Indexed locally for search — headlines, people, teams, and short excerpts from reporting originally published in The Morning Call (1998–2010). Full article text on mcall.com; DRE'S TAKE links out and does not republish Morning Call copy.
A standout Liberty swimmer is headed to Duke and two star women’s basketball players have decided to extend their athletic and academic careers at Lehigh and Bloomsburg, respectively. The college decisions were announced at a press conference at Liberty’s art gallery Tuesday…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →A standout Liberty swimmer is headed to Duke and two star women’s basketball players have decided to extend their athletic and academic careers at Lehigh and Bloomsburg, respectively. The college decisions were announced at a press conference at Liberty’s art gallery Tuesday…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Ten seconds. That’s the freelance time new Lafayette women’s basketball coach Dianne Nolan said she gives to her players at the start of games. Her system is helter-skelter after that. “We like to say that we pack 60 minutes into it,” she said. Run and press are the blueprint as…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh boarded a plane from Philadelphia to Oklahoma City on Tuesday morning, wondering not what powerhouse Kansas will do to it in the NCAA Tournament. But what it can do to Kansas. The Midwest Region first-round matchup Thursday night at the Hart Center, after all, is a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Pride and jubilation extended from one former Lehigh 1,000-point scorer to another Sunday night during the NCAA Selection Show. Ed Cahn, 1955 Lehigh graduate and the first 1,000-point scorer in school history, stood off to the side, his eyes focused on the big screen television…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Fear did not enter into the hearts of Lehigh players. Never mind the mammoth challenge ahead in Oklahoma City. Excitement still reigned at Goosey Gander in Bethlehem on Sunday when the Patriot League champion Mountain Hawks (22-10) discovered they will play Kansas (32-2) in the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →One game, albeit the biggest of their careers, will not define Lehigh seniors Marquis Hall and Zahir Carrington, All-Patriot League players and all-around good guys away from the court. Sure, Hall and Carrington want to lead Lehigh (21-10) to a victory over Lafayette (19-12) in…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →LEHIGH79 AMERICAN57 Lehigh senior Dave Buchberger was on from downtown. Freshman C.J. McCollum was on from everywhere. Then, there was senior guard Marquis Hall simply playing an all-around smooth game and senior forward Zahir Carrington rebounding with force. The sensational…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette’s Jared Mintz was barefooted, Ryan Willen in flip flops, and their coach, Fran O’Hanlon, had his tie loose. It was easy to be relaxed after what the Leopards accomplished in the Patriot League semifinals on Sunday before a packed and spirited crowd at Kirby Sports…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh is on a 13-game winning streak and has the determination to extend it three more games and advance to the NCAA women’s tournament for a second straight year. Lehigh (26-3) opens defense of its Patriot League tournament title in quarterfinal action at Holy Cross in…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →She’s a double-double performer on the court, an academic scholar off it, and one day Army junior forward Erin Anthony aspires to make good use of her civil engineering degree by helping to build roads or buildings. Right now, she’s building a legacy at West Point. On Tuesday,…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh freshman C.J. McCollum was rewarded for his end-to-end domination and Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon was honored for leading a team not expected to do well to a third-place finish in the Patriot League regular season. McCollum averaged a league-best 27.8 points over the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh had no problem with perimeter defense against Bucknell and no letdown in its biggest home game in six years Wednesday night. Freshman C.J. McCollum scored 12 consecutive points during one stretch and seniors Marquis Hall and Zahir Carrington got what they’ve coveted their…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The numbers 94, 81, 85 and 90 were not pulled out of a lottery drawing. They represent the trials of defeat for the Lehigh men in Patriot League play. The Mountain Hawks gave up those point-totals in their four league losses. Lehigh also has eight league wins, tops with…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette guard Jeff Kari did not write a Senior Day script for Sunday’s Patriot League matchup against Lehigh. It just seemed that way during a second-half stretch where Kari, energized by the crowd, drilling three straight 3-pointers. The Kirby Sports Center crowd went crazy.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →T he Lehigh women own Stabler Arena and, seemingly, every team that visits. A 31-game home winning streak validates it and the Mountain Hawks have no intentions on losing on Saturday night against Lafayette in their final regular-season home game. Lehigh (23-3 overall, 10-1…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →F lip a co in in the Patriot League. Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell, Navy and defending Patriot league champion American all have a chance to finish the regular season in first place in men’s basketball. Lehigh has the most talent, including the top freshman in C.J. McCollum. But…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The decision of where they wanted to play college football had long been made by Parkland’s Andre Williams, The Morning Call’s player of the year, and star quarterbacks Anthony Gonzalez of Liberty and Tyler Smith of Wilson. But there’s still nothing like the day of unrestrained…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The decision of where they wanted to play college football had long been made by Parkland’s Andre Williams, The Morning Call’s player of the year, and star quarterbacks Anthony Gonzalez of Liberty and Tyler Smith of Wilson. But there’s still nothing like the day of unrestrained…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It’s not all fine and dandy that Lafayette will enter the second half of Patriot League play either in sole possession of first place or tied with Lehigh atop the standings. Never mind that the Leopards were picked to finish last in the league in the preseason. That’s a long…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh forward Zahir Carrington was already working the paint with vengeance. Then, he rocked the backboard with two dunks within one minute, five-second span in the early minutes of the second half at Stabler Arena, rousing the crowd of 3,849. That really got Carrington pumped…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh forward Zahir Carrington was already working the paint with vengeance. Then, he rocked the backboard with two dunks within one minute, five-second span in the early minutes of the second half at Stabler Arena, rousing the crowd of 3,849. That really got Carrington pumped…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →After surviving a scare, Lafayette can now get set for Lehigh. The Leopards, despite blowing a 13-point lead and committing 23 turnovers, clawed out a 61-57 victory over Bucknell Wednesday night at Kirby Sports Center. Jared Mintz, Lafayette’s talented 6-foot-8 junior forward,…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It was two-sided domination by Easton. On offense, junior quarterback Justin Pacchioli picked apart rival Phillipsburg with his passing and outslicked the Stateliners’ defense with swift runs in the 103rd Thanksgiving Day meeting between the rivals. On defense, senior linebacker…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Jared Mintz has been smooth in the post ever since he arrived on Lafayette’s campus three years ago. On Tuesday, the 6-foot-8 Canadian unleashed his tough side, along with scoring touch, to key the Leopards’ 86-82 non-league victory over Hartford at Kirby Sports Center.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →ARMY 5-6 (Independent) Beat North Texas 17-13 Mike McDermott (Bethlehem Catholic) So. OT, 6-6, 255. Game: Played. BOSTON COLLEGE 7-3, 4-2 (ACC) Lost to North Carolina 31-13 Steve Aponavicius (Easton) Sr. PK, 5-10,. 193. Game: 1-for-1 on PATs; 2-for-2 on FGs, 28 and 20 yards.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →ARMY 5-6(Independent) Beat North Texas 17-13 Mike McDermott (Bethlehem Catholic) So. OT, 6-6, 255. Game: Played. BOSTON COLLEGE 7-3, 4-2 (ACC) Lost to North Carolina 31-13 Steve Aponavicius (Easton) Sr. PK, 5-10,. 193. Game: 1-for-1 on PATs; 2-for-2 on FGs, 28 and 20 yards.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Only two running backs since 2002 have run rampant on the Easton defense. One was Parkland’s Austin Scott in 2002, who carried the Trojans to the PIAA Class 4A title. Two years ago, a less flashy, but more bulldozing back from Hazleton named Nate Eachus ran for 263 yards and…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Bob Mitchell will retire as Northwestern’s football coach Friday and will take with him the blueprint for success both on and off the field. It’s a blueprint any athletic director in the Lehigh Valley looking to hire a football coach might want Mitchell to share with them. It’s…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Bob Mitchell will retire as Northwestern’s football coach Friday and will take with him the blueprint for success both on and off the field. It’s a blueprint any athletic director in the Lehigh Valley looking to hire a football coach might want Mitchell to share with them. It’s…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Coming off an eight-win season, Lafayette seniors Jeff Kari, Mike Gruner and Marek Koltun figured they needed to try different measures to improve. They also need to bond. So they moved in together and spent much of the day and night together in the summer. “We live about 20…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Tipoff to the 2008-09 men’s and women’s basketball season for Lafayette comes Friday in a doubleheader at Kirby Sports Center. On Monday night at Lafayette’s basketball media day, men’s coach Fran O’Hanlon and women’s coach Tammy Smith, shared thoughts on the upcoming season and…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →BOSTON COLLEGE 6-3(ACC) Beat Central Michigan 31-10 Steve Aponavicius (Easton) Sr. PK, 5-10,. 193. Game: 3-for-3 on PATs, 18-yard FG. Season: 32-for-32 on PATs; 7-for-7 on FGs. BROWN 4-3, 2-2 (Ivy League) Lost to Penn 14-7 Brendan Gallagher (Parkland) Sr. LB, 6-1, 225. Game: 1…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Two of the area’s top men’s basketball players, Lehigh senior guard Marquis Hall and Kutztown senior guard Stephen Dennis, earned preseason honors on Thursday. Hall, a former Patriot League rookie of the year, was named the preseason player of the year and will try to join…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Your football program is in serious trouble when its internal problems are just as heavy as its external ones, caused by bickering, losing, and parents trying to market their sons as if they’re free agents. That was the shambles Bethlehem Catholic was in while posting a 4-7…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →ARMY 2-2 (Independent) Lost to Iowa State 31-10 Mike McDermott (Bethlehem Catholic) So. OT, 6-6, 255. Game: Played. BOSTON COLLEGE 3-1, 1-1 (ACC) Beat Wake Forest 27-24 (2 OT) Steve Aponavicius (Easton) Sr. PK, 5-10, 193. Game: 3-for-3 on PAT, 2-for-2 on FGs of 32, 23 yards.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The fourth quarter was wild and entertaining, the kind of helter-skelter stuff that probably made first-year Bethlehem Catholic coach Mike Palos feel a lot older than 31 years old. Wait until next week when Bethlehem Catholic plays Central Catholic in the “Holy War” in…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Gatorade Replay Team invited Easton and Phillipsburg players to The Club at Morgan Hill in Easton Monday night for an encore. The game, organized to help settle a 7-7 tie from Thanksgiving day in 1993, was won 27-12 by Phillipsburg before 14,000 on April 26 at Lafayette…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning didn’t have to give Phillipsburg quarterback Keith Kullman any tips. “Our guys had it going on,” Manning said Sunday, following Gatorade’s Replay football game between Easton and Phillipsburg at Lafayette College’s Fisher Stadium. Indeed.