MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU keeps spotting teams a 6-7 point lead before they even start to play.  Against NPU they emphatically erased it with a 22-0 run; against Millikin it was more gradual but relentless.  But someday (like maybe even this Saturday against Wheaton?) that sort of a start is gonna bite 'em in the butt.

C'mon Titans - I want to see a start Saturday like those against Roanoke (1996) or Augie (a few years ago)!

[bopol]

Carthage 67
Wheaton 62

Malcom Kelly had an awesome game (despite just 6 for 11 at the free throw line) and carried Carthage offensively in the 2nd half, finishing with 28 points.  Marlon Senior had a very solid game (16 pts; 8 rebounds; key free throws at the end) as well.

Wheaton led 58-54 with 7:32 left when Caleb DeMoss sank a three, but that was Wheaton's last field goal of the game, as they went stone cold.  Most of Wheaton was in foul trouble as well near the end. 

It was very good effort for Carthage, and until the last few minutes, Wheaton also played great.  Fun game to watch. 

[Titan Q]

Updated standings, 1/15
1. Augustana, 3-1
1. Illinois Wesleyan, 3-1
1. Wheaton, 3-1
1. Carthage, 3-1
5. Elmhurst, 2-2
6. Millikin, 1-3
6. North Central, 1-3
8. North Park, 0-4

+/- standings, 1/15
Illinois Wesleyan, +3
Carthage, +1
Augustana, +1
Wheaton, +1
Elmhurst, +0
Millikin, -1
North Central, -2
North Park, -3

[Titan Q]

No wins yet by the current bottom 4 over the current top 4.

[MalcomKelly25]

Ha!

[toooldtohoop]

Sure would have been nice to escape Kenosha with a win.  Hats off to Carthage.  Wheaton just could not close the deal.  Too many wasted possessions, early shot decisions, and missed shots down the stretch.

And Gramps (Mr. Ha), made some shots that really were impressive. 

Carthage will continue to be a hard team to beat if they can keep playing this way. 

Now on to Greenie-land Saturday.  Hope the alums leave us a few seats!

[sac]

Carthage 74 Calvin 68
Hope 80  Carthage 58
Wheaton 80  Hope 61
Calvin 78 Wheaton 51
Hope 71 Calvin 63
Carthage 67 Wheaton 62

If you can decipher this I think you can have everlasting peace and harmony or something.  Or maybe a $10 gift card to Target.

Thanks.

[veterancciwfan]

For IWU, Anderson, Dolan , Mayberger & Sodemann played well. A sign of a good team is when its star has a mediocre game and the team still wins by 18 on the road. Way too many (18) TOs and if not corrected, will result in a loss against a good team. IWU's FG and 3-point %s have been heading south the last 3 games. Should be a very good game Sat. in Bloom'ton. With the loss at Carthage, Wheaton is under more pressure to win. Hope IWU can go better than 29.2% (their % tonight) on 3s Sat. although I think IWU will try to go inside more on Sat.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Carthage 74 Calvin 68
Hope 80  Carthage 58
Wheaton 80  Hope 61
Calvin 78 Wheaton 51
Hope 71 Calvin 63
Carthage 67 Wheaton 62

If you can decipher this I think you can have everlasting peace and harmony or something.  Or maybe a $10 gift card to Target.

Thanks.

If you leave out the $10 gift card to Target (though with the recent problems, they may be the safest store in North America (for a while), if you can really promise everlasting peace and harmony, I just might try!

But i doubt it.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Carthage and Gramps on their big win over WC.  Thank you Carthage.   Mr. Ha is having the last laugh.   Hahahahaha.

I'll pass on the gift card at this point too.

Good win for the Titans -- almost half of the total scoring from bench players tonight.  Good to see Dolan light it up and great to see Nick Anderson bounce back with a strong game inside, shooting FTs pretty well.  Frankly, don't quite understand the Marietti start decision, though he played OK, getting in shape enough now to play 8-10 minutes at a stretch.  My vote is still with Mayberger, though I love Eric Dortch's toughness, mobility, rebounding and, of course, perimeter and interior D.  Mayberger's two treys at the end of the first half were key.  Dolan's three treys in the latter part of the second half put it away.  Davis in foul trouble early, not much of a factor in this game.  Really, too many TOs. 

Gotta admit that the 5 situation is getting stronger and stronger -- perhaps contributing more down the stretch than we might have thought -- with Anderson, Marietti, and, if needed, Seibring.  We know how good and deep the rest of the Titan's starters and rotation are.  Tonight really demonstrated the depth when the starters had a rather "off:" night -- save for Sodemann, one the best FT shooters on the team.  I think he went 10-10 tonight.

Saturday night at The Shirk should be great.  Hope Titan fans really turn out for this one.  Mid-January and the lead in the CCIW race on the line.  Would love to see at 2200+ crowd for a change.  Fill the seats, fill the railing, Titan fans!

IWU70

[mwunder]

Carthage 67
Wheaton 62

Malcom Kelly had an awesome game (despite just 6 for 11 at the free throw line) and carried Carthage offensively in the 2nd half, finishing with 28 points.  Marlon Senior had a very solid game (16 pts; 8 rebounds; key free throws at the end) as well.

Wheaton led 58-54 with 7:32 left when Caleb DeMoss sank a three, but that was Wheaton's last field goal of the game, as they went stone cold.  Most of Wheaton was in foul trouble as well near the end. 

It was very good effort for Carthage, and until the last few minutes, Wheaton also played great.  Fun game to watch.

