MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst 89
North Park 59

Gabe Johnson: 14 pts
Izaiah Sanders: 12 pts, 4 stls
Jalen Boyd: 10 pts

Lavon Thomas: 19 pts, 6 rebs
Jake Rhode: 16 pts
Jay Militello: 15 pts, 4 stls
Wesley Hooker: 12 pts, 8 rebs, 4 stls
Jonathan Zapinski: 8 rebs

This was truly embarrassing. After a putrid half in which the Vikings found themselves down by 25 at intermission, the Park actually came out and played nine really solid minutes of basketball, sparked by some energetic play at both ends by Izaiah Sanders. Then, with the Elmhurst lead cut to 62-50, the roof caved in. NPU went playground, with the usual disastrous consequences, driving into two or three defenders, clanking off-balance shots, getting their pockets picked while driving nowhere in particular. At the other end, the 'jays feasted on second-chance points -- Elmhurst won the boards by a whopping 46-26 margin, including 20-9 on the offensive glass -- and got splendid second halves of work out of Rhode, Militello, Thomas, and especially Hooker.

Elmhurst looks like it has emerged from whatever funk it was in a week or two ago and is now firing on all cylinders. The Vikings, on the other hand, look like a team that has bumped up against its limitations, panicked badly, and is now just freelancing itself to death.

[Gregory Sager]

Double OT final at Tarble:

Millikin 75
Carthage 72

MU freshmen Stevenson and Welch went 4-4 from the line in the final minute of the second extra to seal the W for Jimmy Millikin.

[RFMichigan]

That may be one the faster halves of college basketball that you'll see. 35 minute first half for the IWU-CUC game. (At least it seemed fast.) 39-33 IWU at half.

[Gregory Sager]

We've got no video feed from North Central, no live stats from Augustana, and Elmhurst was minus Mark Krueger (and, apparently, anybody else who could handle play-by-play) for both the women's and men's games today, which meant what I call "sneaker-squeak broadcasts" from Faganel Hall today.

Of course, when you've been around the block a few times like me, you count your blessings that you have any sort of remote access to CCIW games in progress at all.

[RFMichigan]

10 minutes to go at Bloomington. Concordia is up 55-51.

[Gregory Sager]

I can't believe that I'm typing these words, but ... Concordia (IL) and Illinois Wesleyan are going to overtime at Shirk.

[Gregory Sager]

Three nailbiters going on right now ... all three going down to the wire.

[Gregory Sager]

Oh-tee final from Shirk:

Concordia (IL) 81
Illinois Wesleyan 75

Wow. Congrats, RFMichigan. Signature win for your Cougars!

[RFMichigan]

Oh my.

[RFMichigan]

Oh-tee final from Shirk:

Concordia (IL) 81
Illinois Wesleyan 75

Wow. Congrats, RFMichigan. Signature win for your Cougars!

Thank you. That may have been the best win in the history of the program.

[Gregory Sager]

Final from the hangar:

Wheaton 75
North Central 71

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Carver:

Carroll 69
Augustana 68

[deiscanton]

Oh-tee final from Shirk:

Concordia (IL) 81
Illinois Wesleyan 75

Wow. Congrats, RFMichigan. Signature win for your Cougars!

Thank you. That may have been the best win in the history of the program.

And from what I heard from coach Ron Rose in the postgame interview, the Titans were just too overtired mentally and physically from playing too many games at once without enough time to rest and practice.    Coach Rose was really disappointed in the Titans's effort the first half on defense-- he called it the quietest that he ever heard Illinois Wesleyan on the defensive end. 

I give Concordia-Chicago all the credit for outhustling and outworking Illinois Wesleyan tonight. 

[GoPerry]

Wheaton      75
North Central    71

Nyameye Adom         26 pts   6 reb
Tyson Cruickshank   14 pts, 10 rebs, 5 asst
Cade Alioth        11 pts, 11 rebs
Luke Anthony     11 pts

Matt Helwig           21 pts    11 rebs
Ethan Helwig          16 pts, 6 rebs
Blaise Meredith     13 pts   6 rebs

This was yet another crazy and exciting game to watch.  NCC, really the Helwigs, came out red hot hitting their first six three pointers while Wheaton started out 1 for 13.  Six minutes into the game the score was 17-3 Cards.  But then the Thunder started hitting some shots, the home team cooled off and Wheaton finished the half on a 14-0 run to lead 32-29 after twenty minutes. 

Wheaton led by as many as 11 in the second but NCC came back to take the lead with 8 mins left.  It was back and forth the rest of the way with the Thunder simply hitting one more key shot than the Cardinals.

After his hot start, Wheaton really shut down Matt .  It was surprising that he really wasn't any offensive factor for the last 32 minutes of the game.

Both Adom and Cruickshank came up big down the stretch.  Wheaton really needed a key road win and they got it.  They'll look to do it again in Rock Island on Wed.

[Gregory Sager]

Oh-tee final from Shirk:

Concordia (IL) 81
Illinois Wesleyan 75

Wow. Congrats, RFMichigan. Signature win for your Cougars!

Thank you. That may have been the best win in the history of the program.

And from what I heard from coach Ron Rose in the postgame interview, the Titans were just too overtired mentally and physically from playing too many games at once without enough time to rest and practice.

Sorry, but I ain't buying what he's selling. I have a great deal of respect for Ron Rose, but the fact of the matter is that everybody is overtired mentally and physically right now from playing too many games at once without enough time to rest and practice. His team is far from the only one that's found itself with a backlogged schedule due to Covid postponements and rearrangements.

Plus, he and Cougars coach Steve Kollar scheduled this game ... what, a week ago? He did it so that his Titans could get in their allotted 25. It wasn't necessary to add this game at the last minute. It wasn't a league game. Nobody put a gun to his head and forced him to add this contest.