WBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Usuallywrong24]

I believe if both SP and WW win their games on Saturday SP will be the #1 seed based on the tie breakers.  SP has a tough one on Saturday in LX, and I expect WW to win big on Senior Day.

With one game to play, the standings of the playoff teams in the WIAC:

Tied for 1st (listed alpabetically)
Stevens Point 11-4
Whitewater 11-4

Tied for 3rd (alphabetically)
La Crosse 9-6
River Falls 9-6
Stout 9-6

6th place
Eau Claire 8-7

So, Saturday, final seedings for the WIAC tournament will be resolved.  Here are the matchups:

The first place teams:

UW-Stevens Point  @ UW-La Crosse  - The Pointers, on the road, have a tough matchup in a game they most likely need to maintain the first place tie with UWW.  The Eagles have the toughest matchup of the current 3rd place teams to maintain the tie for 3rd or win the #3 seed outright.

UW-Superior @ UW-Whitewater - The Warhawks at home have, what on paper is the easiest matchup of the weekend for them to either win the WIAC title outright or at least earn a tie.

UW-River Falls  @ UW-Platteville Platteville - The Falcons have, on paper, the easiest matchup to earn the number 3 seed outright, or at least maintain the tie.

UW-Eau Claire  @ UW-Stout Menomonie - Like the Pointer/Eagle matchup, this game decides seeding for both teams. 

With a win, the Blue Devils guarantee at least a tie for the #3 seed or possibly the #3 seed outright. 

With a win, the Blue Golds create a tie for:

1. The #3 seed (4 way tie)
2. The # 4 seed (3 way tie)
5. The #5 seed (2 way tie)

I can't remember (and I did no research of this history) a WIAC final weekend where every single seed was up for grabs and had the potential for tiebreakers being needed to determine every single seed position.

Every team needs to win their game, and needs help from another WIAC team to get their best possible seeding!

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Uggh!  EC has 12 turnovers in the first 10min of the game, down 22-12.  Stout is doing a good job of getting deflections, but some of these passes shouldn't be made.

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Another great Stout-EC game ends up with Stout withstanding a furious comeback bid by EC and winning, 65-62.  Stout controlled most of this game, leading by 20pts with 10min left.  However, EC cut the lead to as low as 1 and also had a couple of possessions to either tie or take the lead in the last couple minutes, but those  ended in turnovers.  EC had 30 turnovers in the game.

EC had 3 players with a double-double.  Bingea played well for EC, while Van Vreede stepped up for Stout.


UWL rolls Point in the 2nd half for an easy victory.
UWW all over Superior

[bulk19]

Matchups Tuesday =

#6 UWEC at No. 3 UWL, who convincingly destroyed Point today, blowing them out in the second half after going in at the break trailing by 3... Blugolds willl have a tough task at hand; they have beaten UWL twice, and hat tricks are hard to come by in this league...

#5 UWR at No. 4 UW-Stout.

[JMM]

EC played awful for all but the last 8 minutes. That is why they lost the game. That said, the referees at this game were unbelievably bad. There were times when Stout players had their arms totlly around EC players who were shooting and no fouls were called. Finally after Englund got in the refs face, they started calling these fouls. Had alot to do with the come back. Not saying refs were pro Stout but they were terrible. EC has talent but needs to overcome the "brain fog" that seems to keep settling in for long periods of time. Maybe they're just a young team. EC maybe lucked out in the loss - they seem to match up really well against LAX.
Stout suffered there own case of "brain fog" for part of the second half.

[Blue Devil Backer]

JMM Not saying refs were pro Stout   that not how most people saw it

[The Champ]

EC played awful for all but the last 8 minutes. That is why they lost the game. That said, the referees at this game were unbelievably bad. There were times when Stout players had their arms totlly around EC players who were shooting and no fouls were called. Finally after Englund got in the refs face, they started calling these fouls. Had alot to do with the come back. Not saying refs were pro Stout but they were terrible.

In the first half, the refs called 10 penalties on Stout and only 7 on UWEC.

In the second half, the refs called 16 penalties on Stout and only 12 on UWEC.

In the last 57 seconds of the first half, with UWEC intentionally fouling to get possession of the ball back, they had 4 fouls.  Stout while trying not to foul was called for 1.

So, doing the math, in 39 minutes of play, UWEC was called for 15 fouls.  Compare this to Stout's 25 called fouls in the same time period.

During the critical 11.5 minute "comeback" period, the Blugolds scored 14 of their points from the free throw line.

Stout had 2 players foul out.  Only Messick for UWEC fouled out, and she drew 2 intentional fouls in the last 35 seconds of the game.

And you are claiming that the refs were terrible and trying to imply that their failure to call fouls against Stout impacted the game?

I'm not going to blame the officials for Stout going cold (scoring only 10 points from the 13 minute mark to the 1:30 mark) during a critical 11.5 minute stretch - the Stout players weren't hitting their shots. 

To their credit, UWEC scored 30 points during that stretch, but as noted above 14 of those points came from the FT line.

***********************************************************************

In the first half, UWEC's shooting percentage was less than 35% on 23 attempts.  Stout shot over 41% on 34 attempts.  UWEC turned the ball over 17 times, which led to Stout's shooting advantage.

Stout hit nearly 86% of their 7 FT's, UWEC made less than 45% of the 9 FT's that they attempted.

Stout clearly outplayed UWEC in the first half.

