch," said Taylor. "We certainly knew who we wanted to get the ball to."
Once it was in his hands, Olivero didn't hesitate. Olivero took it straight to the hole, missing a runner over 6-10 Brayden Billbe but drawing a foul on Eitutavicius.
"I just tried to be aggressive before their defense got set," Olivero said.
After Olivero's free throws, American had a chance to tie with 4.5 seconds left on the clock. The Eagles never got off a shot though, when Eitutavicius, pressured by Szalachowski, fumbled a kickout pass from Mercer.
The win was just the second on the road this season for Lehigh. It was just the second loss at home for American.
Box score | Notebook | Postgame audio (Billy Taylor, Jose Olivero, Jeff Jones)
By CHRIS A. COUROGEN
American and Lehigh have played 80 minutes of basketball this season, and after Lehigh's 56-54 win Saturday in Bender Arena, the difference between the two in the combined box score comes down to this: 4 points and 7 seconds.
It's ever so slight an advantage on the scoreboard for the Mountain Hawks, who won the first game in Bethlehem by the same margin on a Phil Anderson putback with less than three seconds to play and completed the sweep thanks to a pair of Jose Olivero free throws Saturday with 4.5 showing on the clock. The difference in the league standings, though, is far more significant.
Instead of being tied with Lehigh for third, each a game ahead of Army and Colgate in the race for one of the four first round home games in the postseason playoffs, American (11-12 overall, 3-6 Patriot) now finds itself in a virtual tie with the Raiders and Black Knights (who actually have a half-game lead with a game in hand) for the fourth and final home spot, while Lehigh has a two-game edge on the whole bunch.
At the end of the regular season, if the Eagles find themselves one win shy of staying home for the first round, chances are they will spend a lot of their bus ride looking back at this one as the game that sent them packing. After squandering a six-point lead, at home, with Lehigh's best player stuck on the bench with foul trouble, it would be hard to look at it any other way. Adding to that misery will be the knowledge that had a trio of guys who are normally pretty fair foul shooters knocked down a few free throws against Lehigh, they'd be sleeping in their own beds instead of heading to some distant hotel.
"It's frustrating," said AU coach Jeff Jones. "It's not easy. It's discouraging."
Jones' sentiments are understandable. Here was a game in which his team shot the ball well (24 of 46, 52.2 percent from the field), played solid defense (Lehigh shot 34.9 percent, 15 of 43), and outrebounded the opposition by a healthy 32-23 margin. yet the Eagles wasted that good play by only making 5 of 10 free throws. It was a game where American held Lehigh to 7 first half field goals (7 of 26, 26.9 percent), yet trailed by two -- the same as the final margin -- at the half, after turning the ball over more times (12) than they put it in the hole (9 field goals on 21 tries -- 42.9 percent).
"Statistics aren't everything, but when you look at the statistics, and you look at the 12 turnovers in the first half, and you look at the missed free throws of our guys who usually are very reliable free throw shooters, you can pretty much sum it up and say that is the difference in the game," Jones said.
That was a big difference in the game, but far from the only one. Another key difference was the play of Lehigh freshman Zahir Carrington during the almost six minute stretch of the second half when Olivero was sitting next to Billy Taylor, saddled with four personals. When Olivero, who led Lehigh with 14 points, sat down, American was up 38-32 with Linas Lekavicius -- a 71 percent free throw shooter -- at the line for a one-and-one and a chance to extend the lead to 8.
"That was at least a chance for us, while their big gun was on the bench, to maybe extend that lead a little, but we weren't able to do that," Jones said.
Lekavicius missed the front end; 21 seconds later AU's lead was cut in half thanks to a three-point play by Carrington and the tide was changed. By the time Olivero returned with 4:39 to play, Lehigh was up 49-44, a cushion that proved to be enough down the stretch. Carrington finished with 9 points, all three of his field goals coming during that game-changing stretch.
"(Carrington) was terrific. His ability to catch and finish in the paint," Lehigh coach Billy Taylor said. "We needed him and he stepped up for us."
American didn't go down easily. trailing by 4 with 50 seconds left, they managed to draw even. First 5-8 sophomore point guard Derrick Mercer took matters into his own hands, driving right the left baseline for a layup to cut the Lehigh lead to 54-52. Then at the other end, Andre Ingram made a huge defensive play on a Lehigh inbounds play under their own basket. Ingram managed to knock the ball out of Olivero's hands and off Olivero's leg out of bounds, giving the Eagles possession with 24 seconds to go.
With Taylor subbing sophomore Matt Szalachowski for Olivero on defense to protect Olivero from fouling out in case the game went to overtime, American was able to take advantage of a mismatch by giving the ball to Arvydas Eitutavicius (13 points), who beat Szalachowski in the paint for a four-foot jumper to tie the game with 14 seconds left.
With the possible exception of the host of Girl Scouts on hand for some sort of promotion, every one of the 1,828 folks in Bender knew where tthe ball was going when Olivero checked back.
"(Olivero) is a guy who has done it so many times in the clutch," said Taylor. "We certainly knew who we wanted to get the ball to."
Once it was in his hands, Olivero didn't hesitate. Olivero took it straight to the hole, missing a runner over 6-10 Brayden Billbe but drawing a foul on Eitutavicius.
"I just tried to be aggressive before their defense got set," Olivero said.
After Olivero's free throws, American had a chance to tie with 4.5 seconds left on the clock. The Eagles never got off a shot though, when Eitutavicius, pressured by Szalachowski, fumbled a kickout pass from Mercer.
The win was just the second on the road this season for Lehigh. It was just the second loss at home for American.
Box score | Notebook | Postgame audio (Billy Taylor, Jose Olivero, Jeff Jones)
Help Hoop Time
Recent Items
• Lehigh-American notebook• Holy Cross paints a win
• Trio of games on tap today
• Best case: Brown back by end of season
• Bison handle Navy sans Brown
• Bucknell-Navy notebook
• Mgebroff back in practice
• Bison face challenge at Navy
• Injury takes Brown out of BU lineup
• Griffin's little brother commits
Archive
• Nov. 2004-Oct. 2005• November 2005
• December 2005
• January 2006
• February 2006
• March 2006
• April 2006
• May 2006
• June 2006
• July 2006
• August 2006
• September 2006
• October 2006
• November 2006
• December 2006
• January 2007
• February 2007
• March 2007
• April 2007
• May 2007
• June 2007
• July 2007
• August 2007
• September 2007
• October 2007
• November 2007
Feeds
©2006 Hoop Time. All rights reserved.