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →A nip-and-tuck 3,200-meter relay turned lopsided once University of Tennessee freshman sensation Chanelle Price took the baton for the second leg Saturday. The former Easton High middle distance state and national champion has a history of racing away from the pack. Fueled by…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Gatorade may have picked the right two high schools, the right two communities and the right time of year to stage a replay of a football game between Easton and Phillipsburg that ended in a 7-7 tie in 1993. Many players who competed to the disappointing deadlock in that…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Editor’s note: Today is the final article in a weekly series of Q&As;, including video, with participants in Gatorade’s Easton-Phillipsburg Replay football game at 3 p.m. Sunday at Lafayette College’s Fisher Field. Gatorade required The Morning Call to submit questions to…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Editor’s note: Today is the third article in a weekly series of Q&As;, including video, with participants in Gatorade’s Easton-Phillipsburg Replay football game to be held at 3 p.m., April 26, at Lafayette College’s Fisher Field. Gatorade required The Morning Call to submit…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Brian Westbrook recalled the one high school football game he wished he could play again. The Eagles running back also expressed envy over the Easton and Phillipsburg players who will get the chance to settle the score over their Thanksgiving Day game 16 years ago that ended in…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Editor’s note: Today is the second article in a weekly series of Q&As;, including video, with participants in Gatorade’s Easton-Phillipsburg Replay football game at 3 p.m., April 26, at Lafayette College’s Fisher Field. Gatorade required The Morning Call to submit questions to…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Editor’s note: Today we begin a weekly series of Q&As;, including video, on participants in Gatorade’s Easton-Phillipsburg Replay football game at 3 p.m., April 26 at Lafayette College’s Fisher Field. Gatorade required The Morning Call to submit questions to players in advance…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Lehigh University women’s basketball team went on a sightseeing tour of New York City Thursday night. Something unexpected happened. “We went to David and Buster’s and watched American play Villanova,” said sophomore guard Erica Prosser with a sparkle in her eyes on Friday…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It seemed like Lehigh sophomore guard Erica Prosser was standing at the free-throw line, her team down a point with one second left. But she instead was sitting in front of a large television screen among teammates, coaches, school administrators and media watching the NCAA…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Melissa Rich never got discouraged when she went from starting forward her sophomore and junior seasons at Lehigh to a backup role earlier this season. The former Parkland High star just believed that she’d eventually get her opportunity to deliver in the clutch for Lehigh. That…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It’s Brown and White against Maroon and White. It’s Bethlehem against Easton. For the first time since 1997, it’s Lehigh against Lafayette for the Patriot League women’s basketball tournament title at 6 tonight at Stabler Arena. It seemed like an unlikely showdown when the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Led by a trio of pesky guards, Lehigh cranked it up and blitzed Army with 14 consecutive second-half points Sunday afternoon. That decisive run enabled the Mountain Hawks to turn a two-point deficit into a 12-point advantage in the Patriot League women’s tournament semifinals at…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →March is filled with Cinderella tales and Lafayette is writing its own in the Patriot League women’s tournament. Loser of 10 in a row entering the postseason, seventh-seeded Lafayette turned the seemingly improbable into a reality with its second consecutive win, a 62-55…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Lehigh women’s basketball team essentially climbed to the top of the mountain during the Patriot League’s regular season. Lehigh, led by first-team Patriot League guard Erica Prosser, went 12-2 in league play, which included a 7-0 mark at Stabler Arena. The league wins are…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The men’s basketball teams at Lehigh and Lafayette both ended the regular season in a way coaches fret about and in a way players wish they could have back. Lehigh, considered a preseason Patriot League title contender, lost its final three games and lost six of its last eight…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette has a young basketball team that has been on a seesaw ride all season. Four days after an emotional win over rival Lehigh, the Leopards missed a barrage of jumpers, layups and free throws against Army Wednesday night at Kirby Sports Center. The lethargic shooting — not…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette has a young basketball team that has been on a seesaw ride all season. Four days after an emotional win over rival Lehigh, the Leopards missed a barrage of jumpers, layups and free throws against Army Wednesday night at Kirby Sports Center. The lethargic shooting — not…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →March is not here yet. It just seemed like it Sunday afternoon as rivals Lehigh and Lafayette played a March Madness-like game at Stabler Arena. It featured a momentum shifts galore, fierce scrambles for loose balls, five ties, six lead changes, and spirited taunts…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It was a Lehigh and Lafayette women’s basketball game that had more falls than a professional wrestling battle royal Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center. The roughhouse play better suited Lehigh, which relied on its height, bench and overall talent advantages to prevail…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It’s imaginable to go undefeated in conference play. It just doesn’t happen too often on any level in college basketball. Which is why the Muhlenberg women, 16-0 in Centennial Conference play, are determined to win at Dickinson tonight and at Ursinus on Saturday to close out the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Even before Canadian-born Jared Mintz could crawl, his father, Irv, decided what sport his son was going to play. “My dad put the [basket]ball in my crib,” Mintz, now a Lafayette College sophomore, recalled. Mintz was not going to be a great hockey player, even though Canada has…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette experienced a 10-minute stretch in the second half of its Patriot League contest against Holy Cross where shots did not fall, where defensive stops were not made, and where a game that was tied just got away Saturday afternoon in Easton. The Leopards, who played…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Levi Brown, an all-state defensive lineman at Liberty, pointed jubilantly to the Temple Owls’ hat on his head, then smiled as he looked out into the standing room-only crowd inside the school’s Arts Gallery on Wednesday. Liberty football coach Tim Moncman then came up and rubbed…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The final 10 seconds of a wild game between rivals Lehigh and Lafayette was decided by free throws Saturday in Easton. Lafayette’s Jared Mintz missed his two foul shots, but Lehigh’s Zahir Carrington converted his two attempts with 3.0 seconds left to lift the Mountain Hawks to…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh and Lafayette are both winless on the road in Patriot League games and that does not bode well for Lehigh on Saturday afternoon, because that’s when the Mountain Hawks will visit the Leopards at Kirby Sports Center. Lafayette is 2-0 at home and beat expected Patriot…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette drained the charge out of Navy in final three minutes with clutch shooting that included 8-for-8 perfection from the free throw line Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center. Senior guard Andrew Brown closed out the Leopards’ 84-69 win with two free throws with 33…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Everywhere Temple guard Dionte Christmas dribbled, Lafayette’s Jeff Kari seemed to be there Friday night. For the first 12 minutes, Kari’s relentless defense worked well because Christmas, a preseason All-Atlantic 10 player and All-American candidate, was scoreless. Kari was…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Everywhere Temple guard Dionte Christmas dribbled, Lafayette’s Jeff Kari seemed to be there Friday night. For the first 12 minutes, Kari’s relentless defense worked well because Christmas, a preseason All-Atlantic 10 player and All-American candidate, was scoreless. Kari was…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon usually likes to wait until January — when Patriot League games begin — to express what he likes and dislikes about his team and players. The Leopards improved to 2-0 with an 80-71 non-league win over Stony Brook in their home opener at Kirby Sports…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →One senior is better than none. Fortunately for Lafayette, its one senior is fourth-year starting guard Andrew Brown, who is one of the best players in the Patriot League. Brown led the Leopards in scoring last season at 15.9 points per game and he’ll have a bunch of baby-faced…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Tammy Smith had been waiting for last season to come. She waited seven years for it. The Lafayette women’s basketball team was 14-16 in 2007-08, its best record in her tenure. It was a R-E-L-I-E-F. The Leopards were just 27-143 in Smith’s first six seasons, finishing in last…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh returns with what no other Patriot League team has. Junior guard Marquis Hall and sophomore guard Rob Keefer have won the league’s last two Rookie of the Year awards. This season, the guard duo will be depended on to help the Mountain Hawks contend for the league title in…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →So much for playing easy non-league basketball games. The Lafayette College men’s and women’s basketball teams are not doing that. The men, despite losing three senior starters to graduation, will host defending Atlantic 10 tournament champion Temple on Nov. 21 at Kirby Sports…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →ALBANY 4-3, 3-0 (Northeast) Beat Sacred Heart 26-21 Justin Peterson (Palmerton) Fr. RB 2-0, 225. Game: One catch, 2 yards. Season: Four catches, 20 yards, one TD; two assisted tackles. BOSTON COLLEGE 5-1, 2-1 (ACC) Beat Virginia Tech 28-23 Steve Aponavicius (Easton) Sr. PK,…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The mark of a good coach is not only winning and making the playoffs on a consistent basis, but how well he teaches and develops other men to become just as successful as he is when they’re in charge of their own programs. Emmaus coach Joe Bottiglieri is a frontrunner in that…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →BOSTON COLLEGE 2-1 (Atlantic Coast Conference) Beat Central Florida 34-7 Steve Aponavicius (Easton) Sr. PK, 5-10, 198. Game: 4-for-4 on PATs; 2-for-3 on FGs of 22 and 25 yards. Season: 8-for-8 on PATs; 5-for-7 on FGs. BROWN 1-0 (Ivy League) Beat Stony Brook 17-7 Brendan…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →For a break from March Madness, here’s an important announcement from Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon: Speed, shooters and height are coming to College Hill in the fall. The veteran Leopards coach announced his second scholarship class on Wednesday, and it includes 6-10, 250-pound…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Lehigh women’s basketball team has to travel 120-some miles to try and accomplish what it could not do in the Lehigh Valley. That’s beat Lafayette, which swept the season series between the rivals. The Patriot League tournament quarterfinals open today at Army, and…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh freshman guard Rob Keefer scored six points in his first game, eight in his second and 12 in his third. Get the picture? He continued to improve, and eventually became a starter, winning six Patriot League rookie of the week awards. A graduate of Abington Friends, Keefer…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The only thing Lehigh senior forward Bryan White ever asked for when he entered the program four years ago was an opportunity to showcase his talents. With it, the 6-6 leaping machine from Plantation, Fla., promised that he’d pour every ounce of energy from his slim frame to try…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh is one of the most unpredictable teams, playing in one of the most unpredictable conferences in America. But in a season of ups and downs galore in the Patriot League, Lehigh pieced together a 50-39 victory over Bucknell on Wednesday night at Stabler Arena that rekindled…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Brett Reed is in a battle over a lot of things in his first season as Lehigh’s head coach. There’s the battle to maintain consistency and to earn at least one home game in the Patriot League tournament, something the Mountain Hawks (12-13, 5-6) — currently No. 4 — will secure if…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →American University guard Garrison Carr appears to be the leading candidate to win the Patriot League’s player of the year award. How can he not be? Carr, who’s gone from bench warmer in his first two seasons to the most feared guard in the league as a junior, is averaging 18.3…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →After