WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton 68
North Park 40

Samantha Bloom: 11 pts
Shaylee Sloan: 8 rebs, 4 stls
Lauryn Alba Garner: 6 rebs, 4 stls

Hannah Frazier: 13 pts, 8 rebs
Kelly Lawson: 11 pts, 3:1 a:to
Maggie Dansdill: 10 pts, 6 rebs
Devin Kyler: 3:0 a:to

[RogK]

Greg, the NP box score shows 8 blocks for Alicia Arnold. Is there a reason you excluded that from your summary?

[Gregory Sager]

Yes, because it didn't happen. Whenever you see something in a box score that looks anomalous -- as this definitely does -- always double-check it by examining the play-by-play.

The only block that NPU registered in yesterday's game was in the third quarter when 5'4 Lauryn Alba Garner somehow blocked a layup by 6'2 Jill Berg, an incident so amusing and improbable that I went on about it for a good twenty seconds or so in last night's broadcast.

[RogK]

A simple correction will therefore fix the mistake.

[lmitzel]

Yes, because it didn't happen. Whenever you see something in a box score that looks anomalous -- as this definitely does -- always double-check it by examining the play-by-play.

The only block that NPU registered in yesterday's game was in the third quarter when 5'4 Lauryn Alba Garner somehow blocked a layup by 6'2 Jill Berg, an incident so amusing and improbable that I went on about it for a good twenty seconds or so in last night's broadcast.

Play of the Year candidate?

[RogK]

I attended Carthage's impressive 77-72 win at Elmhurst.
Madie Kaelber was outstanding for the Lady Reds and finished with 21 pts and 3 blocks. Morgan Vukovich added 17 (6/9 2FG, 5/6 FT) and 7 rebs in 25 minutes.
Another nice multi-faceted performance by Morgan Harris. Autumn Kalis scored a dozen (incl 3/4 3FG) and had 5 rebs. Sammie Woodward led with 5 assists.
For EC, Mikaela Eppard had 22 pts, 8 rebs, 3 assists. Kaela Jones tallied 17, but 5 turnovers (at least 3 were passes into the lowpost that were too strong).  Lisa Logan also did well, with 11 pts, 7 rebs and 2 steals.
Turns out not to have been a bad day for Elmhurst anyway, as Augie lost.

[RogK]

Looking at the IWU-Carroll stats :
- that really was superb shooting by Nina Anderson -- an .808 eFG%.
- the Titans did quite well restricting Katie Rossetti to 3 pts. Rossetti is one of several players that give Carroll good reason for optimism going forward. She's had numerous very good games this season, maybe putting her on the fringe of 2nd team all-CCIW consideration.
- teammate Brittney Wald (a probable 2nd teamer) almost had a triple-double, with 18 pts and 8 rebs and 11 TOs (she'd admit that 11 was a bit excessive!). Her 3 steals offset some of the TOs.
- in the Carroll game I recently saw at North Park, I liked Emily Majerus's shooting form; that was not a fluke -- vs IWU she hit 5/7 FGs including 2 threes.

[RogK]

Wheaton has now won 13 in a row. They held North Park to 24% on two-point FGs, a further indication that the Thunder defense is getting better and better.

[RogK]

Millikin 82, Augie 63 -- 2nd half was 49-29!
Not sure what's wrong with Augie, but they have lost five of their last six. At 6-8 (and Elmhurst 8-6) they need to "win out" and have the Bluejays stumble to 8-8. Augie defeated EC both times this season, so that would be a tie-breaker, right? May not come to that. We'll see.
M : Devin Curry 19 pts (and 8 TOs which ultimately didn't hurt); Emily Schultz 16 pts, 10 rebs; Lauren Moses 10 pts, 15 rebs (not bad!); Yanni Saddler 15 pts; Jordan Hildebrand 9 pts 7 rebs in 17:00. Hildebrand's per-minute scoring, FG% and FT% have all been remarkably consistent from game-to-game, consistently good. Her rebounding is generally good, too. I wonder what Coach Kerans has in mind for Hildebrand playing-time-wise for next season.
A : Izzy Anderson led with 16 pts and Victoria Allen rang up 13 pts.

[GoPerry]

Yes, because it didn't happen. Whenever you see something in a box score that looks anomalous -- as this definitely does -- always double-check it by examining the play-by-play.

The only block that NPU registered in yesterday's game was in the third quarter when 5'4 Lauryn Alba Garner somehow blocked a layup by 6'2 Jill Berg, an incident so amusing and improbable that I went on about it for a good twenty seconds or so in last night's broadcast.

Are the NPU broadcasts on archive somewhere?  I missed them both unfortunately.

[lmitzel]

With three dates to go, here are the updated CCIW standings:

x-Illinois Wesleyan	12-1
x-Wheaton	12-2
x-Carthage	9-4
Elmhurst	8-6
Augustana	6-8
e-North Park	4-9
e-Carroll	4-9
e-North Central	3-10
e-Millikin	2-11

x- Clinched a CCIW Tournament berth
e- Eliminated from CCIW Tournament contention

Augie defeated EC both times this season, so that would be a tie-breaker, right?

