Midcon Men's tournament Day 1

Game 1: Centenary Gents vs ORU Golden Eagles

Centenary started out with a 8-2 run and Caleb Green was frustrated with the lack of foul calls. No sooner did he complain and start getting feisty but he started getting the calls. Slowly ORU crept back into the game and took a 6 point lead on a couple of Caleb dunks. However, the Gents kept hanging around, largely on the strength of Alexander Starr's 16 points. Halftime score: ORU 35 Centenary 29.

2nd half, Centenary started letting the game get away from them. ORU pulled out to a 12 point lead at the first media timeout. Caleb got his 3rd foul, but Shawn King filled in quite nicely for him. The 3's weren't going down for the Gents anymore like they were in the early going.

Tyrone Hamilton did hit a 3 with 13 minutes to go, and I noticed that he had 14 points at that time. Then Moses Ehambe drained a 3 from way downtown with a hand in his face. Chase Adams drained another 3 for Centenary. But Caleb came back with a dunk. At the 2nd media timeout, ORU led 56-43. The Gents took advantage of some ORU sloppiness to cut the lead to 11, and missed a couple of opportunities to cut it to 9 (once on a breakaway), but eventually Lance Hill drained a 3 to cut it to 8. They even had a chance to get the ball back to cut it to 6, but lost it out of bounds, and on the inbounds play, Ken Tutt drained a 3 to take the lead back up to 11 at the 3rd media timeout: ORU 61 Centenary 50.

Centenary sputtered and ORU built the lead back up to 15. ORU pulled away in the final minutes to win 79-59.

During the game, I spotted Andrew Maloy in the hallway looking as rugged as ever.

Game 2: Oakland Grizzlies vs. Western Illinois Leathernecks

For this game, your intrepid reporter donned his Oakland gear (a gift from Greg Kampe). One WIU fan mistook me for an Oakland fan and cheerfully greeted me and said "We're gonna kick your butt!" I gently informed him that I'm a Valpo fan but was wearing this stuff because Coach Kampe gave it to me and asked me to wear it for a tourney game where they aren't playing Valpo. Besides, I get a Kampe bobblehead out of the deal.

Anyway, Lesley Crane was looking on a couple of seats over and both of them had big grins on their faces until I spilled the beans, at which point they fell over laughing. When Kampe saw me, the only complaint he had was my St. Louis Cardinals wristband. I told him I got a T-shirt for the Tiger fan in him that I'll wear tomorrow or Monday.

First media timeout: Oakland 13 WIU 4. Rick Billings drained a pair of 3's. The Necks were getting chances in the paint, but they were not converting, sometimes because of misses, sometimes because of turnovers.

Erik Kangas passed up a semi-open 3 to give the ball to Billings who drained his 3rd 3. It looked like the team had identified Billings as The Shooter in the first half.

Kampe is really got on some of his guys. Hopes drew a bit of his ire, but Kangas drew a stern reprimand, as did Severovas. And Oakland was leading by 10 at the time. The Oakland coach obviously means business this year and is not going to settle for anything less than the very best from his team.

At the 2nd media timeout, I noticed familiar names from 2 years ago in the 5-man lineup: Cassise and McClosky. They were freshmen when the Grizz upset ORU for the championship, but they were part of the 8-man rotation and saw plenty of action.

Jonathan Jones hit a 3 from the top of the key. I looked up and it was 26-6. The Leathernecks just cannot seem to put it together. One might begin to wonder if Derek Thomas' job is in jeopardy, since these are now his recruits that playing so miserably.

At one point, I noticed something that looked hilarious. Kampe yelled at his guys who were on the other end of the court. Jonathon Jones stood there between the circles looking at him. After a moment or two, he clapped his hands. Kampe held up one finger, Jones ran to the out of bounds to start the play. My caption, "Yeah, I know coach, but you gotta call the play. Chop, chop!"

I overheard one of the OU Women's assistant coaches saying that the Grizz are shooting 70% so far while the Necks are shooting 15%.

I also noticed some ORU Maniacs hanging around to root loudly for the Necks, which is understandable. Chris Gonzalez hit a 3, and the Maniacs went crazy. That cut the lead to 23 (36-13).

At one point, Kampe even sent a rarely used player (Lawal) in to replace McCloskey because he didn't like something he did. That's serious. Lawal then got a foul and Kampe was yelling at him.

.8 seconds in the half, and WIU manages to inbounds the ball and get off a shot. Well, it IS the FIRST half. Score: Oakland 41 WIU 19. Hard to believe this is the same team that upset the Grizz at the O'Rena during the regular season.

Oakland had surprising trouble putting the Leathernecks away in the 2nd half. They kept them at bay, but WIU made a serious run to bring the deficit down near 10, and it stayed that way for the reaminder of the game. Final score: Oakland 74 WIU 57.