WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Important road win for IWU over NPU, IWU 89 NPU 61.

Kelly 19
Schneider 18
McGraw 14
Anderson 10
Merritt 10
Ehresman 8  and 3 assts, 0 TOs. 

Titans shooting 45%, 44% from 3, 81% FTs.  A good formula going forward.

For NPU:  Rehberger 16

Titans now 10-2 in CCIW play, heading down the stretch in good form, with depth and hardnose play. Four games to go. 

IWU'70

[GoPerry]

Wheaton 67
Augie 63

Katie McDaniels  24 pts, 5 rebs, 2 asst, blk, stl
Kelly Lawson 17 pts, 3rebs
Devin Kyler 14 pts, 8 rebs, 5 assts, 6 stls, 3blks
Chantal Meacham, 5 pts 10rebs

Kaycee Kallenberger 20 pts, 21 rebs (11 off), 4 blks
Izzy Anderson 12 pts 3 rebs 6 assts

Another solid home win for the Thunder notwithstanding the Viking's (read: Kaycee Kallenberger) dominance on the glass. Wheaton led practically the entire game and led by as much as 15 before Augie cut the lead to 48-44 after 3 quarters.  But Wheaton came out on a 13 pt run of their own to extend to 61-44 and that was pretty much it.  Augie shooting was ice cold for much of the game.  It's tough to match up to a person of such size like Kallenberger in the middle.  Saying she had a double/double doesn't feel sufficient.  But Devin Kyler did as good a job as to be expected.  Coach Madsen was taking no chances with this game as he shortened his bench quite a bit.

No harm no foul for the Vikes with Carthage also losing.  So they are still in good position to make the CCIW tournament but their NCAA post-season hopes took a hit.

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan 89, North Park 61

Liz Rehberger: 16 pts
Gabby Sandoval: 10 pts
Amani Davis: 10 rebs, 3 stls

Amanda Kelly: 19 pts, 3:0 a:to
Ashley Schneider: 18 pts
Molly McGraw: 14 pts
Nina Anderson: 10 pts
Maddie Merritt: 10 pts
Sydney Shanks: 5 stls
Rebekah Ehresman: 4 stls

It's not so much the loss that bothers me, it's the serious lack of energy that the Vikings showed in the second half. After a reasonably fine effort in the first half in which the Vikes were only down by 42-34 at intermission (after a Titans surge had pulled away from a lead of only 29-28 with two and a half to go in the second quarter), the Vikings just made one mental mistake after another with the ball in a disastrous third quarter in which they were outscored by 21. Worse, they were consistently outrun from one end of the floor to the other. On top of that, they failed to put a body on anybody, and even though IWU only ended up winning the rebounding battle by four, the Titans garnered six more caroms off of the offensive glass than did the Vikings. Considering how hard NPU worked on Saturday against another pressing team, this effort tonight was a real letdown. Granted, the Park simply does not have the horses to compete with Wesleyan for forty minutes the way that the Vikings can (and do) with North Central, but it takes no skill to keep your head up, look up the floor, not dribble straight into traps, make smart passes, and put a body on an opponent when the shot goes up.

[GoPerry]

First batch of regional rankings just dropped.

The CCIW is well represented (Wheaton 4th, IWU 5th, Elmhurst 9th). I've been skeptical about the conference getting multiple bids for much of the season so far, but if the title comes down to the Titans and Thunder, there's a pretty good chance both teams make The Dance given where they're at now. It'll depend on how much chalk rocks other conference tournaments obviously, but the loser between these two (again, assuming they finish 1-2 in some order) would come to the Pool C table pretty early.

IWU has to win out these last 4 games to feel safe for an at large I think. If they lose one before the CCIW tourney, then I believe they'll be teetering on the bubble.

[iwu70]

Yes, it would be nice for IWU to have 8 or less losses going to Selection Sunday.  19-8 might get them in given their SOS.  They've been at that place before.  Surely 20-7, as you suggest, would look a lot better.  Winning the AQ best!

Very tough games upcoming, a truly testing stretch run.  Both IWU men and women have key games at CC this weekend.

IWU70

[RogK]

Saw IWU in person for the first time this season and was curious to see some of their newer players. Sydney Shanks is a very interesting player, with a high upside; athletic and an alert, hard worker.
Ashley Schneider displayed scoring talent near the basket and also hit from threeland. Nina Anderson could/should be an increasingly helpful contributor.
Several of IWU's more veteran players did rather well, as evidenced by the stats Greg listed.
I will add that I was again very impressed by Rebekah Ehresman; she just does not make any mistakes. Well, maybe one and a half. And Molly McGraw was agile and energetic. Alina Lehocky has developed into one of the better rebounders in the league, currently at 30 per 100 minutes.

