Wheaton wins their third in a row at Millikin, 86-78.

Familiar story.  The Thunder came out guns blazing again, shooting 54% in the first half and got out to a 20 pt lead.  They mean reverted in the 2nd half but MU just didn't have enough to make it all the way back.

Soren Richardson had a quieter game, 23 pts,  having to sit out due to foul trouble for big minutes in the 2nd half. Freshman Kyle VanderWoude with the impressive double double 17 and 13. Noah Hedrick continues to overcome guarding much bigger players while going for 15 pts 6 rebs.

Noah Livingston had 18 for the Big Blue while Lane Thomann contributed 17 pts and 7 boards.

Wheaton Ladies with a good 79-67 home win over Elmhurst.

Annika Richardson led with a career high 36 pts on 13/18 shooting, 5/9 from trey (big night for the Richardson family w/ Soren's 53 pts at NPU**).  She got the double-double with 12 rebounds and 3 steals.  Kate Oliver added 17 pts.  Grace Kizer had some key 2nd half baskets and finished with 11 pts.  Wheaton moves up into a tie for 4th in the conference.

EC's Sierra Gibson had 18 pts while Cierra Steemer added 14 pts and 9 rebs.

**Richardson family (sis/bro) scoring line on the night:  31/41 FG (75.6%), 11/17 three (64.7%), 16/20 FT (80%) . . 89 pts.

Sitting in 5th place, the Wheaton Ladies (5-5) are in good position to make the CCIW tournament.  They are a game ahead of Elmhurst (6th) and a game behind Carthage and Millikin (tied for 3rd).  With 5 out of the last 6 games at King Arena, it's reasonable to think they could move up and at least secure a 1st rd home game.  With an upset or two, third place would avoid having to presumably face IWU @ Shirk in the semis, if they advance.  Beating Elmhurst on Wed will be particularly important.

They will need to play well and get some contributions from their less experienced young players.  For some reason, Kate Oliver only played 18 mins in the last game @ NPU. She wasn't in foul trouble that I could see and I tuned in late and saw her on the floor as usual.  I hope it is not injury related because they desperately need her scoring on a team that is challenged in that area.  That and taking care of the ball – TOs killing them.

Quote from: GusD on January 09, 2025, 03:27:32 PM

Quote from: lmitzel on January 08, 2025, 09:49:29 PMNCC looked at Wheaton's results in conference so far, said "That's adorable," and proceeded to almost double monkey stomp the Thunder 86-48.

Wheaton's three point shooting had them in the game and only down 36-27 at half, but opened the second half on a 14-0 run to put it out of reach.

Ethan Helwig: 17 pts, 5 reb
James Bullock, Jr: 15 pts, 6 reb
Tyler Swierczek: 14 pts
Drew Gaston: 14 pts

Kyle Niebch: 19 pts
Noah Hedrick: 7 pts
Devin Martin: 5 pts, 6 ast

North Central actually opened the 2nd half with a 19-0 (not 14-0) run. Coupled with Ethan Helwig's three to end the 1st half, the Cardinals scored 22 points in a row.

While the Cardinals 86 points represent a nice offensive explosion, this victory was unquestionably primarily due to a superior defensive effort, particularly in the 2nd half. While the Thunder shot 53% in the opening stanza, they were held to just 28% in the second. Wheaton's Soren Richardson is the CCIW's leading scorer averaging 20.4 PPG. NCC really clamped down on him, holding him to 5 points and forcing him to commit 5 of Wheaton's 17 TOs, those TOs resulting in 24 of NCC's 86 points.

NCC's 38 point margin of victory is the most in the series since 1967.

Yes 17-9 on turnover margin for NCC.  That AND 13 offensive boards for the Cardinals vs well, goose egg, for the Thunder.  All that adds up to 61 shot attempts for the home team vs a mere 42 for Wheaton.  Wheaton could've shot 70% from the field and it would not have mattered. 

Quote from: RogK on January 05, 2025, 12:43:04 PMBoth teams were allowed to play feisty defense, which kept the score down to 22-22 at the half.
Reviewing the stats, I was surprised to see only 1 steal for Wheaton's Petra Trumbach; I thought she had 3 or so.
In regard to IWU turnovers, here is the range from their 13 games : 9 9 10 10 10 12 16 16 16 16 17 18 29. The 29 occurred in the OT game.

For some reason, women are not able to take care of the ball as well as men.  The 50th ranked team in turnovers averages 14.4 (Penn St- Altoona, UW-Stevens Point) while the same for men is 11.1 (Rivier, Trinity (CT), UWRF). Why is that? I don't know.  Maybe RogK can take a shot at that??

So turnovers are much more prevalent in the ladies game.  But even accounting for my lowered expectations, turnovers by the Wheaton women have been their most obvious downfall.  And in my opinion, so many are unnecessary and can be coached (bounce passes, no cross-court passes to name just two).  The Thunder's most talented player is clearly Kate Oliver but she seems to be playing out of position as the primary ball handler (.65 asst:to).

Yes, turnover ratio is a key marker for a pressure team like IWU.  If you can't be at least +5 then you are exerting alot of energy for not much benefit. And if you turn it over 15+ times the maintaining that margin is tough.  IWU has been much better than all of that all season - just not on Saturday.

IWU  85
Wheaton 80  (OT)

Wheaton played a fantastic game with a masterful strategy - for 38 mins.  We've all seen it so many times where a big underdog, on the verge of a big win (up by 9 with 4 mins remaining), gets just a little bit too conservative on offense down the stretch trying to run some clock and it just goes badly.  Once a team loses its offensive edge, it is tough for a veteran team to get it back to say nothing of a young team.

