MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[AppletonRocks]

Audio from the two female student announcers not so good 

Did they sound hot? (Paraphrasing a quote from Road Trip)   

An excerpt from the Cali "broad"cast:  "Those purple and gold uniforms are hideous.  Just like the Lakers, I am a Clippers fan.  And they just made another basket and PP is down 10. Whatever"

[Greek Tragedy]

Wow.

[Greek Tragedy]

Stevens Point (3-0, 9-3)
Point dropped a heart-breaker at #6 St. Thomas over the break, 68-66. Aside from that, the Pointers had a nice break, topping Lawrence and then winning two out in California, including a nice win over #23 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Point is off until Wednesday when they host Platteville.

River Falls (3-0, 5-7)
Despite being one of 3 teams in the WIAC undefeated, the Falcons can't translate that success to the non-conference. They lost all three games over the break by a combined 7 points to Viterbo, Kalamazoo and Monmouth. They host Whitewater today. What are the Falcons made of?

Whitewater (2-0, 9-2)
Whitewater took #4 Augustana into overtime before falling on the road by two in an instant classic. As a result, they took their frustrations out on Monmouth, Kalamazoo and Beloit, winning by 20, 36 and 41. They travel to River Falls today.

Platteville (2-1, 9-3)
The Pioneers had a nice break recording 3 road wins. Loras, Methodist and William Peace all suffered losses at the hands of the Pioneers. The game against Methodist was the only close contest, won by 7 points. Platteville hosts the Blue Devils tonight.

Superior (1-2, 7-5)
The Yellowjackets had a light holiday schedule playing just two games, but winning both. They got victories over Coe and Luther in Wisconsin Dells. They host Oshkosh today.

La Crosse (1-2, 6-6)
La Crosse went 2-2 over the break, losing to a good Bethel team and on the road at ranked Wooster. The Eagles did record wins over Spalding (at Wooster) and at Millikin. They lost the Blugolds today.

Oshkosh (0-2, 6-5)
The Titans also went 2-2 for the holidays. They lost a tough one to Calvin and lost at North Park. They did get a nice win over Carthage and another victory against Alma. The Titans travel to Superior today.

Eau Claire (0-3, 4-8)
The Blugolds recorded a respectable loss to MWC power St. Norbert, 66-55. They also fell to DePauw in Florida after topping Hobart the previous night. They head to La Crosse today.

Stout (0-2, 3-8)
The Blue Devils went 1-2 over the break. They lost at Northwestern (MN) by 5 before heading to the St. Norbert tournament. There, they lost to John Carroll before beating St. Scholastica. A trip to Platteville is in the cards tonight.

That's all for non-conference games. It's conference games from here on out.

The WIAC was an unimpressive 46-35 in non-conference play. 56.7%

[Greek Tragedy]

Eau Claire surprises La Crosse 72-66 on the road.

[AppletonRocks]

Oshkosh 61-54 over Superior.

[BDB]

Hey old school (GT), the thinking was Ragland had broken his foot but he did not, so he's back.

[badgerwarhawk]

WARHAWKS: 67
River Falls: 63

The WARHAWKS opened scoring from the free throw line but struggled from the floor scoring just four points in the game's first eleven minutes and trailed 10-4.  The deficit would be cut to three points later but the Falcon's maintained a lead which reached a high of ten points a couple of times before the WARHAWKS used a 6-0 run and cut the deficit to a single point 24-23 at the half.  As a team the WARHAWKS shot just 26% from the floor and 50% from the charity stripe.  Quardell Young's 10 points led both teams as did KJ Evans 6 rebounds.  River Falls had a 20-0 scoring advantage off the bench and a 14-5 advantage off of turnovers though each team had 8.  The Falcons maintained a single digit lead though most of the ten minutes of the second half though the WARHAWKS managed to forge a tie three times.  Xzavier Moananu's free throw tied the game 43-43 half way through the second half and Young's layup in the paint thirty seconds later gave the lead to the WARHAWKS.  The lead would remain in single digits the rest of the way.  The Falcons pulled to within a pair with three minutes to go but the WARHAWKS scored on the next three possessions and held off the Falcons late rush.

Quardell Young: 22 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals
KJ Evans: 11 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal
Cody Odegaard: 10 points
Xzavier Moananu: 9 points, 7 rebounds

WARHAWKS shoot 57% from the floor in the second half.  Free throw shooting was a challenge as the team went 13-30 (43%). 

Grant Erickson and Garret Pearson each had 14 points for the Falcons.  Erickson also had 6 assists and a steal.   

[fredfalcon]

Quardell Young should be, based on tonight's performance and his stats so far, POTY. He did it for WW. The Warhawks' quickness, especially Young's, was apparent in their win, and I predict they will go at least  to the quarter finals of the D3 tourney. Still, the Falcons, playing no seniors as opposed to four senior starters for WW, did very well. The four point WW win margin marked  at least the fifth game in which the
margin of loss for RF was five points or less. (I'm too lazy to go back and check the record.) RF led all the way until the 9:21 mark in the second half when WW took a 45-43 lead. Erickson was outstanding for the Falcons. Four freshmen also stood out for RF:  Witt, Rockett, Lewis, and Timlin. Pearson and Erickson (14 points each) are sophomores. If all 6 of those players stay in school, Falcon bb looks good for the next 2-3 years.

[Greek Tragedy]

Hey old school (GT), the thinking was Ragland had broken his foot but he did not, so he's back.

Good to hear. I think he scored 23 tonight in a losing effort.

[Greek Tragedy]

Checking the boxscores, I saw that John Denny fouled out in 16 minutes for Superior against Oshkosh. Not to be outdone, Brian Lindblom fouled out in just 9 minutes in the same game. Shocking, right? Apparently not. Tyler Mattison fouled out in 8 minutes against Coe over the holiday break. 

[Brian R. Carroll]

Having lost two excellent players unexpectedly, this UWL team is having trouble finding the basket. After shooting 44 and 45 pct in WIAC play the last two seasons, they have fallen to 39.2 this year. It is hard to win that way, and only good defense is keeping them in the games at all.

[Greek Tragedy]

Refresh my memory. What happened to Skogman and Collom?

[havej]

Collom injured his knee, heard he's coming back next year.  LAX offense definitely suffering this year - they don't have a post threat, and nothing comes easy as they don't create turnovers or get much in transition.  Their motion offense is very east - west and they shoot a lot of contested shots.

[Greek Tragedy]

As the self-proclaimed Pointer pessimist,  I may have to start softening my R.E.M.'s It's The End of the World as We Know It stance on the Pointers. They go into Wednesday's big tilt vs Platteville at 9-3.

Although they were an uncharacteristic 6-3 in non-conference games, those losses came to opponents with a combined 29-3 record. North Central is in the tough CCIW and St. Thomas has won 9 or 10 MIAC titles in a row. Even St. Olaf looks good this year (they were also an NCAA tourney team last year). On the other hand, Point's conference wins haven't been anything to write home about. Wins against the bottom three, including two at home hasn't impressed me. The schedule is tough with a date against my predicted #2 team, Platteville and then later on they have road trips to River Falls and Whitewater,  back to back. That's not to say I'm looking past a trip to an improved Oshkosh team or a dangerous La Crosse squad.

Despite the losses and unimpressive start to the conference schedule (though 3-0), Stevens Point still has a few quality wins (at Hope, at CMS) and have spread the scoring around enough to settle my preseason fears of it being the Joe Ritchay show every game, living and dying by his production.

[AppletonRocks]

Point plays defense.  That wins games.