WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

Certain that all here would concur, here's a wish to all the seniors on all the teams : have a fun, healthy time in your remaining games as college players. Thanks for playing! Thank your coaches for all the things they've done to make you a better player and person. Thank the trainers for tending to your wounds. Thank the people who clean the gym. Then get the hell out and find a cubicle to work in!

[iwu70]

Ditto to RogK just said.  Lots of good folks work hard to make the CCIW season happen. 

IWU70

[Mr. Ypsi]

Certain that all here would concur, here's a wish to all the seniors on all the teams : have a fun, healthy time in your remaining games as college players. Thanks for playing! Thank your coaches for all the things they've done to make you a better player and person. Thank the trainers for tending to your wounds. Thank the people who clean the gym. Then get the hell out and find a cubicle to work in!

Can't they at least finish the semester?!

And many, of course, will be heading to other than cubicles.  Not all liberal arts grads are Dilberts!

[iwu70]

NYU women (2-10 in UAA) also beat Wash U, (8-4) in a pretty good upset, playing in NY.

IWU70

[RogK]

Yeah, the seniors can hang around as long as they like. This is the time of the year to get a little sedimental, or is it sentimentary? Only a handful of games left for us to enjoy the efforts of seniors who have devoted much to basketball. Of course, if they need to play more, there is the summer league at Elmhurst College.

[Backseat Driver]

Halftime:

Carthage 22
Wheaton 21

Tough, defensive battle so far at King Arena.

[iwu70]

IWU 38, MU 26 at the half.  Seibring 13 first-half points.  Gardner and Bilek honored pre-game.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

NPU 42, NCC 40 at the half.

Sarah Peterson has 17 and 6 and Nicole Kruckman has 10 and 8 at the half for NPU.

Callie Rezin, who was NCC's leading scorer in the first matchup between these two teams, already has four fouls.

[iwu70]

IWU up 10  with 7:00 to play.  MU won't go away.  Seibring has 23 and 7 already.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

YES!

Kamauria Acree's layup with one-tenth of a second left wins the game for NPU!

Final:
NPU 91
NCC 89

Three-way tie for fourth place!

[Backseat Driver]

Final:
Carthage 47
Wheaton 44

Carthage
Cailee Corcoran- 16 points, 8 rebounds
Michelle Wenzel- 9 points, 5 rebounds
Haley Stercic- 9 points
Stephanie Kuzmanic- 8 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists

Wheaton
Brooke Olson- 15 points, 5 rebounds
Lauren Graham- 8 points, 4 rebounds
Maris Hovee- 6 points, 10 rebounds

Congratulations to coach Tim Bernero, his staff, and the Carthage Lady Reds on wrapping up the 2013 CCIW Championship with a hard-fought victory over Wheaton tonight at King Arena. It was exactly the type of game you would expect from the top 2 defensive teams in the league. The largest lead for either side was a 42-34 edge for Carthage late in the game.

The difference tonight was that Carthage's defense was just a little bit better than Wheaton's. The Lady Reds simply didn't give Wheaton room to breathe offensively, every shot was contested. Haley Stercic freed herself for two huge 3's in the second half that ended up turning the momentum of the game.

It was a heavyweight fight, and the better team won. Wheaton had its chances to get back in the game at the end, but Carthage clamped down on defense when it mattered most.

Wheaton will wrap up the regular season by hosting Elmhurst next Tuesday, before facing Illinois Wesleyan up in Kenosha to open the CCIW Tournament on Saturday.

[iwu70]

Titans win by a whisker, 72-70 on a game-winner by Melissa Gardner, on Senior night.  What a great way to go out.  Give all credit to MU, they fought back from 21 down and had three tries at tying or winning the game in the last .10 seconds.  Katy Seibring with a massive gave, doing it all, with 27 points, about 10 boards.  I think she's getting close to wrapping up the CCIW scoring title for this year. 

Warm congrats to Michelle Bilek and Melissa Gardner on Senior Night.

IWU  goes to 17-7, 10-3 in CCIW play.  Keep it rolling Green.

