MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[titanalum94]

The men in Rock Island and the women in Bloomington started at the same time.  The women's game is over (IWU wom 99-70); the men have not yet started the second half.

Hey, zebras, all those people in the stands came to see basketball, not to see you!

The men's game was actually a half-hour late starting, JV game went into Double OT beforehand forcing a late start.

[AndOne]

Playing with heavy hearts last evening over the loss of senior teammate, 1,000 point scorer, and all-conference guard Erwin Henry the North Central Cardinals sucked it up, came together, and combined to overcome a talented, and determined Carthage club who may have been fighting for their conference tournament lives. Carthage was bolstered by the presence of Kienan Baltimore who was not available for the club's first go round, a 77-67 NCC win back on 1/3.

For NCC;

* Alex Sorenson led the scoring with 20 points. Playing an all-around game, he added 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.

* Connor Raridon had 18 points and 10 assists ( vs 2 TOs). In the 2nd half, Raridon scored or assisted on 31 of the Cardinals 48 points. All 10 of Connor's assists came in the 2nd half.

* Matt Cappelletti scored 16 points, hitting double figures for the 5th time in the last 6 games.

* Aiden Chang and Mike Pollack both had 8 points. Pollack added 7 rebounds, 2nd high on the team.

* NCC lost the battle on the boards by 4, but made up for it by outscoring the Redmen 34-20 in the paint, and forcing 18 Carthage turnovers.

* The victory was the Cardinals' 12th in their last 13 games, dating back to early December.

For Carthage;

* Kienan Baltimore, 22 points

* Brad Kruse, 21 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals.

* Derek Mason, 13 points

Both teams shot lights out.
Carthage was 46.7% overall, 47.6% on threes, but 69.2% from the line.
NCC was 47.5% overall,, 52.9% from downtown, and 93.3% from the line. They were 8/8 in the final 3:22. They made more FTs (14) than Carthage shot (13).

CLASS ACT

After the game, several of the Carthage players, Brad Perry and Kienan Baltimore among them, made it a point to walk over to the Cardinals bench to offer handshakes and condolences to the Cards Erwin Henry.

[iwu70]

AO, what happened to Henry?  An injury?

'70

[unanimous22]

AO, what happened to Henry?  An injury?

'70

By the way he started that paragraph I thought he passed away

[robertgoulet]

AO, what happened to Henry?  An injury?

'70

By the way he started that paragraph I thought he passed away

Same!

[badgerwarhawk]

AO, what happened to Henry?  An injury?

'70

By the way he started that paragraph I thought he passed away

Same!

He had me going for a second too.   But I figured they probably didn't prop his body up on the bench so others could pay their respects so it must be an injury.   

[mwunder]

Both teams shot lights out.
Carthage was 46.7% overall, 47.6% on threes, but 69.2% from the line.
NCC was 47.5% overall,, 52.9% from downtown, and 93.3% from the line. They were 8/8 in the final 3:22. They made more FTs (14) than Carthage shot (13).

Carthage shooting numbers were bolstered by heaves at the end of the game that happened to go in and make things interesting.  Cardinals went 13 of 14 from the line in the second half to seal the deal.  Sorenson played lights out, coming up with a big block down the stretch and 18 in the second half.

The yo-yo continues in Kenosha.  Up and down performance by a team that can't stand to take advantage of a good thing.  3 on 1 fast break and instead of going to the hoop, we take a pull-up 3 that comes up short?  Just under a minute later, a 3 attempt 5 seconds into the possession, no good.

It's hard to get excited about a team that continues to break your heart every other game.

[lmitzel]

Both teams shot lights out.
Carthage was 46.7% overall, 47.6% on threes, but 69.2% from the line.
NCC was 47.5% overall,, 52.9% from downtown, and 93.3% from the line. They were 8/8 in the final 3:22. They made more FTs (14) than Carthage shot (13).

Carthage shooting numbers were bolstered by heaves at the end of the game that happened to go in and make things interesting.  Cardinals went 13 of 14 from the line in the second half to seal the deal.

I'm not going to lie; watching the tail end of that game gave me flashbacks to the regular season matchup up there last year where NCC blew the late lead and went on to lose in overtime. The better free throw shooting helped avoid a repeat of that. It was kind of amusing to watch Carthage's final possession of "I'm going to lean into a defender to try and draw a foul for a four point play" heaves, though.

