WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU tops Millikin, 78-54.  No surprise, of course, but still a relief - one step closer to hosting the tourney (and hopefully at least one weekend of hosting the BIG tourney).

[GoPerry]

Wheaton 62
Carroll 39

Maggie Dansdill      14 pts, 4 rebs
Hannah Frazier         12 pts, 5 rebs
Jill Berg            12 pts, 4 blks
Devin Kyler         8 rebs, 3 assts

Katie Rossetti         10 pts 5 rebs

Wheaton Ladies were a little sluggish coming out but gradually pulled away from an overmatched Carroll squad. 

[iwu70]

Yes, as Ypsi has reported, IWU over MU at The Shirk, 78-54.

MU:
Saddler 12
Curry 9

IWU:
McGraw 18
Anderson (starting for Shanks) 16 and 6
Ehresman 12, 7 rebounds, 6 assists
Walsberg 8

Titans move to 20-3, in CCIW 13-1.  Two games to go away at Carthage and Elmhurst.  A very good test.

Congrats to Coach Smith and all the team on a 20 win season.  A major achievement.   Keep going.

Nice ceremony honoring Coach Kerans before the game . . . congrats to her again on her long, distinguished career at Millikin.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst 60
North Park 58

Shaylee Sloan: 15 pts, 9 rebs
Brie Lippert: 10 pts
Alisha Panthier: 6 rebs

Kaela Jones: 16 pts, 4:1 a:to, 3 stls
Mikaela Eppard: 11 pts, 13 rebs, 3 stls
Julia Madrid: 12 pts
Kelly Weyhrich: 10 pts

Kelly Weyhrich banked in a runner with 1.3 seconds remaining to ruin Senior Night for the Vikings. Great, well-played game by both teams that was back and forth for the most part, although NPU did run out to a 13-point lead early in the second half that they squandered when Kaela Jones went on a great run for the 'jays. The Vikings did contain Mikaela Eppard for the most part, holding her to 3-13 shooting from the field, but NPU just didn't value the ball enough late in the game, making a crucial unforced turnover in the final half-minute to set up Weyhrich's game-winner.

[lmitzel]

Carthage over NCC 92-56.  The Lady Reds hit 13 of 24 threes and pulled away from a Cardinal team that scored just two points in the first six minutes of the third quarter.

I'll pull up individual stat lines in the morning. If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go back to flipping tables now. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

[lmitzel]

Carthage over NCC 92-56.  The Lady Reds hit 13 of 24 threes and pulled away from a Cardinal team that scored just two points in the first six minutes of the third quarter.

I'll pull up individual stat lines in the morning. If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go back to flipping tables now. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Now that I have a chance to look at the box score...

Bailey Gilbert: 20 pts (7-7 FG, 6-6 3PT), 9 reb
Maddie Kaelber: 20 pts (8-11 FG, 4-5 3PT)
Morgan Harris: 13 pts, 8 reb, 9 ast
Sammie Woodward: 13 pts
Rachel Szydlowski: 10 pts

Maya Walls: 11 pts
Mayson Whipple: 10 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast

Really, I just look at the Gilbert/Kaelber lines and tip my cap while Gilbert does an MJ shrug.

Updated standings:

x-Illinois Wesleyan	13-1
x- Wheaton	13-2
x- Carthage	10-4
x- Elmhurst	9-6
e- Augustana	6-8
e- North Park	4-10
e- Carroll	4-10
e- North Central	3-11
e- Millikin	2-12

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

[GoPerry]

Now that I have a chance to look at the box score...

Bailey Gilbert: 20 pts (7-7 FG, 6-6 3PT), 9 reb
Maddie Kaelber: 20 pts (8-11 FG, 4-5 3PT)
Morgan Harris: 13 pts, 8 reb, 9 ast
Sammie Woodward: 13 pts
Rachel Szydlowski: 10 pts

Maya Walls: 11 pts
Mayson Whipple: 10 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast

Really, I just look at the Gilbert/Kaelber lines and tip my cap while Gilbert does an MJ shrug.

Pretty impressive shooting by those 2 young ladies.  They might wish they had saved a few of them for Saturday when IWU comes to Kenosha.  Or maybe they're just now hitting their stride . . .

[Gregory Sager]

Now that I have a chance to look at the box score...

