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Lafayette Continues Three-Game Swing Against Garden State Squads
Dec. 1, 2006
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format
Match Up: Lafayette (1-6) at St. Peter's (2-4) AT A GLANCE: Lafayette plays game two of its three-game tour of Garden State opponents on Saturday when the Leopards travel to Jersey City, N.J. to face St. Peter's on Saturday afternoon. Lafayette is coming off a heart-breaking 44-42 home loss vs. Princeton on Tuesday night. The Leopards have lost their last six games after a season-opening win at Wagner on Nov. 10. St. Peter's comes into Saturday's tilt at 2-4 mark, having lost three straight and four out of the last five. BETLEY'S BEST: Junior forward Matt Betley has contributed the bulk of the Leopards' offense in the last four games. Betley scored a career-high 17 points vs. St. Joseph's (11/17) and followed that with a new career high with 18 points at UMBC (11/21). At Miami (11/25), the Mount Laurel, N.J. native again matched his career best with 18 points. He scored team-high 11 points against Princeton (11/28). He is leading the team in scoring with 13.0 ppg ... With 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists vs. Princeton, Betley was the first Lafayette player in two seasons to lead the team in those three statistical categories. Bilal Abdullah was the last Leopard to achieve the single-game feat, scoring 21 pts, grabbing 10 reb and dishing out nine assists vs. Cal State Northridge on Dec. 13, 2004. A GAME FROM (IN) THE 40's: In Lafayette's last game, Princeton squeaked out a 44-42 victory, a throwback to days gone by with crisp back-door cuts and disciplined motion offenses. The game was unusually low-scoring thanks to Princeton's ball-control style of offense and solid defensive efforts by both squads, but this type of game is not out of the norm in recent meetings between the two schools. Lafayette won a 57-46 matchup at Princeton last season, but was beaten 40-38 in 2004. The Leopards won the 2003 meeting 47-44. Lafayette and Princeton have split the last four games between the two schools, and each time the visiting team has emerged victorious. A TOUGH SCHEDULE: Five of Lafayette's six losses have come against top-flight competition. The Leopards lost to national power Indiana (Big 10), Notre Dame (Big East), St. Joseph's (Atlantic 10), Miami (ACC) and Princeton (Ivy). ON THE SIDELINE: Two-time Patriot League Coach of the Year Fran O'Hanlon (Villanova, '70) is in his 12th season as the Leopards' head coach. He has twice led Lafayette's program to the NCAA Tournament and lays claim to three Patriot League regular-season titles among his credentials. O'Hanlon's career record stands at 163-158, a mark that includes two 20-win seasons. O'Hanlon's overall record does not necessarily tell the full story of the job he has done at Lafayette. The Philadelphia native inherited a 2-25 team when he took over in 1995-96 and won 7, 11, 19, 22 and 24 games over the next five seasons. From 1997-2000, Lafayette was 65-24 overall and 31-5 in the conference with two NCAA Tournament appearances. In 1996, the Patriot League, which was originally founded based on the principle of need-based financial aid only, began allowing athletic scholarships. However, it was not until 2006 that Lafayette chose to do so. By no coincidence during that span, Lafayette posted a 79-91 mark and was 38-44 in the league. For 2006-07, Lafayette has one scholarship class in the fold. NEXT UP: Lafayette will play NJIT on Monday, Dec. 4. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. vs. the Highlanders. The Leopards will return home on Dec. 7 vs. Lycoming. SIZE MATTERS: The answer to the question why Lafayette is being outebounded by an average of 10.6 rebounds per game is simply "size" - or rather a lack of it. Lafayette starts 6-4, 200-pound Matt Betley at one forward and 6-7, 270-pound Everest Schmidt at the other forward in a three-guard offense. Betley is a converted guard who leads the team with 4.0 rebounds per game. Ted Detmer (6-7, 200) comes off the bench at small forward, but Lafayette is consistently running up against bigger post men who generally have two or three inches on each of Lafayette's post players. The only game Lafayette has won the rebounding battle came against Princeton in which Lafayette held a 26-20 advantage...Lafayette finished 2005-06 ranked 308th in the nation in rebounding margin. ABOUT ST. PETER'S: The 2006-07 St. Peter's squad certainly has a different look with graduation of its all-time leading scorer Keydren Clark and first-year head coach John Dunne (Ithaca '92) now on the sidelines. Clark took with him 3,058 career points (6th all-time in NCAA) afterhelping guide St. Peter's to a 17-15 mark and an appearance in the MAAC title game. This year's St. Peter's squad is 2-4 with wins over UMBC (67-56) in the season-opener and NJIT (75-57) on Nov. 18. The Peacocks' losses have come to Kennesaw State and three straight to Fairleigh Dickinson, Monmouth and Seton Hall. St. Peter's plays a three-guard offense and gets most of its scoring from the outside. Junior Raul Orta leads the term in scoring with 15.5 ppg. Soph. Kevin Spann distributes the ball for the Peacocks with 4.3 apg and is second on the team in scoring (13.8 ppg). Junior Tim Spitler (6.