January 5, 2022
Code:
2021 Patriot League Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
-------------------------------------------------------------
#20 Lafayette 0 0 .000 13 1 .929 37 75
Bucknell 0 0 .000 10 4 .714 214 36
Holy Cross 0 0 .000 9 5 .643 116 49
Army 0 0 .000 6 8 .429 225 39
Lehigh 0 0 .000 5 8 .385 79 35
Colgate 0 0 .000 4 10 .286 315 39
American 0 0 .000 3 10 .231 246 43
Navy 0 0 .000 3 11 .214 347 32
We're off to a winning start this year, facing a schedule that isn't quite as demanding as the one we took on in 2020/21.
Code:
#20 LAFAYETTE Schedule
Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
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11/15/21 Cornell 5-7 183 W 87-70 1-0
11/17/21 Delaware 5-7 291 W 64-63 2-0
11/22/21 La Salle 5-7 158 W 78-67 3-0
11/26/21 Fairfield 9-6 67 W 86-84 4-0
11/29/21 St. Peter's 1-10 286 W 79-58 5-0
12/04/21 at St. Francis-NY 4-8 322 W 67-54 6-0
12/06/21 NJIT 7-7 102 W 87-56 7-0
12/12/21 Wisconsin 8-5 95 W 80-68 8-0
12/14/21 at Long Island 6-7 16 W 77-63 9-0
12/16/21 at Siena 8-5 85 W 80-79 10-0
12/21/21 Towson 4-8 144 W 73-60 11-0
12/27/21 Yale 6-6 26 L 72-67 11-1
12/30/21 at North Carolina A&T 6-8 309 W 66-52 12-1
01/04/22 at Princeton 5-7 164 W 70-49 13-1
I'm sharing the box score from the Wisconsin game. The Badgers were ranked #15 before our visit to Madison.
Code:
Lafayette 80, Wisconsin 68
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Wisconsin (4-4, 0-0):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Zachariah Martin C 23 2-4 1-2 0 2 1 2 5
Justin Baum PF 28 6-11 0-4 5 8 2 1 12
Johnnie Robinette SF 22 4-8 2-2 3 8 3 4 10
Daniel Davis SG 29 4-14 3-3 2 3 5 3 13
G. Santamaria PG 33 1-6 3-4 0 2 1 1 5
Dalton Dickerson SG 17 3-7 1-2 0 1 0 3 8
Charles Prescott SF 15 3-7 1-2 2 4 1 1 8
Gregory Haga C 19 1-3 0-1 1 5 0 1 2
Adrian Burrows SG 3 1-1 2-2 1 1 1 0 5
Brent Martinez PF 10 0-1 0-0 1 1 0 0 0
Travis Strickland C 2 0-0 0-0 1 2 1 0 0
Turnovers: 13 (Z.Martin 1, J.Robinette 5, D.Davis 4,
D.Dickerson 1, C.Prescott 1, B.Martinez 1)
Blocked Shots: 8 (Z.Martin 4, J.Baum 4)
Steals: 11 (Z.Martin 1, J.Baum 2, D.Davis 2,
G.Santamaria 2, D.Dickerson 2, C.Prescott 1, A.Burrows
1)
3P FGs: 5-20 (Z.Martin 0-1, J.Robinette 0-1, D.Davis
2-8, G.Santamaria 0-4, D.Dickerson 1-2, C.Prescott
1-3, A.Burrows 1-1)
Lafayette (8-0, 0-0):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Matt Robles C 28 5-13 4-5 3 9 5 3 14
Asdrubal Cruz PF 20 2-7 0-0 3 4 1 4 4
Thomas Lucy SF 26 4-7 2-2 1 3 3 2 13
Matthew Ackerman SG 29 7-13 0-0 1 3 2 3 18
Rob Prendergast PG 27 1-1 2-2 0 2 2 2 5
Byron Shores SG 17 7-12 1-2 0 2 1 3 21
Jonathan Baldwin PF 18 2-3 0-0 1 10 2 0 5
Kurt Ritchie C 13 0-1 0-0 1 2 1 1 0
Carlton McFadden SF 12 0-0 0-0 0 0 2 0 0
W. Carrasquillo PG 8 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0
Turnovers: 16 (A.Cruz 1, T.Lucy 3, M.Ackerman 5,
R.Prendergast 2, B.Shores 2, C.McFadden 1,
W.Carrasquillo 2)
Blocked Shots: 4 (T.Lucy 1, M.Ackerman 1, J.Baldwin 2)
Steals: 4 (T.Lucy 1, M.Ackerman 2, C.McFadden 1)
3P FGs: 15-25 (T.Lucy 3-4, M.Ackerman 4-8,
R.Prendergast 1-1, B.Shores 6-11, J.Baldwin 1-1)
Player of Game: SF Byron Shores (LFYTE)
Byron Shores is fire that day, and it's not the only time the sweet-shooting freshman puts on a show. More on him later.
After our victory, we appear in the polls for the first time. We rise as high as #15 before our rather shocking loss to Yale.
The biggest story of the season so far has been the emergence of
Matthew Ackerman as a big-time scorer. He opens the season with 27 points against Cornell, and follows that performance up with several other big games: 27 against La Salle, 32 against Fairfield, 30 against NJIT, 26 more at North Carolina A&T. The senior leads the Patriot League in scoring and ranks in the top 20 nationwide.
The return to a more traditional lineup, one that features two post players, has paid off. Center
Matt Robles has picked up where he left off last year, averaging 12.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.
Asdrubal Cruz has seamlessly adjusted to his new role as a starter. He ranks right below Robles with 8.2 RPG, and while he doesn't shoot often, he makes just under half the shots he does take.
The other new starter,
Ben Miele, is thriving, too. He's third in the Patriot League in assists (4.1 per game) and scores a crazy-good 1.97 points per shot...the product of his otherworldly shot selection.
Byron Shores is just plain fun. He's averaging nearly 11 points per game as our sixth man, with a special knack for hitting threes. Byron fires off four per game--in 20 minutes of action--and is making 44.6% of them. One such three-ball with 0:04 remaining on the clock sends Delaware down to defeat.
We pull out another victory in the closing minute against a tough Siena team. This time it's
Thomas Lucy who does the honors. Lucy is the fourth player who scores in double figures (11.9 PPG).
The only loss of the season--at home, to Yale--happens because we turn the ball over too often on a night when our shooting touch abandons us a bit. That night, we make 9 of our 25 three-point attempts; that might not sound bad, but we're hitting 43.2% for the season, third best in the nation.
The other piece of bad news arrives when first semester grades are released. Reserve big
Jonathan Baldwin is sidelined for the remainder of the season with an academic suspension. Jonathan, a junior, had been a productive member of our rotation, playing 12 minutes a game as our first big man off the bench and shooting 55.6% from the floor. You might have noticed how well he played in our big win at Wisconsin. Baldwin's Academic rating is 72, for Aristotle's sake! Lack of ability is surely not his problem.
Freshmen
Kurt Ritchie and
Jeffrey Hampton will take Baldwin's minutes as we head into conference play.