Men’s basketball earns first-round bye

AJ Tavares takes a shot at a difficult jumper.

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. — Armed with a first-round bye, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team will try to advance to the sectionals of the NCAA Division III Championships when they host a second round game this weekend. The Corsairs will play the winner of Thursday night’s game between Trinity (CT) and Coast Guard Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Tripp Athletic Center.

UMass Dartmouth enters post-season play with an at-large bid after winning posting a 25-3 overall record, winning their first Little East Conference regular season title since the 2000-2001 season, and falling to Rhode Island College in Saturday’s LEC championship game.

“I was pleasantly surprised with our situation,” said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Brian Baptiste. “I’m pleased that we have a bye Thursday night, and that we will be hosting a game on Saturday. Our team has proven themselves through the duration of the season, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Trinity made 13 of 15 shots from the field in the second half and defeated Bowdoin, 74-55, in Sunday’s New England Small College Athletic Conference championship game. The Bantams are in the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row and the seventh time overall, but the NESCAC championship they won Sunday was their first ever.

Coast Guard is also making their second consecutive NCAA appearance and third overall. The Bears tied a school record by winning 21 games, and defeated top-seeded Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 82-66, in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference championship game Sunday.

“It’s refreshing,” said Baptiste. “It’s kind of exciting to see some new faces. Both Trinity and Coast Guard are good teams. Trinity won the NESCAC tournament, and that’s a very good tournament, and Coast Guard won the conference tournament in a very good conference. I know both teams will be very good, it’s a tough draw, but I’m happy that we’re playing at home.”

The winner of Saturday’s game will advance to a four-team sectional tournament next weekend.

Jeff Macchi goes up hard for a lay-up.

LEC TOURNAMENT FINALS

Bailey too much for Corsairs down the stretch

By Adam K. Ellis

Last Saturday afternoon, the Rhode Island College Anchormen knocked the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth out of the LEC tournament for the second year in a row, defeating UMass 55-52 in the finals at the Tripp Athletic Center.

Upon meeting for the third time this season and sixth venture in the last two seasons, the disdain these two clubs had for each other was easily recognizable. The physicality of this game displayed this hostility, as 39 fouls were called by game’s end.

The Anchormen adjusted well to the style of the game, holding the Corsairs to a mere 26 percent first-half shooting display, while shooting 48 percent themselves.

“RIC outplayed us; they were more physical than us. They deserved to win,” exclaimed a disheartened Coach Brian Baptiste after the game.

Led by the big-time play and clutch heroics of star shooting guard Bobby Bailey, the Anchorman held off a feisty home crowd of nearly 2,000 Corsair faithful in attendance. With nine minutes remaining in the first half and trailing 18-15, Corsair senior forward Corey Tynes spotted up for a deep three to tie the game. Bailey rotated off a high-screen and swatted Tynes attempt ten feet backwards.

Picking the ball up, Bailey announced his presence to the crowd with a vicious slam dunk. This soon became the theme of the game, as each time the Corsairs would attempt to tie the game or take the lead, Bailey put a halt to the run. Bailey and Co. went into halftime with a 30-24 lead.

When play resumed, the contest continued its back-and-forth ways, as RIC consistently held a five-point cushion for most of the game. With eight minutes left the Corsairs began a run that had the crowd standing on their feet. The Corsairs tightened up their defense, drawing two charges and forcing a shot-clock violation. Victory seemed to be within reach as the Corsairs closed an eight-point gap down to four.

Soon another shot-clock violation seemed all but destined as Corsair guards swarmed Bailey in the corner with two seconds on the clock. He leaned backed, faded away, and dropped a 17-foot jump shot as the shot clock rang out: 47-41 Anchormen, three minutes to play.

With one minute to play, trailing 51-46, the Corsairs called upon local favorite A.J. Tavares, who had been 0-for-9 shooting until the last minute of the game. Never short on dramatics in his UMD career, A.J drilled a three that sent the crowd into a frenzy. You can guess what happened next: Bobby Bailey.

