WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[lmitzel]

North Central blew a 15 point 4th quarter lead and lost to Wilmington 74-70, making it back to back road heartbreaking losses. Lyndsay Brennan paced the Cardinals with 12, and Hannah Vitkus and Maya Walls each added 11.

[RogK]

Alexis Jones excelled for Augustana, pouring in 28 pts (11 2FGs in 15 FG att, 6/8 FT), adding 6 steals and 6 rebs, as the Vikings topped Webster 63-59.
Izzy Anderson added 16 pts.
Carroll 53, Ripon 44 : Alyssa Cruz tallied 13 and Celina Schwantes contributed 11 pts, 7 rebs. Hmm... 53-44, I wonder why they didn't play the 2nd half.

[RogK]

Five Titans scored in double figures as IWU defeated DePauw 80-60. Riley Brovelli did particularly well, not missing a shot, 5/5 2FGs, 4/4 FT, 4 assists, 10 rebs. Kendall Sosa scored a very efficient 12, while IWU also got 14 each from Nina Anderson and Maddie Merritt, plus 10 from Sydney Shanks.
Elmhurst won 72-71 in OT at Redlands. Kellee Clay scored 19 (via .643 eFG%). Becca Gerke had 7 rebs, 3 steals and 14 pts.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Tomorrow, IWU will take on their fifth top 25 team in the first six games!   Coach Smith has never been shy about taking on the best, but this may be ridiculous! 

Of the four top 25 opponents so far, they have lost to two at home by a combined six points, and beaten two on neutral courts by a combined 36 points.  I'm eager to see what the voters are going to say about such results.  I could easily envision going up, going down, or staying about the same.

[RogK]

Cornell will not be playing at Carthage on Sunday, avoiding potential travel difficulties. Heavy snow is expected along their Iowa-Wisconsin route. The composite schedule on cciw.org has been updated.

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU pulled away in Q2, and leads #18 WashU by 18 (47-29) at the half.  Two of yesterday's stars, Nina Anderson and Riley Brovelli, have yet to score a point - amazing depth for the Titans means they can always find new stars!

[Gregory Sager]

Albion 79
North Park 51

Jayla Johnson: 11 pts
Josie Summerville: 6 rebs

Albion jumped out to a 17-3 lead in the first five minutes, and never looked back. Their press and sideline traps led to a lot of bad decision-making by the Vikes, which, considering how common it is to see presses now in the CCIW, is something that they definitely have to clean up. Still, turnovers were just about even today; instead, it was a huge rebounding disparity (NPU was -14 on the glass) and a big gap in shooting efficiency that led to the easy win for the Britons.

The other thing that the Vikings need to improve is their shooting, especially from the free-throw line. They followed up yesterday's 10-21 performance at the charity stripe with a 13-28 effort today. That will cost them dearly in closer ballgames.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Final from Terre Haute:  IWU 81, WashU 63.  Maddie Merritt and Sydney Shanks were the big guns: Maddie had 29 points in only 27 minutes; Sydney added 17 and nine assists.  Raven Hughes, Ashley Schneider, and Samantha Munroe added 10, 10, and 9, respectively.  Riley Brovelli scored 3 and Nina Anderson never scored, but that is the beauty of this team's depth - someone is gonna come through when needed!

While it is obviously of no ultimate importance whatsoever, I can't wait to see what the poll voters do with the Titans.  This makes their record 4-2.  Two losses already is almost disqualifying for the women (MUCH less overall balance and competitiveness than the men).  On the other hand, their two losses are both to preseason top 25 teams by a total of six points.  Three of their wins are over preseason top 25 teams by a combined 54 points. I can easily make a case for going up, going down, or standing still!

[Enginerd]

IWU is a lot better, and deeper than I expected. While it has flown a bit under the radar, the development of Brovelli to be able to come off the bench and play well has been a big deal. The ultimate "system" program (and I mean that as a compliment), IWU will be the kind of team that could beat literally anyone, anywhere, on any given night. I had a chance to see them play yesterday, and I thought Wash U's length might give them trouble today - since beyond, Merrit, Brovelli, and Schneider they are basically a bunch of guards - but they sped Wash U up, turned them over, goaded them into quick shots,  and then pounded them inside. Definitely a team to watch come March...

