WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Thanks to all the IWU seniors for all their great play, hard work and strong dedication to the IWU program over the past years.  You guys all make the TITAN sports nation proud.  All best for future endeavors, post-IWU and post-basketball careers. 

Let's go win a piece of the regular season championship up at WC this Tuesday.  Go TITANS!

IWU'70

[RogK]

We may not have a Player of the Week today if the upcoming Tuesday action is included in the final such honor of the season. It may be revealed on Wednesday.

[RogK]

Well, congrats to Katie McDaniels, new Player of the Week!

[GoPerry]

New ranking:

http://d3hoops.com/top25/women/2016-17/week12

Wheaton 25 ORV, no other league team getting a vote.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Close game in the title match:  at the half, Wheaton 42, IWU 39.

[iwu70]

Hope the Titans can finish this thing off.  They've come back from way down early.

'70

[Mr. Ypsi]

The stats guy seems to have gone home - frozen at 10 seconds remaining for ten minutes!  I'll assume that Wheaton won 76-67.

Wheaton led the entire game, but never by more than 12, and usually by 5-8.  Molly McGraw led all scorers with 23, Maddie Merritt had 20 and Rebekah Ehresman had 16 - 59 of the Titans' 67.  The usual 'spread the wealth' Titans came down to a three player team tonite, and they couldn't quite pull it off.

[lmitzel]

North Central closes out the season knocking off Augustana 94-82. North Central finishes the year 14-11 overall, a decent 8-8 in conference.

Tournament seeds go Wheaton 1, IWU 2, Elmhurst 3, Augie 4.

[iwu70]

Yup, Ypsi, a bit of a struggle against WC tonight.   A lost opportunity to host the tournament.  Couldn't quite get back after the terrible 1Q start.

Great game by McGraw, Merritt and Ehresman -- the Titan big three -- all three coming back next year, along with those good freshmen and sophomores.

Now it's on to the CCIW tournament, sadly at WC, and hopefully the rubber match with WC for the AQ.  Titans need to win it out now.  I think they have too many losses, even with their strong SOS, to get a pool C bid with 1-1 at the tournament.  That would be 18-9 as I mentioned some days back.  Don't think that gets them in without the AQ. 

IWU'70

[iwu70]

Congrats to Wheaton on winning the regular season CCIW championship. 

IWU'70

[GoPerry]

Wheaton 76
IWU 67

Kelly Lawson 22 pts, 4 rebs
Katie McDaniels, 19 pts, 4 rebs, 5 assts, 3 steals
Devin Kyler, 13 rebs, 3 blks

Molly McGraw 23 pts, 6 rebs
Maddie Merritt, 20 pts, 4 rebs
Rebecca Ehresman, 16 pts, 10 rebs, 4 steals

A well-deserved congratulations to the Wheaton Thunder Ladies on their CCIW title.  The Titans came on strong many times, played hard, and threw everything they could at Wheaton but the Thunder, for the most part, kept their poise against the IWU pressure.   One of Wheaton's strengths is ball handling and guard play and being able to pass over and/or dribble through the Titan press led to some easy baskets for the home team.  And in the halfcourt, Wheaton had very good ball movement to keep IWU on their toes.  But the visitors stayed right with them and the 9 pt final margin is not indicative of how close the game was.  McDaniels made a couple of really key shots at critical points of the game to keep her team ahead.  Chantal Meacham was hot from the arc early which is why Wheaton got out to the early lead.  Maggie Dansdill and Ellie Zeller also played very solidly.  Devin Kyler played great defense on Merritt and really cleaned up the boards with 13.

Like I said, Wesleyan was right in it, only down by 5 with 6 mins left in the game.  I was most impressed with Rebecca Ehresman and, in my opinion as an outside observer, I think she needs more shots on offense because she can really score.  I agree with IWU '70 that this loss takes them out of Pool C consideration and will have to win the AQ.