Bailey Gilbert: 20 pts (7-7 FG, 6-6 3PT), 9 reb
Maddie Kaelber: 20 pts (8-11 FG, 4-5 3PT)
Morgan Harris: 13 pts, 8 reb, 9 ast
Sammie Woodward: 13 pts
Rachel Szydlowski: 10 pts

Maya Walls: 11 pts
Mayson Whipple: 10 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast

Really, I just look at the Gilbert/Kaelber lines and tip my cap while Gilbert does an MJ shrug.

Pretty impressive shooting by those 2 young ladies.  They might wish they had saved a few of them for Saturday when IWU comes to Kenosha.  Or maybe they're just now hitting their stride . . .

Typical. To me, the most impressive line score of the night, above and beyond those two Lady Reds and the line scores of Kaela Jones, Rebekah Ehresman, and Mikaela Eppard, was this one:

Morgan Harris: 13 pts, 8 reb, 9 ast

Morgan Harris is really a remarkable player. She's gotten little love in here aside from Rog's note two days ago, because the Lady Reds don't have an advocate in this room, but her ability to pull down rebounds -- she's second in the league behind Mikaela Eppard in that category in both overall (9.5 rpg) and CCIW (9.9. rpg) play, in spite of the fact that she stands only 5'5 and plays PG (she's fourth in the league in a:to) -- is astounding. (And, yeah, GoPerry, I know that you gave her a hat tip as well after Rog's comment.)

Flirting with a triple-double in only 28 minutes of action is quite a feat. What makes it even more impressive is the fact that she didn't turn the ball over even once, and, remember, we're talking about a point guard who was playing against a team that likes to press. I always put the accent upon a:to rather than simply using assists by themselves as a counting stat, because a:to gives you a better picture of what a player does with the ball in her/his hands when she/he isn't shooting it. And 13-8-9:0 looks even better than 13-8-9.

[RogK]

Saw Elmhurst's two-point win at North Park. It was a close, hard-fought game. The 2nd half was generally well-played. The 1st half was like two turtles trying to climb out of a 14-foot-deep pail.
Both teams like to use a lot of the shot clock, working the ball around until a good lowpost entry pass can be achieved. Both defenses were fully aware of these preferences of the opponent. North Park very effectively packed the lane defensively and, were it not for Kaela Jones hitting three 3FGs, probably would've won the game and maybe ruined Elmhurst's season.
At some point in the 3rd Q, Elmhurst enhanced its defensive energy, including moderate full-court pressure during some NP possessions; this seemed to invigorate the Bluejays.
North Park played about as well as it can, although Ramos and Arnold are capable of better than 1-for-5 shooting.
Elmhurst was delighted to escape with a win and playoff berth, despite mediocre output by key players (again, a good amount of credit to NP's defensive plan). On the positive side : Jones was overall very good; Julia Madrid did very well at both ends of the court. Weyhrich dazzled at the end, with a late-game three plus the game-winning hoop.
NP's Lauryn Alba Garner sat during the latter portion of the game, having sustained a foot injury. Hopefully it repairs soon, to allow her to play more this season.

[Gregory Sager]

I wasn't going to mention it, because I don't want to make excuses for a loss in which the other team did what it had to do in order to win, but losing Lauryn Alba Garner really hurt NPU in the waning minutes of the game. She kept Kelly Weyhrich in check for most of the night (although, in an interesting move, NPU head coach Amanda Crockett had Shaylee Sloan out on the perimeter guarding Weyhrich at the start of the game), and Alba Garner's speed and persistent drives made Weyhrich expend a lot of energy at the defensive end of the floor. And, without Alba Garner's driving ability, an NPU offense that typically seems tentative at even the best of times really broke down at the end of the game. Nevertheless, you have to find a way to win with the players you have available at any given moment, and the Park wasn't able to do that.

Speaking of Sloan, I think that Shaylee probably cemented a spot on the All-CCIW second team with her performance last night. At least, I hope that she did. NPU has had a disappointing January and February after a really solid start to the season, but the Vikings do deserve a player on the All-CCIW list, and Shaylee's the top candidate NPU has. She's one of the best rebounders in the league -- and, when she's engaged in the game and her teammates are working to get her the ball down in the blocks, she's one of the better low-post scorers in the league as well, in spite of her relative lack of size.

