Hunting down the Bear
-
- January
- 30
Go ahead, if you’d like, jump all over Briarcliff for losing tonight.
Most of you already have and you’re entitled to do so. The unbeatable Bears were beaten at home by Lincoln Hall in the biggest upset of the season. The reigning Class B champs blew a 12 point lead and lost, 70-64, to a United team that could have, and probably should have, beaten them three weeks ago.
Section 1 was supposed to have its champions penciled in since December with Mount Vernon and Peekskill destined for Glens Falls, and with Briarcliff a heavy favorite to make the trip with them.
Hold the buses. Class B just got interesting.
Lincoln Hall did it by having its key players avoiding foul trouble, rebounding and defending about as well as it probably could, and simply outhustling and outplaying a Briarcliff team that looked like it was just waiting for the switch to be flipped and would find a way to win. It never happened.
With the entire Pleasantville team there watching (and rooting), Lincoln Hall exposed a few things about this Briarcliff team that we didn’t really know. The United proved they can rebound with the Bears. They proved they run on them. They proved they could force turnovers, draws fouls and rip through.
They proved that, under the ideal circumstances, Briarcliff can be beat.
Sir Aaron Taylor had 18 points and 19 rebounds and Darren Brown added 16 points, eight of which came in the fourth quarter. The lead changed hands seven times over a six-minute span from the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth, before Lincoln Hall scored 13 of the games 18 points.
I detail the game pretty extensively in my podcast tonight. I go over why Briarcliff lost the game, the X-factor for Lincoln Hall, and why Lincoln Hall is a bad matchup for Briarcliff — and a team the Bears should fear playing in the postseason.
View video highlights of the game here. You can listen to my podcast below. I was pretty tough on the Bears. But when expectations are as high as they are with team, you have to expect that. I called out their character and effort. As I note, last year’s team wins this game:
If you’d like, my interview with Lincoln Hall coach Henry Taylor after the game was interesting. Taylor was great in the interview, crediting a scrimmage on Saturday against Peekskill for the team’s win over Briarcliff. You can listen here:
What struck me most about Lincoln Hall after this game was the players and coaches attitude. When Lincoln Hall shocked Kennedy two years ago, becoming the first Class B team in Section 1 to beat it in three years, the United players talked about two things:
1. Winning the section.
2. Going to Glens Falls
They were beaten in the first round of sectionals. As I discuss in the podcast, this team is far more level-headed and have better perspective. There wasn’t the crazy celebration after this win as there was two years ago. I think the teams two years ago was too cognizant of Kennedy and thought beating them would guarantee their place in the County Center. This team doesn’t look at Briarcliff any differently from any other team.
Some interesting stats from the game:
— Joe Lombardi had three fouls in the game. All three were offensive.
— Lincoln Hall outrebounded Briarcliff 20-14 in the second half
— Lincoln Hall only attempted six free throws in the game, five of which were in the final 30 seconds.
— Four players scored in double figures for Lincoln Hall.
— Briarcliff only got four points from its bench.
— Briarcliff had only 27 second-half points. It had 52 in the second half on Monday versus Byram Hills.
— Kyle Beechum had 23 points and 11 rebounds. He’s played so well of late.
— Garth Muratori had all nine of his points in the first quarter for Briarcliff.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 8:45 pm by Kevin Devaney Jr..
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No excuse, Lincoln Hall straight up was better in every way. Bears got outplayed and outcoached. In the end when i was close Bears did not deserve it. Great move by the Lincoln Hall coach in the end of the game to the Lincoln Hall crowd. Once again I’m not making excuses. Bears did not deserve this win. Lincoln Hall is a great program and simply were better. Bears are no lock for Class B champs at all.
NO WAY did lincoln hall outplay Briarcliff. BC should have won this game and they didnt, they had the lead the whole way and combined with missed shots and turnovers with the horrible officiating they lost.
What did the coach do???
NO WAY did lincoln hall outplay Briarcliff. BC should have won this game and they didnt, they had the lead the whole way and combined with missed shots and turnovers with the horrible officiating they lost. The bottom line is Lincoln Hall hit all their shots, Briarcliff didn’t. THey were dominating the entire game and were dominating inside but didnt go inside enough against the zone and just didnt hit the shots needed to win when playing against a zone defense. Bad loss for BC, should have won, it will only be better if they beat Pville by 30(which is possible).
Briarcliff did not play better at all…You obviously didn’t watch the game. Bears missed a ton of shots in the paint.
Falcon Alum, When the Bears were down about 6 with 30 seconds left the Lincoln Hall fans started chanting the “hey hey hey goodbye” chant when Lincoln Hall was shooting free throws and there coach screamed at the Lincoln Hall fans to stop and told them its not over yet.
Dont mean to sounds harsh, but finally something to humble these rowdy briarcliff fans. The Bears are very vulnerable.
