WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Well, Ypsi, we have the same take on that one.  Too bad to have an off shooting night in the D3 tournament.  Trine plays good D, but our team just couldn't buy a three, shooting poorly overall.  I think McGraw must have been sick or something tonight.  Ehresman with a valiant effort, but not enough against a team as tenacious as Trine was tonight.  Too bad. 

A good season overall -- and next year should be even better. 

IWU'70

[Roundball999]

The Titans fall to a team called the Thunder for the third time in a week and a half, 63-56.  The final margin was the biggest lead Trine had all evening.  The Titans couldn't shoot from the field (33.3% overall, 14.3% from deep) and couldn't rebound (Trine 37, IWU 21).  Two things kept them in the game: aggressive defense (creating 21 TOs) and FT shooting (19 of 21).  Otherwise a very disappointing evening.

I don't want to take anything away from Trine - they are very good, and the first team not named Hope or Calvin to win an outright regular-season title in the MIAA in 25 years.  But I really thought on a better night we should have won.

That's exactly how Trine wins.  They leave you feeling that your team didn't play well and you'd probably beat them the next time.  I've become a believer that it has more to do with Trine.

[lmitzel]

Tip of the hat to the Titans for a good season. Too bad they couldn't make a run.

Congratulations to Wheaton though for finally breaking out of Round 1 with a win over RHIT tonight. Hope they can continue to represent the CCIW well the rest of the way.

[GoPerry]

Wheaton 57
Rose Hulman 54

Katie McDaniels   15 pts, 7 assts, 2 stls, blk
Kelly Lawson     12 pts, 4 rebs

Ally Bromenschenkel    19 pts, 10 rebs, 5 stls
Josie Schmidt     13 pts, 8 rebs 3 blks


Wheaton was able to dodge the bullet and squeeze out the win vs the Fighting Engineers.  RHIT is a pretty big team and the Thunder had difficulty scoring against their size.  Rose's defense was very good and disciplined.  They didn't overplay and deny aggressively very much, which denied Wheaton those back door and sharp cuts for easy baskets.   So Wheaton had to settle for more of their half-court set in the 1st half and, surprisingly, they didn't seem quite ready for that.  Several possessions of just standing around with no real scheme it seemed.   I'm sure they had but it didn't look it.

In the 2nd half, the Thunder started working the ball a little more efficiently and had better scoring success.  Wheaton got out to a 10 pt lead in the 3rd but I give a lot of credit to the Engineers who fought back from that and actually led by 4 pts midway through the 4th.  But Kelly Lawson had a key basket and McDaniels made some free throws down the stretch to get the lead back and win by 3.

Congrats to Rose Hulman on a fine season.  They gave Wheaton all they could handle- very few easy baskets out there.  Whoever Wheaton plays tomorrow, they'll have to play better to advance.

[RogK]

Congrats to both Thunders, Wheaton and Trine for their victories this evening.
You may be right, iwu70, that Molly McGraw could be somewhat under the weather as she seemed to have stretches of decreased energy in last week's conf tourney. Nevertheless, she is one of the CCIW's best players, often dazzlingly athletic, so I think we can anticipate an excellent senior year for her.
Speaking of senior seasons, a virtual round of applause to all of the Titan seniors, each of them having contributed nicely during their time in green and white. I'm not sure that any retain another year of eligibility. Amanda Kelly could've been all-conference this year and Brittney Reaber was very reliable during her opportunities, so IWU will need to get excellent ballhandling from others (besides Ehresman) in order to offset the departure of those two guards.
The remaining question for this evening is : does the Wheaton bunch dare sample some of this --
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis-style_pizza
I ate some once, but not during my more recent visits to St Louis.

[GoPerry]

Well, Ypsi, we have the same take on that one.  Too bad to have an off shooting night in the D3 tournament.  Trine plays good D, but our team just couldn't buy a three, shooting poorly overall.  I think McGraw must have been sick or something tonight.  Ehresman with a valiant effort, but not enough against a team as tenacious as Trine was tonight.  Too bad. 

A good season overall -- and next year should be even better. 

IWU'70

Congrats to both Thunders, Wheaton and Trine for their victories this evening.
You may be right, iwu70, that Molly McGraw could be somewhat under the weather as she seemed to have stretches of decreased energy in last week's conf tourney. Nevertheless, she is one of the CCIW's best players, often dazzlingly athletic, so I think we can anticipate an excellent senior year for her.
Speaking of senior seasons, a virtual round of applause to all of the Titan seniors, each of them having contributed nicely during their time in green and white. I'm not sure that any retain another year of eligibility. Amanda Kelly could've been all-conference this year and Brittney Reaber was very reliable during her opportunities, so IWU will need to get excellent ballhandling from others (besides Ehresman) in order to offset the departure of those two guards.
The remaining question for this evening is : does the Wheaton bunch dare sample some of this --
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis-style_pizza
I ate some once, but not during my more recent visits to St Louis.

I watched the game.  Why would you think she was under the weather?  She didn't look sick at all - she had plenty of energy.

