WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Congrats to Kendall Sosa, again, for making the D3hoops.com "Team of the Week" for the second straight week.  After that 47 point outburst, this was all but certain . . .

Keep going Titans, keep going Kendall.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Faganel:

North Park 58
Elmhurst 47

Jayla Johnson: 21 pts, 12 rebs, 3:1 a:to
Emily Czuhajewski: 10 pts, 3 stls
Josie Summerville: 6 rebs

Kelly Weyhrich: 15 pts
Courtney O'Donnell: 9 rebs
Taylor Harazin: 8 rebs
Payton Schmidt: 6 rebs
Mia Riese: 3:1 a:to
Marissa Urso: 4 stls

File under: That's More Like It!

The Vikings went into one of their periodic offensive slumps in the second quarter, as they didn't even make a field goal in the first six minutes of the stanza. Elmhurst used that slump to extend to a 26-15 lead. And at that point the light seemed to come on for the Vikings. They took advantage of the double teams on Jayla Johnson to dribble penetrate and get to the basket, where they helped themselves with a lot of deft interior passes for assists. They pulled to within 27-24 at the half, and then the NPU defense went into beast mode in the second half. The Vikings outscored Elmhurst, 16-5, in the third quarter, and then put the game away in the fourth, pulling out to a 58-38 lead before Amanda Crockett called off the hounds and started subbing in the end of her bench.

Kelly Weyhrich got her points against NPU, as she usually does, but she had to work for them, putting up 12 shots to get her 15 points and turning the ball over six times. The Vikings really made Courtney O'Donnell's night miserable, giving her no room to breathe underneath the basket as she shot only 3-16 from the field.

Jayla Johnson was the big producer, as usual, but the Vikings got really solid nights as well from Sinead Molloy, Lauren Lee, and Emily Czuhajewski.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll bounced back from its debacle of a loss Saturday to Elmhurst by dropping winless Carthage, 56-47, tonight at Van Male Gym.

[RogK]

Nice work last night by the Pioneers' Elizabeth Behrndt : 3 steals, 15 rebounds, 12 points (missing just 1 FG att and 1 FT att).
Through 5 games played, her FG% (and eFG%) is .774.
And after making 2 of her first 12 FTs, she's gone 6 for 9.

[RogK]

Statistics displays on the CCIW site continue to be substandard* :
https://cciw.org/stats.aspx?path=wbball&year=2020
For example, go under Game Highs, Individual ... instead of Kendall Sosa on top with 47 pts, it has Jayla Johnson with 21 for Elmhurst. Jayla plays for North Park and her season high is 24.
Now lets click on Leaders and "FG / 3FG / FT" ... there is exactly 1 player listed in the 3pt % leaders, but directly below that we find a list of 23 players in the category of threes made per game.
*and absurd and defective.
Incidentally, there is presumably a minimum quantity of makes (per team's game) in order to be listed in shooting % leaders. Ideally, this cut-off point would be shown, as it used to be a few years ago.
Oh, here's another silly one ... across the page from the aforementioned 21 pts by Jayla Johnson, we have a list of FT Attempts. Wouldn't we be more interested in FTs Made?

[iwu70]

RogK, I noticed these deficiencies as well . . . something askew, amiss.  Poor reporting by the schools? 

'70

[RogK]

Uh, no, it's not a lack of data.
Augustana returns to action tonight after a two and a half week lull.
They began the season with a 27 point loss to Wheaton, but turned things around quickly, enjoying a pair of 6 point victories over North Central and then a 10 point decision over Elmhurst.
Now they have a home-and-home vs North Park.
Under the category of "that's just a coincidence and stop wasting our time mentioning this" : through their first four games, Augie has committed four more fouls in each succeeding game, 13 v Wheaton, then 17, 21 and most recently 25. This constitutes a definite pattern, so they will commit 29 tonight. You could bet someone else's house on it!

