MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

North Central 61
North Park 60

Sigh.

[Mr. Ypsi]

WOW - NPU came SO-O-O close to beating NCC!

When Colin Lake made the steal from Sorenstrom, I thought they just might hang on!  Alas, no.

[markerickson]

Getting home from a family gathering too late to have watched the North Park loss.  I see NCC shot three times as many FTs as NP in the one point victory.  Obviously, I do not know why that disparity exists.

[Gregory Sager]

NCC 61, NPU 60

Colin Lake: 14 pts, 5 rebs, 4:0 a:to
Billy Kirby: 10 pts, 5 rebs
Dyron Woods: 10 pts
Veggie Tangen: 8 rebs

Alex Sorenson: 21 pts, 7 rebs, 4:2 a:to
Connor Raridon: 12 pts, 10 rebs, 5:2 a:to
Mike Pollack: 12 pts
Aiden Chang: 5:1 a:to
Mike Cappelletti: 5 rebs

This was a heartbreaker. The Vikings had multiple chances to win this one, and yet it slipped away. With the game tied at 58 and 1:03 remaining, Billy Kirby went to the line with a one-and-one ... and missed the front end. The Cards came down the floor, got the ball right where they wanted it, into the hands of Alex Sorenson, only to have Colin Lake steal it from behind. The Vikes called time, ran a perfect play out of the timeout that culminated in a Kirby layup to go up two with 37 ticks left ... and then they didn't pick up Sorenson at the top of the key, which everybody knows is the only place where he really attempts treys, and he stroked one to put the Cards up one with 27 seconds remaining. NPU wasn't finished, though -- Lake drove the lane, threw up an off-balance eight-footer that missed, somehow got his own rebound, and missed the putback attempt. The ball was tipped out to the wing, Jack Gurvey picked it up -- and rimmed out a shot at the buzzer that would've won the game.

NPU had jumped out to a 24-8 lead that was all the more astonishing for the fact that Lake didn't even score a point until the game was nearly ten minutes old. Everybody knew that it wouldn't last, of course, and the Cards started to get hot (especially Mike Pollack) while NPU in turn started taking ill-advised treys from the wrong people at the wrong part of the floor at the wrong time. NCC fought back to trail by only one at the half, and at halftime it felt like a game in which the hosts would just jump out of the gate in the second half and take care of business.

That didn't happen. Instead, North Park stayed ahead for most of the second half, although the margin remained within two possessions until a Lake jumper with just under four minutes remaining put the Park up by seven at 58-51. At that point, unfortunately, with both teams drawing out every possession, the Vikings offense froze up and the Cards went on a seven-point run to tie it up with a minute and a half left to set up the final drama.

The Vikings had no answer inside defensively for Sorenson, which should come as no surprise to anybody. But Veggie Tangen did put in yeoman work to at least slow him down a little, and Tangen and Dyron Woods managed to give NPU some offense out of the big men on a night when Matt Szuba was a non-factor. And, for the most part, Lake and Kirby did what they could. But in the end, it just wasn't enough, as NCC rode its two superstars to the narrow win.

This is not a moral victory for North Park. It does at least show the Vikings what they're capable of doing, however, and it's the first note of encouragement that Vikings fans can take since this long losing streak started.

[Gregory Sager]

Getting home from a family gathering too late to have watched the North Park loss.  I see NCC shot three times as many FTs as NP in the three one point victory.  Obviously, I do not know why that disparity exists.

It exists because: a) North Park didn't attack the basket, as the Vikings settled for trey and midrange jumper attempts all night; and b) NPU's quartet of bigs were moving heaven and Earth trying to stop Sorenson in the low post. Look at the foul distribution and the free-throw distribution: Szuba and Hines finished with four fouls apiece, while Woods had three and Tangen two for NPU, and almost all of them came against Sorenson down low. Sorenson shot twelve FTs. Take him away, and both teams shot exactly the same amount of FTs (six).

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton beat Elmhurst, 82-70, at King. Aston Francis only scored ten points, and his shooting numbers (2-14 FG, 2-11 trey) were terrible. All the more reason for Wheaton fans to be encouraged, I suppose, since they didn't need their superstar to carry the burden. Elmhurst has been reeling ever since the 'jays got that big upset win over NCC two weeks ago at Faganel.

[iwu70]

Wow, tough loss for NPU.  Really thought they had NCC beaten.  Would have been a grand upset.  NCC escapes, barely. 

Augie's loss is big, an NCC loss would have been big too. 

Sure looks like IWU, AC, WC and NCC in the CCIW tournament. 

'70

[GoPerry]

Wheaton 82, Elmhurst 70

Ricky Samuelson      21 pts
Kobe Eichelberger      15 pts, 9 rebs
Spencer Peterson      11 pts, 5 rebs
Jay Spencer         10 pts, 10 rebs, 2 blks

Jake Rhode         15 pts
Ryan Patton         12 pts      
Jeremy Ireland         12 pts, 12 rebs
Lance Gardner         11 pts 8 reb

Pretty sloppy 1st half for both teams but Wheaton opened it up with a much better 2nd half.  Second straight poor shooting performance for Aston Francis,    2-14 from the field after a 4-16 night last week.  To his credit, when his shots aren't falling he looks to contribute by distributing the ball to Samuelson and others for some spot ups.  He ended up with 6 assists.  Both Eichelberger and Samuelson had very solid games and once again, Spencer Peterson performed well against the Bluejays.  He even made 1 of his 2 three point attempts.

