Patriot League Notebook
First Army Wins, Now Navy Wins…Twice!
Taking a cue from its fellow service academy, Navy improbably decided to start winning Patriot League basketball games this weekend. The Midshipmen garnered their first league victory of the season on Friday evening, defeating Colgate 82-71 at home. George O’Garro led the Middies with a career-high 24 points, and the win also coincided with the return of leading scorer and rebounder Laramie Mergerson, who has missed all but one of the team’s league games due to a broken hand. But the biggest shocker of the weekend was the team’s 66-62 victory over Bucknell on Sunday, which pulled the Middies out of last place and into a tie for sixth place in the league. The two wins, combined with the return of Mergerson, may signal the beginning of a resurgence for this young Navy squad as it looks to live up to its full potential.
Bucknell Tastes First League Defeat…And Second, Too
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Bucknell Bison had their first taste of Patriot League defeat on Friday, falling to American by a score of 68-59. The Bison, who came into the game with an 11-game winning streak (the fifth-longest in the nation), fell behind early and never fully recovered against the Eagles. As good as American is, nobody expected the Navy Midshipmen to defeat the Bison on Sunday afternoon, but that is exactly what happened. It’s not too often that you see the top team in the league lose twice and the bottom team win twice in the same week. For Bucknell, the two losses signal some major problems in the road ahead.
The Cross Is On Fire
While other teams experience their ups and downs, the Holy Cross Crusaders just continue to win. Ralph Willard’s crew has now won seven games in a row and six straight league contests, suddenly finding itself all alone atop the Patriot League standings. With stellar guard play from the dangerous duo of Kevin Hamilton and Keith Simmons, the HC is playing as well as it has in a long time.
Okpwae Suspended By American
Despite American having an excellent weekend on the court, all was not well in the nation’s capital. Patrick Okpwae, a 6’6″ senior from Yaounde, Cameroon, has been suspended indefinitely from the American men’s basketball team, according to head coach Jeff Jones. Okpwae apparently missed the team’s curfew on Friday night after the team’s game against Bucknell. Okpwae, who has averaged 8.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game for the Eagles this season, began his suspension on Sunday when the Eagles faced off against Colgate.
Weekly Awards
Player of the Week
George O’Garro, Navy
The senior from Panorama, Calif., put together his best weekend of the season as he helped his team garner its first two Patriot League wins of the season. O’Garro averaged 20 points and nine rebounds in victories over Colgate and Bucknell, including a career-high 24 points against the Raiders. O’Garro also added five blocks and five steals for the Midshipmen, and has become the catalyst for the Navy offensive attack.
Rookie of the Week
Pat Doherty, Holy Cross
Doherty averaged 11.0 points, 2.3 assists and 2.3 steals in the Crusaders’ two wins over Lehigh and Lafayette last weekend. Holy Cross is now 5-0 with the Scranton, Pa., native in the starting lineup, showing that he may never leave the starting five again this season.
Onto the team recaps…
Holy Cross Crusaders (6-1 PL, 15-5 overall)
With the two losses by Bucknell, the title of “League’s hottest team” is certainly befitting of Holy Cross. After victories over Lafayette and Lehigh this weekend, the Crusaders are in the midst of a seven-game winning streak and have won nine of their last 10. Most important, the win over Lehigh vaulted the team into sole possession of first place in the Patriot League at the midway point of the league schedule.
In the first half of the team’s Pennsylvania trip, the Crusaders stormed into Easton and came away with a 74-57 victory against Lafayette. The trio of Kevin Hamilton, Keith Simmons and Nate Lufkin combined to nearly equal the total of the entire Lafayette squad, as the trio scored a combined 51 points. As usual, Holy Cross did it with defense, holding the Leopards to three points in the first 9:20 of the game and 18 points total in the opening half. The HC, meanwhile, continued to shoot the ball very well, shooting 48 percent in the first half and then shutting the door with a 65 percent-shooting second half. Hamilton led the way with 22 points and six rebounds, while Simmons added 18 and six for the Crusaders. The lead grew to as many as 22 midway through the second half, and the game was never in doubt during the final 20 minutes. The game was the sixth consecutive contest in which Holy Cross made over half of its shots.
