MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwumichigander]

Great contest at the Shirk tonight.  Too bad either team had to lose.  Wheaton which shot 50% FG with 48% 3s in regulation shot 28.6 FG% in overtime. Four players in double figures Fiddler 21 Wiele 22 Mohan 21 & Bollier 12

Titans with four players in double figures were led by Keelan Amelianovich with 27 points, Cory Jones 14 and Adam Dauksas 12 but the big story was Zack Freeman with a double double 18 Rebounds 16 Points with 7 - 9 FG% just a great performance by the junior.

10 ties in this game as each team went bucket for bucket run for run to keep it close all the way to the end.  Wheaton who led by 1 at the half took a 4 point lead in overtime on a 7 - 3 run but the Titans owned the last 2:10 going on a 10 - 0 run to shut Wheaton out at the end. Just a great CCIW contest.

[Titan Q]

The IWU/Wheaton boxscore...

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2006/miwu15.htm

An great game tonight at the Shirk Center and an incredible performance by Wheaton's inexperienced, but very talented, team.  6-8 freshman Andy Wiele ("Wee-lee"...get to know the name, CCIW fans) came into the game 6-20 from 3 on the season.  He went 6-8 from beyond the arc tonight, finishing with 22 points.  6-6 junior Michael Fiddler was unbelievable as well going 8-12 from the field and I believe all 8 makes were of the 16-18 foot jumpshot variety.  Sophomore guard John Mohan was the third Thunder player that killed the Titans -- 4-8 from 3 and 21 points.

IWU led 67-58 with 7:07 to play.  It looked like the Titans were going to coast in for a victory...but Wheaton went on 13-2 run to take a 71-69 lead with 3:27 to play.  8 of those 13 points in the run were on FT's coming off the bonus and double bonus.  Zach Freeman drove to the basket and scored to tie the game at 71 with 2:55 to go, but freshman Wiele hit an enormous 3 to put the Thunder back up 3 at 2:30.  Keelan Amelianovich scored to cut the deficit to 1 with 1:23.   Zach Freeman had 2 FT's to give IWU a lead with :30...he made the first but missed the 2nd, giving Wheaton a free crack at a final shot.  Tony Bollier missed a 15 foot jumper (remember Jordan's final shot as a Bull...the jumper vs Utah in Game 6...same shot) that was in the basket and popped back out.

In overtime Wiele hit a 3 to give the Thunder a 2 point lead, 79-77, at 3:14 and then he made a jumper to put Wheaton up 4 with 2:38 left in the OT.  Zach Freeman drove to the basket and scored and completed a 3-point play to cut the deficit back to 1.  After a defensive stop, the shot of the game for IWU - Keelan Amelianovich ball faked 3 times and finally got his man off the ground.  He went up and hit a 3 from the left wing to give IWU a 1 point lead with 2:10 to play.  The Titans got another stop and Adam Dauksas sealed it at the FT line, putting IWU up 4 with :11 to play.

[Titan Q]

What is really amazing about the game is that Wheaton had zero inside presence.  This was the second biggest "size" advantage - not in terms of height but just pure strength and inside presence -  IWU had all season long, with only the Illinois College being "smaller."  Yet Wheaton was able to get good looks.  Tall, thin kids like Wiele and Fiddler were just standing out there calmly knocking down long jumpers and 3's in front of 2000+ at the Shirk Center, as if they had played in a ton of huge games in a Wheaton uniform.

Wheaton shot 27-57 from the field (47.4%)...they were 13-29 from from 3 (44.8%).  Of those 14 made field goals that weren't 3's, 8 were long jump shots.  The Thunder only had 6 basket counted as "layups" in the boxscore and those were mostly off really well-run offensive sets.  Wheaton never had the luxury of being to dump it down low to a guy who was any kind of threat around the basket, like IWU does with Freeman, Jones, Jones, etc.

[redmen1]

Bad loss by the redmen tonight. They were never in the game. Jeffery had 30 points and the Redmen scored 60. North Central is a very good team. They shoot well and pretty much don't miss. When they do miss they get the rebound. Jefferey needs some help. He is making shots with people in his face and when he does miss no one is there to get the rebound.

From the games I have seen up here at Carthage, North Central can play. Could Jefferey possibly be an all american if he keeps it up? Tell me what you think. This team has so much talent but can't put it together. If you are a good team you don't get blown out at home.

I know some guys on the team and they say that North Central runs every play, they share the ball, and they have fun. Congrats to North Central and dominating up here at Carthage. Anyone got any comments? I would like to hear what people have to say. Later.

Ben Gordon with a big shot to win it for the Bulls!!!

[Titan Q]

Overall, just an impressive performance by Wheaton and an equally impressive job by the Titans in finding a way to win with their back squarely against the wall late in regulation and overtime.  Some great players - Zach Freeman, Adam Dauksas, Keelan Amelianovich - made great plays, and that is how IWU pulled the game out.