Personally, after watching Carthage move well against NC and taking them apart like they did, I was not happy with Carthage's offensive effort against Wheaton.  Too much standing around waiting for Malcolm to come through with big shot after big shot--reminded me of the Steve D era offense.  Carthage also didn't shoot well from the line, which WOULD have cost them the game if Wheaton had been able to hit a few shots in the last 7 minutes.  I will give the Red Men credit, they battled to stay in the game throughout the first half and at the beginning of the second.

I'm glad they play two halves in college hoops though...Wheaton played a lot better in the first half and looked like a very tough team to beat.  They answered every Carthage run with a run of their own.  I was very impressed with their 1st half performance.

[MalcomKelly25]

Ha!^^^

[voxelmhurst]

Elmhurst 70
North Park 67

Very bitter loss for NPU. The Vikings had a chance to win the game in the final ten seconds, but couldn't execute. They lost the game at the FT line only 10-21.

North Park also gave up too many offensive rebounds on a poor shooting night for Elmhurst. 24 second chance points for the Bluejays.

Elmhurst really struggled handling the ball yesterday. There were a few stretches when it seemed North Park could get a steal anytime they wanted to. Elmhurst would build a 5/7 point lead, only to let North Park back in the game. Elmhurst was indeed fortunate to have North Park miss a lot of free throws, or Elmhurst would have probably been traveling back west on the Kennedy at 1-3 in the CCIW.

It was an entertaining game that had a little bit of everything. Some hard fouls, some timely three-point shooting, some missed dunks, some made dunks, a loud student section in the second half, and a close finish.

At the game, my two fellow EC alums and I discussed how North Park should spoof Northwestern by advertising themselves as "Chicago's CCIW Team". Unlike the Wildcats, they'd be geographically correct. 

[John Gleich]

D3hoops.com and Massey have the same top 4, in the same order, today. 

1. UW-Stevens Point
2. Wooster
3. Cabrini
4. Illinois Wesleyan

http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?s=cb2014&sub=11620

http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2013-14/week6

New Massey top 5:

1. UWSP
2. Wooster
3. IWU
4. Augustana
5. Cabrini

[Gregory Sager]

Rob Berki likes to say that a team needs to learn how to play with a lead, and there's a lot of truth to that. NPU has probably had the lead this season for less than three ballgames total; even in their wins over Eureka and Alma the Vikings had the lead only about half of the time. Last night, after keeping within two possessions of Elmhurst for all but a sliver of the game's middle 25 minutes or so, the Vikings finally finished climbing the hill by catching and passing EC at 51-50 midway through the second half on an Aaron Weaver free throw. And then the Vikings promptly gave up a 9-0 run over the next four minutes to give themselves yet another hill to climb. Frustrating.

Fortunately, John Baines fell a little too much in love with his 2-3 zone -- it's hard to blame him, since that's generally a sound strategy to use against a team that came into the game shooting 31% from downtown -- and two players who have been missing for quite a while now, Reggie McGee (hamstring) and Garrett Gatz (mental funk), suddenly came alive and victimized the zone with some big treys to bring the hosts back from a 63-54 deficit with four and a half minutes to go to a 67-all tie with a minute and a half to go.

At that point, however, it was the inability of the Vikings to control their own boards against the much bigger 'jays that did them in. Elmhurst attacked the basket and got three straight offensive rebounds before Joe Biko fouled Nick Sanford with 14 seconds left. Sanford made the first FT, missed the second, and when Aaron Weaver grabbed the rebound the first thought that popped into my head was, "Coast to coast." Sure enough, he took the ball down the floor himself -- but I think that everyone on the 'jays knew that he wasn't even going to think about giving it up to a teammate, so when Sanford and Pat "the Administrator" Coleman saw him coming down the lane in transition, they simply stuck out their arms and knocked the ball out of his hands. Coleman grabbed it, was fouled, hit both FTs, NPU was unable to get off a trey in the final two seconds, game over.

NPU put itself into a position to win, but the Vikings just have a knack for making it harder upon themselves than they should. It's already hard enough for them to score against CCIW defenses as it is; I just think that, mentally, they tie themselves up in knots trying to execute at the offensive end too often. They have no flow.

Weaver (18 pts, 8 rebs) and Juwan Henry (15 pts) got their points, but neither was very efficient about it. Weaver was a woeful 4-9 from the FT line -- I don't care how many highlight-reel dunks he had last night, when he's not making his free throws he's not taking care of his primary responsibility -- and, while Henry is showing a laudable propensity to pull up and take midrange jumpers rather than trying to force it to the rim every time, last night those jumpers were off. Joe Biko (12 pts) was again a pleasant surprise; since shotblocker Will Nixon (who fouled out after only 11 minutes of action) didn't want to leave the vicinity of the basket and guard Biko, the freshman from Hoffman Estates HS simply went out onto the floor and burned him with jumpshots.

Nick Sanford, who is the league's best player that nobody ever talks about (most likely due to the lack of a consistent Elmhurst presence in this room), had 17 and 13 and looked like an All-CCIW first-teamer. He'd certainly get my vote. Taylor Baxter, who shows up some nights and on other nights apparently sends a body double out onto the floor in his uniform, took advantage of NPU's inability to match up with him by enjoying a 20 and 9 evening, while silent assassin Kyle Wuest added 15 and 8. But, quite frankly, Elmhurst isn't very good. The Bluejays will end the CCIW portion of this season with double-digit losses again, and that's the reason why NPU had last night's game circled on the calendar. There are precious few opportunities for the Vikings to steal a CCIW win. Last night was one of them. All the more reason why last night was so agonizing for the Park. The Vikings worked awfully hard, hustled their butts off, and came up empty yet again.