MBB: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

[WLCALUM83]

2/07/07 NAthCon Finals:

Marian 74, Concordia-Chicago 64. (Caught the last 4 minutes of this one. Cougars had it down to 2, but Justin Bestor hit a 3 and two free throws to begin a Marian run that put the game out of reach.)

WLC 100, Concordia-WI 75. (The "Mequon hex" is broken--temporarily).

Lakeland 66, Benedictine 65. (The IL Eagles outrebounded Lakeland, but the Muskies were hitting their 3's again.)

Barring a collapse of astronomical proportions-Aurora beat Edgewood big at home. (Spartans also were putting on a 3-point shooting clinic.)

[WLCALUM83]

2/10/07 NAthCon Projections:

Aurora over Dominican:

Concordia-WI over Maranatha: (Another case of the Crusaders having to face a team immediately after that team has been "smoked.")

Edgewood over Concordia-Chicago: (It might come down to outside shooting if the Cougars can slow down DeMarco and Averkamp enough.)

Marian over Rockford. (Sabers have more weapons on offense, Regents will have difficulty slowing them down.)

WLC over Benedictine:  (Putting my heart above my head on this one. The Warriors should have had the earlier game at home. Too close to call otherwise.)

Lakeland over MSOE:  (Muskies are at home.)

[NICNAC]

Dominican 68
MSOE 61

in overtime (thats three straight OT games for Dominican)

[WLCALUM83]

So much the better for Dominican. The Stars will benefit all the more should they crack the top 6. (If they keep winning and Marian loses at least 2 more games, Dominican's in.)

[NICNAC]

Dominican has a big game this coming Saturday that if they can win they could run the table for the rest of the regular season with a head of steam entering the playoffs. After Aurora they play 3 of the bottom four teams in the conference, all which they handled pretty easily. They could end up in third with some help from Benedictine and Lakeland. Even if they lose Saturday and win the rest of their games they'll end the season 12 and 6 which would qualify for at least sixth place tie barring other win and loss totals of the middle of the group. If they land the third spot, which is the best spot besides the #1 spot, they would face the 6th place team and avoid the 1st place team. But the best bet for them winning that spot is by beating Aurora on Saturday, which will be a huge task. I wish the best of luck to all the teams but my top six goes like this:

Aurora
Edgewood
Dominican
Lakeland
Benedictine
Wisconsin Lutheran

this list can be mixed up in a lot of ways

[Greek Tragedy]

welcome NICNAC!

[NICNAC]

Howdy!  Thanks for the welcome

[WLCALUM83]

Props to Benedictine's Jacob Carwell!

www.northernathleticsconf.com

[WLCALUM83]

Lakeland 90, MSOE 75  2 seconds left in 2nd half:

Marian 86, Rockford College 61--final: (Sabers hit 8 3-pointers and out-shot and out-rebounded the Regents for the game-per Marian box score.)

WLC 84, Benedictine 62--final. (Benedictine-28 turnovers- WLC's Hagel hit 5 three-pointers on the day--source is WLC's box score.)

Aurora 83, Dominican 80--final in OT. (Spartans hit their FT's late in OT to seal this one-Dominican box score.)

Edgewood 81, Concordia-Chicago 68. (DeMarco had another big game, he and Fahey got to the line a lot--Edgewood box score.)

[WLCALUM83]

Final:  Concordia-WI 83, Maranatha 70. (Falcons pulled away in last 15 minutes).

[WLCALUM83]

2-13-07 Projections:

Benedictine over Maranatha:

Marian over Concordia-WI: (Sabers' offense more consistent).

Dominican over Concordia-Chicago:

Edgewood over Rockford:

Lakeland over WLC:  (Lakeland lost at WLC last season. I don't see the Muskies doing that this time around).

   (BTW, One more Marian win and/or one more Concordia-WI loss, and the Falcons are eliminated from the NAthCon post-season tournament). (Should things break that way, it'd be down to 7 teams vying for 6 spots.)

[Gregory Sager]

I was at Saturday's Aurora @ Dominican overtime contest. Great game, very tight all the way. Tied at the end of the half, tied at the end of regulation -- how much closer could a game get?

Aurora won via attrition. Dominican lost its three best weapons, Erin McMillan, Mike Haiduc, and Jose Garcia, to fouls before the first couple of minutes of overtime were in the books. After that, it seemed certain that the Spartans would manage to pull it out.

[cardinalfanrochelle]

Question to anyone,
                                Why didn't Edgewood or Dominican play Lakeland twice this year ? If you look at the standings in conference that could be a big factor this year where they seed out for conference champions. I didn't really sit down and look at the entire schedule, but the top 8 teams should have played each other twice.

[Gregory Sager]

The folks who run the NAthC decided not to institute a full double round-robin for the conference season. I never understand why some leagues do this. F'rinstance, Aurora and Benedictine, two long-time archrivals, will only play each other once this season.

A double round-robin with no missing games is really the only way to go.

[WLCALUM83]

WLC got to play Marian and Edgewood only once, everyone else twice, too. After MSOE becomes a member things may be altered again (maybe 2 separate divisions??).