WHAT?

They shot over 73% from the field and were down 1 at the half?

That was the scene in last night’s opening round of the NCAA DIII Men’s Basketball Tournament at Brockport.

Scranton and Hobart squared off in the opener and both teams shot the lights out (or failed to bother playing defense) in the first half. Falling behind by double digits in the half Hobart rallied to take a 46 – 45 halftime lead even though Scranton shot an unbelievable 73% from the floor. The boys from Geneva weren’t so bad shooting a torrid 56% as both teams, again and again, gave up uncontested lay ups.

Hobart tightened its defense in the second half and stayed hot cruising to a 94 – 81 win to advance to the second round.

The night was far from over.

A heavily favored Brockport faced the Morrisville State Mustangs in the nightcap. The First half was all Golden Eagles. Brockport used a pressure defense and raced to a 36 – 18 halftime lead as over 2,000 boisterous fans raised the roof on the Eagles home court. A small but loud contingent of Mustang faithful never gave up their team. And, oh, what a team they turned out to be.

After falling behind by 20 early in the second half, Morrisville seemingly flipped a switch and went absolutely “Hulk” on the Golden Eagles, completing an incredible rally by scoring 8 consecutive points in the last 2:38 to tie the game at 62 – 62 at the end of regulation.

A Mustang 3-pointer with a minute left in the first overtime tied the score again at 69-69 and Brockport missed two shots in the last minute as the teams headed into a second overtime period. Both teams missed opportunities to put this one away but remained tied 75 – 75 to send the game into a rare 3^rd OT.

Freshman Clifton Lyerly hit a 10-foot jumper to tie the game at 77-77 with 3:11 left and senior Bobby Bell drained a long 3-pointer to tie it again at 80-80. Morrisville took a two-point lead with 45 seconds left and after three missed shots for Brockport, Morrisville finally came down with a rebound and sealed the 83 – 80 victory with a free throw at the other end of the court.

Morrisville meets Hobart at 7 pm in Brockport.

Try and pick that one.

The Search for Intelligent Life Continues... Still No Positive Results

“Having a dozen people murdered in a [Aurora] movie theater gets our attention … Ultimately, we don’t have a crime problem, a gun problem or even a violence problem. What we have is a sin problem. And since we’ve ordered God out of our schools, and communities, the military, and public conversations, you know we really shouldn’t act so surprised when all hell breaks loose.”  - Mike Huckabee

Yea, that’s it Mike.

Baseball Headline of the Day

Michael Pineda pitched two innings for the Yankees without sustaining a season-ending injury. Girardi says, "Obviously he wasn't trying."