Braves bear snowstorm, set for tournament game

There were moments Monday when Husson College men’s basketball coach Warren Caruso thought his team’s season might end in a snowstorm in Boston.

The Braves were en route to the NAIA Division II Basketball Championship at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo. But a snowstorm was swirling around the Northeast and flights were getting canceled at Boston’s Logan Airport.

“Our first goal was to get here. I was very concerned Sunday that we might not get here for Wednesday’s game. We caught one of the last flights out of Boston,” Caruso said.

But not before some trials and tribulations.

“We had to sit for an hour on the plane while they de-iced it,” Braves’ power forward Matt Breen said. “I didn’t think too much of that.”

But now on terra firma in the Ozark Mountains, Husson, 21-4, is looking forward to a 1 p.m. meeting today with St. Mary’s College of Kansas, the tournament’s 16th seed. Despite the fact that the Braves are unseeded, the Bangor delegation believes it has the firepower to advance to the tourney’s second round for the first time since 1992.

“We really feel we laid some groundwork here last year,” Caruso said. “We have a large group returning from last year’s trip and we came away with a positive experience.”

A year ago, Caruso points out, the end result didn’t tell the whole story. The Braves were 16-point losers to Huron University of South Dakota in the tourney’s first round. Caruso said the Braves had a real opportunity to make hay in that game with two minutes remaining when they trailed by only four points and were at the free-throw line with a 1-and-1 opportunity.

“We missed the front end and then gave up an offensive rebound and basket at the other end,” Caruso said. “We learned from that. And we have a large group returning this year. We only lost two seniors from that team.”

Husson is led by the high-scoring Robert Pilsbury. The sophomore from Portland is averaging 25 points per game. Forward Randy Fletcher averages just under 13 points per game and Breen, a sophomore from Rockland, averages 11 points and almost nine rebounds.

The Braves are playing in their third straight national tourney and fifth in the seven years Caruso has headed the program. Husson has competed in the tournament nine of the last 13 years.

St. Mary’s enters the single-elimination tourney as the 16th seed in the 32-team field. The Spire Men finished the season with a 21-7 record and as champions of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference

All-KCAC selectee Mike Finnell, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, leads St. Mary’s, averaging 15 points per game. Fellow all-conference performer Shawn Pinkett, a 6-4 junior center, averages 14.8 points and almost eight rebounds a game.

Caruso says the teams are very similar and the numbers bear that out. The Braves are averaging 86.2 ppg while the Spire Men are scoring 85.1 points per game.

But Caruso perceives a Husson advantage in their tournament experience. This is the Braves’ third consecutive trip to the tourney, while St. Mary’s will be making its first.

“We’ve competed well. We just haven’t been able to put the timing together. Every team here is good and is well coached. But we’ll walk away very disappointed if we don’t get a win,” Caruso said.