MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Overtime final from the crackerbox:

North Park 80
Lawrence 73

TJ Gardner: 18 pts, 7 rebs, 4:0 a:to
Davante Robinson: 17 pts
Taijon Barry: 11 pts, 11 rebs, 3 blks, 3 stls
Lance Nelson: 5:1 a:to
Rico Powell: 3 stls
DJ Wallace: 3 blks

North Park keeps struggling to put away teams that I think shouldn't be competitive with the Vikings, but you can't really fault the end result: six straight wins and a 7-3, 3-0 record. Tonight, as has been a chronic issue for the Vikings this season, the shots from downtown weren't falling -- a miserable 4-20 night of three-point shooting for NPU contrasted with a ridiculous 11-24 performance from beyond the arc by Lawrence. And for much of the night Lawrence, which is normally a poor rebounding team, was dominating the glass. So it was uncomfortably close, right down to the wire in regulation.

Rico Powell swished a pair of FTs with nineteen seconds left, and when LU's Hogan Demovsky airballed a rushed three-point attempt with eleven seconds left and the ball went out of bounds to North Park it looked like the game was over -- especially because the Viking that Lawrence fouled on the ensuing inbound was Powell, one of the best free-throw shooters in the CCIW. But he inexplicably missed the front end of what was a one-and-one -- his first miss of the night after five makes -- and, after Ed McGhee had told the Vikings, during the timeout LU quickly called, to foul before the ball reached halfcourt, they failed to do so, allowing the visitors to hit a 24-footer with one second left to send the game into extras.

The Vikings responded like champs, though, scoring the first six points of overtime and building the lead up to 10 -- the first double-digit lead of the night for either team -- to win going away in overtime. Aside from a meaningless undefended trey with three seconds left, North Park only gave up one bucket in overtime, as they really bulldogged the Larries. They ended up turning Lawrence over 18 times for the night, including 14 steals, while blocking nine shots.

Lawrence isn't a world-beater, but it's a far better Lawrence team than the Vikings saw last year in Appleton ... and it's a Lawrence team that was also fresh off of a win over Illinois College in their last game. Still, I'd love to see the Park knock down some long-range shots for a change and not have to sweat the final minutes of a ballgame. It's especially important, because the competition is about to get ratcheted up again for NPU after Christmas break.

[Gregory Sager]

Augustana absolutely pantsed hapless Knox tonight at Carver, 113-65, as Augie posted a .568/.478/.900 shooting line and had fourteen different players score.

That pair of CCIW wins puts the league at 38-23 (.623) in non-con play.

[Jbothe]

I was present at the Shirk last night for IWU-WashU game and Wesleyan was impressive.  Multiple weapons on offense and they are a problem on defense and on the boards.

WashU was a little beat up.  Yogi did not dress.  Something must have happened to Drake and Kapral, they were both limited in some ways.


But credit to Wesleyan on the win.  WashU only hope to beat them is when they are healthy and on a neutral court.

[deiscanton]

Carroll Pios playing UMass-Dartmouth now at the Cruzin Classic at DII St. Thomas University in Florida.

Carroll Pios are the designated home team for this game-- for purposes of uniform color and scoreboard.   This is a neutral court game for purposes of the home/away multiplier.

Game tipped at 9 AM Central/10 AM Eastern and is on the Sun Digital Network.

No play by play or color commentary, but there is a public address announcer on scene, and we have a score bug.

No media timeouts are in effect for the Cruzin Classic games.

St. Thomas FL trying to give a virtual fan experience-- I.e. you are actually watching the game on your Roku TV, but the feel is that you are attending this game in the virtual audience.

[deiscanton]

Halftime from the Cruzin Classic--

UMass-Dartmouth 32, Carroll 27

D3Datacast predicted scoreline for neutral court-- UMass-Dartmouth 80, Carroll 73.

D3Datacast computer prediction gives UMass-Dartmouth a 73% chance of victory in this one.

UMass-Dartmouth favored in this matchup by 6.5 points on neutral court.

NCAA Power Index values coming into today, according to D3Datacast-- Updated 12/20/24 at 6:44 AM ET.

UMass-Dartmouth (#160 in NPI in D3)-- 51.579

Carroll (#266 in NPI in D3)-- 46.507

No quality win bonuses are on the line in this game-- Baseline NPI for quality win is 53.

[Gregory Sager]

Last night's scores:
Chatham 62, Carthage 60 (@ Nashville, TN)
Randolph-Macon 71, Elmhurst 43 (@ Charlotte, NC)
@ Illinois Wesleyan 84, Washington MO 68

Today's games:
Carroll vs. Mass-Dartmouth (@ Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
Carthage vs. Spalding (@ Nashville, TN)
Elmhurst vs. Christopher Newport (@ Charlotte, NC)
Concordia IL @ North Central

CCIW non-con to date:
39-25 (.609)

[deiscanton]

Carroll Pios pull off the upset in this CCIW-Little East challenge matchup!   70-69 Final vs UMass-Dartmouth.

The upset win ends a 6 game losing streak for the Pios.

D3Datacast had the Pios as a 6.5 pt underdog with a 27% chance of victory-- Pios win outright on a 3 pointer with 14 seconds left.

Game was tied at 65-65 with 1:50 remaining.

Carroll improves to 3-7, 0-3 in the CCIW.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll had to come from four points down in the final minute to win that game. As Allen mentioned, it was an Erik Victorson trey that put the Pios ahead for good with 13 seconds to go. UMass-Dartmouth never got off a shot in response, which, without having actually watched the game, tells me that CU likely bore down and played great defense on that final Corsairs possession.

