Patriot League Notebook
Bison Cannot Be Stopped
This just in: Bucknell is a good basketball team. After the team’s wins over Colgate and Army, the Bison have won nine straight games, the longest streak in the 11-year tenure of head coach Pat Flannery. Bucknell is ranked No. 22 in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll, and at this point hasn’t had a very stiff challenge from a Patriot League opponent. Of course, that only means that teams will be gunning more than ever to take down the top dogs – err, Bison.
Patriot Defense
The Patriot League teams have been playing their share of defense so far this season, placing three teams within the top 17 in the nation in scoring defense. Not incidentally, the three teams that place high (Bucknell, Holy Cross and Lehigh) are three of the top teams in the league this season. The Bison come in at the No. 10 position (57.9 points per game), followed closely by the Crusaders (No. 11, 58.0 ppg) and the Mountain Hawks (No. 17, 58.7 ppg). Army, meanwhile, ranks fourth from the bottom in D-I in scoring offense – just for a little perspective on some of these teams’ opposition.
New Eagle Heading Into The Nest
The American University Eagles announced Tuesday that Paulius Joneliunas, a sophomore center, will transfer to the Washington, D.C., school from the University of South Carolina. Joneliunas has participated in 16 games in his two seasons with the Gamecocks, averaging one rebound and less than one point per game. The Vilnius, Lithuania, native will certainly feel welcome on the Eagle squad, which already features three players from the eastern European country.
Player of the Week
Kevin Hamilton, Holy Cross
The junior guard led Holy Cross to two wins last week, including the team’s win over Army in which he scored only 11 fewer points than the entire Black Knight squad. In the two games, the Queens Village, N.Y., native averaged 18.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4 steals, as he continues to lead the Crusaders towards the top of the Patriot League.
Rookie of the Week
Pat Doherty, Holy Cross
Doherty made his first significant contributions to the Crusader cause last week, averaging 11 points, 4.5 assists and three rebounds in his team’s two games. The Scranton, Pa., native is just another in a long line of talented Crusader guards this season (see Player of the Week, for example), and only adds to the danger of playing Holy Cross.
Bucknell Bison (3-0 Patriot League, 12-4 overall)
With 10:18 left in the second half on Wednesday evening, Bucknell looked to have wrapped up its second Patriot League victory of the season early. But the lead nearly evaporated down the stretch and the Bison had to work for the W, holding back the Colgate Raiders by a score of 71-69. After a three-pointer by John Griffin put the Bison up by 17, Bucknell was held to only two field goals for the remainder of the game, as the team’s nine free throws barely allowed it to escape Hamilton with a victory. After a three-pointer dwindled the Bison lead to two, Bucknell’s Charles Lee sunk four key free throws in the final 30 seconds to clinch the win. Lee scored a team-high 19 points, helped along by 15 from Chris McNaughton and 13 from Kevin Bettencourt. Both teams shot the ball very well on the evening, with Bucknell hitting 57 percent of its shots and Colgate hitting 48 percent of its attempts, but the 15 made free throws for Bucknell put them over the top in a contest that ended up being very entertaining at the end.
The Bison made it nine in a row with a 63-46 win over Army, although the Bucknell team did its best to give the game away in the first half. In the opening 20 minutes, the Bison shot a terrible 23 percent (7-of-30) from the field, including 1-of-12 from beyond the arc, and yet still managed to head into halftime with a one-point lead because Army was just an inept on the offensive end. Bucknell was able to find the net with a greater frequency in the second half, hitting 50 percent of their shots, thanks in large part to Chris McNaughton. The center played only eight minutes in the first half after picking up two quick fouls, but scored all 12 of his points in the second half to give Bucknell a much needed offensive spark. Charles Lee led the team with 15 points and nine rebounds, as the Bison struggled somewhat to overcome a poor shooting night from Kevin Bettencourt (2-of-12 from the field). The Bison also played the game without head coach Pat Flannery, who was attending to a family matter.
Lehigh Mountain Hawks (3-0, 9-7)
Whenever Lehigh and Lafayette get together, the records are put aside and the rivalry between the schools always helps to produce a quality basketball game. Wednesday night was no different, as the host Mountain Hawks jumped out early, gave it back in the second half but eventually took home a 63-55 win. The first half was evenly played, but a late run by Lehigh sent it into the break with a 10-point lead and a lot of confidence, and the lead was upped to 16 early in the second half. But, as evidenced by the Bucknell game, nothing will come easy this season. The Leopards streaked on a 21-4 run in eight minutes to take the lead. Lehigh, meanwhile, suddenly could not find the basket, shooting just 29 percent in the second half. The Mountain Hawks were bailed out by their free throw shooting. They hit 9-of-10 attempts from the line in the final five minutes, while the Lehigh defense limited Lafayette to one field goal in the final 6:14. Jose Olivero led four Mountain Hawk players in double figures with 15 points.
