WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Thanks, again, RogK.  I appreciate your stats, your mid-season review of performances.  Lots of good players there in the first half. 

I concluded from your run-down that the most likely MOP awardees will be Hannah Frazier or Maddie Merritt.  Perhaps depends on which team wins the CCIW crown.

Big game on the 2nd @The Shirk.

'70

[RogK]

reminder of the conference standings :
4-0 IWU
3-0 WHE
2-2 AUG NPU
1-2 CRL CTG ELM
1-3 MIL NCC
It seems a bit unusual for all teams to have a league win this early, but that's good in my opinion.
Carthage's two most difficult assignments are out of the way already, at IWU and at Wheaton, so I look for them to move upward in the standings.

[RogK]

Congrats to Hannah Frazier, extending her time as Player of the Week. This honor was given Monday, covering the two weeks since her December 17 Player of the Week.
Incidentally, the writeup has a mistake, saying Frazier's 36 point game was a high by CCIW players this season. Izzy Anderson scored 37 vs Whitewater.

[GoPerry]

Tonight at IWU, a great performance by Frazier alone won't be enough to secure a win.  The Thunder will need at least one other player, likely two, to step up and take leadership in driving the team to a W.  This is a veteran team that will need to play like it – intensity on defense and no panicking from the Titan full court pressure leading to easy baskets. 

[iwu70]

Should be a great game IWU vs. WC.  Two very different type of teams  -- yes, Frazier will get hers, but limit the others.  Seems in a may it is size  vs. speed.  Half court vs. full court pressure.  Should be interesting . . .

I think the key for IWU is play superb D, don't turn it over much, and get scoring from a wide range of sources, as in recent games.  Double pumping, avoiding many blocks will be key.  Run Wheaton off their feet.

IWU'70

[GoPerry]

Huge win by the Thunder tonight.  Great effort to get this one on the road. 

[iwu70]

Great game at the Shirk, coming down to the last 30 seconds of so.  Devin Kyler hits the key trey with about 25 seconds to go, with the game tied at 52-52.  A defensive breakdown for the Titans on that play. 

Final WC 56 IWU 54 -- in a game in the style and pace more beneficial to Wheaton, IMHO.  WC handled the IWU pressure pretty well.

Wheaton:
Frazier 16
Myroth 14
Kyler 9 and the key trey

For IWU:
Merritt 22 and 8
Sosa 12
Brovelli with 10 RBs.
Not enough support from the rest of the cast tonight, Titans shooting only 37%.

WC gets a big road win in the Conference race, now 4-0

Titans 11-3, 4-1.

IWU'70

[Mr. Ypsi]

Final in B'town:  Wheaton 56, IWU 54.  I watched nearly all of the game (the men's game at NPU was a total blow-out).  IMO, IWU is still the better team, but the Thunder were definitely better tonight.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage 76
North Park 39

No Viking scored in double figures.
Josie Summerville: 8 rebs
Jayla Johnson: 6 rebs
Sinead Molloy: 4 stls

Sammie Woodward: 19 pts
Rachel Sydlowski: 15 pts, 11 rebs, 3 blks
Maddie Kaelber: 11 pts
Autumn Kalis: 11 pts
Bailey Golbert: 4:2 a:to
Taylor Jozefowitz: 3:1 a:to

[GoPerry]

Huge win by the Thunder tonight.  Great effort to get this one on the road.

Defensive intensity was the difference for Wheaton – a noticeable uptick from other games this season and held IWU 20 pts below their season average.  Challenging passes, fronting with more pressure, fighting for rebounds - ready to play from the opening tip.  They twice faced offensive droughts in the 2nd and 4th quarter but good D kept them in the game.  Jordan Myroth was a difference maker in the first half, using her height advantage posting up and asking for the ball.  Devin Kyler plays a veteran game 9 pts, adds 9 rebs, 4 assts, 2 stls, 2 blks and hits the game winning trey.  An impressive road win by the Thunder in a critical game.

For IWU, I though Maddie Merritt played really well.  I'm not sure what it is, but she has really stepped up her game this year.  She's very tough to stop in the post.

