WBB: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

[WLCALUM83]

WLC has to play Concordia-Chicago twice in a 2 1/2 week stretch-I'm not fooled by the Cougars' in-conference record-with Marche Smith adding the 3-pt shot to her array of basketball weapons.

[WLCALUM83]

2/04/09 Women's NAthCon Finals:

Aurora 69, Alverno 54  (Lady Spartans used a 22-9 2nd half scoring run to seal this one, per Inferno PBP acct).

Edgewood 65, Marian 44  (An 18-4 Edgewood scoring run turned this one into a rout, per WI Eagle press release).

Concordia-WI 66, Rockford 51 (Falcons got out to an 11-pt halftime lead and held on, per CUW release)

Dominican 98, MSOE 92  OT  (Malloy, Salinas, Trent and Budz accounted for 86 of the Stars' pts--Malloy hit a 3 with just less than 4 minutes left in the OT to put the Stars ahead to stay--MSOE had 3 players foul out-per Dominican box score/PBP acct).

WLC 83, Concordia-Chicago 57 (Warriors' Lindert had 26 pts, but this time their forwards stepped it up a bit more than usual-especially on the rebounding, 45-31 advantage on the boards. Warriors also outshot CUC 50% to 36% to offset Smith's 21 pts and Williams' 19-respectively--per WLC box score.)

[WLCALUM83]

MSOE, Benedictine and Dominican are in a real dog-fight for conference playoff position right now.

[WLCALUM83]

2-07-09 Women's NAthCon Finals

WLC 84, Marian 44  (Sabres shot 29% from the field in this rout, per Marian release).

Alverno 56, Rockford 50 (Inferno got off to a slow start, but took control in the second half, and ended up forcing Rockford into 27 turnovers the entire contest-which Alverno got 25 pts off of, per Inferno press release/PBP acct.)

Dominican 60, Lakeland 50 (Stars had a 56-39 edge on the glass, and Lakeland had a cold-shooting 2nd half-Stars' Betts had 12 pts-Salinas led 4 Dom players scoring in double figures-22-12 scoring run over last 14 minutes sealed this win-even more incredible after Dominican trailed by 16 pts in 1st half, per Dom box score/PBP acct.)

MSOE 68, Maranatha 57 (MSOE's Bertram, one of 4 Raiders scoring in double-figures. Crusaders got in an early hole, and didn't get out, per Maranatha press release.)

Edgewood 68, Concordia-Chicago 41 (WI Eagle's Scheele had 27 pts, Cougars' Smith was held to just 4  Cougars shot 13% in 2nd half, enabling Edgewood to break this one open, per Eagle press release.)

Concordia-WI 83, Benedictine 61  (Falcons shot 52% from the field for the game, Mayyou had 22 pts, to pace 5 Falcon scorers in double figures-per Benedictine box score).

With those results, Concordia-WI, Edgewood and Lakeland (North) and WLC and Aurora (South) are in great shape as far as conference playoff positioning goes at this point. Alverno has joined the dogfight with MSOE, Dominican and Benedictine in the South. 

[WLCALUM83]

2/10/09 Women's NAthCon Finals:

Alverno 74, Dominican 70 OT  (A Bre Miller 3 with just over 2 minutes left in OT put the Inferno ahead to stay and after that, they hit their FTs to seal it. Dominican missed a golden opportunity to win in regulation because of several missed FT's--per Alverno release). Inferno had 4 players score in double figures to offset Betts and Trent scoring 24 apiece for Dominican.

Aurora 73, Concordia-Chicago 55 (Aurora shot 59% in 2nd half to pull away from the Cougars-Smith held to 13, Williams led CUC with 16 pts-per Aurora box score).

Rockford 78, Maranatha Baptist 59 (Each time the Crusaders cut the Regents' lead to single digits, Rockford would answer with scoring runs of its own to get this win, per Maranatha press release.)

Edgewood 70, Lakeland 53 (WI Eagle squad outshot Lakeland 54% to 34% from the floor for the game, --Scheele poured in 25 points-per Lakeland release.)

MSOE 57, Benedictine 49 (Raiders used a 16-7 scoring run at the end to get the win, scoring most of those points on FT's. Cayo-4 blocked shots and 17 rebounds, per MSOE box score.)

Concordia-WI 58, Marian 45 (Sabre D stepped it up, but Falcons got more opportunities from the charity stripe and took advantage, particularly in the first half,-per Marian release.)

With those results, Maranatha is eliminated--

North Division:  CUW, Edgewood and Lakeland have clinched spots. Rockford and Marian are still in contention.

South Division:  WLC and Aurora are in-Alverno, Benedictine and Dominican have a good shot, but MSOE needs to lose at least once to open the door a bit wider for all 3 of those squads.

North Division contenders' schedules:
 
Rockford:  vs. Edgewood, vs. Marian

Marian:  vs. Lakeland, at Rockford.

South Division contenders' schedules:

MSOE:  vs. Concordia-Chicago, at Alverno.

Dominican:  at Concordia-Chicago, at Aurora, vs. WLC.

Benedictine:  vs. Alverno, at WLC, at Concordia-Chicago.