Agree with you 100 percent observer. Bears are no lock at all for class b title.
Come on bear fans i can’t hear u now…... it seems everytime you guys win a game u feel a parade is needed.
wow, stop complaining about the refs you lost and predicting a win by 30 only makes you look stupid. You guys should win on friday but remember pville already played you guys tough. It could be a decent game if pville’s defense can hold up.
Section 1 fans not all Briarcliff fans act like the stupid ones on this blog. Do not associate me with posters like The number one bear or those other idiotic posters because i do not act like them, i have class.
Lincoln Hall fans are terrific. They love and support their team. Iam very impressed with their energy and enthusiasm. They beat #1 and now it’s time for P’ville to burst BC’S bubble even more.
Where are all the Briacliff fans now? And the officiating excuse is clearly a joke because you all ripped on the Kennedy fans for trying to use that excuse…
hahahaah. i thought bcliff was goin undefeated. finally you will all shutup and see that they can be beaten
Briarcliff wasnt undefeated going into this game…so get your facts right
Ok,
This game doesn’t mean anything! It is actually better for the Bears to get a loss into their system so then they won’t be cocky or get ahead of themselves come county center time. Now they no what they have to do, & instead of winning every game close & then slacking off, they now have to do some work. P-ville fans- just be quiet when you say p-ville will have to “burst their bubble even more”- there not going to do anyhting to the Bear bubble- nothing
Ok,
This game doesn’t mean anything! It is actually better for the Bears to get a loss into their system so then they won’t be cocky or get ahead of themselves come county center time. Now they no what they have to do, & instead of winning every game close & then slacking off, they now have to do some work. P-ville fans- just be quiet when you say p-ville will have to “burst their bubble even moreâ€- there not going to do anything to the Bear bubble- nothing
Way to go United! This should make things interesting heading into the post season…WHAT UP COACH SMITH!
big bad bear, number 1 bear, bear fan, where yall at now…also mad respect for bear claw, u got ur head straight
The “big 3” have come crashing down… we are all waiting for the “obnoxious B-Cliff” fans to begin posting especially after calling yourselves the most obnoxious bloggers… Bear Claw you are the exception your comment was well put and I’m sorry some people catogorize you with the others
Aaron Taylor really has a Sir in front of his name??? Cool
Before everyone says “where are all the Bear bloggers†lets just get on the record. Lincoln Hall was better tonite, they rebounded better, shot better and outhustled the Bears.
Quite frankly they wanted it just alittle more than we did!
Lets see how we respond on Friday…Very disappointing to lose when your up by 10 in your own gym…No excuses!
Congrats to Lincoln Hall on a well deserved Victory!
Before everyone says “where are all the Bear bloggers†lets just get on the record. Lincoln Hall was better tonite, they rebounded better, shot better and outhustled the Bears.
Quite frankly they wanted it just alittle more than we did!
Lets see how we respond on Friday…Very disappointing to lose when your up by 10 in your own gym…No excuses!
Congrats to Lincoln Hall on a well deserved Victory!!
you wrote that twice???
Sir Aaron Taylor is a beast. 18 points 19 rebounds…you kidding me. The kids awesome. And hes only a junior! That makes Lincoln Hall the Class B favorites next year. I don’t think they have 1 senior. Gonna be really tough to knock these guys off next year. They have a great coach to.
Bear Claw
Lincoln Hall never has seniors…take it easy
sweet finally the briarcliff bloggers can keep quiet bc this proves that Briarcliff isnt the peekskill or mt vernon of class B…. did u guys lose at home? if so id be very happy
just dont assume u guys are winning sectionals thats all im sayin, bc everyone wants you to lose bc of ur little blog smack talks
BRIARCLIFF=worst team in class B
im sorry i cant resist hah
this upset should give the one seed to
North Salem right?
Yea your right about the seniors. My bad. Got to ahead of myself.
no way is North Salem #1…. comon Mt Vernon loses, its not the end of the world its still 1 loss against a B team
Wow, do you really think you are going to beat Pleasantville by 30 this time. Last time you only beat them by 5. Pleasantville is a solid team which a stellar defense. With a big upset to licoln hall, looks like anything is possible to me. This is the same town that beat you 28-0 in ths fall…i think you may need to take a step down briarcliff…your not that good
We deserved to lose this game tonight. I saw it coming a while ago. I am humble and have been humbled even more. There should be no excuses from players, fans or coaches from Briarcliff.
I am happy for Lincoln Hall they played hard and they showed a lot of class. I hope this win propels them throughout the rest of the season so that we can have a rematch with them in the playoffs possibly.
Pleasantville was there watching us tonight and they should have the mentaility that they can beat us on Friday night as should every team in class B. As of now we are not untouchable, never were and never will be. No team is. If we play well we hard extremely hard for a a class B team to beat. period.
