MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[TitansIWU]

Weird first half in Bloomington!

[iwu70]

IWU up 28-20, halftime.  No offensive flow at all. 

One can see how scrappy and good MU will be in the future.  Lots of errors now, but look out in 1-2 years.  They started five freshmen.

Titans not playing particularly well tonight, so far.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

They started five freshmen.

Gee, no kidding. The Big Blue have started five freshmen in 21 of their 24 games thus far.

[markerickson]

NCC and NPU shot 72% and 57% in the first half, respectively.  Those stats are not from the charity stripe.

[iwu70]

Greg, I was "getting my facts first."

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

North Central 88
North Park 61

[Gregory Sager]

NCC 88
NPU 61

Chris Benjamin: 17 pts, 6 rebs
Mark Holmes: 10 pts

Landon Gamble: 26 pts (11-12 FG)
Derek Raridon: 16 pts, 7 asts
Vince Kmiec: 15 pts
Jack Merrithey: 11 pts
Aaron Tiknis: 6 rebs, 8 asts

For a while there, it was actually interesting. NPU led for the first nine and a half minutes of the game, and had two nine-point leads (17-8 and 19-10). Then reality set in. The Cardinals rattled off a 27-10 run over the middle eight minutes of the opening stanza to take a 37-29 lead, and then blew out NPU in the opening three or four minutes of the second half with a quick 8-0 run. Everything after that was basically routine for both teams -- routinely efficient for the Cards, routinely overmatched for the Vikes.

NPU was hot early, and still finished the game a pretty solid 44% from the field and 36% from downtown ("pretty solid" by North Park standards, as those numbers are well above the season averages for the Vikings). But at the other end of the floor, NCC shot a blistering 69% from the field and 64% from downtown. You don't often see a team do its worst shooting from the FT line, but that's what the Cards did tonight, as they shot a pedestrian 56% from the charity stripe. Not that it mattered. They broke NPU's press early and often, threw the ball right over the top of traps, and when they weren't taking advantage of NPU's gambling defense by making easy layups, they were easily getting the ball down low for -- you guessed it -- easy layups. With no answer whatsoever for NCC's bigs, the Park was doomed to have this game turned into a glorified layup line for the hosts. Mark Holmes was all alone on an island underneath the basket tonight. He fouled out early in the second half, having only played 15 minutes in which his attempts to guard Landon Gamble looked like a spider trying to wrestle a rhinoceros.

Just one more game, and then this miserable season will be over.

[iwu70]

Titans, 13-0,  68-54 over Jimmy Millikin.

Titan scoring:  7, 9, 9, 9, 11, 14.

What can we say?  IWU plays as a team.  Not the best Titan game this season, but it is a win.

MU, when they figure it out and get all that raw talent better organized, reduce the TOs, they could be very very good. 

Titans:  21-3, 13-0.

Bring on NCC.

IWU70

[iwu70]

Eric Dortch had an outstanding game tonight, one of his best as a Titan.

Should be a great game vs. NCC, a good tune-up and test for both teams as they prepare to go dancing.

IWU70

[Mr. Ypsi]

Titans 65, (Eventual) Big Blue 54.  (I, too, thought it was 68-54, but for unexplained reasons they apparently waved off the three in the last second.)

Sloppy game, but Titans led by double-digits almost the entire second half.

IWU now 13-0.  Can they be the first team in 40 years to sweep the CCIW?

How far can they go in the national tourney?  Salem?  (I say yes.)  Atlanta?  (Why the heck not?! )

[Titan Q]

Strange game in Bloomington...the Titans certainly did not play very well overall, but a win is a win I guess.

IWU moves to 21-3 overall and 13-0 in the CCIW.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton 64
Carthage 58

[blue_jays]

Strange game in Bloomington...the Titans certainly did not play very well overall, but a win is a win I guess.

IWU moves to 21-3 overall and 13-0 in the CCIW.

Wait... IWU is 13-0?! Are you sure? How come I was not informed about this?!

[Titan Q]

Matt Nadelhoffer ‏@CoachNgoBIGBLUE
We tried everything tonight vs IWU...I even thought about checking Bryan Crabtree and my father in law Tom Dykstra into the game #newera

[markerickson]

How many different IWU players have led the team in scoring in a game this season?