MBB: American Rivers Conference

[Schipper Strong]

Dubuque gets the home win over Loras.  I think it was 78-72.  UD tried to make it interesting, going only 2-8 from the line over the final minute. 

Nice to get a good start to the conference season with a win over your cross-town rival and a team picked near the top in the preseason.

That is impressive given all the talk about Loras challenging NWU for the title. I thought Central challenged well the other night also.

[Schipper Strong]

So Wartburg and Central both played without a starter due to injury Wednesday night. Wartburg has a player score 33 and Central has a player score 32.  I think it was career bests for both players. Did these players step it up and take the games on their shoulders because of the missing starter or was it just their night to shine?

Central seams to be a team where one guy just has a lights out kind of game and you never know just who that player is going to be. That makes it hard to know how to prepare. Fortunately the Dutch seem to do a good job of feeding the hot hand and are playing well as a team. The hard part is that as well as they played Wednesday it was still a loss. I am really impressed with how fast the team is coming together as there are a lot of new players, even among the upperclassmen. A lot of very young players stepping up as well.  Here is hoping for a win tomorrow.

Hey Doolittle, the Dutch have NWU a work out Wednesday, they should be tired tomorrow.  i am a little afraid Central might have the same issue.

[doolittledog]

Hey Schipper Strong...it's early yet, but at this point it looks like we have an interesting conference season in front of us.  Central gave NWU all they could handle.  Dubuque was able to take one from Loras.  Wartburg got one from Simpson, right after the Storm had taken out a ranked team. 

[doolittledog]

Dubuque leading NWU 41-37 at the half.  McDaniel for UD with 7 3-pointers in the 1st half.  NWU out rebounded UD by 4.

[doolittledog]

Strong 2nd half for NWU (63% from the field in the 2nd half) takes a 92-78 win @ UD.  McDaniel sets a UD record with 9 3-pointers in the game.   

[Schipper Strong]

Central gets a win today against Wisc-LaCrosse 89-77. Dutch lead most of the game. When I think back to when Central played River Falls to start the season it was with a feeling that it would be a long year.  Central has come a long way. They look and play nothing like the team that played that day. They still need to work on reducing turnovers, but they are playing so well together now it is night and day difference. I think they have found a lineup that works and they seem to have hit their stride.  Jamel McKinght had another strong game with 26 points after adding 22 to Wood's 32 Wednesday. I am impressed with freshman Thomas Spoehr who is really holding his own in the much more physical college level game. Good job Dutch.

[AndOne]

Loras loses to an unranked team and only drops 2 places, from 19th to 21st, in the new D3Hoops Poll.   
Angels (or at least nuns) in the Outfield 3rd row of the bleachers. 

[dunkin3117]

Tonights matchups

UD at Luther
Wartburg at Loras
Central at Coe
BV at Simpson

NWU off

The 2 games I'll be keeping my eye on tonight will be Wartburg/Loras and BV/Simpson.  Wartburg's Ryan Stulken has not played in last 2 games, and while Wartburg has played well without him, they are a much better team with him in the lineup.  Will be interesting to see if he suits up tonight. 

[Schipper Strong]

Central wins at Coe 87 to 73. Another solid performance. Way to go Dutch!

[doolittledog]

Dubuque with a 78-77 win @ Luther

All 5 UD starters double figures in points...but on the flip side, only 9 points off the bench for Dubuque. 

Next up for UD is an exhibition @ UNI on Saturday. 

[doolittledog]

It's an exhibition, but...Dubuque leads UNI 36-34 at the half. 

[doolittledog]

Dubuque plays well in a 75-67 loss to UNI.

[Hoosiersfan2323]

On Saturday, Loras pounded Lake Forest 118-92 behind one of the most impressive shooting performances I've ever seen out of a team. The Duhawks shot 70.8% from the field and 62.5% from beyond the three point arc. The defense for both teams was shaky at best, but still an incredible performance.


Perhaps no single player was more impressive than sophomore Rowan McGowen, who connected on all 10 of his FGA (including 6-6 3PT) on his way to 26 points. Senior Ryan DiCanio was 12-15 with a team-high 30 points. For Lake Forest, Danny Sotos led with 25 points.

[Schipper Strong]

Central took it on the chin against Platteville on Saturday. They were with them bucket for bucket most of the first half then  Platteville went on a 16-0 run. It was greatly helped by a high number of steals with the Dutch doing a poor job of ball control. Central shot well for the night, much better than Platteville, but 23 turnovers and weak rebounding doomed them.

They had improved so much, but for a bit they just really lost focus.  I give them credit though. They really put themselves in a big hole but they did make a nice comeback, they just ran out of time. At least it was a non conference game. I thought they had a good chance to win the way most of the first half went, but you have to take care of the ball as big the boards consistently. I am skipping Thursday's game, and I use that term loosely, against Faith Baptist.  It will give the subs some quality minutes, but is pretty boring to watch.

[Schipper Strong]

Central beats Faith Baptist 95-52 in a wind down to finals.  Everybody got to play.