Meyer On Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. – Karvel Anderson officially has two conference games left to put the finishing touches on what should be a Northeast Conference Player of the Year season.
However, one can argue that he's already applied those finishing touches.
Last weekend, the Robert Morris guard scored 26 points in the second half to help the Colonials rally from a 16-point deficit and beat LIU Brooklyn, 73-64. Two days later, he scored 31 points while leading the Colonials back from a 12-point deficit en route to their 71-70 win against Saint Francis Brooklyn in overtime.
That victory clinched the NEC regular-season championship for the Colonials and to a large extent ended Anderson's meaningful campaign for the league's player of the year honor.
Robert Morris is remarkably 13-1 in the NEC entering tonight's game at Fairleigh Dickinson, and it seems impossible to think of a player in this league who meant more to his team through the weekend that ended the race for first place.
"He had some tremendous, tremendous baskets,'' teammate
Lucky Jones said. "I don't know how he does it, but like I say all the time -- we have the best player in the conference on our team. We're going to stick with him, and he's going to continue to do what he does.''
What Anderson does primarily is score, 564 points and counting this season, and help the Colonials win.
In his two seasons at RMU, Anderson has scored 977 points and been part of 42 victories, including most significantly 27 in NEC games.
This season, he's averaging 21.7 points per game against NEC opponents and shooting 53.7 percent from the field, including 48.4 percent from three-point range, and 87 percent from the free throw line.
Anderson has been so accurate that he could join an NEC club that has very strict membership rules. Only three players in league history have shot at least 50 percent from the field and at least 45 percent from beyond the arc in a season. Nobody has done it since 1991-92, when Saint Francis University's Mike Iuzzolino did it for the second straight season.
Think about this, too, Iuzzolino did it two straight years. Former Monmouth star and coach Dave Calloway did it in 1989-90, and Marist's Peter Krasovec did it in 1986-87. So three players turned the trick four times in six seasons, but it hasn't been done since.
Until maybe this season.
Anderson overall this season is averaging 19.4 points a game, the highest by a Colonial since 1993-94 when Myron Walker set the program record with an average of 20.1 points per game. That season, Walker scored a program-record 614 points, a mark Anderson could break. The senior has at least four games left -- the two this weekend, at least one NEC Tournament game next Wednesday and
at least one National Invitation Tournament game if the Colonials don't get to the NCAA Tournament.
Anderson has done all this while playing for a short-handed Colonial team that has played with only eight players since Jan. 23 and while being the primary defensive focus of every team he's faced.
Anderson began making his case for the player of the year award right out of the chute Jan. 9. He dropped 36 points on Sacred Heart in Connecticut in the Colonials' NEC opener.
"Their best player just outplayed us,'' Sacred Heart coach Anthony Latina said after the game. "We just couldn't do anything with him. The only way we were going to stop him was to make someone else shoot. Unfortunately, we didn't do that.
Karvel Anderson, in watching film, is arguably the best guard, if not the best player, in the league right now. You can defend him well and he still can make a shot. Not many guys at this level can do that.''
Two days later, playing at Bryant, Anderson scored 32 points to lead the Colonials to another win.
"You talk about a Player of the Year-type performance, he's had two in a row," Bryant coach Tim O'Shea said then.
So it continued, almost game after game. He scored in double figures in all but one of RMU's 14 NEC games (he had eight points against Mount St. Mary's two weeks ago). Anderson has had three 30-point games. He's scored at least 20 points in eight NEC games.
Maybe he was at his best when it mattered most last weekend as the Colonials tried to clinch the regular-season championship in their final two home games.
The 26 points he scored in the second half against LIU Brooklyn were the most points ever scored in a half by a Colonial player. He scored all 26 in the final 17 and-a-half minutes. Going a little deeper with that, he scored 23 points in the final 13:16, 20 in the final 6:43 and nine in the last 70 seconds.
Against Saint Francis Brooklyn, he scored 17 points in the first 12 and-a-half minutes en route to his total of 31. That meant over the second half against LIU Brooklyn and most of the first half against Saint Francis Brooklyn, Anderson scored 43 points in 30 minutes.
Perhaps more remarkable is this -- beginning with 6:43 left in the LIU Brooklyn game and continuing through the first 12 and-a-half minutes of the Saint Francis Brooklyn game, Anderson scored 37 points in just over 19 minutes. While doing that, he was 15-of-17 from the field, including 5-of-7 from deep.
Amazing numbers, indeed.
His two-game performance last weekend earned him his second NEC Player of the Week award this season. That performance capped an incredible 14-game run to the NEC regular-season championship for the Colonials.
Is Anderson impressed by that?
"I'm not impressed. I'm proud,'' Anderson said. "We know the type of guys we have. We know what type of heart we have in each guy. There are a lot of things that went on through the course of this season. There was one point where me and (fellow senior
Anthony Myers-Pate) didn't know if could do this. We were nervous, like maybe we might not end our senior year the way we worked so hard for it to end. (But) guys stuck with it. Guys fought through everything. I told (Myers-Pate) before the game (Saturday) in our pregame that obviously everybody knows I've been through a lot in my life, a lot of adversity, but I was by myself. I've never had a group of people go through as many things as we've been through and still be able to be successful and not succumb to anything that we faced. You know, these guys fight like no people I've ever seen before, and I'm just thankful I get to be a part of it.''