IWU70

P.S.  Congrats to NP on their big win over NCC.  Any result from CC-WC?  ms

[iwu70]

Congratulations to Carthage for their outright CCIW regular season championship.

Sounds like a very hard-fought game at WC.  Congrats to WC on a great regular season and for finishing 2nd, outright, in the league.

Tournament games will likely be equally hard-fought. 

IWU almost let one slip away tonight.  Gotta give MU all the credit for fighting back from 21 down to tie the game and to have 2-3 shots in the last .10 seconds to tie or win the game.  Katy Seibring had a massive game tonight and, as you would hope to script it, Melissa Gardner, on Senior Night, hit the 10 foot jumper from the FT area to win the game with about .15 seconds remaining.  A great game too.

Seems to me that IWU, CC, and WC are not all that separated so the competition for the CCIW AQ will be quite a battle next weekend.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 91
North Central 89

Sarah Peterson: 31 pts, 11 rebs, 8 asts, 5 blks, 5 stls
Nicole Kruckman: 20 pts (9-9 FG), 10 rebs
Kamauria Acree: 20 pts, 6 rebs, 6 asts
Dominikque Williams: 7 rebs
Shaina Yalda: 6 asts

Sophie Newson: 14 pts, 7 rebs
Larynn Shumaker: 14 pts, 6 rebs
Kimberly Wilson: 11 pts
Callie Rezin: 5 rebs, 4 asts

FG%: NPU 54% (38-71), NCC 43% (32-75)
trey%: NPU 60% (3-5), NCC 43% (15-35)
FT% NPU 80% (12-15), NCC 50% (10-20)
reb: NPU 50, NCC 34
TO: NCC 22, NPU 28

A gutty win tonight for a North Park team that finally found a way to close out a nail-biter.

NPU never had a lead bigger than seven and NCC never had a lead bigger than three in a game that saw nine ties and 13 lead changes. NPU did have a four-point lead with a minute and a half left, and I thought that the Vikings looked as though they had both their legs and their composure at that point. But NCC's remarkable performance from beyond the arc continued, as Kelsey Cooling hit a trey with 1:01 left to put the Cards down by only a point, and after Shaina Yalda turned the ball over on a charge at the hoop, Larynn Shumaker's and-one runner put the Cards up by a point, 87-86, and her ensuing FT made it 88-86 with a half-minute left. At that point, I'm thinking, "Uh-oh. Here we go again." But Sarah Peterson, who played a game tonight that was nothing short of dazzling, hit a clutch trey herself with 23 seconds left to put the Park back up by a point. Nevertheless, Kamauria Acree fouled Sophie Newson with nine seconds left, and the Cards had yet another opportunity to go ahead. But she split her pair of FTs, setting up a NPU timeout with five seconds left and the game tied. The Cards were no doubt thinking that the ball was going to Peterson, but the Yalda pass instead hit Acree coming down the lane off of a high screen set by Nicole Kruckman. Her runner off the glass banked in with only a tenth of a second left, too late for the Cards to do anything but throw the ball down the length of the floor in frustration.

If Sarah Peterson isn't this week's CCIW Player of the Week, there oughta be a criminal investigation. She set a new career high for points tonight, came pretty darned close to a triple-double, and had five blocks and five steals, to boot (with only three turnovers). Yeah, as a power forward she scored a bunch of layups on the press break, but she also hit a number of pull-ups from the lane and from the baseline, and even made a pair of treys, with the big one at the 23-second mark being easily the biggest shot of her entire North Park career. Her performance this evening was nothing short of remarkable.

Nicole Kruckman did a great job of finishing off of both press breaks and perimeter-trap breaks, and Kamauria Acree got a number of tough layups and runners to go, including the game-winner. Sophie Newson and Larynn Shumaker played terrific games for NCC, and the Cardinals' shooting from downtown was amazing. What really hurt the Cards, though, was their inability to consistently make free throws. They also turned the ball over a lot, ending up with only a +6 in the all-important (especially for a System team) turnover category, which was more than made up for by NPU in terms of turnover margin.

A great, great, clutch road win for the Vikings.

[iwu70]

Truly a monster game by Sarah Peterson.  Congrats to her and to NP on their win.

IWU70