MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Augustana 80
North Park 75

Toby Marek: 21 pts
Jordan Boyd: 17 pts, 8 rebs
Mike Osborne: 15 pts, 7 rebs
Izaiah Sanders: 7 rebs, 3:0 a:to

Daniel Carr: 23 pts, 13 rebs, 3 blks
Carter Duwa: 18 pts
Tyler Knuth: 13 pts
Luke Johnson: 11 pts

Another heartbreaker for NPU, which led for almost 30 minutes of this game and had a 13-point lead early in the second half. Augie came back with hot three-point shooting and pulled ahead in the final couple of minutes with sterling FT shooting (17-19, 90% for the night). North Park players dribbled the ball off of their thighs not once but twice in the game's final thirty seconds. An agonizing way to lose.

[Gregory Sager]

Other scores:

Elmhurst 76, Millikin 64
Wheaton 74, Carroll 39
North Central 73, Carthage 53

All four road teams walked off the floor victorious tonight.

[Next Man Up]

North Central, minus Blaise Meredith, crushes Carthage 73-53. Matt Helwig led the scoring with 24, Brian Johnson had 12, and Matt Smietanski 10. Bulatovic was top scorer for CC with 13. NCC looked like they played with a chip on their shoulder, likely PO'd over their debacle vs Millikin Sat.
Cardinals, not the tallest of teams, out rebounded the nameless ones by a miraculous 46-23.

Elmhurst took down Millikin 76-64. Genco with 22, Johnson with 17, and Militello with 12 led the Jays.
Fisher was held to only 4 points for MU.

Augie downed NPU in the city by a 80-75 score. The Parkers led for about 3/4s of the game, and really really should have won, but lack of defensive intensity down the stretch compounded by a couple of unforced errors in the final moments sunk the Viking ship. On, I believe, NPU's last two possessions, the NPU player just dropped the ball which was picked up by Augie. Neither fumble was forced.

First place Wheaton simply obliterated Carroll 74-39. Yes, you read that right 39. CU had 14 at half.

[WUPHF]

Carthage new athletic nickname down to three finalists;
1. Firebirds
2. Fire
3. Lakehawks
Board of Trusters will reportedly make the final decision this weekend.

I can almost guarantee that it will not be the Fire.

Prediction: Lakehawks

[Next Man Up]

Carthage new athletic nickname down to three finalists;
1. Firebirds
2. Fire
3. Lakehawks
Board of Trusters will reportedly make the final decision this weekend.

I can almost guarantee that it will not be the Fire.

Prediction: Lakehawks

The Fire is a crummy soccer team.
There are 15 different kinds of hawks that live in the US. None of them are named Lakehawk/Lake Hawk.
Aren't Firebirds cars?
Maybe these 3 finalists have some connection to Carthage which is unknown to outsiders, but it seems like they could have come up with some better choices.

[GoPerry]

Thunder over the Pios 74-39

Tyson Cruickshank was in heat check mode all night, going 9/11 FG, 5/6 trey and finishing with 23 pts.  He and Nyameye Adom form a formidable backcourt for opposing teams to try and handle.  Few have been successful thus far.  Wheaton has really been playing well with their only weakness being their lack of depth going only 6, maybe 7 deep.  But in a shortened Covid season, you can get away with it (for now) as fatigue should not be a factor.

[markerickson]

Thinking of weather, we have the Thunder, so how about the Carthage Lake Effect?  The supposed three final names are all lame.

[hickory_cornhusker]

Carthage new athletic nickname down to three finalists;
1. Firebirds
2. Fire
3. Lakehawks
Board of Trusters will reportedly make the final decision this weekend.

I'm disappointed War Elephants is no longer in the running.

[Gregory Sager]

Thinking of weather, we have the Thunder, so how about the Carthage Lake Effect?  The supposed three final names are all lame.

Agreed. Carthage has had a couple of tries now at modifying its nicknames, if you count the original battle with the NCAA over the school's politically incorrect nickname for the men's teams, and it's hard to believe that one of these three lackluster choices is going to be the end result of all that.

Carthage new athletic nickname down to three finalists;
1. Firebirds
2. Fire
3. Lakehawks
Board of Trusters will reportedly make the final decision this weekend.

I'm disappointed War Elephants is no longer in the running.

Me, too. And Northern Pikes as well. But, hey, why adopt a historically appropriate and distinctly fearsome nickname, or a unique and geographically relevant nickname, when you can name your teams after imaginary animals, one of which is approximately the thousandth dreary iteration of the mundane nickname "hawks"?

Plus, if your teams are going to share a name with an obsolete Pontiac pony car, you should skip the "Firebirds" part and go straight to the infinitely cooler "Trans Ams."

[WUPHF]

The Fire is a crummy soccer team.
There are 15 different kinds of hawks that live in the US. None of them are named Lakehawk/Lake Hawk.
Aren't Firebirds cars?
Maybe these 3 finalists have some connection to Carthage which is unknown to outsiders, but it seems like they could have come up with some better choices.

Firebirds are indeed cars and why I ruled that one out.  No way they choose Firebirds.

I have to think that they picked the name months ago and decided that the suspense was good, though, that needed to be over three weeks rather than three months or however long it has been  It seems like forever.  Maybe they chose Fire and then decided to delay due to events over the summer.

War Elephants and the Northern Pikes had so much potential.

[markerickson]

Back in my high school days, we called a Trans Am a "TnA," meaning something that would attract t*ts and *ss.

[bopol]

Carthage new athletic nickname down to three finalists;
1. Firebirds
2. Fire
3. Lakehawks
Board of Trusters will reportedly make the final decision this weekend.

Red Fox would be appropriate (animal in area, sounds cool and you can keep your colors).  I would also say Cardinals, but that would cross my friends at North Central.

It's interesting to me that there aren't more teams named after the fox. 

[GU1999]

How about Redd Foxx?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stdi-1tIUhM

[WUPHF]

Firebird. Carthage Firebirds.

[lmitzel]

Firebird. Carthage Firebirds.

Not impressed. Even though I get to be the one to break it in tomorrow afternoon.