Following an Anchormen time-out, Bailey held the ball for the duration of the 35 second shot-clock. With six seconds remaining on the shot clock, Bailey crossed over two defenders, dribbled around another, and tapped out on the backboard for the game-winning lay-up.

Senior Dan Holbrook led the Corsairs with a double double, scoring 16 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Brandon Stephens added 12 points. Bailey and Anthony Fortes each scored 14 points to lead Rhode Island College. Bailey was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

UMass Dartmouth dropped to 25-3 with the defeat, while the Anchormen improved to 22-6 with the victory. The Anchormen earned the Little East Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championships.

Hockey downs Salve Regina

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth hockey team scored the first five goals of the game, including three goals in the first period and went on to defeat visiting Salve Regina, 5-2, in a first round Eastern College Athletic Conference Northeast playoff game at the Stephan Hetland Memorial Ice Arena Saturday afternoon.

Junior forward Nick Paquin (Warwick, RI/Winchendon Academy) sandwiched two goals for the Corsairs around a goal from his teammate, senior forward Paul Garabedian (Belmont, MA/Belmont HS) to put UMass Dartmouth up 3-0 at the first intermission.  Paquin scored his first, when he went top shelf, off a nice feed from junior forward Chris Shore (West Haven, CT/Winchendon Academy) at 9:06.  Ninety seconds later, Garabedian lit the lamp off assists from freshman forward Billy Manning (Stoughton, MA/ Bridgewater Jr. Bandits) and sophomore forward Paul Jerusik (Springfield, MA/Lawrence Academy).  Paquin made it 3-0 at the 17:27 mark when he scored on the power play after collecting a pass from sophomore defenseman Graeme Bourne (Redlands, CA/Campbell River Storm).

“We were very opportunistic in the first period”,  said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach John Rolli.  “We created two on ones and were able to finish them by putting the puck in the net”

Freshman forward Joe Hill (Newburyport, MA/Valley Jr. Warriors) put the Corsairs up 4-0, when he one-timed home a power play goal from point blank range at 8:51 of the second period. Senior forward Jeff Grant (Burlington, MA/Austin Prep) and freshman forward Jason Stahl (Londonderry, NH/Valley Jr. Warriors ) drew assists.

Hill would net his second goal of the period after being set up by Grant on a four on four situation that swelled the lead to 5-0 at the 12:48 mark.

Salve Regina got on the scoreboard in the third period with goals from freshman forward Bryan Russell at 2:19 and sophomore forward Patrick Bamberry at 8:23.

“We were a little lackadaisical in the third period, but, overall I was encouraged with how we played”, said Rolli. “Hey, we’re trying to chase our third ECAC championship in a row and Salve was not the team we wanted to play.  Murphy’s Law will catch up to you someday, thankfully it wasn’t tonight.”

Junior goaltender Jeff Green (Medway, MA/Valley Jr. Warriors) made 23 saves for UMass Dartmouth, while freshman Pat Enloe made 32 stops for SRU.

UMass Dartmouth improved to 16-8-1 with the victory, while Salve Regina ends their season at 10-10-4 with the defeat.

LEC TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINALS

Holbrook fuels UMD to finals

By Adam K. Ellis

Two minutes into the LEC semi-final championship game versus Southern Maine, 6’6, 235 pound senior center Dan Holbrook grabbed his own missed shot and powered his way right back up for the basket, tying the game at six. The Corsairs would never again relinquish the lead, stifling the Huskies with their high-intensity defense and advancing to the LEC finals with a 75-69 win over Southern Maine.

As nearly two-thousand Corsair faithful packed into the Tripp Athletic Center last Friday night, Holbrook set the tone early, scoring 16 first half points as he displayed an array of versatility (baby hooks, reverses and, tip-ins).

“Dan was pretty consistent for us tonight. He has a big body and makes great use of it inside,” Coach Brian Baptiste said.

Holbrook’s red-hot first half culminated around the four-and-a-half minute mark, when junior guard Reece Freeman stripped a Husky guard of the ball and fired a jump-pass towards the big man. Much to the crowd’s delight, Holbrook took two steps, jumped, and slammed down a two-handed power jam to give the Corsairs a 33-27 lead.