losing back-to-back overtime games, Colgate appeared headed for what it feared most Wednesday night at Lafayette’s Kirby Sports Center. And that was another overtime. That’s what would have happened if Lafayette’s Matt Betley had converted all three of his free-throw…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette has to play five more Patriot League war games, which is the way conference games tend to be throughout the country this time of season. Once the surprise team in the league after starting 5-1 for the first time since 1998-99, Lafayette has now lost three straight…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The free throw is the only shot in basketball that’s always uncontested, but it can also be the hardest shot when there’s less than a second left and your team is down by a point. That was the pressure-filled situation Lafayette senior Matt Betley was in after being fouled on…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Perfection on the basketball court is hard to achieve, which is why DeSales junior Kim Rarick chose to give her team a “B” as a midseason grade. The Bulldogs, under veteran coach Fred Richter, are 11-3 and considered a contender for the Freedom Conference championship. “Nobody…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series of in-depth interviews with Lehigh Valley sports figures. Thirteen games into his first college basketball head coaching job, Lehigh coach Brett Reed is trying to develop a Patriot League championship contender out of a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It’s the year after the 100th Thanksgiving Day meeting between Easton and Phillipsburg and everything surrounding the game is different. “Yeah, quite a bit,” Easton coach Steve Shiffert said. “I think it’s to be expected … that the build up is not the same, but I think you have…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Jarred Holley was the last Easton player standing on the Bensalem High field on a cold December afternoon in 2004, answering questions and putting a season that had finally ended with a playoff loss to Neshaminy in proper perspective. You would have thought that he was a senior…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →As Billy Taylor’s top assistant coach the last five seasons, Brett Reed helped restore credibility to the Lehigh men’s basketball program. Now, Reed is the head coach succeeding Taylor, who left in August to take over the troubled Ball State program. With Reed’s new role also…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →ARMY 3-6 (Independent) Lost to Air Force 30-10 Marcus Millen (Easton) Sr. DE 6-0, 228. Game: One solo tackle, one assist. Season: Four solo tackles, two assisted. BOSTON COLLEGE 8-1, 4-1 (Atlantic Coast Conference) Lost to Florida State 27 -17 Steve Aponavicius (Easton) Jr. K…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Whitehall senior Matt Hamscher was offended by not being mentioned as a player to watch in the Morning Call’s high school football preview issue in August. It was a mistake, a big one, and it just goes to show that really good players get overlooked. Hamscher doesn’t have to…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Liberty senior Ahkeem Smith is ready to carry the offensive load, and his teammates, on his shoulders. It’s a big task, especially considering one of his teammates is 6-3, 315-pound two-way tackle Levi Brown. But Smith has waited four years to be in the spotlight and to be a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →George Bright has spent the last 27 years proving wrong the high school guidance counselor who once told him he might not be much more than a shoe store manager. Bright, Lafayette College’s associate athletic director the last five years, has been succeeding for years, and he’s…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Dieruff has not had a top-notch boys track and field athlete since Andrew Battle nine years ago and not a standout sprinter since Stacy McCarthy won the District 11 Class 3A title in the 100- and 200-meter dashes in 1996. There have been a lot of downs since then, but first-year…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Mother Nature frowned on the Penn Relays on Friday. But Whitehall senior Andy Fahringer didn’t use the grey clouds, drizzle, and slippery runway as an excuse for not winning the high school javelin championship event at Rhodes Field. The competition was just the best field he’s…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Patriot League Tournament starts next Wednesday with the top four seeds hosting quarterfinal games. The two remaining highest seeds will host semifinal games next Sunday. The championship game will be held at the surviving highest seed. This is the first year the league has…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Fran O’Hanlon is now the winningest coach at Lafayette College with 171 victories, a distinction he earned with a double-overtime victory over Lehigh last Sunday. He won’t be presented with a game ball — with the date, score and team Lafayette beat painted on the ball — until…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh scrapped hard for every basket, rebound, and steal it got Wednesday night. But that determined effort didn’t result in victory against Bucknell, which prevailed in a 69-56 victory before a crowd of 2,530 at Stabler Arena. The Bison dominated Lehigh in most categories, but…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh picked the wrong Lafayette player to foul Sunday afternoon with 1.6 seconds left in the second overtime. That’s because Lafayette senior guard Jamaal Hilliard is an 81-percent free-throw shooter, and was just waiting for the opportunity to close out his final home game at…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh University center Jason Mgebroff didn’t return with a bang in his first game of 2007 on Wednesday night. But coach Billy Taylor was not discouraged by the five points Mgebroff scored in the Mountain Hawks’ 56-53 overtime win over Colgate in a Patriot League matchup in…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It appears as if Lehigh freshman guard Marquis Hall has never lifted a weight to try and strengthen his upper and lower body. But Lehigh coach Billy Taylor’s isn’t worried about the look of Hall’s body because of the smooth way Hall has run the Mountain Hawks’ offense over the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It’s all over. There are no more college recruiting trips to take, no more worrying about whether this school or that school is the right fit. Childhood dreams of playing college football were brought one step closer to reality by several Lehigh Valley Conference standout…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →American University guard Andre Ingram is one of those players who seems like he’s been playing college basketball for a lot longer than just four years. Lafayette probably wishes Ingram, a senior, had already graduated. That’s because once again the Leopards couldn’t contain…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Debate continues as to whether college women’s basketball teams should be allowed to use male practice players. It probably wouldn’t be that much of a big deal now, if it were not for the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics calling for ban on male practice players in December.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Jose Olivero believed he had a strong game. Kyle Neptune wanted him to prove it. That was four summers ago, when both were incoming freshmen at Lehigh. Olivero was coming from the Washington metropolitan area, Neptune from Brooklyn, N.Y. They were both guards, Neptune three…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →DeSales College has to move forward and forget its stinker Tuesday night in Madison, N.J. Losing 72-38 to FDU-Florham was bad — really bad — considering the Bulldogs were just 1-for-16 on 3-pointers and 15-for-56 overall from the field for 27 percent shooting. Also bad is that…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →No high school football game was hyped more, garnered as many headlines or had a better atmosphere than the 100th Thanksgiving Day meeting between Easton and Phillipsburg, which is why this game ranks as The Morning Call’s No. 3 local sports story of the year. It also was the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Liberty High coach Tim Moncman and Wilson coach Bret Comp have identical 27-3 records over the last two seasons. For the second straight season, both men have also led their teams into a PIAA championship game in Hershey. It is the first time in Lehigh Valley football history…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →A few Liberty players showed up at practice on Monday still sore, some really sore. “That will go away as the week goes on,” Liberty offensive coordinator Bill DeNofa said. “It’s OK to be a little dinged up after 17 weeks.” But it’s not OK to be on crutches, which is the way…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Ron Rohn is winning at a faster rate than any past Muhlenberg coaches, and sometime next season, he’ll be the school’s all-time winningest coach. It took Tammy Smith, now coaching at Lafayette, seven seasons to win 113 games at Muhlenberg. Smith also lost 68 games during her…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Easton junior defensive end Keenan Walls may finally give in and play basketball, something his parents have been begging him to do for years. With his leaping ability, it might not be a bad idea, especially if he proves he can rise on the hardwood with the same tenacity he…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Easton came from the right and left with blitzes and bulldozed through the middle, and each time the result was punishment for Phillipsburg on Thursday morning at Lafayette College’s Fisher Stadium. Often, it was Phillipsburg quarterback Justin Viscomi being swarmed, and on one…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Sports events that are rich in spirit and tradition can help ease the mind and soothe the heart when it is pained from personal tragedy. Perhaps, the 100th Thanksgiving Day meeting between Easton and Phillipsburg Thursday at Lafayette College’s Fisher Field will do that for…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →With the exception of playing quarterback in midget football in Palmer Township, the only other experience Easton senior Jon Baltz had throwing the ball before this season was when he used to goof off with friends in backyard games. But despite his lack of experience, he’s…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Last week, all Liberty heard about was talk about the Easton-Parkland District 11 showdown. This week, the majority of attention throughout the Lehigh Valley is on the 100th Thanksgiving Day meeting between Easton and Phillipsburg at Lafayette College’s Fisher Field. There’s…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Steve Shiffert that Easton High fans see intensely pacing the sidelines with his trademark white towel either hanging on his shoulders or gripped tightly in his hands, has a different demeanor on Sundays. Sundays are not only his day of peace. They are his days to get out of…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →There will be television cameras at Fisher Field on Thanksgiving Day, and that alone tells you that this isn’t just another game, just another meeting between Easton and Phillipsburg. This is meeting No. 100, which in our psyche adds another layer to a rivalry that already means…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Don’t pay too much attention to Phillipsburg senior quarterback Justin Viscomi’s skinny body. It doesn’t matter that he’s only 5-11, 170, or that he played defensive back his first two years at Phillipsburg, seeing no action behind center. Bob Stem returned to Phillipsburg last…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Emmaus football coach Joe Bottiglieri grew up two blocks from Easton’s Cottingham Stadium and had early ambitions to play for the Red Rovers. He eventually did suit up for Easton and then went on to play at the collegiate level. After graduating from Easton in 1966, he played a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Liberty coach Tim Moncman, a former linebacker at Lafayette College, a married man with two young children, and at times a father-figure to many of his players, deserves some praise. Even if his Hurricanes don’t make it back to Hershey to compete in the PIAA Class 4A…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Jeff Pammer picked up speed, lowered his shoulder and laid a mean hit on Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka. “I was running from 7 yards away and I just said to myself, “Ah man, this is going to be nice,’ ” said Pammer, the starting free safety at the University of New…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The only reason there would be a lengthy debate on who’s the best quarterback in the area is because none of the bigger schools in the Lehigh Valley Conference or Mountain Valley Conference will put Pius X on its schedule. Can’t blame the Colonial League since its 10-game…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Harold Bellis has experienced every aspect of the Easton-Phillipsburg rivalry for the last 73 years. Now 90 years old, Bellis is the oldest