Juniata Hosts 22nd Annual Comfort Inn Doc Greene Tournament

By: Laura Chapman
Assistant Sports Information Director
chapmal@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net
Photo: Jennifer Jones 

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – After a eight days off, the Juniata College men's basketball team will get back into action Dec. 16-17 when they host the 22^nd Annual Comfort Inn Doc Greene Tournament. Participating games include Elizabethtown College, Nazareth College and the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. The Eagles will face Pitt.-Greensburg in the second game of the day at 7 p.m. in Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center.

"Doc Greene was the longest tenured and winningest coach for a long time here at Juniata," said head coach Greg Curley. "He was a dentist in town, and a long time basketball coach that had a lot of success here. He's one of the founders of our program. Whatever levels of success we've had can be attributed to his beginnings. This was a tournament that was started by Jim Zauzig in Doc's name and it's something that we've gladly continued and hope to carry forward for a long time to come."

Juniata
The Eagles are on a six game winning streak and stand at a perfect 4-0 at home. Juniata is most recently coming off its first Landmark Conference victory of the season, 66-50 over Moravian College, as well as a thrilling last second win over regional foe Carnegie Mellon University. Senior Kevin Stapleton (Indiana, Pa./Indiana) has led the Eagles all year and is currently averaging 15.9 points per game. As a team, Juniata is putting up 70.3 points per game and pulling down 33.1 rebounds. Senior Jeremy Hays (McMechen, W. Va./John Marshall) is coming away with 7.3 assist per game and tacking on 13.4 points.

"We learned a lot about ourselves over the first seven games," said Curley. "The way this is all set up this month, the teams that we are playing, the three games this week, and in particular this tournament, we'll really know who we are after this week."

Pitt.-Greensburg
The Pitt.-Greensburg Bobcats stand at 2-3 overall and are riding a three-game win streak after conference victories over Franciscan and Pitt.-Bradford. The Bobcats are shooting .419 from the floor and .366 from three-point range. Pitt.-Greensburg has three players, sophomores Rocco Contristano and Jerell Figueroa, and junior Brian Heinle, who are all averaging double digit points per game. The Bobcats are averaging 37.2 rebounds per game and have hauled in 39 steals in their first five games.

Juniata and Pitt.-Greensburg first squared off in the 1996-97 season. Juniata holds the 5-4 all-time series lead and most recently competed against the Bobcats in the 2005-06 season when the Eagles came away with the 91-72 win.

"They've won three in a row and we seem to be getting teams when they're hot," said Curley. "They're very difficult to play. They shoot almost 30 three-pointers a game and they shoot a high percentage. This is going to be a unique, and big, challenge for us. When you're playing a team like this you have to have a lot of energy. In a lot of ways you have to be in your defensive rhythm, which is going to be a big challenge coming off finals and having eight days off. We're going to have to play very well to win."

Elizabethtown
The Blue Jays are 4-4 on the year and 1-2 in Commonwealth Conference play. Elizabethtown in averaging 79.4 points per game and is being led by junior Lee Eckert with 111 points and 13.9 points per game. Junior Phil Wenger is leading the Blue Jays in total assists (47) and assists per game (5.9) and is 26-42 for a .619 shooting percentage from the foul line. Elizabethtown is coming off tough conference loss to Messiah College, but recently recorded wins over Commonwealth foe Widener and Landmark Conference Susquehanna.

The Juniata vs. Elizabethtown series dates back to the 1929-30 season. The Blue Jays hold the lead over the Eagles 86-64; however, the two teams last met in the 2006-07 season, the year before Juniata joined the Landmark, and that year the Eagles came away with both season wins.

Nazareth
Senior Brad Ford is doing the majority of the damage for the 4-2 Golden Flyers. The forward is averaging over 35 minutes on court each game and has 20.7 points per game to show for it. Senior Scott Hayford does most of his damage from behind the arc where he is 13-37 for a .351 shooting percentage. Nazareth opened the season with three straight wins and is coming off a bounce-back victory over Rochester Institute of Technology after back-to-back losses late last week.

Nazareth men's basketball played its inaugural season in the 1977-78 academic year and has yet to face Juniata.

The first game of the tournament will tip off at 5 p.m. featuring Nazareth vs. Elizabethtown followed by the Juniata Pitt.-Greensburg game at 7. The losing teams will play a consolation game at 2 p.m. on the 17^th while the winning teams will advance to the championship game at 4 p.m. on the Memorial Gymnasium court.

For the tournament webpage, click here.

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