Update on the Griffs

I know I've been slack in reporting on our beloved Griffs. But its Friday, so its a good time to update whats been going on in the major 3 winter sports. Well Men's and Womens Basketball and Hockey. I know the Griffs are awesome at Synchro, but thats more a performance. Anyway.

Men's Basketball.

With it being finals and all this week, the basketball team is light in action. And light this month with only 3 games total. But that will pick up on Saturday, followed by a trip to the Carrier Dome to play the underrated Orange. But first the games that were played.

On the first the Griffs beat Howard 70-46, with Greg Logins scoring 22 points and bringing down 14 rebounds. It broke a 20 game road losing streak and its the first time with back to back wins since January of 2007. Man things have been bad lately with the Griffs.

They got back to their losing ways, by dropping the next two to Manhattan and St Peters, both MAAC foes. Not a good way to start conference play. They lost to Manhattan by 18 and to St Peters by 24. St Peters? aren't they always bad?

Against Manhattan Chris Gadley, Frank Turner and Greg Logins all had double digits in points. Otherwise no one else could do anything. And this leads to Tom Parrotta's quote of the day.

"They made a couple of 3-pointers and got on a roll," Canisius head coach Tom Parrotta said. "Give them credit, they knocked down some tough shots and that gave them some separation on the scoreboard. We talked about not letting their guards drive the lane and forcing them to take tough shots, and they did."

Well thats nice. Unfortunately they were hitting 50% of their 3's. So how about changing up the defense to protect the outside?

Against St Peters, only Frank Turner scored in double digits with 10, several others were in the 9 or 8 point range. Real balanced scoring. Too bad its LOW scoring. Well like against Manhattan they were killed by the 3. Mmmmm I'm sensing a pattern. This time St Peters shot 52.4% from outside. Guess what if you give them the 3, most small schools will take it, because they don't have the inside presence. Gahhhhh.

Next up Saturday against the Great Danes of Albany. Easy win.

Womens basketball.

The women have had only two games this month. Because Canisius values education over athletics. Or people just don't want to play. The ladies went 1-1 in those matchups both versus MAAC opponents.

Marie Warner had 20 points, Brittane Russell had 13 and Stephanie Macdonald had 14 in the win over Siena last week during Kids day.

Then on the 7th they ran into the perennial powerhouse that is Marist. Who beat them 70-52, which isn't bad. Marist is really good and didn't get trounced. Marie Warner had 13 points. While 3 other Griffs had 8 points each.

This puts the Griffs at 3-4 on the year and 1-1 in MAAC play.

Saint Louis comes into town on Sunday, so that's interesting.

Ice Hockey

The Men have had only 1 weekend series this month. That with conference foe Army. They beat Army on Saturday 2-0 and lost to Army the next day 3-4. That was the first home loss of the year. Since no one comes into Buffalo State Sports arena and beats the Griffs. NOBODY. Except Army.

I don't feel like looking through the Game Summary so instead I'm going to see who is doing what on the Hockey team. A rough and tumble bunch of Canadians. Trying to get an education and keep their hockey career going.

They are 7-6-3 on the year so far and pretty similar versus Conference opponents. But the season is young.

As a team they have outscored opponents 47-41. And do most of their damage in the 3rd period with 21 goals in the final period. But individually Josh Heidinger and Jason Weeks lead the team in scoring with 16 points. Dave Kostuch leads the team in goals with 9. But they have even scoring through the team. They are not a 1 line team. But Heidinger is their key playmaker, just like last year.

In net Loewen and Dan Morrison are pretty similar. Both are in the 2.5 GAA range but Loewen has the higher Save percentage with .922. Each have a .500 record

The Griffs hit the ice next weekend with a matchup against Mercyhurst.