PDF Release
NEC Player of the Week: Joseph Lopez, SHU
NEC Rookie of the Week: Keith Braxton, SFU
Previous NEC Releases: November 28 | November 21 | November 14 | Preseason Poll Release | Preseason All-NEC Release | NEC-TV Release

NEC MEN'S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Joseph Lopez, Sacred Heart
6’7”, 220 lbs.
Jr, F, Miami, FL/South Miami Senior (Broward College)
Lopez was in can’t miss mode as Sacred Heart split a pair of games last week. In a scintillating display from the field, the junior forward converted at a 93.8 percent clip, making 15 of his 16 shot opportunities. Lopez averaged 18.5 points and 8.5 rebounds, and added a pair of blocks. He was a perfect 7-7 from the floor and 5-6 from the line on Wednesday as the Pioneers knocked off Fordham on the road by a point. Lopez posted his first career double-double in the 71-70 win with 19 points and 10 rebounds. The Miami native followed up with 18 points on 8-9 shooting, and added seven boards and two rejections in an 87-79 overtime loss to Hartford. Lopez is currently second on the Pioneers with 11.8 ppg. He ranks fifth in the NEC in both rebounding (7.8) and field goal percentage (.552).

NEC MEN'S BASKETBALL ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Keith Braxton, Saint Francis U
6’4”, 208 lbs.
Fr., G, Glassboro, NJ/The Lawrenceville School
Braxton continued to pile up impressive numbers for the Red Flash en-route to his second straight NEC Rookie of the Week honor. The Glassboro, NJ product averaged 13.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.5 steals, and shot 61.1 percent from the floor in two games last week. He netted 11 points and added eight rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block at NJIT on Wednesday, then came back to contribute 16 points on 7-8 shooting from the field in a tight setback to Binghamton on Saturday. Braxton made 7-8 shots against the Bearcats, pulled down nine boards and finished with a pair of steals. He is tied with teammate Josh Nebo for the league lead with 8.7 rpg, and ranks third in the NEC in steals (1.9) and fifth in field goal accuracy (.579), while averaging 12.9 ppg.

NEC PRIME PERFORMERS

Nisre Zouzoua (BRY, So, G)
Zouzoua extended his 20+ game scoring streak to six with 31 points versus Brown and 22 more in a comeback win over Yale. The streak came to an end on Saturday when he netted 16 against Ohio U. The NEC scoring leader averaged 25.2 ppg during the six-game stretch and leads the league in scoring by a comfortable margin at 22.1 ppg.

Dariah Anderson (FDU, Jr, G)
Anderson provided the firepower last week for the Knights, averaging 19.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 4.0 rpg and 2.5 spg. He scored 22 against Army and recorded 17 points and six assists in an eight-point setback at Ohio State on Saturday.

Jerome Frink (LIU, Sr, F)
Frink continues to spark LIU Brooklyn’s attack, game-in and game-out. Last week he averaged 22.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 3.0 apg and made 59.4 percent of his shots from the field. He tallied a season-high 28 points on 11-16 shooting in Wednesday’s 75-68 win at Hartford. Frink has shot 50 percent or better from the field in seven-of-eight games this season for the 6-2 Blackbirds.

Elijah Long (MSM, So, G)
Long dropped 24 points and added seven rebounds and seven assists in a terrific all-around effort at Arkansas last Wednesday. He wrapped the week averaging 20.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg and 5.0 apg for the Mount.

Rasheem Dunn (SFBK, Fr, G)
Dunn looks to be a keeper for Glenn Braica and the Terriers. He finished the week averaging 18.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 4.0 spg. Dunn posted a career-high 20 points and had five steals off the bench against Army on Saturday.

Josh Nebo (SFU, So, F)
Nebo has blossomed in this, his sophomore year, into one of the NEC’s top big men. He contributed 12.0 ppg and 9.0 rpg last week while shooting 58.8 percent from the field. Nebo posted his second double-double of the season on Saturday with 12 points and 14 boards versus Binghamton.

BRYANT YOUNG GUNS ON DISPLAY IN COMEBACK WIN

With a young team, life really can be a box of chocolate, in that you never know what you’re going to get on a game-to-game basis.

There are those nights when underclassmen look like seasoned veterans, and other times where they essentially act their age.

Last Wednesday was one of those nights for Bryant when it all came together and we were able to glimpse the team’s future - a future that may be rooted in the present - following the Bulldogs’ comeback win over Yale.

