Sixth-man Marion Lewis and the Pioneers welcome Houghton Friday for the first time
Utica, NY (2-6-13) – The Utica College men's basketball team welcomes Empire 8 new addition Houghton College to the Clark Athletic Center Friday in its final regular-season home contest. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.
UC on the Move: The Pioneers are currently 9-13 overall including a 6-6 mark in the Empire 8 Conference and recently slipped into the fourth and final spot … UC has won four of its last six conference contests while losing only to current #1 seed Stevens (77-85) and #3 St. John Fisher (69-79), both on the road.
Playoff Scene: Nationally-ranked #25 Stevens Institute of Technology (17-3, 8-2 E8) and reigning conference champions Ithaca College (14-6, 8-2 E8) currently share first place in the standings each with an 8-2 mark … Stevens and Ithaca both have four games remaining and will clash this weekend on Saturday, Feb. 9th in Hoboken, NJ … St. John Fisher (14-8, 7-4 E8), currently in the three spot, holds a 7-4 ledger in the league and will wrap up conference play next week with three games in five days … Following a weekend off, the Cardinals will travel to Nazareth on Feb. 12th and then host back-to-back games against Hartwick (2/15/13) and Stevens (2/16/13) … Utica (9-13, 6-6 E8) presently holds the fourth and final spot in the league standings and have two conference battles left against Ithaca (2/15/13) and Elmira (2/16/13) … Nazareth (13-8, 5-5 E8), currently on the outside looking in, recently snapped a five-game, conference losing streak by knocking off #1 Ithaca, 62-61 … The Golden Flyers have four games remaining and will tip-off against Alfred (2/8/13) and Ithaca (2/16/13) on the road and Fisher (2/12/13) and Elmira (2/15/13), both on their home court … Hartwiick (11-10, 3-7 E8) and Elmira (6-15, 3-7 E8) share sixth place and need to manage a good run to get back in the hunt … Alfred (6-15, 2-9 E8) rounds out the standings with three games remaining and will play the “spoiler role” as its hopes for the playoffs will be put on hold … Houghton College is currently satisfying a two-year waiting period before it can be recognized in the conference standings.
Straight “Maisching Em”: Junior Connor Maisch remains in the national spotlight in 3-point shooting and is currently second in the nation from downtown percentage (52.3%) … Maisch is coming off a 17-point performance
where he drained a five threes' and shattered a school record for 3-pointers made (70) in a season and now has 73 total … The 6-foot-5 sharpshooter is also eighth in the country in threes' per game (3.24) and fifth in the Empire 8 in scoring (16.3 pp/g) .. He is an impressive 13-of-16 from behind the arc in his last three games.
Last Time Out: The Pioneers knocked off Hartwick this past Saturday and got back to their fast-paced, high scoring offense with a 90-77 victory … UC used a perfect 5-for-5 start from behind the arc off the hand of Maisch to extend a 29 point lead, 56-27, into the break … The Hawks put up a fight in the second half, however could not overcome UC's first half rush.
The Baldwin Show: Senior
Matt Baldwin (Gloversville, NY/Gloversville) has stepped up recently tallying double-digit performances in 11 of his last 12 games while averaging 14.8 points in those 11 contests … He is 8-of-10 from downtown in his last two games including a 5-of-6 performance this past Saturday where he also added a season-high six assists to lead UC.
Double Down: In eight of UC's nine wins this season, at least four players have posted double-digit figures … In four of those cases, the Pioneers have had five players score in double figures … On the season, Utica recorded 15-of-22 games where at least four players have tallied double-digit games.
Welcome Houghton: The Highlanders are winless on the year with an 0-22 record overall and were beat earlier this season at home by the Pioneers, 85-66, convincingly … HC is coming off back-to-back home losses to Fisher and Ithaca this past weekend … However, they did play the Bombers tough losing by just nine points, 74-65 … Following this bout, the Highlanders will wrap up the season at home against Alfred and on the road against Ithaca.
Final Strut: Following Friday's contest, UC will hit the road for two final Empire 8 Conference battles which will prove crucial in the playoff picture … UC heads to Ithaca, NY Friday, Feb, 16th for an 8 p.m. tip-off against the top-ranked Bombers and then travels to Elmira, NY Saturday, Feb. 16th for a 4 p.m. afternoon start versus the Soaring Eagles … Ithaca holds a tough 8-2 mark on its home hardwood and downed UC earlier this season, 89-71, in Utica, NY … The Soaring Eagles are even on their court (Speidel Gymnasium) with a 5-5 mark and have won four of their last five there … The Pioneers defeated Elmira earlier this season, 85-74, on Jan. 19th in Utica, NY.
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