On Sunday, the Crusaders proved that they could win during an off-shooting night as well. The team survived a rough second half to outlast Lehigh 58-56. Holy Cross again started strong, building a 10-point first-half lead, but Lehigh battled back and Holy Cross went into halftime with only a 27-26 lead. The team’s defense kicked in once again to begin the second stanza, however, as the Crusaders held Lehigh to a single field goal for the first 11 minutes of the half and built up a sizable 16-point advantage. Unlike many other teams, however, the Mountain Hawks would not roll over – and yet it still wasn’t enough to take down the Crusaders. Hamilton led the Holy Cross with 17 points and Simmons and Pat Doherty each added 14 points, but the game was not over until Lufkin blocked Lehigh’s last shot attempt in the waning seconds.
As it begins the second half of the league schedule, Holy Cross will not have the target squarely on its back. The team faces off with a suddenly dangerous Navy team on Friday evening in Annapolis and then moves on to Washington, D.C. to take on second-place American in a game with definite PL Tournament implications. Two wins this weekend would send a strong message to the rest of the Patriot League that the Crusaders are for real.
American Eagles (5-2 PL, 12-7 overall)
Another team that is suddenly proving itself to be for real is the American Eagles. The Eagles used a second-half push to overtake the previously unbeaten Bucknell Bison on Friday evening, and then came back on Sunday afternoon to defeat the Colgate Raiders. With the two wins, American quickly jumped up into a tie for second in the league.
On Friday evening, the Eagles toppled the league’s top team, 68-59, thanks to a solid performance by Jason Thomas. The senior guard scored 18 points, had five rebounds and added three steals in 38 minutes to lead the Eagles over the Bison. American sprinted out of the game against Bucknell, building a first-half lead that grew to as many as 19 before settling for an 11-point advantage at the break. The lead was 20 with 8:16 left before Bucknell attempted to come back, but the lead got no lower than six points after that point. American did its best to allow the Bison back into it, missing five of its last eight free throw attempts (all by Thomas), but in the end the Eagles became the first league team this season to take down the Bison. Matej Cresnik added 13 points and Raimondas Petrauskas contributed 10 points, while Patrick Okpwae added eight points and four rebounds in his last game before being suspended indefinitely by the team.
Against Colgate, American used a combination of excellent shooting and a huge rebounding edge to overcome the Raiders, 78-59, and avoid a letdown after the Bucknell game. The Eagles shot 56 percent from the field and held an 18-rebound edge on the boards as the dominated the Raiders from the opening tip. Petrauskas led the Eagle starters with a season-best 22 points, as the starting five scored all but four points for American on the afternoon. The lack of bench production didn’t matter for American in this game, however, as Thomas and Ingram combined for 35 points on 14-of-26 shooting, giving American an offensive edge over the overmatched Raiders. Every time Colgate attempted to come back on American, the Eagles would answer with a timely bucket or defensive stop, as the home team led from the very start and never looked back.
The Eagles, who currently sit in a tie for second in the league with Bucknell, have an early chance to get some retribution for the team’s disappointing loss at Holy Cross last weekend on Sunday, when they welcome the Crusaders to Washington, D.C. But first, the team must not overlook last place Army, which visits Bender Arena on Friday evening.
Bucknell Bison (5-2 PL, 14-6 overall)
My, how the mighty have fallen. And hard. After surviving their first five league games this season, the Bison finally had their luck run out against American and Navy, falling to both teams in surprising outcomes.
