WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Wesleyan's PA announcer mispronounced the names of two of NPU's starters. I can't wait until he tries to negotiate "Przybyslawski".

[Gregory Sager]

Well, he got the "ski" part right.

It seems like I ask this question a dozen times every season: How hard is it for a PA announcer or a broadcaster to simply ask somebody from the opposing team before the game how to pronounce the names?

(And I have no idea why he insists upon pronouncing Amani Davis's first name as "Amana".)

[iwu70]

IWU gets a much-needed home win, breaking their losing streak. Now 7-9, 1-4

IWU 89 NPU 72

Reaber 23 and 8
Holness 16 and 6
McGraw 14 and 4
Ehresman 12 and 4
Ellsworth 9 and 5

For NPU:
Soly Roman 23 and 9
Rehrberger 17

This time, even though again hugely outrebounded, the Titans stayed in their game down the stretch, attacked the basket and played better D late in the second half.  Good balance and good contributions off the bench.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of a good run.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan 89
North Park 72

Soly Roman: 23 pts, 9 rebs
Liz Rehberger: 17 pts
Shaylee Sloan: 6 rebs
Rachel Torres: 5 asts

Kasey Reaber: 23 pts, 8 rebs
Gabrielle Holness: 16 pts, 6 rebs
Molly McGraw: 14 pts
Rebekah Ehresman: 12 pts

What an absolutely brutal second half by North Park. Time and again the Vikings beat the press, only to turn it over in the back third of the forecourt -- mostly because they weren't looking up the floor. The Vikings turned the ball over 25 times today, the vast majority of them in the halfcourt when they had 3-on-3 or 3-on-2 situations.

Illinois Wesleyan played with a lot more energy today than did the Vikings, as can be seen by the 19-9 advantage that the Titans had in offensive rebounds. A lot of those were long misses that the Titans simply went after out on the floor with a lot more alacrity than did the Vikings. IWU also shot well from midrange in the second half and thus kept the Vikings from making any sort of a run.

And thus NPU squanders the momentum that it had after Wednesday's big win over Wheaton. Now the Vikings are right back down in the hole that they've dug themselves. They've got to develop some consistency. And they'd better do it fast, because Elmhurst at Faganel is going to be no cakewalk next Wednesday, either.

[Gregory Sager]

Augie had a one-point lead on Wheaton with :18 left in the game at Carver, but couldn't hold on. Since Millikin upset Carthage in Kenosha and North Central edged Elmhurst in the airplane hangar, there's now a three-way tie for the top of the standings, with Carthage, Elmhurst, and Wheaton all knotted up at 4-1.

[iwu70]

Surprised to see MU beat Carthage.  WC got quite a scare too.

IWU needs also to find consistency now and keep up the kind of intensity, esp. in the last 7-8 minutes of each second half, that they displayed vs. NPU. 

Still a lot of basketball to be played.

'70

[iwu70]

Congrats to IWU's Kasey Reaber on being named CCIW Player of the Week.  Well-deserved, playing at a high level all year, even with injury. 

IWU70

[iwu70]

New poll, WC to 16, NCC still at 22.

'70

[iwu70]

Good win for the Titan women at home, showing more fortitude and resiliance down the stretch.  Winning over Augie at The Shirk, 84-71.  Up by 20+, then down to 6, then pulling away for a 13 point win.

K. Reaber 26 and 5 and 5
Holness 18 and 9
Ehresman 10 and 7
McGraw 19 and 3

Augie had all five starters in double figures, led by Marrissa Pezzonpane with 13.

Titans now 8-9, 2-4 in CCIW.  Just gotta keep crawling back, get back in the mix for a CCIW tournament spot.

Kasey Reaber is putting together some pretty impressive numbers, a very consistently high quality season, especially in CCIW play.  It ain't always beautiful, but it's working for her and for the TITANS.   

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 64
Elmhurst 54

Liz Rehberger: 20 pts
Annie Shain: 10 pts

Fiona McMahon: 19 pts, 12 rebs

NPU picked up a nice win at Faganel Hall last night. The Vikings rolled out to a 23-point lead in the first half before the offense got stuck in neutral in the second half, in which NPU only shot 25% from the field. Fortunately, the defense stayed in high gear all night for the Park, as Elmhurst turned the ball over 28 times -- 14 in each half -- with Vikings steals accounting for 22 of those 28 turnovers.

Now the Vikings will return home to face the score-by-the-truckload North Central Cardinals, who are fresh off of a 101-72 crushing of Carthage at Gregory Arena last night, on Saturday afternoon. It's never easy to call a North Central women's game; I think I'll take a vow of silence all day Friday and Saturday in order to rest my voice.

[iwu70]

Greg, LOL.  Yes, your exhaustion may only be surpassed by those trying to keep track of NCC's substitutions at the scorer's table.

IWU had NCC beat, then let them slip away. 

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

Greg, LOL.  Yes, your exhaustion may only be surpassed by those trying to keep track of NCC's substitutions at the scorer's table.

I think that a lot of scorer's tables bring in extra help -- i.e., a spotter -- to assist the live stats operator when a Grinnell system team like the NCC women is in the house. I know that North Park and Elmhurst do so.

[Naperick]

Elmhurst 86
Illinois Wesleyan 61
-1st win for the Bluejays over IWU in Elmhurst since 1999

[iwu70]

EC over IWU big at EC, 86-61.

McGraw 18
Ellsworth 12

Poor shooting night again by the Titans, tough EC D -- Titans at 18% on threes, only 38% on FTs.

For EC:
McMahon 24
Eppard 18
Summerline 13

Holness did not play.  Must be flu or something.  Not sure. 

IWU now 8-10, 2-5.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

North Central 95
North Park 90

Nicole Kruckman: 22 pts, 14 rebs
Soly Roman: 20 pts, 12 rebs
Nikki Przybyslawski: 13 pts, 6 asts
Amani Davis: 11 pts
Annie Shain: 10 pts
Rachel Torres: 7 asts
Shaylee Sloan: 7 rebs
Liz Rehberger: 6 rebs

Jamie Cuny: 21 pts (6-9 trey), 8 rebs, 3 blks
Corinne Rowe: 17 pts
Tess Godhardt: 11 pts, 7 rebs
Therese Pettersson: 6 rebs

This was a seesaw game for most of the contest, until North Central managed to open up a sliver of daylight by making it a two-possession lead for most of the final minute and a half. I'm sure that a lot of people who watched this game chalked up NPU's loss to exhaustion, as the Vikings were coming up short on most of their shots at the end of the game and looked a quarter-step slow on defense, and there's truth to that. The Vikings have an eight-player rotation, and it's hard to deal with the Arseneault system NCC uses unless your rotation goes deeper than that. But I think that the bigger problem was free-throw shooting; the Vikes only went 16-28 (57%) from the line, and those misses were costly.

NPU's struggles to find some consistency continue. Now the Vikings will take on a reeling Carthage team on Wednesday; the Lady Reds have lost three games in a row, so this will be a contest between two teams that each need a win very badly. Something's gotta give.