I still think Carthage is a good team, and there really isn't any shame in being 6-4 at this point. It's a testament to the quality of the Gauntlet that is the CCIW.

[AndOne]

I don't know if Carthage is a good team or not. I certainly don't think they're a bad team.
What I believe is they are a dangerous team. Guys like Kruse, Thomas, and Baltimore can quickly drop a series of 3 bombs. So even with what seems a fairly nice lead, opposing teams cannot afford to relax against them. As related by mwunder above, perhaps one problem is decisions regarding when to take (or not take) some of those long range shots.

[hopefan]

STILL WAITING to read about what happened to Erwin Henry!!!!

[AndOne]

AO, what happened to Henry?  An injury?

'70

By the way he started that paragraph I thought he passed away

Well, it got your attention didn't it? Marketing 101. 

Seriously, E's teammates are certainly aware of his major contributions to the team, and they surely emphasize with him on a personal/friendship basis.

From my own perspective, I've known E and followed his career for four years. As a 1,000 point scorer and all-conference player he has been an important cog in the Cardinal attack since his freshman year, and has provided many substantial and exciting highlights that I, as a fan of both the team collectively and Erwin individually have appreciated. So ya, I'm sad for the team and especially for Erwin. Its a shame that a good player and a good guy has to see things end on such a sour note. You have to feel for any player who suffers such an injury, especially when he is a senior. I'm sure any good fan can appreciate that sentiment.

[Gregory Sager]

I absolutely hate to see a senior starter have his career ended abruptly by an injury, especially when it appears that his team has a good shot at playing past the 25th game. I feel badly for Erwin Henry.

If there's a silver lining for NCC, aside from the crucial fact that the Cards won a huge game on the road last night against a potent foe, it's that it appears that Alex Sorenson has won Bosko's vote for MOP:

"Tonight was a very frustrating. We put ourselves in position to win the game, actually took the lead in the second half, but give them credit; they made the plays when they needed to," said head coach Bosko Djurickovic after the loss. "Alex Sorensen, who is arguably the best player in the league, came up with two big three's, which has not been the better part of his game this year, but he excelled late in the game. We still had opportunities at the end but weren't quite able to capitalize."

[thunder38]

I know this is off-topic but wanted to share in this thread as well as the Wheaton is hosting a very unique event on Saturday night against Elmhurst and their student section is trying to land a pretty big fish.

As Kent Madsen mentioned just now on the Hoopsville show, Wheaton will host Elmhurst on Saturday for its annual cancer awareness event. This year's game will be a unique opportunity for the Thunder to lift up a teammate. Last spring, All-American point guard Katie McDaniels was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer called chondrosarcoma. As was mentioned on the show, her tumor was detected early in her Wheaton career but was not correctly diagnosed until last spring. She has since had surgery to remove it and is now cancer free. Saturday's event will be raising awareness and funds for The Sarcoma Foundation of America. Wheaton's student group (Ryken's Rowdies) will be raising funds and in the wake of the news, a Wheaton donor has stepped up and will match any donations raised up to $10,000! If you're interested in contributing to this event, email Ryken's Rowdies (rykens.rowdies@my.wheaton.edu) for how you can support their effort. More information on the event is listed in Wheaton's press release below.

http://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2018/1/31/womens-basketball-to-host-annual-cancer-awareness-event-on-saturday-night.aspx

[John Gleich]

Big surprise of the night:

Carroll 90
Elmhurst 60

The win for the Pios wasn't the big surprise, but the margin of victory certainly was.

  Yikes. The month of January did not end well for the Bluejays.

5 games left, 3 of them at home. Not sure that .500 in CCIW is realistic anymore, but hopefully the Jays can still finish a few wins above last year's total of 4.

Never knew Pioneers could be shortened to Pios until tonight.

Not my doing. Carroll fans have been calling them the Pios for as long as I can remember.

http://www.gopios.com/

[havej]

Haven't posted in a long while but curious from the guys who watch and follow the league - who's leading candidate for POY at this point?  I did just see Greg's post regarding Bosko's post game comment.