Men’s basketball gameday
St. Francis (Pa.) at Quinnipiac
When: Today, 7 p.m.
Where: TD Bank Sports Center, Hamden
Records: St. Francis (Pa.) (6-21, 5-11 NEC); Quinnipiac (15-12, 8-8 Northeast)
Radio: WQUN-1220 AM

Scouting Quinnipiac: After a fine stretch helped the Bobcats clinch a tournament berth, they’ve lost two straight games and fallen into a tie for fifth in the NEC standings. The losses ended Quinnipiac’s chances of a home game in next week’s tournament.Quinnipiac has an RPI of 188 and seems to be a longshot to earn any other postseason berth unless it finishes strongly. Quinnipiac played in the NIT two years ago and the collegeInsider tournament last season. The Bobcats hope to get forward Jamee Jackson (foot) back for the stretch run.
Scouting St. Francis (Pa.): The Red Flash has faint hopes for a Northeast Tournament berth. St. Francis has to win its final two games and then get some help for a postseason ticket. The Red Flash bea Bryant last game to end a seven-game losing streak. They beat Quinnipiac 74-71 earlier in the season as Kameron Ritter had 24 points and Scott Eatherton finished with 21.St. Francis also was one of the only teams to out-rebound Quinnipiac this season.

Projected Starters
St. Francis (Pa.)
Player, Ht., Year, Pos., Avg
Kameron Ritter, 6-3, So. ,F ,5.0
Jon Taylor,6-8 ,Sr. ,F ,6.0;
Scott Eatherton,6-8 ,So. ,F ,14.1
Stephon Whyatt,6-1, Fr., G, 7.6
Anthony Ervin,6-4, Jr., G, 11.1
Quinnipiac
James Johnson, 6-0, Sr., G, 16.6
Ousmane Drame, 6-9, Fr., F, 6.4
Ike Azotam, 6-7 So., F, 16.4
Dave Johnson, 5-10, Jr., G, 8.4
Zaid Hearst, 6-0, Fr., G, 6.7

Off the bench

St. Francis: Earl Brown, 6-5, Fr., F, 5.9 ppg; Ollie Jackson, 6-4, Fr., G, 6.4. Quinnipiac: Jamee Jackson, 6-7, Jr., F, 8.7; Garvey Young, 6-5, Jr., F, 5.8; Evan Conti, 6-3, Fr., G, 1.3.
 Bill Cloutier

FAIRFIELD — Mired in a dismal stretch the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team always felt it could count on one thing: rebounding.
Though second in the nation in that category, it was their rebounding that failed the Bobcats down the stretch as Sacred Heart pulled out a 78-75 victory in a crucial Northeast Conference game at the Pitt Center Thursday night.

The win capped a season sweep of the Bobcats for the Pioneers, who got a career-high 28 points from Louis Montes and 23 from Shane Gibson, 18 of which came in the second half.
Quinnipiac has lost four of its last five games and fell to 9-9 overall and 2-5 in the NEC, a precarious spot as only the top eight teams in the conference qualify for the postseason tournament. The Bobcats are surprisingly in a three-way tie for eighth place.
“It’s hard losing,” Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore said. “I can’t measure the team’s doubt. We had murderous practices and they responded well. It just came down to our second-half defense.
“This group has wins at Vermont, at Boston University and at Robert Morris. There’s great potential there, but it’s infuriating when we look like a young team.”
Dave Johnson led Quinnipiac with 18 points and James Johnson. But James Johnson missed a designed 3-pointer that would have tied the game with 21 seconds left. He finished 2 for 10 from 3-point range in the game and the Bobcats went 4 for 19 behind the arc.
But offense aside, Moore was more concerned with his team’s defense in the second half when Sacred Heart shot 58 percent from the field.
“They made huge plays down the stretch,” Moore said. “But the tale of our NEC play is our defense. We’re not guarding long enough in games and we’re not guarding long enough in possessions.
“We try to play 28 seconds of hard defense and then we stop guarding.”
Quinnipiac led by as much as eight in the first half before Sacred Heart took a six-point lead in the second half. The game was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way.
Montes gave Sacred Heart a 74-71 lead with 2:08 to play. James Johnson cut it to 74-73 with two free throws with 1:39 left. But that’s when their rebounding failed the Bobcats.
Twice Sacred Heart missed shots but both times the Pioneers got the rebound, chewing up valuable time. After the second miss the Bobcats fouled Montes with 31 seconds left and he buried both free throws.
“That’s the best shellacking in rebounding we’ve ever had,” Sacred Heart coach Dave Bike said. “They beat us by 11 but if we didn’t come up with four or five of those rebounds it would have been a different game.
“It started with Stan Dulaire’s rebound and then Nick Greenbacker got one and Phil Gaetano got involved in another one and they all were big. We respect their rebounding but we were able to come up with a couple of big ones.
“If Dulaire doesn’t get that rebound I think the whole game could turn around.”
Gaetano, a freshman from Wallingford, finished with seven points and had a big 3-pointer in the second half for Sacred Heart.
Quinnipiac hit 8 of its first 11 shots but only finished at 40 percent from the floor in the game and once again free throws were a problem. It went 13 for 20 from the line.
Ike Azotam finished with 15 points and eight rebounds for the Bobcats, who got the services of forward Jamee Jackson back. Jackson finished with nine points and eight rebounds after missing seven games with a foot injury.

