Northeast Conference Notebook
by Zach Smart
NEC Teams Gear Up For Playoffs With Knights On Top
It’s been said time and time again, dating back to the beginning of the season and wiith playoff action opening up this Thursday (matchups-sites-time TBA), it will only be repeated. The truth be known, determining who will capture this year’s Northeast Conference championship and earn themselves a trip to the 2006 NCAA tournament is about as easy as figuring out which fifth-grader will come up big in a full force game of “man hunt.”
It’s a wide-open race, and there are really no sharks that dominate the NEC ocean. Early on it was Farleigh Dickinson penciled in as the big shark, until Quinnipiac proved that even a fish identified as the conference’s plankton can, on a given night, knock them off. QU did more than just knock them off; they embarrassed the Knights with a 102-81triumph.
The Bobcats pulled this off behind a season-high 23 points from senior Craig Benson, a streaky off guard who has been mired in a shooting slump for much of the 2005-2006 campaign. FDU, which pulled away from Wisconsin-Green Bay on junior Michael Peeples’ game winner in 68-64 in a Bracket Buster game back on Feb. 18, has dropped two straight. Prior to their 96-89 loss in a double-overtime thriller at Monmouth, the Knights had possession of the nation’s then-fourth longest winning streak.
Their most recent defeat came at the hands of Wagner (12-14, 5-8 NEC). The unpredictable Seahawks won eight of their first 11 games (marking their finest start in 26 years), before free-falling all the way to the NEC dungeon.
The Knights, with a conference-best 13 wins and just four losses, however, have already clinched first place. But with Central Connecticut (16-10, 12-5) and Monmouth (15-13, 12-5) right on their neck and Landy Thompson and Mount St. Mary’s coming up fast, anything can take place.
NEC men's basketball standings (2/27): School NEC Overall 1. Fairleigh Dickinson* 13-4 17-10 2. Central Conn. St.* 12-5 16-10 Monmouth* 12-5 15-13 4. Mount St. Mary's* 11-6 13-15 5. Robert Morris* 10-8 14-13 6. Long Island* 8-9 11-15 7. Sacred Heart 8-10 11-16 8. Quinnipiac 7-10 12-14 St. Francis (NY) 7-10 10-16 10. Wagner 5-12 12-14 11. St. Francis (PA) 2-16 4-24
Wagner Snaps Brutal Losing Streak
Back on Feb. 18 Wagner snapped an abysmal, seven-game losing streak with a 64-60 come-from-behind victory over Quinnipiac at the Burth Kahn Court in Hamden, Conn. The Seahawks were led by red-shirt freshman Jamal Smith’s 20 points
“It was an important game, it brought back our confidence being that we lost seven in a row,” said DeEarnest McLemore, who scored 11 points and received a fortuitous bounce on a jumper that lifted the Seahawks ahead, 61-57, with 1:18 to go.
“A win today is good,” said Wagner head coach Mike Deane. “It may be too little too late, but it’s good to get a win right now.”
“When it comes down to it, Wagner out toughed us tonight,” John Winchester, who scored 10 points and dished out a game-high five assists, said. “We just didn’t rebound as a team. We’ve got to box out and rebound.”
Foul trouble plagued the Bobcats throughout. They committed 26 personal fouls overall, allowing Wagner to shoot 41 free throws.
Deane reflected on some of the problems the Seahawks have experienced while (very surprisingly) struggling on the NEC scene.
“As you saw today (in the first half), we’ve been struggling shooting the ball,” Deane said. After shooting a woeful 5-of-26 (19.2 percent) in the first, Wagner connected on 12-of-28 after the break.
“We had to shoot better than we did in the first half, I mean 5-of-26 is not very efficient,” Deane said. “And it wasn’t like they were checking us and we weren’t getting good looks. We had shots, we just struggled to shoot the ball. Maybe this will help us break out of it.”
McLemore added, “We haven’t been hitting the shots that we were hitting in the first seven, eight games. We’re getting the same looks, but they’re just not going down. Guys have been keying on our main guys (as well).”
The Bobcats closed out the first half’s final three minutes and 54 seconds with a 13-4 run, scoring eight unanswered points in the final 1:05. A pair of acrobatic lay-ups from Job Casimir, the speedy point guard from Stamford, and Adam Gonzales (who paced QU with 14 points) sent the ‘Cats into the locker room with the 14-point advantage.
Behind a potent 17-4 run, Wagner outscored the Bobcats by a 42-24ratio in one of their most lopsided second halves of the season. “We talked about trying to get back into the game step by step,” Deane explained. “To keep our confidence up we had to shoot better. We needed to play better defensively. We gave up eight points in the last minute, five seconds. Unanswered. We we’re only down six.”
“The losing streak is hard to explain,” forward Matt Vitale, who had a big three-point play that changed the direction of the game with 9:54 remaining. “Hopefully this will help get us over the hump.”