Zach Freeman's 18 rebounds was 6 short of IWU's single game record of 24 set by Don Davidson and Jack Sikma.

[Titan Q]

One final thought...

You have to give all the credit in the world to Wheaton senior point-guard Tony Bollier.  Here is a kid who played a key role on some great Wheaton teams.  Entering his senior year, in addition to losing starting teamates Jon Nielson, Martin Trimiew, Jim Fortosis, and Jonathan Steven to graduation, his All-American candidate backcourt mate Kent Raymond leaves the team.  Promising big guy Luke Trenz leaves school...a couple other guys decide not to play basketball.

Instead of pouting about it, Bollier is out there leading this young and inexperienced group of Wheaton players and doing everything he can to help the Thunder win.  He came into tonight's game at IWU averaging 16.8 points and 4.2 assists per game.

I think a lot of guys would handle Bollier's situation differently.  I have a lot of respect for him.

[usee]

Q-that's a great recap of the game and made me feel like i was there. i can remember the 3 games i have seen at the shirk vividly. the most memorable of which was the 1996 game w simich and pitts/neidlhoffer, etc.

while it hurts to lose, especially in any sport to IWU, it is great to see this group of wheaton players playing so hard and competing against a very tough CCiW slate. Its a credit to Bill Harris and the program that they can compete at a very high level. congrats to IWU on a hard fought win but also to the the Thunder for perserverance in a season where they all could have easily packed it in.

[Sweetness]

Elmhurst beat North park 63-52
Watch out CCIW because
C. Mart is taking over this league

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst wins by 11 as Augiesuperfan noted.

Michael had 18pts
Martin had 16pts and it was a quiet 16.
Strzemp had 15 pts

Mathisen (sp?) had 17 for the park.

It was a pretty ugly affair for both sides except when Elm was up 19-4. After that they shot very poorly from anywhere outside of 5 ft. Park threw up some ugly 3's against our zone and I mean ugly long by a few feet like hitting the otherside of the backboard on at least 3 occasions. Park would have hung around even more if it werent for so many turnovers. Sager's got the rest.

No, he doesn't, 'cause Sager wasn't there. I had yet another meeting that forced me to miss a game. I can report some of the ugliness from the box score and pbp, though; in addition to Mathisen's 19 points, Ed Whitaker scored 17 for NPU. Martin's 16 for Elmhurst might've been "quiet", but he did haul in a game-high ten rebounds.

Elmhurst outrebounded the Park, 38-31, and outshot them in what looked to have been a defensive struggle, 39% to 37%. Bluejaybacker was obviously right about the ugliness from outside; Elmhurst was only 4-18 from downtown, while NPU was even worse at 1-13. As Bluejaybacker also noted, Elmhurst led by as many as 15 in the first half before the Park cut the lead down to ten at the break, 30-20. The Vikings got to within six at 35-29 with 13 minutes and change remaining, but Elmhurst apparently pulled away after that, keeping a double-digit lead over the last quarter of the game.

I notice that Mark Scherer has been tinkering with his lineup. Freshman Robert Strzemp, who is going to be a great player in this league, is now starting at the power forward spot. The erstwhile starter, senior defensive specialist Andrew Mohney, only saw three minutes of action.

North Park went with a bigger lineup in order to counteract Martin, with rangy 6'6" sophomore Jay Alexander no doubt the player assigned to cover the Bluejay superstar. The bigger lineup obviously didn't help on the boards. Freshman Keith Willert started at PG for North Park. While there is nobody outside of his immediate family who wants to see him succeed more badly than yours truly, quite frankly he is in way over his head. I desperately hope that he will prove me wrong in NPU's nine remaining games, but I don't think I am.

I've been haunted all week by the mental picture of seeing Jason Gordon crumpled on the ground right in front of me under the west basket at King Arena last Saturday night, clutching his knee in agony. It's the second time I've seen a player blow out his knee right at my feet as I sat courtside, North Central's Pete Rochford being the first a decade and a half ago. That's two times too many. I hope I never have to see anything like that ever again. It's a gut-wrenching thing to have to witness, let alone be the one falling victim to the injury.

I sincerely hope and pray that Gordon's story has a happier ending than Rochford's, and that he's able to return at full strength next season. He is an immensely talented player who was forced to learn a new position this year, and he certainly struggled. But it finally appeared as though he was turning the corner; his turnovers were way down, and he really seemed to be getting the hang of playing point guard. And now he's out for the year and NPU is left adrift in his absence. But feeling sorry for the team takes a backseat to feeling sorry for Jason, who is certainly suffering right now.

[cardinalpride]

I have Carthage defeating North Central tonight in the pick 'em game.  I do not think Carthage is a better team than NCC, but the game is in Kenosha where the Red Men gave IWU and Augustana all kinds of trouble.  And it just seems like Carthage is due to finish someone off.  Just playing a hunch I guess.  NCC is coming off a loss though, so it's not like they'll look past the Red Men.  The Cards will come to play.

