February 20, 2023: Thoughts from the weekend

The final weekend of the regular season (for everyone except the UAA) was a phenomenal way to close out the conference schedules for some of the top teams across the country. We saw so many great contests between Saturday and Sunday, and I wanted to touch on a few of those here.

• The NESCAC Tournament quarterfinals played out on Saturday, and ended up having a bunch of really good contests. Amherst and Trinity went down to the wire, with Trinity prevailing by a single point, 58-57. I think both teams will end up in the NCAA Tournament, and while Amherst ended up with the loss, I thought it was one of the better shooting performances I’d seen from the Mammoths this entire season. They were 6-of-14 from 3-point range, and 38.9% overall. Reilly Campbell had another big-double-double for Trinity, with 22 points and 12 boards. She continues to be a matchup problem for a lot of opponents in the paint with her athleticism and height. Neither squad scored for the final 1:12 of the game, as Amherst missed the potential game-winner with two seconds on the clock

  • Williams jumped out to a 21-12 lead in its contest against Bates, and ended up with a 62-55 victory, advancing to the NESCAC semis. I really like what Williams is doing lately on both ends of the floor…they seem so poised and it seems they take very few bad shots (though there’s no stat to track that). But whatever it is, it’s working, and Williams could be that underdog that ends up in the NESCAC title game. Trinity plays Williams at Tufts on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. EST. Can’t wait for that one!

  • The other semifinal matchup will be Tufts against Middlebury. Maggie Russell was incredible for Tufts in the quarterfinal win over Bowdoin. She couldn’t miss. She was 11-of-17 from the field, 16-of-16 at the free throw line, ending up with 40 points! That’s an All-American-type performance right there. Interestingly, I was surprised to see Bowdoin jump out to a narrow lead and hold it as long as they did, but Tufts did not get a ton of scoring production from any one player outside of Russell. So Bowdoin did hold an advantage for a short time before pulling out the win. The matchup betweeen Middlebury’s Alexa Mustafaj and Maggie Russell next Saturday will be awesome. I can’t wait. Mustafaj had 30 points in Middlebury’s win over Hamilton.

  • The NESCAC recapped everything really well in this article, so check that out: https://nescac.com/news/2023/2/18/nescac-news-top-four-seeds-advance-in-nescac-womens-basketball-tournament.aspx

  • Heading south, I thought Hardin-Simmons looked extremely sharp in the second half of Saturdays’s 84-67 win over Mary Hardin-Baylor. UMHB is a good team, and hung with HSU for the entire first half. But when you shoot 54% from the field, and 47% from 3-point range, good things are going to happen. The win completed HSU’s rare feat of progressing through the ENTIRE 18-game ASC schedule UNDEFEATED, while at the same time, claiming head coach Kendra Whitehead’s 200th win with the program. Historically the ASC Tournament’s top seed hasn’t won the tournament at a rate as consistent as you’d expect, but if there’s a team to do it, it’s this HSU team. They’ve upped their level of play as of late.

  • UT-Dallas also made waves in the ASC, narrowly prevailing against ETBU, 52-51. This likely knocks ETBU out of the Pool C discussion, though a strong ASC Tournament showing with a win in the semis, but could put the Tigers back in the conversation. Joe Shotland continues to do a great job as UTD’s head coach, and the Comets are the #4 seed in the ASC Tourney, which begins tomorrow.

  • The big “upset” of the day came in the OAC, where Ohio Northern was shocked by Muskingum in double OT, 89-83. I really thought ONU was going to lose this one in regulation, down 15 at the beginning of the fourth quarter. But the Polar Bears outscored Muskingum 20-5 in the final 10 minutes, pushing it into OT! A 55% FT percentage doesn’t look great for ONU, neither does the fact that a 10-15 team outscored them by eight in both the first and second quarters. Not sure what to do in my ballot today…Massey has them #31, Scott Peterson’s model, which isn’t as hard on losses as some are, has them #25. I’m very close to keeping them outside my ballot completely. Baldwin Wallace isn’t in my Top 20 right now either.

  • Calvin did a very good job in the 71-65 win over Albion, and will be the #3 seed in the MIAA Tournament, which begins tomorrow. The 14 second-chance points were huge in my opinion for Calvin, as Albion had just 7, and the margin ended up being 6. The Knights, as usual, were also very good on the glass, outrebounding Albion by +7. Calvin is definitely “on the bubble” right now in the Pool C conversation, but has a great chance ahead of them this week with the conference tournament.

  • Albertus Magnus cut it sort of close against Lasell (6-19 overall) on Saturday, winning by just 5, 82-77. I’m not sure about Albertus Magnus. They’ve been somewhat inconsistent (from my perspective), though you can’t discount a 21-3 record. The fourth quarter defense just wasn’t very good against Lasell, as AB was outscored 22-13 over those final 10 minutes. As I said in my conference tournament predictions article the other day, I think the GNAC champ will be out of the north division, either Emmanuel or St. Joseph’s (ME).

  • In another close Saturday battle, Drew edged Catholic, 58-57, at Catholic. After missing an initial 3-pointer, there just wasn’t enough time to kick it back out for another long shot, so Catholic scored the jumper with under a second left, ending up with the one-point loss. Drew was been a tough opponent for a lot of teams in the Landmark this season, but didn’t end up making the 4-team cut for the conference tournament. Catholic battles Elizabethtown in a good matchup on Wednesday night in tournament action.

  • Yesterday, I thought WashU might fall again, trailing Carnegie Mellon 40-38 at halftime. But a very strong offensive showing in the second half gave the Bears a 98-93 win on senior day. Both teams shot incredible well, with CMU at 50% and WashU just behind at 48%. They were also each above 80% from the FT line. Part of that shooting percentage was the number of points in the paint, as WashU went into the post time and time again, scoring 50 points there. CMU had 42 points in the paint, for comparison. And what a stat line from WashU’s Maya Arnott: 31 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals.

  • NYU completed the very tough double of Emory and Rochester on the same weekend, winning both. At Rochester yesterday, 4 starters ended up with double figures in points, led by Belle Pellecchia, who had 19. Katie Titus also eclipsed the 2,000-point mark for Rochester, scoring 28. Rochester outrebounded NYU by +8, but the Violets had 15 points off turnovers. NYU is my #2 team this week in my ballot.

  • Scott Peterson and I recorded our live show yesterday breaking down the NCAA selection process, regional rankings, and other aspects of the NCAA Tournament from a D-III women’s basketball standpoint. Give it a listen!

    I’ll be on Hoopsville with Dave McHugh tonight, talking some D3 WBB Top 25. Stay tuned on my Twitter for my Top 25 ballot (@ZayasRiley) later today. I’ll try to do a quick breakdown of it tomorrow here. Until then, have a great day! Enjoy this week of conference tournaments!