January 1, 2018
The Patriot League season is about to begin. Here's how the eight teams in our conference have done so far:
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2017 Patriot League Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
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Lafayette 0 0 .000 11 2 .846 4 56
Army 0 0 .000 8 5 .615 11 21
American 0 0 .000 6 7 .462 88 43
Holy Cross 0 0 .000 6 6 .500 184 47
Navy 0 0 .000 6 7 .462 345 28
Colgate 0 0 .000 4 10 .286 134 31
Bucknell 0 0 .000 4 10 .286 291 34
Lehigh 0 0 .000 3 11 .214 216 28
Goodness, look at our RPI!
We're ranked
#4 in the
Mid Major poll this week, behind Temple, Gonzaga, and Virginia Commonwealth.
Based on their Prestige, Army has been the league's biggest overachiever this year.
January 3, 2018
@Lafayette 56, Bucknell 49
We win, but it's ugly. Bucknell leads 30-27 at halftime, and neither team comes close to making even 40 percent of its shots.
Tim Hutchinson's points total looks OK--he finishes with 17--but he needs 15 shots to get them.
Daniel Warnock doesn't shoot well either; he's 3-for-10, and ends the game with 13. We get our customary 4 blocked shots from
Samuel Davis.
Our record is excellent, but our lineup isn't cohesive right now. We're struggling to find chemistry without
Todd DeHaven, who will be out another seven weeks or so.
Otis Hall was playing well as our sixth man. Perhaps I'll try
Johnathan Blouin as a starter and return Otis to his previous role.
Record: 12-2 (1-0).
January 6, 2018
@Lafayette 80, Lehigh 60
We take a step forward tonight, playing one of our better games of the season. Lehigh's terrible this year, but we still do our own jobs well.
The Mountain Hawks can't guard
Daniel Warnock, who does damage from all three levels and the free throw line en route to 27 points.
Record: 13-2 (2-0).
Samuel Davis continues to develop as a stretch five, moving behind the arc and making 4 of 7 shots from there on a 16-point night.
Johnathan Blouin, in his first career start, dominates the boards with 14 rebounds.
We've won 13 of our first 15 games once before, in 2014/15.
Record: 13-2 (2-0).
January 10, 2018
Lafayette 64, @Army 56
We survive minor injuries to
Tim Hutchinson and
Jack Senn and outlast a pesky Army team on their home court.
Hutch twisted his knee and left the game after having played only 14 minutes; he scored 9 points before he sat down. Jack's injury was the mysterious "None," and since he played 26 minutes, it couldn't have been a serious case.
Meanwhile,
Daniel Warnock's hot streak continues. Tonight, he drops 25, making 5 of his 10 three-point tries. And
Johnathan Blouin snags another 14 rebounds.
We commit 22 turnovers, which is way too many. Fortunately, they didn't come back to haunt us.
We move up to
#3 in the
Mid Major poll. Gonzaga lost, so they drop behind us.
Record: 14-2 (3-0).
January 13, 2018
Lafayette 63, @American 49
Our defensive effort is as good as it's been all season. The Eagles resort to chucking threes in an attempt to stay close--they launch 27 of them--and only 8 find the range.
Meanwhile,
Johnathan Blouin adds scoring to his body of work, leading us with 14 points and adding 12 more rebounds. In three games as a starter, JB is averaging 13.3 RPG.
Samuel Davis grabs 9 boards of his own, and blocks 5 shots.
Tim Hutchinson and
Daniel Warnock score 13 points each.
Is this
Graham Sims' best coaching performance yet? He's taken a team with a number of unknown quantities and has them playing as well as any Lafayette team he's coached.
Record: 15-2 (4-0).
January 15, 2018
#24 Lafayette 70, @Stony Brook 57
Taking a break from the Patriot League schedule, the newest member of the
Top 25 travels up to Long Island for a contest against the Seawolves.
Daniel Warnock returns to the 20-point club, hitting 5 of 7 threes and scoring 21.
Johnathan Blouin turns over a pair of eights (points and rebounds), and
Tim Hutchinson adds 11 points.