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Rock Island:

North Park 66
Augustana 52

Sinead Molloy: 15 pts, 7 rebs, 3 stls
Zakiya Newsome: 15 pts, 6:2 a:to
Esther Miller: 12 pts
Chantel Hairston: 10 pts, 5 stls
Jayla Johnson: 11 rebs
Josie Summerville: 8 rebs

Hannah Simmer: 10 pts, 8 rebs
Lauren Hall: 9 rebs, 3:1 a:to
Gabriela Loiz: 3:1 a:to

What a weird game. NPU's two big guns, Jayla Johnson and Emily Czuhajewski, scored a combined nine points on 4-20 shooting ... and yet the Park pulled away to a relatively easy road win. It's gratifying to see the other Vikings step up and assert themselves on the offensive end of the floor; Sinead Molloy hit three treys from beyond the arc in the first quarter to set the pace (she was 5-6 from downtown for the night), and Esther Miller, Zakiya Newsome, and Chantal Hairston were right there with her to pick up the scoring slack.

[Gregory Sager]

Other scores:

Wheaton 68, Carroll 57
Carthage 70, North Central 62
Millikin 81, Elmhurst 55

Wheaton was the only team to hold serve at home tonight.

[lmitzel]

NCC led by as many as eight early in the 4th, but was held scoreless over the final five-plus minutes as the Name Redacted (that's what I wrote on my sheet but didn't say over the mic) got their first win of the year.

Lauren Knight paced Carthage with 21, Ayanna Ester scored 11, and Bridget Barrett logged 10 and 11. NCC got 21 from Allison Pearson (5 threes), 10 from Haydn Braun, and 8 and 9 from Mitrese Smith.

[GoPerry]

Wheaton over Carroll 68-57

Red hot shooting by the Pios helped by a very slow start by Wheaton saw Carroll race out to an early 15-0 lead.  But then the Thunder turned up the D a notch or two which also propelled their offense to come alive and by halftime they clawed back within 1 at 31-30.  The third quarter was tight but the home team broke it open in the fourth.

The Thunder were led by Annie Tate with 21 pts, 8 rebs followed by Hannah Williams with 19 and 7.  Soph Ellie Cassell, who has been delivering very high quality minutes off the bench recently, finished with 12 pts, 5 rebs. 

For the Pios Theresa Wichser had 12, Kayla Stefka with 10 and Kate Christian 8 pts, 6 rebs.

The same two teams will play in Waukesha on Saturday.

[Peter Nicholson]

Statistics displays on the CCIW site continue to be substandard* :
*and absurd and defective.

Speaking of absurd, the site's WBB Schedule has IWU playing both NCC and Millikin simultaneously on 23-feb at 7pm in Bloomington.  I know IWU is good, but . . .

[RogK]

Yeah, the Millikin @ IWU game appears to be the erroneous one.
If the CCIW website people are aware of the inaccuracies in the WBB stats, then at a minimum a bold disclaimer should be posted where one accesses those numbers.
Don't be content with silently deceiving viewers.
Better yet, don't show the stats at all, since they are known to be wrong and no one is fixing them.

[RogK]

Among coaches, we may see a variety of approaches in this abbreviated season.
Some seem to be giving minutes to a lot of players, allowing as many as possible to "get their feet wet" in college hoops.
Elmhurst's Tethnie Carrillo has done some of that, but has played seniors a lot.
Her top five in minutes played are seniors : Weyhrich 331 in 9 games, Urso 291, Cabrera 232, O'Donnell 218, Riese 152.
I bet a portion of this could be some sentimentality toward letting these players end their careers with a lot of action, gratitude for their dedication to the team ; of course there is also the idea that they give the team the best chance of winning.
Some or all of the seniors could be eligible to play another season, but that may not happen. Who knows.
Injuries to others may also be a factor.

[RogK]

Carthage has selected a new nickname :
https://athletics.carthage.edu/news/2021/2/19/general-carthage-selects-firebirds-as-new-team-name.aspx
That's OK with me.
Firebirds is easy to say. Pronouncing Carthage is a bit more difficult, involving tongue adjustments; one can injure oneself if not cautious.