MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

IWU defeated Dominican today at the Shirk Center 69-67.  The Titans led by 11 with a couple minutes to play when I stopped listening, so the Stars must have finished with a flurry.  I think as the season plays out, this will turn out to be a solid in-region win for the Titans.  

Darius Gant led the way for IWU w/ 19 pts and 10 rebounds.  Brett Chamernik had 12 & 8, and Doug Sexauer 9 & 9...so sounds like the Titans' frontcourt players had a big game.

The Titans held 6-8 Domicican leading scorer Mike Haiduc to 11 points.

Congrats to the entire league on a great in-region start to the non-conference season.

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst had a surprisingly difficult time of it today against Eureka, coming back from 11 points down to beat the Red Devils, 64-51, at Faganel Hall. Ryan Burks led the way for the 'jays with 17 points, Brent Ruch chipped in a 16 and 12 double-double, and Robert Strzemp (who appears to have taken matters into his own hands late in the game) had a breakout afternoon with 15 points.

Eureka led halfway through the first half by 11, and was up by 3 at the half, 34-31. The Red Devils proved surprisingly doughty in holding the 'jays at bay in the second half; they built the lead back up to 9 on a couple of occasions, and Elmhurst didn't get out in front until a pair of Strzemp FTs at the 7:50 mark put Elmhurst up, 43-42. From that point on the 'jays gradually built up the lead, and for the final two minutes and change the lead was in the low double figures.

Elmhurst shot only 44% from the field and 26% from downtown, although the Eureka numbers were significantly lower than that. Elmhurst also only outrebounded the much smaller Red Devils by a 37-34 margin. If the Red Devils had managed to do better than 9-18 from the foul line they might've taken Elmhurst right down to the wire.

Bottom line, though, is that a win's a win. This puts the 'hurst at 3-0 on the year.

[79jaybird]

Well today was a (cough, cough) difficult day at the office for Elmhurst and definitely a tough game to call on the air. 
The first half was awful from an Elmhurst standpoint as the spunky Red Devils came into RAF Hall and were on the mindset of winning the game.  They led by as many as 11 and had they made their FT's, should have led by as many as 20.  EC looked like they had eat well during the Thanksgiving Day break, and were "digesting" their food, instead of playing.
I thought the best thing Coach Scherrer did was get in the officials face on an obvious "blown call", but moreso to "fire up" the Bluejays who needed a spark.
The second half Robert Strzemp and Brent Ruch picked it up and Jimmy Saris came up big on defense.  Ruch finished with his second Double-Double. 

We will get a great idea of Elmhurst this Wednesday when they battle UW-Oshkosh.  The Titans will be thinking "revenge" after EC beat them at home last year.

[mr_b]

Final from the Crackerbox: North Park 85, Cardinal Stritch 75

The Vikings were in control until late in the first half, when Stritch went on a 20-1 run to go up 38-36 at the break.  North Park finally pulled ahead late as several players came off the bench to spark the offense -- most notably Jay Alexander, Jorge Gonzalez, Dan Oziminski, and Joe Capalbo. 

[Jim Matson]

Well, soccer is officially over and so now it's time to spend some time on basketball.

As Bob said above, it looks like a nice start to the season for the CCIW.  And that Wash U win was a nice one for Augie!

I can't post without mentioning that in soccer today, the Wheaton women won their 3rd National Championship in 4 years.  That's another nice win for the CCIW! (by the way Bob, it appeared to me that IWU gave Wheaton one of their toughest matches this year!).

[iwu70]

Lots of good wins for the CCIW today.  Sounds great.  My congrats to the Wheaton soccer women on bringing home the national hardware!  3 in 4 years, Wow.  Great stuff.  Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to all.

[tjcummingsfan]

There were times tonight when I was extremely embarassed to be cheering for the vikings, and times when I was extremely proud. 

