MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois College 74
Augustana 69

Lake Forest 80
Carroll 74

Wheaton 74
Stevens 55

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst plays great ball and leaves Calvin in its dust for thirty minutes at Faganel, building up a lead too big for the Knights to whittle away completely on their last-ditch rally. The 'jays win, 84-80, in a game that Calvin never led and in which EU led by as many as 21. John Ittounas paved the way with 22 points (including 8-8 from the line), Ocean Johnson sprang up out of the Baines doghouse with a 20 and 8 game, Jonathan Zapinski had 15 and 8, and Wesley Hooker chipped in 10. And, thus, Elmhurst proved that there is no such thing as a Faganel Curse in 2022-23.

[voxelmhurst]

Elmhurst plays great ball and leaves Calvin in its dust for thirty minutes at Faganel, building up a lead too big for the Knights to whittle away completely on their last-ditch rally. The 'jays win, 84-80, in a game that Calvin never led and in which EU led by as many as 21. John Ittounas paved the way with 22 points (including 8-8 from the line), Ocean Johnson sprang up out of the Baines doghouse with a 20 and 8 game, Jonathan Zapinski had 15 and 8, and Wesley Hooker chipped in 10. And, thus, Elmhurst proved that there is no such thing as a Faganel Curse in 2022-23.

Elmhurst did play very well in the first half, perhaps their best half of the season. They were calm with the ball, and executed on offense. Their defense was aggressive without leaving themselves exposed. The second half saw Calvin slowly creep back into the game and it also saw Elmhurst revert back to rushing up foolish shots and turning the ball over way too often. I counted 13 Elmhurst turnovers in the second half. The Bluejays are fortunate that Calvin had a lull about midway thru the second half where they were unable to cut further into the Elmhurst lead, or else they could have easily let this one slip away.

If Elmhurst can figure out how to harness their first half play from tonite's game, they have a shot at getting back into the CCIW race, but I feel they are too inconsistent and their flaws too readily apparent. Would love to be wrong about that of course.

Nice crowd on hand tonite for the in-between Christmas and New Years game, ending a very special 2022 for Elmhurst.

[kiko]

<snark>
I still don't view Carroll as a full member since they left and then came back.
</snark>

Can we use that claim as needed against Carthage, Wheaton, and Elmhurst as well?

Sure, but one should be extra disdainful toward those schools that departed for the greener pastures of the <checks notes> MW-freaking-C.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage 132
Greenville 106

[tjcummingsfan]

North Park somehow comes back from down 18 to win 85-80. 

[Next Man Up]

North Park somehow comes back from down 18 to win 85-80.

Speed, quickness, and Benedictine's sometimes forgetting to guard NPU sharpshooter Kolden Vanlangingham, and sometimes being unable to guard him.

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Rice Center:

North Park 85
Benedictine 80

Kolden Vanlandingham: 34 pts (9-13 FG, 6-8 trey, 10-11 FT)
Jalen Boyd: 17 pts, 7 rebs, 3:0 a:to
Marquise Jackson: 11 pts, 3 stls

As TJCF said, the Vikings had to come back from 18 points down in this one, as Benedictine led 47-29 with two minutes to go in the first half. The Vikings showed no energy whatsoever in the first half, and they were slow to adjust to an officiating crew that was blowing the whistle if you breathed too hard on the man you were guarding -- and that slowness almost prevented them from holding on to win once they finally caught up with the Bennies on a pair of free throws by (who else?) Kolden Vanlandingham with 7:45 to go in the game. By game's end two Vikings (and a BU player) had fouled out, and NPU had three players (including Vanlandingham) with four fouls apiece, while BU had four players on the floor with four apiece. That made the end of the game look like a layup drill, as both teams were afraid to foul and went into matador mode. (Sean Smith even used a zone on two or three BU possessions late in the game in order to protect Vanlandingham, Shamar Pumphrey, and Marquise Jackson from fouling out; I didn't think that zone would be something I'd be seeing at all from this Vikings team this season.) Regardless, two steals by Jackson (always with the busy hands despite his four fouls) in the final thirty seconds sealed the deal for the Park, on a day in which the Vikes had to fight through a lot of frustration as well as fatigue.

Vanlandingham was magnificent. Of his 34 points, all but five came in the second half, a bunch of them via treys hit from NBA distance. And on a day in which his teammates were collectively only 13-28 (.464) from the FT line, his 10-11 performance at the charity stripe was absolutely huge.

There are better teams out there against whom an 18-point hole under today's circumstances (a soul-crushing loss less than 24 hours earlier that entailed little or no rest for the starters) would've proved insurmountable for North Park. But the Bennies are at least competent enough to hold that kind of a lead. The reason why they didn't really had more to do with an impressive display of sheer willpower on the part of the Vikings (and no small measure of Vanlandingham's ability to take over a game) than it did with BU's fumbling it away. NPU's second-half gumption was a welcome sight.

This was a red-headed stepchild of a win ... but sometimes you can find the inner beauty even in a red-headed stepchild.

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin breezed past Spalding at the Griz, 70-52. Drake Stevenson led the way with 12 and 16 for the Big Blue, with Chase Travis adding 11 points.

Millikin improves to 4-0 in SLIAC play, and trails only Wash U (6-0) in the SLIAC standings.