living man to have played and coached at Phillipsburg. “I saw my first game when I was 10 years old, 1926, and ever since then I’ve been at…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →As the 100th Thanksgiving Day meeting between Easton and Phillipsburg draws nearer, memories of the rivalry’s greatest games, players, and coaches come flooding back. There have been scoreless ties in 1944 and 1967, unexpected blowouts, like Easton’s 31-0 victory in 2004 in a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Rushane Scott is still running on clouds. He can’t help it because his emotions have remained high. Last Saturday, Allen’s standout senior accomplished what no Lehigh Valley sprinter had done in 41 years when he won the Class 3A 100-meter dash at the PIAA Track and Field…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It didn’t take long for Tyrone Faverey to become one of the state’s top high jumpers. The Parkland senior track and field star won the PIAA Track and Field Class 3A high jump title last year at Shippensburg University in just his third year as a jumper. He’s considered a state…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette won’t be small in the middle next season. Nor the season the follows. Marek Koltun, a 6-10, 265-pounder, will likely be manning the paint, and who knows what towers Leopards coach Fran O’Hanlon will get to commit to Lafayette next spring. After all, O’Hanlon now has…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh coach Billy Taylor is playing a waiting game to see if he’ll be offered the vacant men’s basketball head coaching job at the University of Pennsylvania. Taylor confirmed in a statement released by Lehigh officials on Thursday that he has been contacted by Penn athletic…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Breathe easy, Lafayette. Fran O’Hanlon won’t be cleaning out his office anytime soon — not even for the temptation to return to Philadelphia. O’Hanlon said Monday that he’s happy as Lafayette’s men’s basketball coach and not a candidate for the vacant job at the University of…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Villanova senior Allan Ray found out more about the New York City streets than he wanted to Friday night. He didn’t like it. Not even close, and the thing about it is he wasn’t driving. Instead, he was a passenger in an ambulance that was transporting him to St. Vincent Hospital…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Back in November, Lehigh junior guard Jose Olivero was dejected when he found out that he was not named to the All-Patriot League preseason team. He posted that team up on his dormitory wall to fuel his desire to prove that he deserved to be considered among the league’s elite…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →There’s little doubt that Lehigh and Bucknell have a heated rivalry, especially since six of the last eight meetings have been decided by five points or less. You’d expect the fans, those who are loyal, to be more jacked up than normal when the two Patriot League teams meet. The…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →This is the week that college basketball players dream about, and it’s when coaches really earn their pay. This is a week for all fans to enjoy, at the Division I, II and III levels. On of the biggest games will involve the area’s hottest men’s team. Lehigh (18-9, 11-1) will try…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh posted its 10th Patriot League victory, 67-58 over Colgate, Wednesday night at Stabler Arena. Now the Mountain Hawks are six days away from a rematch with No. 24 Bucknell in Lewisburg. “My dad told me that rankings are nothing but a number,” said sophomore Bryan White.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →“February Madness” has arrived for local teams at DeSales, Moravian and Muhlenberg. That’s because playoff seeds and berths are on the line. The DeSales women (14-9, 8-4) will have their chance to punch a Freedom Conference playoff ticket with a road victory over Delaware Valley…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The only way to earn respect is to ante up and get on with it, which is what Lafayette women’s basketball coach Tammy Smith finally decided to do entering her 27th year of coaching. She stopped worrying about matters out of her control, like Lafayette not offering any…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh University coach Billy Taylor is contending for his third Patriot League coach of the year honor in four years. That’s because Lehigh is once again contending for the league title, entering this week 7-1 in league play, just 11/2 games behind Bucknell. Taylor does not…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh men will get another shot at Bucknell Feb. 22 in Lewisburg, and that could be for a first-place tie in the Patriot League. Bucknell finished the first-half of league play 7-0 — with Lehigh at 6-1 and wishing that shots had fallen a different way when the Bison visited…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Lehigh women’s basketball team experienced a season-low Saturday in Easton, losing to Lafayette, which entered 0-3 in the Patriot League. Rivalry games bring out the best in both teams, but the theory of throwing out records should not apply when the Lehigh and Lafayette…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh’s student fans have a chance to prove that they are more loyal than fairweather Wednesday night. They have a chance to get rowdy and become a more effective “sixth man.” They have chance to prove that Stabler Arena is a place you need to bring earplugs to rather than a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh athletic director Joe Sterrett has placed the blame on his administration for the misinterpretation of an NCAA rule regarding academic requirements that led to senior Joe Knight being ruled ineligible for 16 games. But sorry does not cut it for a school that prides itself…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Bruce Hall’s talent as a scorer wasn’t being maximized at Cheyney University, so he transferred to Kutztown and is now having a high-scoring senior season. His passion for the game remained high even after he averaged just 10.6 points and 3.0 rebounds in two seasons at Cheyney,…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Muhlenberg coach Dave Madeira knows a Division I player when he sees one, and his eyes lit up when he first saw Lehigh junior guard Jose Olivero catch the ball, turn and bury a 3-pointer with such ease on Wednesday night. Not just once, not just twice but five times in Lehigh’s…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Each December, Lafayette men’s basketball coach Fran O’Hanlon schedules a Division III team that he hopes will provide an easy victory. He’s smart for doing it, since the game is scheduled during a period when practice is voluntary because of exams. “For a number of them we…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →They made jokes, lots of them. They will do so again tonight, and maybe even on Saturday before making the first-ever trip to Hershey for a Bethlehem Area School District team to play for a PIAA football championship. Pressure, you see, is easier to deal with when you share…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette’s fun-and-gun style of basketball was enjoyed by those in attendance Tuesday night at Kirby Sports Center in Easton. But coach Fran O’Hanlon wasn’t always happy with his trigger-happy, 3-point-launching players, despite the fact that the Leopards’ fire-it-up style made…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →This college basketball season will not be devoid of upsets. They’re already happening, and the biggest so far was Bucknell’s 74-69 win over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome last Tuesday. Lafayette pulled off another stunner on Sunday afternoon, beating favored Princeton on the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Andres Morales is the Homecoming king at Liberty, but he’s no pretty boy. The Hurricanes senior linebacker considers himself the opposite, because what he does on the field is not pretty. He hits hard, and doesn’t care if he gets bruised in the process. There are days following…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →For 33 years, including 23 straight at Temple, Hall of Fame coach John Chaney has never gone into a game and had fun. Before tipoff, Chaney’s suit coat is off, his tie is loosened, and his sleeves are rolled up. Soon, he revs into high gear, screaming, stomping his feet and…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Junior guard Jose Olivero didn’t hesitate when he was asked to be Lehigh’s student-athlete representative at the Patriot League’s media day Thursday at the College Sports Television Network, located at Chelsea’s Pier. That’s because the event was in the Big Apple, the one city…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →An athletic defeat is nowhere near as tough to deal with as a life casualty because the latter can hurt forever. Through eight games, Liberty coach Tim Moncman’s team has been perfect and he’d like to keep it that way with a victory over Easton Friday night at Cottingham…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Liberty coach Tim Moncman has a quick response to parents who complain about play-calling and about playing time for their sons, even if that player has Division I talent. “I’d say go some place else,” Moncman said. Another high school, another program, another coach might…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Larry Holmes has finally put his guard down. One reason is because he now knows how well thought of he is by longtime boxing commentators Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant. And he now knows how one of the men he once bloodied en route to a 13th-round technical knockout in a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Bob Goffredo was on the sidelines waiting to be transported to the hospital in his last high school football game, an all-star classic at Catasauqua in 1982. But he was cognizant enough to know the outcome. “Yeah, we won,” said Goffredo, now the Pius X football coach. “The boys…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Most minor league basketball players pray for an invitation to an NBA training camp. Allentown’s Sammy Barona just hoped for an opportunity to play for the Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs of the United States Basketball League. He’s finally on the roster and more excited than ever…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Southern Lehigh seniors Justin Babich and Mike Snowden will try to lead the Spartans to another memorable Penn Relays finish at Franklin Field. Meanwhile, two first-time participants, distance runners Sam Luff of Emmaus and Tyler McCandless of Northampton, will try to achieve…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The United States Basketball League enters its 20th season on shaky ground. It has shrunk from 11 teams to eight and went into the 11th hour to try to revive the Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs, the team it once considered its flagship operation. As of Monday afternoon, the defending…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Billy Taylor insists that he was not interested in the no-longer-available UNC-Greensboro job and that he’s not going to pursue any other vacancy. He’s excited about building for his fourth season, one that figures to be his most challenging as the Mountain Hawks try to rebound…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh coach Sue Troyan has finally earned the Patriot League Coach of the Year award that her star senior Jessica DePalo thought Troyan deserved four years ago. DePalo’s league-best 18.0 points per game, to go with her 5.4 rebounds and 47.9 percent field-goal shooting and…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →This time of the college basketball season, opinions on teams can vary from week-to-week, depending on how those teams play. Good teams don’t falter, suspect ones do. Last week, I touted Lafayette for having won two straight games. Then the Leopards got wiped out by a 71-33…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh did not die easy. And Lafayette refused to die on its own court. The Leopards had an 11-point lead with 1:48 remaining, which dwindled down to one, before settling for an 81-76 victory Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center. Lafayette had lost its previous game by 19…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Teams that make postseason runs in March usually start to play harder and smarter and win more convincingly at this time of the season. Lafayette has done that in its last two Patriot League games. Teams that have short runs in March usually do what Lehigh has done over its last…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh coach Billy Taylor called on his reserves to try and help rescue the Mountain Hawks from defeat against Navy Saturday night at Stabler Arena. It almost worked, but almost isn’t good enough. Numerous inconsistencies were too much to overcome, resulting in Lehigh’s 76-75…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Heartbreak City no longer has Lafayette as a tenant. Jamaal Hilliard, who ranks ninth in the nation in free-throw shooting, made sure of it. Hilliard made two free