Embarrassed...  the laziness of the offense especially towards the end of the first half (when Stritch went on their run), the laziness on "d" at times allowing the wolves some rediculously easy baskets, the inability to hit generally open men under the basket (most notably by freshman point guard Bruce Durham), the nasty dunk by the 6'11 kid from stritch


Proud... watching Oziminski play (in the second half he didn't do alot of the scoring, but he certainly took the Vikes on his back and turned the game around making some of the best hustle plays I've seen since Javier and AC were on the court), watching Jay Alexander play (played like the guy we expected since his freshman year), the fact that NP never looked scared, even when we were down 10 (was it ever that many Greg, DP mr_b?)  they looked cool (maybe sometimes too cool) and rarely frantic. 

The Vikes will have to play the way they did in the 2nd half all CCIW season to live up to their #4 preseason ranking. 


I wish i knew something more about Stritch so I knew how to guage this win.

[AndOne]

North Central ran its record to 4-0 this evening with a somewhat tougher than expected 77-69 victory over its close neighbor, Benedictine University. BU made the 6 minute trip down Maple-Chicago Ave to the NCC "hanger."

North Central went out to an 8-1 lead and never trailed in the game, although the Eagles closed to within 2 points on a couple of occasions.

The Cardinals played acceptable perimeter defense limiting Benedictine to 40.8% shooting (20/49), including 23% (3/13) from beyond the arc. Where the Cards ran into trouble was defensing the dribble drive and dish inside where their interior defense often resulted in a foul call, sending the Eagles to the line. BU was awarded 37 charity tosses, which increased their chances of staying in the game considerably. They converted 26, good for 70.3%. NCC shot 75.9% (22/29) from the line.

In fact, the officiating was rather mystifying. A total of 52 fouls were whistled (26 on each team). However, there were several instances where each team was called either for a very ticky-tack foul or no real foul at all, while several calls were not made when players on both teams were basically mugged, including a couple of times for each team when a player was literally thrown to the floor.

In the end, BU had no answers for NCC's forward tandem of Matt Rogers and Chris Drennan. Rogers slipped inside to score at will, leading the Cardinal's attack with 25. He was followed closely by Drennan who tallied 23, many of which were short to mid range turnaround jumpers. Together they totaled 48 of the Cards 77 points.
Dominique King led the supporting cast with 10.

[petemcb]

Coach Camardella and the rejuvanated Prospect Knights move to 3-1 on the young season with a solid 64-55 defeat of the storied Proviso East program after beating Proviso West by 15 the night before. 

[Gregory Sager]

NPU 85
Cardinal Stritch 75

Jay Alexander, 15 pts, 7 rebs
Nick Williams, 14 pts, 8 rebs
Jason Gordon, 12 pts, 8 rebs
Joe Capalbo, 11 pts
Antonio Stevens, 9 pts, 8 rebs
Jorge Gonzalez, 9 pts, 6 rebs
Bruce Durham, 8 pts
Dan Oziminski, 3 pts
Jon Chimino, 3 pts

NPU certainly made this win harder than it needed to be. As tjcf said, the defense broke down badly late in the first half, and the offense made a number of really bad decisions with the ball. With 2:45 left in the first half, the Vikings had a ten-point lead. By the halftime buzzer, the Wolves were up by a basket, 38-36.

Stritch built up the lead to as much as nine a couple of minutes into the half, 48-37, before Paul Brenegan finally found a combination that was able to work together well on the floor. It was at that point that he subbed Dan Oziminski in for Bruce Durham at the point, and put up-and-down senior Jay Alexander into the game. Oziminski proved to be the steady influence that the team needed at that point, and Alexander was certainly "up" rather than "down", as he went on to score 13 of his 15 points in the second stanza. NPU went on a nine-point run, and after several minutes of back-and-forth got the ballgame tied at 64-64 with 5:54 left on a Jorge Gonzalez layup. From then on it was all North Park, as the Vikes rattled off an eight-point run and got the lead up as high as 13 in the last couple of minutes.

Proud... watching Oziminski play (in the second half he didn't do alot of the scoring, but he certainly took the Vikes on his back and turned the game around making some of the best hustle plays I've seen since Javier and AC were on the court), watching Jay Alexander play (played like the guy we expected since his freshman year), the fact that NP never looked scared, even when we were down 10 (was it ever that many Greg, DP mr_b?)  they looked cool (maybe sometimes too cool) and rarely frantic.