[RogK]

I'll go along with Sloan as NP's top player this season, by a narrow margin over Sinead Molloy. Molloy hasn't scored much (5 pts/g) but has an otherwise very admirable game, is a relentless hard-worker. A bunch of other NP players have done well now and then, but it all hasn't added up.
Among the other non-playoff teams, these players certainly deserve (my opinion) all-CCIW consideration : AUG Alexis Jones and Izzy Anderson, CRL Katie Rossetti and Brittney Wald, MIL Devin Curry, NCC Mayson Whipple.
Among the playoff teams : CTG Kaelber Harris (several more Lady Reds have been rather good -- Bernero may have to flip a coin to decide whom to nominate beyond the previous pair), ELM Eppard K Jones, IWU Ehresman Merritt McGraw, WHE Frazier Kyler Dansdill.
Some deserving player(s) will be excluded from all-CCIW; happens each year.
We may see a 1st team talent end up on 2nd team, due to the voting method.

[RogK]

Speaking of all-conference level production, what do we think of a player who shoots .478 FG%, .405 3FG%, .511 eFG%, .770 FT%, averages 11.9 pts, 4 rebs, 1.4 assists, 1.6 steals, all in 15.6 minutes per game?
This was Therese Pettersson, just two seasons ago. This kind of productivity would make her the best offensive player this year on Augustana, Carroll, Millikin, North Park and North Central.

[lmitzel]

Speaking of all-conference level production, what do we think of a player who shoots .478 FG%, .405 3FG%, .511 eFG%, .770 FT%, averages 11.9 pts, 4 rebs, 1.4 assists, 1.6 steals, all in 15.6 minutes per game?
This was Therese Pettersson, just two seasons ago. This kind of productivity would make her the best offensive player this year on Augustana, Carroll, Millikin, North Park and North Central.

[Gregory Sager]

I'll go along with Sloan as NP's top player this season, by a narrow margin over Sinead Molloy. Molloy hasn't scored much (5 pts/g) but has an otherwise very admirable game, is a relentless hard-worker. A bunch of other NP players have done well now and then, but it all hasn't added up.

I think that if NPU had an alternative option for All-CCIW besides Shaylee, it'd be Lauryn Alba Garner. Her quickness is a major factor in NPU's favor against any opponent. i look forward to seeing her develop over the next three seasons, as I do Sinead as well.

NPU has unveiled a crop of freshman guards this year that show a lot of promise in Alba Garner, Molloy, Samantha Bloom, and the injured Zakiya Newsome. They're on the small side for CCIW guards, and their outside shooting needs to improve -- Sophia Lehocky is the shooter in the group, but she needs to develop the rest of her game -- but this is the best crop of guards that the NPU coaching staff has brought in in a long time. What they obviously need to focus upon in this recruiting cycle is bigs. Losing Shaylee Sloan, Brie Lippert, and Clarissa Ramos all at once means a awful lot of minutes that have to be replaced up front for next season's Vikings.

What I think that the team needs most of all, though, is at least one dynamic scorer. The Vikings are near or at the bottom of the league in just about every offensive category. They never really found a way to replace Liz Rehberger's production from last season, and, while a Liz Rehberger doesn't come along every day, I think it's necessary for NPU to bring in more players of that type who have an aggressive, persistent, scorer's mentality. I think that Lauryn Alba Garner has that mentality, but she's also so small that it's hard to rely upon her to carry the offensive load for NPU by herself in a league in which she gets banged around mercilessly whenever she drive to the basket, and in which she has to use a lot of high-off-the-backboard angles when she does get close to the basket.

Speaking of all-conference level production, what do we think of a player who shoots .478 FG%, .405 3FG%, .511 eFG%, .770 FT%, averages 11.9 pts, 4 rebs, 1.4 assists, 1.6 steals, all in 15.6 minutes per game?
This was Therese Pettersson, just two seasons ago. This kind of productivity would make her the best offensive player this year on Augustana, Carroll, Millikin, North Park and North Central.

Therese Pettersson, aka "the Swede who took the wrong turn at O'Hare".

[Mr. Ypsi]

The Around the Region (Central) column is excellent this week (as usual, Adam!) - how could it be otherwise when it focuses on the Lady Titans?!   With Ehresman and McGraw both graduating, SOME regression next year may be inevitable, but the freshman class is SO talented, I don't expect very much of a drop-off.  And I'd give even odds that at least one FF is in the offing before these frosh graduate - and, what the heck, why not start THIS season?!  (They already had a 16-game winning streak earlier this season; just another 10-game streak would give them the national title. )