As a team we have issues to work out and hopefully this loss will make us better. Time will tell…
learn to read, Bad loss for BC, should have won, it will only be better if they beat Pville by 30, i didnt say they would dipshit i said its possible, which it is…
this is the biggest upset in any class game this entire season, and the united played terrific. dont count out briarcliff though, they lost 2 games in a row in the slam dunk, but came back and won a tough one against stepinac. if pleseantville can find a good offense on friday, the bears will have a tough time.
hastings vs albertus game was unreal. hastings took the lead with 6 seconds left on a three from number 32 and then magnus inbounded it brought it to half court. called timeout. inbounded it at half court and this kid hit a half court buzzer beater. it was unbelievable
Where’s Dr. E we haven’t heard from him yet..I’m sure he’s in his glory.
Looking at the boxscore it looks like Lincoln Hall did a great job guarding Gulotta. Was that the case or did he have an off night?
I was also at the hastings vs magnus game. The refs made horrible calls especially for hastings. I think a couple of the hastings players were in foul trouble too.
i guess Hastings should blame all their other losses on bad officiating too…but if it were two refs that im thinking about right now im almost inclined to believe you
i cnt hear the bear fans? where r they complaining about the refs…... Thats right you guys actually lost this one just cause you got outplayed at least the refs didnt screw this one up
Bears are great team and they have had a lot of people rooting for them. Unfortunately many of the far from humble and overly obnoxious Bear bloggers have caused many fans to lose a great deal of respect for them. Hopefully this lost will finally get their heads out of the clouds and humble them up a little.
It seems as if all the refs in Rockland are bad.
The refs in rockland are really bad..ive been to almost all of albertus’s games where there was a rockland officiating crew and i think ive seen 2 well officated games
JFK WHO??? JFK WHO?? why are u on here talking smack dident u get beat in your own gym? im sorry but take a seat little guy..cya
o and jfk ur callin out the bear fans..im right here man..right here…
Of course he’s calling you out. You were all parading how you would go 3-0 this week. And let me see, winning by 30 points too?
Sir Aaron Taylor is the man. My hat goes off to him and his teamates. Go the Hall. Best group of fans in Section 1. They bring in several bus loads of them for every away game. Other schools should do this. Coach Taylor deserves a great deal of credit for his game plan against the Bears. Briarcliff has to be the most disliked team in the Section due to all the hype from their bloggers. Too bad, I’am sure they are good kids but it’s hard to like them with all the hype, and it brings such great pleasure when they lose.
United was definitely the better team, they came out with energy and hustle in the second half that we couldn’t match…very sloppy third quarter for us, we threw it away multiple times..we needed to control the boards against the United, and we didn’t.
Also thought the United Coach was classy, but I tool no offense from the United fans, simply rooting for their team
Gut check time boys, Panthers were all their, they think they have you, time to prove them wrong on Friday
Bear Butt, If you read that bubble comment it comes from a Lincoln Hall fan.
falcon alum, no glory felt here, Pleasantville didn’t beat the bears, Lincoln Hall did. If Pville wins Friday, then you’ll see glory. I root for a team not against one. The way I see it this will only make Briarcliff play better on Friday. We’ll still show up, but I may not have to cower in the corner anymore
Don’t you just love it when someone tries to use two names to post to make it look like their opinions ar held by a lot of people and then they submit the same post. Good job Bear Bones and Bear Butt (what an appropriate nickname)!
wow, once again it was the refs fault?
At least Big Bad Bear shows some humility and logic & may help change peoples feelings about the BC BB team.
no one guarenteed a 3-0 week…odne umbass said briarcliff would beat p ville by 30..everyone can say how Lincoln Hall is the new Favorite, everyone can say that North Salem is the favorite. This loss was i dont wanna say a good thing, but it almost is a good kick in the butt. Its good to humble this team a bit. When it comes playoff time, you will see the defending section champs fight for back to back gold balls. You can talk now, but lets talk playoff time. See you at the county center.
United Fan, BigBadBear has always added some class to to blog. It’s not always high class but he tries.
United Fan:
thank you, but watch out for us at the County Center!
Dr E:
thank you (I think)...I will still let you sit near us on Friday…I do believe half of Pleasantville was at our game yesterday, where were you?
all u bear fans think ur team is good but where is your ring? come talk to kennedy when you win a ring, and you kno we beat you guys the refs messed that game up horriably
Dr E
55 posts and counting, 55 more posts than all of the “other” games combined. There were other games right?
I guess Briarcliff is truly The Blog Capitol, Kevin was right! Sounds like someone woke the “Sleeping Bear” . It will be interesting how they respond. I was at the game and I also voted in the poll a few weeks ago. “which team is likely to beat Briarcliff for the section 1 title?”