As poorly as NPU generally played throughout the game, they did really appear to be cool customers at the end, something that hasn't been a Vikings hallmark over the past season-plus. Oziminski was definitely a calming element; there's no doubt that the megatalented Bruce Durham is the PG of the future for NPU, but we have to keep in mind that this was just his fourth game as a collegian. And it helped that the two seniors in the rotation, Alexander and Jason Gordon, really stepped it up when it was necessary in the second half. The Vikes also got great defensive and rebounding effort from Antonio Stevens.

I wish i knew something more about Stritch so I knew how to guage this win.

Cardinal Stritch is usually a pretty decent NAIA-2 team (the Wolves went 21-10 last season), but this year they're nothing special. They'd go about 3-11 or, more likely, 2-12 in the CCIW this year if they were in our league. Trey Triplett is a very, very good player, wing Spencer Peck is decent, PG Pat Barron has great court vision, and the 6'10 Nigerian kid (who is fairly unpolished) is a shot-blocking and putback machine. But this was not exactly Duke that the Vikings were playing Saturday. This was one of those, "Just chalk it up as a W and move on" kind of games.

[augiefan]

Wash U's Sean Wallis missed yesterday's game against Augie due to a knee injury that may keep him out the rest of the year. Wash U is not a Top 20 team without him, so the Augie win while gratifying is not particularly surprising. In fact Wash U lost a week ago to Calvin College and is now 2-2.

[Gregory Sager]

Wash U's Sean Wallis missed yesterday's game against Augie due to a knee injury that may keep him out the rest of the year. Wash U is not a Top 20 team without him, so the Augie win while gratifying is not particularly surprising. In fact Wash U lost a week ago to Calvin College and is now 2-2.

Hopefan, who follows Wash U, reports that Wallis tore his ACL and broke his leg against Maryville (MO) last Tuesday. He'll have surgery this week, and it definitely sounds as though he's done for the season.

As I said yesterday, Wash U still hasn't announced anything about Wallis on their basketball webpage, but he's no longer listed on the roster.

[mifflin]

    Cardinals are showing something out there  Looking good and playing hard . Keep it up, cover each others backs you'll do good

[AndOne]

The NCC Cardinals continue to build a nice chemistry among the team members. This is a credit to both the players and the coaches as there are several new members on this season's roster.

I believe the coaching staff is also still tinkering with with player mix on the way to finding the optimum combination of starters and bench strength/firepower. One nice thing about the Cards this season is that when the 1st line subs come into the game, they lose very little in terms of ability/performance on the floor. There are many interchangeable parts to this year's team.

Two areas that I'd still like to see continued improvement in are tougher interior defense, and the development of another scoring option or two to provide more balanced scoring.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

sorry about the tardiness of my posting on last night's game - but family comes first.

Before I go back and read anyone else's comments I wanted to share a few thoughts about what I saw in North Park's 85-75 win over Cardinal Stritch.

First and foremost, of course, was the play of Jay Alexander, who demonstrated a want to take over a game that we had never witnessed in his first three years.  His play was thrilling and he really was the spark that ignited the Vikings in the 2nd half.

The 2nd was the steadiness at the point of Dan Osminski's who played the final 18:30 of the game in a non-flashy, but kept the offense focused style.  His three-pointer from the corner in the last two minutes was the dagger to the heart, and was the first shot I remember him taking, as he busied himself running the team, well.

This was the kind of game that two years ago, and maybe even last year, North Park loses.  That the coaching staff made the right personnel switches and that the players on the court made adjustments is to both their credits.

North Park had a ten-point lead with 3:36 to play in the first half and proceeded to play the worst five minutes of basketball ever seen by man or beast.  Yuck!  During that span the Vikings took one running throw shot at the basket, turned the ball over a dozen times, and committed some of the dumbest fouls in history allowing the Wolves to go on a 20 to 1 run.

Then Alexander - demonstrating an agressive ability to go to the basket that he's rarely demonstrated more than once in a game before, he put the whole team on his back, scoring 13 points in the 2nd half and leading the team to victory.

DoS