WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

New poll is up.  The IWU/Wheaton game (plus other results over the last three weeks) had quite an effect: IWU falls from 14 to 18; Wheaton jumps from 3 points to #24!

Alas, no one else in the conference gets enough national respect for much rise in their positions until the re-match.

[GoPerry]

New poll is up.  The IWU/Wheaton game (plus other results over the last three weeks) had quite an effect: IWU falls from 14 to 18; Wheaton jumps from 3 points to #24!

Alas, no one else in the conference gets enough national respect for much rise in their positions until the re-match.

Nobody else has less than 5 losses except the two.  Plus, according the Massey, IWU and Wheaton have played the 3rd and 5th, respectively, most difficult schedules so far this season.  So I think they both merit recognition.  #4 UST has the most difficult schedule followed by #2 Thomas More who is blistering soon-to-no-longer-be undefeated #7 UMHB by 20 right now.  Not sure what TM has to do to get ranked #1.

[gordonmann]

Here's my ballot for your bemusement.

1 Thomas More
2 Bowdoin
3 Mary Hardin-Baylor
4 Amherst
5 Scranton   
6 St. Thomas (Minn.)
7 Trine
8 Hope
9 George Fox   
10 East Tex. Baptist
11 Wis.-Oshkosh
12 Ill. Wesleyan
13 Tufts
14 Wartburg
15 DePauw
16 Messiah
17 Wheaton (Ill.)
18 Saint Joseph's (Me.)
19 DeSales
20 Chicago
21 Wis.-Eau Claire
22 Geneseo
23 Gettysburg
24 Transylvania
25 Whitman

Once or twice a year I'll blow up my ballot and start all over. I did that this week because of all the relevant results over the holidays and the distance we're getting from games that occurred during the first week. For example, I don't think Messiah loses to York (Pa.) if they play again.

I was really looking forward to the Thomas More/Mary Hardin-Baylor matchup. I've watched the Cru a couple times and am impressed by their depth and athleticism. And then TMU took a 32-9 lead after one quarter.

Madison Temple is the best player in Division III women's basketball right now, but Emily Schultz looks like the difference between whether the Saints are beatable (like they were on Saturday when Schultz struggled with foul trouble) or not (like tonight). Tonight's results notwithstanding, I think UMHB would match up favorably with Scranton, Tufts  and St. Thomas .

We're at the point in the season where the results aren't clean and linear anymore. So Transylvania is pretty far behind the Trine team they beat and Eau Claire is behind Wartburg, despite the head-to-head result.

For now I'm putting more weight on IWU's dominant results against DePauw and Wartburg than I am on the one-point loss to a Chicago team that's scuffling now and the two-point loss to Wheaton. And if I think that much of IWU, then it follows that Wheaton shouldn't be too far behind them. I don't know what to make of Chicago, but they have two bad showings in a row and I weighed that more heavily than the wins over IWU and Wheaton.

I'm wary of elevating teams that lack a high quality win this far into the season. St. Joseph's (Maine) has a nice, balanced team and Kelsi McNamara is another player who's in the national POY conversation. But I wish the Monks had a more useful point of comparison. Is the best team in the GNAC really better than the best team in the CCIW, WIAC or NWC?

I'm also wary of teams that haven't played anyone period. It's not Geneseo's fault that they haven't played since December 8. But I've dropped them from No. 19 to No. 22 as other teams have accumulated quality wins.

I had trouble picking a 25th team. Ultimately I went with Whitman, even though the Blues resume is hard to decipher, hedging my bets that they will play George Fox close enough to merit entering the Top 25.

[Mr. Ypsi]

FINAL:  TM 73, UMHB 55.  If that doesn't take them to #1, then nothing but a Bowdoin loss will.  Thomas More's season is already almost over (they are now 22-0), since they don't have any real conference and had to front-load their schedule before potential opponents got into conference play. 

[iwu70]

I think the rankings for IWU and WC are reasonable, fair at this point.  Hopefully both make the dance in March.  Still a lot of basketball to be played.  Just keep winning, game by game, and all will be well come CCIW and national tournament time.  Gordanmann, thanks for sharing your ballot and your thinking -- esp. about Chicago.  TM looks unstoppable to me.

IWU'70

[Mr. Ypsi]

Halftime in Chicago, but the game is essentially over:  IWU 51, NPU 23.

[iwu70]

Ypsi, agreed.  We can watch the men's game.  Titans shouldn't have let NCC back in toward the end of the half.   

