MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mwunder]

Carthage wins 83-73 over North Central.

Steve D had 39 points and set Carthage game records for Free throw attempted (27) and made (23).  Fendley added 13 including two big back-to-back 3s in the second half.  Neb had 11.

Drennan had 23 for North Central.

[REDMENFAN]

Just got back from the Carthage game, WOW. After Steve had 23 at half, NC tried switching to a 3-2 zone, but had to stop as Fendley hit three 3-pointers in a span of about three minutes, and Trey hit one as well. Steve actually missed some mid-range shots in the second half he normally hits, or could've had around 48-50! Excellent defense all night by Trey Bowens and Higgins, and Neb is really stepping it up. NC really has some talented post players, I believe 3 of their players fouled out. Fairly close throughout, but Carthage never really threatened in the final five minutes. Congrats on the win

[Titan Q]

IWU 63
Wheaton 60

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2008/IWUMBB16.HTM

* Sean Johnson: 15 pts, 3-5 3-pt
* Sean Dwyer: 11 pts, 6 assists
* Travis Rosenkranz: 10 pts
* Darius Gant: 9 pts
* Brett Chamernik: 8 pts, 7 reb

* Kent Raymond: 17 pts, 7 T.O.


IWU had a lot of "players of the game", but the MVP tonight was Sean Dwyer.  Dwyer, making his first-ever collegiate start, played tremendous defense on All-American Kent Raymond.  Raymond was frustrated all night long and it finally boiled over late in the game, when he got into it with IWU guard Sean Johnson, with a double technical called.  That was foul #4 and then he fouled out about 2 minutes later.  Raymond, uncharacteristically, lost his composure tonight.

A nice win for the Titans.

[Naperick]

Titan Q and REDMENFAN, thanks for your game reports!

[Naperick]

Carthage  4-1
Augustana 3-2
Elmhurst 3-2
IL Wesleyan 3-2
N. Central 2-3
N. Park 2-3
Wheaton 2-3
Millikin 1-4

[Naperick]

Elmhurst   66
North Park 39
     'Jays led 28-18 at the half

[RedMan1]

Yes, REDMANFAN a great job on the report and also a nice win by the Redmen.

This was a very physical game, and with North Central fouling 30 times you would expect a lot of people on the ground after plays and such and that's what happened on almost every time down the court. I was impressed with North Central's speed and defensive effort. Yes they did foul a bunch but some of the fouls were ticky tack.

Overall fun game to watch with both teams flying around, (sounds like a football phrase) but this game showed that other players besides Trey and Steve can step up and be big part of the outcome. Fendley's 3's were huge because North Central was starting to get hot at the time.

Question, when was the last time the Carthage men's and women's basketball teams were both in 1st? place?

[Viking Blue]

North Park-Elmhurst-there is one word that describes this entire debacle at the Crackerbox:

Yuck.

Thank goodness there's another one on Saturday!

Very disappointing to see what occurred in the Windy City tonight, but nothing, and I mean nothing, seemed to work.  Not sure what the final totals were, but NP was shooting 27% at the half.  I can't imagine it was much better in the second half.  To be honest, I was amazed that the Jays were only up 10 at the half.

Nick Williams was a total non-factor.  I believe he finished with 5 points, and missed almost the entire 2nd half after picking up his 4th foul early on.

As far as Greg's post about NP hoping to create more of an up-tempo game and stay away from the half-court set, well....it didn't happen.  The Vikings were slow to get into transition after missed baskets, and were brutally outrebounded.  Elmhurst's size proved to be too much inside.

Finally, kudos to the Elmhurst backcourt.  Much has been said about their deficiencies on the previous pages, but they certainly held their own.

(**Disclaimer...all of the above is merely based on personal observations, without having seen the final game stats).

This makes Saturday's home game a MUST win for North Park, in my non-respected opinion.

[Viking Blue]

By the way, where in the world were the North Park student fans tonight?

Page after page were written over the past three days about the incident at Wheaton, and I really was looking forward to seeing the Crazies' response.

And it was....

4 fans.  4.  That's it.

Better be ready to rock and roll on Saturday, Crazies.  I would hate to see the NP gym taken over completely by the green senior citizens.

[Viking Blue]

Just checked the stats.

NP shot (are you ready for this) 18% in the 2nd half, after 27 % in the second.

Rebounds:

Elmhurst 42, North Park 20.

Yikes.

[Gregory Sager]

I've seen teams play Scarecrow games: No brains. I've seen teams play Tin Man games: No heart. And I've seen teams play Cowardly Lion games: Thoroughly intimidated.

Tonight, NPU was the entire cast of The Wizard of Oz, Munchkins included.

