WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Titans played UC tough today at Ratner, but came up just short, 80-77.   That's a great performance vs. the #2 ranked Maroons on their home court.  Olivia Lett had a career day, a career high 30, with 10 rebounds.  I think the Titans are going to be very tough in CCIW play, after this initiation by fire, mostly on the road.  I think Mia and her team need a little home cooking.   Congrats to Olivia Lett on one heckava game.

I'm off to see the Gorlocks vs. Titans, at The Shirk.  Titan men need a win after two pretty tough, even dismal outings on the road in cheeseheadland.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

NPU fell to Purdue-Calumet today, 65-60. It was not as tough a loss to endure as others have been; the Peregrines are one of the better teams in NAIA-2, and the Vikings were without the services today of Roxie Jones, who is out with a concussion. NPU cut a fourteen-point deficit down to a point, PUC went on another run to get the lead back up to double digits, and the Vikings got to within five again before a couple of bad turnovers gave PUC the necessary breathing room to escape with the win.

Sarah Peterson probably won't get Player of the Week, since North Park lost, but she certainly earned it: 25 points, 17 rebounds, 3 blocks. Kamauria Acree added 13 points and seven rebounds.

Next up for NPU is Greenville on Tuesday night.

[Backseat Driver]

Wheaton 61
Oshkosh  58

Oshkosh hit 11 of its first 13 shots to open up a 24-18 lead midway through the first half, but Wheaton weathered the onslaught and picked up a nice win on the road.

Lauren Graham - 20 points, 7 rebounds
Lindsey Brenneman - 16 points, game-clinching free throws with 2 seconds left
Elisabeth Potts - 8 points, 9 rebounds
Maris Hovee - 9 rebounds, 7 assists

Wheaton plays at winless Clarke on Monday, so no practice time to prepare. Clarke got dismantled by Carthage last week, 67-32.

[RogK]

I saw that IWU at Chicago game. As iwu70 wrote, Olivia Lett had a very good game, scoring 30; just about all of her shots were taken under major defensive pressure. Nice work, Olivia.
North Central's Helen Muleya is off to a good start. In their most recent game, she had 13 pts (3/3 FG, 7/9 Ft), 5 rebs, 6 assists and 6 steals in 25:00. Through 6 games, she has 21 steals.
Elmhurst's Meghan Merklein had another sharp game (27 pts, 10 rebs) including 10/10 FT.

[RogK]

Congratulations to the new CCIW Player of the Week, Olivia Lett.

[iwu70]

My congrats to Ms. Lett as well.  Super.  Well done.  Still a loss at UC, but a very good performance on the road. 

Hope the Titans are back to full strength by conference play.

Again, 8-3 or 7-4 is going to be tough.

IWU70

[Backseat Driver]

Wheaton 57
Clarke    43

Not the prettiest game, but the Thunder got the job done when it mattered. In his postgame interview the Clarke coach claimed that the Crusaders "gave [Wheaton] an early Christmas present" and "beat themselves," which isn't really what happened. What actually happened is that Wheaton is a much better basketball team and they played like it down the stretch. Wheaton trailed 38-35 with 9:46 to play but then outscored the hosts 22-5 the rest of the way.

Lauren Graham - 15 points, 6 rebounds
Lindsey Brenneman - 13 points, 12 rebounds

Next up for Wheaton is Simpson College on Saturday at King Arena. The four-time defending champions of the IIAC are 5-1 so far this season.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU breezed past Greenville tonight, 76-52. I'm pretty sure that the Vikings set at least two school records tonight, as sixteen players saw the floor and fourteen of them scored. Sarah Peterson continued to excel, scoring 21 points (she was 5-5 from beyond the arc in the first half) and adding four steals and three blocks. Kamauria Acree just missed a double-double, finishing with 10 and 9, while Roxie Jones returned from her concussion hiatus to score 10 points in only 10 minutes of play.

The Panthers are not a good team by any stretch of the imagination, but NPU nevertheless looked very strong on defense, very opportunistic. They had 19 steals, as Greenville turned the ball over 35 times, while the Vikings themselves had a better than 2:1 A:TO ratio as a team (21 assists, 10 turnovers).

Next up for NPU is a game at Kalamazoo next Monday evening.

[RogK]

To this point, the composite conference record is 35-20. I have no idea if the median opponent is of normal strength or not-so-good.
The biggest margin of defeat among those 20 losses is only 23 pts (twice) and those were losses to Wash U and DePauw. That is not to say that some opponents couldn't have won by more, but it's probably a good sign that no one has been really thumped.
Hopefully, this means that there aren't any crummy teams in the CCIW this year. It would be fun to have all eight teams remain in contention for the four conference playoff spots for the whole season.

[iwu70]

It does seem the CCIW race will be more even this year.   IWU has to get all its squad back and healthy.  They could come into CCIW play anywhere from 5-6 to 8-2 or 7-4.  Such a tough pre-CCIW schedule, with 8 out of 11 road games.  Seems to me from what I've seen that the conference championship will come down to  Wheaton, Carthage or IWU.  Titans have another tough game this Saturday, UW SP @ Shirk @ 2 p.m.  Finally some home floor games.  ONU (and their running/gunning system) Monday night @ Shirk, 7:30 p.m., then USF @Shirk, 5 p.m. on the 17th.  Exams are over tomorrow.  The campus is exhaling and clearing out bigtime. 

