Monmouth

Men's Basketball Falls To Loyola (Ill.) 76-73
Holy Cross Athletics   11-19-2009







WORCESTER, Mass. – Aric Van Weelden hit a three-point field goal as time expired to lift Loyola (Ill.) to a 76-73 victory over the Holy Cross men’s basketball team at the Hart Center. The Crusaders led 73-65 with one minute remaining, before the Ramblers scored the final 11 points of the game to come back for the win. Holy Cross falls to 0-3 overall with the loss, while Loyola improves to 2-1 on the season.
The score was close throughout a first half which featured three ties and six lead changes. Neither team led by more than five points in the opening half, before the Crusaders took a 34-30 lead into the locker room.
Holy Cross would increase its lead to nine points early in the second half, taking a 45-36 advantage on a layup by sophomore guard Mike Cavataio (Forest Hills, N.Y.) with 15:50 left to play. Loyola responded with a 10-2 spurt of its own to pull within one point (47-46) at the 12:09-mark, and was still down by just one (64-63) with three minutes remaining. Holy Cross then used a 9-2 run to go back up by eight points with one minute left in the game. But the Crusaders missed all four of their free throw attempts in the final minute, as the Ramblers hit their last four shots to rally for the victory.
Junior guard Andrew Beinert (Floral Park, N.Y.) led Holy Cross with 17 points, six rebounds and six assists, while sophomore guard Devin Brown (Baltimore, Md.) added 16 points. Cavataio finished the night with 14 points and four assists, and sophomore guard R.J. Evans (Salem, Conn.) added 11 points and five rebounds.
Loyola was led by Walt Gibler with 17 points and eight rebounds, and Marcus Thomas with 16 points on five-of-seven shooting from three-point range. As a team, the Ramblers hit 12-of-22 three-point shots (54.4 percent).

No luck at all there. Ask most posters who were at the game, I was given an assist on the play!   

I have to say that when KC made that shot, I was positive that was a game winner and thought that would have crushed Monmouth. 

Such a heartbreaker as we played these guys toe-to-toe for 99.9% of the game and as one poster said after the game "this was an opportunity lost."

Some of the "suspects" who made mistakes at the end of the game, played so well during the rest of the game that we would not have been that close had they played at their usual level. 

KC's stat line was outstanding:
4 of 6 FGs, 3 of 4 3 pointers, 1 of 2 FTs (2 for 2 of course would have been better), 7 rebs with 2 being the only 2 o-boards on the day, 8 assists/0 turnovers!!!, 1 block and 1 steal.

Matt H not bad either:
4 of 7 FGs, all 3s, 4 for 4 FTs, 4 rebs, 2 assists, 1 turnover, 1 block and 2 steals. He is becoming more than serviceable.

A lot to like . . . . except the final score! 

Just watched some of the very end on replay and says 1455 people watched this video stream. I think that's a lot for us but guessing a lot of people from NJ padded that number. 

So, so frustrating as the game seemed there for the taking. But as I was repeating over and over after the game - we needed to win at the end; Monmouth was not going to give it to us. Still, I think this game shows the value of this opening schedule. Think back to where the team was one year ago- we are clearly better, certainly not bad for a team without much talent!

While the last minute reminded me of the Loyola game, the rest of the game reminded me of something that I could not put my finger on.....until I was almost home. It reminded me of that 2007 Bracketbusters game at Hofstra (1 point loss). That was a game of 2 really good non power conference teams going back and forth at each other, with a heartbreaker at the end.

Sure, we need to make improvements (not the least imo, to continue to work on extending the bench), but there is a lot to like. If you had told me before the game Monmouth would score 80, I'd figure for sure it would be a double digit loss. D is still improving (Monmouth really has the inside-outside game, but at least we did a decent job on the perimeter); maybe the shooting is starting to come around. Two tough games ahead, let's see how we bounce back.

I'm not crazy about having the smallest guys inbound either, but as was said, I'd be surprised if we had this much trouble again.

NOTE: the talent comment is DRIPPING with sarcasm.

Anyone else notice that we shot 58.3% beyond the arc (14 of 24) and 55.1% overall (27 of 49)? They won it on the line. While we hit a sterling 9 of 10 from the line, Monmouth made more FTs than we even took and did well themselves hitting 17 of 20 for 85%.We had 23 assists on 27 FGs. That is also outstanding. 

Again, outside of the final score, the only stat that counts, we played well until the end. 

Yes I was, did you see the breakdown in last minute? Unacceptable with this staff. I am sure Bill is not passing out you played hard cigars!

I have to say that I'm a little dumbfounded in all the confidence in the defense (with the supposed "match-up zone"), despite another game where we allowed the opponent to shoot 50% on FG, and this time tacked on allowing 9 offensive rebounds on just 28 missed shots, and forced only 7 turnovers.

How often can we expect the team to shoot 58% from 3, making 14 of them, to bail out the seemingly endless barrage of layups and easy baskets at the other end?

Re: rebounding, both teams had 19 defensive rebounds, but they missed 7 more shots than us, converting the difference into offensive rebounds.

I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but just relying on making a ton of 3's and ignoring the little things that lead to W's is not a sustainable formula against good teams.

Caro makes a fair point about the defense. Our defensive effective FG% is atrocious (59.7%). We rank 340th in this category.

Four of our six opponents rank inside the top 150. Let's see how the upcoming stretch of games go.

True, but look at who the opponents were..THAT is what affects the numbers..Are we going to see a better team than Monmouth at the Hart Center this season? Maybe Bucknell...are we going to play anybody of the caliber of South Carolina or Syracuse?  NO...One has to watch and make the eye test at this point..I see the D as being much better than it was last season and I believe it will show how much better in the PL season.... 

Coach Carm and staff were not on the court...The players have to execute...It's on them, and give Monmouth some kudos for their D...

Unless, of course, they weren't put in the best position to brake the press.

Hoops, did get to "speak" with him a bit. Speaking of that, hopefully, HCFC45 behaved himself and drove himself right home after the game....he was a bit beside himself!