Welcome back, Fighting Scots fans! I want to start by saying thank you so much to all of the people that donated money to our program this past week during our annual fundraiser, "Clash of the Tartans". We surpassed our goal for this year, and that will help us tremendously in the coming year. I cannot thank you all enough.
 
Unfortunately, we were not as successful on the court this past week. We had two difficult games against the University of New England, who beat us by 20 on their home court earlier in the season, and Western New England University, who beat us by 28 on our home court the first time we played them. UNE was a very important game in our battle to earn a spot in the conference tournament. Both teams entered the game with a 5–5 conference record, tied for seventh place.
 
We started the game off playing very well, and held a 28–15 advantage less than eight minutes into the game. One of our biggest problems this season has been an inability to shorten an opposing team's scoring run. Over the course of the next 7+ minutes, we were outscored 22–2, and found ourselves trailing 30–37 with just under five minutes to play in the first half. We battled back to bring the score to 46–47 at halftime. The rest of the game was a dog fight, with neither team leading by more than seven, and the lead changing hands several times during the second half. Unfortunately, when the final horn sounded, we were on the wrong side of a 93–91 score.
 
Our defense has carried us often times this season, but we really struggled to stop UNE in this game. We had several strong offensive efforts, including Ryan Brooks scoring a career high 24 points and grabbing eight rebounds followed by Alex Daniel with 22 points. Brandon Swann and Bruce McGuire scored 12 and 11 points off the bench, respectively. It was a bitter pill to swallow, because we felt like we needed to beat out UNE for a spot in the conference playoffs. This has obviously made our situation much more difficult.
 
On Saturday we traveled to Springfield, MA to take on second-place WNE. WNE has been a pitbull on defense this year, and we knew that it would take a special effort to beat them on their home court. In the first half, we got that special effort, and went into the locker room, holding a 37–26 halftime lead. In this game, it wasn't a prolonged run that hurt us, it was a relentless offensive and defensive effort by a strong WNE squad that made the difference. The final score was 62–73, but I don't think that was a fair indication of how close this game really was. We had to foul late in the game to give ourselves a chance to come back, but we just couldn't put the ball in the basket for the last few minutes of the game. Alex led the way with 24 points, followed by Isaac Jarvis with 17, and Ryan chipped in with 10. I was very pleased with how hard we played all 40 minutes, but we just had an off-shooting night.
 
Although our playoff chances were hurt by this past week's losses, we still have a route to make the conference tournament, and this week's games are extremely important. On Wednesday we have a home game versus Nichols College, who sits two games ahead of us in the standings. A win against them would give us the same number of losses in conference, but it would also give us the tiebreaker against them. As usual, Nichols is a very athletic and strong offensive team. We need to show poise if and when Nichols goes on a spurt.
 
We followed up the Nichols game with a trip to Bristol, RI for a game at Roger Williams University. RWU beat us at our place by 10 a couple weeks ago, but we felt like we could have beaten them with a little more focus to detail on the defensive end of the floor. RWU has a very strong offensive team, and offset their lack of size with a switching defense to try and confuse opponents. I think, with some adjustments on the offensive end of the floor on how to attack their switches, combined with a few tweaks on the defensive end to slow them down, that we could pull off the upset on their home court.
 
At this point, we find ourselves with a 6–15 record, and 5–7 in conference. As bleak as this looks, we still have a chance to get into the conference tournament. Based on our record, it will take some upsets, but after the effort we gave at WNE this past Saturday, I believe that we can do this. It won't be easy, but we need to make a strong push this week to keep ourselves in the playoff picture, and we could sure use your help on Wednesday against Nichols. Thanks again for your financial support during the "Clash", and I hope to see you at the game on Wednesday.
 
God bless
   Coach Murphy
 
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." -Romans 15:13