WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Seems to me that the IWU-CC is a pretty close one -- CC still the favorite at home, but IWU improving greatly in recent weeks.  Yes, RogK, they can play up-tempo as well ans score in big bundles. 

Key for CC is taking care of the ball, limiting the turnovers and playing the half-court sets the way they wish.  For IWU, gotta guard the perimeter, limit Kuzmanic and Stercic if at all possible, and rebound enough to keep the possessions and TO margin in their favor.  May see more of Taylor Reaber in this regard.  Jackson needs a very big game.  I would expect Baltes to guard Kuzmanic and McMahon to guard Stercic.  We'll see. 

Look forward to it, though both teams have to take care of business on Wednesday too -- before the Saturday showdown in Kenosha.

Hope everyone there is staying warm, staying safe.  A brutal winter.

Seems to me NPU has a real shot at being the fourth team to make the CCIW tournament. 

IWU70

[Titan Q]

Former D3 Player of the Year Olivia Lett will make her head coaching debut this evening, filling in for Mia Smith who has the flu.

[RogK]

Get well soon to Coach Smith!

[iwu70]

IWU overcomes "the system," in a track meet of a game, 115-106.  Titans had the lead by 20+ about halfway through the second half and coasted a bit after that, if one can ever "coast" in such an up-and-down festivity of running, trapping, treys and layups.

McMahon 28
Jackson 23 and 11
Seibring 15 and 7
K. Reaber 12
Baltes 12

and future star and freshman, Gabrielle Holness, a career high 21.  She's gonna be really really good in future years. 

K. Cooling for NCC with 28 and a program record 7 treys.

Titans shoot 57%.

Now comes the big one.  IWU at CC on Saturday, two 6-0 teams in CCIW play. 

Titans 12-5, 6-0 and ready to rain on the Carthage parade.  Hope the TITANS get some rest, have a day or two off before the CC game, after this circus, track meet of an outing @NC. 

Congrats to the Titans and Coach Lett.  Hope Coach Smith is recovering fully. 

IWU70

[iwu70]

Wow, NPU over WC.  Greg, give us a good account of that one.  A big upset in OT. 

IWU70

[RogK]

Carthage topped Elmhurst 71 - 33. Stephanie Kuzmanic had 9 assists and 11 pts, while Michelle Wenzel had 14 pts, 8 rebs, 3 stls.
Millikin got past Augie 76 - 66. Jasmine Johnson had 18 pts, 9 rebs; Yip Ypya scored 16; Brittany Czaplicki had 13 pts and nabbed 5 steals. Augie got 15 pts and 8 rebs from Chaney Tambling; Katie Villa had 11 pts and 9 rebs in 15:00. Augie was charged with 30 fouls.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 73
Wheaton 68

Nikki Przybyslawski: 17 pts
Brittany Pittas: 16 pts, 6 rebs, 3 stls
Soly Roman: 16 pts, 3 blks
Liz Rehberger: 10 pts, 6:0 a:to

Ellie Zeller: 18 pts
Lauren Graham: 15 pts
Katie McDaniels: 14 pts, 6:4 a:to
Moriah Reeves: 10 pts
Maris Hovee: 15 rebs, 4 blks
Maria Panaggio: 7 rebs

http://athletics.northpark.edu/boxscore.aspx?id=1225&path=wbball

Last night felt like a program-changing event for NPU women's basketball. During her five and a half seasons at North Park, Amanda Reese Crockett has slowly managed to turn the longship around and get it headed in the right direction -- but wins over the top three programs in the league (Carthage, Illinois Wesleyan, and Wheaton) have continued to elude her. The win last night was the first breakthrough against one of those teams during her tenure.

It didn't feel like it was going to be a breakthrough at first, though. Not only was NPU's leading rebounder and only senior, Dominikque Williams, still out with a concussion, but starting PG Rachel Torres didn't dress either, due to a back injury suffered in Saturday's game at Augustana. Then the game began ominously, with Nicole Kruckman picking up three fouls in less than three minutes. When Soly Roman went to the bench with her second foul halfway thru the opening stanza, the Park was reduced to using undersized and little-used reserve forward Kayla Scoggins as the sole remaining post player along with four guards. No wonder 6'1 Wheaton center Maris Hovee looked like a rebounding machine. At the half, Wheaton enjoyed a whopping 25-10 edge in rebounds. And NPU, pressured on the perimeter by a Wheaton defense that no longer needed to worry about containing the Vikings bigs, shot only 35% from the field and 27% from downtown, suffering two shot-clock violations and a near-shot-clock violation (a shot with one second left on the shot clock that hit the side of the backboard) in the process.

And yet the halftime score was only Wheaton 31, North Park 25. That was crucial, because by all rights Wheaton should've just run away with the ballgame during the first twenty minutes. But the Vikings induced enough Wheaton turnovers to reduce the visitors' opportunities during that first half, and that was key.

Wheaton did pick up the pace by scoring the first six points of the second half to build its largest lead at 37-25 with 18:14 to go. But the Vikes came charging back with a ten-point run of their own, sparked by a pair of Nikki Przybyslawski treys, to cut the lead to 37-35 at the 15:55 mark. From that point on it was a nip-and-tuck game, with both teams enjoying the lead at various points but with neither team able to build a lead of more than two possessions.