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg) rounds out the backcourt and is part of a total team effort on the boards that has eight players averaging more than two rebounds a game. Spitler's three older brothers also played Division I hoops (Chris-Holy Cross, Pat-Stony Brook, Andrew-Canisius). In the frontcourt, junior Todd Sowell is the standout player. He is averaging nearly a double-double with 13.5 ppg and 9.8 rpg. Soph. Michael Gore has started six games at forward. THE ALL-TIME SERIES: Lafayette leads the all-time series, 6-4, in a matchup that dates back to the initial meeting in 1954. Lafayette has won three of the last five meetings between the two schools, but has lost the last two meetings. The two teams have meant every season since 1998. AT THE LINE: The Leopards are shooting well at the free throw line for the season. Lafayette has hit for 73 percent, including a season-high effort at Wagner (18-for-22) to open the season. Jamaal Hilliard leads the team in free throw percentage (86%), going 19-for-22 on the season, and Matt Betley is close behind at 85% (22-for-26)...In 2005-06, Lafayette ranked 37th in the nation in free throw percentage according to the final NCAA stats and ranked as high as ninth. Lafayette finished the season at 74 percent. Hilliard, who shot at a 91 percent clip in 2005-06 (fifth in the nation), hit for 81 percent while graduated senior Andrei Capusan '06 shot a team-best 82 percent and ranked 91st in the country. WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?: He can average 7.3 points and 3.3 assists per game through the early going. In the opener at Wagner, he answered the question with five three-pointers, 15 points and five assists. Against Indiana, Brown had eight points and three assists, and vs. Notre Dame, he recorded eight points, four assists and three steals. In 2005-06, Brown led the team with 84 assists as a freshman and cracked into the starting lineup by the third game. He ended up starting 25 of 28 games and led the team with 51 three-pointers. ON THE PERIMETER: The Leopards are getting much of their scoring from the outside in 2006-07, and that task has fallen to an experienced backcourt led by senior Jamaal Hilliard, junior Bilal Abdullah and sophomore Andrew Brown. The Lafayette coaching staff is looking Hilliard to be more aggressive offensively and to average in double figures. Hilliard, who is third on the team in scoring with 7.7 ppg, has shown the ability to shoot from the outside, drive to the hoop and get to the line. Abdullah is second on the team in scoring with 7.4 ppg and is the team's top returning scorer. Brown has started all seven games at point guard where he earned Patriot League All-Rookie Team honors. He was the first freshman to lead the team in assists (84) during Fran O'Hanlon's tenure. INSIDE-OUTSIDE: Junior Matt Betley has made the move from guard to small forward for the 2006-07 season to bolster the team's rebounding efforts, but he is still certainly very comfortable outside. With Fran O'Hanlon's motion offense, Betley often finds himself with open three-point looks and mid-range jumpers against larger post players who will back off into the lane. Betley is second on the team with 11 three-pointers. FIVE THREE'S FOR 12: One highlight in the Leopards' loss at Miami (11/25), was the shooting of junior guard Paul Cummins. Cummins made five three-pointers and finished with a season-high 15 points against the Hurricanes. His effort was one short of his career-best when he hit six three-pointers at American on Jan. 28, 2006. "LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS": The phrase, which is attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, and was made famous by Mark Twain seems especially appropriate in Lafayette's game vs. UMBC (11/21). Turnovers have played a role in Lafayette's losses, but a lack of them at UMBC didn't seem to make a difference in the final score. Lafayette committed a season-low 13 turnovers and lost by 35 points. In contrast in the season-opener at Wagner, Lafayette committed 19 turnovers and won by six. Perhaps the most telling statistic in that game was UMBC's 58 percent effort from the floor. CREATING TURNOVERS: After forcing just five turnovers in the first half against St. Joseph's (11/17), Lafayette's experienced backcourt turned up the defensive pressure in the second half against St. Joseph's. Lafayette forced 16 Hawk turnovers after the intermission, the most by any of Lafayette's opponents this season. FROM THE FIELD: Lafayette shot a season-high from the field when it hit 53 percent (28-of-53) against