My Vote: Only Briarcliff can beat Briarcliff!!! and I’m sticking to it!
I think Briarcliff should stop worrying about defending themselves/provoking others on these blogs and just worry about proving themselves on the court. If they really want all the “Briarcliff Haters” to stop all this talk, then the only way to shut people up is plain and simple-Play (and maybe show a little class while they’re at it). Goodluck
55 posts, the blog capital, Section favorites, team of the century, yet you people can’t get ME out of your heads. Everybody wants a shot at the Doctor.
Sleeping bears or a bear skin rug?
Dr E
Either Bear skin or Panther skin….
I think if people stop making big deals out of a team losing then winning wont be so Un Bear able !
Kevin, after hearing about the game and listening to the audio I can’t help but to think that Albertus is a similar team to Lincoln Hall. They have good rebounders, they push the ball up the court and are constantly running and creating fast breaks.
Also, Albertus’ bench goes deep and they have a different starting 5 each game. I think that they can seriously beat Briarcliff by using their speed and the depth of thier bench to wear the Bears down, because as you said Briarcliff only has about 7 people who “play”. The Falcons have kids like Leroy who can get rebounds and play good D on that Becchum kid.
Tell me what you think.. I’m sure Falcon Alum would agree with me.
jfk kids, stop posting about how good you used to be, the only reason you guys won any games was because tyrell and dan o’connel were two of the best players in the state, now you have ed o’connel, not nearly as good as dan and you havent made the county center since they left, so stop talking
Kevin, after hearing about the game and listening to the audio I can’t help but to think that Haldane is a similar team to Lincoln Hall. They have good rebounders, they push the ball up the court and are constantly running and creating fast breaks.
Also, Haldane’s bench goes deep and they have a different starting 5 each game. I think that they can seriously beat Briarcliff by using their speed and the depth of thier bench to wear the Bears down, because as you said Briarcliff only has about 7 people who “playâ€. The Blue Devils have kids like Nastasi who can get rebounds and play good D on that Becchum kid.
Tell me what you think.. I’m sure All the other knuckle heads who think their team now has a chance would agree with me. Since Briarcliff is on this streak of losing one game to Class B teams in three years I figure heck if everyone else can now beat them so can we, and I’m sure Put Valley would agrree!
ahhaha i think its so funny that since briarcliff los thtis one game teams like haldane and all tehse other teams think they can beat briarclif…comon get real Haldane would lose by 1000 try playin teams like stepinac iona prep JD hayes comon getr real none of the other class B teams wud be nearly close
are u serious haldane is 6-12 lmao
Kevin, after hearing about the game and listening to the audio I can’t help but to think that Dover is a similar team to Lincoln Hall. They have good rebounders, they push the ball up the court and are constantly running and creating fast breaks.
Also, Dovers bench goes deep and they have a different starting 5 each game. I think that they can seriously beat Briarcliff by using their speed and the depth of thier bench to wear the Bears down, because as you said Briarcliff only has about 7 people who “playâ€. The Dragons have kids who can get rebounds and play good D on that Becchum kid.
Since Briarcliff is on this streak of losing one game to Class B teams in three years I figure heck if everyone else can now beat them so can we, and I’m sure Carmel would agrree!
its a joke guys lol…but yea…JFK Was AMAZING when they had Dan Gumb Pete Courtney Tyrell and OC…but there long and gone…so goodbye jfk! u wont win anything again!
ok say what you want but kennedy will be at the county center this year and when it happens dont say i didnt tell you so
Isn’t Lincoln Hall one of those pseudo prisons like Childrens Village?
All of you people are absolute idiots. The bears are not going to lose again. Lincoln Hall was incredibly lucky. The refs were miserable. Just be careful pitiful Panthers. The game won’t be close. And JFK I hope we can play again cause it would be scary how bad we would kick your ass.
Wow, Oh once a bear always a bear, where oh where did this stupid bear come from, out of the forest behind the Briarcliff Gym, or better yet the football field ( 28-0 ) All of Section one is now hunting for the bears and their beloved bear fans. Beware Bears, the bear hunters will be there.
Once A Bear Always A Bear: the refs were miserable is that so… if anything the excuses are weighing you down haha cause the refs were terrible when we played you too
It’s 3 o’clock do you know where your bearskin rug is?
The Kennedy team has gelled! Eddie O’C is the glue. If the ref’s had called the offensive fouls against Briarcliff, there is no way we would have lost that game. Happy for Briarcliff and Lincoln Hall. Good games coming our way….
Dr E
Oh Dr E…Oh Dr.. How’s that Panther skin rug looking? A little “nappy” I would say…Dont worry those muddy Bear paw prints will come out in the wash. After a few months or years…lol anyway maybe you can make it into a set of slippers with what left of it!
bar none gentile is number one