Women are dominant tonight -- sure glad Sydney Shanks was not seriously injured, re-entered the game.  Looked like a shoulder or elbow stinger. 

Take one game at a time, build the resume for the post-season.  Hope WC goes down in an upset tonight vs. MU.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan 93
North Park 60

Josie Summerville: 14 pts, 13 rebs
Sinead Molloy: 11 pts
Jayla Johnson: 8 rebs

Nina Anderson: 19 pts, 4 stls
Maddie Merritt: 18 pts, 6 rebs
Sydney Shanks: 15 pts, 6 rebs, 6:3 a:to, 3 stls
Raven Hughes: 10 pts, 7 rebs

Weird game. It was a six-point contest midway through the second quarter when IWU suddenly started jumping passing lanes in the halfcourt, picked up a few trapping steals in the press, and got white-hot from long range. NPU just fell apart as IWU ran off a 29-5 streak to build a 31-point lead in the final minute of the half, and it looked like it was going to be an epic runaway.

But North Park came out in the third quarter with something like an 18-1 run, IIRC, and, to everyone's shock, it was a game, as the Vikes got the deficit down to 12. But that's as close as they got. NPU simply couldn't sustain that kind of shooting, as IWU packed it in tight in the halfcourt and dared the Vikes to hit jumpers rather than drive to the hole. At the other end of the floor, IWU found itself again, and soon the Titans started building the lead back up. In the fourth quarter the Vikings simply ran out of gas and the Titans turned it back into a laugher.

NPU outrebounded the Titans, 46-41, as freshmen Josie Summerville and Jayla Johnson completely controlled the glass, but the turnovers (as is usually the case when NPU plays IWU) were ugly -- 30 for NPU, only 15 for the Titans.

If Amanda Crockett can somehow figure out what the Vikings were doing right during that stretch in the first six or seven minutes of the third quarter and then coax it out of her young team on a regular basis, NPU could really have something going in the second round-robin.

[duckfan41]

Wheaton escapes with a 76-75 win at home over Millikin. This game was ugly. A 3 point heave at the buzzer from Millikin accounted for the final score.

Hannah Williams: 21 points and 3 rebounds
Hannah Frazier: 15 points and 10 rebounds
Jordan Myroth: 13 points 6 rebounds and 9 assists
Jennifer Berg: 11 points and 12 rebounds
Devin Kyler: 8 points and 4 rebounds.

Big Blue:
Aubrey Staton: 25 points and 6 rebounds
Yanni Saddler: 15 points and 5 rebounds
Jordan Hillibrand: 11 points and 10 rebounds

Millikin won every quarter tonight except for the 3rd, where Wheaton managed to gain enough breathing room to hold on for the win. Millikin deserves to win this game tonight. They had more energy than Wheaton all night (save the 3Q), and outrebounded the much taller Thunder team for much of the game.

Wheaton shot an abysmal 15-28 from the free throw line, while Millikin shot 12-14. Millikin shot 37.8% from the field while Wheaton posted a 51.9% clip from the field; however, both squads made 28 shot attempts. I can't seem to find the blocks numbers in the box score, but Wheaton's length inside played into a plethora of blocks for Wheaton, and diverted many Big Blue layup attempts. Wheaton ended up winning the rebounding battle 43-38, which is way to narrow of a margin considering the size advantage Wheaton had across the board tonight. Happy to come out with a win, but the Thunder need to play much better than they did tonight the rest of the way.

[GoPerry]

Wheaton escapes with a 76-75 win at home over Millikin. This game was ugly. A 3 point heave at the buzzer from Millikin accounted for the final score.

Hannah Williams: 21 points and 3 rebounds
Hannah Frazier: 15 points and 10 rebounds
Jordan Myroth: 13 points 6 rebounds and 9 assists
Jennifer Berg: 11 points and 12 rebounds
Devin Kyler: 8 points and 4 rebounds.

Big Blue:
Aubrey Staton: 25 points and 6 rebounds
Yanni Saddler: 15 points and 5 rebounds
Jordan Hillibrand: 11 points and 10 rebounds

Millikin won every quarter tonight except for the 3rd, where Wheaton managed to gain enough breathing room to hold on for the win. Millikin deserves to win this game tonight. They had more energy than Wheaton all night (save the 3Q), and outrebounded the much taller Thunder team for much of the game.

