WBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[buf]

EC wins at UWL 53-47.  Both Plendl and Halama with double doubles for EC.

RF wins easily at UWP, 67-46.

[bulk19]

Fairly physical UWEC-UWL game, but they let them play... First free throw attempts came at about three minutes into the second half...

As buf notes, the Blugold bigs had good games in the 53-47 win - Ellen Plendl had 12 boards and 11 points, while Callie Halama had 11 rebounds and 12 points... Laura Olson had 12, all on threes; three of them came in the first half, when EC led at the break 27-24... Freshman Courtney Lewis chipped in 9 boards for the 'Golds, too, and Plendl made her presence known in the paint, with seven blocked shots.

UWL kept it close throughout and stayed in it down the stretch by hitting three of its five three pointers in the last two minutes or so... The Eagles were but 5-22 (22.7%) from the three point range, while EC made 4 of 9... Mallory Cramer had 10 boards for UWL; Kassie Robinson (14) and Rachel Salata (10) led the Eagles in scoring... Eagles had 12 steals...

Both teams are 5-2 now. UWEC will travel to Platteville on Wednesday, while the Eagles host Whitewater...

[The Champ]

UW-Whitewater opened with a 29-6 run over the first 10 minutes of the game and never looked back...

Not an unexpected result, but you still need to play the game.  53 - 29 at half, final 95 - 65.

I think the next 2 games (Superior & Platteville) will tell us more about how Stout will fair in the WIAC this year.  Then UWRF before the holiday break...

[badgerwarhawk]

Stout scored first but 2-0 would be their only lead and they were out of the game quickly.  They're a young team and their inexperience hurt them particularly in dealing with WW's full court pressure defense.  Stout had 18 turnovers in the first half which led to some easy baskets.  The second half was just as bad as they turned the ball over an additional 17 times.  Mary Merg led all scorers with 17 points.  Chantel Burg finished with 15 points.  Sam Quandt also had double figure points with 10.  Kaitlyn Thill had a game high 5 steals and Burg added 4.  Katie Burton had a game high 4 assists.  Jamie Swanson's 7 rebounds tied for a game high. 

Courtney Hayford led Stout with 12 points.

A total of 58 fouls were whistled and the two teams combined to attempt 70 free throws.  It took over an hour to play the first half and the second one didn't go much quicker.  Both teams were shooting double bonuses with 8-10 minutes remaining in both halves.   You could literally see people age from the start to finish.  

[billys]

You could literally see people age from the start to finish.

[bulk19]

UWEC beats UWP in Platteville tonight, 71-62...

Score was tied at half at 34, but the 'Golds were able to pull ahead in the second half, as the Pioneers only scored six points in the last 9:30 or so of the game...

Nicole Christianson had 22 for UWEC; Callie Halama had 19, while Sarah Bingea added 10. Claire Poad led all scorers with 23 (6-10 from three); her teammate, Liz Lawinger, added 12. Rebound leaders were Ellen Plendl for UWEC, with 13, and Courtney Lewis with 8. The Pioneers' leading rebounders had 11 and 8, respectively (Ashley Hendry and Kim Wellnitz).

Platteville only had six turnovers (UWEC had 13), but the difference in the game was shooting percentage. Blugolds shot 46.7% (23 of 49) compared to UWP's 31.8% (21-66). Blugolds won the game on outside shooting, perhaps, as they hit 9 of 17, for 52.9 %, compared to the Pioneers, who made 10 of 26 (38.5%). Both teams also shot well from the charity stripe - UWEC was 16 of 20; Platteville was 10 of 11...

Blugolds move to 6-2 overall, with two conference wins, and host Whitewater on Saturday. Platteville is now 3-6 overall, and 0-2 in the WIAC. The Pioneers will travel to Stout.

[Just Bill]

Stevens Point 56, Oshkosh 40. UWO shoots 26% according to UWO's twitter feed.

Eau Claire 71, Platteville 62 as summarized above.

La Crosse 71, Whitewater 68, OT. La Crosse missed five free throws in the last 12 seconds but kept getting the rebounds.

Superior 80, Stout 58.

[The Champ]

As Bill noted above, Stout falls to Superior last night 80 - 58 in Superior.

I wasn't at the game, but it's really tough to win when you only make 25% of your shots, which is what Stout did in the first half - including 0 - 9 from beyond the arc. 

They did improve to 43% in the second half, but that's not good enough after you've put yourself in a deep hole.