Kyle Jeffery leads the CCIW in scoring here in the early going (conf. games only) with a 26.3 average while  shooting .545 from the field.  Jeffery has made 30 FG in CCIW play...22 of them from inside the arc.  The amazing thing is that those are almost all mid-range jumpshots...17-18 footers.  You don't see many players nowadays who can shoot the mid-range shot like Jeffery can.

TQ, I know I have a long way to go, but I can finally gain ground on you in the Pick em.  NCC over Carthage in dominating fashion.  Nice road win for the Cards.  From looking at the boxscore, it appears NCC played pretty well.  Jefferey must be a stud because he's the first guy to get 30 on NCC all season.  Well, at least they held everyone else in check.  Next up the 9th ranked Augustana Vikings.  I'm predicting a NCC victory at the Carver PE center also.  Go Cards!!!    Here's the boxscore from tonights game:

http://www.carthage.edu/athletics/index.cfm?page=19

[Gregory Sager]

I think a lot of guys would handle Bollier's situation differently.  I have a lot of respect for him.

Tony Bollier won me over during his impressive performance in this year's Pfund tourney. At one point a stray Aurora elbow knocked a tooth right out of his mouth. Bollier kept playing, until the refs saw the blood streaming from his mouth and forced him to leave the game. I saw Wheaton assistants Nate Frank and Owen Handy wandering around the court during the officials' timeout, looking at the floor. I figured that someone had lost a contact lens; what they were actually looking for was Bollier's tooth. The Wheaton trainer stuffed Bollier's mouth with wads of cotton, and he went on to finish the game and score 30 points. I said to myself, "That kid is one tough hombre."

[cardinalpride]

I think the redmen will play a whole 40 minutes tonight and win.

I hope Jeffry can start out hot again and if Schlem comes to play tonight I think they pull this one out for their first conference win.

So much for the redmen playing good ball for 40 minutes and Schlem coming to play.  The redmen were down by as many as 28 in the 2nd half  77-49.  As for Schlem, he played a whopping 8mins, had 4pts., 1 rebound, and 1 to.  Pathetic.  

[redmen1]

Cardinalpride,  I am disagreeing with you. North Central did a great job tonight. Schlem didn't want to play and the redmen didn't even play a minute besides Jefferey having half of their points. A dominate performance by North Central. If Schlem wasn't such a head case he would be a good ball player.

Carthage is a team full of talent but they can't put it together. I'm a big fan, but we just aren't that good. If you can't play as a team you aren't going to be good, especially in this conference. Jeffery is a great player but no one is stepping up to help him out. I hope that we can win some games and gain some momentum for next year, if we can talk about next year yet.

[redmen1]

Sorry, Cardinalpride, I am NOT Disagreeing with you. Sorry about that. But North Central is the real deal. As of right now North Central is the front runner for conference from seeing Auggie, IWU, and listening to Elmhurst play. Anything can happen though.

[veterancciwfan]

Another great D3 game at Shirk. Wheaton will be a force in the league next year, with or w/o Raymond. Harris and Wheaton prove that old axiom: No one is irreplaceable, including Kent Raymond. His loss is John Mohan's gain. With the outstanding recruiting job Harris usually does, if Wheaton gets a top flight freshman next year, the Thunder could be the 2006/07 league favorites. How did Mark Edwards let Wiele escape Wash. U.? I heard he almost went to DePauw. Too bad he didn't for the rest of the league. Back to the game. Zach Freeman made two of the most athletic plays I have ever seen a post player make, both in the second half in crunch time: 1) An almost impossible reverse layup from a bad post position in which he had to shoot the ball with a high arch off the glass, and 2) A spetacular one-handed offensive rebound at the 15 second mark of OT. While falling out of bounds, he somehow flung the ball backwards with his left hand to Dauksas who was 30 feet away. Dauksas was immediately fouled & hit 2 (the first one was shaky and hung on the front rim B4 falling in) to ice the game at 85-81.

2 important 2nd half calls, 1 went Wheaton's way and the other didn't. There was an obvious goal tending by, I think Cory Jones, that wasn't called. On the last shot of regulation, Bollier had a 12 foot shot in the middle of the lane that rimmed in and out that would have won it. He slid his pivot foot B4 the shot and traveling was not called. Another example of refs, rightfully so, not blowing the whistle when the game was on the line. But the no call allowed Wheaton a chance to win. A game of inches to be sure. Of course, there were numerous other plays during the game that could have tilted the win to either team in regulation.

How about a laugher at NPU on Sat. IWU fans and Trost could sure use one. Last thought: Does any other D3 league in the country have a 5-9 team as good as Wheaton, who might finish 6th or 7th in the CCIW?