WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

Congrats to Katie McDaniels, the conference first Player of Week for '16-'17.
A bunch of players are off to outstanding starts, including McDaniels. We've mentioned how well Liz Rehberger has done. Morgan Harris performed quite well in Carthage's noteworthy win over UW-River Falls and is scoring 24.3/g, plus avgs of 5.7 rebs, 5a and 3.3 stls. Her effective FG% (proportional credit applied for 3FGs made) is .570 and she's made 24/28 FTs.
Kaycee Kallenberger played 37 minutes over 2 g and made 9/15 2FGs, 4/5 FT, had 18 rebs and 11 blocks.
Elmhurst (3-0) is led by Mikaela Eppard, who is averaging 14.3 pts and 9 rebs, while shooting 60% FG and 7/7 FTs.
Yanni Saddler is among the leaders at 19 pts/g with an excellent .657 eFG%; also grabbed 6 rebs/g.
Rebekah Ehresman's eFG is an excellent .675 and she rang up 13.5 pts/g and 9 rebs/g.
Many others have played at a very high level.
One more to applaud : Chantal Meacham has hit 7/7 2FGs and 6/8 3FGs for 32 pts on just 15 shots, yielding a 1.067 eFG%. Her 8:1 assist/TO ratio is fairly decent, too.

[lmitzel]

Uh, Imitzel, you've fallen behind on posting all the CCIW WBB scores.

I guess I didn't realize I took on that responsibility. 

Busy day on tap today, with only North Park not playing. The NCC women try to make it 2-0 when they head up Chicago/Maple to take on Benedictine and make it a clean sweep up at the Rice Center with the men having won last night.

Been a pretty successful non-conference start though conference-wide. Other than 0-3 Carroll, everyone has won at least once, and Illinois Wesleyan is the only other team at .500. Everyone else is at least a game over.

[badgerwarhawk]

The UW-WHITEWATER WARHAWKS will be in Bloomington tonight to take on IWU.  5 PM tip off. 

[GoPerry]

Congrats to Katie McDaniels, the conference first Player of Week for '16-'17.
A bunch of players are off to outstanding starts, including McDaniels. We've mentioned how well Liz Rehberger has done. Morgan Harris performed quite well in Carthage's noteworthy win over UW-River Falls and is scoring 24.3/g, plus avgs of 5.7 rebs, 5a and 3.3 stls. Her effective FG% (proportional credit applied for 3FGs made) is .570 and she's made 24/28 FTs.
Kaycee Kallenberger played 37 minutes over 2 g and made 9/15 2FGs, 4/5 FT, had 18 rebs and 11 blocks.
Elmhurst (3-0) is led by Mikaela Eppard, who is averaging 14.3 pts and 9 rebs, while shooting 60% FG and 7/7 FTs.
Yanni Saddler is among the leaders at 19 pts/g with an excellent .657 eFG%; also grabbed 6 rebs/g.
Rebekah Ehresman's eFG is an excellent .675 and she rang up 13.5 pts/g and 9 rebs/g.
Many others have played at a very high level.
One more to applaud : Chantal Meacham has hit 7/7 2FGs and 6/8 3FGs for 32 pts on just 15 shots, yielding a 1.067 eFG%. Her 8:1 assist/TO ratio is fairly decent, too.

There is a lot of talent in the league this year with rosters having lots of returning players with game experience.  I think that fact alone will make CCIW play very competitive with few nights off.  I do believe Wheaton is the team to beat.  But IWU with McGraw and Ehresman will definitely challenge.  Not that it means much, but I thought Liz Rehberger deserved some pre-season recognition on the AA roster as one can make a good case that she's right there as the best player in the league(which is no disrespect to McDaniels, EC's Eppard or anyone else). 

[Gregory Sager]

Busy day on tap today, with only North Park not playing. The NCC women try to make it 2-0 when they head up Chicago/Maple to take on Benedictine and make it a clean sweep up at the Rice Center with the men having won last night.