In the second half, the shooting percentages evened out - 37% of 27 attemtpts for UWEC and 34.5% of 29 attempts for Stout.  Turnovers were 13 for UWEC and 8 for Stout.

UWEC hit 80% of their 25 FT attempts in the second half, while Stout made 50% of their 16 FT's.

Stout's shooting percentage and lack of turnovers is what led Stout to victory yesterday. 

The only thing that made this game close was the number of penalties called against Stout (both halves).  And someone implies that the officiating was terrible in Stout's favor???

[JMM]

I guess the refs let Stout play a tighter defense than EC. It is the calls that were not made on ST. Plendil and Messick were literally held by Stout planyers for the whole first-half - the refs let 'em do it. Englund did half-way through the second period let the refs have it along with the fans. One ref who I have seen ref several games in the latter part of the year - makes only 1-2 calls a game -  must be afraid to make calls or wants the easy money. He was the real culprit. I did get a helluva laugh from two of the refs when I held during a break with 2 minutes left -hey refs don't blow this one - it's your game. EC needs to lose the "brain fog" thing for next year. Every one but Linder is back (plus some injured players). No Brain Fog and national ranking will return. HEre how I see playoff.
EC over LA (LA just does not match up well with EC)
ST over RF
ST over SP
WW over EC (unless the Brian Fog clears) (Would love to ss EC-ST, EC would win, Also note EC has a tradition of stopping Hirssig.)
WW to the dance.

[PRF2009A]

Lax dominated Point yesterday.  That's about all there is to say about that.  Point's coach is rightfully worried about her team's play heading into the playoffs and she made sure the whole gym knew it after the game. 

UWL is playing better than any team in the conference right now.  They are playing the type of ball a coach loves to see.  (All 5 starters have been in double figures the last 2 games)  Anything can happen in the playoffs though and this team is going to need to take it to even another level to keep winning.  No matter what happens here on out it has been an incredibly successful season for UWL and they have a lot to build on going into next year.

Right now I think like everyone else that this is Whitewater's tournament to lose.  Someone is going to need to play a great game to beat them at home.

[wisco87]

#35 Maranda Dohrn of UW-River Falls had a huge game yesterday vs. UW-Platteville. Scoring 23 points and grabbing 22 rebounds en route to a 56-47 win of the Pioneers.  It was senior day for UWP, and after falling down by as much 19 points, they lead a spirited effort in the 2nd half to make the game close again, but UWRF made enough plays down the stretch get the W. With LAX, big win over SP, RF falls to the 5th seed for the tournament, so they will have to play on the road, where they have had there struggles during the 2nd half of the season.  Furthermore, River Falls roster has been looking like a line at a doctor's office lately, with numerous injuries and I don't think they have had there original starting lineup since the 13-0 start.  That being said, they do have the ability for a number of different players to step up on any given night, and if they come out on fire, they will be touch to beat.  Should be an interesting game Tuesday as each team was beat eachother this season.  RF with a close victory in OT, and Stout with a more convincing 13 point win. 

[badgerwarhawk]

Superior had an early four point lead and maintained a lead for the first four minutes before the WARHAWKS went ahead for good 11-9 on a layup by Nicole Bundy.  Superior managed to keep the deficit in single digits until a three-pointer by Kelsey Hendrickson with 11:08 to play in the half put the WARHAWKS in the lead 25-14.  Bundy led the WARHAWKS in scoring for the half with 20 points.  Heidi Sonntag added 14 points and Hendrickson 10 as the team shot 70.8% from the floor and forced 21 Superior turnovers, 13 of which were steals.  The score at the half was 54-29.  In the second half the WARHAWKS never led by less than 25 points.  The final was 92-61. 

Bundy finished with 22 points.  Sonntag became the second WARHAWK to join the 1000 point club this season with 18 points and Hendrickson added 17.  Led by Bundy and Chantel Burg's 4 apiece the WARHAWKS finished with 17 steals on Superior's 34 turnovers.  The WARHAWKS shot 60% from the floor for the game.

[stoutguy]

Champ.  You obviously watched the same game I did.  JMM, on the other hand, had to be watching something else.  To suggest that EC got the worst of the horrible officiating (yes, JMM, it was bad officiating), is just way off the mark.  Stout played very well early.  I was amazed at how flat EC played early.  They finally picked up their intensity late and made a great run.  After a time out the Blugolds seemed to be getting more touches for Hannah and then Plendl also became a big factor.  The run was on with plenty of help because of  poor decision making by the Stout kids.  Everyone knows what I think of Hirssig but she had a very poor performance.  Anyone who heard Mark on our postgame knows how disappointed he was in his team's performance during the comeback. 

[JMM]

Must of missed Englunds ranting during the first and second half at the refs. At least 7-8 times there were no calls mad that were blaintent fouls. Hrsisig falls all over with the ball - no walk. Plendil falls - Walking. If you get a chance ask TE.What benefited Stout most the first half was the EC brain fog. I think there were 17 turnovers for EC in thre first  half. Not because of te sparkling St defense but becasue of the inability for EC to pass and dribble the ball. This did improve later in the game.

[bulk19]

Refs or no refs, you turn the ball over 30 times in a game and you are going to lose the majority of those games, but probably by more than three...

[JMM]

As I said in my original post, EC lost due to Brain Fog not the refs. A case of the pure simple fundamentals - don't throw the ball if the person is not open or if there is no one there. Caused at least 8-9 turnovers and mucho points.