[RogK]

In Elmhurst's 75-58 win over Carthage, Mikaela Eppard had 20 pts, 16 rebs, 5 assists and a pair of steals. Hannah Henderson scored 11, missing only 1 shot, and had 6 rebs. Kaela Jones had 16 pts via 12 GF att, for a .667 eFG%.
Carthage was led by 23 pts from Madie Kaelber, who added 3 steals.
And, for the second consecutive Wednesday, Carthage and their opponent each went 17/39 on 2FGs.

[RogK]

North Central 89, Millikin 73. For NCC, Anita Sterling had 21 pts, 7 rebs, 2 blocks and 3 steals. Jamie Cuny had 16 pts, 7 rebs.
For Millikin, Emily Schultz poured in 29 pts and had 8 rebs, while Lauren Moses had 10 pts and 15 rebs. Devin Curry again did well, with 15 pts, 9 rebs, 6 assists and 3 steals.

[iwu70]

RogK, I share your views on IWU's various players.  They have some good experienced, talented seniors -- esp. Kelly -- but also a nice array of younger players, really coming along nicely, worked into the IWU system and scheme of things.  With that group -- Shanks, Schneider, Merritt, and Anderson, the future looks bright.  Shanks does have a big upside.  The Titans have McGraw and Ehresman for another year -- so that is a very strong core in thinking about next year.  Of course, we are focusing on this year and winning the conference title again now.  But, one has to think, even with the loss of Kelly, Lehockey and a few other seniors, the Titans are going to return one of the strongest, most experienced groups in the conference next season.  Let's hope this year's team gets to Dance, but surely next year could be a very good year for the Titans women's program.

Ehresman is about as consistent, solid and error-free as it comes.  When McGraw is playing at the top of her game, surely one of the best, most athletic players in all of D3.  Let's hope both work even harder and improve further for the rest of the season and certainly for next year. 

IWU'70 

[RogK]

Thanks for mentioning that Lehocky is a senior, iwu70. I had a general impression that she hadn't been around that long, but I lazily hadn't bothered to check the roster. Anyway, I modified my previous post to compliment her more accurately.

[lmitzel]

North Central 89, Millikin 73. For NCC, Anita Sterling had 21 pts, 7 rebs, 2 blocks and 3 steals. Jamie Cuny had 16 pts, 7 rebs.
For Millikin, Emily Schultz poured in 29 pts and had 8 rebs, while Lauren Moses had 10 pts and 15 rebs. Devin Curry again did well, with 15 pts, 9 rebs, 6 assists and 3 steals.

Anita was on fire in the opening quarter, hitting like five threes in a row before cooling off. GA coach Maryssa Cladis hit it on the nose at halftime: Anita is either on fire, or ice cold. There's no in between.

This was a game that was a little closer than the final score suggests. Schultz kept hitting 10 foot jumpers to keep the Big Blue in the game, but they couldn't get it down to a one possession game, and made too many mistakes against the press. North Central got a pair of five second inbounding calls (which in actually was about eight seconds because the official on the baseline was SUPER SLOW in counting) as well as a ten second call. Millikin also got whistled for a backcourt violation that was clearly not a backcourt violation; I'll have to find the video and post it here later today.

So North Central manages to stay alive in the conference race, but only by the thinnest of margins. At this point I'd be happy finishing .500 in conference, but I don't think it'll happen; not with the tough schedule to close out the season.

[lmitzel]

Millikin also got whistled for a backcourt violation that was clearly not a backcourt violation; I'll have to find the video and post it here later today.

Now that I've found it, fast forward to the 1:33:00 mark. Watching the replay, I can kind of see why it was called, but even Kevin Jackman and Eric Gruber thought it was a bad call, and they were farther away from the play than I was.

[RogK]

Congrats to these players who received academic all-district honors from the college SID organization : Morgan Harris, Rebekah Ehresman, Mikaela Eppard and Katie McDaniels.

[iwu70]

Yes, congrats to the academic all-district honorees -- some really great players there and more importantly, great students! 

IWU'70

[RogK]

Saturday's matchups and the results of the earlier encounters (none of which were close):
AUG at CRL (Augie won in Rock Island, 102-61)
IWU at CTG (Wesleyan won in Bloomington, 77-50)
ELM at NCC (Elmhurst won in Elmhurst, 103-81)
NPU at WHE (Wheaton won in Chicago, 85-42)
Millikin, which has completed its road schedule, has the bye.