throws with 6.8 seconds left to clinch a 93-89 Patriot League overtime victory over American Saturday before a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Saint Joseph’s is making another run at the NCAA Tournament. And the Hawks don’t even control Philadelphia. But that’s the beauty of college basketball because rankings and computers do not determine a team’s fate. Saint Joe’s (12-9) can advance to the “Big Dance” for the third…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Bucknell coach Pat Flannery did not allow his spirits to be dampened after losing to Lehigh 57-54 on a Joe Knight 3-pointer at the buzzer Sunday at Stabler Arena. Flannery had missed three games because of an undisclosed medical condition. He hated being out, hated not having to…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Drexel University senior Danny Hinds is not about to let a fractured left wrist keep him out of the Dragons’ starting lineup. He’s worked too hard to get into it, so he’s not about to let discomfort in his non-shooting hand spoil his last season. Besides, Drexel coach Bruiser…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It’s no surprise that “The Sopranos” is Lehigh senior Nick Monserez’s favorite television show. He’s just tough, especially when he defends and rebounds as emphatically as he did in the Mountain Hawks’ 63-45 Patriot League victory over Army Friday at Stabler Arena. “He’s…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Villanova’s non-league schedule had been nothing to boast about, except for games against Big 5 rivals Temple and Pennsylvania. But Saturday, the Wildcats took a break from from the Big East to play second-ranked Kansas at the Wachovia Center. There wasn’t supposed to be…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette knew what was coming, but could not stop the Penn Quakers Tuesday night. That’s because the Quakers constantly scored off sharp cuts into the lane, dominated the boards, chalked up their share of steals and flew all over the Kirby Sports Center hardwood as if it were…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh’s Patriot League opponents are not having many good nights trying to contain Mountain Hawks junior guard Joe Knight. The 6-1 transfer from High Point University has turned into a clutch late-game performer, hitting the game-winning shot with 25.4 seconds left in a 56-53…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Neither Lehigh nor Lafayette won style points on offense, but they might have impressed a boxing promoter with the way they battled in their first Patriot League meeting of the season Wednesday night in Stabler Arena. In one fierce second-half flurry, Lehigh’s Nick Monserez and…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Perhaps the person who makes up the Patriot League schedule overlooked the fact that Lehigh and Lafayette are two neighboring teams with a storied rivalry. Otherwise, the first league meeting between the two would not have been scheduled for 8 tonight at Stabler Arena while both…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The excitement is slowly returning to Navy basketball. Though the Midshipmen’s 4-9 start has included a 75-69 loss to Division III Gettysburg on Dec. 18 in Annapolis, first-year coach Billy Lange is not discouraged. A stale offense was the main reason the Midshipmen compiled a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The real Patriot League games began Saturday. For Lafayette, no more top-25 teams like Louisville and Georgia Tech, both of whom drubbed the Leopards by more than 30 points. Lafayette will now only play teams more on its level, but those teams are more familiar with the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →For the first time in his life, John O’Connor is far away from Philly cheesesteaks and the City of Brotherly Love, in which he grew up. His living situations, not to mention diet, are much different these days. His job as Georgia Tech’s director of basketball operations is also…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College’s talent pool is not as depleted as the Patriot League’s sports information directors and coaches preseason poll seemed to suggest. The Leopards were picked to finish sixth. It’s too late to change, but Lafayette will finish closer to the top than the bottom in…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The speed and leaping ability of No. 9 Georgia Tech was unlike anything Lafayette College contends with in the Patriot League. But for 29 minutes Tuesday night, the Leopards were not overwhelmed by the Yellow Jackets. Lafayette actually held a four-point lead in the first half…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College has a slim chance of pulling off this college basketball season’s biggest upset Tuesday night in a non-league game against No. 9 Georgia Tech in Atlanta. But the Leopards (3-6) may not get too blown out of Alexander Memorial Coliseum, which is located on the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →For the first six minutes of the first half, Division III Moravian was taking it to Division I Lafayette Wednesday night at Kirby Sports Center. Their umpers were falling, they were forcing turnovers, and the Greyhounds built a five-point lead. But then the talent disparity set…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette will experience on Dec. 28 what former Allen High star Ray Barbosa has already experienced when the James Madison sophomore and his teammates played then-No. 3 Georgia Tech Dec. 15 in Atlanta. Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon is in no rush to find out. “They are pretty…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →His shoulders and ankles are fine now, but his knees now ache so much after games that Drexel University senior Danny Hinds often has to ice them for several minutes after games. “I’m getting older,” Hinds, a Central Catholic High graduate, said after a recent game at Lafayette…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette may be in for a long and frustrating season. And the Leopards’ 78-67 non-league loss to Drexel Tuesday night at Kirby Sports Center may not be the worst of their woes. The Leopards (1-3) still have to play at No. 17 Louisville in the Cardinals’ home opener Saturday and…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Thanksgiving is for feasting. The big gifts aren’t supposed to come until Christmas. But opportunistic Easton collected early against mistake-prone Phillipsburg in the 98th Turkey Day Bowl before a sold out crowd Thursday at Lafayette College’s Fisher Field. And Easton defensive…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Thanksgiving is for feasting. The big gifts aren’t supposed to come until Christmas. But opportunistic Easton collected early against mistake-prone Phillipsburg in the 98th Turkey Day Bowl before a sold out crowd Thursday at Lafayette College’s Fisher Field. And Easton defensive…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The 98th Thanksgiving Day meeting between Easton and Phillipsburg is not just a game for bragging rights. It’s for historic achievement since both teams will enter Lafayette College’s Fisher Field Thursday morning undefeated for the first time since 1958: Easton at 11-0,…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Easton’s defense bailed out its offense with a takeaway, life-sucking performance over the final 14 minutes, leaving Liberty devastated at the final whistle in the PIAA Class 4A sub-regional championship Friday night at Cottingham Stadium. In that time frame, Red Rovers…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Easton coach Steve Shiffert would rather forget about the 2001 District 11 Championship Game, and hope that his players don’t dwell on the memory too much, either. It’s not easy because Easton carried a 10-0 record into the 4A title game against Bethlehem Catholic and got routed…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →COLLEGE BUCKNELL 3-3, 1-1 (Patriot) Lost 14-13 to Lafayette Mike Cangelosi (Nazareth) Sr. 6-0, 197. Game: Three carries, 19 yards; one catch, 24 yards. Season: 10 carries, 69 yards, TD; four catches, 37 yards. DELAWARE 5-1, 4-0 (Atl. 10) Beat Hofstra 20-19 Sean Bleiler…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Defending Patriot League tournament champion Lehigh isn’t worried about preseason predictions. They’ve been wrong the last two seasons. So Lehigh coach Billy Taylor doesn’t consider it a snub that the Mountain Hawks have been picked by the league’s coaches and sports information…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Easton’s highly-touted band figures to rock in the stands as the Red Rovers football team goes after the 700th win in school history against Dieruff at 7 tonight at J. Birney Crum Stadium. It’s big. Maybe, the biggest storyline in the LVC in Week 3, but in an unusual twist, it…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Central Catholic coach Donnie Roberts may be one of the luckiest coaches in the history of the McDonald’s Lehigh Valley All-Star Football Classic. He has a quarterback for every situation. If you like pass-happy offenses, which Roberts does, he has quarterbacks who can…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Artie Owens made sure he did his offseason conditioning work when he was with the San Diego Chargers in the late 1970s and 80s, but he also made sure he scheduled his vacation time around the Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Owens had been a football and track and field star at…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Heaven received a prayer from the Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs Tuesday night that may forever go unanswered. The prayer is that Saint Joseph’s guard Jameer Nelson goes from his postseason sweep of all the major national player of the year awards to wearing a ValleyDawgs uniform in…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →In 1997, Lafayette College’s Winston Davis was the skinny 15-year-old high school sophomore with the crazy hops participating in the Kingdom of the Sun Slam Dunk Contest in Florida. But, that year the the older players, like one 18-year-old Jumaine Jones, had even crazier hops…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →American University advanced to its third straight Patriot League Tournament championship game with a victory 65-55 over Colgate on Sunday. But the Eagles would have felt cheated had Lehigh not also won. That’s because the Eagles’ two regular-season losses to Lehigh remain sore…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It was a physical Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal that featured bad shooting and players galore who tumbled hard to the hardwood floor Saturday at The Show Place Arena. Tempers of players and coaches flared. The rugged play never ceased. It was the last game of the day,…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh and Lafayette both slumped at the end of the Patriot League season and both could be headed for one-and-done games in the league tournament this weekend. Lehigh, which went 10-4 in league play to finish tied for first and earn the No. 1 seed for the first time ever, needs…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh basketball ascended to a larger-than-ever level after senior guard Austen Rowland and coach Billy Taylor received the Patriot League’s highest individual honors on Wednesday. The biggest honor for both, though, has yet to come. And that’s a trip to the NCAA Tournament.