WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

Having now seen the recap of the IWU/Kean game, and therefore checking the play-by-play more carefully, I see I misrepresented the Titan comeback somewhat.  The teams basically traded baskets throughout the game (neither team ever led earlier by more than 8) until IWU detonated one of their patented 'blasts'.  From about 8 minutes left until the game was already in hand (about 1+ minutes), the Titans went on a 17-0 tear!  That took them from -7 to +10.

They can't always do that (and I sure as he!! hope they don't think they can and start relying on it! ), but there have been numerous games in the last few years where that has happened.  Warning to opponents: leads against the Titans are fragile things!

[ronk]

   IWU didn't panic despite the many 6/7/8 point deficits in the 2nd half against #3 on the road. The players played within their capabilities, as a team, not individuals, hit a good % of their FTs throughout, and preserved the lead when they finally got it, effectively using up clock. Having seen Kean on videocasts 5 times this year, consider me impressed with the Titans. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

New poll is out.

IWU jumps to #11 (though still trailing now #9 Kean), Carthage remains at #16, Millikin has 12 points.

[iwu70]

Congrats to IWU's Brittany Hasselbring, CCIW Player of the Week!  Great job "out East," Brittany! 

Yes, seems IWU should rise above Kean after beating them pretty well in Union, NJ last week.  Titans now at #11 in the week 5 poll. 

[RogK]

Saw the 68-59 Millikin win over Elmhurst last night.
EC did an effective job containing Elise Wildman, holding her to 10 pts. And they limited Julia Robert (capable of 20 or 30 in any game) to 14.
However, Heather Pruemer had a dazzling debut for the Big Blue. She was basically unstoppable in the low post, making 9 of 12 FG on her way to 20 pts in 18:00.
Megan Ney led EC with 17 pts, 7 rebs, 5 steals. Kim Schwerdtmann had a sharp game, making 6/7 FG and 4/5 FT in her 19:00.
In this game, Elmhurst's defense was good enough, but their shooting wasn't. Other than Schwerdtmann, they made 14 of 52 FG att. This could be attributed to Millikin's defense and Elmhurst's methodical passing. Millikin did a lot more "skip passing" than did the Jays, enabling some better looks at the basket.
Astute readers will note that I have curtailed my posting here. Another interest of mine, airplane photography, has more of my enthusiasm now. This is a worldwide hobby, but is not real big in the US. See http://www.airliners.net/.
I just got back from a week in Ft Lauderdale/Miami, where I shot approximately 600 airplane photos. Anyway, I will attend fewer basketball games this season and seeing Olivet Nazarene (love that fast pace) will be my first choice, CCIW teams 2nd.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU scratched out a 58-49 win over Augustana in the CCIW season opener for both teams, in spite of the fact that the Park went through a dreadful twelve and a half minute stretch on offense in the second half in which the hosts only scored five points. Fortunately, NPU started that stretch with a 19-point lead, so Augie was too far behind to fully exploit the NPU scoring drought. Augie was unable to get any closer than six points in the second half.

Roxie Jones led the way for NPU with 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 steals, while Sarah Peterson (12 points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks, 5 steals) seemed to be everywhere on the floor (including, of course, on the actual floor itself!). Dana Christensen also contributed 10 points in the win. Augie was led by Natalie Runge's 17 points.

Not an impressive win, as Augie really isn't very good. But a W's a W, as they say. Still, North Park will need to play much, much better in order to beat Millikin on Saturday.

[thunder38]

Big win for Coach Madsen's crew tonight at King as Wheaton upsets Carthage 66-62. Wheaton did a terrific job all night long attacking off the dribble and never letting the Carthage posts get established.  Wheaton led 30-28 at halftime but quickly found themselves trailing 44-30 out of the break.  Wheaton stayed calm and went back to lead 52-49 and it went back and forth from there with Wheaton pulling it out.  Bowen and Brooks were outstanding in the second half keeping Jacklin from touching the ball and Potts did a nice job slowing down Corcorran.  Wheaton held Jacklin to 11 points, 5 boards, as her biggest asset was five blocks but the Thunder attacked her and she ended up fouling out with 1:21 to go.  Karsten finished with 15 and seven and Brenneman tallied 14 and eight for the Thunder. 

Wheaton has the schedule, they could be looking at 4-0 in conference play heading into Bloomington in two weeks.  Could be interesting.

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU downed Carthage, 70-60, in Kenosha.

I missed the game and no box or recap is yet posted, so if anyone else knows any details, go for it!

[thunder38]

From what I could tell just by watching the live stats it didn't look as close as the final score.  Carthage jumped on top early but after the first few minutes Wesleyan got their feet under them and pulled away from there.  Once again it looked like the game plan was to take away Jacklin and force the rest of the Lady Reds to beat them and again it paid off. 

Pretty entertaining game over at the Hangar as well.  Wheaton really looked like they had an intensity letdown coming off the upset of Carthage on Wednesday night.  They had a chance to put North Central away early with a 29-21 lead but the Cards closed the half strong and continued to make it a game.  As unfortunate as it was, the game swung on the injury to Christine Karl after she went down hard after colliding with Brooke Olsen at midcourt.  After that Wheaton slowly pulled away and finally got to the free throw line late to ice it away.

Congratulations to Lindsey Brenneman who was named to d3hoops.com national team of the week and has shown why with big performances again this week.

[Mr. Ypsi]

New poll out.  IWU continues it's climb back up, rising from 11 to 9.  With two losses, Carthage fell all the way from 16th (211 points) to ORV with 20 points - which tied them with Millikin, who rose from 12 to 20 points with two wins.