By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
In a season of turmoil the Quinnipiac men's basketball team got a minor victory on Tuesday afternoon.
Off the basketball court and back in Meriden Superior Court, all five Quinnipiac players involved in a Sept. 18 on-campus assault were granted accelerated rehabilition by Judge Philip Scarpellino.
The five players, who appeared in court on Tuesday will also have to perform community service. If the players complete their orders sufficiently their cases will be dismissed.
Scarpellino sentenced senior guard James Johnson and junior forward Jamee Jackson to two years of the accelerated rehabilitation program. They will also have to serve 200 hours of community service and are responsible for sharing the medical costs of the victims' expenses.
Three other players involved in the case were also granted acclerated rehabilitation.
Junior guard Dave Johnson and sophomore forward Ike Azotam were given one-year programs and will have to complete 50 hours of community service. Freshman Nate Gause was dealt an 18-month accelarated rehabilitation sentence and will have perform 100 hours of community service.
James Johnson and Azotam were originally charged in the case anad taken into custody a day after the assault took place. As the investigation continued Gause, Jackson and Dave Johnson were also identfied and they turned themselves into Hamden police on Dec. 1 and confessed to the crime.

By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
HAMDEN — The Quinnipiac men’s basketball team insists it’s not about to panic. But it’s getting late real early for the Bobcats.

Now 1-3 in the conference, the Bobcats (8-7) are about to hit the road for four straight games with its conference hopes squarely on the line.
Quinnipiac dropped its second straight game on Saturday, falling to conference heavyweight Long Island 79-75 in a spirited affair at the TD Bank Sports Center Saturday afternoon. The Bobcats are already three games behind the Blackbirds (10-6, 4-0) in the NEC standings and face an arduous uphill climb.

“There’s no panic,” Quinnipiac’s James Johnson said. “We can’t look too far down the road. This conference comes down to March so we have to keep getting better and take it one game at a time. We still have a lot of confidence. We know we’re good.”