The Hawks then got off to their third 3-0 league start in three years under head coach Billy Taylor, thanks to a 72-67 victory over Navy. Like Bucknell, Lehigh also tried to give this game away, letting the Middies erase a 16-point second half lead before escaping Annapolis with a win. In the opening half, Joe Knight and Jason Mgebroff combined for 25 points to help the Mountain Hawks take a five-point advantage into the locker room. In the second half, it looked like Lehigh would run away with the game, opening up a 16-point edge with 9:55 left, but the Middies would not die. Lehigh’s offense went south and Navy came all the way back to tie the game at 60 at the 4:01 mark. But Knight came back to lead his team to victory, making some key plays down the stretch. Knight finished the game with a game-high 25 points, while Olivero had 10 points – including some important free throws near the end of the game – in limited action after being poked in the eye early on.
It’s all league games from this point on for the Mountain Hawks, and this weekend will be an important one for Billy Taylor and his club. First off, the team travels to Colgate to battle with the Raiders, but then travels to Bucknell to go toe-to-toe with the top team in the league. Lehigh, which has had its share of problems on the road this season, has two tough road games this weekend in which to prove that it belongs at the top of the Patriot League.
Holy Cross Crusaders (2-1, 10-5)
When your Patriot League opener is a big loss at the hands of Bucknell, there is only one thing that could remedy any ills facing a team: playing Army! The Black Knights were just what the doctor ordered for Holy Cross, which rebounded from its loss to the Bison with a 66-29 pasting of Army. Kevin Hamilton and Keith Simmons led the Crusaders with 18 points apiece – the duo outscored the entire Army team by seven points – as the visitors allowed the home team to hang around for a while in the first half before blowing the game open in the second half. The Crusaders made sure there was no chance of any comeback in this one, shooting 57 percent in the second half and playing their harassing style of defense that kept Army on its heels all night long. Holy Cross recorded eight steals and eight blocks in the game and the Crusaders held an opponent to the fewest points in a game since a 71-29 win over Tufts in January of 1947. You can’t say much more about a blowout than that.
Coming off such an easy win, Holy Cross made it two in a row with a 74-64 win over Colgate. The Crusaders scored the first 10 points of the game and never looked back, despite some tense moments near the game’s end. The Crusaders controlled the flow of play for much of the first half, shooting the ball well and keeping Colgate from making any significant runs at the lead. In the second half, Holy Cross’ shooting was still strong, but its defense slacked off somewhat, allowing Colgate to shoot 62 percent from the floor and giving the Raiders some good three-point looks. The Crusader lead was 12 with 11:59 to play but was down to only two points with 2:14 left when Hamilton came to the rescue, hitting a big three-pointer and then swiping the ball on consecutive Colgate possessions as Holy Cross upped the lead back up to seven and took the game. Hamilton led three Crusaders in double figures with 19 points, while Simmons added 18 and freshman Pat Doherty had the best game of his young college career, scoring 14 points.
The Crusaders finish up their non-league schedule tomorrow night when they host Iona, then get back into the meat of the Patriot League season against Navy and American. Early on, the Crusaders and Eagles are battling for the third spot in the league standings, and so each game between the two squads will be vitally important down the road. But with the way that Simmons and Hamilton are playing, Holy Cross has an edge on almost every team it plays at this point.
American Eagles (2-1, 9-6)
In yet another close league contest, American outlasted the Midshipmen of Navy in the second half to win, 66-60. The game was tied at 38 with five minutes gone in the second half before the Eagles went on a 21-9 run that gave them a secure lead. Jason Thomas led the charge for American in the win, keying the decisive run with a three-pointer and finishing the game with a game-high 17 points and nine rebounds. Raimondas Petrauskas has another solid outing for American off the bench, adding 12 points, while Andre Ingram added 11 of his own. The Eagles shot the ball well, especially in the second half, in which they hit 52 percent of its shots, even though only one Eagle starter (Thomas) hit more than half of his shots. The win was the eighth consecutive victory for American as a member of the Patriot League over Navy and the ninth overall.