Wheaton shot an abysmal 15-28 from the free throw line, while Millikin shot 12-14. Millikin shot 37.8% from the field while Wheaton posted a 51.9% clip from the field; however, both squads made 28 shot attempts. I can't seem to find the blocks numbers in the box score, but Wheaton's length inside played into a plethora of blocks for Wheaton, and diverted many Big Blue layup attempts. Wheaton ended up winning the rebounding battle 43-38, which is way to narrow of a margin considering the size advantage Wheaton had across the board tonight. Happy to come out with a win, but the Thunder need to play much better than they did tonight the rest of the way.

I didn't see it, but it looks like another fairly lackadaisical performance for Wheaton (12-3, 6-0).  The Big Blue (5-10, 1-5) had 20 more shot attempts than the Thunder, likely due to 19 turnovers (-5) by Wheaton and – 5 on the offensive glass.  Wheaton should be winning these games going away, clearing the bench.

At least good to see Hannah Williams come up with a nice game.  I sense she's been struggling a little the last few games.  The other Hannah, Frazier, finished 2 blks short of the triple double with 8.

[duckfan41]

Wheaton escapes with a 76-75 win at home over Millikin. This game was ugly. A 3 point heave at the buzzer from Millikin accounted for the final score.

Hannah Williams: 21 points and 3 rebounds
Hannah Frazier: 15 points and 10 rebounds
Jordan Myroth: 13 points 6 rebounds and 9 assists
Jennifer Berg: 11 points and 12 rebounds
Devin Kyler: 8 points and 4 rebounds.

Big Blue:
Aubrey Staton: 25 points and 6 rebounds
Yanni Saddler: 15 points and 5 rebounds
Jordan Hillibrand: 11 points and 10 rebounds

Millikin won every quarter tonight except for the 3rd, where Wheaton managed to gain enough breathing room to hold on for the win. Millikin deserves to win this game tonight. They had more energy than Wheaton all night (save the 3Q), and outrebounded the much taller Thunder team for much of the game.

Wheaton shot an abysmal 15-28 from the free throw line, while Millikin shot 12-14. Millikin shot 37.8% from the field while Wheaton posted a 51.9% clip from the field; however, both squads made 28 shot attempts. I can't seem to find the blocks numbers in the box score, but Wheaton's length inside played into a plethora of blocks for Wheaton, and diverted many Big Blue layup attempts. Wheaton ended up winning the rebounding battle 43-38, which is way to narrow of a margin considering the size advantage Wheaton had across the board tonight. Happy to come out with a win, but the Thunder need to play much better than they did tonight the rest of the way.

I didn't see it, but it looks like another fairly lackadaisical performance for Wheaton (12-3, 6-0).  The Big Blue (5-10, 1-5) had 20 more shot attempts than the Thunder, likely due to 19 turnovers (-5) by Wheaton and – 5 on the offensive glass.  Wheaton should be winning these games going away, clearing the bench.

At least good to see Hannah Williams come up with a nice game.  I sense she's been struggling a little the last few games.  The other Hannah, Frazier, finished 2 blks short of the triple double with 8.

Hannah hit a huge 3 with about 1 min to play that gave Wheaton the cushion they needed to hold on for the win. I don't think I've ever seen Wheaton miss more free throws as a team than they did tonight, if they make half of the ones they missed, the final seconds would have been much less stressful.

[iwu70]

Wheaton escapes vs. MU.  Olivia Lett trying to get her team to believe. 

IWU running hot and cold, then pulling away.  Sure glad Shanks was not injured seriously. 

One game at a time . . . and another crack at Wheaton upcoming.

IWU'70

[iwu70]

Titans now 12-3, 5-1.

Keep it rolling, Titans.

IWU'70

[lmitzel]

Carthage came to Naperville last night and left with a win for the first time since Stephanie Kuzmanic pushed off on her game winner in 2014 with a 67-57 victory over the Cardinals. Carthage has struggled to shoot in Merner in years past, but went 8-21 from deep in this one, paced by 22 points from Madie Kaelber and a 16-10-5 night from Bailey Gilbert. The Cardinals did do a pretty good job defending the paint, limiting Rachel Szydlowski and Maggie Berigan to just 17 points on 7-17 shooting. But the offense went ice cold again, with Haydn Braun the only player in double figures for the Cardinals with 14.

[RogK]

Elmhurst over Carroll, 77-70 --
ELM :
Marissa Urso 15 pts (.875 eFG%), 3 stls, 5 rebs
Kelly Weyhrich 13 pts (.813 eFG%)
Lisa Logan 8 rebs, 5 assists
CRL :
Kayla Stefka 22 pts (.955 eFG%), 6 rebs
Katie Rossetti 21 pts from 8/12 FG, 5/6 FT
Celina Schwantes 7 rebs, 3 stls