WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

Wheaton is 13-0 when opponents score under 66. Otherwise, Wheaton is 2-6.
Oddly, they are 15-0 when scoring more than the opponent. (har har)

[RogK]

Carroll topped Marian 70-30 today in Fond du Lac WI.
Not that Carroll played a flawless game : they committed 25 TOs. Marian committed 35.
Carroll got 3 steals each by Kate Christian, Katie Evans and Alyssa Cruz.
Subbing by both teams was profuse, resulting in only one player scoring in double figures, Carroll's Kayla Stefka with 13 pts in 15:00.

[Gregory Sager]

Jordan Myroth is a scratch again. She's wearing a boot. No idea how long she's going to be out, but she's out today.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Halftime in B'town - Titans up 44-26.  They won the first Q, 16-13, then blew their doors off with a 28-13 2Q.

Sosa already has 15 points - she just might be heading for her 4th POW.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton 58
North Park 54

Josie Summerville: 10 pts, 10 rebs
Zakiya Newsome: 3:1 a:to
Emily Czuhajewski: 3:1 a:to

Hannah Frazier: 24 pts, 11 rebs, 3 blks
Kirsten Madsen: 14 pts

On a day when both teams were ice-cold on offense, NPU was ice-coldier. Unfortunately, the Vikings couldn't turn to Jayla Johnson to bail them out the way she usually does; she had an awful day, shooting 2-9 from the field before fouling out after only 16 minutes on the floor. That was the difference in the game; Wheaton got what it needed from its superstar forward, which I suppose is the difference between relying upon a senior to carry your water in a huge game and relying upon a sophomore. Oh, well, Jayla will have plenty of days that she owns in the future. The Vikings never quit and had their usual terrific work rate, but the offensive juice just wasn't there for them down the stretch.

Wheaton didn't miss Jordan Myroth one bit, as little-used Zoe Nordling took her role and her minutes and played terrific basketball. There's one Wheaton player who hasn't seen much time this year who should be a pretty big deal for the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance next season.

Lead's down to a half-game over Wesleyan now, but NPU can't dwell upon that. It's time for this young Vikings team to shrug off this loss and focus on the task at hand, which is Carthage in the crackerbox on Wednesday.

[RogK]

not much to add to Greg's report ... Wheaton controlled the tempo for a majority of the game ... NP's Lauren Lee sure was a calm FT shooter ... Wheaton paid better attention to Emily C than when she poured in 21 in the NP win at Wheaton.
If these teams face each other in the CCIW tourney, or the NCAA tourney, who knows what to expect?

[Gregory Sager]

I won't expect NPU to have to play 24 minutes with Jayla Johnson cooling her heels on the bench, that's for sure.

[RogK]

After what had to be a nauseating 17-16 1st half, Carthage upended Millikin in Decatur, 58-49.
The Lady Reds enjoyed the return (from injury) of Autumn Kalis, who scored 21 and added 4 steals. Maggie Berigan had 4 blocks and 10 pts. Sammie Woodward scored 17.
Millikin couldn't accomplish a whole lot, although Miranda Fox did alright with 10 pts, 7 rebs, 3 assists, 2 steals.

[RogK]

Elmhurst returned to the win column with a 65-56 decision at North Central.
The 'jays got 18 pts, 11 rebs by Courtney O'Donnell, 10 pts 10 rebs by Becca Gerke, 11 pts from Marissa Urso, 7 assists 9 pts (1 missed shot) by Kelly Weyhrich.
The Cardinals got 19 pts 4 assists from Allison Pearson, while Maya Walls scored 11.

[Ultimate Titan Fan]

Coach Smith back to normal tonight. Despite domination early on, bench warmers don't get in until 1:36 left in the game. Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining. I'm not sure if I really care. It was just SO unusual for her to rotate the bench early in the Elmhurst game.

[RogK]

IWU 83, AUG 57 :
A bunch of Titans registered notable stats -- Brooke Lansford 15 pts (.833 eFG%) 3 stls, Kendall Sosa 15 pts, Samantha Munroe 14 pts 5 assists, Riley Brovelli 11 pts 8 rebs 5 assists, Sydney Shanks 4 stls 7 rebs
For Augie, Alexis Jones 13 pts 10 rebs 4 assists 3 stls, Gabriela Loiz 12 pts (.667 eFG%) 5 rebs, Mia Lambert 11 pts.

