Has 99 Career wins.
The basketball teams both finished second in the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association's regular-season standings so both squads will compete in this week's four-team championship tournaments. The winner of each tourney will receive the UCAA's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament.
The women are enjoying a record-setting year with their 21-3 overall record (11-3 in the UCAA) under eighth-year head coach
Mary Ellen Burt, who goes into the weekend with 93 career coaching victories, all at Union.
Meanwhile the men, who lost four starters from last year's team, surprised a lot of people with their 15-10 (10-4 in the UCAA) standard. This marked the fifth consecutive season that seventh-year head coach
Bob Montana has guided the Dutchmen to a winning season. Montana's next victory will be the 100th of his career, all at Union. The program enjoyed eight non-losing campaigns from 1979-80 through 1986-87, including two .500 seasons (in 1983-84 and 1985-86).
The men's tournament, which is being held at Hamilton, the league's regular-season champions, will pit Union against No. 3 St. Lawrence in Friday's 6 p.m. semi-final game while the homestanding Continentals take on Hobart at 8 p.m. The championship game will be held at Hamilton on Saturday at 3 p.m.
UCAA Co-Forward
of the Week
Last Friday in Memorial Field House, the Dutchmen avenged an earlier two-point loss at the hands of the Saints with an 81-60 victory that snapped SLU's eight-game win streak. On February 1, the homestanding Saints rallied from a 10-point deficit with 3:20 left to play to capture a 73-71 win over the Dutchmen.
Guard Phil Henry (Flushing, NY/Chaminade), the team's lone senior, goes into the weekend leading the Dutchmen with his 14.7 scoring average. He has had two solid games against the Saints, scoring 19 and 11 points, respectively. Freshman guard
John Cagianello (Wethersfield, CT/Wethersfield), who is averaging 14.4 points, has also had some success against St. Lawrence, scoring 10 points in Canton and 20 points last weekend.
Sophomore forward Devon Bruce (Guilderland, NY/Guilderland) has missed most of the last three games while recovering from back problems. Bruce, who is Union's leading rebounder with an average of 7.0 and is third in scoring at 11.7, has seen junior forward
Ryan Freundlich (Springfield, NJ/Dayton) do a solid job as his replacement. Freundlich, who came into the year with a total of 85 points and 67 rebounds in 34 games, was named the
UCAA's “Co-Forward of the Week” for his three-game performances against Williams, St. Lawrence and Clarkson. The 6'6, 225-pound Freundlich scored 36 points with 14 rebounds and five assists in those contests. He finished the week with an .809 field goal percentage (17 of 21) that included an 8-9 performance against the 22-1 Ephs and a six for seven effort against St. Lawrence. His 17 points against Williams was a career high.
Union's two-headed point guard, sophomore T.J. Ramey (Ballston Spa, NY/Ballston Spa) and freshman
Chris Murphy (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY/Iona Prep) have combined for 142 assists, 40 steals, 57 rebounds and 242 points. Most importantly, however, is the fact that the two have only 85 turnovers between them giving them an assists to turnover ratio of 5.68 to 3.40. Both play extremely tight defense and both do a solid job running the offense.
Freshman forward Brian Scordato (Mt. Kisco, NY/Horace Greeley) and junior forward
Imbrie Packard (Bala Cynwyd, PA/Lower Merion) could very well be the ones that turn the tournament in Union's favor. Neither player is very flashy during the game, but when the final box score is produced, both, more often than not, have but up some impressive .
numbers
Scordato averages 9.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.72 assists, 1.44 steals, is shooting .494 from the field (including .423 from three-point range) and .667 from the free throw line. He has blocked nine shots and is averaging just 1.44 turnovers a game. Packard, meanwhile, is averaging 5.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.52 assists, 1.0 steals, is shooting .425 from the field (including .392 from behind the arch) and .719 from the charity stripe. He has blocked a team-high 31 shots and is averaging 1.28 turnovers.
The Hamilton-Hobart semi-final game is also a rubber match with each team winning on its home court. The Continentals captured a 61-52 decision in the first meeting then lost in Geneva, 103-101 in double overtime.