WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll was the only home team that won today, as, in the other CCIW games, Carthage beat Elmhurst at Faganel, 64-55, and Millikin beat Augie at Carver, 69-54 ... plus, in non-conference play, Chicago beat Wheaton at King, 56-37.

[RogK]

Here are the final stats from the Carroll win :
http://stats.ncaa.org/contests/2323987/box_score
Pioneer freshman Emilie Wizner led all with 18 pts via only 9 shots.

[RogK]

Congrats to Elyce Knudsen for her CCIW player of the week honor :
https://cciw.org/news/2022/12/5/womens-basketball-knudsen-claims-seventh-cciw-student-athlete-of-the-week-award.aspx
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[Gregory Sager]

The odd thing is that Knudsen was extremely quiet at NPU last Wednesday due to early and ongoing foul trouble.

Then again, the only real competition she had was Carroll's Emilie Wizner, and Knudsen's numbers were better. This was one of those weeks when only two teams went 2-0, so pickings were slim as far as POW candidates were concerned.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Elyce Knudsen . . .again!  I love watching her play. 

Two awards for Huber, two for Knudsen  . .  back and forth it goes.  Wizner had a great game against the Titans . . .  and a freshman! 

Greg, any word on Jayla?  RogK, any word on Annie Tate?  Will either/both get back during the CCIW season?

'70

[itsnotmeitsyou]

After almost a month of the season, it is quite interesting to see the large juxtaposition of good teams/coaching and awful teams/coaching. I'm not sure I can recall such a large disparity in the CCIW.

[RogK]

iwu70, your guess is as good as mine. Haven't heard anything new regarding either of them.
And a player who has been away from her team will necessarily need several weeks of practices to regain her prior level of excellence.

[iwu70]

I agree there seems to be a very wide gap between the top three teams and all the rest . . .

Jayla Johnson and Annie Tate out are really big losses for the league and their respective teams this year.

IWU needs to bounce back, get things pulled back together after that thumping by the Pios. . . .  happened up there last year too, though the Titans came back to win the conference and the CCIW tournament, at Millikin. 

To me, the big story of the Titans so far this year is the quality and contribution of the freshmen -- Mahlum and White especially.  Given what IWU had coming back, these new freshmen really provide great depth with quality than any of us expected.   Balli and Galvan are pretty good too.   I'm glad Powers is back and seemingly has no lasting issues with the ankle injury.  She's played very well in the two games back so far.  Kelly Carlson has played pretty well, too -- esp. contributing in the game at Eureka.   

IWU has two winnable games at home these next two Saturdays -- NCC and Wheaton.

IWU'70

[RogK]

Which are the top three teams you refer to, iwu70?

[GoPerry]

Jayla Johnson and Annie Tate out are really big losses for the league and their respective teams this year.

IWU'70

I would add Millikin's Bailey Coffman to this list as a pretty huge loss for the Big Blue, perhaps the biggest as far as the league is concerned.  She led the team in scoring in their exhibition game vs Eastern IL with 21pts.  But something must have happened because, like Tate and Johnson, she has been missing ever since.  I think with her 13 pts/game and 5 reb/g (last season) Millikin was a pretty formidable team, maybe top 25.  Now greater scoring load falls to Knudsen and that is much easier to defend against.

[RogK]

I was told at the Millikin - North Park game that she's recovering from injury but it's not clear yet when she'll resume playing.
Maybe January?
She's definitely a multi-talented player in addition to being agile and tall (earned all-CCIW honors in the past two seasons).

[Gregory Sager]

I would add Millikin's Bailey Coffman to this list as a pretty huge loss for the Big Blue, perhaps the biggest as far as the league is concerned.  She led the team in scoring in their exhibition game vs Eastern IL with 21pts.  But something must have happened because, like Tate and Johnson, she has been missing ever since.

At some point between the November 3 exhibition against Eastern Illinois and the November 8 season opener against Beloit, Coffman suffered a serious facial injury and had to have her jaw wired shut. She was on the MU bench in street clothes a week ago at the crackerbox sans maxillofacial hardware, but you could tell by her reluctance to open her mouth that she is still recovering. As Rog indicated, I've been told that she might return in January. I would have to think that the timetable for her return is dependent upon clearance from her surgeon.

And, yeah, I think we can all agree that a Millikin team with a healthy Bailey Coffman is at another level than the still-formidable Millikin team that's taking the floor at the moment.

[iwu70]

Agree totally on Coffman.  Sorry to hear about her serious injury.   

My top three at present are MU, IWU and Carroll. 

'70

[RogK]

Wednesday evening CCIW results :
Millikin over DePauw 70-42.
Elyce Knudsen led with 22 pts, 3 stls, 2 blocks. Sophie Darden had 8 rebs and made 6/7 2FGs; Sarah Isaf also tallied 12 via 7 FG att.
Energetic and smart defense by Millikin limited DePauw to 16/53 2FG shooting and 1/9 3FG.
Augustana fell behind UW Whitewater 52-23 by halftime and lost 92-64.
Gabriela Loiz led Augie with 20 pts.
Whitewater made 12/22 3FGs. 36 pts from 22 shots is rather good.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Ugh. Looks like there will be three REALLY ugly games this weekend (3 bad teams on the road).