WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Naperick]

Big battle between Carthage, Elmhurst, and North Park for the 3rd and 4th spots in the CCIW tourney.  Every game is important!

[thunder38]

Kent Madsen will appear tonight on Hoopsville. Be nice Dave 

[iwu70]

Looks like WC and NCC make the tourney -- good luck to them in the D3 dance.  Hope they represent the CCIW very well.

IWU has some serious rebuilding and recruiting to do.  Only losing one key player in Reaber, a senior.  Beoletto out all year with injury.  Hope others with injury, esp. Holness, come back strong.  IWU has a very strong core of freshmen and sophomores to build on for next season, but surely will need some better rebounding, improved shooting percentages, and perhaps even a change of philosophy of play, to contend again in future.  Not sure the "run and jump" has a future with the current personnel.  Looks to me like both Ehresman and surely McGraw are future all CCIW players, so Mia Smith has a couple of very good players to build on for the coming three seasons.  But, rebounding and improved shooting surely have to be a high priority for IWU to return to being a contender. 

Good luck to WC and NCC in the CCIW tourney and in the national chapionship run.  WC would appear to have a good shot at going deep into the tourney, not so sure about NCC and "the system."  We'll see.  It has certainly worked for them so far this year, at 20-2. 

IWU70

[GoPerry]

Looking for the Thunder Ladies to bring home a road W tonight @MU and keep things rolling into the post-season.  They seem to have taken up residence at the #16 spot in the D3Hoops poll.  Was nice to hear the interview with Kent Madsen on Hoopsville. 

[Naperick]

Elmhurst defeats North Central, 91-62.  Bluejays improve to 8-5 and the Cardinals fall to 9-4.
Elmhurst has clinched a berth in the CCIW tourney.

[Naperick]

EC & NCC could play again in the 1st round of the CCIW tourney.

[iwu70]

IWU over NPU 72-68

Reaber 22
McGraw 18
Gray 12 on four treys
Ehresman 10

TITANS win by shooting 83% from the charity stripe.

IWU70

[iwu70]

Senior night coming up for the TITANS vs. EC, next Saturday.

Warm congrats to Kasey Reaber on her excellent career as a Titan.  She has played well, consistently all year this year, on a very young team without the benefit of adequate bigs and shooting percentages.   She's had a great career at IWU and she will be sorely missed next season.  Perhaps the only All-CCIW player from the Titan squad this year. Also, warm congrats to Emily Beoletto, her Titan playing career cut short by a serious injury.  Senior Night honoring Beoletto and Reaber. 

The TITANS will return to being a contender in the next several years.  I have faith in the young players we have and in Coach Smith.  Of course, many improvements needed and surely some good recruiting for rebounding, paint scoring also needed.  Hope injured players can return stronger, especially Holness.

IWU70

[GoPerry]

Good luck to the Thunder Women tonight as they wrap up their season while honoring senior captain Lauren Graham!  Let's wrap up the season with a positive win to take us into the conference tourney at home and into the NCAA tourney - possibly first round hosting with a very high seeding.

[iwu70]

Tough season for the Titans, finishing with a loss to EC, 82-75.  Scratched back to three down after being way down early.  Similar story, but they never gave up.  Titans finish 10-15 on the year.

McGraw, a future all CCIW player, 26
Reaber, finishing out her great career at IWU, 17
Ehresman, another possible all CCIW player, 12

Both McGraw and Ehresman, very positive seasons for freshmen in the CCIW.

For EC:

McMahon a monster 37 and 17

IWU has no one to stop such a talented post player as McMahon.  Key need for future recruiting.

Congrats to Reaber and Beoletto on their TITAN careers.  Good luck to both for future endeavors after graduation in May.

Thanks to all the Titan players and coaches for the season, all the hard work, tenacity and good play.  We enjoyed watching you'all play.

IWU70

[Mr. Ypsi]

I have absolute faith in Mia Smith.  Warning to CCIW teams: this was an anomaly.  We WILL be back! 

Next year, maybe.  Two years, you bet your bippy!  (Just to be certain, anyone know where to get another Olivia Lett? )

[Gregory Sager]

Down to only eight players, North Park was forced to close out the season playing the one team in this league against whom you can't possibly compete with only eight players: North Central. And, sure enough, NCC ran away with a 103-70 win. It was close for awhile -- NCC didn't take its first lead until the 9:13 mark of the first half, and NPU actually led with inside of six minutes left in the opening stanza -- but it all felt as though it was just a matter of time until fatigue took the Vikings out of the contest, and that's exactly what happened.

Nikki Przybyslawski led the Vikings with 15 points. The lone Vikings senior, Annie Shain, closed out her career with a nice 11 and 6 effort, while Nicole Kruckman had a 10 and 13 double-double. Three other players -- Rachel Torres, Kennedy Kantner, and Soly Roman -- reached double figures in rebounds.

For NCC, Tess Godhardt closed out the home-court portion of her unusual career -- over 1,000 points scored, some in an Elmhurst uniform and some in a North Central uniform -- with 30 points, while fellow senior Maryssa Cladis had a dozen points and both Anita Sterling and Corinne Rowe finished up with ten.

Thus ends a 13-12, 5-9 campaign for North Park that has to be considered a disappointment. Expectations were higher than that, especially considering that the Vikings had seven players coming back from last year's team who had played in at least 20 games and had averaged a minimum of 17 minutes per game. Of course, the loss of leading scorer Liz Rehberger to injury with four games left really put the Park up against it in terms of competing for a CCIW tourney berth, but even before she got hurt there had been too many close games that the Vikings were unable to close out. The team just didn't have either a collective killer instinct or a take-charge leader on the floor who could push her teammates through words and actions, or both. There's a missing ingredient there, and I'm not quite sure what it is.

Nevertheless, this remains a program that has a lot of promise. Six of those seven players I mentioned in the last paragraph will be back next year. (Much thanks to Annie Shain for her four solid years in a Vikings uni.) The roster needs more depth next season, but the core talent is there with which to make some noise. They just need to find that missing ingredient.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Wheaton on the CCIW crown.  Good luck to WC and NCC in the D3 tournament.  Make some noise for the CCIW.

All-conference teams announced soon.  I hope Kasey Reaber is recognized.

Again, good luck to all the league seniors for future endeavors.

IWU70

[AndOne]

Congrats to the NCC Cardinals on a fabulous season. Their 21-4 record is the school's best since 1983-84. The Cards were blessed with a combination of strong senior talent and leadership, and a talented group of underclass women, many of whom matured and adapted to the system in rapid fashion.

They have a very tough matchup awaiting them in the conference tourney. Should they get by Elmhurst, their job won't get any easier. However, even if they should falter on Friday, a 21-5 record should still merit an invitation to the Big Dance, an unheard of proposition just a short time ago.

On this season's joyful journey, the Cards banked 359 three-point field goals, a new all-time NCAA Division III record.

[iwu70]

AO, those are truly amazing trey numbers for the NCC "system."  Again, good luck to NCC and to WC for the D3 dance, upcoming.

IWU70