December 4, 2006

Monday, December 4, 2006

This Week in Walsh University Athletics

Sat. 9 Women's Basketball at Cedarville University of Rio Grande 5:30 pm

Men's Basketball (H) University of Rio Grande 4 pm AM 900 WCER

MEN'S BASKETBALL: Cavs (5-2, 3-0 AMC S) Open AMC Play with Win

NAIA No. 7 Walsh (5-2, 3-0 AMC S) bounced back from a disappointing loss to the College of Wooster, with back-to-back American Mideast Conference South wins over Mount Vernon Nazarene University and the University of Rio Grande.  This week, the Cavs put their modest two-game win streak on the line at Cedarville University on Saturday, December 9 at 7:30 pm.  The game will be broadcast live on AM 900 WCER, and on the Internet at www.wcer.us.

Walsh erased a 19-point first half deficit (24-5), and rallied to beat Mount Vernon Nazarene University 79-55 at home last Tuesday.  The game was witnessed by NBA star LeBron James, who came down to watch former high school teammates Brandon Weems (Jr., Akron, OH/St. Vincent-St. Mary) and Corey Jones (Jr., Avon Lake, OH/St. Vincent-St. Mary).  After falling behind 24-5 in the first eight minutes of the first half, Walsh rallied to take a 39-34 halftime lead.  Josh Johnson (So., Warren, OH/Harding) led the Cavs comeback with 11 first half points, connecting on 3-5 from beyond the arc.  The second half was all Walsh, as the Cavs shot .531 from the field and out scored the Cougars 40-21.  Walsh held Mount Vernon 37 points under their average, and to just 5-21 shooting from three-point range.  Walsh led by as many as 26 points (79-53) in the second half.  Walsh was led by Johnson's 19 points off the bench.  He connected on 6-10 from the field and 5-7 from three-point.  Adam Lesch (Sr., Newark, OH/HS) added 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds and Eder Araujo (Jr., Sao Paulo, Brazil/Odete Maria de Freitas) scored 11 points, and had eight rebounds.  Weems did not disappoint James, handing out a career-high 12 assists, to go with nine points and six rebounds.  Freshman Brandon Speck (Mansfield, OH/St. Peter) added 10 points off the bench.

Walsh placed five players in double figures in defeating the University of Rio Grande 98-90 at home on Saturday.  Walsh erased a six point (30-24) Rio Grande lead in the final five minutes of the first half and led 36-32 at the break.  Walsh trailed 32-29 late in the first half, when they out scored Rio 16-0 to take a 45-32 lead at the 17:12 mark of the second half.  Walsh's largest lead was 16 points (79-63).  Brandon Speck and Derek Chappell (Sr., Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East) paced the Cavs with 18 points each.  Speck came off the bench and hit 4-7 from three-point.  Chappell was 7-10 from the floor and had a game-high 10 rebounds.  Brandon Weems had 13 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.  Walsh shot .541 from the floor and .897 (26-29) from the foul line.

Brandon Weems handed out 21 assists in the two games last week, and is averaging 7.2 per game.  Weems is also averaging 11.4 points per game.  Corey Jones leads the team with a 15.9 scoring average.  Jones is shooting .435 from three-point range and is perfect from the foul line (17-17).  Jones, who set a Walsh record with 43 consecutive free throws last season, has hit 60-61 of his last attempts from the charity stripe.  Freshman Brandon Speck averaged 14.0 points in two games off the bench, and connected on 9-15 from three-point.

Walsh and AMC South co-leader Cedarville University meet on Saturday.  The Yellow Jackets are 8-0 overall and 3-0 in the South.  They defeated Ohio Dominican University 63-60 on Saturday.  Walsh won 60-58 at Cedarville last year, but lost 79-71 at home.  The all-time series is knotted at 35 wins each. 

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Cavs (2-6, 1-2 AMC S) Win First AMC Game

Walsh (2-6, 1-2 AMC S) split a pair of American Mideast Conference South games last week. The Cavs picked up their first AMC South win over Mount Vernon Nazarene University, but then lost to the University of Rio Grande.  This week, the Cavs travel to Cedarville University on Saturday, to meet the NAIA second ranked Yellow Jackets at 5:30 pm. 

Walsh evened its AMC South record, with a 74-69 home victory over Mount Vernon Nazarene last Tuesday.  The Cavs shot 49% from the field in the first half and raced to a 39-28 halftime lead.  Walsh led by as many as 14 points (45-31) in the second half, and led by eight points (71-63) with two minutes to play, when the Cougars went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 71-69.  Ingrid Brainard (Sr., Madison, OH/HS) then split a pair of free throws, to give the Cavs a 72-69 lead with 28 seconds to play.  After a couple of missed shots by the Cougars, Brainard stole the ball with four seconds to play and scored the final two points to ice the win.  Jessie Miller (R-Fr., Strasburg, OH/HS) led the Cavs with a career-high 17 points off the bench.  Brainard and Monika Mitchell (So., Garfield Heights, OH/HS) each added 10 points.  Mitchell also had nine rebounds.  Nicole Dressler (Jr., Lodi, OH/Cloverleaf) and Eulise Dickerson (So., Warrensville Heights, OH/HS) each added nine points. 

Rio Grande led from start to finish, in defeating Walsh 85-62 on Saturday.  Rio shot 63% from the floor in the first half in building a 41-29 halftime lead.  Walsh cut the lead to seven points (43-36) with 18:25 to play, but would get no closer.  Ingrid Brainard led all scorers with 22 points, while also handing out five assists and grabbing six rebounds.  Eulise Dickerson (So., Warrensville Heights, OH/HS) scored 16 points and had seven rebounds.

Brainard leads the Cavs in scoring (13.0), assists (36) and steals (20).  She has also become the Cavs all-time assist leader with 429, shattering the old mark of 398 set by Kerri Andrews.

Walsh leads Cedarville 15-13 in the all-time series.  The Yellow Jackets, however, have won the last nine meetings.  Walsh just missed upsetting the Jackets at Cedarville last year, losing 76-75.  Walsh's last win came during the 2000-01 season.   Cedarville is 8-3 overall this season and 2-0 in the AMC South.