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#1
November: 46-38, +5.20
November Leans: 39-38
December: 65-70, -9.45
December Leans: 67-79
January: 43-34, +8.40
January Leans: 40-35
Revenge…Back on the day after New Year’s, Niagara strolled into Loyola MD as a 12 point underdog, and won outright.
The First Meeting…In that meeting, Niagara shot 53% from the three-point line, something that has not happened with a Niagara team since 2007. Now that isn’t all that significant, I mean teams can shoot it good some nights, while others will shoot it bad some nights as well. What is significant however, is that Marvin Jordan only played a single minute of the game. He leads them in three-point attempts, along with three-point makes on the season, along with three-point percentage on the season from the guard position. So, you have a Niagara team who had it’s best output from the three-point line in nearly 5 years, and on top of that, they didn’t have their best weapon from that spot. Something isn’t adding up here, and I will comment on that a bit later, here. This first meeting ended with a Niagara 9-0 run. They won by 5.
Experience…Loyola MD has pretty much the exact same roster from one year ago when they were upset at home by Niagara, then went on the road and beat them pretty badly. I think they remember it, along with the first meeting. Niagara’s young, and they are terribly young. While they have some talent, they are the #342nd ranked team in the country in terms of experience. If you have a team that has already completed something before, it’s likely to happen a second time. Here’s the deal with experience, and how it relates to this game. In the first meeting this year, Loyola MD had absolutely zero info about what Niagara was going to do. After Niagara had gotten beat in its first two early MAAC games, Mihalich started to incorporate a zone defense through his non-conference schedule. He put it into use the first conference game back after the break and Loyola certainly had no idea what to do against it. They were extremely complacent and thought they could beat it with the three-pointer alone. They made four three’s in the entire game, they attempted twenty, and not a single player on the roster made more than one against it. It was a really tough stretch leading up to that game as well. First, they went to Kentucky a week prior, then they played and WON at Bucknell, who is probably the favorite to come out of the Patriot League. Yes, Bucknell currently holds a two game lead over the Lehigh team that made noise earlier in the season. If you’re not familiar with Bucknell, they’re a mini-Wisconsin. They’re physical with the way they defend you, and they slow the game down to a pulp. Try bouncing back a few days after playing them, and the worse part, go into a team that plays a zone that you aren’t ready for and that’s where you get the complacency of not attacking and settling for the outside shot. The more experienced team should be ready here...
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