Alderson Broaddus Battlers

[JDonAB92]

Miller-Cardwell did an excellent job on Abrams the other night and I thought really frustrated him. Bradford can D up too. We will see.

Women win tonight 93-70. A little worried about that knee injury to our 2nd leading scorer/2nd leading rebounder in Florido. They have no depth to off-set that and I thought she brings a little bit to the team at the right times.

Men have to win this tonight.

[JDonAB92]

Men win by 14 points and not real fun to watch. We will take it. Men and women move to 2-3 on the year. Looks like the women will play Fairmont on Saturday. D&E next for the men which will be tougher.

Concord defeats West Lib tonight in Athens. I have followed small college ball in WV since the 70s and CU is notorious for getting big wins down there.

Glenville State moves to 5-0 with a 14-point win over Wheeling. Glenville and West Lib hook up Saturday in West Lib.

Wesleyan led State for a good portion but the Yellow Jackets roared back and will win in Buckhannon by 5 points.

UC beat D&E in Elkins. Fairmont St and Notre Dame postponed as it appears Fairmont is dealing with COVID issues.

[Scrub]

Concord defeats West Lib tonight in Athens. I have followed small college ball in WV since the 70s and CU is notorious for getting big wins down there.

You're absolutely right, JDon. I'm not sure what it is about that building in Athens, but it always feels like you're lucky if you come out of there with a win. That's a tough place to play for whatever reason. I never feel comfortable when a team I cheer for is heading to Athens.

[Scrub]

Question for you Battlers out there:

I saw in the box that Lacey Watson once again had a really productive night for you. Why do you think Dye is using him off the bench? Why not start him and try to get a bit more minutes out of his productive play?

[JDonAB92]

He played almost the entire 1st half against UC. The very first possession of the second half, Lacey went down to the floor and was taken out. I am assuming an injury. I know he played very little against WV State. But he was productive the other night. I noticed on the post-game interview after the Frostburg game that Dye stated that Lacey was "starting to buy in" so maybe that has been an issue.

[JDonAB92]

Due to COVID issues with Wheeling....their game with Concord is postponed.

AB men will travel to Athens tomorrow to take on Concord at 2PM. The women are still on at Fairmont.

[JDonAB92]

Good day to be a Battler!

The men go on the road on short notice and defeat Concord 75-66 in Athens.
Women go on the road and lead pretty much from start to finish to defeat Fairmont 90-81.

[JDonAB92]

WBOY with good highlights today of the women's game at Fairmont. This is a game that still means something in north-central WV and is a big game for AB alumni.
https://www.wboy.com/sports/battlers...ouble-figures/

Spiker only played the 1st quarter. I don't know why. She did not appear to be injured. We already have Florido out. Our women can't afford another quality player to be down. 5 girls in double-figures today, 4 of them are underclassmen and two of them are freshmen as Williams had 17 points and 7 boards and Dorsey had 13 points. Dorsey still has too many turnovers. That has to be stopped at some point. Spiker is a vocal leader and we need her in there. She also can break down defenders in the half-court set and is really the only player we have that can. Moyer has been solid as a senior. The women's team is doing some good things.

The men really adjusted well after the first ten minutes. We had to deal with foul issues but guys stepped up. I liked what I saw today. We will lose some but we may very well pull an upset somewhere along the line. I see some guys developing roles. Miller-Cardwell embraces the defensive portion but he still fires up some bad shots. Lacey Watson is still developing in the system but he has huge upside. While this team doesn't have an overall stud, we do have some pretty balanced play and depth. Walker and Rice can really get us into some good stuff in the half-court. Smalls, Solomon and Grayson give us some muscle. Watson, Bradford and Miller-Cardwell bring some toughness. Shriver and Simpkins are threat beyond the arc along with Rice and Walker. Coach Dye is bringing this team along. But there is a lot of work to be done. Teams will get better. But it appears on the surface that we are too. You never turn down a win in Athens.

Charleston beats Wesleyan
WV State beats D&E
Frostburg over Notre Dame

AB has another tough one on Wednesday with the Senators. If we hit pause right now, 3-3 is a good spot. I still would have liked to have that win over State to be at 4-2. But we can get over .500 if we can beat a tough D&E squad. They always come ready for us.