Alverno:  at Benedictine, at Maranatha, vs. MSOE

[Ralph Turner]

Congratulations to Megan Scheele!

2000 points;  1000 rebounds!

[WLCALUM83]

Other 2/12 Women's NAthCon Finals:

Concordia-Chicago 76, Dominican 59 (Cougars outshot Stars from the field, Stars were cold from beyond the arc. Smith, Williams and Schwab all scored in double figures-per CUC box score).

Benedictine 64, Alverno 44 (IL Eagle squad broke out to a 32-14 half-time lead and took it from there, with the help of a 68-40 rebounding advantage-per Benedictine box score).

WLC 65, Aurora 62  OT (Warriors' Dillon hit a 3 with 3:50 left in OT to put WLC up for good-Spartans were held without a FG in the extra session, W Miller, Dillon and Lindert all scored in double figures--per WLC release.)

Dominican and Alverno need to win out and hope for Benedictine to lose at least one more game to stay alive. (There's still a slim chance that those 3 squads and MSOE could tie for the last spot--but the Raiders would have to lose their last 2.)

[Just Bill]

Congratulations to Megan Scheele!

2000 points;  1000 rebounds!

She'll be on Hoopsville on Sunday night.  5-7 PM CST.  Maybe she'll thank you directly, Ralph!

[WLCALUM83]

2-14 Women's NAthCon Finals:

Aurora 77, Dominican 56  (Aurora had a 49-31 rebounding edge-and guess who lead the Stars in scoring--Betts (unusual--)  21 pts, on 7 threes-per AU box score.

Concordia-WI 61, Maranatha 42 (Crusaders committed 30 turnovers, per CUW press release).

WLC 78, Benedictine 56 (Warriors shot 56% from the field in 1st half, scored 56 1st half pts, Dillon poured in 22 1st half pts, per WLC release).

MSOE 67, Concordia-Chicago 50 (Caught this one in person. Cougars jumped out to an early lead, thanks to Schwab and Smith hitting several threes, and Williams getting a couple of buckets inside. Cougars lead 33-30 at the break. MSOE's Cayo missed several shots inside, but dished out several assists and blocked a couple of shots. The Raiders finally took control with about 7 minutes left in the second half by forcing several "one-and-dones" and drawing fouls and getting inside penetration.)

Lakeland 60, Marian 46 (A 20-5 Muskie scoring run early in 2nd half clinched this one, per Lakeland release).

Edgewood 65, Rockford 60  (WI Eagle squad hit 10 of 11 FTs down the stretch to seal this one, per Edgewood release.)

[WLCALUM83]

Dominican needs to beat WLC and hope for an Alverno loss to have a shot.

Benedictine can get in with a win and an Alverno loss.

Alverno can get in with a Benedictine loss and Inferno wins over MSOE and Maranatha Baptist.

Suppose Dom, Alverno and Ben all finish 7-11, who gets in then?

[Just Bill]

- On head-to-head-to-head, DU would be eliminated because they are a combined 0-4 against AC (3-1) and BU (3-1).  AC and BU split their two games.

- Both BU and AC were 0-2 against WLC.

- BU was 1-1 against Aurora, while AC was 0-2 against Aurora. So BU would get the last playoff spot.

[WLCALUM83]

Maranatha 64, Alverno 54 (Crusader women get off the schneid by repeatedly answering with a run whenever the Inferno would close the gap.--MBBC website.)

[WLCALUM83]

On-paper in-conference stats for all NAthCon playoff teams (and other things!)

Top-scoring offense:--CUW  Fewest avg PPG allowed:  CUW
Lowest-scoring offense:--Rockford  Most avg PPG allowed:  Aurora

Best FT%:  Edgewood  Worst FT%  Rockford
Best FG% D:  MSOE (With Cayo that's no surprise).

Most O and D rebounds:  WLC

Most 3s made per game:  WLC

Hottest team going in (as of today, prior to Challenge) CUW (prior to Challenge only Ben and Rockford would be going in with losses if Tournament started today.)

[WLCALUM83]

Correct me if I'm wrong on these NAthCon playoff pairings:

Benedictine vs CUW.  (IMHO-Falcons' overall balance figures to be the difference in this one).

MSOE vs. Edgewood. (Raiders could make this interesting if their starters stay out of foul trouble. They need to have Cayo come up big on the D again and stay on the floor. Can they frustrate Scheele & Co enough on the road?

Lakeland vs. Aurora. (Spartans can pile up the points when they're on, but if the Muskie D is on its' game, this one also can be interesting).

Rockford vs. WLC.  (Nielsen is a 3-pt threat. Warriors shouldn't take Regents too lightly.)

I'd like to see Edgewood win the whole thing-just for Megan Scheele.

[Just Bill]

Not quite.  The #1/#2 seed is still up for grabs with the NAC Challenge game.  If WLC wins they get the #1 seed by virtue of a two-game sweep over CUW.

THe #7/#8 seed is also up for grabs based on the Challenge Game.

EC will be the 3, AU will be the 4, Lakeland will be the 5 and MSOE will be the 6.