I've sat through a lot of bad NPU basketball games over the past decade and a half, but the vast majority of them were a case of an outmanned Vikings team that was simply unable to compete with the superior talent and skills of its opponent. What I saw tonight was a talented NPU team that didn't bother to show up at all. A grand total of three Vikings looked like they were interested in playing basketball tonight: Jay Alexander, Mike Ventura, and Ed Whitaker. Alexander's electrifying, came-out-of-nowhere block of a Mark Aloisio breakaway dunk attempt in the second half was the lone highlight of the game for North Park fans. That's it ... one highlight in forty minutes of play. Pathetic.

The worst part of it all was that Elmhurst didn't even play a particularly good game by its standards. I've seen this group of Bluejays play much better than they did tonight. None of their top three scorers, Ruch, Burks, or Ryder, had a particularly noteworthy night (although Chris Childs played 100% better than I've ever seen him play). The big three for Elmhurst were averaging 44.2 ppg, and tonight they scored 34 points between them. But it didn't matter. Elmhurst played hard and smart, and simply allowed the Vikings to shoot themselves in the foot all night.

Aside from playing good first-half defense in holding Elmhurst to 28 points prior to the intermission, NPU didn't do a single thing right. Although they knew full well that Elmhurst was going to throw a 3-2 zone at them, and they spent three days practicing for it, in the first half the Vikings found that zone to be as perplexing as Chinese arithmetic. Nobody wanted to shoot; the Vikings looked confused and listless. In the second half, the Vikings broke the zone plenty of times -- but they shot the ball as though it was radioactive. The trey shooting for the night -- 3-23, including 1-15 from the usually-dependable trio of Capalbo, Gordon, and Oziminski -- was bad enough. But the layups were worse. In the second half, NPU went 2-12 on layups. How can any team miss ten layups in a half? The Vikings were so awful when they got to the rim that P.A. announcer Tim Dykes should've been playing Schubert's Unfinished Symphony during timeouts.

The Vikings threw stupid forty-foot passes that sailed over teammates' heads. They played 20-25 seconds of good defense, and then screwed it all up by losing their men on back cuts and off-ball screens that led to easy Elmhurst layups. They gave up rebound after rebound of all types and sizes -- not because they were outsized by the Bluejays, but because they were outpositioned and outhustled by the Bluejays. Even the crowd had no energy -- and the fact that I could count the Crazies present on the fingers of one hand didn't help, either.

Tonight was an absolute disgrace. As the North Park coaches said, the Vikings took four steps backward tonight. One can only hope that they completely erase tonight's debacle from their minds, get a good night's sleep, practice hard and listen diligently over the next two days, and show up to the crackerbox on Saturday to face Illinois Wesleyan with minds, hearts, and nerve intact.

[tjcummingsfan]

Elmhurst   66
North Park 39
     'Jays led 28-18 at the half

It was horrible to watch.  NP couldn't hit a shot, lay-up or jumper to save their lives, I definitely am not looking forward to seeing the fg % from this one.  

Bright spots... defense for the most part, intensity on that end of the floor for probably 35 minutes of the game was really great... watching Burks miss 2 freethrows, I can't imagine anyone'll see that again anytime soon... the look in Jay Alexander's eyes, especially in the 2nd half, he was never ready to give this game up, and I loved that, he had some great blocks, and almost dunked over one of the reserve guards, but he decided to lay it in instead... defense on Ruch, I think he ended up with only 15 (definitely under 20)... any more Greg, Scream, Rob, Mr B?

Dim spots... shooting, it was abysmal... offense against the zone, we may as well have not had guys on the court at some points... Elmhurst's shooting, again, don't want to see the percentages... rebounding, on both ends of the floor (with the possible exception of Jay Alexander), we were 1 and done (to quote Rob Berki) all night on the offensive end, and got smoked even on the defensive end far too often...

we'll have to play a heck of alot better to beat an undoubtedly fired up IWU team who just knocked off Wheaton

[Gregory Sager]

Chicago just announced that 6-3 guard Tommy Sotos from Conant HS will be in Hyde Park next fall.  It was also in the Daily Herald:
Sotos-fying times: Conant senior Tommy Sotos had a pair of big post-holiday games with 12 points in a 46-23 win over MSL East leader Hersey and a career-high 24 points in a 53-49 win over MSL West rival Schaumburg.
Sotos also made his college choice last Thursday by picking the University of Chicago. Sotos picked the Maroons over Lafayette, Grinnell, St. Norbert's, Oberlin and Emory.

No CCIW schools in that list.  Was there any CCIW interest in him?

I know IWU was not on him...not sure about the rest of the league.

NPU wasn't on him, either.

[REDMENFAN]

Just checked the stats.

NP shot (are you ready for this) 18% in the 2nd half, after 27 % in the second.

Rebounds:

Elmhurst 42, North Park 20.

Yikes.

What about the first half? 

[Viking Blue]

I would have to agree with your observations of Alexander.  It's easy to admire a player for putting up big numbers in a win.  To a former athlete, though, it is much easier to admire a player for playing as hard as this senior did in a blowout.

TRUE leadership, without saying a single word.