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| Aaron Walton-Moss dishes to
Vinny Walls (11) in Cabrini's game against No. 12
WPI. Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com |
By Phil Naegely
for D3sports.com
OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- Cabrini came into the season looking to compete against some of best teams in Division III. With the Cavaliers' win over No. 12 WPI at the Hoopsville Classic, the team is succeeding so far under new coach Tim McDonald and All-American Aaron Walton-Moss.
After four years as an assistant coach at Cabrini under Marcus Kahn, McDonald took over the Cavaliers squad when Kahn took the head coaching job at Mary Washington.
Fortunately for McDonald, he still has Walton-Moss as his centerpiece. He led the Cavaliers in scoring (17), rebounding (17) and assists (six) in Cabrini's 68-61 win over the Engineers.
"We wanted to come and compete in both games, said McDonald. “We were able to come away with a victory in both." Cabrini handled SUNY-Purchase 90-65 on the Classic's second day.
"WPI is a very good team. They just get down and defend for 40 minutes," McDonald noted. "We talked a lot before the game about defending for forty minutes and taking care of the ball. I think we did that well."
As in prior years, Walton-Moss is critical to the team's success. The 2014 first team All-American has provided leadership through the coaching transition with his words and his play. "His ability to vocalize this and coach on the floor has been a great asset," praised McDonald. "His greatest attribute is his unselfishness and his ability to find the open guy."
Given WPI’s ability to shoot the three, McDonald switched Cabrini’s defensive game plan to something somewhat unfamiliar to the Cabrini. "We used a 2-3 zone defense for the entire game against WPI and only worked on it for one day. I thought gave us the best chance to win today."
With coaching transitions can come a change of schemes, but McDonald hasn't changed much so far as head coach. "Offensively, very similar to what we have done. There's some minor nuances that are different. Our biggest thing was becoming better defensively and being tougher heading into this season after losing to [Richard] Stockton in last year’s NCAA tournament."
For the second straight year, Cabrini went 2-0 at the Hoopsville Classic and are 3-1 overall this season with their loss coming against No. 10 Wooster in their season opener. The challenges keep coming for the Cavaliers. They travel to preseason No. 21 Scranton on Tuesday, then host No. 14 Dickinson on Saturday and go to No. 11 Randolph-Macon in mid-December.
Catholic stays perfect at the Hoopsville Classic
Making their second Hoopsville Classic appearance, the Cardinals impressed again with two more wins. Bryson Fonville and Austin Calling provided the catalyst in the team’s 69-62 win against SUNY-Purchase on Sunday and the Cardinals topped Gwynedd-Mercy 68-63 in the 2014 Classic opener. Catholic also won both its games at the 2012 Hoopsville Classic.
"I'm really proud of Austin and how he's developing," said head coach Steve Howes. ”He came through in a big way when we needed somebody to step up. A double-double against that team is impressive." Calling had 15 points and 12 rebounds while Fonville scored 26 and grabbed 10 boards.
The Cardinals improved to 3-1 on the season with their lone loss coming against Division I opponent Davidson.