WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

RogK, I'll let you announce and congratulate the CCIW Player of the Week this time . . . 

Go TITANS! 

'70

[ronk]

Enginerd, I agree with you and share the admiration for Coach Smith.  She does recruit well, with her assistant coaches, and always seems to find some of the right kind of players to play in the style and system she has developed at IWU.  She's a good in-game coach as well.  Right now, the Titans are very deep and talented and most of the key players (save for the senior, Heller) are freshmen and sophomores and/or have three more years (including this one) to play, due to covid.  So, things do look bright for the IWU program.   They always play this tough pre-CCIW schedule so they often have 3-4 defeats going into the CCIW season.  They are also battle-hardened for the CCIW campaign.  I expect that again this year.   Coach Smith has a formula for the team being truly ready to finish out the CCIW games and be ready for March, should they qualify.  I'm very positive about this team this year, especially as the fabulous freshmen from last year (Huber, Palmer and Powers) and now very experienced CCIW-level players.  Knutson, as I've mentioned, is a very useful addition . . . and now another good freshmen class, 3-4 of whom are already playing regularly and contributing.  We'll see how far they can go.   And, for several more years to come. 

IWU'70

No one has 3 or more years to play due to covid; only the current seniors have another year(for a total of 2 years, including this one) due to covid.

[iwu70]

Ronk, I think our transfer Knutson, who is a junior, has another year -- transferred from SIU-Edwardsville, and has another year . . . can play at IWU for three years, including this one.  Don't know if she will, given IWU's price point, but that is my understanding from players and from her parents.  Time will tell.   Those three fab sophomores have three years, including this one . . .  obviously.  Glad to see such a strong freshmen group too . . .  esp. Mahlum, Balli, Galvan and White.   They are going to be good CCIW players.  Time will tell, of course, on how they develop, stay fit and avoid injuries.

'70

[RogK]

Lauren Huber earns another CCIW player of the week honor ... congrats to her !
https://cciw.org/news/2022/11/28/womens-basketball-lauren-huber-repeats-as-cciw-student-athlete-of-the-week.aspx
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[ronk]

Ronk, I think our transfer Knutson, who is a junior, has another year -- transferred from SIU-Edwardsville, and has another year . . . can play at IWU for three years, including this one.  Don't know if she will, given IWU's price point, but that is my understanding from players and from her parents.  Time will tell.   Those three fab sophomores have three years, including this one . . .  obviously.  Glad to see such a strong freshmen group too . . .  esp. Mahlum, Balli, Galvan and White.   They are going to be good CCIW players.  Time will tell, of course, on how they develop, stay fit and avoid injuries.

'70

My mistake - I was off by a year in thinking which year was granted the covid waiver(2020-21); so, current juniors will have 3 seasons counting this one, as you said.

[iwu70]

Given the high cost of places like IWU, not sure many will take the extra year.  Perhaps Knutson will as she has a great cohort to stay on and play with . . . 

I'm really high on the IWU freshmen group.  Mahlum has played particularly well so far . . . and started one game due to the Powers injury.  She's surely in the rotation now . . others will have their chances (White, Balli, Galvan . . . probably in that order).  Several other freshmen yet to have their chance, to make their mark . . .

IWU starts their CCIW campaign on Wednesday night vs. Elmhurst, at The Shirk.

'70

[iwu70]

Lauren Huber another accolade this week, named to the D3hoops Team of the Week, too.

Congrats Lauren, a special player, playing at a high level so far this season.

IWU'70

[RogK]

Just noticed the cancellation of Dec 5 Principia at Elmhurst.

[GoPerry]

Augustana 65, Wheaton 63  OT

A discouraging loss for the Thunder as they led practically the entire game by as much as 11 points.  The offense was doing okay for three quarters but they really struggled in the fourth.  Coach Madsen made poor use of his bench with four of the starters playing over 38 mins.  Their lackluster defense in the last period and the overtime was a result of just running out of gas.  I'm not sure why Lily Schwen only played 6 mins but freshman Kate Oliver ran the offense like a veteran before fouling out in the fourth.

Credit to the Lady Vikes for hanging in there and chipping away to get the win.