Quinnipiac set its all-time Division I mark for rebounds in a game with 61, but the Bobcats shot just 39 percent and went 2-for-10 from 3-point range, never establishing an offensive rhythm. Ike Azotam led the Bobcats with 17 points and a team-high 11 rebounds and James Johnson added 15 points.
“I’m disappointed with our offense,” Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore said. “We settled for a lot of bad shots, especially in the first half. Today we did one thing well, offensive rebounds (27). But we didn’t create good shots and made a lot of bad decisions with our shot selection. And we missed a lot of foul shots again.”
There was nothing wrong with the Blackbirds’ offense. LIU’s All-NEC duo of Jamal Olasawere and Julian Boyd combined for 42 points and 20 rebounds and lived up to all the preseason hype they’ve received.
“Olasawere was an animal,” LIU coach Jim Ferry said. “And our point guard, Jason Brickman (10 assists), controlled the game.”
Ferry said Quinnipiac still has the talent to make a run, but noted the Bobcats missed junior forward Jamee Jackson, who is out with torn ligaments in his foot. In his stead, Ousmane Drame, a freshman who has played very well at times, had just two points and was little match for LIU’s inside powers.
Said Moore: “Ousmane wasn’t up to the task defensively. Rebounding he was, but Olasawere’s got 80 games of college under his belt and Ousmane has just 13. He wasn’t ready for the speed and aggressiveness with which Olasawere comes at you.
“They’re a terrific team. They can score the ball and they have the best point guard in the league.”
Said Johnson: “Jamee Jackson would have helped, of course, but you can see we were just a couple of baskets away from beating a real good team.”
After Quinnipiac lost 73-72 to St. Francis (N.Y.) on Thursday, Ferry knew the Bobcats would come out with a roar on Saturday. Despite the fact that his team was out-rebounded 61-38, Ferry was happy with his team’s poise.
“All we talked about for two days was the level of intensity of which this game was going to be played at,” Ferry said. “It was going to be playoff intensity because they never get out-rebounded and they got out-rebounded last game.
“They really bullied us. To end the game with 61 rebounds, I’ve never seen that. But we stayed poised and stayed focused. We have a grind-it-out mentality and in the second half we got it going.”
Quinnipiac got an atypical 20 points off its bench, including nine points and eight rebounds from Justin Harris in the first half. The Bobcats pulled down a stunning 42 first-half rebounds. Still, the Bobcats were only tied with the high-flying Blackbirds, who went 27-6 last season to win the NEC title and lost to North Carolina in the NCAA tournament.
Olasawere, a mixture of power and finesse, took over in the early stages of the second half. He scored a game-high 25 points in 25 minutes and never let his early foul trouble hinder his play. He scored nine points in LIU’s 13-8 run to start the second half and give the Blackbirds a 50-45 lead.
LIU never trailed again and eventually built a 13-point lead. Quinnipiac battled back but couldn’t unleash its outside game and never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
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HAMDEN – Jamee Jackson, a starting forward on the Quinnipiac men’s basketball, will be sidelined for three to five weeks after injuring his foot on Thursday.
According to Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore, Jackson suffered torn ligaments in his foot and scar tissue. X-rays revealed no fracture and no surgery will be necessary but Jackson will be in a walking boot for three weeks.
Jackson, third on the team in scoring (9.8 ppg) and second in rebounds (5.4 rpg.), sat out Thursday night’s game against Niagara, an 85-81 Bobcat victory, after stepping on a ball while following through on a dunk during afternoon practice.
Jackson, a junior from Newark, N.J., had been playing his best basketball since arriving at the school recently. He scored a career-high 21 points in a win against Bryant while grabbing nine rebounds in the game. Last week he scored 20 points in a win at Vermont.
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By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
HAMDEN – Jamee Jackson, a starting forward on the Quinnipiac men’s basketball suffered what is suspected to be broken left foot in Thursday’s shoot-around and will be sidelined for an indefinite time period.
Jackson, third on the team in scoring (9.8 ppg) and second in rebounds (5.4 rpg.), sat out Thursday night’s game against Niagara in a walking boot. He is scheduled for further tests on Friday.
Jackson, a junior from Newark, N.J., had been playing his best basketball since arriving at the school recently. He scored a career-high 21 points in a win against Bryant while grabbing nine rebounds in the game. Last week he scored 20 points in a win at Vermont.
While there was no immediate time on when Jackson could return he could miss between four and six weeks which would translate into around nine games, six of which would be Northeast Conference games.
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Quinnipiac beginning to get on a roll. This is from the QU web site

BURLINGTON, Vt. - Junior Jamee Jackson (Newark, N.J.) finished with 20 points on Sunday afternoon, as the Quinnipiac University men's basketball team handed the University of Vermont a home loss, 62-58, at Patrick Gymnasium in Burlington. With the win, the Bobcats climbed back over the .500 mark at 5-4, while the hosting Catamounts fell to 4-6 on the season.

With the Bobcats ahead by one with 2:33 showing on the clock, James Johnson (Queens, N.Y.) silenced the crowd with a deep three-point field goal to give the Bobcats a 57-53 lead. After a Catamount free-throw from Brian Voelkel, senior Garvey Young (Washington, D.C.), who returned to Vermont for the first time since transferring after his sophomore year, then pushed the lead to five with with a pull-up jumper on the left block with 42 seconds left. UVM ran out of time and couldn't overcome the deficit, suffering its fourth loss in a row.

Jackson was dominant in all facets of the game, adding seven rebounds and two steals to his stat line. He finished 8-of-15 from the floor, 4-of-5 from the charity stripe and was stellar behind the ball as well. James Johnson recorded 13 points, including two tallies from behind the arc. Ike Azotam (Boston, Mass.) and Young each finished with eight points and combined for 12 rebounds. Dave Johnson (Jackson, N.J.) chimed in with six points and Zaid Hearst (Bethesda, Md.) added four.

