This Week in Walsh University Athletics
Monday, March 2, 2009
Mon. 2 Baseball at Webber (FL) 4 pm
Softball vs. Northwood 11 am/Indiana Wesleyan 3 pm (FL)
Tues. 3 Men’s Basketball (H) AMC Tournament Championship vs. Mt. Vernon Nazarene 7 pm (AM 900 WCER)
Baseball vs. Siena Heights 12:30 pm/at Webber 7 pm
Softball vs. Heidelberg 9 am/St. Xavier 11 am (FL)
Wed. 4 Softball vs. Clarke 11 am/Indiana Wesleyan 1 pm (FL)
Thurs. 5 Baseball at Warner Southern Tournament
Fri. 6 Baseball at Warner Southern Tournament
Softball vs. Biola 1:30pm/William Penn 6:30 pm (FL)
Sat. 7 Baseball at Warner Southern Tournament
Softball vs. Milligan 1:30 pm/Auburn 4 pm
MEN'S BASKETBALL: 4th Ranked Cavs (26-3, 12-1) Meet Mt. Vernon Nazarene in AMC Tournament Title Game
NAIA No. 4 (new ranking 3/4) Walsh (26-3, 12-1) will host NAIA No. 12 Mount Vernon Nazarene University (23-7) on Tuesday at 7 pm in the American Mideast Conference Tournament Championship game. The game will be broadcast live on AM 900 WCER and on the Internet at www.wcer.us. Tickets are $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for non Walsh students and senior citizens. Walsh students will be admitted for free by signing-up in the lobby and showing a valid ID.
Walsh, the top seed for the AMC Tournament, defeated Notre Dame College 70-63, while second seeded Mount Vernon Nazarene cruised past Northwestern Ohio 81-66. The winner receives the AMC's second automatic berth to the NAIA National Tournament, March 11-17 at the College of the Ozarks (MO). Due to their high NAIA rankings, both Walsh and Mount Vernon will qualify for the national tournament, regardless of the outcome of Tuesday's game. The winners of all conference tournaments will decide final qualifiers and seeding for the tournament. Walsh last won the AMC Tournament championship in 2006-07, defeating Notre Dame College.
The Cavs extended their winning streak to 14 games, with a hard-fought 70-63 win over Notre Dame at Alumni Arena last Saturday. Walsh erased a five-point Notre Dame lead in final 13 minutes to notch the win. Joe Shardo (6-5, Sr., Yorkshire, OH/Versailles) scored 14 first half points, and led the Cavs with 25 points and eight rebounds. The Falcons led 49-44 with 13:06 to play when the Cavs went to work. L.J. Sutton (6-4, Fr., Youngstown, OH/Cardinal Mooney), who scored eight first half points, scored to cut the lead to 49-46 with 12:24 to play. After a Notre Dame turnover, Joe Shardo nailed a jumper to pull the Cavs to within one-point at 49-48 with 11:41 to play. Notre Dame followed with their second straight turnover, which led to Walsh regaining the lead for good. Walsh's Nick Foster (6-7, Fr., Canton, OH/Central Catholic) was fouled and converted two free throws to give the Cavs a 50-49 lead with 10:58 to play. The Cavs would then hold Notre Dame scoreless for almost three minutes and take a 53-49 lead with 10:05 to play. The Falcons would come to within two points twice, at 57-55, and the final time at 60-58 with 3:12 to play. Sutton would then convert an old fashioned three-point play to push the Walsh lead back to five points at 63-58 with 2:11 to play. The Cavs would then convert seven of eight free throws in the final 38 seconds to seal the win. Walsh placed four players in double figures, Sutton added 13 points, Brandon Speck (6-0, Jr., Mansfield, OH/St. Peter's) 12 and Kyelce Cescato (6-10, Jr., Barra Bonita, Brazil, Colmeia Entec) had 10 points and eight rebounds.