After trading baskets for the next three minutes, New Bedford native and senior guard A.J. Tavares joined the party. As the Husky defense tried to clamp down on Holbrook, Tavares was left wide open on the perimeter, dropping two three-pointers in the last minute of the half. Holding the ball at the top of the key for the final shot of the half, Tavares took two steps to his right and launched a 30 foot bomb, hitting nothing but net and sending the Corsair fans into a frenzy.

Coming out of halftime down nine points, USM made an adjustment from man-to-man defense to zone, in attempt to limit the damage being done by Holbrook.

“The zone really affected us negatively and I was scared that we may see some of that down the stretch. Our guys haven’t really played against many zones this year and it showed. We settled for too many perimeter shots and weren’t patient enough to work it inside,” a reflective Coach Baptiste explained after the game.

The strategy did work effectively, as the Huskies managed to hold UMass to 36 percent second-half shooting and limiting Holbrook to two second half points. The Huskies even managed to tie the game up at 56 with six minutes to play, on the strength of a USM Foster Oakley three-pointer. But that’s as close as they would get.

Moments later, sophomore guard Tyler Turtoro cracked the Husky 2-3 zone with a beautiful no-look backdoor-pass to Matt Walker, who finished for an easy layup. Following the play, an electrified crowd and the momentum-sparked UMD squad ran off a 13-3 run. The Corsairs never looked back.

Holbrook led the charge with the game high 18 points, also grabbing 11 rebounds for a double double. Tavares added 17 points. Jamaal Caterina of Southern Maine led all scorers with 24 points, Drew Coppenrath chipped in 19, and Oakley finished with 12.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Championship race wide-open this spring

By Trevor Medeiros

We all know the usual suspects when it comes to the issue of who will win this year’s national championship in college basketball. North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas, Duke, and UCLA are the front-runners right now to reach the Final Four in San Antonio.

But the beauty of college basketball is that sometimes the favorites don’t end up cutting down the nets when it’s all said and done (see NC State and Villanova in the ‘80s). There are plenty of other teams that may be flying just under the radar, but easily have the potential to be the next team to beat.

When Jeff Green left Georgetown early for the NBA Draft, I didn’t think the Hoyas would have enough ammunition to reload for another Final Four push. Then I saw them dissect the Providence Friars in person on President’s Day, and let’s just say, I found myself rather humbled. Roy Hibbert, the other Hoya everyone thought was going to go pro, decided to return for his senior season, much to the delight of G’Town fans, and the chagrin of all his opponents.

Coach John Thompson has a lot of other talent players at his disposal, with players like DeJuan Summers, Patrick Ewing Jr. (yeah, that’s his son), and Jeremiah Rivers (the son of Celtics coach Doc Rivers). This team is so disciplined at both ends of the floor that beating the Hoyas come tourney time will be easier said than done.

I felt a similar feeling of doubt in my stomach for Texas after Kevin Durant left Austin to join Green in Seattle. But that doubt has turned into confidence, as the Longhorns have already beaten Kansas and UCLA this year.

I can’t believe that a team who loses its Naismith player of the year can be even better the next season, but Rick Barnes and his team has proven me wrong (gee, I haven’t been very astute in this column). The year of experience playing alongside Durant has paid dividends for the duo of D.J. Augustin and A.J. Abrams, and steady role players like Connor Atchley give the ‘Horns the type of grit needed to make a Final Four run.

Wisconsin had a clutch win over the Longhorns at the end of December. This team lost the Big Ten player of the year in Alando Tucker, but they also seem to have a more talented team than the one that was eliminated by UNLV last March.

Personally, I think Brian Butch is one of the most underrated players in the country. I mean, the guy’s seven feet tall, and it seems like he can do everything on the court. Jason Bohannon is lethal from beyond the arc, and the Badgers never lose on their home court. Plus, Coach Bo Ryan is notorious for getting maximum production out of minimum talent.