Next up - Platteville at home.

[badgerwarhawk]

As already mentioned the WARHAWKS dropped a 71-68 overtime game to LaCrosse last night.  LaCrosse jumped on top early though the WARHAWKS hung in there keeping the deficit with single digits until the Eagles made a 14-2 run to finish the half up sixteen 38-22.  The WARHAWKS rallied in the second half and a three-pointer from Mary Merg gave them the lead, 52-49, with a little over four minutes to play.  Other than a 52-52 tie the WARHAWKS maintain a lead until a three point play by the Eagles put them up 58-56 with six seconds remaining.  Kaitly Thill was fouled and made both free throws and the two teams were tied at the end of regulation.  Neither team led by more than three points in the O.T.  Free throws and offensive rebounds by the Eagles was the difference maker.  LaCrosse went 9-13 from the charity stripe and had five offensive rebounds in the final ten seconds.

Cortney Kumerow led the WARHAWKS with 18.  Mary Merg added 17.  Chantel Burg's line read 14 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 8 steals.  Thill and Merg each had 5 steals as the WARHAWKS recorded 21 steals in the game. 

LaCrosse was led by Kassie Robinson's game high 19 points. 

Each team made 23 baskets.  The WARHAWKS had one additional three-pointer but LaCrosse went 23-38 from the free throw line compared to 19-23 for the WARHAWKS.  LaCrosse also held a 47-36 advantage on the boards.

[PRF2009A]

The win over WW is a great one for UWL.  I am surprised that UWL dominated the boards like they did.  Looks like Burg had another great game vs. the Eagles.  She has been a tough player to match up with for UWL.  Very impressed with Robinson this year.  She seems to be doing a great job in the post for a team that lost two great players underneath in Churchill and Frank. 

Again, this UWL team should be able to finish in the top 6.  Not sure how anyone would have picked them to finish last

[Out_Of_My_Kitchen]

I picked them last for one reason.  They almost always underachieve.  They have every year except last year, and some would argue a first round NCAA loss with five senior starters is still underachieving.  Last year was their year to make some serious noise, and it was barely a whimper. 

So when this year should be considered a down year from last year, I thought they would underachieve even more and finish last. 

I will now pick them to finish higher.  Perhaps 7th.  Good win for the Eagles.  But overall, I'm still not buying. 

[Backseat Driver]

CCIW follower here, but just a quick word about UW-Lax. I saw them play Wheaton a few weeks back and was impressed by their team defense. They held Wheaton, albeit without all-American Laura Karsten, to 43 points at King Arena. That same Wheaton team just won at Oshkosh a week ago.
On the season they're only surrendering 51 points per game. Any team that plays defense like that guarantees that they can at least compete in every game they play. I'm not well versed in the WIAC from top-to-bottom, but I would imagine that Lax's defense will propel them into one of the conference tournament slots.

[bulk19]

Methinks, in donning my Carnac the Magnificent cap, that buf is going to fill us in on UWEC's 75-70 win over Whitewater tonight at Zorn Arena... 

Blugold bigs played well again tonight - Callie Halama had 23 points and 11 boards; Ellen Plendl also doubled up with 16 points and 10 rebounds... Nicole Christianson added 19 points for UWEC, too...

Whitewater's Mary Merg led all scorers with 29, including five threes; Chantel Burg had 10.

Warhawks led 35-32 at the break. Stats that jump out to me were UWEC's 6 blocks and 18 assists and Whitewater's 10 steals... Shooting percentage was a big difference = although Whitewater hit 8 of 24 threes, the team overall shot 24 of 60, for 40%... The Blugolds, however, shot 50.9% overall, but were just 3 of 13 on three pointers... Laura Olson had another big one down the stretch for EC...

UWEC (7-2 and 3-0) will host Superior on Wednesday. Whitewater (6-3 and 1-2) will host Stevens Point...

[WilsonHoops]

Looking at the box score for UWEC beating UWW it looks like the bigs for UWEC besides scoring and rebounding well really shut down UWW's inside game, I see that Kumerow only got 3pts.  It seems like bigs playing well is a trend for both UWEC and UWL doing well.  Both teams have bigs near the top in scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots. 

[badgerwarhawk]

Depth in the front court could be our Achilles heel.  Kumerow only played 17 minutes because of foul problems and Burg fouled out though she did play 30 minutes.  Both of them fouled out of the LaCrosse game.  When those two are on the bench there's a drop off.