The Beacon Sports Staff

Top: Ryan Cloutier takes the Opening tipoff in the January 28th matchup against Dean College at the Hub Gym. SMCC fell to Dean’s explosive offense 89-70.

Bottom Left: Vaneese Barnes times her jump to capture a rebound in a 60-55 victory against NHTI. Barnes has evolved from a defensive specialist, to one of the leading scorers in the SMCC backcourt.

Bottom Right: Hannah Heald swings the ball around the perimeter to teammate Alicia Ruth against Dean college on the 28th. SMCC lost a tough matchup at home, 67-66. Ruth leads the nation in 3 PT. shooting.

With two games remaining in the regular YSCC season, the Seawolves basketball squads look to end the regular season on high notes and enter the Elite 8 tournament with momentum and purpose. Tomorrow evening both squads will be tested as the Mustangs from Central Maine Community College will visit SMCC for the last regular season home game for the Seawolves.

Wednesday evening is also Senoir Day at SMCC where seniors: Jennifer Conrad, Michael Harmon, Keanyon Lambert, John Morgan, and Chase Soares will be acknowledge for their time on the Seawolves teams. On Saturday, the Wolves will travel to Randolph Vermont to end the season on Vermont Tech’s court.

The Wolves and Mustang’s last went at it in the last game of the fall semester in Auburn. Interestingly, both SMCC squads dropped their games to by 15 points. The Lady’s fell in the evenings opener 71-56 and the men followed this strange coincidence 72-57. Since then, the Wolves – women and men, have gone on quite the run.

The Seawolve squads have won six of eight, both beating University of Maine-Augusta, dropping their games to Dean College and then returning to the winning column with victories over NHTI and Unity. To date, the women’s team has posted a 21-2 record while the men stand at 19-5 overall. In conference play the Lady Seawolves hold a 12-1 record, as the men are 11-2

The Lady Mustangs walk into the Hutchinson Union building with a 24-1 overall record and are undefeated in YSCC play at 11-0. CMCC’s men have posted an undefeated conference record at 11-0 while maintaining an 17-8 overall record. Regardless of the records, who won last time the Mustang’s and Seawolves played, from the opening tip of each game, one thing is for sure, CM and SM will be battling it out, if not for the standings, for pride, and of course short lived bragging rights.

The Lady Wolves, while racking up wins faces the possibility of taking to the court without senior forward Jenifer Conrad. In the closing minutes of the Dean game, Conrad suffered a concussion when she turned into an elbow from a Dean player. The Seawolves were trailing by one point with less than 30 seconds to play, when a stolen inbounds pass lead to Conrad being elbow in the side of her head.

Conrad’s presence underneath the basket, whether driving or posting up, has complimented the guard play and opened the three-point shot with passes from the interior to the perimeter. On the perimeter, the Wolves have a hand full of players who can connect from downtown. Alicia Ruth is shooting a whooping 43.6% from beyond the arch after draining 42 out of 94 attempts in conference play.

If Jen Conrad cannot return to play, the Wolves will need to find the resources to make up for what Conrad has given them: 14.6 points per game, 7.8 rebounds per game, a 70.6 free throw shooting percentage, 32.6 three-point shooting percentage, and a 43.3 field goal shooting percentage, all of which were in conference play. However, considering the offensive mind-set that Coach Bergeron has instilled in the squad, it is easy to imagine the Lady’s staying competitive against CMCC, grabbing a win in Vermont, and having a long run in the tournament.

Another positive for the Seawolves has been the offensive play of Venese Barnes. In a losing effort against Dean College, Barnes scored a season high 18 points against a very aggressive Dean defense. With Barnes starting to be more of a presence offensively, in addition with Alicia Ruth and Kayla Abdul remaining consistent, the Seawolves offense could easily move to the next level of efficient play.

On the men’s side of the court, while compiling a seven and two record since winter break, the Wolves find themselves riding a mini two game winning streak after losing to Dean (89-70), on Jan 28th. The Wolves enter Wednesday night’s contest in solid health as no one has suffered any debilitating injuries. It has been rumored that CMCC stand outs: Rob Skinner and Pietro Badalassi have been fighting injuries. Still the Mustangs come into Wednesday’s game riding a five game winning streak, and having to play two games (Sunday and Monday) before traveling down the Maine Turnpike on Wednesday.

Offensively, the Seawolves have a few team stats that shed light on their success. They are out scoring their opponents by an average of 15 points give or take a fraction per game, while scoring an average of 84 points per game and allowing 69. As a team, the Wolves are shooting 45% plus from the field while their opponents are shooting 39.1%. On the boards, the Wolves have been out rebounding the opposition by 13 boards a game. All of which has played a positive role in the 19 wins of the season.

If there is one statistic that plays more of a role in the game, yet is not kept in a manner that adds insight into understand the games intricacies, the offensive foul. Given the offensive nature of the men’s game in the YSCC, one could say the league is built for guards who are encouraged to drive to the basket, creating and taking an offensive foul can be seen then, as an integral part of a sound defense.

Defensively, the Wolves have a high-energy mind-set that is geared in creating turn overs and disrupting the opponents offensive flow. The Wolves generate close to 10 steals a game, while averaging just north of three blocks per game.

While there is no hard statistic that highlights the player, who takes offensive fouls, one would have to think that Dylan Silvestri would easily be the top holder of such a record. Currently, Dylan is averaging 16 minutes per game, averaging close to eight rebounds a game, while tallying 24 steals and five blocks. Yet, on numerous occasion during the recent home stand, Sylvestri has generated and taken numerous offensive fouls, stalling the opponent’s offense.

Offensively, the Wolves have a litany of threats that should prove worthy, however, there have been moments where the team has synched allowing the beauty of the game, when five players work in unison to achieve the goal, to surface.

Highlights of the last four games, would include the first half against University of Maine-Augusta and Dean College. Against the Moose of Augusta, the Wolves worked with offensive purpose which helped them easily double UMA’s first half offensive output (62-31). In the first half against Dean, the Wolves used balanced scoring (Dylan Silvestri ten, Chase Soares seven, John Morgan six, Mathew Tenny five, and Ryan Cloutier four points) ad a solid presence underneath to grab a sven point half time lead.

Whereas he Wolves would cruise to a 114-75 win against UMaine-Machias, Dean would run past SMCC in the second half, outscoring the Wolves 58-32, walking to an 89-70 win. The Wolves would take the next two against NHTI and Unity with solid wins (97-90 and 76-65 respectfully).

The variable offensive line ups with Morgan, Soares, Cloutier, Harmon, Lambert, Silvestri, Tenny, Dixon, Kavutse and Cummins have clicked in both games. Three of the starting five have hit double figures in the scoring column and players coming off of the bench in relief have contributed significantly.

There remains one statistic that can be found at the bottom of the women’s and men’s am statistics pages that remains disconcerting: the average attendance at the games. Average overall home attendance for the women’s team tops out at 49, while the men’s overall home attendance peaks at 54.

Considering that the YSCC Elite 8 tournament is returning to SMCC, that the SMCC teams are seriously competitive and have talented athletes on their squads, that there is a wealth of talent in the YSCC, one would think that here would be, should be, and could be higher attendance from the SMCC community at the regular season games, and especially at the Elite 8 tournament.