The NEC MBB Week In Review: Christmas Eve Edition

Another week has gone by in what seems like an incredibly fast moving non-conference season. One only more week to go until we hit the new year and NEC conference play begins. Let’s take a quick look back at the week that was this week in NEC men’s basketball.

Monday

- We start with last Monday’s action between Bucknell and St. Francis (PA). The Red Flash had been off for nine days for finals before this game. Bucknell is one of the top teams in the Patriot League and they whipped on St. Francis (PA) beating them by 27. The Red Flash shot just 30% from the field and shot 3 for 23 from three. They were out-rebounded by 19.

Tuesday

- Sacred Heart hosted Stony Brook in their second meeting of the season. SHU beat Stony Brook in a big come-from-behind victory on the road in that first meeting. Stony Brook got back some measure of revenge beating Sacred Heart on the road themselves, 64-59. Shane Gibson had 22 for the Pioneers whose record dropped to 2-7 after the loss. Louis Montes chipped in 9 and 11 for Sacred Heart in the losing effort.

-Robert Morris went on the road and beat Louisana-Lafayette, 66-61. Three RMU players finished with double-digit points led by 17 from Karvel Anderson. The key for RMU in this one was their three-point defense, RMU allow ULL only to shot 3 for 19 from three which was the difference. This win gave RMU a five-game winning streak which matched the NEC-high five-game win streak LIU Brooklyn had.

Wednesday

- LIU Brooklyn had their five-game winning streak snapped by the hands of St. Peter’s on the road

- Mount St. Mary’s had to go up to Bloomington, Indiana and take on a angry 6th-rank Indiana team that had just lost their first game of the season to Butler in Indianapolis the Saturday before. Indiana unleashed some frustration out on Mount Mayhem and cruised to a 39-point win. The Mount were only able to hit on 31% of their shot over the highly-skilled Hoosiers while Indiana shot 71% and out-rebounded the Mount 40 to 15.

Thursday

- St. Francis (PA) played their second game in four days, taking on Kent State on the road and it was another ugly one for the Red Flash as they lost by 29. Earl Brown had a good game for the Red Flash with 17 points on 5 for 8 shooting. Overall, it was another ugly shooting night for the Red Flash as they shot 33% from the field and turned the ball over 18 times compared to the 7 turnovers they forced Kent State. St. Francis (PA) has one more non-conference game left with Cornell at home to avoid a winless non-conference season.

- RMU wrapped up their non-conference season with a visit to SEC country and Arkansas. RMU put out a heck of an effort but couldn’t get by Arkansas losing by only five. Karvel Anderson and Coron Williams both led RMU with 17 each. RMU held Arkansas to just 4 for 18 from three which gave them a shot at the upset even though Arkansas shot 53% from the field. Arkansas also shot 50% (13 for 26) from the free-throw line which kept RMU in the game. RMU finished the non-conference with a 8-5 record, one game worse than the 9-4 record they had in the non-conference last season but went 8-3 after they horrid 0-2 start with some very good quality wins. They have become the clear favorites to take home the NEC title with their recent hot play, good wins in non-conference plus the knee injury to Julian Boyd for LIU Brooklyn and the struggles of Wagner on offense.

Friday

- Quinnipiac took on Albany on the road and got a much-needed two-point win. The Bobcats had lost five of six before this game including a couple of home games. It wasn’t a thing a beauty though. Quinnipac shot only 39% while going 4 for 17 from three. They did what they usually do which is out-rebound their opponent by 10 and went 9 for 11 at the free-throw line while Albany could only go 16 for 23 which was the difference in the game. Ike Azotam had 17 and 8. Zaid Hearst also had 12 points in 19 minutes of play.

- Central Connecticut State hosted Northeastern and were handled rather easily by the Huskies by 19. Kyle Vinales didn’t have a good one in this game. He shot 4 for 13 for 10 points and committed five turnovers. Matt Hunter scored 22 but took 21 shots to do it. They have one more game versus St. Peter’s before NEC play.

- Wagner made a return trip to Santa Clara for annual Cable Car Classic for the second year in a row. They won this tournament last season. In the semifinal round, Wagner took on Larry Brown’s SMU team and got a nice 10-point win. Wagner actually got some offense in this game as they scored 63 points on 49% shooting. Jonathon WIlliams, fresh off his NEC Player of the Week performance vs Coppin State, had 13 and 7 while freshman Eric Fanning had 11 points off the bench.

Saturday

There were eight games involving NEC teams. First, Bryant beat Dartmouth, 79-66. Five Bryant players scored in double-digits and the team shot 51% from the floor. Bryant with the win, guaranteed a winning non-conference season for themselves. They wrap up their non-conference schedule with a difficult one at Lehigh.

- Fairleigh Dickinson went to Vermont and lose to the Catamounts, 76-62. Melquan Bolding had 20 points while Kinu Rochford had 12 and 7 for FDU. The Knights have now lost 3 of 4 since their three-game winning streak. They have two more non-conference games to play with trips to VCU and Longwood.

- LaSalle handed Sacred Heart a 100-71 beatdown in Philadelphia. Shane Gibson did all he could with 19 points on 8 for 16 shooting. Steve Glowiak had 15 points for SHU in the loss. LaSalle has six players scored at least 12 points. Sacred Heart falls to 2-8 with one more non-conference game on the road at George Washington before hosting a short-handed LIU Brooklyn to start NEC play.

- In a game I attended, St. Francis Brooklyn beat Colgate by 12. Jalen Cannon is putting his name in the hat for NEC Player of the Year honors. Cannon had 24 points on 11 for 16 shooting but it took Travis Nichols and his blistering second half to get by Colgate. Nichols scored 16 of his 20 points in that second half and also grabbed 12 rebounds. St. Francis Brooklyn only got their third win of the year and first home win. They visit NJIT in Newark on Sunday in their non-conference finale.

- Mount St. Mary’s visited Western Michigan and lost by 21. Although, they got four players who finished in double-digits, they allowed WMU to shot 60% and got out-rebounded by 17. They also committed 24 personal fouls to only WMU’s 10. The Mount host UMBC in their non-conference finale next Saturday where they have yet to lose at home with 2-0 record.

- In a rare home game versus a Big East team, Monmouth hosted Villanova at the MAC. Nova used great three-point shooting and rebounding to bury Monmouth 83-56. Monmouth sturggled against the length and athletism of Villanova. Monmouth was only able to connect on 35% of their shots and committed 23 turnovers. Another tough game for Jesse Steele who was battling a sore knee and didn’t start the game. He was 1 for 8 and scored only 5 points. Andrew Nicholas scored 16 points on 11 shots and Marcus Ware scored 12 on six shots. The attendance was 3,898 which was likely a sell-out.

- LIU Brooklyn got crushed by Seton Hall at the Barclays Center and are now 0-2 at the new Brooklyn arena.

- Finally, Wagner played Santa Clara in the final of Cable Car Classic at Santa Clara. The Broncos got some revenge back on Wagner after losing to them last season on this amazing last second shot by Kenneth Ortiz by beating them handily by 24. Marcus Burton was the only double-digit scorer with 10. The offensive woes were back for this one as Wagner shot just 30% and were a horrible 2 for 13 from three. They return back to Staten Island to host Penn in their last non-conference game.

Performance(s) of the week: Jalen Cannon (SFC) – 24 pts, 11-16 FG, 6 Rebs & Travis Nichols (SFC) – 20 pts, 6-12 FG, 4-8 3FG, 12 Rebs in SFC’s 73-61 win over Colgate on Saturday.