[Enginerd]

Hard fought game and Wheaton absolutely deserved the win.
Officiating ok for the most part - most officials are not confident enough to blow their whistle on a game ending scrum under the basket - so no problem there. Would like to see film on one basket around the 2:30 mark where Bromenschenkel should have had an and-1....I think Wheaton came right down and scored when Bromenschenkel should have been shooting a foul shot to go up 3.
Wheaton has a chance to beat WashU tomorrow night...their length should bother WashU - who really likes to get their posts involved. RHIT's bigs went right by their defenders all night...so will be big challenge for all that spread-the-floor and work the bigs high-low that WashU likes to run.
After seeing WashU in person, they are not nearly as long or big as Wheaton.

[Enginerd]

After a season of being largely ignored by D3 Hoops and the WBCA on their way to wins over two teams that won a game in the NCAA Tournament today- I'd like to think Rose-Hulman earned some measure of respect tonight.

[GoPerry]

Hard fought game and Wheaton absolutely deserved the win.
Officiating ok for the most part - most officials are not confident enough to blow their whistle on a game ending scrum under the basket - so no problem there. Would like to see film on one basket around the 2:30 mark where Bromenschenkel should have had an and-1....I think Wheaton came right down and scored when Bromenschenkel should have been shooting a foul shot to go up 3.
Wheaton has a chance to beat WashU tomorrow night...their length should bother WashU - who really likes to get their posts involved. RHIT's bigs went right by their defenders all night...so will be big challenge for all that spread-the-floor and work the bigs high-low that WashU likes to run.
After seeing WashU in person, they are not nearly as long or big as Wheaton.

I don't know . . . I just watched the 1st half of WashU and SNC . . . Vernon looks pretty pretty darn good inside.  SNC looks pretty good too.

Having said that, 6'2" Jill Berg had another good game defensively tonight. She got credited for 2 blocks but I thought she had more than that. 

Yeah, that ending scrum had the blood pumping.  RH had plenty of chances on that one.

[Enginerd]

Ally Bromenschenkel absolutely got fouled...almost had her arm taken off...but like I said...only at the absolute highest levels of NCAA Division I men's officiating would you see someone blow their whistle on that play....
Wheaton deserved the win and if they can clean a few things up they could take down WashU tomorrow night...

[RogK]

GoPerry, I didn't think she (McGraw) was as consistently quick or energetic compared to her customary standard. She wasn't involved in as many possessions as I'd expect.
Could be an accumulation of a season's aches/pains or maybe some kind of bug. I'm just guessing from a few hundred miles away, of course.

[GoPerry]

GoPerry, I didn't think she (McGraw) was as consistently quick or energetic compared to her customary standard. She wasn't involved in as many possessions as I'd expect.
Could be an accumulation of a season's aches/pains or maybe some kind of bug. I'm just guessing from a few hundred miles away, of course.

At the risk of bad timing so soon after the Titan loss, I will offer this with the hope that it will be viewed as objectively as I am trying to deliver it.

Consider this season stat line for this player coming into tonight's game:

   Mins/game: 26.8   FG%: 39.5%    3PT%: 26%    FT%: 76%     Rebs/game:  3.6   Asst/game: 1.66   TOs/game: 2.88

So I would simply ask:  Should this player be leading their team in scoring, leading in FG attempts, 3FG attempts  and is it hurting or helping the team by her playing such a primary role?

Neither McGraw or Ehreshman played a great game offensively tonight and I wanted them to because I wanted IWU to advance.  To me, the surprise was Ehresman but at least she did contribute some assists(5) and steals(4). 

[iwu70]

McGraw was slower, made silly plays on D, took bad, off-balance shots, was on the bench more than usual, perhaps because Coach Smith knew she wasn't 100% -- don't know if it was physical or mental.  I just thought she played poorly, not up to her normal level, in an important, big game.  She was 2-11 or so.  Ehresman tried valiantly to pick up the slack, Merritt and Kelly had their normal good games, and the Titans shot FTs fabulously, staying in the game that way.  Trine plays great clogging D, not letting many Titans get into the lane or make shots from close in. As a result, too many treys, and dying by the trey tonight.  3-21 or whatever it was.  Yes, Trine deserves the win tonight, really good D and enough offense, esp. from their two main scorers, who were excellent in the post, within 10 feet. 

The Titans will be back next year -- Shanks and Schneider likely starters with Ehresman, McGraw and Merritt.  That will be a very good team -- likely picked to win the CCIW next year.  Yes, Mia will have to find key role and supporting players, a good ball-handling backup for Ehresman, who likely returns to the true PG position.  I'm sure Coach Smith will again have a good recruiting class, so the future of the IWU women's program is very very bright.

Congrats to Wheaton on getting the win and moving to the second round.  Hope they can give Wash U a good battle, and move to the Sweet 16.  A tall order on Wash U's floor. 

IWU'70

[RogK]

Hardly anyone who shoots a lot is going to shoot 61% like Mikaela Eppard.
Any team in the league would be very happy to have Molly McGraw in their starting lineup. I'm sure she feels bad enough for today's result.
I was going to label you guys' excessive criticism of her as tasteless, but in the interest of engendering future conversation on these pages, I won't.

[RogK]

Good luck to Wheaton on Saturday.
The Thunder has a topnotch defense and can get scoring from a variety of players, so I think they can compete with most anyone. Nothing easy on the horizon, though.