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Danny Hinds was one of the many Drexel players disappointed with Saturday’s 76-64 loss at Delaware, which prevented the Dragons from clinching first place in the Colonial Athletic Conference. But Hinds, a 6-6 junior forward from Central Catholic, also knows how to look past the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Lafayette women’s basketball team that was on the Kirby Sports Center floor when the final buzzer sounded Saturday afternoon, got tackled. Soon after, all the players got drenched with water. “We did it,” Lafayette senior forward Colleen Fitzpatrick said was her immediate…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College guard Winston Davis left the Kirby Sports Center fans with perhaps a lasting memory of his athletic talent on Saturday. Desperate for a basket with Lafayette trailing by eight points, Davis froze his defender at the top of the key with a delayed dribble before…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College is in a must-win situation entering its regular-season finale at 3:15 today against American at Kirby Sports Center. In the last three games, all losses, the Leopards’ defensive and rebounding weaknesses have been exposed. “I saw them every day in practice,”…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →All that is apparently wrong with Lafayette College needs to get corrected soon. Otherwise, Lafayette won’t be playing too long into March. The Leopards’ weak rebounding, defensive lapses while trying to press and 1-for-13 shooting from leading scorer Justin DeBerry, were too…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh University senior guard Austen Rowland zoned in on his coach Billy Taylor longer than usual at practice on Wednesday. Rowland could not stop staring at the sparkling watch Taylor was wearing and was wondering what it would be like to win a similar piece of jewelry this…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Lehigh students did not storm onto the Stabler Arena floor after the Mountain Hawks’ 78-73 win over Lafayette Sunday. So Lehigh senior guard Ra Tiah raced over, leaped over the railing and dove into a frenzied sea of Lehigh students wearing Lehigh T-shirts. “I told a couple…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Temple assistant coach Mark Macon and college basketball analyst Digger Phelps, a former coach at Notre Dame, both need to get up to speed with what Saint Joseph’s has done this season. That would help keep both from putting their feet in their mouths as the No. 2-ranked Hawks…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College can now focus on its rematch with Lehigh. But the Leopards won’t carry any momentum into the showdown for first place in the Patriot League after being manhandled 79-61 by Bucknell Friday night. A crowd of 3,308, the second-largest at the 13-month-old Sojka…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College coach Fran O’Hanlon couldn’t have been more correct Saturday when he said, “We haven’t won anything yet.” O’Hanlon was responding to Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard’s statement that he had picked Lafayette to win the Patriot League title. Lafayette (18-5) beat…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It was an elbow-throwing, body-flying, back-and-forth Patriot League game between Lafayette and Holy Cross Saturday at Kirby Sports Center. It was just like their first meeting on Jan. 17 in Worcester, Mass., which Lafayette won by two points in overtime. This time, Lafayette…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Stop, pop, simply hot. That was Lehigh senior guard Austen Rowland during a second-half scoring tear that overwhelmed American and enabled the Mountain Hawks to coast to an 86-65 Patriot League victory Friday night at Stabler Arena. Rowland entered averaging a league-best 19.6…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College’s bid for a 14-0 regular-season record in the Patriot League ended with the Leopards’ 85-77 loss to Colgate on Friday in Hamilton, N.Y. But the the Leopards’ hope to win the league’s regular-season and tournament titles remains alive. Even if Lafayette coach…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Sean Knitter’s mother calls often from Philadelphia to needle her son about the scholarship offer he did not accept from Saint Joseph’s four years ago. “How about Saint Joe’s?” Donna Knitter asks. “Yeah, I know,” Knitter says. Knitter, a junior center for Lafayette, would be a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →A meeting at the line of scrimmage between Freedom’s 6-6, 297-pound Ryan Ehrie and Northwestern’s 6-5, 290-pound Jake Figner might have been a grueling matchup, testing more than just the strength of both. It could not happen because Northwestern played in the Colonial League…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Northampton High athletic director Mike Schneider would like nothing more than for interest in the school’s football program to boom following the Jeff Pammer’s ceremony this morning for NCAA national letter of intent day. Pammer, a multiple position star who was named The…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Andrew Koefer was no star at Allentown Central Catholic and may never experience more than a few minutes playing time in college. But he will not complain. In fact, he believes that he is living out a dream as a freshman walk-on at No. 3-ranked Saint Joseph’s. His dream world,…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Temple coach John Chaney will try for his 700th victory again tonight. If the Owls beat St. Bonaventure, Chaney will probably receive a standing ovation, and people closest to him will probably give him a hug, a pat on the back, and maybe even a kiss. And Chaney? He’ll surely…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →There are arenas that are great because of their style, seating capacity, or crowd noise. Lafayette College’s Kirby Sports Center is not exactly a state-of-the-art facility. It lacks the pizzazz of other venues because of its lack of theater-type seating and has a seating…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →With 56 seconds remaining in Sunday’s game at Kirby Sports Center, Lafayette senior Rob Dill emphatically blocked a Bucknell shot. Winston Davis, his teammate, recovered the ball just before it went out of bounds. But Bucknell, whose physical, defensive-oriented team had held…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College’s Kirby Sports Center rocked like the Palestra in Philadelphia and all the other famous basketball venues in the country Friday night. Lehigh and Lafayette, both battling to remain undefeated in the Patriot League, went through 19 lead changes, a dramatic close…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Tickets are still available for tonight’s Lafayette-Lehigh men’s basketball game at Kirby Sports Center in Easton. But not many. “The game is almost sold out,” said Phil LaBella, Lafayette’s sports information director. That’s because two hot teams will be battling for first…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh University now has a fun-and-gun offense, led by guards Austen Rowland and Jose Olivero, that is entertaining and producing winning results. Maybe it’s a taste of what’s to come in future years under Billy Taylor, the second-year coach who now sports a 25-18 record after…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Austen Rowland’s mother saw him play for the first time in a Lehigh University basketball uniform Saturday afternoon. M. Michele Rowlands picked the perfect game to attend. She just had to wait a while for the game to end, but it was worth it as Lehigh relied on the one-two…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →He takes at least two insulin shots a day to help control his diabetes. Sometimes he’s woozy and so fatigued that he could just skip a practice or a game without anybody complaining. But the fire within Lafayette College senior forward Mike Farrell burns too much. He scores,…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Games against teams from the PAC-10, Big East, Atlantic-10 and Ivy League are over for Lafayette College. The next 13 will all be against Patriot League opponents. That means the Leopards will likely play with more intensity, because the road back to the NCAA Tournament will…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Most players half-jog to the scorer’s table from the bench before entering the game. But Lafayette College forward Sean Knitter rushed with more intensity each time coach Fran O’Hanlon said, “Let’s go” during Saturday’s nonleague game against Cornell at Kirby Sports Center.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →You’ve probably seen the Hollywood movies where the former water boy grows up to to earn a position on the high school football team. Rarely is that position as a starter. Hardly ever does the water boy become the star. But in a real life story, Northampton senior Jeff Pammer is…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The men in suits who represent the NCAA and the college basketball coaches who are often at odds with them, met in Chicago before the season started and discussed ways to help change apparent perceptions that coaches will go to unethical lengths to win and stay on top. Also…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The lane closed quickly and was being clogged by Lafayette College backup 7-foot center Jamie Hughes. With just 3 seconds left on the clock, Drexel guard Jeremiah King had to attempt the shot that would either win or lose the non-league game Tuesday night at the Dragons’…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The University of Connecticut is no longer No. 1 in all major polls today, but the Huskies will still be the best team Lehigh will play this season. And one of the toughest ever. Lehigh did play Georgetown and Patrick Ewing in the 1985 NCAA Tournament, losing, 68-43, and the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The major changes at Lafayette College this season are in defensive toughness, rebounding and depth. But the one component in the Leopards’ game that has not changed is perimeter shooting. The Leopards are still hot as the desert from the outside, especially seniors Justin…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →All anyone had to do was look into the watery eyes of the Easton players and coaches to understand how passionate the Red Rovers were about their annual Thanksgiving Day game against Phillipsburg Thursday at Lafayette College’s Fisher Field. The game meant the world to the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →All anyone had to do was look into the watery eyes of the Easton players and coaches to understand how passionate the Red Rovers were about their annual Thanksgiving Day game against Phillipsburg Thursday at Lafayette College’s Fisher Field. The game meant the world to the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →North Penn junior quarterback Adam Hearns was the only Knights player left on the field on a brisk Tuesday night, but it was not by choice. He still had running to do. Again, it was not by choice. It was by demand of coach Dick Beck that Hearns did a series of flexibility drills…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The picture painted of the Lafayette College women’s basketball program over the last two seasons has been ugly. The images of back-to-back 3-25 seasons will do that. It was a devastating experience for coach Tammy Smith, who had never endured a losing season before coming to…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The basketball, please. It’s time to see whether the Lafayette College men can put it in the hoop more often, rebound better and limit opponents’ scoring. The basketball, please. It’s time to see if, following 40 minutes of regulation play and more if needed, the Leopards will…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College fifth-year senior guard Winston Davis has envisioned what his coach, Fran O’Hanlon, has refused to think about. That’s a Lafayette team ready and capable of unseating Holy Cross as Patriot League champion and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Freedom two-sport senior Tyler Jones may look imposing at 6-3, 280 pounds, but his twin sister Amy says he’s really a teddy bear. “He doesn’t cry at movies or anything,” Amy said. “He’s just one of those brothers who you get along with. Maybe, it’s because we are the same age…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Southern Lehigh junior Steve Hixon was being pelted by raindrops as he awaited the baton Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field. Winning the 1,600 relay heat was impossible because of the distance the Spartans trailed before Hixon began his anchor leg. But…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The conference and NCAA Tournament games of March should not be overshadowed by the scandal and controversy of a few naughty programs. Because for every Georgia, Fresno State and St. Bonaventure, there are dozens upon dozens of Lehighs and Lafayettes, Penns and Princetons —…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The game moved faster than Lafayette College probably would have liked Sunday night. So did American. As a result, Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon doesn’t have to worry about trying to get any more miles out of his players. American saw to that, using its speed on both ends of the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Teary eyes from the bite of defeat was something the Lehigh and Lafayette women shared in Friday’s Patriot League quarterfinals at The Show Place Arena. Lafayette lost 60-40 to top-seeded Holy Cross because it did not have nearly enough depth or equal talent to avoid being…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette won back-to-back Patriot League Tournament championships in 1999 and 2000 before Holy Cross became the league’s team to beat. So Leopards coach Fran O’Hanlon knows how to win in March. This weekend, he’ll get a chance to prove his astuteness again, as the Leopards try…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Billy Taylor won people over by winning more games than any other first-year men’s basketball coach at Lehigh. On Wednesday, the Patriot League named Taylor its coach of the year, marking the first such accomplishment for Lehigh. Taylor’s honor was one of four postseason awards…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College junior Mike Farrell makes banging for rebounds, setting up teammates with pinpoint passes, and scoring inside against stronger and more athletic players look easy because of the consistent way he handles all skills. He doesn’t believe in giving a half effort.