MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Titans and NCC going to OT at the Shirk.  Titans up by 14 with 5 to go, have let this one slip away.  NCC hanging in.  5 more minutes.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

NCC 96
IWU 89 (OT)

* Connor Raridon: 31 pts, 15 reb, 5 assists
* Jayme Moten: 18 pts, 6 assists
* Alex Sorenson: 16 pts, 4 reb
* Kevin Honn: 14 pts, 4 reb
* Jagger Anderson: 13 pts, 4 reb

* Trevor Seibring: 26 pts, 10 reb
* Joel Pennington: 19 pts
* Bryce Dolan: 15 pts, 3 assists
* Alec Bausch: 10 pts

IWU was up 14 in regulation with 5 minutes to play.  This one will hurt.

[kiko]

Four road winners tonight...

As reported above:

North Park 77, Millikin 71 at the Griz
North Central 96, Illinois Wesleyan 89 in OT at the Shirk

Elsewhere:

Elmhurst 71, Wheaton 48 at King Arena
Augustana 71, Carthage 63 at the PEC

[CCIW >]

I tried to tell you guys... Connor Raridon is the best all around player in this conference and it showed again tonight. What a game for the fans. Was back and fourth all night. Turning point of the game was most certainly the Technical on the NCC bench. Changed the entire effort for NCC and sparked the comeback.

Raridon stat line: 31 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists... 14/15 from the free throw line.

[bbfan44]

He has my attention.  I'm a believer.

[veterancciwfan]

About the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill said: Never in the field of human conflict have so few done so much for so many. I was going to try to be clever and paraphrase that famous quote to describe how IWU squandered a 14 point lead at home, but I will refrain. I know that the team and Ron Rose feel worse about the loss than the IWU fans do. I'll just close with Edward R. Murrow's famous tag line: Good night and good luck.

[iwu70]

Yes, tough loss by the Titans, after being up 14 with 5 to go.  Poor FT shooting did them in tonight.  I hand it to NCC for hanging in.  Clearly Raridon showing off his all-CCIW credentials with a great game.  In the Sorensen-Seibring match up, clearly Seibring had the better game, by far.  This one hurts for sure, esp. after having the lead.

Titans had a number of chances to win this game, but poor FT shooting, dumb fouls, key misses at crucial points when they should have put this one away, and it slipped into OT where NCC took it up a gear. 

Much more basketball to be played,  but you don't want to lose one like this at home. 

You gotta let it go, move on --no rest, as Augie comes in next.

IWU70

[augiefan]

Augie staggered to the finish last night at Carthage. This was the second game (Wheaton being the other) in which Augie has looked vulnerable against one of the three also rans in the CCIW. Not a strong effort for a team ranked #3, but any CCIW road win is a good win. The Vikings will have to perform a lot better on the road at IWU to win at the Shirk against an angry Titan squad motivated to make up for blowing last night's game.

[voxelmhurst]

Elmhurst 71
Wheaton 46


Will Nixon: 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks
Bryant Ackerman: 10 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists
Jalen Loving: 10 points, 3 rebounds
Brandon Schwebke: 3 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists


Jonathan Berntsen: 14 points
Trae Masten: 9 points, 2 rebounds
Michael Berg: 7 points, 10 rebounds


Ugly shooting night in Wheaton. Elmhurst was 35.9% from the field and Wheaton was just 21.3%. Elmhurst had a 5 point lead at halftime and then went on a 25-5 run during the first 10 minutes of the second half. Wuest and Crittenden had off-nights (2-18 combined) but Ackerman was back in double-digit points after having been quiet in CCIW play thus far and Will Nixon was real strong under the basket once again. Nice performance off the bench from Jalen Loving, 10 points and 3 rebonds in 12 minutes of action. 32 bench points in all for Elmhurst.

[Wildcat]

The elmhurst bench has been fantastic during this last six weeks. It came in handy,especially against Wesleyan and Augie. I was impressed by Alex Bausch from Wesleyan, and wondered why he does,nt start. Maybe Titan q can help with that.

[kiko]

This is off topic and out of region, but if you haven't been following Caltech this year, you really should.  It is the hardcourt equivalent of what we saw with North Park football the past couple of years.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

We covered them, Caltech, the other night on Hoopsville. They have a great story based on actually finding ways to compete like MIT turned the corner a number of years ago. You can find the show here: www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2015-16/jan14

[voxelmhurst]

The elmhurst bench has been fantastic during this last six weeks. It came in handy,especially against Wesleyan and Augie.