Former NPU shooting guard Annie Shain is now on the coaching staff of the Bennies. She's one of several alumnae of recent Vikings teams who've gone into coaching.

[GoPerry]

Wheaton 58, Loras 50

Kelly Lawson had an incredible game tonight going for 24 pts(8/14 FG, 4/5 3PT), 9 rebounds and the Thunder won the game.  But the positives sort of end there.  First half was pretty sloppy with bad turnovers and lackluster defense.  59% FT (only averaging 64% coming in) is not going to cut it in February/March and will end up costing them if they can't improve.

The DuHawks were doing well and keeping the game close while playing zone(which neutralizes McDaniels somewhat).  I'm not sure why they went away from that because Wheaton clearly struggled with it.  Once they went man to man in the 2nd half, Wheaton got its footing and pulled away.

[badgerwarhawk]

WARHAWKS (4-0): 66
IWU (1-2): 55

Neither team led by more than three points in the first quarter.  The WARHAWKS led for the first five minutes or so.  Then IWU went ahead and held the lead until the WARHAWKS scored the final four points to regain the lead 12-11.  The WARHAWKS turned the ball over ten times in the quarter but IWU shot so poorly they couldn't take advantage of it.  The second quarter was pretty much the same story.  The WARHAWKS continued to turn the ball over (8 times) and the Titans continued to miss shots (9 of 36).  With the exception of one tie WHITEWATER held a lead for the first four minutes when IWU took their only lead 20-19 of the quarter.  However the WARHAWKS outscored the Titans 5-2 after that and led 24-22 at the half.  18 first half WARHAWKS turnovers led to the Titans taking twice as many shots (36 to 18) but a 44% to 25% shooting advantage kept the score close.  The WARHAWKS started the third quarter sinking 5 or their first 7 shots and taking the largest lead 35-28 to that point.  A lead was maintained until just 11 seconds remained and IWU tied it at 44.  After that both teams committed turnovers and WHITEWATER missed a three leaving it 44-44 after three.   The early minutes of the final quarter decided the game as the WARHAWKS opened with 11-2 run in the first three and half minutes going up by 9.  That lead expanded to twelve a minute later and after that IWU could get no closer than six.

I'm not one to complain about a W but the game was ugly.  The WARHAWKS finished with a mind numbing 29 turnovers.  That and 21 offensive rebounds gave IWU 27 more shots though IWU only out scored WW 12-9 on second chances and with 19 turnovers themselves they couldn't take advantage.  Also free throws were a significant factor.  IWU shot 16 free throws (18 WW fouls) making 9 while IWU's 22 fouls led to 28 free throws and the WARHAWKS sank 23 of them. 

Gabrielle Holness led IWU with 15 points (4-9 three points).  One starter, Molly McGraw, was injured in the first half.  Possibly a sprained ankle.  IWU got good production from their bench which scored 36 points.

[lmitzel]

Didn't get to see any of it, but final from Lisle: NCC 97, Benedictine 89.

Cardinals hit 17 of 56 from deep. Anita Sterling led the team with 14 points, Michaela Reedy added 13, Siarra O'Neill scored 12 and Natali Dimitrova chipped in 10.

[RogK]

At the moment, the conference web page's composite schedule is mixed up in regard to the four upcoming weekend games at North Park's Gym.
There is no Friday game.
Sat : Man U v NP at 2pm, Rose-Hulman v North Central at 4pm.
Sun : Man U v NC at 12pm, Rose-Hulman v NP at 2pm.

[RogK]

Among Tuesday results :
Millikin made 37 FTs in an 80-66 win over Eureka.
Autumn Kalis scored 24 via just 15 FG att, as Carthage sped past Coe 87-50.
Mikaela Eppard tallied 31 pts and 13 rebs; Elmhurst has yielded these scoring amounts so far : 39 50 45 and 33. Seems to be a trend.
Augustana reached 100 again and is averaging 81 FG att and 30 FT att.
Carroll lost at U of Chicago.