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The men’s basketball team at Lehigh is receiving ongoing accolades for posting a 16-11 regular-season record, which marks the first time since 1990-91 that the team has a winning record entering the Patriot League Tournament. But Lehigh has been stuck on 16 wins since beating…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lehigh and Lafayette have split their two regular season meetings, but both need to do better in their final two Patriot League games this week. If both go 2-0, they could end up as the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds in the league tournament, which has its quarterfinal and semifinal rounds…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Little room was open on the baseline when Lafayette College senior guard Kim Costello began her dribble toward the basket, and ultimately, triumph, in her final home game at Kirby Sports Center Sunday afternoon. Leopards junior forward Colleen Fitzpatrick, who had been the most…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College senior guard Andrew Pleick saved his best scoring game for his final home game at Kirby Sports Center Sunday. He also handled the ball with exceptional care and did a good job distributing it to his teammates, much like he has all season. But when the Leopards’…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →About the only thing that kept Justin DeBerry from practicing in those scorching Tucson, Ariz., summers was a dust storm. Outside of that, the Lafayette College guard shot jumpers in his backyard for hours, unconcerned about heat stroke despite 100-degree temperatures. “You get…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Justin DeBerry and Winston Davis, two players Lafayette College needs to have solid performances in most games to have a chance to win, both struggled shooting Friday night against Bucknell at Kirby Sports Center. Without either in peak form, Lafayette couldn’t keep pace with a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Making the adjustment from the high school to college game has been, at times, a smooth experience for Lehigh freshmen Chris Stephenson and Mitch Gilfillan. At times, however, it’s also seemed dreadful. Like the games where neither plays much or scores any points. Stephenson, a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →In normal games, Lafayette College guard Justin DeBerry could probably keep track of his rebounds in his head. But the 6-3 junior was scrapping so hard to get position and yank down boards in the Leopards’ 57-43 Patriot League victory over Army Wednesday night at Kirby Sports…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Making the varsity basketball team at the United States Naval Academy as a freshman this season was starting to look like an impossibility for former Parkland star Adam Lane until his coach called him over after a JV practice for some stunning news. “Coach just called me and…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →His right arm numb and in pain from being hit in the funny bone, Lafayette College forward Mike Farrell quickly turned to the nearest official and called for a timeout with a minute remaining. By no means was the timeout for Farrell to leave the game. He just needed to regroup.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →His right arm numb from being hit in the funny bone, Lafayette College forward Mike Farrell quickly turned to the nearest official and called for a timeout with a minute remaining. By no means did Farrell want to leave the game. He just needed to regroup. But the way Farrell…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Two tough road losses last weekend to Holy Cross and Colgate did not spoil what was a successful first half of play in the Patriot League for the Lehigh men’s basketball team. The losses — 63-39 at Holy Cross and 77-68 at Colgate — have the Mountain Hawks waiting impatiently to…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Saint Joseph’s guard Jameer Nelson was slick with his handle, quick with his penetration. Trying to trap him seemed pointless. Fouling him did not work either because Nelson was smooth at the free throw line, too. Nelson was in command, and his poise was a big reason the Hawks…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The 197th meeting between rivals Lehigh and Lafayette tipped off with enough fireworks to light up the city of Bethlehem Friday night. That’s because Lehigh and Lafayette went full-throttle at each other in a Patriot League game before a loud crowd of 3,892 at Stabler Arena. It…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The 197th meeting between rivals Lehigh and Lafayette tipped off with enough fireworks to light up the city of Bethlehem Friday night. That’s because Lehigh and Lafayette went full-throttle at each other in a Patriot League game before a loud crowd of 3,892 at Stabler Arena. It…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Lehigh men’s basketball coach who seemed to be tailor-made for the position will have the opportunity to prove himself and his team to the man who taught and motivated him back in Illinois. Dennis Taylor, whose son Billy is in his first season as Lehigh’s coach, will make…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College scrapped back with a much-improved offense, a hustling defense that forced turnovers, and just about everything else it had left over the final 10 minutes of the second half against the University of Pennsylvania Tuesday night at Kirby Sports Center. But…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette College gets a break from its Patriot League schedule tonight, but the Leopards’ 7:30 home game against the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania is a step up in competition. It could be considered a level higher than the Leopards’ games against Arizona State on Nov.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette threw everything it had at Patriot League heavyweight Holy Cross, except a knockout blow, Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center. For Lafayette, there were guards Justin DeBerry and Winston Davis popping 3-pointers from way out. There was 6-10 center Rob Dill…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Coaching on the big-time level has brought big-time thrills to former Lafayette College assistant coach Pat Brogan, who is in his first season as an assistant coach at Penn State. But Brogan has not forgotten the eight seasons he spent coaching at Lafayette, a period that ended…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Holy Cross’ upset of Boston College and Lafayette’s stunning defeat of the University of Massachusetts have done little to improve the Patriot League’s extremely low Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), and as a result, only the league tournament champion appears likely to advance to…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Going to the playground to play basketball was a chance for “Slim” to throw down dunks that often impressed the older players in Tampa, Fla. “I remember a few times where the old guys would be like, “Slim, you have the highest ups on our team, you have to give us something,’ so…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Big East Conference has been a headache to Patriot League teams this season, though not as big as you might think. Not even to improved Lehigh, which had a chance to drown the fans in Coral Gables, Fla. on Dec. 30 with disappointment before Ohio State’s football team did the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Those who wondered whether 28-year-old Billy Taylor could rescue the Lehigh men’s basketball team from the cloud it has been under for so long have their answer. Ten games into Taylor’s rookie season as a coach, Lehigh has confidence, better chemistry, and — best of all — a 6-4…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The only person walking around Lafayette College’s Kirby Sports Center with a mask on was the school’s mascot in Monday nights nonleague game against Albany. But it seemed as if the Leopards’ 6-10 center Rob Dill was also wearing a different face, one that was downright mean,…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The losing streak is over. Thank the schedule makers for setting up a date for Lafayette with Division III Ursinus Tuesday night at Kirby Sports Center. Lafayette, winless in its previous five games, took advantage of the many weaknesses from the undersized and overmatched Bears…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Danny Hinds is returning to the Lehigh Valley in a defensive state of mind. For Drexel, Hinds’ team, that’s good news. That might be bad news for Lafayette (0-3) when it meets Drexel (2-1) at 7 tonight at Kirby Sports Center for a non-conference game. The Leopards, led by Mike…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Winston Davis, the slasher, and Justin DeBerry, the shooter, are not so concerned that Brian Burke is no longer around to dial up 3-pointers with the game on the line for Lafayette. Neither is point guard Andrew Pleick or forward Mike Farrell, who, like Davis and DeBerry, would…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →First-year Lehigh men’s coach Billy Taylor decided he’d rather have his wits and the moxie of his players tested the second game of the season with a road trip to Big Ten power Illinois Saturday night than to play Wagner. The Engineers played Wagner the second game of the season…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Billy Taylor was a man trying to adjust to a different environment in his first head coaching job, and to top it all off, he had to win over some of his emotionally depleted players — players who had just lost their coach and agonized through a 5-23 season. He also had a student…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The search for new players to fill the void left by graduating seniors and transfers led Lafayette men’s basketball coach Fran O’Hanlon into the European talent pool. O’Hanlon found two 6-7 forwards who, he said, are athletic but need work. In other words, Miran Omanovic, a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →He is the idol of so many kids in the South Side of Bethlehem. They want to go to Liberty High and become standout athletes just like him. He is a product of the Bethlehem Saints, the youth program where he gained his early football stripes as a small, but fast and elusive…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Outside of the Franklin Field stadium where a record-crowd of 50,827 cheered, clapped and waved Jamaican and American flags on Saturday, Lehigh University’s Patrick Dugan and Lafayette College’s Ethan Blose captured a piece of Penn Relays glory in the javelin event. Dugan’s…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →A Penn Relays race that Southern Lehigh senior Tim Erickson sat in the stands of Franklin Field and prayed for for more than three hours Friday, was going fine after two laps. But keeping pace in the studded field of high school boys’ mile runners in Day 2 of the 108th running…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Off to the side, Mark Lesko stood. Other players were loafing around, some were showboat dunking, throwing the ball off the back wall inside the Lehigh Carbon Community College gymnasium, catching it and then jamming. Others were swishing jumpers from way out. But some of those…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The marketing department at Lehigh University would probably have some fun promoting the men’s basketball program, perhaps billing it as “chocolate delight,” if the man formerly known as “Chocolate Thunder” is hired as the school’s next head coach. Don’t laugh. This is serious.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Pat Brogan played as a freshman at Lafayette College in the mid-1980s, then got cut the next season. Now, he’s Fran O’Hanlon’s top assistant coach at Lafayette. If a similar pattern follows at Lehigh, then Brogan will end up being the Engineers’ next head men’s basketball coach.