[RogK]

My congratulations, too, to Kent Madsen and his fine Thunder team. Another remarkably energetic game for Katie McDaniels. A lot of effort and talent displayed by both teams. IWU really sought to run their offense through their three major scorers, with McGraw, Ehresman and Merritt taking 50 of the 67 FG attempts.
Elsewhere, Mandy Hozzian completed her nice career with Carthage, as the Lady Reds topped Carroll 80-62. Rachel Szydlowski had 16 pts and 9 rebs, Bailey Gilbert tallied 14, while Morgan Harris led with 12 rebs and 5 assists.
Carroll got 16 pts and 8 rebs from Morgan Lund; 11, 8 rebs, 6 assists, 3 stls from Brittney Wald. Then there's Caylee Koker who had 24 pts, 7 rebs -- she scored 27 in their earlier game vs Carthage.
Elmhurst 94, Millikin 79 : somebody named Mikaela Eppard scored 39 pts and had 20 rebounds; do we know her? Hannah Lipman added 14 pts, 9 rebs, 4 assists for the 'jays. Rachael Weber wrapped up her fine career with Millikin. Devin Curry, by the way, hit 6 of 6 FTs as she scored 21 pts. Teammate EC Thies missed just 1 FG and 1 FT on her way to a dozen pts for the Big Blue.
In that North Central win, all four fine Cardinal seniors contributed nicely. As I wrote earlier, I think NCC probably gets only 1 on all-CCIW, but Coach Roof would not go wrong with any of the seniors, Miranda Grizaffi, Paula Zerante, Anita Sterling and Jamie Cuny. Good luck to Ms Roof figuring out whom to leave off the nominations. I think all the CCIW coaches are faced with nominating fewer players than they'd like to, in order to prevent votes from being spread too thin.
Another "by the way" - the stats show Mayson Whipple playing 4 minutes. Could that be right, lmitzel? Did her surgery and recovery go so swiftly? Or was that Veronica LaVia, who also wears #3 sometimes.
Augustana had 6 players in double figures; among them Kaycee Kallenberger 16 pts, Jen VanWatermeulen 14 and 5 steals, Mikayla Fallon 12 and 10 rebs, Carly McCameron 10 and 10 rebs.

[iwu70]

Given WC winning the regular season crown, I would think McDaniels now wins MOP award. 

So this weekend, we have WC vs. Augie, and IWU vs. EC @ Carver -- then likely a re-match of IWU and WC for the AQ.  The rubber match of a great rivalry.  Two very good teams.  Hope the Titans can win the rubber match and the AQ.  I would think WC is set for a Pool C. 

Go TITANS -- important games still to be played.

IWU'70

P.S.  GoPerry, agree that Ehresman should probably be scoring more, but IWU has good scorers all round as McGraw and Merritt can put it in the basket, so Ehresman is more the stick that stirs the drink . . . and she does it so well, with very limited turnovers.  I guess Schneider and Shanks move into the starting line-up next year with the big three.  IWU program in good shape and with a bright future.  Perhaps next year is truly their year -- for a good long run in league and D3 tournament play. They will be a very experienced squad.  ms

[Mr. Ypsi]

I'll be cheering for a Titan over Thunder title game, not only due to my green blood but also for the conference to get two teams into the tourney.  Under that scenario, Wheaton would finish 22-5 and be a near-lock for a Pool C bid.  No other conference team has a prayer of at-large selection.

[lmitzel]

Given WC winning the regular season crown, I would think McDaniels now wins MOP award. 

For giggles... (all stats for the full season since on the women's side I don't think they make the distinction)

PPG
Eppard: 21.2 (1st)
McDaniels: 19.8 (2nd)

RPG
Eppard: 10.8 (2nd)
McDaniels: 5.0 (17th)

FG%
Eppard: .613 (1st)
McDaniels: .457 (10th)

Assists
Eppard: 2.0 (Not in top 15)
McDaniels: 4.5 (2nd)

FT%
Eppard: .784 (10th)
McDaniels: .753 (14th)

Steals:
Eppard: 1.5 (Not in top 15)
McDaniels: 2.0 (6th)

3P%
Eppard: .261 (Not in top 15)
McDaniels: .343 (Not in top 15)

Blocks
Eppard: 8 (Not in top 15)
McDaniels: 10 (Not in top 15)

A/TO
Eppard: 0.60 (Not in top 7)
McDaniels: 2.51 (2nd)

...I dunno. Eppard was a much more efficient offensive player in terms or scoring, but McDaniels had better defensive numbers, took better care of the ball, and scored almost as well. I could see her stealing the award from Eppard with that very factor being the final push she needed.