WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Looks like another good Titan win in Rock Island.  I wasn't able to see it all, too early for me down the hill here in HK on a Sunday morning after a wild party, Peking duck and all the night before late.

Here's some stats from the Box:

IWU 83 AC 76.  As Ypsi has reported, a very strong start for the TITANS, then pretty much back and forth:

For IWU: 

Monster game for Maddie Merritt 28 and 5
Anderson, getting on track now 15
Career high for freshman Brooke Lansford, a PG of the future, 13
Raven Hughs 11 and 9

For AC:
Izzy Anderson 21
A. Jones 16
J. Edell 10

Titans go to 8-2, 3-0 in CCIW.  Starting to put together a very fine resume.

Exams now, a week off for academics.

IWU'70

[RogK]

I viewed segments of the four evening webcasts involving CCIW WBB.
When (1st Q) I tuned in to the Elmhurst at Carthage contest, they had stopped play due to a serious injury to Elmhurst's Sophia Lathe, assuming the broadcaster identified her correctly. Both teams were sent to their locker rooms. I think they said she was taken by EMTs, but that's the extent of what I heard. Maybe there was a later update, but I didn't watch much of that game. Best wishes to her from all of us on D3boards.
Carthage 92, Elmhurst 62. For the Lady Reds, Madie Kaelber scored 22 and Autumn Kalis had 20. Courtney O'Donnell had 13 pts, 5 rebs for the Bluejays.
UW Oshkosh 57, Wheaton 48. The Thunder's Jennifer Berg had 9 pts, 6 rebs.

[lmitzel]

Overtime final from the airplane hangar:

North Park 83
North Central 82

Lauryn Alba Garner: 17 pts, 4 stls
Matti Zander: 14 pts, 8 rebs
Sinead Molloy: 13 pts, 8 rebs, 4 stls
Kayla Patterson: 10 pts

Natali Dimitrova: 26 pts, 10 rebs
Tyonne Howard: 17 pts, 6 rebs, 7:6 a:to
Alanna Newsome: 11 pts
Lyndsay Brennan: 9 rebs

NPU gutted out a nail-biter win tonight when NCC's Tyonne Howard front-rimmed a lunging trey attempt at the buzzer, following a split pair of free throws by North Park freshman guard Kayla Patterson. Honestly, it never should've gone to overtime in the first place, as the Vikings, who led for over three-quarters of the game, once again were horrific at the free throw line -- although their 60% performance (24-40) actually topped the 55% that they were shooting from the charity stripe coming in. North Central, on the other hand, was very solid from the line (29-37, 78%), and that, coupled with an outstanding performance by center Natali Dimitrova, kept the persistent Cards close in a contest in which the Vikings were never able to pull away, despite leading by as many as nine in the fourth quarter.

The Vikings bigs were no-shows tonight, as Jayla Johnson fouled out in overtime without really impacting the game at all, but NPU got a very strong performance off of the bench from freshman forward Matti Zander -- easily her best game yet -- to help make up for it. The two stars of the night, though, were sophomore guards Lauryn Alba Garner, who made one tough shot after another driving to the hole, and Sinead Molloy, who did a little bit of everything for the Vikes in the winning effort.

It wasn't pretty, but any road win in this league is a good one. The Vikings will take it ... although they know as they get back on the bus that, as has been the case for the past couple of weeks, Amanda Crockett is going to make them shoot free throws in practice until their arms fall off.

I was really impressed by how well Alba Garner played in this one. I don't want to say that she put it away at the end of the third quarter, but her six points in the final minute of that frame really seemed to swing the momentum. But she (and to be fair, her teammates didn't help) left the door open for the Cardinals.

It's a shame someone had to lose this one, but these two teams have been pretty evenly matched over the last couple of years. I tip my cap and hope the Cardinals can bounce back again.

[GoPerry]

Wheaton falls to the UW Oshkosh Titans, 57-48 and utterly failing to validate Gordon's confidence in the team.   The Lady Thunder are a decent team – not sure about a good team.   Suspect defense, plain bad rebounding, lacking fundamentals, and they really have trouble scoring except for Hannah Frazier.  Their size with Frazier, Devin Kyler and Jenn Berg on the floor makes them pretty slow defensively.

This team does not beat IWU at home or on the road.

[iwu70]

GoPerry, does seem WC is pretty inconsistent so far.  Surprising.

IWU going from strength to strength, with several players now coming into their own, the season roughly a third gone.  When they get it all moving together, could be a really good team.  Esp. when Anderson and Schneider are playing better -- perhaps more from Sam Munroe too.  Nice game by freshman Brooke Lansford tonight at Augie.  Maddie Merritt having a pretty special year so far, esp. at the charity stripe.  Raven Hughes doing a good job on the boards, with put-backs, which has been a Titan weakness.