[lmitzel]

Another tough home loss in conference for North Central last night as Carroll came in and knocked them off 72-65 in a game that wasn't as close as the final score might suggest. Carroll picked up six of its 12 offensive rebounds in the final quarter, dominating the glass on the whole and scoring 42 of their points in the paint. Sierra Grubor had a big game off the bench with 20 points, and Alyssa Cruz had a nice floor game with 14 points, six rebounds, and six assists. Natali Dimitrova paced the Cardinals with 16 points and six boards, Allison Pearson added 15 points off the bench (including a couple nice coast to coast layups), and Alanna Newsome chipped in 14.

[RogK]

I attended Augustana's 70-64 hard-fought win at Elmhurst. Augie's Alexis Jones was excellent, but first I'm glad to report that Elmhurst freshman player Sophia Lathe was there and is doing better, recovering from the major thud to her head that occurred back on Dec 8. She said she might be allowed to resume basketball in a few weeks.
A lot to say regarding the game, foremost is that Alexis Jones had 4 assists and 8 rebs. Oh, she also made 8/8 2FGs, 2/2 3FGs and 4/4 FTs; 26 pts on perfect shooting. There were also a couple of times when the ball got deflected away from a teammate and she quickly went over to get it, saving those possessions. All in all, a superb game for Alexis.
The second best player in the game was Elmhurst's Lauren Goff, whose superb defense limited Izzy Anderson to 10 pts; Goff also scored 11 pts from just 6 FG att.
Elmhurst's Marissa Urso played with great energy too, speedy dribbling, 4 steals, 3 assists, 4 rebs, 12 pts.
The 'jays got 13 pts and 7 rebs from Lisa Logan, who got clunked in the head while getting up from a scramble; hoping there's no lingering effect from that. Courtney O'Donnell helped Elmhurst's cause with 13 pts, 6 rebs.
Augie's Carly McCameron blocked 5 shots in her 10 1st half minutes, but wasn't used much in the 2nd half.
Izzy Anderson provided 7 rebs, 3 assists and 4 steals. Sadie Roberts had 8 rebs.
Augie got nice sparks off the bench from Jeni Crain (10 pts in 12:00) and Justice Edell (7 pts in 11:00).
I was reminded again that Augie's Scooter Lopez is fun to watch; she plays with enthusiasm, darts around with ease and has good awareness of the game. Her late game pair of free throws and steal were quite useful (for Augie, not Elmhurst).

[wheels81]

Congrats to Hannah Frazier, extending her time as Player of the Week. This honor was given Monday, covering the two weeks since her December 17 Player of the Week.
Incidentally, the writeup has a mistake, saying Frazier's 36 point game was a high by CCIW players this season. Izzy Anderson scored 37 vs Whitewater.

Ok lets revise it to high for CCIW player in winning effort. 

[RogK]

Just thought of checking this : turnovers by IWU opponents.
In order by game -- 19 28 30 12 19 15 15 13 18 22 18 15 18 14.
These seem low compared to quantities induced by recent Titan teams. One reason could be that IWU is a taller bunch this season, maybe not as quick as more guard-oriented teams of the past. I'd also guess that the Titans are consuming more time (on average) in their offensive possessions this season. With noticeably fewer total possessions in their games, there would be fewer opponent turnovers.
What other factors am I not thinking of? Foul avoidance?

[iwu70]

RogK, I don't think this year's TITANS have the personnel to really make "run and jump" as effective as before, inducing all the TOs of the past, and always having a huge TO/steal advantage.  That has not been the case with this group.  I don't think they trap as well as before and don't have that key person in the middle of the press who anticipates the bad pass coming out after the trap.  Anderson and Shanks to some degree effective in this, but nothing like Ehresman or McGraw or others in the past.  I think Coach Smith knows this and hasn't been using full court pressure as much.  TITANS have been pretty good this year in the half court offense (esp. Sosa and Merritt) and pretty good pushing the ball, once rebounded.  But, they are not getting as many easy baskets from the pressure as before -- also perhaps facing a slew of very good teams so far, most of which have good ball handling and ball handlers.  WC did a pretty good job of handling the IWU pressure the other night, staying close, as I mentioned.  I guess you play, you design your style of play given who suits up, who gets off the bus with you, right?

'70