A Przybyslawski jumper in the lane with 1:05 to go put the Vikings up, 62-60. Her right leg cramped up on the shot, putting her out of the game for good -- which seemed to be yet another ominous sign, as she had the hot hand for NPU all night. After being fouled, Lauren Graham hit a pair of free throws at :44 to tie it up again. Brittany Pittas missed a bunny with 28 seconds to go, and after Pittas and Hovee struggled for the rebound the ball went out of bounds off of Pittas. Wheaton thus had the ball in a tie game with the shot clock turned off. The Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance played for the last shot, and on the air I expressed my hope that WC freshman Chantal Meacham, statistically the weakest shooter that Wheaton had on the floor, would take the final shot. Sure enough, the NPU defense forced the ball out of the hands of Katie McDaniels on the perimeter and gave Meacham the open look from 20 feet out. She missed the shot with seven seconds left; Hovee got the offensive rebound, but her fadeaway putback glanced off the rim, and Liz Rehberger secured the ball for the Vikings to force overtime.

The extra session was more of the same seesaw action, with two Rehberger FTs putting NPU up by one, 67-66, going into the final minute. Wheaton got the ball into Hovee in the high post, but she traveled, giving North Park the chance to extend the lead. At this point, North Park made the play of the game; the Vikings ran a weave to bring the shot clock down, and then Pittas suddenly broke out of the weave cycle, turned, and rifled the ball down the lane to Roman. The Vikings sophomore center turned to her right, reached up around Hovee, and flipped the ball over the front of the rim and in to make it NPU 69, WC 66 with 34 ticks left. Meacham missed another trey with :17 remaining that rolled to the near corner over by the Wheaton broadcasting table, and Rehberger alertly got in front of Hovee to screen her off from retrieving the loose ball before it went out of bounds. Pittas was fouled on the inbounds pass, made both free throws to give NPU a five-point lead, and, after both teams added a pair of free throws apiece, the Vikings were finally able to walk off the floor as the victors.

Nikki Przybyslawski and Liz Rehberger played outstanding floor games for the Vikings, pressuring the Wheaton defense with repeated drives to the bucket and distributing the ball well. They both made great decisions with the ball throughout the game. Soly Roman stood tall in the absence of the foul-plagued Nicole Kruckman and played what was easily the best game of her career at both ends of the floor. Her defense kept Maris Hovee from getting good looks in the low post; Hovee was mostly reduced to shooting ten-foot jumpshots, and her 1-7 shooting indicated to me that that's clearly not her expertise. Brittany Pittas, who has struggled recently, was sharp last night.

Ellie Zeller carried Wheaton for long stretches. Lauren Graham, the Wheaton player who most concerned me at the outset, played very well, too, but her foul trouble towards the end of the game reduced her defensive effectiveness. Moriah Reeves was effective off the bench for the visitors, and Katie McDaniels showed why she is such a promising freshman ... although the NPU defense kept her off-balance throughout the night.

It was certainly an historic win for NPU. There seemed to be some dispute after the game as to the last time that the Vikings had defeated Wheaton. I thought that they picked up at least one win in the middle of the last decade, when NPU was a middle-of-the-pack team during the Mount/Slattery/Young era under Jack Surridge, but Jack maintains that the Vikings hadn't defeated the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance since all the way back in the 1995-96 season. At any rate, the Vikings have come agonizingly close time and time again -- last season's disputed overtime loss at Wheaton and the one-point defeat at the crackerbox four years ago immediately come to mind in terms of recent close calls -- but just haven't been able to get over the hump. Last night they finally did it, although it took five extra minutes for them to accomplish the feat.

Now the motto is "no letdown" against Millikin on Saturday afternoon. There are no easy games in the league this season, and I don't see Saturday's contest against the Big Blue as being anything other than a struggle for the Vikings. If they want a chance to savor this win over Wheaton, they'd better wait until after the season to do it.

[iwu70]

Greg, thanks for the full write-up on the big win over WC.  That's a big breakthrough win for the NPU program.  Congrats to NPU.  Hope they get another win this weekend over Jenny Millikin. 

Stay safe, stay warm -- the brutal winter continues into next week, in would appear.


IWU70

[iwu70]

GO TITANS -- this weekend in Kenosha.  This is the big one -- be "that team that shall not be named" again.  Good luck.  Keep it rolling.

IWU70

[Mr. Ypsi]

GO TITANS -- this weekend in Kenosha.  This is the big one -- be "that team that shall not be named" again.  Good luck.  Keep it rolling.

IWU70

Danged right!  Until last year, Mia Smith had four losses in conference play in five years!  Time to get that mojo back!  GO Mia (and Titan Nation)!

[iwu70]

Ypsi, let's hope the Titan women can put it all together this weekend in Kenosha.  A big challenge, but they are clearly playing a lot better than earlier in the season.  Should be a very interesting game.  CC has so many weapons, lots of experience, so no small challenge for our squad.  Mia Smith and Olivia Lett will have them ready, have a good plan I'm sure. 

Hope you are surviving the polar vortex and all that over there.   Tough tough winter.  Stay safe.

IWU70

[RogK]

This season has seen :
Wheaton beat Millikin
Millikin beat Augustana
Augustana beat North Central
North Central beat Elmhurst
Elmhurst beat North Park
North Park beat Wheaton
This would prove that if Wheaton held an intrasquad game, it would go overtime. (ha)

[iwu70]

IWU up on CC at the half 42-39 in a back and forth, game of runs.  Pace seems to favor IWU, but we'll see.  Both teams playing very well.  A real heavyweight game, with both teams giving and taking their best.

IWU70

[iwu70]

CC up by 4 with 10:00 minutes to go, second half.

IWU70

[Mr. Ypsi]

Carthage wins it, 90-83.  IWU had five players in double digits, while Carthage only had two.  Alas, those two (Kuzmanic 33, Wenzel 28) nearly outscored the Titan five!

The closeness of the outcome gives me hope that IWU might be able to prevail in the friendly confines of the Shirk - so it may all come down to who can avoid the upset elsewhere.