American followed up the Navy victory with another close call against Lafayette, becoming the second league team to defeat the Leopards on a last-second shot, winning 76-74. In the first half, the star for American was Linas Lekavicius, who scored all 14 of his points in 16 first-half minutes. Lekavicius shot 6-of-7 from the floor in the first half, and the Eagles jumped out to an early lead they couldn’t hold in the second half. Following a turnover by Jason Thomas with 17 seconds left, the Leopards tied the game up with 14 ticks left with a lay-up, setting the stage for one last American effort. With the game on the line, the Eagle naturally turned to their offensive leader, Andre Ingram, and the sophomore did not disappoint, hitting the game-winning shot with 0.4 seconds left on the game clock. Once again, the Eagles won in spite of their terrible bench, which only scored six points between the five players. As the season wears on, it will be interesting to see whether the five Eagle starters will tire at all.
American has also completed its non-league schedule for the season, and heads into next weekend with one easy game and one tough one. On Friday evening the team travels to West Point to be the next team to take down Army, and follows that up on Sunday afternoon with a tough contest against Holy Cross. The Eagles will face a very tough challenge in the Crusaders, who pride themselves on solid defense and will surely focus on Ingram and Thomas, the two main scorers for the Eagles.
Colgate Raiders (1-2, 5-10)
Playing against the top team in the Patriot League, Colgate got down early but did not fold against Bucknell, clawing back and making the game interesting before falling 71-69. Colgate trailed by as much as 21 in the second half before decreasing the lead to as little as two, but it could not overtake the Bison. Andrew Zidar led Colgate with a game-high 21 points and seven rebounds, but even 58 percent second-half shooting could not overcome the Raiders’ poor start to the game. The Raiders allowed Bucknell to shoot at will for the majority of the contest, only turning up the defensive pressure when the situation turned dire. But while Colgate lost the game, the team could take from it the confidence that, if it had played a complete ballgame, it may have been able to unseat the Bison from the top of the league. However, as past Raider teams have learned the hard way, inconsistency is not something that can be easily shaken.
Against the Crusaders, head coach Emmett Davis changed up the starting lineup in an attempt to spark the offense, and while one of the three starters performed well, the team as a whole did not and Colgate suffered another league loss, 74-64. The Raiders’ top two offensive players, Zidar and Jon Simon, combined for 14 points, with Zidar coming off the bench for the first time all season. In his place, freshman Alex Woodhouse had the finest game of his young career, scoring 12 points and grabbing five rebounds. Classmate Kyle Roemer went 5-for-5 from beyond the arc for 15 points and Alvin Reed led the team with 16 points off the bench, but Colgate could not find a way to overtake the Crusaders. The Raiders as a team shot 73 percent (11-of-15) from beyond the arc, a team-high for the season, and yet the defense was unable to stop the HC from scoring, allowing the visitors to shoot the ball at a 52 percent clip for the contest.
This weekend, Colgate welcomes Lehigh and Lafayette to Cotterell Court, in an opportunity to get itself back into the thick of things in the Patriot League. The team faces off with Lehigh on Friday evening and Lafayette on Sunday afternoon on their home floor, on which the Raiders defeated both teams last season. Colgate can only hope for some more of that home cookin’ this weekend.
Lafayette Leopards (1-2, 5-10)
Lafayette also started poorly and finished strong in its game against Lehigh, but ended up with the same result as Colgate did versus Bucknell: a loss. Lehigh played well in the first half and the Leopards did not shoot the ball well, but Lafayette used some good defense and timely scoring to climb out of a 16-point hold to take a second-half lead, using a 21-4 run in which eight different Leopards scored. Lafayette increased its lead to as much as four before its offense went south, as the Leopards hit only one field goal – a meaningless last-second bucket by Marcus Harley – after that point. In this contest, it seemed as if Lafayette’s greatest asset – its deep bench – may have led to its downfall, as no Leopard player stepped up as the game wound down to make a clutch shot. Some player on this team will have to step up in the future, if Lafayette looks to keep itself near the top of the league.
Losing at the buzzer is always difficult for a team, but the loss is made that much more painful when the team made up a deficit to tie the game before losing it, 76-74 to American. That was the case with Lafayette on Saturday against Lehigh, as the Leopards were down by 12 early in the second half and fell behind by six with 43 seconds left before tying the game – at least until Andre Ingram hit a game-winning shot for the Eagles. The Leopards got back into the game due to the play of Marcus Harley and Sean Knitter. Harley scored six of his team’s last nine points on his way to a 13-point game, while Knitter was huge on the boards for Lafayette, collecting 10 rebounds to go along with his team-high 17 points. I am still trying to figure out why Fran O’Hanlon continues to start center Jamie Hughes, who did not score a point and turned the ball over twice in eight minutes of action. O’Hanlon would be much better off allowing Knitter, one of the team’s top offensive players, to get more action and become even more productive than he already is.