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin 59
North Park 39

Esther Miller: 14 pts, 6 stls
Chantel Hairston: 4 stls

Sophie Darden: 16 pts, 10 rebs
Chelsea McCullum: 13 pts
Elyce Knudsen: 12 pts
Abby Ratsch: 9 rebs

A very forgettable CCIW opener for the Vikings. They were sitting pretty, up 22-17 midway through the second quarter, and then Olivia Lett put the Blue in a 2-3 zone ... and the Vikings went into the freezer. The next time that they scored, the third quarter was well underway, and the Vikings were already down by double digits. Just absolutely miserable shooting numbers (.291/.059/.375) for the Vikings tonight.

Knudsen played less than 22 minutes due to foul trouble, and the sad part for NPU is that Millikin didn't even need her tonight.

[iwu70]

Well, the Titans got to 78 and then some tonight.  All 18 players getting major time . . . the first two units, the regular rotation, sitting with 1:00 left in the 3 Q, with the third and fourth units wrapping it up.

IWU 100 Elmhurst 58

The Titans are learning fast how to play their way, with their deep, talented personnel.  This team is very fit . . .could go far. 

EU:
Harazin 14

29 TOs

IWU:
Huber 22 and 5
Knutson 14
Powers (back in the rotation, though not back to starting yet) 14 on 4-6 from three (She hit her first three shots -- all treys.)
Palmer 11 on 3-5 from three

Titans with only 11 TOs, out rebounding EU , with 23 assists and winning the steals line 21-4.  Pretty effective all 'round, but especially on "run and jump" tonight.  Titans shooting it at 48%, 41% from three.  Sawyer White is going to be very good -- with five steals tonight, quick hands, and good court vision for a freshman, just starting out in CCIW play.  A good crowd, enjoying the Titans getting to 100 in the last minute. 

Titans go to 6-2, 1-0.

Keep in rolling Titans.  Next up the Pios up in Cheeseheadland on Saturday.

IWU'70

[lmitzel]

NCC's woes in Waukesha continued tonight as the Pios took care of business with a 72-50 win. A five minute scoring drought put the Cardinals behind the 8-ball and they couldn't quite recover.

Allison Thompson: 14 pts, 11 reb
Natalie Palzkill: 11 pts, 6 reb
Emilie Wizner: 10 pts
Olivia Rangel: 9 pts, 9 reb, 6 ast

Megan McClure: 13 pts, 9 reb
Megan Duffy: 12 pts
Grace Keiffer: 7 pts, 6 reb

Hard to win when your two best guards score a combined 7 points on 2-16 shooting. The one bright spot tonight was looking at the box score and seeing Mitrese Smith played nine minutes. She didn't score and had just one rebound, but it's good to see she got the green light to get back on the floor.

Cardinals welcome North Park to the hangar on Saturday.

[iwu70]

In a hard-fought defensive battle, CU 31 IWU 25 at the half.  No easy baskets in this one.

IWU always seems to struggle @Carroll.

'70

[iwu70]

Ugly ugly @Carroll.  Pios playing the Titans tough.  Can't expect to win shooting 30% or lower most of the game whilst Carroll shoots 60% most of the game.

Final:   Carroll 75 IWU 57.  IWU seems to really struggle @Carroll.

CU:
Wizner 18
Evans 10

IWU: 
Heller 12
Palmer 9
Powers 8

Pios holding Lauren Huber to 7 points.

Key was a disastrous 3Q for the Titans -- 33-14 and a slow start in the 1st Q 17-9.  A mountain too high to recover from.

IWU now 6-3, 1-1.  A bad taste all week . . . next game on the 10th, at home vs. North Central.

'70

[Gregory Sager]

Final from the airplane hangar:

North Park 73
North Central 52

Victoria Perry: 24 pts, 7 rebs
Felicia Sunden: 11 pts
Chantel Hairston: 7 rebs
Aaliyah Parker-Fox: 7 rebs
Esther Miller: 6 rebs

Mitrese Smith: 11 pts
Grace Kieffer: 11 pts (3-4 trey)
Megan McClure: 7 rebs
Abby Davidson: 6 rebs

Vikings led wire-to-wire, as their quickness played havoc with the Cardinals. It was an especially impressive win considering that both Esther Miller and Victoria Perry struggled with foul trouble throughout the game; Miller was only on the floor for 17 minutes tonight. NPU improves to 4-4, 1-1, while the Cards fall to 2-6, 0-2.