[iwumichigander]

WARHAWKS (4-0): 66
IWU (1-2): 55

Neither team led by more than three points in the first quarter.  The WARHAWKS led for the first five minutes or so.  Then IWU went ahead and held the lead until the WARHAWKS scored the final four points to regain the lead 12-11.  The WARHAWKS turned the ball over ten times in the quarter but IWU shot so poorly they couldn't take advantage of it.  The second quarter was pretty much the same story.  The WARHAWKS continued to turn the ball over (8 times) and the Titans continued to miss shots (9 of 36).  With the exception of one tie WHITEWATER held a lead for the first four minutes when IWU took their only lead 20-19 of the quarter.  However the WARHAWKS outscored the Titans 5-2 after that and led 24-22 at the half.  18 first half WARHAWKS turnovers led to the Titans taking twice as many shots (36 to 18) but a 44% to 25% shooting advantage kept the score close.  The WARHAWKS started the third quarter sinking 5 or their first 7 shots and taking the largest lead 35-28 to that point.  A lead was maintained until just 11 seconds remained and IWU tied it at 44.  After that both teams committed turnovers and WHITEWATER missed a three leaving it 44-44 after three.   The early minutes of the final quarter decided the game as the WARHAWKS opened with 11-2 run in the first three and half minutes going up by 9.  That lead expanded to twelve a minute later and after that IWU could get no closer than six.

I'm not one to complain about a W but the game was ugly.  The WARHAWKS finished with a mind numbing 29 turnovers.  That and 21 offensive rebounds gave IWU 27 more shots though IWU only out scored WW 12-9 on second chances and with 19 turnovers themselves they couldn't take advantage.  Also free throws were a significant factor.  IWU shot 16 free throws (18 WW fouls) making 9 while IWU's 22 fouls led to 28 free throws and the WARHAWKS sank 23 of them. 

Gabrielle Holness led IWU with 15 points (4-9 three points).  One starter, Molly McGraw, was injured in the first half.  Possibly a sprained ankle.  IWU got good production from their bench which scored 36 points.

The Warhawks have certainly played IWU enough over the years to have been prepared for the run and jump pressing defense that does create havoc.  This is a better version than last year's IWU team but remains a work in progress. 

[RogK]

Elmhurst topped host team Colorado College 82-39 today and really played at a high level for the whole game, roughly 6000 elevation.
Hannah Lipman made all her shots while scoring 15 pts and Kaela Jones had 5 steals.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 67
Manchester 58

Liz Rehberger: 31 pts, 6 rebs, 8 stls, 3 blks, 3:0 a:to
Shaylee Sloan: 16 pts, 12 rebs
Amani Davis: 9 rebs, 4:0 a:to

I dare anybody in the league to come up with a better stat line than the one Liz Rehberger posted today.

[Gregory Sager]

Rose-Hulman 73
North Central 49

No, that score is not a typo. A very disciplined and efficient RHIT team really dismantled the System today. The Cards shot only 25% from the field and 23% from downtown, as they were outrebounded by a 60-34 margin and only had one fewer turnover than did the Engineers. Nobody from the Cardinals scored in double figures.

RHIT is going to be a tough customer for NPU tomorrow afternoon.

[RogK]

After seeing Rose-Hulman today, I can understand why they'd be favored to win a D3 conference. They had an effective game plan and performed it impressively. In addition to their tallest players, they have a good selection of medium-height, strong agile players.
Had NC's Jamie Cuny (injured) been able to play, the score would have been closer, but I think RHIT would still prevail, given their overall size and talent.
Rose-Hulman had an unusual distribution of shots : 75 2FG att, 2 3FG att and 5 FT att.
A prominent feature of NC's brand of "the System" is that freshmen / newcomers participate immediately. Today it was evident that there is a good amount of athleticism among them, but that they are in need of experience. Way too early to tell how many will become above-average.