Lafayette has two important games this weekend, the first being a Friday match-up with fellow 1-2 team Colgate. The winner of this game has a chance to end the weekend in the top four in the league standings, which is a key goal for many teams heading towards the league tournament. And while the season is still young, a win over Colgate or Sunday’s opponent, Bucknell, would do wonders for this young but deep team.
Navy Midshipmen (0-3, 4-11)
One team looking to keep its head above water is Navy, which fell to 0-2 in the league after a 66-60 loss to American. Matt Fannin had a monster game on the glass for the Middies, hauling in 19 rebounds – the highest total for a Navy player since some guy named David Robinson had 21 rebounds in 1987. Fannin also scored 16 points and was aided by George O’Garro’s 10 points, but Navy could not survive 30 percent shooting from the field for the game. The team got plenty of looks at the basket – it launched 73 shots in 40 minutes – but the ball was simply not falling for Navy, which continues to play without two of its best forwards (Carlton Baldwin and Laramie Mergerson). O’Garro has helped to take up some of the offensive slack, proving himself to be a reliable scorer off the bench, but Navy will have to find some new offensive weapons in order to succeed, because at the moment the team is shooting its share of blanks.
Looking for revenge against the team that narrowly defeated them in last season’s Patriot League Tournament, the Midshipmen valiantly came back against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in the second half but fell just short, falling 72-67. Lehigh owned a 16-point advantage with 9:29 left in the second half before an impressive 14-0 run by the Middies got them right back into the game. David Hooper and Greg Sprink each knocked down two field goals during the stretch, with both of Hooper’s hoops coming from beyond the arc. Another Hooper three tied the game at 60 with less than two minutes left, but Lehigh went on a 6-0 mini-run to finally put the game away. Taj Matthews led the Middies with 16 points, while O’Garro, Hooper and Sprink all also reached double figures for Navy, but Fannin received little chance to follow up on his monster game against American, totaling only five points and three boards.
Navy faces a tough task on Friday, when they travel to Worcester to take on Holy Cross. On Sunday afternoon, the team travels to West Point to take on a much easier opponent, Army. While that game may not seem important to most people, the Army-Navy contests are always closely contested and hard fought no matter what the records say. The game also will determine whether Navy can keep itself out of the league cellar as well, so expect the Middies to put up a good fight on Sunday.
Army Black Knights (0-3, 2-13)
And then there is Army. The Army of (Division) One continues to struggle mightily against its Division I opponents, staying winless against its D-I counterparts after losses to Holy Cross and Bucknell. Against the Crusaders, Army had little hope after a huge Holy Cross run exploited Army’s offensive deficiencies. Holy Cross’ duo of Kevin Hamilton and Keith Simmons combined to outscore the Black Knights as a team by seven points, as Army shot under 20 percent for the entire game. Jimmy Sewell had a (relatively speaking) huge offensive night for Army, scoring a team-high 11 points, but no other Black Knight player made more than one field goal or scored more than five points. At this point, I’m beginning to run out of things to say about Army’s offensive ineptitude.
Some teams need to take whatever positives they can from a game, and from Saturday’s loss to Bucknell, the Black Knights can take solace in one thing: they weren’t held to under 30 points again. After scoring 23 and 29 points, respectively, in the teams’ two match-ups last season, Army broke out with 46 points against the Bison, yet still lost by 17. The first half looked as if there may be a repeat of last season, as Army sunk only 6-of-22 field goals, but the Army defense was up to the task early as well, holding Bucknell to only 7-of-30 shooting. The second half saw things revert to form, however, as Bucknell used a 20-8 run midway through the second stanza to shake off Army for good. Colin Harris led Army with 14 points, but once again no second Black Knight was there to help the leading scorer. Other than Harris, no other Army player made more than two field goals or scored more than seven points. Something needs to be done with the Army offense, for while the team plays very solid defense, the men simply have no chance of winning due to their total inability to score.
Army hosts 2-1 American on Friday evening, and then has probably its best chance of winning a league game this season when it hosts Navy on Sunday afternoon. With Navy not at full strength and Army playing in front of its home crowd, this is the best chance the team will have all season to win both a Patriot League game and a Division I basketball game. If Army doesn’t take down Navy, it may go winless in the league and will lose some respect from all corners of the league.
