MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 75
Augustana 55

Phil Holmes, Jr: 14 pts, 6 rebs, 5:2 a:to
Trevon Roots: 14 pts
Shamar Pumphrey: 13 pts

Andrew Ayeni: 11 pts
Chase Larsen: 10 pts, 7 rebs
Matt Hawkins: 10 pts

The Park finally snaps an ugly losing streak with a solid, if not pretty, road win. You'd think that a team like Augie that is 100% committed to playing a 3-2 zone for 40 minutes would be ideally suited to play an opponent that shoots the three as poorly as does NPU, but it didn't work out that way. Even though North Park stunk it up again from behind the arc (7-27, .259), the visitors showed great patience in the halfcourt, kept the dumb shots to a minimum, and used their size advantage to great effect by working the high-low zonebreaker to get Phil Holmes, Trevon Roots, and DJ Wallace lots of looks right at the rim.

The Vikings really aren't doing the sorts of things that they're supposed to do in Sean Smith's system -- it's predicated upon getting a lot more shot attempts than opponents via offensive rebounds and turnovers, and once again NPU really didn't get any advantages in those two categories, leading to only two more field-goal attempts than Augie had and six fewer free-throw attempts -- but it didn't matter, because of a combination of NPU's use of quickness and length advantages to bother Augie shooters plus Augie's own lackluster ability to make shots. And a nice bonus was that, even though North Park only got to the line fourteen times, Sean's boys went a season-best 12-14 (.857) from the stripe.

Best of all, really, is the fact that they did it without their leading scorer. Kolden Vanlandingham did not dress for tonight's game, due to an injury that I've been led to believe (and, frankly, hope) is a minor one. The comforting thing about that is that North Park's finals week is this coming week, so the Vikings don't have another game until they face Dominican nine days from now.

[Wildcat]

 Elmhurst was impressive in their win over Carthage tonight. Terrific defensive effort all game long. Ocean Johnson came alive immediately and was backed up by John Ittounas and Tagen Pearson with double figures. Depth played a significant role in the victory. The best start in program history, big games coming up next week.

[Wildcat]

 Carthage was missing two players tonight and Elmhurst is definitely missing Neshat Dalipi. He was just starting to get rolling before his injury.

[lmitzel]

IWU 66
NCC 43

Well, this was a game for a while. The Titans led most of the night, but it was fairly close for pretty much the whole first half and about the first five and a half minutes of the second when NCC cut it to four, and even then it was only a six point game just a couple minutes later. But the Cardinals managed just two points over the next eight minutes and the Titans slowly pulled away.

Nick Smoldt: 13 pts, 7 reb
Tyler Swierczek: 8 pts
Drew Gaston: 8 pts
Ethan Helwig: 7 reb

Harrison Wilmsen: 11 pts
Marko Anderson: 10 pts, 5 reb
Shane Miller: 8 pts, 4 reb, 4 stl
Luke Yoder: 6 pts, 5 reb, 7 ast

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage was missing two players tonight and Elmhurst is definitely missing Neshat Dalipi. He was just starting to get rolling before his injury.

Carthage wasn't just short two players, it was short two starters, both of whom average double-digit scoring: AJ Johnson (13.9 ppg) and Antuan Nesbitt (10.6 ppg). While Dalipi is missing useful development time as Jonathan Zapinski's heir apparent, in terms of yesterday's game the absence of Elmhurst's backup center doesn't even come close to offsetting the loss of Johnson and Nesbitt for the Firebirds.

[lmitzel]

UW-Platteville 80
North Central 65

Platteville showed why they're a Top 25 team tonight, leading wire to wire. NCC was within six with about five and a half to play, but the Pioneers hit their last five three point tries of the half to help balloon the margin to 21 by the break. A Cardinal rally late in the second half proved too little, too late. UW-P finished 13-25 from beyond the arc (9-15 in the opening 20 minutes).

Ben Probst: 22 pts (shrug game)
Max Love: 17 pts, 9 reb, 3 stl
Brady Olson: 16 pts (4-5 3pt), 4 reb

Nick Smoldt: 22 pts (6-8 3PT), 4 reb
Tyler Swierczek: 14 pts, 4 reb
Ken Thomas: 10 pts

Next one for the Cardinals is at home a week from tonight against Hope.