[GoPerry]

Final from Terre Haute:  IWU 81, WashU 63.  Maddie Merritt and Sydney Shanks were the big guns: Maddie had 29 points in only 27 minutes; Sydney added 17 and nine assists.  Raven Hughes, Ashley Schneider, and Samantha Munroe added 10, 10, and 9, respectively.  Riley Brovelli scored 3 and Nina Anderson never scored, but that is the beauty of this team's depth - someone is gonna come through when needed!

While it is obviously of no ultimate importance whatsoever, I can't wait to see what the poll voters do with the Titans.  This makes their record 4-2.  Two losses already is almost disqualifying for the women (MUCH less overall balance and competitiveness than the men).  On the other hand, their two losses are both to preseason top 25 teams by a total of six points.  Three of their wins are over preseason top 25 teams by a combined 54 points. I can easily make a case for going up, going down, or standing still!

It will depend if voters have actually seen the Titans play vs just going off their record.  They are much more impressive actually watching them than their record suggests.  Two close losses to 2 good teams, but both at home.  The wins over WashU and DePauw ( the Tigers did NOT have a good w/e) aren't looking quite that strong right now.  My guess is they stay in the top 25 but fall a few?  I don't see how they go up.

Seems to me that IWU ladies are coming into good form.  They looked very good today. 

So far I'm lukewarm on Wheaton.  I'll be very interested in how they perform @ Chicago on Wednesday, win or lose.  This next stretch @ NPU, vs Carthage, vs UW Oshkosh will be challenging.

The WC/IWU men meet up at the Shirk next week yet the women don't play until Jan 2.  Any insight as to why the conference schedules like that?

[Mr. Ypsi]

The case for going up is that I can't believe that ANY team has already played FIVE teams from the preseason top 25, and gone 3-2 against them (winning by 16, 18, and 20 points [while losing by 1 and 5]).

Nonetheless, I think you're probably right, but if they fall below about 16 I'm gonna be steamed!

One of the voters in the men's poll posts his ballot so you can vent; I don't think any of the women's voters do that.  A rare case of men being superior to women!

[GoPerry]

The case for going up is that I can't believe that ANY team has already played FIVE teams from the preseason top 25, and gone 3-2 against them (winning by 16, 18, and 20 points [while losing by 1 and 5]).

Nonetheless, I think you're probably right, but if they fall below about 16 I'm gonna be steamed!

One of the voters in the men's poll posts his ballot so you can vent; I don't think any of the women's voters do that.  A rare case of men being superior to women!

Totally agree on the schedule Ypsi.  In fact, Massey has only Luther IA as having played a tougher schedule than the Titans thus far (@ Whitewater, @ Point, vs Gustavus).  4-2 is really not a bad result at all.  Even 3-3 probably would've been fine albeit less room for error in conference play.  But given the conference depth these days (or lack thereof), it's not too risky to schedule aggressively for the non-con portion.

[RogK]

An impressive 30 pt, 10 reb game by Yanni Saddler led Millikin to an 82-79 victory over Illinois College.
Saddler made 10/10 FTs in the last 3 minutes and also hit a 2 pointer in that timeframe.
The Big Blue also got 11 pts from Briana Anthony, 12 pts from Aubrey Margo, 12 pts 9 rebs from Jordan Hildebrand and 15 pts, 8 rebs, 3 steals from Aubrey Staton.

[RogK]

North Central fell 57-40 to Centre.
NCC got 12 pts from Tyonne Howard and 11 from Natali Dimitrova.
The Cardinals made 7 of 31 2FG att and 1 of 21 3FG att.

[lmitzel]

North Central fell 57-40 to Centre.
NCC got 12 pts from Tyonne Howard and 11 from Natali Dimitrova.
The Cardinals made 7 of 31 2FG att and 1 of 21 3FG att.

Excuse me while I go jump into a snowbank in my backyard.