It's March Madness! While Division I gets all the glory, the lower division tournaments provide good opportunities to see smaller venues as most of the games are played on campus. So I check the schedules regularly and was happy to see that D-II Molloy University was hosting an East Coast Conference tournament game on Wednesday evening. The school is located in Rockville Centre on Long Island, which is just 15 minutes from Jamaica Station on the LIRR. Fellow basketball junkie Eddie lives nearby and he agreed to join me.
The Lions play at Bob Houlihan Court in Monsignor Quealy Hall, which is connected to the Wilbur Arts Center, where the main entrance is. Tickets were available online at $10 and would not be sold at the door, so we bought them in advance, only to find nobody checking tickets when we arrived. I'm not sure how many of the other 226 fans did the same.
There are a few trophy cases here, with one devoted to my favourite awards, the NCAA Statistical Champions. This includes the previous trophy design, which displays a large icon for the sport in question and is better than the new, plainer motif. The most recent award was to James Sill, whose 1.52 ERA led Division II baseball in 2025. Sill also hits, so maybe another Ohtani in the making.
Most gyms have entrances at one end of the court. Not here. You walk in right at center court, which is a bit disconcerting at first. The large letters across the way confirm your location.
The odd location for the entrance also means that the bleachers are separated into two sets, with one row of chairbacks and six rows of benches. There is no official capacity, but attendance was 228 and there were few empty seats. If you want food or drink, use the vending machines nearby.
The school made the D-II tournament in 2019, losing in the first round to Saint Anselm. A more impressive display is a list of student-athletes who scored a perfect 4.0 GPA (below), with one banner per semester. Looking at how many names are on each, it would seem that Molloy is an easy school. This was confirmed during the game when Molloy was down 35-26 and a couple of kids near me said, "Only 11 points behind".
That's all there is to write about here. These smaller schools keep it simple but I really enjoy visiting them, especially when I get a good game as well.
The Game
The ECC has nine teams and six make the tournament, with the top two getting byes. D'Youville were the fifth seed and made the trip down from Buffalo to take on fourth seed Molloy in the first round. I had seen the Saints at Mercy back in December when they lost in double overtime.
The first half saw a couple of long runs. Tied at 17, the Lions scored a touchdown to go up 7, but D'Youville went on an 18-2 jaunt to reach the aforementioned 35-26 lead with 3:45 to go. Molloy then ended the half on a 13-1 spurt to take a 38-36 lead into the break.
The second half saw Molloy push their advantage to 46-38 and then they went cold while D'Youville scored on nine straight possessions as part of an improbable 21-2 run over five minutes that made it 59-48. But the Lions responded with a 17-7 stretch that got them within a point. Then D'Youville's Justin Moore (#12 in black below) drained a critical trey and Molloy never got closer than two the rest of the way.
The Saints added three more from long range, including a pair from Elisha Warren, and held on to win 86-80. This was an exciting back-and-forth game that took only 1:48 despite 39 fouls being called. Molloy shot 7-19 from inside the arc in the second half, a stat that doomed them. Warren had a double-double with 24 points and 10 boards, while Moore also added 24 points. Chris Stokel had 21 off the bench for Molloy, who probably weren't too upset by the loss as they avoided a bus trip to Buffalo to face top-seed Daemen.
D'Youville had to return to Buffalo anyway, and as expected, they lost to Daemen, who then beat Roberts Wesleyan to take the ECC title. Daemen is ranked fourth in the country and will host the East Regional in the Division II tournament.
Notes
Notes
There are five other lower division schools on Long Island and I will plan to see them next year. Four of them (St. Joseph's-LI, Farmingdale, Merchant Marine, Old Westbury) are in the Skyline Conference in Division III, and if I see them all, I would only have three schools left to complete that circuit in Purchase, Manhattanville (also in Purchase), and Mount St Mary in Newburgh. The other school on Long Island is Adelphi who play in the NE10 and earned an at-large bid to the D-II East Regional.
Best,
Sean
No comments:
Post a Comment