With Bryant starting three freshmen and two sophomores, defending Ivy League champion Yale raced out to a 16-point lead on the Bulldogs and led by 15 points midway through the second stanza. 

But Yale would only manage ten points the remainder of the contest as Bryant’s young guns scored 28 of the team’s final 34 points to secure the 79-70 victory.

“Given the opponent, a team that went to the NCAA Tournament a year ago and won a game and has a lot of talent, this is the best win we’ve had on our home floor since we went Division I,” said Bryant head coach Tim O’Shea.

The two stars of the game were sophomores Marcel Pettway (North Providence, RI/Hoosac School) and Nisre Zouzoua (Brockton, MA/Boston Trinity). Pettway, the 2015-16 NEC Rookie of the Year, scored a season-best 25 points and grabbed seven boards. He scored 13 points during the decisive second half stretch, including seven points in the final two minutes. Zouzoua, the NEC’s leading scorer (22.1 ppg) and an All-Rookie selection in his own right last year, tallied 22 points.

“Marcel really asserted himself tonight and certainly fed off the energy of the fans,” said O’Shea. “If he can bring that kind of aggression and play every night, we’ll be that much more dynamic and difficult to defend.”

On the year, Bryant’s underclassmen account for an astounding 81.4 percent of the team’s point production and 72.2 percent of the team’s minutes.

ZOUZOUA POINT PRODUCTION FACTS & FIGURES
Bryant sophomore guard Nisre Zouzoua (Brockton, MA/Boston Trinity) extended his streak of 20+ point scoring efforts to six last week before it was finally broken in a 16-point outing at Ohio U. on Saturday. Zouzoua’s six-game streak was the longest since Sacred Heart’s Cane Broome reached the 20-point mark seven straight times to close out last season. Zouzoua, who leads the NEC and ranks 21st nationally with 22.1 ppg, averaged 25.2 points in the six game stretch. Last week he exploded for a career-high 31 points against Brown on Monday and added 22 more as the Bulldogs downed Yale, 79-70. 

BARNETT CLOSES IN SHU WIN OVER FORDHAM
While Bryant was racing from behind to knock off Yale, another late rally was occurring over in the Bronx.

With Sacred Heart in an 11-point hole against Fordham with just over five minutes remaining, sophomore guard Sean Hoehn (Morristown, NJ/Morristown (St. Thomas More)) and redshirt junior forward De’von Barnett (Waldorf, MD/Riverdale Baptist School) answered the call.

Trailing by seven, Hoehn scored five straight points on a three-pointer and layup to make it 66-64 in favor of the Rams with 3:04 to go. Hoehn then passed the baton to Barnett, who did his best Mariano Rivera impression in closing out the Rams just five miles away from Yankee Stadium.

Barnett, who missed the 2015-16 season with an injury, tied the game up on a jumper with 2:31 to go. After Fordham scored four straight points, Barnett converted a converted three-point play to pull the Pioneers to within 70-69 with 43 ticks left on the clock.

Following a Fordham turnover, junior guard Charles Tucker Jr. (Lansing, MI/Montrose Christian (Panola College)) spotted Barnett, who laid the ball in with 2.7 seconds remaining to make it 71-70.

A Hoehn steal wrapped things up for the Pios, who held Fordham to just two field goals over the last seven minutes.

SHU has now won the last two meetings between the teams in Rose Hill.

NEC Player of the Week Joseph Lopez (Miami, FL/South Miami Senior (Broward College)) finished the game a perfect 7-7 from the floor in posting his first career double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

SHU shot 61.1 percent from the field and outrebounded Fordham, 32-14, in the win.

A CAN’T MISS WEEK FOR SHU’S LOPEZ
Sacred Heart junior forward Joseph Lopez (Miami, FL/South Miami Senior (Broward College)) was scorching from the field last week, hitting 15 of his 16 shots for a 93.8 perent success rate.

Along with his 7-7 day against Fordham, he made 8-9 shots from the floor in an 18-point performance versus Hartford on Saturday.

Lopez ranks fifth in the NEC in field goal accuracy, sinking 55.2 percent of his opportunities.

LIU JUMPS OUT TO BEST START IN 45 YEARS
Behind 28 points from senior forward Jerome Frink (Jersey City, NJ/St. Anthony (FIU)), LIU Brooklyn claimed a 75-68 win at Hartford on Wednesday to open a year 6-1 for the first time since the 1971-72 season. LIU’s three-game win streak came to an end on Saturday when Incarnate Word used a late 17-4 run to rally past the Blackbirds.