[iwu70]

IWU wins pretty easily in Decatur tonight, holding the Big Blue's top scorer to 7.  Good distribution of scoring, but Hope Schulte still struggling with her shot.  If the Titans put it all together, they can go very far in the DIII dance.  Returning home for a home Final Four still the dream, still the goal.  Keep up it Titans! 

[bblover]

Five inches of snow could not stop Carthage from crushing Elmhurst last night at Faganel Hall. You never know what to expect when these two teams meet. Three years ago, in coach Werner's initial season as head coach, horrific weather delayed Carthage's arrival, and after an abbreviated warm-up, Carthage fell far behind in the first half. They did rally in the final 20 minutes, but Elmhurst still won, a key victory in its surprising 8-6 run into the CCIW playoffs. Last year, Elmhurst looked like they barely warmed up before the game, lucky to be behind by only 16 at halftime. An impressive rally led by Lyndsey Long (who ended up scoring an incredible 45 points) pushed Elmhurst into the lead in the game's waning minutes, and then lightning struck. A half-court shot at the buzzer went in and Elmhurst lost a heartbreaker. Of course, Elmhurst got revenge at the CCIW playoffs.

For the most part, it was a defensive struggle in the first half. Kelsey Monroe's clean strip off a defensive rebound led to a Monroe three-pointer two minutes into the game. It gave Elmhurst its only lead of the game as well as Elmhurst's only points until the 10:33 mark. Carthage was only somewhat better as Elmhurst did a nice job clogging the middle. Carthage did take a 10-point lead but Elmhurst was able to cut it to 6 on two occasions. The half ended poorly for Elmhurst. With a chance to narrow the lead to 8 in its final possession, Elmhurst turned the ball over, and Carthage cashed in two free throws with no time remaining.

In the first couple of minutes of the second half, Elmhurst remained in the game, perhaps remembering last year's rally; it was just a 10-point lead with 17 minutes left. Then it got very ugly. Eight minutes later, Carthage was up 30. Similar to the first half, Elmhurst managed to score only two points in those eight minutes. Unlike the first half, however, Carthage netted an impressive 22 points, seemingly scoring at will from both inside and outside. I did not see the final 10 minutes, but I understand that Elmhurst cut the lead from 30 to 14 in the final six minutes.

While I have only seen Elmhurst games so far this season, and it is still very early in conference play, my predictions are that IWU will win the CCIW easily, but still lose a game, maybe two in conference. I expect Carthage to finish second and Millikin to be a close third. Wheaton should complete the playoff picture. Of course, when asked how many games the Bears would win this year, I said that they would be lucky to win 8 (I should have said 8 by November). Injuries almost always play a role and every season has more than a few surprises. That is why I go to the games. Good luck to all. 





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[RogK]

North Central topped North Park 75-73 in OT last night.
NC's Jackie Errico made both FTs with :07 left in regulation, saving the game (and the season, in my view; 0-3 is a deep hole to climb out of to get back into contention for the conference playoffs) for the Cardinals. And Jenny Swanson hit some huge shots in the OT, scoring 7 of NC's 9 pts.
Swanson led NC with 18 pts, while Sophie Newson added 13. Sophie reminds me a lot of Latrice Newson, who was on NC last year. (ha!)
Jasmine Tracy had 11 pts and 4 steals. Emily Collins had 9 rebounds.
Two of the best players from these teams had really crummy shooting nights: Christine Karl went 1 for 10 and Sarah Peterson 0 for 11. But both contributed well in other ways, as expected.
Roxie Jones had a very nice game for NP, scoring 27 (9/16, 9/12), to go with 7 steals and 11 rebs. Antoinette Collman made 8/9 FGs and scored 17. Teammate Dana Christensen scored 14, including a clutch three to tie it at 73 with :10 to go. But then Swanson hit the game-winner for the visitors.

[Hoosier Titan]

IWU wins pretty easily in Decatur tonight, holding the Big Blue's top scorer to 7.  Good distribution of scoring, but Hope Schulte still struggling with her shot.  If the Titans put it all together, they can go very far in the DIII dance.  Returning home for a home Final Four still the dream, still the goal.  Keep up it Titans!  

I got back from a work trip too late to make the drive to Decatur and watching the video, which was very nicely done.  (The play-by-play guy does need to find some verbs besides "to mug", though!).  The color guy was much more balanced.

Very good performance all around by the Titans.  Wildman was very effectively taken out of the game by double teaming, and no one else was able to step up for the Big Blue.

While Hope Schute did shoot 3/10, she had a 4/1 A/TO ratio, 2 blocks, 4 steals, and generally kept things moving well.  Olivia Lett apparently dislocated a finger in the first half but came back to shoot 3/3 in the second. The Titans shot 56% from the field, and nearly the same on 3s, so overall the shooting was excellent.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU is certainly struggling. Losing to NCC at home is a bad outcome, no matter how you slice it; the Cards will be a second-division team again this season, so any team with CCIW tourney aspirations has to take care of business against them. NPU blew a seven-point lead late in the game, couldn't even get off a shot at the end of regulation in a situation in which the game was the Vikings' to win, and missed two crucial free throws that would've given the Vikings a three-point lead with 1:12 left in the extra stanza.

Sarah Peterson did shoot an 0-fer for the night, but she contributed in other ways. She had eight assists and five blocks and did a terrific job defensively. Roxie Jones, Dana Christensen, and Antoinette Collman, as noted, played outstanding basketball last night for North Park.

It was good to see Danielle Cathey get her first action of the season for NPU. The Vikings are thin in the backcourt, so her contributions will be greatly welcomed.

Because of this loss, NPU is going to have to steal a win somewhere in order to get back in the race for a CCIW tournament spot. I can't think of a better time and place to steal a win than on Saturday in King Arena against a Wheaton team that'll be a pretty sizeable favorite going into that game.