Remember
Perry Scribner? We recruited him as a high school senior, back in the fall of 2013. Perry decided we weren't the place for him. Now he's a star at Stony Brook, the 2014/15 America East Freshman of the Year with over 1500 points to his credit. Today, he leads all scorers with 22 points. When Perry turned his attentions elsewhere, we started recruiting
Joe Lien instead. I think it turned out well for everyone, don't you?
Record: 16-2 (4-0).
January 17, 2018
#24 Lafayette 61, @South Dakota State 53
Our non-conference road show continues with a trip out to South Dakota. There, we play a ragged game against the Summit League leaders, but end up on the right end of the score.
Tim Hutchinson compensates for a poor night shooting from the floor by sinking all 8 of his free throws, and leads us with 18 points. Tim's an 85 percent free throw shooter, so his performance isn't too surprising. He gets help from
Samuel Davis (12 points, 11 rebounds, 5 blocks) and
Johnathan Blouin (10 rebounds).
Record: 17-2 (4-0).
January 20, 2018
#24 Lafayette 62, @Holy Cross 56
Our defense shows up again on a day when our shooters can't get it going, with the exception of
Daniel Warnock (19 points).
We limit a reeling Crusaders team to 30.8% shooting;
Samuel Davis blocks 6 shots and
Otis Hall rejects 4 more. We win the rebound battle 49-35, as every starter plus Otis gets at least six.
Richard Leak is named Player of the Game for his scoresheet-filling prowess: 6 points, 5 assists, 7 rebounds.
Todd DeHaven will return in four weeks. We're doing fine without him, and he'll make us that much stronger and deeper when he comes back.
Record: 18-2 (5-0).
January 24, 2018
@#19 Lafayette 72, Navy 50
We enter tonight's game with our highest poll positions ever:
#2 in the
Mid Major rankings (behind VCU) and
#19 overall. We play like a top team, commanding this game from start to finish.
Daniel Warnock leads a group of four Leopards in double figures with 21 points. He's joined by
Tim Hutchinson (17),
Samuel Davis (13), and
Johnathan Blouin (10). The latter two players complete a double double-double, as
Big Sazzy has 10 rebounds and
JB 14(!). Blouin is the conference's leading rebounder on a per-30 minute basis.
Navy's
Darrel Puma scores 18 in a losing effort, and also loses ground to Warnock in the Patriot League scoring race. Daniel leads him, 17.3 to 16.4.
Record: 19-2 (6-0).
January 26, 2018
@#19 Lafayette 65, Colgate 57
The Red Raiders turned things up a notch when league play began, and enter this contest two games behind us in the Patriot League standings. We extend that lead tonight, as we fight off a spirited challenge from the visitors in the last six minutes or so.
Tim Hutchinson (22 points) and
Daniel Warnock (20) handle the scoring.
Samuel Davis has 9 rebounds and 4 blocks.
Justin Judkins plays well off the bench: 9 points in 13 minutes.
The victory gives
Graham Sims his sixth consecutive season with at least 20 wins.
Record: 20-2 (7-0).
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2017 Patriot League Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
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#19 Lafayette 7 0 1.000 20 2 .909 18 56
Army 5 2 .714 13 8 .619 62 21
Colgate 4 3 .571 9 13 .409 163 31
American 4 3 .571 11 10 .524 128 43
Bucknell 3 4 .429 7 14 .333 247 34
Navy 2 5 .286 9 12 .429 341 28
Holy Cross 2 5 .286 8 12 .400 263 47
Lehigh 1 6 .143 4 18 .182 269 28
January 31, 2018
#18 Lafayette 70, @Lehigh 55
Daniel Warnock gets into foul trouble early and manages to score only 5 points, but his teammates pick up the slack against a floundering Lehigh team.
Tim Hutchinson scores 16 points, but it's
Samuel Davis who takes the star turn tonight. The junior center scores 14 points, grabs 10 rebounds, and blocks 4 shots.
Johnathan Blouin completes a double-double too, with a nicely balanced 12 points and 11 boards.
Richard Leak finishes with 8 assists and 4 steals.
Record: 21-2 (8-0).