[Greek Tragedy]

UW-Platteville 80
North Central 65

Platteville showed why they're a Top 25 team tonight, leading wire to wire. NCC was within six with about five and a half to play, but the Pioneers hit their last five three point tries of the half to help balloon the margin to 21 by the break. A Cardinal rally late in the second half proved too little, too late. UW-P finished 13-25 from beyond the arc (9-15 in the opening 20 minutes).

Ben Probst: 22 pts (shrug game)
Max Love: 17 pts, 9 reb, 3 stl
Brady Olson: 16 pts (4-5 3pt), 4 reb

Nick Smoldt: 22 pts (6-8 3PT), 4 reb
Tyler Swierczek: 14 pts, 4 reb
Ken Thomas: 10 pts

Next one for the Cardinals is at home a week from tonight against Hope.

Platteville did that without, arguably their best player, Logan Pearson, who apparently was in a boot.

[Gregory Sager]

This weekend's scores (home teams in italics):

Friday
Carthage 83, Illinois Tech 79

Saturday
Chicago 59, Wheaton 52

Sunday
Augustana 84, Lake Forest 83 (ot)
Carroll 86, Northland 61
Elmhurst 74, Lawrence 41

CCIW non-con to date: 30-27 (.526)

Incidentally, Antuan Nesbitt was back in action and played a full game on Friday. Carthage is still missing AJ Johnson, however.

[Wildcat]

 If Carthage continues their terrific season, like I think they will. How will the loss to Ripon and the win over Whitewater effect their playoff hopes for hosting?

[Gregory Sager]

If Carthage continues their terrific season, like I think they will. How will the loss to Ripon and the win over Whitewater effect their playoff hopes for hosting?

Waaaay too early to ask that question, which is dependent upon a million other factors.

[Greek Tragedy]

Cal Lutheran 58 IWU 52
Dominican 89 NPU 86 OT

[Gregory Sager]

Overtime final:

Dominican 89
North Park 86

Shamar Pumphrey: 22 pts, 8 rebs, 6 stls
Lance Nelson: 13 pts
TJ Gardner: 7 rebs

The Vikings led for 80% of a game against a team that they should've beaten by 15, but didn't. Instead, they lost to a not-all-that-good team that simply played harder and smarter than did the Vikings.

One step forward, two steps back.

[Gregory Sager]

Cal Lutheran knocked off Illinois Wesleyan, 58-52, in a seesaw battle out in Thousand Oaks. With the score tied at 48-48 with 4:21 left, the Kingsmen found a gear that IWU didn't have and hit back-to-back treys that permanently gave them a two-possession lead. Neither team shot well, but the Titans slightly outshot and outrebounded CLU; the difference is that IWU coughed up the ball 17 times to only 7 turnovers for the Kingsmen, leading to an 18-3 advantage in points off turnovers that really spelled the difference in this game. Nick Roper led the way for the losers with 11 and 9, while Ryan Sroka had a fine 4:1 floor game.

Millikin saved the day from being a total disaster for the CCIW by defeating St. John Fisher, 78-69, in the opening round of the Rose-Hulman tourney. The Big Blue was paced by JT Welch's 16 points, while Nate Straughter contributed 14, Demarcus Bond added 12 (and four steals), and Frazier Ott tallied 11. Jaden McClain led MU on the boards with 9.

[ziggy]

If Carthage continues their terrific season, like I think they will. How will the loss to Ripon and the win over Whitewater effect their playoff hopes for hosting?

Carthage has about zero chance of hosting. It's actually much more likely they miss the tournament entirely than end up a host. Their projected SOS is outside what is considered viable for an at-large selection so their path to the tournament is almost surely by winning the CCIW auto-bid and it would keep them from being considered for hosting a first weekend pod.

[petemcb]

My son just sent me this.   https://athletics.augustana.edu/news/2023/12/20/mens-basketball-augustana-announces-leadership-change-for-mens-basketball-program.aspx