In his two seasons as a member of the Colonials, the Elkhart, Ind., product has done everything he can to help make Robert Morris successful. He's scored a lot of points, to be sure, but he's also earned trust and respect.
"We anticipate him being sharp and effective,'' RMU coach
Andrew Toole said after the Saint Francis Brooklyn game. "(Saturday) he came out and was extremely aggressive, was able to create space, was really our offense in the first half, to be honest with you.
"He's a guy who, regardless of how the first half went or the first couple possessions went, has that ability to be able to turn it on -- kind of like you saw Thursday night. When we went to (LIU Brooklyn) and (Saint Francis) Brooklyn (Feb. 6, 8) he had 16 second-half points at LIU (and) 13 second-half points (at Saint Francis Brooklyn) in games where he was in foul trouble. He has incredible ability to score and to shoot and to create space and to get in rhythm, even if he (doesn't) shoot it great early.
"He had some games last season where he didn't shoot it great early and came back and made huge shots late. It's just a testament to who he is as a person. I'm sad that we've only gotten to coach him for two years, to be honest with you. He's had a major, major impact on our program. Not just on the court. The way that he carries himself on campus, the way he interacts with people, whether it's fans, whether it's media. He's an incredible ambassador for our program.''
He'd be an incredible NEC Player of the Year, too.
UP NEXT: As for the game itself Thursday night, Toole said the Colonials won't do anything unusual now that they've clinched the regular-season championship.
"It's not like we're going to (just) play the bench guys,'' he said.
That's because the Colonials really don't have a bench, of course.
"We have to keep moving forward,'' said Toole, who, while we're at it here, should win the NEC Coach of the Year award. "We have to keep doing what we do. We can't change what we've done. We have to go out and play. We have to continue to stay sharp. There are still things we can (improve). Some of our offensive execution, I think, can improve. We're going to play two very good teams on the road, so it will be two more really good challenges for us to get ourselves ready to go and play in the conference tournament.''
Fairleigh Dickinson lost to visiting Wagner Monday night, 67-64, after leading by seven points with three and-a-half minutes remaining. Wagner, which entertains Robert Morris Saturday, rallied behind a three-pointer from Latif Rivers and two more treys from Marcus Burton, then withstood a counter rally by the Knights before prevailing.
The Knights had a chance to take the lead with with nine seconds left, but senior Scooter Gillette missed two free throws. Wagner's Dwaun Anderson made two free throws two seconds later to clinch it.
"It wasn't pretty and we didn't play particularly well," Wagner coach Bashir Mason told the
Staten Island Advance. "But our guys were fully engaged and they kept digging, and good things happen when you have that mindset."
Rivers scored 18 points for Wagner, which has won six in a row to get to 10-4 and move into second place in the NEC. Gillette scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds, both career highs for the transfer from Niagara. Sidney Sanders Jr. had 15 points and nine assists for FDU.
"That was a hard-fought conference game, and it was right in our grasp, but we couldn't seal the deal," first-year FDU coach Greg Herenda said. "Scooter was immense for us all game long. Without him, we would not have even been in the game. Wagner was picked (by the NEC coaches) to win the conference, and we were picked dead last. It just shows how much our team has proved. Even in defeat, I am proud of my team."
FDU (6-8) will be in the NEC Tournament for the first time since 2009-10 following three abysmal NEC seasons. In the three previous seasons, the Knights were a combined 7-47 in NEC games.
NEC NUGGETS: The Wagner/FDU game was one of three games made up early this week after being postponed Feb. 13 by winter storm Pax … In a second game Monday, host Mount St. Mary's had very little trouble beating Bryant, 88-73. The Mountaineers led, 48-34, at halftime, then expanded their lead to 24 points, 64-40, four minutes into the second half. Bryant did cut its deficit to 10 points, 75-65, with six minutes remaining, but the Mountaineers steadied and raised their NEC mark to 8-6. Bryant (9-5) hurt itself by making only 10-of-20 free-throw attempts and going 5-for-18 from deep. Mount St. Mary's was 11-for-21 from international waters and 17-of-19 from the free throw line. Rashad Whack (5-of-6 from distance) led the Mountaineers with 21 points. For Bryant, Alex Francis had a 22-10 double-double and Joe O'Shea scored 18 points. Bryant guard Dyami Starks, who did not start, contributed 13 points but was just 1-for-8 from beyond the arc ... Tuesday night, in a game that impacts Robert Morris, LIU Brooklyn (4-10) won at Sacred Heart, 80-75. LIU Brooklyn, which won the three previous NEC Tournament championships, moved to within a game of Central Connecticut State (5-9) in the tussle for the eighth seed in the NEC Tournament. The eighth seed plays at Robert Morris Wednesday night. The Blackbirds, who lost both of their games on the western Pennsylvania tour last weekend, host CCSU Thursday night and currently own the tie-breaker over the Blue Devils because they won at CCSU, 62-61, Jan. 18. LIU Brooklyn trailed Sacred Heart (1-13), 30-28, at halftime Tuesday but went on a 22-9 run to begin the second half and didn't have much difficult thereafter. Gerrell Martin scored 26 points for the Blackbirds, while point guard Jason Brickman supplied 14 points and 12 assists, which raised his career assist total to 987. Evan Kelley had 15 points for Sacred Heart.
