WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

I couldn't decide whether to go to the North Park game or the IWU game, so I stayed home; as a result, all of the dishes are clean!
Congrats to NP for defeating a good U of C team (better than their W-L record at this stage).
From the IWU stats, I see that Michelle Bilek had 15 rebounds in 22:00; not bad. ONU guard Miranda Geever had 10 steals, also not bad.
Augie had no trouble (75-47) with Blackburn and evened up the season record at 3-3. Gianna Pecora scored 16 (including 4 of 8 threes), while teammate Alexandria Lee grabbed 8 rebounds in 16:00.

[iwu70]

Yes, Clarke.  Thank you copy editor, Mssr. Sager.

Sadly, it appears that Kasey Reaber may be lost to an ACL injury, perhaps for the season.  We don't know yet how serious.  Very tough as she was to provide substantial minutes backing up the PG and the 2, coming off a 6 game hiatus due to the thumb/hand injury.  She only got into two games before going to the disabled list again.  Very sorry for Kasey.  As a result, we'll probably see much more of Kaitlyn Mullarkey (love the name!), and perhaps more of a few of the other freshmen perimeter players.  Initiation by fire last night. 

Do take a look at that ONU-IWU boxscore, as it is a Grinnell-like system game of stats.  80+ rebounds by the Titans and both teams putting up almost 100 shot attempts.  Sadly, not quite enough of the Titan shot attempts fell in last night to match the slightly better, helter-skelter, frenzied play of ONU. 

Titans have another NAIA challenge on Thursday vs. U of St. Francis.  No rest.  Finals next week, then another road game on 12/15 vs. Stevens Point.  Indeed, no rest.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

Yes, Clarke.  Thank you copy editor, Mssr. Sager.

I didn't simply make the correction to be picky. It actually might make a difference somewhere down the road, since Wheaton could well be a Pool C candidate this year. While Clark isn't an in-region opponent for any CCIW team, naturally, it's a team that might go up against Wheaton or some other CCIW team for a Pool C berth (the Cougars are currently 5-1). Under such circumstances, a head-to-head result between Wheaton and Clark could be a very significant secondary-criterion outcome.

On the other hand, a game against NAIA Clarke is essentially irrelevant -- especially since the only other D3 team that the Crusaders play this season, Carthage, has already beaten Clarke as well. The only time an NAIA team ever enters the discussion in the D3 championship committee's selection and seeding process is if that NAIA team played two D3 teams that are being evaluated against each other and are deadlocked in terms of primary criteria in the opinion of the committee.

[iwu70]

Greg, the things you know about D3 and NAIA hoops never cease to amaze me.  Truly.

Do take a look at the ONU-IWU boxscore.  It is also something amazing.  Only seen ones like that in previous ONU-IWU games in recent few years and, of course, boxscores from Grinnell games on the men's side.  Perhaps we'll see a few like that vs. NCC women this year, as I hear they are using the ONU/Grinnell type system, or at least trying to adopt it.

IWU70

[iwu70]

Titans, 4-3 at U of St. Francis (NAIA) 3-5 tonight, 7 p.m.  Last game before finals week, then Titans have the Point @SP on December 15th.

Titans need a win, must be pretty leg-weary, shooting arm weary, after the IWU-ONU run and gun fest on Tuesday last.  We'll see tonight another good test, to see how the Titans overall fitness has come up after 7 early season games.

IWU70 

[Gregory Sager]

Greg, the things you know about D3 and NAIA hoops never cease to amaze me.  Truly.

Do take a look at the ONU-IWU boxscore.  It is also something amazing.  Only seen ones like that in previous ONU-IWU games in recent few years and, of course, boxscores from Grinnell games on the men's side.  Perhaps we'll see a few like that vs. NCC women this year, as I hear they are using the ONU/Grinnell type system, or at least trying to adopt it.

No need for me to look at that box score. I've seen lots and lots of Grinnell men's box scores over the years, so the types of numbers produced in a game that features a team that employs the Arseneault System no longer hold any novelty for me.

The NCC women are indeed using the Arseneault System this season. The box scores for the Cardinals -- vs. Olivet, vs. Alma, vs. Monmouth, vs. Benedictine, vs. Central, and vs. Luther -- all have the distinctive Arseneault System look to them.

[iwu70]

IWU over St. Francis tonight, 73-69.

Gardner 19
McMahon 16
Bilek 12 and 7
Jackson 10
Seibring 7

Perhaps Michelle Bilek's most complete and solid game of her career.  Titans win the rebounding and TO battles tonight, and come out with a good road win.

Exams all next week, then SP game away on the 15th.