[RogK]

with 56 of 72 conference games done :
10-3 NPU
9-3 IWU
9-4 WHE
6-6 MIL
6-7 AUG
5-7 CTG NCC
3-9 CRL
3-10 ELM

[GoPerry]

Wheaton didn't miss Jordan Myroth one bit, as little-used Zoe Nordling took her role and her minutes and played terrific basketball. There's one Wheaton player who hasn't seen much time this year who should be a pretty big deal for the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance next season.

Lead's down to a half-game over Wesleyan now, but NPU can't dwell upon that. It's time for this young Vikings team to shrug off this loss and focus on the task at hand, which is Carthage in the crackerbox on Wednesday.

Nobody will mistake that game for anything high efficiency as both teams really struggled on the offensive end. 

Tough to say if Myroth was missed or not.  But I was really glad to see Nordling get more minutes(23 min) than she got at Augie(9 ).  She definitely brought some energy and was not afraid to shoot and score.  She did a good job managing the offense and taking care of the ball.  I'm glad to see Madsen trying somebody else because some of the seniors just aren't delivering enough offensively or defensively.  For the same reason I'd like to see more of Bonnie Zeller and Taylor Sanders.

It's probably not best to have to wait a whole week for the next game vs IWU.  Wheaton really needs to win that one to get the season sweep and the tie-breaker with NPU.  With Carthage having both Sammie Woodward and Autumn Kalis back, the Vikes next game is certainly less of a given home win.  The Lady Reds are also fighting for a CCIW tournament spot.

[Gregory Sager]

Sosa already has 15 points - she just might be heading for her 4th POW.

Nope. Don't see that happening. I'm pretty sure that it'll be Hannah Frazier winning her fourth POW when Mike Krizman announces it tomorrow. Even though Wheaton split this week, Jayla Johnson set the relevant precedent by winning the award last week despite NPU only going 1-1 -- and that's because she came up big and led her team to victory in the league's biggest game of the week, the IWU @ NPU game. Same dealio with Hannah Frazier this time around; her 24 and 11 at NPU yesterday was easily the signature performance of the week in the circuit's biggest game of the week.

I'll go one step further and say that Frazier is now the player to beat for MOP. Nevertheless, there's plenty of ball left to be played over the final two weeks that can change that.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton paid better attention to Emily C than when she poured in 21 in the NP win at Wheaton.

That's true of everybody, though. The entire league has done better against her of late, as they've all seen her, watched the film, and have figured out how to defend her. Emily went 24-49 (.490) in her first seven CCIW games, and she's gone 7-25 (.280) in her last six. Not only is that a reduction of over twenty percent in her accuracy, it means that she's only shooting about half as many attempts despite playing roughly the same amount of minutes. She's having to take deeper trey attempts because they're the only open shots she has, and her shooting percentage is suffering for it. Every opponent in the league is putting somebody right up in her grill every moment that NPU has the ball, and they never leave her to play help or to double up on somebody else.

Basketball is a game of adjustments, especially for first-year players, and Emily needs to adjust. NPU doesn't run the kind of offense that sets screens for perimeter shooters, only ball screens for drivers; the sets are based upon spacing and ball movement, and the problem with the hot-and-cold Vikings offense is that they don't circulate and reverse the ball as quickly as they ought to in order to get Emily some space. Nor do Vikings drivers look to kick out, which would be another way to get Emily some good looks. So Emily's on her own in terms of finding a way to get herself open shots. Some of that means taking advantage of all that face-guarding by driving to the basket, which she is starting to do more (she did it several times yesterday against Wheaton, f'rinstance). That comes with confidence; she's been tentative about exercising other aspects of her game until now, and it's good to see her starting to break out of that. Another thing that she needs to do is to take some initiative in clearing space for herself. She has a slow release; learning how to speed up her shot without sacrificing accuracy is key. She should also learn a stepback move or a shotfake-and-sidestep move. Toby Marek from the men's team could teach her the former; he's developed a stepback trey move this season that is a thing of beauty (it was prominently on display in yesterday's men's game against Wheaton).

But her teammates need to do their part to help her out as well by moving the ball more quickly around the perimeter and by looking to kick out to her when they drive. Emily Czuhajewski is too good an offensive weapon to let go to waste, especially on a team that often bogs down on offense when Jayla Johnson is off the floor.