Kendall Sosa not playing tonight, attending the funeral of her Grandmother.  My condolences to Kendall and all her family. 

Exam week now.  Carroll coming to The Shirk next weekend.

IWU'70

[RogK]

Congrats to Maddie Merritt for her 2nd CCIW Player of the Week honors of the season!

[GoPerry]

Congrats to Maddie Merritt for her 2nd CCIW Player of the Week honors of the season!

Well deserved.  Merritt is really playing well this season.  Has noticeably stepped up her game and way more aggressive on offense.  Really going after rebounds more intentionally than I can recall in the past.  A big key to IWU success so far.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Maddie Merritt, yet again. . . yes, upping her game this season, playing with the confidence of the seasoned senior.  She has range and can now step out and hit 15-20 footers when her defender doesn't come out with her.  Her FT record is well-established, now the most FTs made in the history of the IWU program, and an incredible percentage, topping the record held earlier by Rebekah Ehresman over 108 games. 

Titans at 8-2, 3-0 better than I expected given the number of ranked teams, tough opponents they have played.  Some more good chances soon out in CA. too.  Then, the big game with WC in early January, to see where we really stand on the conference race.  Given all the weapons this team has, the needed depth, the good coaching, it has a chance to be something special.  Not winning in the normal way with "run and jump" and a big TO and points-off-TOs advantage as in the past, but playing very good D overall and pretty effective in the half-court offense.  The contributions of the bench -- esp. Brovelli and Sosa -- playing a huge role in the success of this Titan edition so far.  More stable and solid now that Shanks has settled in as the starting PG.  Munroe and Lansford giving very good back-up at PG so far. 

Happy holidays to all the chatsters!  Good luck to all TITANS for exams and papers this week.

IWU'70

[RogK]

Carthage topped Cornell today, 66-40.
Sammie Woodward did well, scoring 18 pts from 13 FG att (.692 eFG%) and had 3 assists, 2 steals and 9 rebs.
Rachel Szydlowski provided 16 pts, 5 rebs and 3 blocks, while Bailey Gilbert had 15 pts and 5 rebs.
The Lady Reds committed just 6 turnovers.

[lmitzel]

North Central dropped another tough one up at UWSP last night, 70-67. The Cardinals had a lead early in this one but had some offensive struggles for stretches to let the Pointers back in. But North Central had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but Allison Pearson's shot missed.

Alanna Newsome led the Cardinals with 23 points, Maya Walls added 13, and Page Desenberg chipped in 12. North Central hit 13 of 27 threes in this one, but went just 6-11 at the free throw line while the Pointers made 15 of their 20 free throws.

It's another tough loss, but I'm encouraged by the fact that this young team refuses to quit. Of North Central's six losses, five have come by four points or less. I know it's cliche, but maybe this team needs to learn how to win/close out games. Even so, it's an encouraging step considering last year.

[RogK]

Carroll 79, Silver Lake (NAIA D2 independent) 65 -- haven't found stats for this game.
Augustana 61, Dubuque 54. Augie's Izzy Anderson scores 18.
Wheaton 79, Trinity Christian (NAIA D2) 53 -- was 35-35 at the half, so 42-18 in the 2nd half! Another big game for Hannah Frazier : 26 pts, 8 rebs, 3 blocks and a steal. Hannah Williams added 16 pts.
Thursday afternoon update : still no box score to be found, but the write-up on Carroll's site shows that Sierra Grubor led the Pios with 23 pts.

[iwu70]

Titans back on the floor, post-exams, hosting Carroll at The Shirk, Saturday night.  Hope there's no lay-off rust.

Sunny Southern California beckons.

'70

[RogK]

I see that four players have been removed from the Carole Pie-in-ears roster : Delaney Sjong, Mallory Olszak, Sara Hartl and Maycie Wiernik. I haven't heard anything about who decided this.
Incidentally, loyal readers will recall that Olszak's name was messed up in the stats last season; on cciw.org she is still shown as Olsazak in the final stats. This year, she was listed as Olzask for 6 games and was correctly shown as Olszak for 1 game. This repeated misfeasance/malfeasance by SID Micheal Shilust and/or coach Linsey Snultz is not exactly admirable.

[Gregory Sager]

I see that four players have been removed from the Carole Pie-in-ears roster : Delaney Sjong, Mallory Olszak, Sara Hartl and Maycie Wiernik. I haven't heard anything about who decided this.

They did. It was mentioned in the last Carroll home broadcast that a large number of potential Pioneers returnees had elected not to play this season, although I'm not sure what their individual statuses are with regard to whether or not they're still Carroll students.

[RogK]

The four players I listed played this season.