Most notably, the Blackbirds have excelled in non-conference play without the services senior guard Joel Hernandez (Teaneck, NJ/Teaneck), who hurt his hand in LIU’s opener and is expected to miss the remainder of the season. Hernandez averaged 12.2 ppg and 6.1 rpg in 2015-16.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
After defending NEC champion Fairleigh Dickinson gave Ohio State all it could handle on Saturday, head coach Greg Herenda talked like someone who expects to play and compete with similar teams when the Madness begins next year.

“These are the games in these kinds of arenas that help us so much in our league play and in March as well. The loss stings right now but that game will pay dividends for us in the long run.”
                
The Knights led for much of the first half and trailed 34-33 at the break, but the Buckeyes opened the second stanza on an 18-2 run. FDU slowly inched its way back into the game, and closed to within six points late in the contest before eventually falling, 70-62.

Junior guard Darian Anderson (Washington, D.C./St. John’s College) led the way with 17 points and freshman forward Kaleb Bishop (Paterson, NJ/St. Anthony) finished with 11 points and eight boards in his first career start.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WAGNER’S JERMAINE HALL
In any discussion of NEC greats, former Wagner forward Jermaine Hall has to be part of the conversation.

One of the most dominant offensive forces in league history, the 6’5” southpaw from Dublin, GA with the unstoppable baby hook racked up 2,078 career points for the Seahawks from 1999-03 during a golden era on Grymes Hill. He ranks fourth on the NEC’s career scoring list

Hall led Wagner to the Postseason NIT during his junior season and the program’s first-ever NEC championship the following year. He averaged 21.4 points, 7.2 rebounds and shot 57.5 percent from the field as a senior in 2002-03. Hall scored 27 in Wagner’s 78-61 title game win over St. Francis Brooklyn en-route to NEC Tournament MVP honors.

2003 NEC title game highlights: htps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w366Y9VDeDA?

“He was just a genuine basketball player,” said former Wagner head coach Dereck Whittenburg said of Hall, his first recruit upon being hired in 1999. “Guys looked at his size, they thought, ‘How good can he be?’ But he’s a great athlete who played three or four inches taller than he was. He could have played any place I’ve ever coached from the ACC on. Jermaine would have found a way to get on the floor. That’s who he is.” 

Hall continued his career overseas following graduation and at 36 years old is still going strong in his 14th year playing professionally.

Real Talk - Interview from July, 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgG3tdvu0po

After beginning his career playing in the USBL and then for clubs Scotland, Poland, Argentina and Portugal, Hall settled in Israel in 2005 and hasn’t left. Hall has played for seven different clubs in Israel and is currently competing for Ironi Ramat Gan where he remains productive, averaging 10.9 ppg, 5.0 rpg and hitting 66.0 percent of his shot opportunities.

Hall married an Israeli national in 2007, started a family and now holds dual passports.

Hall’s legend still resonates in Staten Island. Wagner beat writer Cormac Gordon caught up with Hall back in 2013 for an article in the SI Advance.

http://www.silive.com/sports/advance/gordon/index.ssf/2013/11/according_to_gordon_a_seahawk.html

“The NEC Tournament championship was the biggest thing to me,” Hall recalled in the article. “We worked through ups and downs as a team and made history.”

MARYLAND RIVALRY LIKE NO OTHER
When Mount St. Mary’s took on Loyola (MD) this past Saturday, it marked the 172nd meeting between the longtime rivals in the most-played rivalry in the state of Maryland.  Despite the seven-point setback to the Greyhounds, the Mount has won three of the last four meetings between the programs to give the Mountaineers a 99-73 lead in the “Catholic Clash” series that began in 1910. One of the classic games between the two programs was a 99-93 overtime win for the Mountaineers in the championship game of the Mason-Dixon Conference Tournament on March 5, 1955. That was former head coach Jim Phelan’s first of 49 seasons spent as head coach at the Mount. 

ON THE ROAD WITH THE MOUNT
With the Mount’s rivalry game at Loyola (MD) now in the books, it concluded a season-opening nine-game road trip for the Mountaineers. The trip included games against major conference opponents West Virginia, Iowa State, Minnesota, Michigan and Arkansas, along with George Mason, Southern Illinois, UT Arlington and Loyola (MD) from the mid-major ranks.

