Ohter considerations kept me from the games and reporting this past week - catching up with things today.
After that perplexing loss to Marquette last week, the team got some balance back by beating Seton Hall and Georgetown in convincing fashion. The walkover against the Hall was no surprise, but as wev'e seen, this year's team is capable of losing to anyone on the schedule.
On Wednesday night, Nova jumped on Seton Hall to run out to a 13-0 lead five and a half minutes in, with threes from Carey and Burford, a conventential three from Holman and two layups from Sweeney. SH finally got untracked a bit to close to 20-13, but three more threes from Carey, Leer and Kane took us to the locker room up 30-15. It was more of the same for the first 8 minutes into the second half with Nova outscoring SH by 19-4 to go up 49-19 and coasted from there. Sweeney had 14 with 6 boards, 5 steals and 3 blocks, Kane had 12 on perfect 5-5 shooting, Burford 9 on 3-4 from outside the arc, and Carey collected 8 on 3-3 shooting. Overall 23-49 shooting (9-19 on threes), 14 assists and 10 turnovers. A very balanced attack, great defensive stands and generally doing what we should have done against a relatively poor SH team.
Saturday's outcome was more of a surprise. Georgetown was playing with a somewhat depleted roster, but still had Sugar Rogers on the court. Nova once again came out in defensive lockdown mode, getting 2 turnovers and limiting the Hoyas to only 5 shots in the first four minutes, holding them scoreless. Unfortunately, we were only able to make 2 of 8 during that stretch and led by only 5-4 after two Hoya buckets. After trading some buckets to still lead by 12-9 at the 10 minute mark (a common Nova game score at that point in a lot of games), the offense heated up from three point land. A layup by Sweeney and then seven consecutive threes by Pearson, Roberts, Burford, Leer, Burford and Burford again and finally Roberts again blew the game open at the half, leading 35-14, ending the half on a 23-5 barrage. After the Sweeney layup we took no shots from inside the arc, shooting 7-8 on threes to end the half.
Nova cooled off significantly in the second hafl, scoring only 22 points, but Georgetown closed the gap to inside of 20 only in the last few minutes as Sugar Rogers finally got her game going, scoring most of her game-high 21 in the last seven minutes. Game totals, Nova 20-57 overall, with 15-39 on threes and only 5 baskets from inside the arc. 17 assists and only 7 turnovers. Burford led with 15 on 5-12 three point shooting. Sweeney had 11, 9 boards, 5 steals and 2 blocks. Roberts picked up 9 points on 3-5 three balls. A fine overall performance although heavily weighted on the three point shooting. Not much attempt to get things inside as the perimeter was open all day with lots of passing around the outside and cross court.
Off until Sunday when #10 Louisville comes into the Pavilion. A top-20 win over Louisville would probably get us into the NCAA and we did play them close both games last year. Still a tall order to accomplish. A loss to Louisville and we are probably looking at needing two more wins out of the remaining games against St. Johns, Syracuse and Providence to get a sixth or seventh place finish in the Big East and any consideration for an NCAA bid unless we upset one of the big boys in the BE tournament.
Added link to PhilaHoopsW article about Nova-GT game and the current situation at Rutgers. Too bad we could not have pulled out the win over RU or the heat would really be on in South Brunswick.
This post was edited on 2/17 11:38 AM by tpenter
PhillyhoopsW game story
After that perplexing loss to Marquette last week, the team got some balance back by beating Seton Hall and Georgetown in convincing fashion. The walkover against the Hall was no surprise, but as wev'e seen, this year's team is capable of losing to anyone on the schedule.
On Wednesday night, Nova jumped on Seton Hall to run out to a 13-0 lead five and a half minutes in, with threes from Carey and Burford, a conventential three from Holman and two layups from Sweeney. SH finally got untracked a bit to close to 20-13, but three more threes from Carey, Leer and Kane took us to the locker room up 30-15. It was more of the same for the first 8 minutes into the second half with Nova outscoring SH by 19-4 to go up 49-19 and coasted from there. Sweeney had 14 with 6 boards, 5 steals and 3 blocks, Kane had 12 on perfect 5-5 shooting, Burford 9 on 3-4 from outside the arc, and Carey collected 8 on 3-3 shooting. Overall 23-49 shooting (9-19 on threes), 14 assists and 10 turnovers. A very balanced attack, great defensive stands and generally doing what we should have done against a relatively poor SH team.
Saturday's outcome was more of a surprise. Georgetown was playing with a somewhat depleted roster, but still had Sugar Rogers on the court. Nova once again came out in defensive lockdown mode, getting 2 turnovers and limiting the Hoyas to only 5 shots in the first four minutes, holding them scoreless. Unfortunately, we were only able to make 2 of 8 during that stretch and led by only 5-4 after two Hoya buckets. After trading some buckets to still lead by 12-9 at the 10 minute mark (a common Nova game score at that point in a lot of games), the offense heated up from three point land. A layup by Sweeney and then seven consecutive threes by Pearson, Roberts, Burford, Leer, Burford and Burford again and finally Roberts again blew the game open at the half, leading 35-14, ending the half on a 23-5 barrage. After the Sweeney layup we took no shots from inside the arc, shooting 7-8 on threes to end the half.
Nova cooled off significantly in the second hafl, scoring only 22 points, but Georgetown closed the gap to inside of 20 only in the last few minutes as Sugar Rogers finally got her game going, scoring most of her game-high 21 in the last seven minutes. Game totals, Nova 20-57 overall, with 15-39 on threes and only 5 baskets from inside the arc. 17 assists and only 7 turnovers. Burford led with 15 on 5-12 three point shooting. Sweeney had 11, 9 boards, 5 steals and 2 blocks. Roberts picked up 9 points on 3-5 three balls. A fine overall performance although heavily weighted on the three point shooting. Not much attempt to get things inside as the perimeter was open all day with lots of passing around the outside and cross court.
Off until Sunday when #10 Louisville comes into the Pavilion. A top-20 win over Louisville would probably get us into the NCAA and we did play them close both games last year. Still a tall order to accomplish. A loss to Louisville and we are probably looking at needing two more wins out of the remaining games against St. Johns, Syracuse and Providence to get a sixth or seventh place finish in the Big East and any consideration for an NCAA bid unless we upset one of the big boys in the BE tournament.
Added link to PhilaHoopsW article about Nova-GT game and the current situation at Rutgers. Too bad we could not have pulled out the win over RU or the heat would really be on in South Brunswick.
This post was edited on 2/17 11:38 AM by tpenter
PhillyhoopsW game story