The team’s 11-game winning streak came to a screeching halt on Friday, when the team traveled to Bender Arena to take on American. The Bison came out flat on Friday, scoring the first four points of the game but then allowing American to go on a 15-0 run that put the Bison behind the eight-ball early. The Bison didn’t quit in the second half despite being down big, using some defensive pressure to keep the Eagles to just one field goal for the final eight minutes of the game. Unfortunately for the visitors, however, the three-pointers were not falling (2-for-11 in the second half), and Bucknell could never fully recover from its slow start. Charles Lee led three Bucknell players in double figures with 16 points, but Kevin Bettencourt had another disappointing outing for the Bison, scoring seven points on 1-of-8 shooting. The loss was the first for Bucknell since falling to Penn on December 1.
Unfortunately for the team, the loss turned into an actual losing streak on Sunday afternoon, when the team was upset by the Midshipmen of Navy, 66-62. Bettencourt responded very nicely to his off game against the Eagles, scoring a season-high 27 points and becoming the 30th Bucknell player to record 1,000 points in a career. The milestone came on a down night, however, because the Bison surprisingly could not hold a second-half lead. The team led by nine early on in the second stanza and held a tenuous one-point edge with 1:28 left before Navy’s Corey Johnson hit two free throws that gave Navy the lead for good. Bucknell seemed to be in good position to retake the lead after the two free throws, but a careless turnover turned into two Navy points and Bettencourt’s subsequent three-pointer was off the mark. The loss continues Bucknell’s struggles at Alumni Hall, where the Bison have lost 14 of their last 15 games.
Still without the services of head coach Pat Flannery, the Bison have to find a way to right the ship soon. The team finishes up its four-game road trip this weekend with games at Lafayette on Friday and Lehigh on Sunday. The team will likely need to win both of those games both in order to stay with the top teams in the Patriot League and to keep some semblance of confidence as we head towards the end of the season.
Lehigh Mountain Hawks (4-3 PL, 10-10 overall)
Coming off a bad week last weekend, the Mountain Hawks now sit in fourth place in the Patriot League after splitting its two games against Army and Holy Cross.
Lehigh faced off with the hapless Black Knights on Friday evening and cruised to a 63-45 victory behind the combined efforts of Jose Olivero and Nick Monserez. The duo totaled 39 points and 15 rebounds as the Mountain Hawks jumped out to a 23-6 lead and never looked back. Monserez scored 10 of his game-high 20 points in the first 10 minutes of the contest. Lehigh turned its attention to defense in the second half, holding Army to 7-of-24 shooting in the final 20 minutes and one field goal in the final 7:53. The Hawks also did an excellent job of corralling all those Army misfires, holding a 39-20 edge in rebounding. With the efforts of Monserez and Olivero, not much was needed by the remaining Mountain Hawk players – and that was good, since only one other Lehigh player made more than one field goal.
On Sunday afternoon, Lehigh became the latest Patriot League team to fall victim to the Holy Cross buzz saw. The Mountain Hawks fell behind early and came back in the opening half, but the team was unable to pull the same trick in the second half. The team went cold to open the second stanza, hitting one field goal in 11 minutes, and then attempted to claw its way back from the free throw line. The team hit 16-of-23 attempts from the charity stripe in the second half, but in the end it was not enough to overcome a 16-point second half deficit. Olivero led the Mountain Hawks with a game-high 24 points while Jason Mgebroff and Mitch Gilfillan each added 10, but it was not enough to overcome the Crusaders’ talented guards.
A major story for Lehigh has been the recent disappearance of Joe Knight, one of the team’s top scorers earlier in the season. The junior transfer did not play in the win against Army and didn’t hit a field goal against Holy Cross. Knight and the rest of the Mountain Hawks look to regroup this weekend.
Colgate Raiders (3-4 PL, 8-12 overall)
One weekend they’re great, the next they’re terrible: this is the story of the Colgate Raiders this season. Coming off two big league victories, the team responded this weekend by dropping games to Navy and American, falling back under the .500 mark in the Patriot League.