Correct. Elmhurst has to either win one of their final two or see Augie lose one of their last two to get in.

As for the top of the conference, Carthage is all but locked into the #3 seed. They got swept by Wheaton and are 0-1 against the Titans with a game on Saturday at home. They also have the head to head tiebreaker over Elmhurst, so one more win or Blue Jay loss would keep them out of the #4 seed.

Illinois Wesleyan all but needs to win out to lock up home court for the CCIW Tournament. The anarchist in me is rooting for both Wheaton and Wesleyan to lose out with Carthage winning out to create a three way tie for first, which Wheaton would win by virtue of their head to head sweep of Carthage (Wesleyan would be 1-1 in this hypothetical, putting the Thunder at 3-1 head to head, the Titans 2-2, and the Lady Reds 1-3). Even a tie between just Wheaton and Wesleyan, if Wesleyan's tying loss ends up being to Carthage, would send the conference tournament back to King Arena.

[GoPerry]

With three dates to go, here are the updated CCIW standings:

x-Illinois Wesleyan	12-1
x-Wheaton	12-2
x-Carthage	9-4
Elmhurst	8-6
Augustana	6-8
e-North Park	4-9
e-Carroll	4-9
e-North Central	3-10
e-Millikin	2-11

x- Clinched a CCIW Tournament berth
e- Eliminated from CCIW Tournament contention

Augie defeated EC both times this season, so that would be a tie-breaker, right?

Correct. Elmhurst has to either win one of their final two or see Augie lose one of their last two to get in.

As for the top of the conference, Carthage is all but locked into the #3 seed. They got swept by Wheaton and are 0-1 against the Titans with a game on Saturday at home. They also have the head to head tiebreaker over Elmhurst, so one more win or Blue Jay loss would keep them out of the #4 seed.

Illinois Wesleyan all but needs to win out to lock up home court for the CCIW Tournament. The anarchist in me is rooting for both Wheaton and Wesleyan to lose out with Carthage winning out to create a three way tie for first, which Wheaton would win by virtue of their head to head sweep of Carthage (Wesleyan would be 1-1 in this hypothetical, putting the Thunder at 3-1 head to head, the Titans 2-2, and the Lady Reds 1-3). Even a tie between just Wheaton and Wesleyan, if Wesleyan's tying loss ends up being to Carthage, would send the conference tournament back to King Arena.

And actually, even a Wesleyan loss to Elmhurst (and Wheaton winning out) would end up giving the tie breaker to Wheaton by virtue of better record in last 7 games.  Both teams would have identical home/road records ...- losses to each other and @ Elmhurst.

So ironically, if IWU does lose again, as long as it's a bad one against Millikin at home this week and then they beat Carthage and EC, they'll still host.

[lmitzel]

With three dates to go, here are the updated CCIW standings:

x-Illinois Wesleyan	12-1
x-Wheaton	12-2
x-Carthage	9-4
Elmhurst	8-6
Augustana	6-8
e-North Park	4-9
e-Carroll	4-9
e-North Central	3-10
e-Millikin	2-11

x- Clinched a CCIW Tournament berth
e- Eliminated from CCIW Tournament contention

Augie defeated EC both times this season, so that would be a tie-breaker, right?

Correct. Elmhurst has to either win one of their final two or see Augie lose one of their last two to get in.

As for the top of the conference, Carthage is all but locked into the #3 seed. They got swept by Wheaton and are 0-1 against the Titans with a game on Saturday at home. They also have the head to head tiebreaker over Elmhurst, so one more win or Blue Jay loss would keep them out of the #4 seed.

Illinois Wesleyan all but needs to win out to lock up home court for the CCIW Tournament. The anarchist in me is rooting for both Wheaton and Wesleyan to lose out with Carthage winning out to create a three way tie for first, which Wheaton would win by virtue of their head to head sweep of Carthage (Wesleyan would be 1-1 in this hypothetical, putting the Thunder at 3-1 head to head, the Titans 2-2, and the Lady Reds 1-3). Even a tie between just Wheaton and Wesleyan, if Wesleyan's tying loss ends up being to Carthage, would send the conference tournament back to King Arena.

And actually, even a Wesleyan loss to Elmhurst (and Wheaton winning out) would end up giving the tie breaker to Wheaton by virtue of better record in last 7 games.  Both teams would have identical home/road records ...- losses to each other and @ Elmhurst.

So ironically, if IWU does lose again, as long as it's a bad one against Millikin at home this week and then they beat Carthage and EC, they'll still host.

[lmitzel]

On a non-conference tournament note, Millikin announced this morning that Lori Kerans is retiring after this season. It's going to be really weird seeing someone else patrolling the sideline for the Big Blue.

[RogK]

That .670 career winning pct is pretty darn good, but Coach Kerans gets great(er) joy from helping transform girls just out of high school into young women ready to face the world beyond college.
She reiterated that sentiment in her recent interview with Dave on "Hoopsville."
She'll continue to be a very positive influence on numerous Millikin students in coming years.
Congrats on an exemplary career, Lori!