I can't remember an Elmhurst team with this deep of a bench. Their second unit (Wyatt-Leonard-Schwebke-Payonk-Loving) are all capable of putting up big numbers on any given night. I felt the starters really carried the team in the victories over Wesleyan and Augustana. The bench was the reason the victories over Carthage and Wheaton amounted to blowouts, and I'd say that the bench was the reason why the Bluejays beat Millikin. That was an 8 point win for EC and they got 33 bench points.

[AndOne]

Hopefully, the Cardinals have put Wed night behind them, and are concentrating on playing an aggressive, attacking style game in Bloomington tomorrow evening. If not, I fear one of the seats on the bus ride home might be occupied by "the agony of defeat."
I think the Cards are a much better team than they showed against Augie. They definitely have talent. They now need to the rely on that talent, and play well both physically and mentally against a formidable opponent in a place where they have enjoyed an appreciable home court advantage over the years.

Mission impossible accomplished.
Trailing by 14 at the Shirk Center with just 5:56 remaining in regulation on Saturday, victory appeared but a fantasy for the visiting North Central Cardinals. However, unwilling to feel the sting of a second consecutive butt blistering, the Cards then dug deep and summoned every ounce of their collective resolve. Clawing back, and in the process surprising everyone in the building with the possible exception of themselves, they outscored the host Titans 18-4 down the stretch to send the game to overtime.

Ironically, NCC's Connor Raridon, who had a brilliant game with 31 points (8/13 & 1/2 FGs + 14/15 FTs), 15 rebounds, and 5 assists, missed his only FT of the game with a chance to win it with 11 seconds left in regulation. NCC then dominated the ensuing OT period, outscoring IWU 19-12 to emerge victorious. In the decisive OT, the Cardinals scored only 2 baskets, but hit a perfect 15 of 15 from the line to insure the win. Jagger Anderson was 1/1, Jayme Moten 6/6, and Raridon 8/8. Moton's last 2 FTs came with no time left on the clock when he was fouled by IWU's Bryce Dolan as time expired and IWU trailing by 5. Perhaps Dolan somehow figured Wesleyan had a secret 5 to 7 point play up it's sleeve that it could convert even after time had expired?

In addition to Raridon's 31 points, NCC got 18 from Moten (4/7 on 3s, 6/6 FTs), 16 from Alex Sorenson, 14 off the bench from Kevin Honn, and 13 from PG Anderson.

In preparing for this game, one of the primary points of the Cardinal's game plan was to take away as much of IWU's three point shot making ability as possible through forcing both poor shot selection, and trey attempts late in the 30 second shot clock limit. The other point was to let Wesleyan's Trevor Seibring go one-on-one as it was felt that the home team was capable of more damage from beyond the arc than within it's confines. Seibring, in my opinion one of the league's brightest stars, had an excellent game with 26 points and 10 boards. He scored 10 baskets, but those were 10 two point baskets as opposed to more possible IWU treys. The plan actually worked quite well as IWU, which had been hitting around 42% on threes, was held to just over 28% (6 of 21). In post game discussions among and with the NCC staff, it was felt that chief among the reasons for NCC's success was the degree of pressure the Cardinal guards were able to exert against the three point shot making ability of IWU's Dolan & Pennington. Particularly Jayme Moten's D against Dolan who was made to really work to get his long shots off, and who only hit two all night. Only 6 of Dolan's 15 points came against Moten. Its not the first time this year that Jayme has played a very important role in a NCC victory as much through his defense as his offense. While his offensive numbers are somewhat down compared to last season's, his defensive contributions have more than made up for the scoring differential.

An interesting sidelight to this game was that the final 3 points of the 14 that North Central had to make up to send the game to OT, came after a FT and a basket on the ensuing possession following a T called on the NCC bench.  A certain NCC staff member, doing an imitation of Augustana's notorious Grey Giovanine, vigorously stomped his foot 3 times in succession to demonstrate his disagreement with the call. Later, the ref involved admitted to a couple of fans seated a few feet from the play, that he likely missed the call leading to the stomping and subsequent T.

[Gregory Sager]

Moton's last 2 FTs came with no time left on the clock when he was fouled by IWU's Bryce Dolan as time expired and IWU trailing by 5. Perhaps Dolan somehow figured Wesleyan had a secret 5 to 7 point play up it's sleeve that it could convert even after time had expired?

Ah, so that explains it. Tom Slyder and I were checking out the NCC @ IWU live stats on his smartphone on the busride back from Millikin, and we saw the score change with 00:00 left on the clock. That was a head-scratcher.