St. Joseph's (11/17). The Leopards were led by Matt Betley's 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting. On the other end of the floor, St. Joseph's shot 55 percent from the floor and made 53 percent (9-for-17) of its shots from behind the arc. 32 MINUTES: Lafayette gave Indiana all it could handle for 32 minutes on Nov. 13. The Leopards trailed by three points (63-60) at 7:47 when Everest Schmidt made two free throws. Lafayette was still down just six at 6:48, but Indiana put together a 21-2 spurt over the next three and a half minutes to pull away in a game in which the final score (91-66) did not really tell the true story of the contest. HELPING HANDS: Lafayette's motion offense was certainly working in its season-opening win over Wagner (11/10). The Leopards handed out 18 assists on 24 field goals. Lafayette reached the 18-assist mark just four times in 2005-06. Against St. Joseph's, the Leopards assisted on 19 of 28 field goals. It was also the first time this season that Lafayette has had a positive assist to turnover ratio with 19 assists and 16 turnovers. LEOPARDS FROM DOWNTOWN: Lafayette finished 2005-06 ranked 40th in the nation for three-pointers per game, make a league-best 7.9 three-pointers per game. Lafayette hit at least 10 triples in six games in 2005-06. In O'Hanlon's 12 seasons, the Leopards have smashed the school single-season records for three-pointers and three-pointers attempted. In the season-opener at Wagner, Lafayette hit 10 three-pointers, led by five three's from Andrew Brown. They hit just six trifectas each against Indiana and Notre Dame, seven vs. St. Joseph's, eight at UMBC and 10 at Miami paced by five from Paul Cummins. In their last game the Leopards, hit just four three-pointers vs. Princeton. IN THE PAINT: The starting duties in the lane have been filled by junior forwards Everest Schmidt and Matt Betley, as both have begun all seven games. Betley is averaging 13.0 ppg and 4.0 rpg at small forward. Schmidt is chipping in with 6.3 ppg and 2.4 rpg. Junior Ted Detmer is one of the first players off the bench in the frontcourt and is averaging 2.9 points and 1.4 rebounds per game. Freshman Andre Hines has also shown his ability early on, averaging 4.8 points and 1.7 rebounds per game. THE O'HANLON SHUFFLE: The scorer's table has been a busy place during Fran O'Hanlon's 12 seasons at Lafayette. O'Hanlon will frequently shuffle in players to keep them fresh while also looking for the best matchups on both ends of the court. The moves also force opponents to spend a great deal of time figuring out their own defensive matchups. O'Hanlon will often play "offense-defense" at the end of the first half and in the final minutes of the game whenever there is a stoppage of play and a chance to substitute. The Leopards will likely go nine deep throughout the season. ...IN A RELATED NOTE: In 2005-06 with a team defined by youth and inexperience, O'Hanlon used 12 different starting lineups. Thus far this season, he has stayed with the same lineup through every game. THE CAPTAINS: Lafayette's three seniors, Marcus Harley, Jamaal Hilliard and Kerry Kenny, are serving as the team captains in 2006-07. Harley was a full-time starter in his sophomore season and will likely spend some significant time on the floor as a senior after missing almost all of his junior campaign due to injury. Hilliard has been in the starting lineup the past two seasons. He missed 10 games last year due to a leg injury and broken finger, but is expected to start at guard. Kenny being named captain is a tribute to his perseverance. He came is as an unrecruited player, served as a team manager as a freshman and worked his way into 17 games last season. OFF THE BENCH: Fran O'Hanlon has gone nine deep off the bench early on in the season. Andrew Brown, Jamaal Hilliard, Bilal Abdullah, Matt Betley and Everest Schmidt are the probable starters, but O'Hanlon will go with the hot hand, and who is on the floor at the end of the game is more indicative of his confidence in a player than who is there for the opening tip. Marcus Harley is one of the first players off the bench at the point guard or two-guard spot. Paul Cummins has seen time at shooting guard spot along with freshman Jesper Andersson. In the frontcourt, junior Ted Detmer has played significant minutes. Freshmen Andre Hines and Marek Koltun have also played in the middle with Hines playing the most of any of the freshmen early in the season. In 2005-06, Lafayette consistently played nine players, all of whom have averaged at least 17 minutes a game. BENCH SCORING: Lafayette was far from dependent on its starting five for scoring in 2005-06. The Leopards' bench averaged 26.1 points per game of the team's 66.4 points per game average, 39 percent of the team's scoring. By contrast, this season Lafayette is receiving 67 percent (42 of the Leopards' 62 points per game) of its scoring from its starting five. RANKED OPPONENTS: Since 1948-49, Lafayette