Much in the same tradition of our colleague Lee Delvecchio when the event was held in MAACachusetts, HoopsHD has returned to the opening round of the MAAC Tournament, this year being held in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall. Day 1 is an amazing six-tuple header of games with three women’s Opening Round games to be followed by three Men’s games. Chad Sherwood was on hand right from the start to cover all (or as many as possible before giving out) of these games.
The day started with an early wake up (especially after staying up to watch the late WCC semifinal and then record a Championship Week Video Notebook podcast last night) and drive to Atlantic City. I parked at Caesar’s Casino, and had a chance to say hello to the mighty Emperor himself on my way in.
It was then off down the Boardwalk to historic Boardwalk Hall for the first game of the day.
The first matchup featured women’s 8 seed Niagara taking on 9 seed Saint Peter’s. The crowds were sparse for such an early game, but Monte the Purple Eagle was still into it.
Niagara came away with the 64-53 victory led by 16 points from Dagny Davidsdottir and 11 from Jai Moore. Coach Pierce noted in the post-game press conference that her team had a size advantage over the Peacocks, and that playing the 9:30 AM game was not as much of a challenge because they had played in the same time slot last season.
Next up was the 7th seeded women’s Iona Gaels taking on 10th seeded Monmouth. Iona was the first team of the day to bring their pep band (joined below by their mascot on trumpet!), while Monmouth, the school closest to Atlantic City, did not even bring any cheerleaders.
Monmouth built a nice lead against Iona and held off several attempts at a 4th quarter rally to win 69-60 and advance to a quarterfinal matchup against 2 seed Marist. Sierra Green led the way with 26 points for the Hawks. Morgan Rachu scored a double-double for the Gaels in her final game of her career. She was understandably broken up by the loss, and the sad fact that for all but a very few teams, the season will end with an L.
The third game of the day (and the final women’s game) featured 6 seed Siena taking on 11 seed Canisius. Despite being only 5-24 overall, Canisius jumped out to an early lead and took a 10 point advantage into halftime. This was not news that Siena’s mascot was taking very well…
Siena cam storming back in the 3rd quarter to take the lead and then surged in the 4th to win by a final score of 58-48. Rayshel Brown led the way for the Saints with 20 points.
With the women done, it was time to turn attention to the men’s Opening Round games, By this point I knew that attending 6 games in one day was looking like an impossible task. However, I was determined to at least get through the matchup between 8 seed Fairfield and 9 seed Manhattan. Steve Masiello’s Jaspers brought the biggest group of fans to date, with their cheer squad and pep band leading the way to dominate the noise levels in the building (including pullout of a giant poster of a blind ref when a bad call went against the Jaspers).
The game was…well, to put it nicely, a defensive struggle. The teams were tied at 19 at halftime. Manhattan started finding the basket in the second half, and opened up a 43-29 lead about halfway through it, eventually winning by a final score of 61-43. Pauly Paulicap was the standout star for the Jaspers, scoring 18 points and pulling down 12 rebounds.
Four games in a single day proved to be my limit. The MAAC will be back here each of the next two years, and I am definitely going to give this marathon another try. For now, you will have to check out our Championship Week Video Notebook later tonight for details on the two late games — #7 Iona vs #10 Canisius and #6 Niagara vs #11 Marist. Good night for now from the MAAC Tournament and Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall — home of the world’s largest pipe organ!