Jacob Naber (15 and 7) and Eckahelo Simpson (14 and 10) led the way for the Pioneers, with Victorson adding 12. Aaron Wafford, who made his season debut against North Central last week with a nine-minute cameo, played almost 16 minutes off of the bench today and, while he didn't shoot particularly well today, the former CCIW Freshman of the Year undoubtedly played a part in today's victory. Carroll will definitely be a more dangerous team with Wafford now back in uniform, particularly when it comes to three-point shooting.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage ran out to a 26-point halftime lead and never broke a sweat in pounding Spalding, 86-74. Ryan Johnson had 15 and 16 in only 19 minutes on the floor, while brother AJ had 14 and a 7:3 a:to and Riley Brooks scored 10. Griffin Daun notched four steals and Nemi Ostojic grabbed seven boards for Carthage, as Steve D. must've felt good about getting 20 of his players on the floor for at least three minutes each.

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst took a good run at 18th-ranked Christopher Newport in Charlotte, but fell at the end to the Captains, 82-80. Tagen Pearson had probably the most efficient game any CCIW player has had this year, scoring 26 with only ten field-goal attempts, as he was 5-8 from range and 9-11 from the charity stripe. Dom Trelenberg contributed 21 on 8-14 shooting, while Sebastian Blachut and Aidyn Boone had 11 apiece. The 'jays followed Pearson's lead in being extremely efficient (50% FG, 44% trey), but that was negated by CNU's big 49-39 rebounding advantage and a lopsided 18-7 turnover discrepancy in favor of the Captains.

North Central prevailed in a game of runs over Concordia (IL) in the airplane hangar, 86-78. The Cards held a double-digit lead early, blew it and saw the Cougars go ahead in the middle of the opening stanza, and then took it back to go into the locker room up six. In the second half NCC pushed that lead out to as much as 21 with 5:20 to go before the River Foresters put on a big run to get that deficit down to eight -- but they clearly started their push too late. Terrance Moncrief had a good night with 19 points on 8-9 shooting, as he went to the rim early and often against a less-than-stellar Cougars halfcourt defense, while increasingly-impressive freshman Alejandro Diaz added 16 and five steals and Tyler DiSilvio and Jacob Bullock, Jr. came off of the bench to add 11 and 10, respectively, DiSilvio adding three steals and Bullock three blocks.

The CCIW is now 42-26 (.618) in non-con play.

[lmitzel]

North Central prevailed in a game of runs over Concordia (IL) in the airplane hangar, 86-78. The Cards held a double-digit lead early, blew it and saw the Cougars go ahead in the middle of the opening stanza, and then took it back to go into the locker room up six. In the second half NCC pushed that lead out to as much as 21 with 5:20 to go before the River Foresters put on a big run to get that deficit down to eight -- but they clearly started their push too late. Terrance Moncrief had a good night with 19 points on 8-9 shooting, as he went to the rim early and often against a less-than-stellar Cougars halfcourt defense, while increasingly-impressive freshman Alejandro Diaz added 16 and five steals and Tyler DiSilvio and Jacob Bullock, Jr. came off of the bench to add 11 and 10, respectively, DiSilvio adding three steals and Bullock three blocks.

I'd argue this was a game that set basketball back a few years, as there was a fair amount of sloppy play both ways; each team committed 15 turnovers, and 20 of those combined 30 came off of steals. But the decisive run was a 30-4 Cardinal advantage in the second half, and it was enough such that the garbage time run Concordia put up wasn't enough.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll didn't exactly cover itself in glory, but the Pios got the job done, beating Widener down in the Sunshine State this afternoon by a score of 78-75. Carroll led almost the whole way, but squandered a 14-point lead and even found itself trailing the Pride by one on a couple of occasions in the final ten minutes. But Aaron Wafford made a pair of huge treys, and the Pios managed to survive a ragged final minute in which they failed on three straight front-end FTs in the one-and-one bonus. Wafford led the way with 20, while Kobe Simpson added 17, Kylo Simpson chipped in 11, and Jacob Naber contributed 10 to the winning cause.

Always fun to see a CCIW team face a D3 squad from the East Coast. (The Widener campus is just outside of Philly, for those of you who are unfamiliar with that school.)

[Gregory Sager]

Augustana exits the Rice Center and carries home a 78-70 win over Benedictine. The Bennies were up by 15 early in the game, but Augustana erased the big deficit by halftime and then flipped the script in the second half thanks to a huge step-up from point guard Evan Ambrose in the first eight minutes. BU did close to within six a couple of times in the final ten minutes, but never got any closer than that. Ambrose led the way for the Doggies with 23 and 7 (plus a 4:1 ratio), while Chase Larsen scored 15, Tyler Knuth had a 12 and 7 outing, and Matt Hawkins put in 10 off of the bench.

The CCIW will take a Christmas break until next Saturday with the league posting a 44-26 (.629) collective non-con record to date.

[lmitzel]

North Central made the short drive across the state line for an exhibition against UW-Milwaukee. The Cardinals took a couple early leads, but the Panthers were able to get out in transition a bunch en route to a 92-57 win.

Sean Molloy: 8 pts
Drew Gaston: 7 pts
James Bullock: 7 pts

[markerickson]

As I previously mentioned, North Park will experience serious problems against teams that have two tallish men who are comfortable shooting within 12' of the basket.  Lawrence's best player had too many easy buckets off put-backs and shots created by using something called a pivot foot.  After a team settles to run it half court O, feasting down low is likely.  The Vikings, by contrast, do not even attempt to do so.  TJ Gardner used his strength to generate shots and points after penetration, but those shots will be swatted by taller teams in 2025.