Men's Basketball vs. Worcester State 12/8

MEN'S BASKETBALL AT WORCESTER STATE

7 PM TIP

LISTEN LIVE!

The Corsairs continue their road stretch to end the semester tonight at Worcester State. Good news came this afternoon: the Corsairs are up to #10 in the d3hoops.com Top 25 poll. We're back in Worcester tonight for the first time since March 6-7, when the Corsairs completed their memorable run to the Sweet Sixteen by defeating Baruch and WPI to win the Worcester regional. Busing through town tonight certainly brought back some good memories.

But we're not at WPI tonight, and this is not a big game -- far from it. Tonight we're at Worcester State's Lancer Gym, which is most likely the smallest venue the Corsairs will play in all year. This place maybe seats 300. It's a non-conference game during the last week of classes against a team these seniors have beaten handily all three years. Could the Corsairs look past this one? Unlikely, but all the key trap ingredients are in place.

Worcester State comes into tonight's game with a 3-2 overall record. The Lancers are coming off a 2-0 week with wins of 69-64 over Clark here on Thursday night and a 69-62 win at Regis on Saturday. They feature a premier offensive player in Maurice Horton, who is averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. But that's about it; nobody else averages in double figures.

The Corsairs are riding high after knocking Bridgewater State out of the Top 25 with an 81-62 win on Wednesday night and picking up a 67-63 conference win at Plymouth on Saturday. UMD is now 5-1 overall and 1-0 in the Little East Conference.

In recent meetings between these two teams, it's been all Corsairs. The Corsairs won 85-74 last November 22nd at the Tripp, led by 19 points from Brandon Shelton and 14 each from Jeff Macchi and Matt Walker. In 2007, the Corsairs won here by a 78-65 score with Macchi tossing in 13 points while Walker scored nine and Brandon Stephens had 7. The Corsairs also won 90-64 at the Tripp back in 2006, a game in which Walker and Macchi saw action.

It's just about gametime here at Lancer Gym. Enjoy it!

Doubleheader at Plymouth, 12/5

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL AT PLYMOUTH STATE

1 PM Tip

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MEN'S BASKETBALL AT PLYMOUTH STATE

Approx. 3 PM Tip

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At long last, conference play!

This post comes to you from Plymouth, New Hampshire where the Corsairs are making their annual stop to kickoff the 2009-10 conference slate. We're accustomed to seeing banks of snow everywhere when we come up here, but it's a beautiful, clear day up here today.

On the women's side, the Corsairs stand at 2-4, coming off back-to-back heartbreakers earlier this week. The Corsairs fell at Bridgewater 60-57 on Tuesday night and then lost 61-57 at home to Salve Regina Thursday night in a very similar game. The Panthers, on the other hand, are on a roll. Plymouth State comes in with a perfect 6-0 record. This week, they've notched a 77-60 Tuesday night victory at Colby-Sawyer and a Thursday night 80-64 win at home over Salem State. Plymouth also took a 72-51 opening night victory over Johnson and Wales, who the Corsairs will play on Thursday night.

Although PSU swept the season series with UMD last year, these two games were among the most competitive games the Corsairs turned in during a winless season in conference. Back on February 21 of this year, the Corsairs had a lead as large as 13 in the second half before squandering it due to fatigue -- the Corsairs had only six uniformed players for that game. Tashauna Ashmeade hit a three pointer at the buzzer to force overtime, but the Corsairs ran out of gas....and players. Two Corsairs fouled out in overtime, leaving them to finish the 68-59 loss with only four players on the floor. On January 17, the Corsairs lost 81-73, although they were in the game until the final minute. In that game, now-graduated Vicki Andruskiewicz poured in 25 points, a season high.

Tipoff coming in about 20 minutes here from Plymouth. I'll be back with some men's info between games.

Women's Hoops vs. Salve Regina, 12/3

Came straight from class to get here for the game tonight, so my preview is in chicken scratches in my Tech Writing notebook. (Don't tell my professor!)

Here's tonight's live blog. Thanks to the good folks at Halls Cough Drops for making these nightly broadcasts possible.

Men's Basketball vs. Bridgewater State, 12/2

MEN'S BASKETBALL vs. #19 BRIDGEWATER STATE BEARS

7 PM, TRIPP ATHLETIC CENTER

LISTEN LIVE!

Tonight, things start to get serious.

The #19 ranked Bridgewater State Bears make the short trip down Route 24 to take on UMass Dartmouth in what promises to be one of the most entertaining games of the 2009-10 season. The Bears' resume is a headscratcher at this point in the young season. They defeated Rhode Island College 95-92 last Tuesday, but the rest of their slate has been far less impressive. BSC had to overcome a 20 point first half deficit in order to defeat Western New England 86-83 on opening night.

The Bears also split an opening weekend effort at the SUNY-New Paltz Tip-off Tournament, defeating Lehman (the only one of the Brothers still in business?!) 68-56 and then dropping the championship by a 78-71 margin to St. Joseph's of Long Island.

The Corsairs haven't played in over a week, but their last victory was a big 92-82 win over Brandeis, who is ranked #23 in this week's d3hoops.com Top 25 poll. Brian Baptiste and company are hoping a win tonight, paired with the Brandeis win, will go a long way toward cancelling out the tough loss to University of New England in the Hampton Inn Classic.

Short post tonight, as I had to run over here from class. Yes, the grad assistant goes to class! Does this make me an NCAA student-broadcaster?

Enjoy the game tonight, folks.

Women's Basketball at Bridgewater, 12/1

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL AT BRIDGEWATER STATE

6 PM, Adrian Tinsley Center, Bridgewater State College

Listen LIVE!