has played 39 games against ranked opponents, coming away with a 3-36 record. Lafayette hosted Bucknell, ranked No. 24 in both the ESPN/USA Today and Associated Press top-25 polls on Feb. 25, 2006. Prior to that, the last time Lafayette hosted a ranked opponent was January 14, 1987 when No. 19 Navy came to Kirby Sports Center and escaped with a 75-71 win. The last time Lafayette beat a ranked opponent was Dec. 2, 1978 when Lafayette topped No. 16 Rutgers, 77-70. In 2004-05, Lafayette faced Louisville (17) and Georgia Tech (9) on the road. THE PRESEASON POLL: Lafayette was picked to finish sixth in the Patriot League Preseason Poll. The poll is voted on by the conference head coaches and sports information directors. Bucknell was picked first in the poll followed by Holy Cross, American, Lehigh, Colgate, Lafayette, Navy and Army. INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR: Lafayette features three players from foreign countries. Junior Paul Cummins comes from Kildare, Ireland. Cummins spent two years at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, N.C. before spending a post-grad year at South Kent School in Connecticut. Two of Lafayette's four freshmen come from Europe with Marek Koltun hailing from Krakow, Poland and Jesper Andersson from Norrkoping, Sweden. Koltun spent the 2005-06 schoolyear at Caravel Academy in Delaware. THE JUNIOR CLASS: Lafayette's Class of 2008 is not only the largest in terms of numbers, but is also one of the most productive recruiting classes in recent memory. Junior Bilal Abdullah is the leading returning scorer and is second this season to fellow junior Matt Betley. Fellow juniors Ted Detmer and Everest Schmidt have also seen significant minutes in the middle after tying for the team lead in rebounds in 2005-06. Paul Cummins has been an offensive spark off the bench. ON THE BOARDS: Being undersized at nearly every position, rebounding was a tough task for Lafayette and will, again, be a challenge in 2006-07. Two forwards, Ted Detmer and Everest Schmidt both averaged 4.1 rebounds per game to lead the team and were followed closely by Matt Betley. Lafayette won the battle of the boards on eight occasions in 2005-06, resulting in seven wins. ALL-TIME AT LAFAYETTE: In the 97 seasons of men's basketball at Lafayette College, the Leopards hold an overall record of 1173-1030 (.531). Lafayette's first basketball season was in 1900-01 when the team had a winning record of 4-3. NOTABLE NAMES FROM LAFAYETTE BASKETBALL: Some recognizable names in college basketball have been part of the Lafayette men's basketball program. Pete Carril '52 was an All-American at Lafayette before going on to coach Princeton to national prominence and recently serving as a Sacramento Kings' assistant coach. Tom Davis, former Iowa and current Drake head coach, served the Lafayette's head coach from 1971-77. During that span, Lafayette made three NIT appearances and accumulated a record of 116-44. Current Maryland head coach Gary Williams served as Davis' assistant basketball coach and also spent time as the head men's soccer coach from 1971-76. LAFAYETTE ON TELEVISION: For the 10th straight season, Lafayette features the most expansive television package in the Patriot League. The Leopards have 14 games televised with the possibility addition of four more televised games during the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament and the three rounds of the Patriot League Tournament. The Lafayette Sports Network is airing 10 games to approximately 10 million viewers in the Lehigh Valley, Pocono region and all of Philadelphia. LSN telecasts can also be viewed in central New Jersey, New York City and Boston. In the Lehigh Valley, Poconos and Philadelphia, the telecast airs on RCN-4 and WBPH-60. CSTV (DIRECTV 610, Dish Network 152) will continue as a major LSN partner, airing three telecasts. Emmy-nominated sports broadcaster Gary Laubach handles all of the Leopards' play-by-play duties, while former Lafayette men's basketball coach John Leone provides color commentary. Additionally, RCN's Dan Mowdy will provide sideline reports. ON THE RADIO: One of the longest running radio broadcast relationships in college basketball, WEST-AM 1400 enters its 71st year as the radio home of Lafayette Athletics. Dick Hammer is in his 40th season of calling the play-by-play for Lafayette men's basketball. Hammer will be inducted into the Lafayette College Maroon Club Hall of Game on Friday, Nov. 17. He will become just the second inductee who was not a player, coach or administrator at the college, joining public address announcer Jim Finnen. On the radio, Hammer is joined by Carl Schumacher at home games and most road contests by Phil LaBella (Lafayette SID). LAFAYETTE ATHLETICS ON THE WEB: The quickest and most comprehensive source for information on Lafayette athletics is the world wide web. Go to www.lafayette.edu and click on "Sports."
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