WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[lmitzel]

Carroll's offense has managed 42, 46 and 36 in recent games, reminiscent of last season. Things looked a lot better earlier in the season, but perhaps fatigue and/or nagging injuries are taking a toll.

For what it's worth, I went to look at their strength of schedule (.538, ranked 122nd in D-III). That number is 8th in the CCIW; only Millikin's is lower. While this doesn't have a breakdown of non-conference versus conference SOS, when you consider Carroll's record (2-7 in conference, 3-6 out of it), that could play a factor as well as fatigue. Their first bye was in the December portion of the CCIW schedule, and their second comes this weekend. The injury thing is possible too, as Rachel Van Sluys has only played seven games and none since their win over North Central three weeks ago, and she averaged 22.4 minutes a game in her seven played (and is also their leading scorer by average still).

[iwu70]

This weekend, Pink Zone game at The Shirk -- IWU hosting NPU -- with fundraising efforts, proceeds going to the local Cancer Center.  Great basketball, great cause.  I hope everyone turns out and makes a donation to the good efforts of the IWU team and for an important service and facility in the Bloomington/Normal community.  Of course, this effort is particularly close to Coach Smith's heart.

Keep going philanthropic TITANS!

IWU'70

[RogK]

prior results of today's schedule :
Dec 2 - Wheaton 63, Millikin 46
Dec 9 - Carthage 74, Augustana 67
Jan 13 - Illinois Wesleyan 83, North Park 53
Jan 20 - Elmhurst 77, North Central 55

[iwu70]

In the Pink Zone game @The Shirk @the half -- IWU 44, NPU 23.

'70

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan 105
North Park 53

Samantha Bloom: 13 pts

Ashley Schneider: 18 pts
Molly McGraw:  14 pts, 4:2 a:to
Raven Hughes: 14 pts
Nina Anderson: 11 pts
Sydney Shanks: 7 rebs'
Rebekah Ehresman: 6:2 a:to, 3 stls

This one went pretty much according to form. NPU just doesn't have either the experience or the firepower to hang around with the teams in the top half of the conference, and the Vikes have the look about them of a team that's been beaten down by a lot of blowout losses this month. They're playing with less and less energy over the past couple of games and really appear demoralized. Boy, I hope that they're still having fun, though ... that's what the game's supposed to be all about.

[iwu70]

Yes, Greg has given a good summary.  IWU just plays at a different speed altogether.

They are deep and had many other players score 7-9 points as well.  Now 11 deep in the regular rotation. The freshmen are really impressive -- Hughes, Sosa, Munroe and Brovelli.  Schneider one of her best games of the year.

Titans shooting 53%, 44% from 3, holding NPU to 36%, only 8% from three. 

Pink Zone game to raise money for the Bloomington/Normal Cancer Center . . . and, by the looks of the video feed, a pretty nice crowd tonight.  I hope they raised a pretty penny for the Center. 

Titans scoring at a clip that is very unusual for women's basketball -- must be one of the top five in the country now. 

17-2, 10-0 . . . and moving on toward the big game vs. WC on February 7th.  That will be a stiff test.

'70

[RogK]

Carthage got a big win at Augie, 80-74. Carthage is 7-3 and Augie 5-5, instead of them being tied at 6-4.
Madie Kaelber scored 11 pts in the final 2:29, finishing with 19, one less than teammate Rachel Szydlowski. Rachel also had 14 rebs and 3 assists.
For the Vikings, Scooter Lopez had 14 pts and 7 assists.
Elmhurst 61, North Central 41 -- good production from Mikaela Eppard (18 pts, 4 assists, 11 rebs), Kaela Jones (11 pts, 6 rebs, 6 assists) and Mayson Whipple (17 pts, 4 assists, 3 steals).
Wheaton 75, Millikin 53 -- ten Thunders scored, including Kristi Demski, who tallied 11 pts. For Millikin, Devin Curry scored 16, while Lauren Moses grabbed 12 rebs.

[RogK]

your CCIW standings :
10-0 IWU
8-2 WHE
7-3 CTG ELM
5-5 AUG
3-7 NPU
2-7 CRL
2-8 NCC
0-9 MIL
If this were next season, a 0-9 team would still be in contention for the 6th conference playoff seed.

[Mr. Ypsi]

BIG game on Wednesday - Carthage @ Wheaton.  IF Carthage can pull what IMO would only be a mild upset, the race (for the regular season) is over - the Titans are NOT gonna lose 3 games!  (I doubt they will even lose two, which would mean you can already book conference tourney reservations for B'town. )

On the men's side, the Titans are also up 2 on any competitors.  IF they win in Rock Island on Wednesday, BOTH tourneys will almost certainly be in Bloomington.  I spent some time on the CCIW site this evening, but could find nothing about the conference tourney schedules.  Anyone know if there is any overlap that could make having both tourneys at the same location problematic?

[iwu70]

Ypsi, if the TITANS can get by WC on the 7th, then they have a shot at 16-0.  We'll see.

Hope both tournaments in Bloomington @ The Shirk -- not sure what they would do -- perhaps women's games at 1 and 3 p.m., clear the Shirk, then men's games at 6 and 8 p.m.?   Next day, the two championship games -- perhaps one at 3 p.m., clear the building again, and one at 7 ? 

Not sure.

Sure nice to be way out front at this stage.  Lots of key games to go.

'70

[lmitzel]

I spent some time on the CCIW site this evening, but could find nothing about the conference tourney schedules.  Anyone know if there is any overlap that could make having both tourneys at the same location problematic?

The overlap wouldn't be an issue. They'd do the women's semis on the Thursday, men's semis on the Friday, and do the title games back to back on the Saturday. I think I'd seen something about that on the CCIW site somewhere along the line, but I don't remember for sure.

[lmitzel]

Elmhurst 61, North Central 41 -- good production from Mikaela Eppard (18 pts, 4 assists, 11 rebs), Kaela Jones (11 pts, 6 rebs, 6 assists) and Mayson Whipple (17 pts, 4 assists, 3 steals).

North Central didn't get their doors blown off in the opening quarter, as they only trailed 21-8 after one and 31-18 at the break. It was the third quarter that doomed them as they went scoreless for over half the frame and ended up trailing by about 25, though to their credit they did manage to cut it to 12 midway through the 4th.

It's been a rough year results wise, but they're still never out of a game and they've made a lot of nice 4th quarter runs. For what it's worth I thought they did a pretty decent job on Eppard last night too, 18 and 11 aside.

[Titan Q]

Through 10 CCIW games, IWU is out-scoring CCIW opponents 912 to 582 (91.2 to 58.2 per game).  +33 scoring margin is pretty nuts. 

[iwu70]

Indeed, Q.  Pretty nuts and lovely to behold.  They are playing at a very high level and high speed, with great team defense and team offense.  Ehresman's scoring average goes down, and the Titans rise higher and higher.

IWU'70

[Mr. Ypsi]

Through 10 CCIW games, IWU is out-scoring CCIW opponents 912 to 582 (91.2 to 58.2 per game).  +33 scoring margin is pretty nuts.

And the margin is GROWING!  Last 3 games the Titans basically doubled the scores of Carroll (89-46), NCC (108-54), and NPU (105-53)!   That's partly because those are three of the weaker teams in the conference, but I think also because the talented freshmen are no longer newbies.  I'm feeling more and more that this team could be special (as in FF or beyond)!