…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →His university asked him to stand out more than he does on the basketball court, to project what Lehigh is about in an astute and more vocal way than most student athletes. Bobby Mbom did that time and again, speaking to national scholars entering the school, serving on the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It’s time for Lehigh University to consider making a change in philosophy and make history by hiring its first African-American head men’s basketball coach and just the second ever in the Patriot League. Maybe Lehigh search committee chairman Glenn Hofmann should first look at…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The closest highway is a short walk from College Hill in Easton, and Lafayette College coach Fran O’Hanlon doesn’t mind telling any player disgruntled with his role in to take that highway — Route 22 — and not worry about coming back. Simply put, it’s O’Hanlon’s way or the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →This was for Ivy League bragging rights and the chance to make history. Shooting-wise, it was not a classic. Too many clanks off the rim early on to call the regular-season finale between Penn and Princeton that Tuesday night before an emotionally intoxicated crowd of 8,700-plus…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →This was for Ivy League rank and the chance to make history, a classic in the making. Shooting-wise, though, it was not a classic. There were too many clanks off the rim early on to call the regular-season finale between Penn and Princeton a classic. But that didn’t stop the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette had every reason to be concerned about visits into the lane by American University’s Patriot League Player of the Year Patrick Doctor Sunday evening. Doctor had the type of medicine Lafayette could not ingest. Mostly, the dosage came in strong moves that were often…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →– Lafayette’s Brian Burke didn’t have it until the end. Teammate Winston Davis had it all game, especially when he soared for rebounds. Davis grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds Saturday afternoon, but the Leopards blew a 17-point lead before surviving a suspenseful finish to beat…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The first losing season in the coaching career of Lafayette’s Tammy Smith came to a lopsided conclusion Friday. The last drubbing of the Leopards in a 3-25 season was capped off with a 71-48 loss to top-seeded Holy Cross (22-6) in the quarterfinals of the Patriot League…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Defensive players are sometimes faced with no-win situations when Lafayette’s Brian Burke and Lehigh’s Matt Logie are in their zones, both converting shots from distances that most players wouldn’t dare shoot from. In playground terminology, both just enjoy trying to shoot the…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Something about Lehigh is starting to impress me. No, it’s not the campus. Too hilly. Certainly, it’s not one of the university’s nicknames. It’s the men’s basketball program, yes, that 5-22 team that closed out the regular season by losing 11 of its final 12 games. Until…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →For one play in the first half, the Lehigh Engineers looked more like the Harlem Globetrotters than the last place team in the Patriot League Sunday afternoon at Stabler Arena. That’s because it was capped off by a deft passing sequence of Alex Jensen to Scott Taylor to Alan…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Never mind the 20-point Lehigh Engineers’ lead. The suspicions were heavy that it would not last as long as Brian Burke kept shooting. Distance did not matter, neither did hands swarming in his face. It was Burke’s final home game of his Lafayette career before a crowd of 3,124…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The guessing game of who’s in, who’s out, and who needs to do what to get into the good graces of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee has heated up as college basketball enters its final two weeks of the regular season. Locally, Lafayette (13-12) and Lehigh (4-21) can only…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The first shot of insulin is just the beginning of each day for Lafayette College forward Mike Farrell. Three more injections follow, and then there’s a barrage of sugar-count tests, eight to 10 times a day during the college basketball season. “If [the sugar count] goes too…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →I stopped by Lafayette College’s Kirby Sports Center on Monday and was amazed at the skinny kid with the braids gliding effortlessly through the air, doing windmill dunks and several other impressive slams. It was Leopards sophomore Winston Davis. I said to myself: “Why is this…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →American University hung around close enough to be a total pest to Lafayette Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center. But Lafayette controlled the clock, the tempo, and in the end, the scoreboard thanks to a game-winning 3-pointer by Brian Burke. Burke’s 25-footer with 1.3…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Lehigh losses keep coming, many of them by close margins. Whether by two points, the Engineers’ narrowest setback, or by their season-worst defeat of 19 points, little consolation is gained. Lehigh remains in the Patriot League basement with a 1-7 record and is 4-17 overall…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Some may remember the ugly stuff — the errant passes, wild shots, hard falls and maybe even the Lehigh University mascot crawling underneath the back stage at one point. Others may remember the seven ties and five lead changes in the second half of the Lehigh-Lafayette Patriot…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The noise level is more boisterous and the atmosphere more lively at the University of Pennsylvania’s Palestra than at any other college gymnasium in Philadelphia, especially in matchups between Big 5 teams. “This is a great place to play when it is filled,” Penn junior Ugonna…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Lafayette Leopards got a break from Patriot League play, but that warranted no thanks to the schedule makers. Not even for Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon, who patroled the sidelines and matched wits against his former boss, Penn coach Fran Dunphy, throughout an exhilarating…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette guard Brian Burke had a fresh haircut and a more emphatic offensive game, draining half-hook shots to first get himself on track Wednesday night. Then, following an extended second-half timeout because of an injury to an American cheerleader, Burke took the ball just…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It’s mid-January now, the third week of league play all over the land. More rivals are hooking up, intensity escalating. What happened in November and December, setting the record straight, still matters. Just not as much. Win the league regular season title and gain extra…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →At times, the Patriot League opener between Lafayette and Bucknell seemed to be a battle of who could play the ugliest Wednesday night at Davis Gymnasium. There were hard falls, sloppy handling of the ball, and so many stretches where neither team seemed to know what to do with…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Now that the Patriot League games are set to begin, the Lehigh and Lafayette men’s teams believe they will triumph more often than fail the rest of January and February. And March, if one is still alive following the league tournament. Never mind the previous 13 games for Lehigh…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Rich Baker, the ex-Stroudsburg High star making his first homecoming appearance as a starting guard for Rider, swished a 3-pointer from deep in the corner for his first basket Wednesday night. For Baker, what happened after that was just as he had hoped. First, Rider used its…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Maybe some of the “ballers’ from the ‘hood where Rich Baker grew up have succumbed to negative influences, and had their dreams of playing Division I basketball shattered. But not Baker. He continued to improve his slashing and shooting skills at Stroudsburg High en route to…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →As the 2002 part of the college basketball season rolls in, let’s take a capsule look at what has gone on and what is expected of Division I teams in the Lehigh Valley/Philadelphia/University Park areas. Lehigh — Playing against weaker teams has enabled the Engineers (3-8) to…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Howard University coach Frankie Allen stood in stunned silence after a 3-pointer was made by Lafayette College senior guard Brian Burke late in the second half. Allen did a lot of the same throughout the Leopards’ 93-84 non-league victory Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 2,021…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Mini runs, that’s what Lafayette and Princeton had all game. Neither team could pull away until the final four minutes. Then the Leopards went cold from the outside and Princeton ran valuable time off the clock, punctuating their stall-offense possessions with layups as the shot…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →What happens when the head basketball coach goes on a rampage, criticizing one player in particular in front of everybody in the gymnasium? Both are boiling, the coach from repeating himself and not getting expected results, and the player from being berated by a man other than…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The night started with Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon, a Philadelphia native, having to listen to Drexel coach James “Bruiser” Flint being cheered by Dragons fans after receiving an Internet award for being the best-dressed coach in college basketball. “I knew I wasn’t even in…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Bewilderment rocked the Penn State campus two weeks ago when Yale beat the Nittany Lions on the basketball court. It has happened before. It’s just that nobody on the current Nittany Lions roster or head coach Jerry Dunn was even born when the Bulldogs beat Penn State 33-31 in…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It was a game that was lost in a crushing way, kind of like The Grinch waiting for everybody to go to sleep before stealing gifts. Only this was a game Lafayette had control over, holding leads of seven points in both halves. But carelessness with the ball and missed layup…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Fear in the form of 6-foot-6, 320-pound St. Peter’s center Kamaal McQueen was hustling toward Lafayette College’s Brian Burke. Not much would have been left of the skinny Burke had McQueen landed on him. Burke was thinking the same thing before using a swift move to avoid a…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Lafayette has been close. Really close to Miami of the Big East in the second half on Saturday. The Leopards also led Penn State by 13 points in the first half last Wednesday. The two road games ended in defeats, 75-66 to Penn State and 79-69 to Miami. Lafayette beat Albany,…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Easton Red Rovers went from winning red ribbons seven days ago as District 11 Class 4A runner ups to routing their crossbridge rival Phillipsburg 28-7 on Thanksgiving Day. Tears were shed after both games, especially by Easton senior two-way star Jesse Pellegrino. Red Rovers…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Easton senior tailback Sean Burgio is entering another Thanksgiving Day with his dinner plans on hold. But he’s not all that concerned with keeping his grandparents on his mother’s side in limbo, because they live in Phillipsburg, which is Easton’s annual Turkey Day football…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →They wait. They think, visualizing as best they can how the season-opening college basketball game will go. Winning big, yes that’s it, but the butterflies are still there. So are the what-ifs, like “What if we lose?” Like us, the nationally ranked team getting upset by the team…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Opening the basketball season with opponents his team would be favored to beat is not something that entices Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon, even if that decision ultimately leads to the Leopards getting blown out. After opening its season at Albany of the lightly-regarded…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Atlantic 10 Conference has seven new coaches and a new member from Richmond. But the best thing the upgraded 12-team, realigned conference has is two nationally ranked programs in Saint Joseph’s and Temple. And the two rival Philadelphia schools have two rival Philadelphia…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The guessing game doesn’t work on College Hill. So don’t ask Lafayette men’s basketball coach Fran O’Hanlon to pick a number of games he might win in the 2001-02 season. He can’t do it. He doesn’t want to do it. Besides, a fair prognostication cannot be made now. The Leopards…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →You can look at the 102 losses in five seasons and wonder why Sal Mentesana continues to have passion for his job as coach of the Lehigh men’s basketball team. “I’ve never questioned what I do,” the 53-year-old Mentesana said. “I love this. My passion for the game has not…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It was the 11th day of December last year, a trial-filled day that Lafayette senior guard Brian Burke couldn’t stop thinking about as he stood at the podium accepting the ECAC Award of Valor on Oct. 2 in Hyannis, Mass. Stories of players returning to play Division I basketball…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →The Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs knew whom they wanted most and they made all the chess moves earlier in the day to ensure they got him in Tuesday night’s United States Basketball League draft. Head coach Darryl Dawkins made the announcement at the ValleyDawgs’ draft headquarters at…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →Building blocks and gaining a measure of respect and perhaps develop an identity to be reckoned with by Mountain Valley Conference opponents the rest of the season is all Easton had to work for in the second half. The Red Rovers are in the midst of another down season and they…
· Andre D. Williams
Read on mcall.com →It started early with an interception that set up a long scoring drive of 72 yards in six plays, that consumed 4 minutes, 8 seconds. Believe it or not, that was a long scoring drive for Bethlehem Catholic against Easton in the District 11 Class 4A championship game Friday night…
· Andre D. Williams
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