In the team’s game against previously winless Navy, the Raiders kept up with the Midshipmen in all offensive categories except one: free throws. Colgate shot only 9-of-15 from the free throw line while allowing the Middies to take 35 free throw attempts and make 24 of them, giving Navy its first league win of the season with an 82-71 triumph. Colgate’s struggles continued against the lower echelon teams of the Patriot League (remember, the Raiders lost to Army twice last season), as the team had no answer for Navy’s George O’Garro down low. Andrew Zidar had 14 points and eight rebounds for Colgate, but it was not enough of an inside presence to deter Navy from going that route. Colgate, as has been a problem all season long, also committed way too many fouls, getting into foul trouble and giving the opposition too many free shots at the basket.
The Raiders confirmed that the weekend was a complete waste on Sunday afternoon, as the team never could find the shooting touch in its 78-59 loss to American. The team shot 37 percent for the contest and allowed the Eagles to shoot at a 56 percent clip as American scored the first four points and never trailed. Despite being down by 13 points at halftime, Colgate came out in the second half and decreased the American lead to only two on two occasions, but the lead quickly ballooned to double figures and stayed there for the majority of the second half. Colgate hit only one field goal in the final 4:59, a three-pointer by Alvin Reed. Jon Simon led Colgate for the second consecutive game with 19 points while Reed added 11, but even four Raiders in double figures and a bench that outscored American 20-4 couldn’t overcome the hot Eagle shooting.
Headed into last weekend with high aspirations, Colgate now heads into February with plenty of doubt. The team travels to Lehigh and Lafayette this weekend, two teams that Colgate beat just two weeks ago at Cotterell Court. This time, however, the Raiders will have to prove they can win a game on the road – which has been difficult for the squad in the past.
Lafayette Leopards (2-5 PL, 6-14 overall)
The Leopards are in limbo right now. The team’s lackluster play as of late has kept the squad near the bottom of the league standings, and the team currently sits in a tie for sixth place in the league after splitting its two games this weekend, falling to the red-hot Crusaders before saving face with a victory over Army.
Against Holy Cross, a poor first half gave the team little hope for a victory right away. The Leopards hit one field goal in the first 9:20 of the game and hit only five field goals in the first 20 minutes, heading into halftime with 18 points and facing a 13-point deficit. The team heated up in the second half, shooting the ball at a 48 percent rate, but the team’s defense also disintegrated at the same time, allowing Holy Cross to hit over 65 percent of its shots. The Leopards fell 74-57. Jamaal Douglas scored 11 of his team-high 14 points in the second half as the Leopard offense began to shoot more accurately, but as has been the case with the team all season long, no other player stepped up to match Douglas’ effort.
Head coach Fran O’Hanlon went with an altered starting lineup on Sunday against Army, and though one of the new starters didn’t play well, the Leopards still managed to defeat the Black Knights 66-49. Paul Cummins and Matt Betley got the start in place of Bilal Abdullah and Jamaal Hilliard, and Betley responded well with a 12-point, eight-rebound and five-assist effort. Cummins, meanwhile, was held without a point. As a team, the Leopards dominated the interior, out-rebounding the Knights by 19 – helping to overcome the team’s 36 percent shooting day. Betley and Douglas combined to score the team’s first 13 points, as Betley’s three-pointer on the game’s opening possession put Lafayette up for good early. Douglas and Sean Knitter led the way for Lafayette with 14 points each.
With a weekend split, the Leopards gain no ground in the Patriot League standings and now are suddenly tied with Navy for the sixth position. The team will host a pair of struggle teams, Bucknell and Colgate, this weekend in an attempt to get it back on track in the second half of the Patriot League season.
Navy Midshipmen (2-5 PL, 6-14 overall)
The Midshipmen are the story of the week in the Patriot League. After losing their first five league games of the season, the Navy men got the monkey off their backs against Colgate and then came back on Sunday to take down Bucknell. The two wins have given the team a lot of confidence headed into the second league go-around.