Desperate times and lack of height in the lineup = Wheaton playing a 3-2 zone the entire game and to great effect.  The Titans really struggled against it, again, for 38 mins.  As painfully disappointing as this one was, the Thunder played a clearly superior team very tough all night.  And while Mike Schauer will not claim a moral victory, this was as close as it gets.  Still way too many 3 point shots ( 39 trey attempts out of 64 total shots) for my taste, but y'know, whatever.

IWU 59
Wheaton 45

The game was closer than the 14 pt final until about 3 mins left in the game.  The Wheaton ladies had a chance but they really don't have the offensive talent to compete with the Titans.  Although they kept the turnovers under 20 (18), they were terribly outrebounded on the offensive glass (-13) and only abysmal shooting by IWU (22/67; 32.8%) kept the outcome in question.

The Thunder played a very difficult non-conference schedule and played decently well even in the losses to ranked teams.  Perhaps as a result, they might be able to stick around enough to keep games close against the better teams.  But they don't quite have what it takes to finish.  They could really use a reliable ball handler to run things.

#8 UW-Whitewater 65
Wheaton  58

The Wheaton ladies gave the Lady Warhawks a very good game last night in Whitewater.  UWW All-American Kacie Carollo pretty much does it all and finished the game with 33 pts, 10 rebs, 3 blks, 3 stls.

Wheaton was down by as much as 9 pts throughout the game but never had the lead.  To their credit the Thunder ladies were able to tie the game at 56-56 with 1:45 left on a pair of Kate Oliver (19pts, 8 rebs) free throws.  But UWW was more experienced and better coached down the stretch to extend the lead and seal it.  I'm not sure why Annika Richardson didn't start the game but she finished with starters minutes and 15 pts.

I'm glad to see Wheaton schedule 3 WIAC opponents (Platteville, #6 Oshkosh, #8 Whitewater)  this season, all on the road.  Platteville was the only one that was not really close.  Hopefully this will help them once conference play begins.  Rebounding and generally sloppy play ( turnovers – 23 last night, 25 game before) continues to drive their losses.

Wheaton 68-64 over Lake Forest.

After finishing dead last in the conference last year at 5-11, it's not surprising that the Thunder were picked to finish there again this season by the coaches.

After watching the Thunder in their first two games; a loss @ Benedictine (a game they should have won, up by as much as 19 pts and never trailed) and a win @ Lake Forest I am seeing a very young but fairly talented team that will be pretty competitive.  It's early yet, but a few takeaways are:

Through the first two games, there's a dramatic drop in the amount of three point attempts.  19 vs BU and 18 LF sharply down from the near 29 3attempts/game last season where it seemed like treys were the only shots worth taking.  I really hope that continues.  Second, soph Soren Richardson (lots of treys last season) is displaying much more inside, posting up and driving to the basket game than anyone ever thought he had from watching last season.  He looks capable of breaking out a little this season.  Third, there are several freshman that will see a lot of playing time and they are a pretty talented group.  Devin Martin (Westerville, OH) already looks comfortable running the offense from the point and he's not afraid to score.  Kyan VanderWoude (Caledonia, MI) is listed at 6'4" but seems to play longer than that with good rebounding ability and comfortable inside scoring.  Christian Viers (La Grange, KY) had some solid minutes vs LF and played over half the game off the bench.  Their inexperience and need to quickly acclimate to this level of DIII play was evident in the loss at BU (the refs absolutely bailed out BU on the last play to allow the Eagles two free throws to win it). 

Like I said, only two games in but there's plenty to be hopeful about.  This season and certainly for the next couple.

Annie Tate was plagued by injuries her entire career at Wheaton over 5 years. I had no inside info on the extent but those questions are all answered in this video.  She was one of three finalists for the 2024 Honda Inspiration Award alongside two D1 athletes.  All three were highlighted on a CBS show last week.

For those interested, it is a nice story of perseverance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz3ryWHhniY

https://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2024/5/29/womens-basketball-annie-tate-of-wheaton-womens-basketball-is-named-a-finalist-for-2024-honda-inspiration-award.aspx

Pretty nice night for Knudsen . . 36 pts on 14/23 shooting . . . Up next is host UW Whitewater

Titans with a nice win without much from Huber who was in foul trouble most of the game.  Now face the host Wartburg.

Unfortunate first round loss for the Pios.  I'm sure they were hoping for much, much more

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 29, 2024, 05:07:40 PM

Quote from: USee on February 29, 2024, 10:14:38 AM

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 29, 2024, 10:07:45 AMYes, I was constantly bumping into the term "QOWI" during my 2006-07 re-read on Monday.

It felt a little like trying to decipher Middle English when I read The Canterbury Tales in college.

Is Middle English what they speak in Middle Earth? You read the Canterbury Tales at NPU? Isn't that about a golf trip to England?

You're thinking of The Cadbury Tales, where the winner of the tournament gets a box of chocolates at the 18th hole.

Maybe next season, call an entire game using iambic pentameter ...?

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 26, 2024, 06:57:01 PMCongrats to the three CCIW entrants into the D3 tourney for turning things around for the league and providing the CCIW with the most representation in the dance it's had in almost three decades!

Congrats especially to Carroll, which will get to host a pod in Van Male for, IIRC, the first time ever.

Agree!  Really psyched for the Pios hosting this weekend.  I've never seen a game at Van Male in person. But on video anyhow, it looks like the sort of place where visiting teams might need to acclimate more.  Hope that works in Carroll.

Congrats to the Carroll Pios on their CCIW Championship.

Looks to me like IWU and Millikin should join them in the tourney.  When was the last time the CCIW had three women's teams in? 

I'll be following and cheering with interest for a deep run for the league.

Thanks to Pat et al for getting the boards back up and running.  Having said that, for Thunder fans, we didn't miss it that much  - on the mens or ladies side.