Thunder led by 19 with 5 mins left when Coach Baines employed the "hack-a-Luke-Peters" strategy to get back in the game.  It nearly worked as Peters kept missing and Elmhurst got to within 10.  But then Wheaton kept it in Samuelson or Francis' hands for the final 2 mins and that was it.  If we see more of this, Mike Schauer will have to think hard about keeping his starting point guard on the floor in close games. 

The Augie loss gains the Thunder a little more control over their destiny now.  Big one at IWU on Wednesday.  Actually, they're all big now for the Wheaton.  A win will give them some much needed breathing room.  A loss not catastrophic

[Gregory Sager]

Jordan Thomas, who finished with 40 points tonight in Carthage's win over Millikin, set a new CCIW record by making 11 treys in the game. as he finished 13-18 from the field, 11-13 from downtown, and 3-3 from the line. The old record of 10 made treys in a CCIW game was set by Ben Panner of Wheaton nine seasons ago; oddly enough, Panner did it against Carthage. Thomas also shattered the school record of nine made treys in a game set by Sean Fendley ten years ago against Illinois Tech.

Thomas's 11-13 performance is also the best trey percentage game in CCIW history (the minimum requirement is ten attempts), as his .846 mark broke the old record of .800 shared by Millikin's Joe Guin against Wheaton in 1988, North Park's Jack Ecker against Carthage in 1995, and Carthage's Steve Djurickovic against North Park in 2010, each of whom went 8-10.

[mwunder]

Jordan Thomas, who finished with 40 points tonight in Carthage's win over Millikin, set a new CCIW record by making 11 treys in the game. as he finished 13-18 from the field, 11-13 from downtown, and 3-3 from the line. The old record of 10 made treys in a CCIW game was set by Ben Panner of Wheaton nine seasons ago; oddly enough, Panner did it against Carthage. Thomas also shattered the school record of nine made treys in a game set by Sean Fendley ten years ago against Illinois Tech.

Thomas's 11-13 performance is also the best trey percentage game in CCIW history (the minimum requirement is ten attempts), as his .846 mark broke the old record of .800 shared by Millikin's Joe Guin against Wheaton in 1988, North Park's Jack Ecker against Carthage in 1995, and Carthage's Steve Djurickovic against North Park in 2010, each of whom went 8-10.

He missed his first and his last.  The 11 in a row in between were from all over the court and all 11 hit the bottom of the net.  Quite a show.

[Greek Tragedy]

And Augustana will still be ranked ahead of IWU...

[Titan Q]

Updated standings through February 3...

Illinois Wesleyan 9-2  vs Wheaton, vs Carroll, at Millikin, at Carthage, vs North Central
North Central 9-3  vs Augustana, vs Carroll, at Wheaton, at Illinois Wesleyan
Augustana 8-4  at North Central, at Millikin, vs North Park, vs Elmhurst
Wheaton 7-4  at Illinois Wesleyan, at North Park, vs Carthage, vs North Central, at Carroll
Carthage 7-4  at Carroll, at Elmhurst, at Wheaton, vs Illinois Wesleyan, at North Park
----------------
Carroll 4-7
Elmhurst 4-8
Millikin 3-9
North Park 1-11

Still a whole bunch of things that can happen.

Contender vs contender sweeps are huge for tie-breakers.  There is only one on the board so far -- North Central over Carthage. But several upcoming opportunities.

[hopefan]

I don't follow it quite close enough... but could Augie not make the CCIW tourney, and still make the NCAA tourney??

[mwunder]

I don't follow it quite close enough... but could Augie not make the CCIW tourney, and still make the NCAA tourney??

ZERO chance.

[bopol]

Jordan Thomas, who finished with 40 points tonight in Carthage's win over Millikin, set a new CCIW record by making 11 treys in the game. as he finished 13-18 from the field, 11-13 from downtown, and 3-3 from the line. The old record of 10 made treys in a CCIW game was set by Ben Panner of Wheaton nine seasons ago; oddly enough, Panner did it against Carthage. Thomas also shattered the school record of nine made treys in a game set by Sean Fendley ten years ago against Illinois Tech.

Thomas's 11-13 performance is also the best trey percentage game in CCIW history (the minimum requirement is ten attempts), as his .846 mark broke the old record of .800 shared by Millikin's Joe Guin against Wheaton in 1988, North Park's Jack Ecker against Carthage in 1995, and Carthage's Steve Djurickovic against North Park in 2010, each of whom went 8-10.

He missed his first and his last.  The 11 in a row in between were from all over the court and all 11 hit the bottom of the net.  Quite a show.

Especially since the shots he took in the run were farther and farther away from the basket until he finally missed.  It was really an exceptional offensive performance last night for Thomas.