[Gregory Sager]

With three IWU games and one game apiece for Carthage and NCC still remaining to be played once the calendar turns over, the CCIW finds itself 50-26 (.658) in non-conference play.

[Pat Coleman]

St. Mary's (MN) 83
North Park 82

Kolden Vanlandingham: 20 pts, 7 rebs
Jordan Boyd: 19 pts, 4 stls
Marquise Jackson: 16 pts, 3 stls
Shamar Pumphrey: 11 pts
Karl Polk, Jr.: 7 rebs

SMU's Raheem Anthony hit a lunging 30-footer at the buzzer to pull off the second big road upset in a row for the Cardinals. It came on the heels of a Marquise Jackson layup with 3.1 seconds to go that gave NPU a two-point lead.

Of course, the Vikings are kicking themselves for the things that they did wrong today -- going 10-19 from the free-throw line was their most glaring sin of the day -- but the reality is that they just weren't able to sustain a comfortable lead against an SMU team that, despite its record, is definitely for real. Their last game before Christmas was a seven-point win over then-#7 UW-LaCrosse at LaCrosse, and it plainly wasn't a fluke. Their engine is Anthony, a 6'4, 220 senior who is the best player I've seen in D3 this season, live or online. He's a lock for D3hoops.com All-American; he came into the game averaging 21.4 and 8.5, and today he went totally mental, posting a 41 and 14 double-double. What gets me is that he's a local kid; he went to DePaul Prep at Rockwell and Belmont, for crying out loud. How Joe Fano snuck that kid out of state from under the noses of CCIW coaching staffs is beyond me. Kudos to Joe for that (although it nags at me that he wasn't bringing in any Raheem Anthonys when he was sitting second chair for Tom Slyder).

Can't shed any tears over this one; the Vikings have to go right back at it yet again tomorrow afternoon at Benedictine.

St. Mary's has traditionally pulled a lot of kids out of Chicago -- not just athletics, but student body in general.

[Gregory Sager]

St. Mary's (MN) 83
North Park 82

Kolden Vanlandingham: 20 pts, 7 rebs
Jordan Boyd: 19 pts, 4 stls
Marquise Jackson: 16 pts, 3 stls
Shamar Pumphrey: 11 pts
Karl Polk, Jr.: 7 rebs

SMU's Raheem Anthony hit a lunging 30-footer at the buzzer to pull off the second big road upset in a row for the Cardinals. It came on the heels of a Marquise Jackson layup with 3.1 seconds to go that gave NPU a two-point lead.

Of course, the Vikings are kicking themselves for the things that they did wrong today -- going 10-19 from the free-throw line was their most glaring sin of the day -- but the reality is that they just weren't able to sustain a comfortable lead against an SMU team that, despite its record, is definitely for real. Their last game before Christmas was a seven-point win over then-#7 UW-LaCrosse at LaCrosse, and it plainly wasn't a fluke. Their engine is Anthony, a 6'4, 220 senior who is the best player I've seen in D3 this season, live or online. He's a lock for D3hoops.com All-American; he came into the game averaging 21.4 and 8.5, and today he went totally mental, posting a 41 and 14 double-double. What gets me is that he's a local kid; he went to DePaul Prep at Rockwell and Belmont, for crying out loud. How Joe Fano snuck that kid out of state from under the noses of CCIW coaching staffs is beyond me. Kudos to Joe for that (although it nags at me that he wasn't bringing in any Raheem Anthonys when he was sitting second chair for Tom Slyder).

Can't shed any tears over this one; the Vikings have to go right back at it yet again tomorrow afternoon at Benedictine.

St. Mary's has traditionally pulled a lot of kids out of Chicago -- not just athletics, but student body in general.

Yep. Doesn't matter who the coach is; there's always a lot of Chicago-area kids on SMU rosters. And most of of those locally-based Cardinals student-athletes attended Catholic high schools (like DePaul Prep, for example). I seem to remember somebody once telling me that the school has a lot of scholarship money for Illinois-based Catholic students, although that's definitely second- or third-hand info and I have no way of knowing if it's true or not.

[Gregory Sager]

This week:

Tuesday
Washington MO (8-2) @ Illinois Wesleyan (6-4, 3-1)

Wednesday
North Central (7-5, 2-2) @ Augustana (3-10, 1-3)
Carthage (10-1, 3-0) @ Carroll (3-9, 0-3)
Elmhurst (9-4, 1-3) @ Millikin (8-5, 1-3)
North Park (10-2, 3-0) @ Wheaton (10-2, 2-1)

Saturday
Illinois Wesleyan @ Carthage
Elmhurst @ North Park
Wheaton @ Millikin

Sunday
Carroll @ Augustana

Massey sez:

Illinois Wesleyan 68, Washington MO 67	IWU 54%, WU 46%
North Central 75, Augustana 74	NCC 51%, AC 49%
Carthage 75, Carroll 72	CC 60%, CU 40%
Elmhurst 74, Millikin 68	EU 70%, MU 30%
Wheaton 76, North Park 70	WC 70%, NPU 30%

[Gregory Sager]

Lyons 6'0 PG Jackson Niego has tweeted that he plans to enroll at Illinois Wesleyan next year.

[markerickson]

Tom Kleinschmidt, HC of DePaul College Prep, probably still dislikes North Park since his playing days when Marc Horner repeatedly schooled the DI player during summer ball.