Welcome back, everybody! The Thanksgiving break was certainly restorative for yours truly, and hopefully the same can be said for the women's basketball team.

After the big wins in the Hampton Inn Classic, the Corsairs came out flat last Tuesday night in a 51-37 loss at Worcester State. Lynley DeAmato was noticably missing from that game, and the Corsair offense suffered. Although Kaylin Nelson put forward a strong effort, scoring 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting, the rest of the squad mustered only 14 total points on a horrid 8-for-39 shooting.

The Corsairs sit precisely where they were at this time last year: at 2-2 after losses sandwiched around the Hampton Inn Classic wins. Last December 2nd, the Corsairs dropped a 55-52 heartbreaker at home to these same Bears. From there, the Corsairs never really recovered, losing player after player and game after game, limping to a 3-23 finish. Although tonight's game is unlikely to repeat itself as such a pronounced crossroad, you can bet that Amanda Van Voorhis and Rob Johnson want this game tonight pretty badly.

The Bears come into tonight's game with an overall record of 1-2. Bridgewater opened up with an 82-57 win over Eastern Nazarene before dropping a 77-68 decision to William Patterson and a 77-56 loss at the hands of Rhode Island college last Tuesday.

Here are the main weapons for the Bears:

• Monica Bharoocha - 13.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG
  
• Shelly DePina - 11.3 PPG, 7.7 PPG
• Brittney Chappron - 11.0 PPG, 3.3 RPG
• Michaela Crosby - 9.7 PPG, 7.3 RPG
• Corey Cuddihy - 8.0 PPG, 3.3 RPG

New Bedford's own DePina is the reigning MASCAC Rookie of the Year. Both her and teammate Stephanie Houtman played with Kaylin Nelson at New Bedford High School.

Ah, The Dreaded Double Event

Broadcasts for both of tonight's games can be found at CorsairAthletics.com. I will call the men's game from the friendly confines of the radio coop at the Tripp Athletic Center, while the good folks at Penn Atlantic will handle the coverage of women's hoops.

What's a Corsair fan to do tonight? Both the men and women are in action at 7 PM tonight. The question you have to ask yourself is: are you a big enough fan to watch the women on mute while listening to the men? Kudos to you if you are!

The #8 ranked men take on #22 ranked Brandeis in the first of two consecutive games against ranked opponents for UMass Dartmouth. The Corsairs are still stinging from an upset loss to the University of New England on Friday night followed by a pedestrian six point victory against a struggling Springfield on Saturday.

The Judges are always a formidable foe, with six consecutive winning seasons under the leadership of Head Coach Brian Meehan. So far, the Judges are 2-0, picking up a 90-79 win over Lasell last Tuesday and pasting Emerson 69-52 on Saturday.

Recent history favors the Corsairs, who have won two of the last three matchups. The Corsairs pulled out a hard-fought 68-62 victory on the Red Auerbach Court in Waltham last season. For my money, this golden age of Corsair men's basketball began when UMD upset then #2 ranked Brandeis 71-64 in overtime at the Tripp in 2007, which helped catapult the Corsairs up to #2 themselves several weeks later. From then on, the expectations here have been much higher. Corsair elders Matt Walker, Jeff Macchi, and V.J. Divine will remember letting a competitive game get away from them back in 2006, when Brandeis beat the Corsairs in Waltham by a 62-47 margin. Prior to that, it had been 30 seasons since the Judges had last topped the Corsairs. Amazingly, as I reflect on it, that 2006 game is the only one in this series that I have called. Let's hope I'm not bad luck!

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On the women's side, the Corsairs head out to Worcester to take on the Worcester State Lancers at 7 PM.

Each team is coming off a weekend tournament victory that has them excited about the road ahead. The Corsairs (2-1) came up with wins over Green Mountain on Friday and Connecticut College on Saturday to win the 2009 Hampton Inn Classic. The Lancers (2-1) won the 2009 Worcester City Tournament with a victory over Becker on Friday and a championship win over Nichols on Saturday. The Lancers dropped their opener to Springfield last week.

Where I'm not calling this game, this is an abbreviated preview. But don't construe this to mean I'm ignoring the game -- I wish I could be in both places. Please, please, please keep me updated on what's going on up there in tonight's live blog.

Enjoy the games, everybody!

Congrats, Ladies!

I'm having some difficulties uploading videos/sound bytes with my fantastic new Droid, so there's interviews with a triumphant coach Amanda Van Voorhis and MVP Kaylin Nelson waiting in Internet Purgatory. I'll get those up as soon as I get some time to tinker with things and learn how to move them around.

But I want to take this opportunity to recognize the accomplishment of the Corsair women's team this past weekend, taking the Hampton Inn Classic championship after defeating a rather formidable foe in Connecticut College, 56-54, after rolling past Green Mountain College the night before.

Although it's true that the Corsairs won the same tournament last season, I think its significance is far greater this year. This is a team comprised of prodominatly rookie college basketball players, and they just won a tournament together. Not only that, but they won a close game -- something this program has had a poor track record with for several years. The same can be said for beating decent competition.

Last year, the Corsairs were in the same spot at 2-1 after grabbing the Hampton Inn hardware. Anyone taking the time to read this knows that they lost all but one game the rest of the way en route to a 3-23 finish. Could that happen again? I suppose, but you certainly don't get that impression by looking at this year's squad. There's a tangible enthusiasm to what they are doing, and Coach Van Voorhis has a clear direction in mind for the program. We could look back on last weekend as a watershed moment for the Corsairs. The real journey for them begins tonight against Worcester State.