WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

Jayla Johnson has to be this week's CCIW Player of the Week.

[Gregory Sager]

She'd better be the CCIW's Player of the Week.

[iwu70]

As hoped for, the Titans shot a better percentage tonight, continued their excellent defensive pressure and found the three ball as part of their game tonight, winning over Carroll 75-62.

For CU:

Berhrndt 12
Rohner 12

For IWU:

Powers 16 on 4-8 from three
Lansford 13 on 3-4 from three
Huber 12 and 10
Palmer 10
Heller 10
Eck 8, and some good steals, good defense

The Titans improving game by game . . .esp. on the defensive end.  I have to give a shout-out to Kaia Bowen.  She is just unrelenting, rebounding, tipping balls, making plays . . .  she's an energizer bunny for sure.  Makes a lot of contributions that don't show up on the stat line. 

Lansford getting better, more comfortable at PG, and found her three shot tonight.  The Titans were 10-23 overall from three, making a big difference.  Overall % a much improved 47%.

So, my conclusion is that IWU is proving to be in the middle of the CCIW pack . . .  and Carroll's record was deceivingly good.  IWU the better team tonight. 

The three freshmen -- Huber, Powers and Palmer -- making a huge contribution.

Heller had a nice game tonight, esp. getting into the lane for short 8-10 foot jumpers. 

Very good effort, and Carroll not giving up, fighting back after being down double digits early, but then the Titans put them away with more defensive pressure and some better shooting tonight. 

Encouraging.  This team is figuring it out, how best to play given then talent, the rotation they have.  Two of the freshmen now starting.  Tonight, it was Bowen, Eck, Lansford, Powers and Huber . . .  Carlson, Heller and Palmer coming off the bench in the rotation . . . 

Greater tests ahead vs. Wheaton, MU, and NPU.

Now exam week.

IWU'70

[lmitzel]

North Central bounced back from its disastrous trip to the University of Chicago with a solid 50-40 win in the airplane hangar over Carthage. No stats posted yet, so I'll leave that for Lucas's recap.

Yeah, poor Nick Osterloo (our assistant SID) was pulling double duty on basketball tonight, so I think the stats might have gone up a little late.

NCC scored the first eight of this one and never trailed, leading by double digits for a pretty good chunk of the game. Carthage got no closer than within eight in the fourth. Shooting 22.6 percent from the floor, including 4-22 from deep, will do that to you.

Mitrese Smith led the way with 15 and 5, Allison Pearson added 13 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals, Elle Sutter had a good night with 9 and 11, and IxChel Leeuwenburgh chipped in a quiet 5 and 11 (I didn't think she played great necessarily, then looked at the stats and went "oh, she had double digit rebounds again.") Lauren Knight missed a chunk of the game with a leg injury, but ended up playing 29 minutes and paced Carthage with 15 points (including 3-3 from deep), Marianna Morrissey scored 10 off the bench, and Destiny Antoine chipped in 7 and 6.

NCC played great defense in this one and managed to close it out despite shooting 2-14 in the fourth.

[RogK]

While looking at Carthage stats, I noted some good FT shooters.
I decided to check all CCIW players for FT pcts of 90% or better and at least one made per team games played.
These cut-offs were selected arbitrarily, but if you can't be arbitrary, what can you be?
AUG none
CRL Katie Rohner 23/25 .920
CTG Emma Thistle 10/10 1.000
       Lauren Herrmann 7/7 1.000
       Ayanna Ester 12/13 .923
ELM Marissa Urso 13/14 .929
       Katie Matrise 10/11 .909
IWU none
MIL Abby Ratsch 9/10 .900
NCC none
NPU none
WHE none

[iwu70]

Shooting percentage and FT shooting percentage has been an issue for the Titans.  They are improving, but it is taking time to put this new edition of the IWU squad together, for the CCIW race.  Great room for development and improvement, and lots of new experiences for the freshmen, three of them now playing a major part in IWU's rotation, two of them starting.  If Eck, Bowen and Lansford can play better consistently, and the Titans get some rebounding help off the bench from Carlson and Palmer, this team could be pretty good.  In this last game vs. Carroll, they finally got some treys to fall.  As I've mentioned a number of times, they are figuring it out still. 

Wheaton this next weekend will be another step, another test in their development.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

While looking at Carthage stats, I noted some good FT shooters.
I decided to check all CCIW players for FT pcts of 90% or better and at least one made per team games played.
These cut-offs were selected arbitrarily, but if you can't be arbitrary, what can you be?
AUG none
CRL Katie Rohner 23/25 .920
CTG Emma Thistle 10/10 1.000
       Lauren Herrmann 7/7 1.000
       Ayanna Ester 12/13 .923
ELM Marissa Urso 13/14 .929
       Katie Matrise 10/11 .909
IWU none
MIL Abby Ratsch 9/10 .900
NCC none
NPU none
WHE none

I acknowledge that you were at least setting a minimum for your analysis, Rog, but the truth about free-throw shooting is that quantity matters even when quality is the topic. That's why 30 N. Brainard sets a minimum higher than yours; the CCIW's stats recognize a minimum of two made FTs per game played rather than one. Thus, the only player you've cited who qualifies for the CCIW leaderboard is Katie Rohner.