Another Big Ten team having a solid season is Michigan State. They smashed Indiana by 30 on Senior Day this past Sunday. Drew Neitzel is such a gutty player, and if Tom Izzo ever needs to give his Spartans any motivation, he can just show them the championship ring he won in 2000.

Another gutty player toughing it out for his team is Louisville Center David Padgett. I mean, the guy’s playing basically on one knee, but he has led Rick Pitino’s team to the top of the Big East standings.

With so many teams capable of making it to the Final Four this spring, there’s only one thing certain when it comes to March Madness: there’s nothing certain.

Baseball picked sixth in LEC pre-season poll

PROVIDENCE, RI — The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s baseball team has been picked to finish in sixth place in the Little East Conference this spring.

The Corsairs, who finished sixth in the LEC last spring, received 14 points in the conference’s annual pre-season poll. Eastern Connecticut State, which finished first, hosted the post-season tournament, advanced to the NCAA Championships and won the championship of the New England Regional Tournament, was a unanimous choice to finish first, with seven first-place votes and 49 points. Keene State was picked to finish second and Southern Maine third. Rhode Island College and UMass Boston were picked fourth and fifth, while Western Connecticut State and Plymouth State were picked to finish behind the Corsairs.

“It’s probably a true reflection of our youth and inexperience,” said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Bob Curran. “At the top, Eastern has all of their pitching back, and Keene should also be good.”

The Corsairs finished 8-28 last year, placed sixth in the Little East Conference, and advanced to the post-season tournament. They will open their 2008 season Friday, March 14th at Whittier.

School records fall for Corsairs

BOSTON — It was a record-breaking weekend for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s men’s track and field team on the second and final day of the Open New England Championships at Boston University’s Track and Tennis Center Saturday.

Senior Jon Garcia (Stoneham, MA/MA/Stoneham HS) ran the 55 meter hurdles in 7.1 seconds in the semi-finals, and then came back with a school record performance of 7.37 in the finals, in which he finished second to Verrol Jackson of Connecticut, who finished in 7.31 seconds.

“Jon ran a great race, no one else was close to the two of them,” said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Jon Hird. “He ran eight-tenths of a second better than his previous personal best.”

Freshman Linee Mello-Frost (New Bedford, MA/New Bedford HS) ran the 55 meter hurdles in 9.22 seconds and did not advance to the finals. Garcia’s school record was the third of the weekend for the Corsairs, who got record-breaking performances Friday night from senior Chris Jodoin (Uxbridge, MA/Maine), who finished 12th at 400 meters in 49.88 seconds, and the distance medley relay team of sophomore Tim Whelan (Abington, MA/Abington HS), Jodoin, sophomore Matt Lemanski (East Longmeadow, MA/East Longmeadow HS) and senior Eric Holmes (Abington, MA/Abington HS)  which also set a school record by finishing 16th in 10:28.19.

“We set three school records this weekend, so it was a very good weekend,” said Hird.

The Corsairs will return to action at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Championships at Harvard next weekend.

MMA

Going mainstream

By Timm Freitas

For the last few years, MMA has been on the verge of becoming a mainstream sporting event, and it seems that its time to break into that market has come.

As of last week, Pro-elite announced that it has struck a deal with CBS that will bring MMA onto a mainstream cable network for the first time. From what was stated, CBS will be giving the organization a bi-monthly Saturday night slot for live events starting in April. This event will most likely have a main event featuring street brawler turned MMA star, Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson in the main event.

In keeping with the mainstream appeal of MMA, the UFC announced last week that it has picked up the first mainstream sponsor in MMA, and that sponsor is Anheuser-Busch. The UFC and Anheuser-Busch have announced a deal that starts in May that will focus on the Bud Light brand. It seems that seeing oversized Xyience or Harly-Davidson promotions in the center of the Octagon will soon be a thing of the past and they will be replaced by the ever-popular Bud Light symbol.

What is surprising about the recent emergence into the mainstream is that the UFC wasn’t at the forefront of it, as in it didn’t get the first mainstream network deal. With Pro-Elite getting the deal, it may help their Elite-XC brand get national recognition, which will help them stand up to the UFC in order to compete with them to become MMA’s premier organization.