Road Trip Stats
- The Mount hit the road on November 10 to play West Virginia and did not return to campus for 20 days
- The trip covered 8,236 miles
- The Mount passed through 12 different states
- The team took seven flights.

FDU’S O’GARRO BRINGS #NECPRIDE
Fairleigh Dickinson redshirt senior forward Tyrone O’Garro (Newark, NJ/Saint Peter’s Prep) leads the Knights with 6.3 rebounds per game, and his off-the-court game is just as impressive.

Last Wednesday, O’Garro senior forward was chosen as a nominee for the 2017 Allstate NABC and WBCA Good Works Teams. Good Works Teams recognize players at all levels of college basketball whose charitable involvement and altruistic acts stand out amongst all other student-athletes participating in the sport.

O’Garro graduated with a degree in Political Science, earning Cum Laude honors with a 3.6 GPA. He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree, and is extremely active in the local community. The Newark, NJ native often volunteers at the Boys and Girls Club in Hackensack and Lodi, and also gives back to his Newark neighborhood where he helps donate sneakers to the local zoo crew and helps coach a local youth basketball team. 
 
Additionally, O’Garro also represents the men’s basketball team on the FDU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), which serves as a vehicle to facilitate, enhance, and promote communication between the athletics administration and all student-athletes. In the past, the team leader has also utilized his academic experience by donating his time to the “Get Out and Vote in Bergen County” program. 

“It is a great honor to be recognized as one of the great leaders in college basketball,” said FDU head coach Greg Herenda. “As everyone here at Fairleigh Dickinson knows, Tyrone is very special on the court, in the classroom and in our community.”
The 181 NABC nominees and 97 WBCA nominees will be whittled down to two 10-member teams comprised of five student-athletes from the NCAA Division I level and five student-athletes from Divisions II, III and the NAIA. The final roster of 20 award recipients will be unveiled in February.

Members of the Allstate NABC Good Works Team will be invited to the 2017 NABC Convention and 2017 NCAA Men’s Final Four in Phoenix, where they will participate in a community service project benefitting the city.

STAT OF THE WEEK
When CCSU shot 10-14 (.714) from three-point range in an 82-61 victory at Maine on Wednesday it marked the most efficienct performance from distance by an NEC team (minimum of 10 makes) since Mount St. Mary’s hit 18-24 (.720) against Norfolk State on January 3, 2014. 

QUICK HITTERS
CCSU placed six players in double figures in an 82-61 win at Maine on Wednesday. It marked the first time since January 17, 2005 against Sacred Heart that six players reached double digits for the Blue Devils. The 21-point win over the Black Bears marked the largest margin of victory for the program since an 83-51 win at Bryant on December 1, 2011.

CCSU sophomore guard Austin Nehls (Tucson, AZ/Cheshire Academy) has shot at least 50.0 percent from three-point range in five-of-seven games on the year. He hit 6-12 from distance last week in averaging 15.0 ppg.

Robert Morris senior guard Kavon Stewart (Paterson, NJ/Hudson Catholic) scored a season-best 21 points in a one-point loss to Youngstown State last Wednesday, and averaged 17.0 ppg and 4.0 apg last week for the Colonials.

TWEET DECK

Ryan Peters @pioneer_pride
For the 2nd time in 4 years, Sacred Heart pulls off the major upset at Rose Hill over Fordham! KenPom had SHU as a 8% underdog. BIG win!!

Nelson Castillo @NelCastBHJ 
Yesterday we had no #NECMBB hoops but today there are NINE games on the schedule!! Get your fill in TODAY!

Bryant Pep Band @BryantPepBand
What a come back @BryantHoops Great win over Yale! 79-70 #GoDawgs

Nelson Castillo @NelCastBHJ
Good comeback win for Bryant after that tough, brutal loss at Brown just 48 hrs ago. Beat a good opponent too in Yale.

Drake’s Dance Coach @ArdenSportsTalk
The way Sacred Heart has handled Fordham’s on ball pressure + determination to move the ball and be patient has been impressive, IMO.

Angela Lento @collegeinsider
Bryant starts 2 sophomores and 3 freshmen. Very talented group and this guy can score. Keep and eye on Nisre Zouzoua and the Bulldogs. 

mainejeff @mainejeff
Impressed with coach @Dmarsh42 @CCSU_MBB.  Motivates & teaches.  Classy coach