Yeah, it's an arbitrary cutoff point, just like yours, but it's a better arbitrary cutoff point, because it weeds out players whose sporadic opportunities for free-throw shooting don't allow their performances to be really much of a factor in the outcome of games. The league's preferred cutoff point illustrates why NPU's Jayla Johnson is a far more valuable free-throw shooter than Thistle, Herrmann, Ester, Urso, Matrise, or Ratsch. Jayla Johnson is fourth in the league in FT attempts with 38, trailing only Annie Tate of Wheaton (33-44, .750), Taylor Harazin of Elmhurst (26-40, .650), and Bailey Coffman of Millikin (29-39, .744). Yet Johnson is shooting a whopping .868 from the line, trailing only Rohner's .920, Allison Pearson (like father, like daughter) of North Central with .879, and Johnson's teammate Emily Czuhajewski with .875. Jayla has made 33 free throws this season, tied with Tate for the most makes in the league -- and Jayla's shot six fewer attempts than has Annie.

That is what free-throw shooting is all about: quantity and quality combined.

[RogK]

Let's include Gabriela Loiz among those who have made a lot of FTs and at a good rate.
She is 28 for 35 (80%) in Augie's 8 games.
Greg, or anyone else, what would you say is a FT% low enough to where it's a good idea to foul that player when she's inside the 3 point arc? Of course I qualify the question noting that you don't want your better players committing too many of those fouls.
I'm thinking it's in the vicinity of 55%. In the old days of one-and-ones, it would be a higher pct.

[RogK]

Congrats to the new CCIW Player of the Week, Jayla Johnson.

[Gregory Sager]

Let's include Gabriela Loiz among those who have made a lot of FTs and at a good rate.
She is 28 for 35 (80%) in Augie's 8 games.

Definitely, and I'd include her teammate Macy Beinborn (24-32, .750) as well.

Greg, or anyone else, what would you say is a FT% low enough to where it's a good idea to foul that player when she's inside the 3 point arc? Of course I qualify the question noting that you don't want your better players committing too many of those fouls.
I'm thinking it's in the vicinity of 55%. In the old days of one-and-ones, it would be a higher pct.

I've always felt that it was 60%, but there's nothing wrong with a 55% cutoff, either.

Congrats to the new CCIW Player of the Week, Jayla Johnson.

Congrats to Jayla! Well-deserved, and arguably overdue as well.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Jayla Johnson on Player of the Week honors.  Some great performances. 

IWU'70

[RogK]

another statistical analysis : player rebounds per 100:00 of 25 or better and at least 3 per her team's games
AUG (8g, so 24+ rebs) - Lauren Hall 31.2 (81/260), Hannah Simmer 27.1 (48/177)
CRL (6g, 18+ rebs) - Allison Thompson CCIW-best 38.5 (42/109)
CTG (7g, 21+ rebs) - none
ELM (8g, 24+ rebs) - Taylor Harazin 34.1 (58/170), Marissa Mussatto 27.3 (44/161)
IWU (7g, 21+ rebs) - Lauren Huber 26.3 (50/190)
MIL (8g, 24+ rebs) - Abby Ratsch 32.7 (36/110), Sophie Darden 31.3 (26/83)
NCC (8g, 24+ rebs) - IxChel Leeuwenburgh 33.6 (77/229)
NPU (7g, 21+ rebs) - Josie Summerville 26.6 (21/79)
WHE (9g, 27+ rebs) - Ellie Cassel 33.0 (70/212), Annie Tate 30.0 (90/300)
- -

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage 55
North Park 42

Emily Czuhajewski: 13 pts
Josie Summerville: 7 rebs
Jayla Johnson: 4 stls

Ayanna Ester: 12 pts
Kelsey Coshun: 12 rebs
Destiny Antoine: 8 rebs

Now I know how Wheaton fans felt last Wednesday. The Vikings shot an absolutely abysmal .273/.125/.526 line tonight. A lot of that was good Carthage defense, but a lot of it was NPU taking bad shots and missing the good ones they had. The Firebirds doubled Jayla Johnson every time she had the ball inside the free throw line, and the Vikings never made them pay for it.

Fortunately for the Vikings, they play Elmhurst (1-8, 0-2) on Saturday, and the Bluejays this season are the cure for what ails you. They were obliterated on their home floor tonight by Millikin by 35 points.

[GoPerry]

The Thunder ladies got a solid win at home, 62-50 over the Lady Pios of Carroll.

Ellie Cassell led Wheaton with 14 pts, 9 rebs while Annie Tate had 12 and 5.   Freshman Annika Richardson had a nice game with 7 pts, 6 rebs.  Wheaton really turned up the defensive pressure on the Pios and really did't let them get any offensive rhythm.

Hannah Swider had only 7 pts and missed all 6 of her treys.  But she was much more aggressive offensively, driving the lane and dishing, than I ever recall seeing her.  Up to this point she had been a spot up shooter hanging out by the arc.  But she's a decent enough ball handler that driving, and scoring that way could really help the team.  I would like to see more out of that from Carolyn Sikkink and Lily Schwen also who are both capable.

Wheaton shot free throws much better tonight.  But nobody will get into RogK's 90% bracket. 

Carroll was led by Katie Rohner with 13 pts, 5 rebs, 2 stls.

[lmitzel]

I missed this one due to illness (thankfully not COVID), but NCC fell to UW-Stevens Point by a 57-51 margin. They did overcome a big early hole, as the Pointers scored the first ten points of the game and led 20-9 after the opening 10 minutes. The Cardinals did force some late back and forth, but the Pointers took the lead for good with about four minutes to play.

IxChel Leeuwenburgh paced the Cardinals with 12 and 6, Megan McClure added 10 and 9, and Allison Pearson finished with 8 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. The Cardinals shot an abysmal 2-14 from beyond the arc and just 9-19 from the free throw line in this one.

Jamie Pfeifer and Jessica Slowik each scored 10 for the Pointers, while Taylor Greenheck added 9.