Salve Regina men's basketball schedule for 2014-15
NEWPORT, R.I. - Salve Regina University men's basketball opens its 2014-15 season at Babson College as the Beavers host a tip-off tournament with Bates and Nichols Colleges also in the mix.
The Seahawks, 17-11 in 2013-14, particpate in the Babson event for the second time in three years. After opening the 2012-13 campaign with a 79-75 overtime win over Johnson & Wales University at home in the Rodgers Recreation Center, Salve Regina fell to Babson, 74-62, on November 17, 2012, before embarking on a three-game win streak.
Salve Regina and Babson have met 10 times total in men's basketball with more than half (six) of those meetings in the Beavers' home gym in Wellesley, Mass. (Staake Gymnasium). Babson has won eight times in the series. Six of the meetings came in the 1980s before the series resumed with a meeting in Wellesley on November 18, 2000, with the Seahawks winning (80-73) the second of four straight games to open the season, which included the opening of the wood-shingled building that became the new home for Salve Regina basketball.
The Bobcats of Bates College were the first opponent that the Seahawks ever faced in the Rodgers Recreation Center. Current head coach Sean Foster was an assistant coach for the squad that defeated the Bobcats, 77-75, on November 21, 2000. Salve Regina has posted a remarkable 104-68 record (.605) in home games since fall 2000.
Familiar foe Nichols College, which eliminated the Seahawks from the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) 2014 Championships with an 83-80 overtime semifinal victory in Dudley, Mass., could be this year's second opponent. Salve Regina own a 25-18 advantage in the all-time series with the Bison. The last two times the Seahawks scored 100 or more points in a game came against Nichols at home in the same season - 100-76 on January 21, 2009, and 102-99 in double overtime first-round action of CCC playoffs on February 24, 2009.
The first home game of 2014-15 will bring Wheaton College to Newport on Thursday, November 20 (7 p.m.). With six wins in the all-time series (19 games), Salve Regina has won three of the last four meetings with Wheaton, including the last two times at the Rodgers Recreation Center (80-66 on November 30, 2010; 77-61 on December 6, 2012). Last year in Norton, Mass., the Seahawks won by 16 over the Lyons, 74-58, behind 17 points from all-conference guard Barrett Hanlon (Hopkinton, Mass.).
Foster's 2013-14 squad won its first four and six of its first seven; only Division I Bryant University spoiled a perfect start through seven. The Seahawks graduated 1,000-point scorer Patrick Dinneen, all-conference forward Jeff Bielefeld, and two-year captain Joshua Hohlfelder from that team.
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"We'll definitely miss the rebounding from that group," says Foster, "but we also have a more athletic, quicker and faster group with this year's team. That will allow us to apply more pressure defensively and get in transition offensively."
The Seahawks return all-conference guard Isiah Pringle (Queens, N.Y.) to the lineup after sitting out all last season with an injury. Pringle enters the season with 931 career points in 81 games (11.5 ppg).
Following a trip to Worcester, Mass., to play Worcester State University (at Assumption College), the Seahawks return home for three straight games. Salve Regina hosts the U.S. Coast Guard Academy on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving - November 25 (7:30 p.m.). Coast Guard, a former charter member of the CCC with Salve Regina in 1984, resumed its series with the Seahawks in 2011 after it went dormant for 20 years. Salve Regina has won five of the last six meetings including the most recent two in Newport.
After Thanksgiving, Rhode Island College visits the Rodgers Recreation Center on Saturday, November 29 (1 p.m.). The Seahawks open their conference schedule on December 3 hosting Wentworth Institute of Technology (7:30 p.m.). Salve Regina owns a 32-22 record in the all-time series with Wentworth (also a CCC charter member), but has lost the last three home meetings with the Leopards.
A re-visit to Dudley, Mass., on Saturday, December 6 (12 p.m.), for a conference match-up with Nichols precedes the final game of the fall semester, at home against the Hawks of Roger Williams University on Tuesday, December 9 (7:30 p.m.). Salve Regina and Roger Williams have met on the hardwood 62 times, more than any other matchup in the Seahawks' history; Salve Regina owns a 36-26 edge in the series including winning the last five in a row.
After Christmas, Salve Regina plays its final non-league game of the regular-season at Middlebury College on Friday, January 2, 2015 (3 p.m.). The Seahawks defeated the Panthers, 76-69, in the only previous meeting last season.
Foster enters his 13th season as head coach of the Seahawks; he has compiled a 157-163 record (.491) in 12 years with two trips to the CCC finals and a conference title that advanced Salve Regina to the NCAA Division III Championships in 2011. His teams have also participated in the ECAC New England Championships three of the last six years, including finishing as runner-up in 2012.
Since 2011, the basketball schedule in the conference features home and away for 18 games, while each school adds up to seven non-league games for a 25-game schedule. The annual alumni game is set for Saturday, February 7, 2015, before the Seahawks host the Nor'easters.