The team welcomed back Laramie Mergerson, the team’s leading rebounder and scorer who had been out with a broken hand, on Friday, but it was the play of senior George O’Garro that led the Middies to their first league win, 82-71 over Colgate. O’Garro posted his second-career double-double with a career-high 24 points and 11 rebounds, as he seemed to will his team to victory. The Middies didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, hitting only 40 percent of their shots, but the team was able to get to the free throw line 35 times – including 13 times just for O’Garro. Matt Fannin and David Hooper were also in double figures for Navy, while Mergerson contributed nine points, three boards and three assists in his first action since breaking his non-shooting hand on January 10.
The team came back on Sunday afternoon and made those free throws count again, holding off Bucknell in the second half to win, 66-62. The Bison held the lead for the majority of the game, but the Midshipmen stayed with Bucknell throughout and were there at the end of the game to steal away a victory. Corey Johnson hit two free throws to give the Middies the lead and O’Garro increased the lead to three with a pair of his own before Greg Sprink iced the game with eight seconds left. In the second half, Navy scored 20 of its 41 points from the charity stripe, as it again took advantage of its opponents’ propensity to foul. Sprink and O’Garro led Navy with 17 and 16 points, respectively, both on 5-of-10 shooting. With the win, Navy surpassed its win total from all of last season (five), and gave itself some much-needed momentum.
After getting first-year head coach Billy Lange his first two Patriot League victories, the Navy men will surely be hungry for more this weekend. The team plays the streaking Holy Cross Crusaders on Friday night, and then hosts Army in a nationally-televised contest on Sunday afternoon. The Star Game will surely be a hard-fought match-up, as the Middies attempt to make up for the embarrassing loss at the hands of the Black Knights a few weekends ago.
Army Black Knights (1-6 PL, 3-16 overall)
I hope the Black Knights enjoyed their one week out of the Patriot League cellar, because the team is now settled back into that spot. With losses to Lehigh and Lafayette, Army fell to 1-6 in the league and, with Navy’s two victories, assumed the bottom position once again.
In the team’s 63-45 loss to Lehigh, the Knights fell behind early and never fully recovered. The team fell behind 23-6 out of the gate and was down by 17 again later in the half before going on a 12-2 run to get the lead down to a manageable seven points. The Knights then hung around for most of the second half, trailing by only seven at the 7:54 mark before Lehigh went on a decisive 13-2 run over the game’s final eight minutes to finally put Army away. Colin Harris led the Black Knights with 18 points, including a span to begin the second half in which he scored 12 of the team’s 15 points. The game wasn’t the best display of Black Knight offense, as only five Army players were able to make a field goal and only three scored more than four points.
The team didn’t fare any better on Sunday afternoon, as the Black Knights traveled to Easton and fell to Lafayette 66-49. Once again, the team was unable to get anything going on the offensive end, shooting only 36 percent from the field. The Leopards also shot 36 percent, but Lafayette had the advantage thanks to a 47-28 rebounding edge that allowed them to take 11 more shots than the Black Knights. Neither team shot the ball well from beyond the arc, as Army hit only 5-of-28 attempts while Lafayette was little better, making 6-of-28 tries in a war of offensive attrition in which the Leopards finally prevailed. Cory Sinning led the Black Knights in a losing effort with a career-high 16 points, while Matt Bell was the only other Army player in double figures with 10. Only six Black Knight players were able to put points on the board, yet another example of the team’s obvious offensive weakness.
The Army men have a pair of difficult league games coming up this weekend. On Friday, the team travels to American to face off with the Eagles, and then the Knights travel to Annapolis for a nationally-televised showdown with the Midshipmen on Sunday. Once again, the team’s game against Navy may be its best shot at another league victory, so the Black Knights should be fired up for the annual Star Game.