Happy holidays all.

IWU70

[RogK]

iwu70, happy holidays unto yourself too!
If you attend the IWU game Monday night, here are some things to bear in mind.
A typical ONU game has maybe 60 or 70 minutes worth of possessions crammed into 40 minutes. They average 103.8 (through 10 games; they play today and Saturday), but don't let that average make you think that they have the best, most efficient offense in the land. This year, they are making only .267 of their threes (163/611), a good .497 of their 2FGs (198/398) and .619 at the line (153/247 FTs).
Their opponents are shooting .464 on 2FGs (282/608), .247 on 3FGs (41/166) and are shooting 22.7 FT att/game.
ONU is being outrebounded 62.8 to 55.3.
I think their great strength is their defense, which may not sound right to some people, since they give up 83.9 a game. They are inducing 40 TOs per game. One guard has a fabulous 32 steals in 132 minutes played!
It should be a fascinating game. I was very impressed by IWU's performance at the U of Chicago; they'll need similar energy on Monday.
IWU's scorer's table better be ready for a challenging game, too.

[iwu70]

RogerK, yes, I'm hoping to catch the three IWU women's home games upcoming.  ONU does sound like a totally unique "system," if that is the word for it.  Sounds more like a madhouse.  IWU will have its hands full for all three of these games, IMHO.  Hope they can come out on the positive side in 3 out of 3 or 2 out of 3, then two more games over the Christmas break.  What a run for these under-womened Titans.  This tough ONU-IWU matchup sounds like a madhouse vs. "run and jump," -- though not sure the Titans have the horses right now to try that style for 40 minutes.  We'll soon see.

Happy Holidays!

IWU 70

[Backseat Driver]

Tonight's results:

Dubuque 63
N. Central 60

Cards scored just 17 points in the second half.

Millikin 58
Ill. College 40

[Backseat Driver]

Rough day for the projected top 3 in the CCIW. Elmhurst and Millikin picked up victories.

Elmhurst 78
St. Catherine 67

Millikin 73
Fontbonne 52

Simpson 56
Wheaton 52

Wheaton led 50-46 with 2:46 to play. Laura Karsten made her debut; 8 points, 4 boards, 4 assists in 22 minutes off the bench.

Stevens Point 82
Illinois Wesleyan 68

Looks like IWU actually led for a good chunk of this game, but the Pointers turned on the jets midway through the second half.

Coe 63
Carthage 57

Elmhurst knocked off Coe earlier in the season, so the Bluejays might be more of a contender than we thought coming into the season.

Central (IA) 84
Augustana 76

[iwu70]

Yes, IWU had the lead by about 8 in the first half, after a very poor start.  But, UWSP came back late in the first half to lead at the break by one.  Basically, IWU played strong, quite well, did alot of "run and jump" and had SP down but couldn't put them out.  In the second half SP got the lead with about 4 minutes into the second half and never gave it up.  IWU stayed within about 4-6 points until about 4-5 minutes to go when SP pulled away, mainly by better solving IWU's press and by getting the ball to their big post players more often for easy scores.  Seems the Titans ran out of gas a bit in the final 4-6 minutes.  SP hit their FTs very well, and pulled away.  This game was much closer than the score indicates, but still SP was the better team on the day.  They did a pretty good job holding Olivia Lett to 11.  Seems to me that IWU needs an offensive scheme to get Lett more isolated on the wing.  In this game, she often got the ball at the top of the key and tried to create against the heart of SP's defense, often with 3 even four defenders around here.  Not a high percentage play or placement on the floor.  IWU played their hearts out on D and shot the ball quite well.  But, SP just had too much size, too many horses off the bench, and finally did play a better against the Titan pressure, which in the first half had created good turnovers and points off of the defense.  If UWSP is #7, then the Titans are not far from top 25, but the schedule they are playing now has to be tough to take, a real killer.  ONU tonight, and St. Francis next weekend before the Christmas break trip.  7-4 is going to be very tough.

At the game, the announcement was made that next Saturday the Women's program will be hanging their 4th place DIII tourney banner in the rafters of The Shirk for last year's successes -- this during the double header with the men, vs. Wash U.  So, would be nice to have a huge turnout for that ceremony and also to support the women and the men in their games before the Christmas break.  Women play St. Francis and the men Wash U -- Men vs. Wash U at 3 p.m., Women at 5 p.m.  I think the banner hanging event is just before the Women's game.  Not completely sure. 

ONU and its wild Grinell-like pace and scheme come into the Shirk tonight.  Hope the Lady Titans were able to get a few good nights of sleep since the game on Saturday vs. UWSP.   They must be exhausted from their grueling pre-CCIW schedule.  On Saturday I was most impressed with Amy Burton and Melissa Garnder, both with good strong games.  Britt Hasselbring had a good all'round floor game and  handled the ball and the offense very well.  Without doubt, this IWU team is going to be tested and hardened for the CCIW schedule to come. 

IWU70