The Cavs and Cougars are meeting for the just the second time this season. Walsh defeated MVNU 85-66 in the AMC opener for both teams on January 3 at Walsh. Jeremy Shardo (6-3, So., Yorkshire, OH/Versailles) led the Cavs with 24 points and seven assists. Brandon Speck added 17 points. Dan Borcherdt paced the Cougars with 19 points. Walsh leads the all-time series 38-26 and is 2-1 in post season games. Walsh won in 1992-93, 87-73, in the District 22 semifinals and 86-84 in the first round of the Mid-Ohio Conference Tournament in 1997-98. The Cougars won 84-72 in the AMC Championship game in 1999-2000. Mount Vernon won their 11th straight game, 81-66 over Northwestern Ohio on Saturday. Ben Falkenberg poured in 37 points on 12-17 from the field and 7-12 from three-point. Bryce Sanborn pulled down 14 rebounds. Falkenberg is averaging 19.2 points per game and is shooting .492 from the field, .458 from three-point and .913 from the stripe.
Joe Shardo leads the Cavs in scoring, with an 18.1 (3rd AMC) per game average. He is shooting .511 (7th AMC) from the field and .434 (3rd AMC) from three-point and .830 (2nd AMC) from the foul line. He is also averaging 6.4 rebounds per contest. Jeremy Shardo is averaging 14.5 points and leads the AMC and NAIA with 235 assists for an 8.1 per game average. Shardo is two assists shy of tying Brandon Weems' single season record of 237 from the 2006-07 season. He also leads the AMC in assist/turnover ratio (3.18/NAIA 3rd). Shardo is shooting .443 from the field, .443 from three-point and .789 (3rd AMC) from the line. Kyelce Cescato is averaging 14.4 points per game, with a team-leading 8.4 rebounds. He also leads the team, and AMC in field goal percentage (.642/3rd NAIA). Brandon Speck is averaging 12.2 points and leads the AMC in three-point shooting (.470). Speck is also shooting .904 from the free throw line.
As a team, the Cavs lead the AMC and are among the NAIA leaders in numerous categories. In scoring; 87.0 (AMC 1st, NAIA 5th), scoring margin 21.4 (AMC 1st, NAIA 2nd), free throw percentage .740 (AMC 1st, NAIA 6th), field goal percentage .505 (AMC 1st, NAIA 3rd), 3-PT FG percentage .438 (AMC 1st, NAIA 1st), rebound margin 11.3 (AMC 1st, NAIA 2nd), assists per game 16.3 (AMC 2nd), assist/turnover ratio 1.60 (AMC 1st, NAIA 1st).
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Cavs' (19-12, 11-4) Can't Bounce Back/Fall in AMC Semifinal
Walsh failed to clinch its first NAIA tournament berth since 1998, falling 84-70 to Mount Vernon Nazarene in the semifinals of the American Mideast Conference tournament on Saturday. The loss was the third straight for the Cavs, who suffered their first three-game losing streak since November. As a team, the Cavs put together their most successful season since they finished 20-11 under Theresa Berg in 2003-04. Last season, they won only 13 games overall and just five in the AMC.
Mount Vernon would lead from start to finish, jumping out to an 8-2 lead in the first three minutes. Walsh would close the lead to 10-6, but would get no closer in the first half. Mount Vernon held its largest first half lead at the half at 46-25. Walsh would make a couple of runs in the second half, but would not cut the lead into single digits. After trailing by 25 points (56-31) with 14:53 to play, Walsh would rally and cut the lead to 61-50 with 9:30 to play. They would also trail by 11 points at 67-56, but would get no closer. The Cougars shot 48% (27-56) for the game and 42% (8-19) from three-point. Katie Berry (So., Cleveland, OH/St. Joseph’s) led Walsh with 19 points, Jessie Miller (5-10, Jr., Strasburg, OH/HS) added 14 and Leah Seaman (5-8, Jr., Louisville, OH/HS) 12 off the bench. The Cavs shot 43% (29-68), but were hampered by 21 turnovers and were outrebounded 40-33.
Katie Berry finished the season as the team scoring leader, averaging 13.8 points per game (AMC 10th). Berry shot .474 (AMC 5th) from the field and .780 from the line. Cara Bedard (6-1, So., Randolph, OH/Waterloo) was next, averaging 12.2 points and a team-leading 5.7 rebounds. Bedard also led the team in field goal percentage (.538) and in free throw percentage (.812).