The game never saw a lead larger than six points, which the Catamounts earned in the first half. However, the Bobcats rallied off an 11-6 run in the final six minutes of the opening stanza to trail by just one at the break.

Contrary to the first half where the two teams combined for a total of 10 fouls, the second half featured a physical battle underneath. In the latter frame, 22 fouls were called, 13 against the visiting Bobcats. Azotam was sent to the bench after his fourth foul with nine minutes left in regulation.

However, poor free-throw shooting plagued the Catamounts down the stretch, as the team connected on just 8-17 in the second half. The missed freebees allowed the Bobcats to regain the lead with 4:19 left in the game, an advantage they would not relinquish.

QU used a plus-nine edge on the boards for the game, collecting 42 of them including 16 on the offensive end. The Bobcats shot 39.7 percent from the floor and went 10-of-15 from the free-throw line. The Catamounts shot 46 percent from the field, but just 1-of-13 from behind the arc.

Four players on Vermont registered double-figures on the afternoon. Brian Voelkel led all Catamounts with 12, Josh Elbaum added 11 and Luke Apfeld and Brendan Bald finished with 10.

Quinnipiac will now take some time away from the court to focus on finals before returning for its next contest. The Bobcats don't return to the hardword until Saturday, December 11 with a non-conference affair at UMass. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. in Amherst, Mass. NESN will broadcast the game live.

A pair of Quinnipiac basketball players applied for accelerated rehabilitation when they appeared in Meriden Superior Court on Tuesday.

Senior James Johnson and junior Jamee Jackson, two of the five players allegedly involved in an on-campus altercation on September 18, applied for the program which carries a period of probation for first-time offenders. If the program is granted and players fulfill their obligations the charges could be dismissed. They may also face probation for up to two years.

The other three players involved in the case also appeared before Judge Philip Scarpellino and had their cases continued until Jan. 17 at the same venue. Dave Johnson and Nate Gause were arrested last week upon further investigation by the Hamden Police Department. Jackson was also arrested on that day.

James Johnson and sophomore Ike Azotam were previously arrested for the assault. Azotam's case was also continued and his attorney claims that he was misidentified in the altercation.

The players' defense attorney, Thomas Lynch, told the Quinnipiac Chronicle, said he was looking for accelerated rehabilitation.

Said Lynch: “They have a hearing before the judge where we make the argument that both Jamee and James regret the incident and that they will abide by any conditions that the court may put on them, the probation, and if that’s the case then at the end of the probation period the charges are dismissed."

The incident left four students injured. One student suffered a bruised jaw, cracked tooth and a laceration to the face that required 17 stitches; a second student suffered a broken nose, which required surgery; a third student was allegedly knocked unconscious; and a fourth student suffered facial injuries.

James Johnson and Azotam were the first two arrested. They were charged with third-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace charges. On Dec. 1, after the other three players surrendered to Hamden Police, Jackson was charged with conspiracy to commit assault and assault in the third degree and second-degree breach of peace. Dave Johnson, a junior, and Gause, a freshman, were charged with third-degree conspiracy to commit assault and second-degree breach of peace.

Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore, who was at Tuesday’s hearing, suspended James Johnson for the team’s first game and the university handed other sanctions.

“All five team members who were involved have already been appropriately disciplined for the September incident by the university and received team sanctions from me as well,” Moore said in a statement. “No other disciplinary action stemming from this incident is planned at this time."