Good to see the Titans win tonight, now 5-3.  Still hoping for 8-3 in pre-CCIW portion.  A tough road still ahead.  Three more games, all away, before the opening CCIW contest.

IWU70

[RogK]

Carthage 84, Trine 34 : Carthage held Trine to .228 overall FG pct; Kristi Schmidt had a very productive 21:00 with 14 pts and 10 rebs. Teammate Kasey Kleiner hit 5/7 3FGs in 17:00.
Elmhurst and Millikin suffered defeats : Loras 72, E 57, Wash U 71, M 42.

[iwu70]

IWU sophomore Kasey Reaber has an ACL injury, suffered in the ONU game.  She's likely out for the season.  Tough, big loss for the Titans.  Likely means we'll see more of Kaitlyn Mullarkey backing up the PG, and also perhaps more of some of the other freshmen/sophomore perimeter newbies. 

Next Titan game, 12/15 @WI-Stevens Point. 

So far this season, seems the formula for IWU wins is very balanced scoring, even with 5 players in double figures, and somehow winning the rebounding and turnover battles.  Any number of 5-7 players on IWU can be the top scorer, though Gardner and Seibring have emerged so far.   In the last few games, the starting line-up has been:  PG-Baltes, 2-Gardner, 3-McMahon, 4-Seibring, 5-Jackson.  Bilek is first off the bench and often gets more minutes than some starters.  She's such a hard-worker, with great intensity and energy.   Others in the rotation are:  Mullarkey, T. Reaber, Scurlock.  Titans are still pretty under-sized and may struggle at times with rebounding.  All the more important to get the D, and the run and jump in finer form.

When the scoring is balanced, the Titans are pretty tough, hard to defend and can put up enough points, use their D to win games.  Pretty clear that this group is not as effective yet with run and jump, with open-floor run and gun, with ball-handling, and can struggle when pressured, or when they shoot a poor percentage, turn it over.  Not very surprising.  Also, need to work more on half-court sets offensively, and strong half court D of various types.  Mia Smith commented after the U of St. Francis win that, to paraphrase, "they needed more time to practice than to prepare for the next opponent."  Sounds about right to me. 

This is all to say that the CCIW race will probably show more parity than in recent seasons when it was pretty clear that the Titans often dominated most CCIW opponents.   I still have the Titans winning the league and hopefully the tournament too, but it's going to be one tough race, IMHO.  WC and CC are playing very well so far, as is NP.  NCC will be a challenge too with their Grinnell/ONU type system improving with more games. 

Time will tell.

Good luck on exams everyone! 

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

The Vikings will soon be on the air! (Figuratively speaking, of course, since it's actually webstreaming rather than radio.) I will be leaving my customary place at the scorer's table for NPU, where I've been the official scorer for about a decade now, and will take on the task of being the play-by-play voice of the Vikings for all NPU women's home games, starting with the next home game. That'll be a week from tomorrow afternoon, as the Vikings play host to Westminster. I'm greatly looking forward to it, and it'll be nice to have the NPU women's team get the same sort of audio/video exposure for their home games that the North Park men's team has had for the past three seasons.

Meanwhile, the Vikings are currently enmeshed in a contest in downstate Carlinville against Blackburn. That school has neither media nor live stats, so we'll have to simply wait around in the dark and see how NPU fared once Blackburn posts the final score online.

[mr_b]

Meanwhile, the Vikings are currently enmeshed in a contest in downstate Carlinville against Blackburn. That school has neither media nor live stats, so we'll have to simply wait around in the dark and see how NPU fared once Blackburn posts the final score online.

The Blackburn site is reporting that North Park defeated Blackburn 75-48.

[Captain_Joe08]

Wisconsin Lutheran beats Millikin 59-46 at the Crannell Holiday Classic

Story: http://www.wlcsports.com/article.asp?articleID=2933

[Backseat Driver]

Wheaton over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 70-34.
Maris Hovee with 15 points and 14 rebounds.

[mark_reichert]

Meanwhile, the Vikings are currently enmeshed in a contest in downstate Carlinville against Blackburn. That school has neither media nor live stats, so we'll have to simply wait around in the dark and see how NPU fared once Blackburn posts the final score online.

Ya know, when I attended the game between the Battlin' Beavers and WashU on 12/9/00 at the Fabulous Beaverdome, I could only think one thing when I walked in:  This is the closest I've ever seen to Cosby's skit on the Wissahickon Boys Club.  Any basketball fan who hasn't heard it really should.

The other thing I knew about Carlinville before going was that it has largest contiguous collection of Sears homes in a single neighborhood in the United States. 

[iwu70]

NPU 70 Fontonne 48 FINAL
Loras 60 CC 48 FINAL
EC 62 Webster 43 FINAL

IWU70