I am worried about COVID with teams now that students have returned. The contact tracing part is the main thing that will start hitting teams more and more.

I think Coach Quesenberry appears to be a really good hire. The women really got after it today for 3 quarters with two main cogs out. If she can recruit, then our women team will be back yearly to being in the top 6 of the standings. She can definitely prepare and coach a team. I did not even imagine they would be 3-3 at this point. I am hoping the injuries aren't too serious.

Wrestling team received votes in the top 25.

[JDonAB92]

Women defeat Davis & Elkins 84-73 to move to 4-3 on the season. Men's game with the Senators was postponed.

Coach Dye says he got two commitments today. It will be interesting to see who they are.

[JDonAB92]

And with that....

Women's basketball gets a commit from Taylor Issacs out of Summers County HS (WV). Taylor was a 1st-team all state selection as a junior. She averaged 21.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 4.2 apg, 5.7 spg as a junior and led SHS to the state tournament. Summers County is one of the better girls program in the state of WV.

This is what I am talking about!!!

[JDonAB92]

Men defeat Wesleyan at Buckhannon 84-76.....Miller-Cardwell with a big game....21 points and 7 boards...Shriver with 18 points, Watson with 16 points and 8 rebounds, and Bradford with 18 points. It is always tough for us at the Rockefeller Center so we always like the win there.

Men turn around and play a makeup game at Fairmont on Monday. We will have to play better to stay in it. We have won 3 in a row and the chemistry isn't bad at all. Hopefully the guys play loose over at the Joe Retton on Monday.

Women did not look good losing to Wesleyan....just a poor finish. We get that team at home later on in the year.

[Scrub]

Due to COVID cancellations, both WLU & AB suddenly had open dates tonight, so the Battlers have agreed to head up to the ASRC on short notice. Good on 'em for being game. But I wonder how this affect the outcome. If there's any team in the league that requires a bit of advance "game planning," it's the Hilltoppers. It'll be interesting to see how the Battlers react without having had a week of dedicated prep for this game.

Last time out, Dye had a plan, but the players seemed to lack the discipline to carry out that plan. It'll be interesting to see if Dye sticks with the same plan and simply expects better execution a second time out, or if he changes up the strategy altogether.

I admire the Battlers' "bring it on attitude" in accepting the challenge (assuming Commish Amos gave them a say)--it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

[JDonAB92]

I give Fairmont State credit....they whipped us. They have a heck of a team and are well coached. They had over a week to prepare for us while we had one day. But that isn't excuse for that margin of victory. But I like Fairmont's team. I thought we would compete a little better than what we did.

Yes, we agreed to short notice. At this time, I am perfectly fine with it. We will take another whipping and then two days to prepare for a home game with Glenville State. The players have certainly done better after the first West Lib game.....but then fell apart on short notice to Fairmont. It is what it is right now. I said at the beginning of the season that we were NOT top 5 in this league. We can still do some good things and have shown we can play well at home.

We will take another one on the chin tonight and we will see how these guys respond on Saturday.

[Scrub]

We will take another one on the chin tonight and we will see how these guys respond on Saturday.

That might depend on which version of the Hilltoppers you see. I suspect Concord fans thought they were primed to take one on the chin last week. But, yes, if the Hilltoppers play even a little bit like they did against Glenville, it'll be a long night for Stephen Dye and the Battlers.

[JDonAB92]

AB over Glenville 102-94. That is a good win and a much needed win. Great first half as we led 58-40. Christian Miller Cardwell with 6 turnovers and some dumb fouls in the final five minutes was not good for us.

Shriver with 25 points and KJ Walker 9 for 9 down the stretch at the FT line and 6 assists to 0 turnovers. The guy calms us down with a bunch of guys that need calmed down. I thought John Grayson going 5 for 5 in the field and getting some strong rebounds was really big. He had a nice game. I could not watch CMC one more minute. His decision-making tonight down the stretch was absolutely horrible. For a freshman, Tahleik Walker did some real good things including draining a deep 3 as their was 1 second on the shot clock.....4 for 4 from the field and some nice elevated boards.

Win puts us at 5-5 overall with a big game at home Wednesday vs Notre Dame. Glenville falls to 6-2.