By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
HAMDEN — Three more Quinnipiac University basketball players have been arrested in connection with a Sept. 18 assault, police said.
Charged today were Jamee Jackson, 20, of Irvington, N.J.; David Johnson, 22, of Jackson, N. J. and Nate Gause, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The trio turned themselves into police on Thursday morning. They all posted bond and were released.
QU basketball players James Johnson and Ike Azotam were previously arrested and their cases are pending. James Johnson was suspended for one game this season as a result of the incident.
Four Quinnipiac students were injured in the assault, according to Capt. Ronald Smith. One student suffered a bruised jaw, cracked tooth and a laceration to the face, which required 17 stitches. A second student suffered a broken nose, which required surgery. A third was allegedly knocked unconscious and a fourth received facial injuries, Smith said.
Detective Michael DePalma conducted the investigation. All five players are schedule to appear in Meriden Superior Court on Dec. 6.
Jackson was charged with third-degree assault, conspiracy to commit third-degree assault and breach of peace. David Johnson was charged with conspiracy to commit third-degree assault and breach of peace. Gause was charged with third-degree conspiracy to commit assault and breach of peace.
“All five team members who were involved have already been appropriately disciplined for the September incident by the university and received team sanctions from me as well,” said Tom Moore, head men’s basketball coach. “No other disciplinary action stemming from this incident is planned at this time.”
According to the Hamden police Captain Ronald Smith the incidents began on Sept. 17 the night before the assault when James Johnson was confronted by another Quinnipiac University student.
“During that dispute, which was verbal in nature it seems that a large crowd gathered around James Johnson and the Quinnipiac University student,” Smith said. “Someone from the crowd allegedly swung at James Johnson. I don’t know if it actually struck him.
According to the police, James Johnson then got some of his teammates and came back looking for this individual. When they came back campus police were present and there was no further incident.
“The next day several of the basketball players were searching out this individual kid,” Smith said. “They entered a dorm, which was not their dorm, found the student and an altercation took place. Several of the Quinnipiac University students suffered severe injuries.
All of the players involved in the alleged altercation were present at Thursday night’s game and were expected to play.
According to a source, Azotam claims he was misidentified in the assault but that was not confirmed by the police.
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Justin Rutty is gone and, according to the Northeast Conference preseason coaches’ poll, so, too, are the lofty expectations for the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team.
Quinnipiac, the unanimous choice to win the 2010-11 NEC title, was picked fifth in this season’s poll.

“Looking at the teams and who everyone has coming back, that’s probably where we should be picked,” Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore said. “You could say we’re in a rebuilding mode. We have nine new players to go with our core of four players.”

Last year’s conference champ, Long Island, was picked to repeat its title. The Blackbirds went 27-6 last year. Robert Morris, who eliminated Quinnipiac in the NEC tournament for the second year in a row, was picked second followed by Central Connecticut State. Wagner was picked fourth and Sacred Heart was picked to finish eighth.

“This is the best the league has been in the 10 years that I’ve been here,” LIU coach Jim Ferry said. “We didn’t talk about winning a championship, we just want to finish in the top four to have a chance to win it.”

Quinnipiac has earned postseason tournament bids the past two seasons racking up 45 wins in the process. Rutty, one of the league’s top players for the past few seasons, is now playing professionally in Europe. That will put a great deal of the team’s promise in the hands of point guard James Johnson.

Johnson was selected to the preseason all-conference team along with CCSU’s Ken Horton, LIU’s Julian Boyd and Jamal Olasewere and Wagner’s Tyler Murray.
Johnson still faces possible suspension from the team for his involvement in an assault that is still pending in the courts. Moore would not say if Johnson would be available for the team’s season-opener on Nov. 11 in the Connecticut 6 tournament.

Johnson is perhaps the league’s most important player. He led Quinnipiac in scoring last season, is an unflappable point guard and is its best defensive player.
Filling Rutty’s shoes won’t be an easy task but Quinnipiac does have Ike Azotam and Jamee Jackson returning to the front court. The pair hope to maintain the Bobcats’ fierce identity of rebounding. The Bobcats have ranked amongst the nation’s leaders in rebounding average for the past three years and Moore said they outrebounded Northeastern by 17 in a recent scrimmage.

Jackson and Azotam both played well when Rutty missed seven games down the stretch last season due to injury.

“It was good for Jamee to be thrown into the fire last year,” Moore said. “He responded a bit. He had 20 points at Monmouth the night we heard that Justin was going to be out for a while. It was good for Jamee to take the lead and his numbers went up and that’s been explained to him and is going to be explained to him again as the season approaches.”

A Connecticut judge is scheduled to take up the case of two Quinnipiac University basketball players charged with assault after an on-campus fight last month.
Senior guard James Johnson, the team’s leading scorer a year ago, and sophomore forward Ike Azotam have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault charges. They are due back in Meriden Superior court Monday.
Each is accused of striking other students in the face early in the morning of Sept. 18.
Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore said both have received sanctions from the school and will be sanctioned further by the athletic department.
Neither Johnson nor Azotam attended the school’s Midnight Madness a week ago and both players could be suspended from either upcoming scrimmages or early-season games.
The player’s attorney, Thomas Lynch, says Azotam was misidentified by witnesses, and he’s hopeful those charges will be dismissed.